One Year Ago Today!

One year ago today we pulled into the Holiday Inn in Bridgeport! It's always scary moving into a town/state/area we've never so much as visited, and know no one in the area. But we know that God always has the best in store, so while we were nervous were also excited to see what was in store! That being said, we never dreamed we would love it here as much as we do! We have an amazing church here, and have formed some of the best friendships possible! We have really grown to love this area, and we can't wait to see what this next year holds for us!

Heading Home! :(

Allison and Elijah headed home today. We had a great time with them, but the days seemed to fly by!Getting packed up and saying good-bye to his baby Emma.

Enjoying an apple on the long drive to the airport.

All ready to check their luggage and board the plane!

It was so great to have them here, and we miss them already! Marathon seems to be bored without Elijah here to chase her and throw her frisbee!

Final Day in West Virginia!

Allison and Elijah fly home tomorrow....all too soon! We took today pretty easy. We did a little shopping at the mall, hit up our favorite dessert shop, then went out to dinner at our favorite Italian restuarant, Oliverios.

Enjoying a cookie and some delicious truffle cheesecake!!

Starting to color some eggs!

The beautiful finished product! He did a great job!

Enjoying some yummy pasta for dinner!

Pittsburgh Zoo

We headed out to the zoo today. It was a little chilly, but the sun was shining!
Heading into the Polar Bear exhibit....one of these days the polar bears will actually be in the water when we go there!

The gorillas were roaming about and climbing all over!

We got to pet the sting rays.

The lion was wide awake and roaring!!

They Have Arrived!

Allison and Elijah made it safely here this afternoon! They had a 7am flight, so they were tired, but we still managed to squeeze in the Children's Museum in Pittsburgh before heading to the house!

This was the gravity room....it was completely tilted and threw off your sense of balance. Note, Lij gripping the doorway for dear life!

Why yes, as a matter of fact those are Mr. Rodger's orginal tennis shoes cerca 1970! Apparently Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood was started in Pittsburgh, and there was an entire area dedicated to it. I'm pretty sure Alli and I enjoyed this room more than Lij....

The water area had the cutest rain coats and crocks. This was definately Elijah's favorite area!

Free Pastery Day!

Carmel Machiatto + breakfast with my hubby + free starbucks pastery day = perfect morning!

And to top it off, my sister will be here tomorrow!

Birthday Fun!

My birthday was Monday, so we celebrated a little early and went out with friends on Saturday. We had dinner at a hibachi grill, then headed over to the Sharps for coffee and cheesecake. It was a great night with friends! Here's a couple pictures of the fun:

7 Days And Counting!!

This time next week I'll be on the way to the airport to pick up my sister! It's been 3 months since we've seen them.....I can't wait!

I'm Official!!

Seeing Double!

My good friend Marche had twins on February 11th, and they are so cute!! They were a few weeks early so they're just now being able to get out and about. A couple weeks ago her and her husband came over to fix my computer and of course brought their handsome boys Roman and Lyric. They fit perfectly in our chair.....aren't the the cutest!!

13 Days and Counting!!

Allison and Elijah will be here in 13 days! I. Can't. Wait!! This picture cracks me up! He really does love her!

Good As New (Almost)

Emma Liu got hir stitches out yesterday! She's looking much better and is her old self again! Her incision area healed a little funny so we have to watch it and make sure it finishes up healing correctly. However, other than that, we're just waiting for her fur to grow back!

10 Things You Need To Eat

I love to cook, and I love to find great, healthy recipes that taste great. I saw this cook book, 10 things you need to eat, highlighted on Good Morning America, and decided I had to have it. Two cooks took 10 super foods that are cheap and easy to find and created 10 recipes with each, using cheap, easy to find ingrediants. Each chapter details the history and health benefits of the food. Not only is it interesting, but the food is REALLY good! There's definately something for everyone in this book! I've read the entire book, and so far have cooked lentil quesadillas, avocado chocolate mousse, pecan meringues, turkey and lentil chili, and beet and chocolate cupcakes, just to name a few! I've found it really fun because some of these foods-like beets- I've never cooked with. And some of the foods -like avocados and lentils- I only 1 or 2 ways of cooking.

I would definately recommend this book to everyone! I'll leave you with a picture of my Seared Salmon with Braised Fennel and a Blackberry Sauce!

Emma Update!

Emma is doing quite well. After her surgery she had a big pocket of air under her skin that would slowly disperse. It had been getting smaller, but over the last couple days we noticed it seemed to be getting bigger. I called the vet today and he wanted to see her just to make sure it was okay. After looking it over he decided to stick a needle in it to suck some of the air out. When he stuck it in there was a liquid that came out. He called it sernoma liquid that often builds up after surgery. He ended up pulling out 50cc of liquid!! Needless to say she looks much better and is back to her normal size! The doctor put a tight wrap on her to prevent any more liquid from building up. So she looks bad now, but it's only for the weekend!

Numero Dos

If you've known me for any length of time, then you know that one of my favorite things is Camp Rainbow. A couple years ago, you may remember this post, which detailed why I love it so much. As you know, Camp Rainbow operates on a volunteer basis. We've been trying to figure ways to get our name out there more in hopes of getting more volunteers and donations. The most obvious way is to get a website! However, we haven't had much luck getting that up and running, so we decided a blog would be a perfect and free way to keep people updated and get new people interested in the goings on of Camp Rainbow! I say all this to announce my second blog! Click the link and check it out now!! Then pass it on to all your friends!!

New Furniture!

A few weeks ago Chris' company laid off the majority of the employees. Chris wasn't laid off then (more on that later!), but most of our friends and his co-workers were. Sadly, in his line of work, this is pretty normal. One of Chris' co-workers was moving back to Colorado and didn't want to take his furniture with him, so he gave us a killer deal! These pictures are long over due, but my computer crashed the day after we got them so I just didn't get it done!

We think this is a little bit of an improvement on the futon we were using before!!

One Tough Puppy

This past week has been a rough one. Last Tuesday Emma and Marathon got into a fight, and it's easy to guess who came out on top of that set up! Poor Emma didn't have a chance. Luckily, I was home and the fight only lasted about 15 seconds. Unluckily, that was plenty of time for Marathon to do some serious damage. I rushed Emma to the vet, and thankfully they were still open. I could see 4 pretty bad bites that would need stitching, but the worst of it couldn't be seen. Marathon pierced Emma's chest cavity 4 times, and she was rushed into surgery. Surgery was rough on her, but she pulled through, and was able to come home the next night. The last week we've been watching her breathing and keeping her absolutely calm and still. Today we went to the vet and everything looks great! Her lungs are clear and her blood levels are absolutely perfect!!

Obviously, this brings up some questions about what to do with Marathon. She is a really great dog, and if it wasn't for the size differnce, this probably wouldn't have been such a big deal. We've been looking for a new home for her, but haven't had much luck yet. This is so hard because she means so much to us, but we really can't risk this happening again!

Here are some pics of our tough puppy. These are more recent pics; believe it or not she looks so much better than when we first brought her home!