Farewell Summer

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado, Weather

Sure, today is the last day of summer, but it definitely does not feel like it.  The high today is only expected to reach 51° — I doubt we’ll even see that since it’s about 40° outside right now (with a 31° wind chill)!  Did I mention it was 85° yesterday??

On top of the cold weather, it’s snowing.  Not in Denver where I am, but in the mountains and foothills (where Noah is working today).  This cold weather, snow and icy rain is expected to stick around all week, again with highs struggling to reach the 50s (or mid-50s).

There’s a roomer that the metro area will see potentially up to an inch of snow Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, but I’ll believe that one when I see it.  Any given weather forecaster is notoriously inaccurate when it comes to Colorado weather.

I’m just glad I have a space heater in my office, and when I get home you can bet that I will be turning up the furnace.  Got to make sure the baby stays warm, ya know.  😉

Lava’s trip to the dermatologist

Published on by Casey Category: Family

Yesterday Lava had her first dermatology appointment and next Tuesday she goes to see her therapist due to all the shame and humiliation she has had to endure from wearing the cone.  Okay, she doesn’t really have a therapy appointment but I still think it sounds too preppy SoCal for her to have a dermatologist.

Her appointment yesterday went well.  The dermatologist completely ruled out an auto-immune disorder (yay!) and determined she probably has juvenile cellulitis (which is what it sounds like to me after reading about it online), or possibly (a small chance) that all this is just the result of a food allergy.  Since the cause of juvenile cellulitis is unknown, the dermatologist did not know why Lava would develop this condition at age 4-5 when it normally affects puppies.

She is on a strong dose of prednisone for treatment and appears to be responding well.  Hopefully she continues to heal, with minimal or no scaring and makes a full recovery!  I’ll continue to update on her progress.  🙂

9/11

Published on by Casey Category: Whatever

For most people 9/11 brings back memories of devastation and a day when life as we knew it changed irrecoverably.  I think of those things too, say a prayer for the families of those affected and proudly hang a flag outside my home.  But it also reminds me of the organization I started to bring relief to children affected by such tragedies.  Eight years ago, my friend Becca and I founded Bears for Emergency Action Relief (B.E.A.R.) and decided to start a teddy bear drive that ended-up snowballing into a 4-state effort…and 5 months later 13,000 stuffed animals made their way into the arms of terrified children.

That project has become an inspiration on what I want to do with the rest of my life.  Eventually get my masters in counseling so I can work with these children, I volunteer with the Salvation Army at the sites of natural disasters and one day — I want B.E.A.R. to become an organization that runs full-time.  The man was my “boss” the time I was with Global offered to help me set-up a Board of Directors for B.E.A.R. and get it established as the non-profits of all non-profits.  One day, when I have more free time to dedicate to this venture I think I will take him up on that offer.

Quick Lava update

Published on by Casey Category: Family

We got a call this morning from the vet.  The biopsies came back stating Lava does NOT have an auto immune disorder.  This is good news.  However, she does have a dermatological disease that I can neither pronounce let alone repeat.  So our next step is to take Lava into see a dermatologist (sounds so fru-fru Beverly Hills…taking our dog to the dermatologist).  More details to come after she is seen by him.

Early preparation for the first few sleepless months (years)

Published on by Casey Category: Family

Lava has been doing her part in getting us ready for this parenting thing we are about to engage upon and she’s been doing a bang-up of a job with it too.

It started Monday morning when I noticed a couple of bumps on her lower lip.  I kept an eye on them and noticed that were getting worse and multiplying.  Wednesday morning Noah and and I also discovered that Lava had crusted blood around her eyes.  That set-off a BIG warning flag, so on the way to work in the morning Noah dropped her off at the vet.

Turns out the bumps were actually lesions and were not only around her mouth but also her nose, eyes, vulva and anus.  On top of that, she was also running a low-grade fever, had enlarged lymph nodes in her neck and apparently was in pain.  The vet was very concerned about how aggressive the infection was attacking her body and thinks our pup might have an auto-immune disorder.  She took some biopsies, sent them off to a pathologist and Wednesday night Lava came home with a cocktail of medication.  She is currently taking an antibiotic, pain killers, a steroid and an eye ointment (to keep the infection around her eyes from affecting the eyes themselves).  We won’t get the results from the pathologist back until next week, which will lead to a diagnosis.  Best case scenario would be Lava is just having a really back allergic reaction to something.  Worst case is puppy Lupus, which only gives her about one year to live.  There are several other options that fall between those two.

Wednesday night Lava was very much not herself.  She was still coming off the effects of being sedated and was in pain/uncomfortable.  We stayed home from bible study to care for her.  She whined all night long and as a result neither Noah or I got much sleep.

Yesterday when I got home from work Lava was very happy.  The pills appear to be working and making her feel better.  She was jumping on me and ran around in the backyard.  It was good to see her feeling more like her normal self.  However, one of the side affects of one of the medication is increased panting.  So panting is what Lava did all night long, loudly.  If she wasn’t panting she was licking her cone (not sure why she does that, but it took makes a horribly disgusting and irritating noise in the middle of the night).  She ended up being exiled from the bedroom to either the landing or the bathroom so Noah an I could attempt to get some shut-eye.

