Pre-Op Walk in Tilles

Ben and I went for a walk in Tilles Park before his surgery.  It was a good way to take his mind off things and to get some fresh air.  They are putting up the Christmas lights-I am definitely not ready for this yet

Ben was on top form, he never stopped talking the whole time.  He looked very happy

Last minute exercise

We had rain on Tuesday night (first in 6-8 weeks) and it definitely brought most of the leaves out of the trees.  They look lovely on the ground

Shannon's wedding

Shannon got married on October 17 in Arkansas.  I bought her a bunch of food-related presents, since we have paleo in common (I don't think she would have wanted a bunch of lab reagents!).  I got oil and vinegar from Vom Fass, spices from Penzey's, an apron from Maven and a measuring cup set from Anthropologie.  I did a good job (for me) with presentation!!!

Shannon got married in the Mildred B. Cooper chapel, it is absolutely beautiful.  It was a perfect day and the trees made it even better

Sam, my wonderful husband.  Where would I be without him?????

Shannon and her bridesmaids

We went through Jane on the way home.  Sam wanted a picture of me under the sign!!!!

House update

It's been a while since I did a house update.  We have had a lot done, but we are still in a state of disarray.  We finally got the basement finished.  We had the paneling removed, drywall on the walls and new paint colour.  We got new carpet laid to replace the horrible carpet tiles.  It looked fantastic.....

....for about 2 hours until we moved all the furniture from upstairs so that they could refinish the hardwood floors
They did a pretty good job of covering up what they could, but there was still dust everywhere

There was little kitchen production for over a week because the bookcase was in front of the stove.   We had to stay in a hotel on Friday and Monday night either side of the weekend that we went to Shannon's wedding.  The kids had a great time in the hotel (as usual), especially since they have a pool

The floors look absolutely fantastic now that they have been refinished, but it was a really hard thing to go through with moving furniture around, dealing with the smell and all that dust

These are the stairs going up to the second floor.  They had never been hardwood and so we had them laid.  Jasim is coming to paint the risers white

In amongst all this work, we have finally got the downstairs bathroom finished.  It looks so much better now

They had to take all the tile off the wall and put up drywall.  It was messy but definitely worth it

The Fujis are ready!!!!

At least, Eckert's announced that the Fujis were ready. We have been waiting ages for this day!!!!  A lot of others must have been too, because it was packed when we went.  Sam and Maggie had to get on a different tractor to us, no one was willing to move over to make room!!!!

It's a good job Sam went with us this time, a lot of the prime apples were at the top of the trees.  This kids love him to lift them up so they can get the apples

The apples are fantastic this year.  I told Sam it will be a very sad day when they run out!!!!

(yet another) wrist update

We had another full day of doctors/hospitals last week.  I took Ben to get the MRI done on his wrist on Wednesday morning.  It was pretty straight forward.  After that, we went over to Wash U to see Jan as she had her knee replaced on Tuesday.  Finally, we went to the endocrinology clinic to see about Ben's growth.  He is now 5 ft 5 in and weighs 122 lbs.  He's officially taller than me!!!!  They don't think he is going to grow much taller and he won't have to do growth hormone for too much longer either.  I think he's pretty happy with how tall he is now.

Dr G called me on Friday about Ben's MRI and said that the ganglionic cyst has come back and that one of the options is to do surgery again and remove it.  Ben has decided that's what he wants to do because he is tired of being in pain all the time.  I guess I need to schedule another surgery....

Random pictures

It seems like blog posts arise as I clear out the photos from my phone these days. Been very busy and not able to update much at all. Anyway, here they are.....
Maggie is still doing horse riding once a week.  Last week she had the sweetest, most gentle house ever, I would have been happy to just stay and pet him for an hour!!!!

Maggie wanted to buy these pants a couple of weeks ago, because "I like candy".  I thought that she would never wear them, but she had them on the other day "because there are absolutely no shorts in my drawer".  She looked great in them

Ben, Maggie and I went to the Strange Folk Festival at Union Station last weekend.  I realized that if Ben has ever been at Union Station, it was when he was a baby.  He was interested in looking around and seeing the trains.

Maggie's "horse of the week"  Shiloh

Work on the house continues.  I haven't taken many pictures recently, but the tear-out of the half bathroom is worthy of a couple

The house is covered in dust.....