Love Each Other

Valentine's Day

2012-02-15T14:22:00.000-06:00

Oh, I wish I had some cute pictures of Charlie in a red shirt with a heart on it from Valentine's Day. But Pat had to go into the Clinic yesterday for fluids after a night of vomiting. They took blood cultures and found his White Blood Count is very low. (currently .8 when it's normally around 10. Low WBC is called being neutropenic, fyi) And he had a 102.9 fever, so he was admitted to Vanderbilt Hospital late yesterday afternoon. They are closely monitoring his input and output and he got rid of his fever overnight thankfully. Pat had been feeling great on Monday but after dinner that night his stomach was upset. He hadn't eaten anything since Monday night until lunch today (Wednesday).

The first picture was from yesterday when he had the chills...and the second picture is him today, feeling much better. It is a 48 hour minimum stay, so he is hoping to go home late tomorrow, but we'll see. My parents and sis have been helping (A LOT) with Charlie, and Dad stayed at the hospital with Pat overnight and I plan to tonight.

Well, happy belated Valentine's (a memorable one for us!) and kisses to you all. <3

Recent Happenings

2012-02-06T14:31:00.000-06:00

I've got a lot for you today!

1. Last Thursday I went to see my friend Kristen and meet her cute little boy Cullen. I hadn't seem Kristen in several years, but we've known each other since we were little girls on summer swim team.

Cullen is 8 months old but about the same size as CQ. They were so cute together!

We were having such a great time visiting that I kind of lost track of time...

2. But we made it to the airport and picked up Paul who had flown in for a long weekend. Charlie had a lot of fun with his Grandpa.

3. Paul and Charlie hung out on Friday while I took Pat to get his second infusion. The process of going to the hospital takes about 5 hours with blood work and meeting with his doctor.

But the actual infusion is about 3 hours. This is a typical setup: Pat in one chair and me in the other.

4. That night I joined my sister, Mark, and Cousin Rachel for an 80s night to benefit the W.O. Smith school. (they offer music lessons for 50 cents)

There was a great band that played numbers like "Jessie's Girl" and a bunch more.

5. Saturday afternoon our friends Eugene and Kate came over. Kate had made Russian food for us! Yum! Great to see them - and they got a puppy, so hopefully we'll go meet her soon.

6. Splash time in the bath!

Don't you touch the duckie.

7. Paul helped us tackle a couple house projects, like installing a new shower head and fixing our front porch light. This has been out for a couple months now and after I had tried new bulbs with no luck, we needed a new fixture. My parents stopped by yesterday afternoon with some baked brie and we went for a walk (and Dad's arrival meant I no longer had to help with the light, score)

Charlie really wanted to help the boys out there. Too cute!

We had a great weekend and Pat seems to be doing alright. I know his treatment is supposed to be cumulative, but it really seemed like he felt better this weekend than he did after his first treatment.

Nala

2012-01-31T10:03:00.000-06:00

Charlie and I got to see E and Mark yesterday afternoon since they were using up a vacation day. I happened to have my camera with me so I got a few shots of Mark's massive dog Nala. She is really sweet and actually great around Charlie, but I was definitely intimidated by her size. I think I am very happy with my small cat. :) I forget her breed name but she is purebred.

Nala plays and plays with Briley, who of course sees no size difference.

Charlie is really into human or pet brushes...

And so Winnie girl doesn't feel left out, some pictures from this morning:

Poor, poor Winnie. Always being terrorized by Charlie. She usually sits there and takes it for a while and then relocates.

But of course CQ comes chasing after.

She finally retreated to higher ground, out of Charlie's reach.

And speaking of animals (this is a real stretch), I accidentally made Charlie into a mermaid the other day while dressing him in overalls. I kept wondering why I couldn't get the top straps fastened. HA!

CQ at dinner last night

2012-01-29T11:55:00.001-06:00

Recent Happenings

2012-01-27T09:35:00.005-06:00

1. On Wednesday night E and I met up for a Mexican dinner and a show at Exit/In. I had seen Dia Frampton preform on the TV Show The Voice last year and thought she had a great voice. (she was on Blake Shelton's team and he is one of my faves) Pat and I bought the tickets a while ago and he opted to take it easy at home, so I'm glad my sister was able to join me! We had a great time.

2. Pat was awarded his CFA at the Nashville Society's induction ceremony last week at Hillwood Country Club. He was able to bring a guest and Paul was in town, so proud Paul was able to see Pat presented with this honor. We need to get that sucker framed for sure!

3. Ahh, sometimes the cheapest gift is the one most enjoyed. My parents got me my first bird feeder (it's a suet holder) for Christmas and Charlie and I love to watch it! We've had lots of birds attracted to it.

4. We always jokingly call Charlie our little swiffer because he is always collecting dust/dirt on his tummy and legs...so here he is after he actually got ahold of a swiffer the other week.

Dust away my darling!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! We are heading out for sushi soon. :)

Charlie -11 months old

2012-01-26T10:35:00.000-06:00

We are counting down to the little guy's FIRST BIRTHDAY now. He turned 11 months on January 24th. Charlie has been on medicine for a while because he had a double ear infection around New Year's and then it came back in one ear. So he was a little under the weather but he seems to be back to himself now and has a great appetite again. Grandpa Paul left on Tuesday after a week stay with us, so Charlie is back to just hanging out with me during the day. Charlie keeps crawling (yep, still no walking) into the bathroom and standing up next to the tub, so I think he is letting me know how much he enjoys taking a bath. He's still putting everything in his mouth, and last week I believe he sampled his first taste of Winnie's cat food. I am hoping this is his last month on his special Alimentum formula. Here's to hoping he can drink regular milk soon! His 11 month pictures:

Of course it can be hard to keep him still. This guy is on the move!!

He still has his beautiful eyelashes.

What a happy little guy!

Put your hands up for my little cutie. ;-)

A couple videos from this morning

2012-01-23T11:34:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted a video in a while, so enjoy!

Pat's birthday

2012-01-23T11:16:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was Pat's 31st birthday. Of course we had no idea if he'd be up for celebrating or not. But Friday was somewhat anticlimactic, as Pat said. The procedure took a few hours, where he received ABVD through an IV. We came home and had chicken sandwiches afterwards and took it easy on the couch. I was thrilled that Pat had an appetite and was feeling alright. Saturday Pat felt pretty good and even went to Vandy for a short group meeting. On Sunday Pat felt a little tired, but not too bad. Through the IV on Friday he also received some anti-nausea medicine and some steroids which must have helped a lot. Pat is at class now. What a relief that we made it through the first weekend!

On Saturday evening, my parents had a little birthday party for Pat at their house:

Complete with balloons and streamers!

Kate sent down this bib for Charlie's birthday next month, but I made Pat put it on for a picture. ;-)

mmmm cherry cobler and ice cream

And last night, my cousins Sarah and Matthew and also Rachel brought over dinner. Sarah made an Italian Bake, a delicious cheesy pasta dish. We also had salad and Matthew's garlic bread. I made Paula Deen's Banana Pudding for dessert.

I brought out the tri-pod for a group shot. Then I made Matthew remove his reflective jacket. :)

We sure appreciate them bringing us dinner and an extra dish to freeze for later. Pat has joked "my fridge is not big enough for cancer." We have been very well fed lately.

I'm so glad Pat was up for celebrating. We had a great time!

IGBOK

2012-01-19T16:08:00.000-06:00

Our new motto is IGBOK for it's gonna be ok. We have realized lately that things could always be better, things could always be worse. Within the last couple weeks Pat has had a CT scan, PET scan, needle biopsy, invasive biopsy (surgery), blood work, a bone marrow biopsy and other stuff, all to determine he has Hodgkins Lymphoma. The prognosis is very good, but Pat does have to undergo six months of Chemo. Starting tomorrow. This was all very much a shock to us. Pat is amazing, as always, and continues to have a positive attitude and even shows his sense of humor. Our plan is to try and keep things as normal as possible and Pat has notified the Dean and his professors at Vandy about what's going on, but he intends to continue classes like usual. Some of you might be wondering where he'll be treated - at Vanderbilt. I've met his oncologist who seems great. The chemo will take place every other Friday (works for Pat's schedule since he doesn't have class that day). My Father-in-Law Paul is in town for a week and we're lucky to have my family so close by us.

Of course Charlie has no clue what is going on and he keeps us smiling.

Please keep Pat in your thoughts and prayers.

Recent Happenings

2012-01-15T10:44:00.000-06:00

Lots of pictures for you ~ sorry for lack of posts. I know my fans were disappointed. ;-)

1. Celebrating New Years Eve was so fun. We joined some Vandy friends on a party bus downtown.

My HS bestie Kate joined us. Here we are with Brent and Lindsay.

Pat and Tim (the only 2 CFAs in their class)

We stopped by Love Circle to have a view of the city.

Lights!

Love my Pat!

2. Charlie checking out his new rug. It's been great and is so soft and thick. (From Pottery Barn Kids, Rugby Rug)

3. More Kate time. She arrived Nashville the day we left for Cape Cod, so we crammed in some fun right at the end of her TN trip.

4. Hanging with Mimi and Papa!

5. Taking down Christmas decorations...I haven't been able to part with the holiday cards yet.

6. Charlie making a complete mess in his "Feed Me" T Rex shirt. :o)

7. And hamming it up for the camera!

There have been some other recent happenings, but I'll get to those later. Go Hoosiers!

Fun with Tissues

2012-01-08T09:22:00.001-06:00

Yay for Sunday!

2012-01-08T08:13:00.001-06:00

First post from new iPhone 4s

Charlie -10 months old

2012-01-03T07:05:00.000-06:00

Charlie turned 10 months old on Christmas Eve. No new stats because he isn't scheduled to go back to the doctor until his 1 year appointment in February. Besides a little bit of a cold (you can see proof on his nose in some pictures probably...) he is doing great. Lots of climbing and standing up, but so far no standing without something to hold on to. Lots of fast crawling! Our little chunk is wearing 12-18 month clothing. He got his 5th tooth and looks like number 6 might not be too far away. We really just love him so much and his smile and laughter make us such happy parents. I know his grandparents feel the same. We love the hugs he has started to give us!

Here are the photos I took of him that day:

First few days of our Trip

2012-01-02T19:01:00.000-06:00

Charlie all ready to fly! Several people asked if this was his first trip, but it was actually his third...

There are no non stops to Boston or Providence, Rhode Island so we ended up stopping in DC.

Luckily 3 out of 4 of our flights (the two there and one coming home) weren't full and we were able to spread out.

Paul picked us up at the airport and we continued our long travel day to Cape Cod (less than two hour drive). The next day we drove 2+ hours just north of Boston to visit some of Pat's aunts/uncles and cousins. We stayed with Aunt Mae and Uncle Lee in Dracut, MA. Their kids are Liz and Brian. Liz and her husband Mark have two kids - Liam and Molly. And Brian and his wife Lashanta have Mackenzie and Miles. All four are adorable and we got to see them all! You've heard me mention that many of Charlie's clothes are Liam hand me downs - well here is the cutie:

Aunt Mae and Uncle Lee have a crib for when their grandkids are over, so Charlie had a perfect spot to sleep and did wonderfully. The next morning we lounged around with coffee and Aunt Mae's banana bread. Then we got to see Aunt Judi and Uncle Hank for a brief visit and were able to see pictures of their new grandbaby, Gracie.

Then we headed for a lovely neighborhood walk and then Aunt Mae treated us to a great lunch. She wanted a picture of us in front of their tree, so I got one too:

From there we headed a short distance to see Aunt Anne in Amesbury. Charlie loved playing with her granddaughter Serenity's toys!

Then we drove back to the Cape and settled in for good, since we'd traveled the previous three days.

Charlie went ahead and took control of the remote. (this was actually an old, unused one)

Boys and their electronics - Paul and his new iPhone, Charlie with Kate's old cell phone, and Pat and his laptop:

This bucket was full of toys, but I think Charlie enjoyed playing with it just as much as the toys inside.

As you can see, it was great to see family on our trip. So good to be with family anytime, but especially during the holidays.

More posts to come!

Cape Cod Walks/Hikes

2012-01-02T11:18:00.000-06:00

It was pretty chilly, but we tried to bundle up and get outside for some fresh air as much as we could during our trip.

The above photos are from walks in Orleans from Paul and Kate's house. The following pictures are from a hike that Paul took us on in Welfleet.

We had the trails all to ourselves. It's fun to be there in the Off Season.

Pat doesn't start classes again until next week, so we have this week to relax and get things done at home. We'll take off for a walk when Charlie gets up from his nap. :)

Back Home

2011-12-31T15:40:00.000-06:00

We made it back to Nashville last night after 10 days in Cape Cod. Boy did we have a great trip! But it is good to be back too of course. I have lots of pictures to share from our time away, but for now, here are a few of Charlie from this morning.

We got Charlie a rug for his room for Christmas - here he is already enjoying it. :) We will get that set up tomorrow.

Charlie sure got some great gifts for his first Christmas. My friend Michelle from my old, old job got him this Thomas the Tank Engine ride-on toy. He loves it!! Pat spent a good chunk of the morning pushing him around in it.

Wishing you all a happy new year! Can't believe it's almost 2012 already!

Charlie w/ Aunt Maura and cousin Greer

2011-12-25T14:58:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!!!

Cousins at Christmas

2011-12-25T14:55:00.001-06:00

Early Christmas Dinner

2011-12-19T11:07:00.001-06:00

Since we moved to Nashville we've been getting together with my parents and sister most Sundays for a family dinner. This is always put on by my parents. But since we'll be spending Christmas with Pat's family, Pat and I decided we wanted to host my family for a holiday dinner. Last night Mom, Dad, E, and Mark came to join us for supper. We cooked something new - duck! We had crescent rolls, asparagus roll ups, mashed potatoes, pan seared duck, and blueberry chutney to go on top of the duck. We love duck but had never tried cooking it before. Yesterday morning Pat went on a wild goose chase, or rather, a duck hunt. ha! He ended up with 4 duck breasts. This is what they looked like after Pat scored them.

And here we are sporting our matching aprons. These were a Christmas present from my parents a couple years ago. :)

Here is the duck all cooked. We saved the excess fat from the pan to use for future cooking. Duck fat potatoes sound pretty good to me. Alton Brown calls duck fat culinary gold. I didn't get a picture of the chutney I mentioned, but it was great. It was made with 2 cups of brown sugar, some red and white wine vinegar, 4 cups blueberries, 1 lemon juiced, 1 cup minced onion, some freshly grated ginger, and green peppercorns.

Here we are about to eat on our fine china! (for the first time)

Here we are after the great meal, before exchanging gifts and having my Mom's chocolate pecan pie.

It was so nice to have them over for a great meal. We have a lot to learn as far as hosting meals, but you have to start somewhere and we are learning from the best (my parents and Pat's parents).

Saturday Shopping

2011-12-18T14:24:00.000-06:00

Lanier and I met up yesterday morning at the mall. Mostly just to hang out and catch up, but also for a little Christmas shopping. I know some people would call this last minute shopping, but I consider Christmas Eve to be last minute. :) Shopping here in Tennessee is sooo much easier than shopping in New Jersey. Once time last year I went to the Garden State Plaza and seriously spent 45 minutes just trying to find a parking spot. Not that I was trying to find a really close parking spot, just any parking spot at all. It was so frustrating and then the mall was packed. Here it's so much easier and we found a great bench for Charlie to have his mid shop bottle. He had clearly kicked back and was having a good day. (my only complaint of shopping here is the high tax. But I guess no income tax makes up for it...)

An hour or two after I got home, our friends Tom and Shelley came over with a complete meal. All we had to do was throw on a few slabs of ribs on the Big Green Egg. They were smoking while we watched the Indiana basketball game, where we beat Notre Dame.

Charlie was wearing his IU jersey again since it brought us luck last weekend.

What's Charlie smiling at? It's Shelley making him giggle at the other end of the table. :)

Since we'd had some drinks we decided to spend $1 on the BreathalEyes ap on my iPhone. I believe a couple guys I went to high school with came up with this. As their video states, it is for entertainment purposes only, but it takes different photos of your eyes to estimate your Blood Alcohol Level.

The results were questionable and there is definitely human error involved, but either way we had fun with it.

Today I got an exciting email with this at the top:

We saw Michael Bublé sing on Saturday Night Live last night and he's also appeared on some recent morning shows singing some Christmas songs. Thank you Pat for my new Michael Bublé Christmas album on iTunes! I can't wait to listen to it tonight! Pat also let me sleep in this morning while he took Charlie grocery shopping. We had a great neighborhood walk and it's been a great day so far. xoxo

Vandy Fun

2011-12-17T09:48:00.000-06:00

Pat wanted to have some Vandy pals over to celebrate the end of finals. Thursday night we had about 15 people over for a casual dinner and drinks. Pat smoked 2 pork butts and I made a broccoli slaw. It was a lot of fun.

Pat's friend Dong and his wife brought their cute little girl Hatsu. She loves Charlie. When I took him out of his Exersaucer she kept wanting him to get right back in it so she could be right there with him. :)

Last night we were able to join a small group of Vandy friends at Ken's Sushi. The Japanese students approve of this place and they did the ordering. Take a look at some of our meal:

Gucci and Brent:

Brent and Lindsay

The thing in the middle is sea urchin, "uni"

It was really fun and yummy. Now Charlie and I are off to the mall for a little shopping with Lanier. Make it a great Saturday! :)

Gloves repeat

2011-12-16T14:59:00.000-06:00

Gloves

2011-12-16T14:58:00.001-06:00

New 'Do

2011-12-15T15:53:00.000-06:00

As of 1:30 PM today, I went short!

Also, I've been playing a lot of the Words With Friends game on my phone, but last night Pat and I went back to the original:

Smiling for Santa

2011-12-14T09:47:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Pat took his last final of the semester. Woohoo! Once he got home we decided to go for a quick trip to the Green Hills mall. There wasn't much of a line for Santa (maybe because it costs so much for pictures...they offer free lap sits but won't allow cameras, but if you buy a session you can use your camera...) Anyhow, we decided it was worth it since it's Charlie's first Christmas. :)Plus Santa looked really good - real beard and everything.

The "pros" kept getting his eyes shut like the above photo, but then they got a really good one, similar to the below shot.

I am really glad Charlie was in good spirits for meeting Santa, but I must admit I love those babies that are crying or asleep when meeting Santa. :o)

Here's a short video of us walking up to him.