So yes, Lava is preparing us for parenthood by a) requiring emergency medical attention and b) leaving us sleep deprived. And I am very much looking forward to the three-day weekend where I can sleep-in and take naps.  🙂

Cake

Published on by Casey Category: Family, Pregnancy

So I mentioned in my last post about how the cake Melina made looked good but I didn’t know if it tasted good.  The reason why — sweets make me sick.  Now this is a relatively new development seeing as how I’m PREGNANT!  Yup, you read that correctly.  Bailey Baby will be here around April 15, 2010.

A couple ultrasound pictures (and a super gummy bear) can be found here.

1st trimester pregnancy realizations:

  • A bowl of Cheerios in the morning makes all the difference in the world
  • I LOVE fruit
  • It’s going to take a long time to organize the baby’s room
  • I wish there was a bagel shop closer to my school
  • Everyday should have a mandatory nap time

Another day older and deeper in debt (not really about the debt part)

Published on by Casey Category: Family

Saturday I turned 26 years old.  I don’t feel any older, or any younger for that matter.  In fact, I never really felt 25.  Perhaps that’s because the majority of my friends in CO are older than me by 2-12 years.  So perhaps I’m just pleased by how young I still am compared to my “old” friends.  jk.  😉  However, now that Tracy and her husband Artie have joined the group, I am no longer the youngest as I graciously handed that title down to Artie.

Yet even though 26 is not a landmark birthday, I wanted to celebrate.  So, I threw myself a party.  Including children, there were 28 people in my backyard Saturday afternoon (and for a couple stints, in my house when the trees didn’t shield enough of the rain).  I think everyone had a good time, even if they didn’t win the prize for guessing what time I was born (being the closest without going over).  That honor went to Meggan.  Enjoy your new hat.  🙂

Also, thanks to Melina for making an AWESOME softball field cake.  It looked delicious (more on why I don’t know if it tasted delicious later).  If I get a picture, I’ll link to it here…along with the sunflower cupcakes I made to supplement the cake.

Ever have a day like this?

Published on by Casey Category: Whatever

This is a stolen comment from a Scott Adam’s blog.  But it makes me laugh and sometimes I have days like this….

“I plan to have all of my tasks, assignments, etc, completed by the end of the day. (Yeah, right!)

I know I won’t do this by the end of the day because of the following reasons:

1. I see little elves on my desk. They are holding signs that say, “Work is evil! Repent, the pen is near!”
2. Did you know they eat duck egg embryos in the Philippines? It’s true! (And totally unrelated.)
3. It’s Ramadan. No, I’m not Muslim, but, hey! If the Muslims can get off work early for religious reasons, why can’t a Christian too?
4. All of the pens on my desk just went on strike. They are now marching across the desert to the tune of, “Ohhh Weee Ohhhh! Weee Ohhhhh Ummmm!”
5. I’m waiting for Flying Monkeys to come rescue me.
6. My eyes have gone Chameleon. It’s kinda cool! (I’m waiting for my tongue to go that route too! Helllooo, Ladies!!!)
7. All of the objects in my office suddenly went frictionless. I…keep…sliding…off….OUCH! OOOH! WEEEEE!
8. There is a small society living in my dirty coffee cup. They say my work is disturbing them. SHHHHH!
9. Godzilla! Godzilla! ROARRRRRR! (Fire, flying buildings, Tokyo burning, all of that….)
10. I just don’t want too.

Hope this helps! Ooops! The small society said, “Quiet!”

Okay, I’m out…..”

Peaches, Peaches for Me

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado

Today was Lafayette’s 10th annual Peach Festival.  We harnessed up the dog, put on our caps (forgot to wear sunscreen) and walked to downtown.  The Peach Festival is a celebration of Colorado Peaches / Street Fair.  Any way you could fashion a meal with a peach, you could probably buy it at the Fair.  We figure it was probably around 2.5 – 3 miles from our house to the Fair.  Lava quit before we made it downtown and required assistance (aka Noah carried her).  He also carried her around the Fair so a) she wouldn’t get trampled and b) wouldn’t burn her tootsies on the hot asphalt.

Our peach treat de jour this year was a smoothie, which we had to wait around for 15 minutes to get as the vendor had ran out of juice.  But we took turns sitting in the shade with the dog vs standing in line.  I think I managed to sit in the shade more.  🙂  I was going to buy kettle corn but decided the vendor was charging too much for the small bag and I didn’t need the popped corn goodness that bad.

On the way home, Lava quit several times…pretty much whenever she came across shady grass (it was in the 90s today — but we came prepared with plenty of water).  She finally quit for good when we were about 5 houses away from out own and got a lift the remainder of the way.  I think we need to invest in a wagon.

Here’s a video the Daily Camera shot from today’s Fair.  The city is estimating 20,000 people attended.

When Hayley Comes to Visit – Kenny Tags Along

Published on by Casey Category: Colorado, Travel

Some of the perks of working at a school are that I get paid breaks periodically throughout the year.  I had one such break Monday-Wednesday of this past week.  To help keep me occupied during that time, Hayley and Kenny came out for a visit.  They got in late on Sunday night so our festivities didn’t actually start until Monday.

Monday – went to Gander Mountain and Bass Pro Shop; tested out new fishing equipment (mainly Kenny & Hayley’s) at Waneka Lake.
Total fish caught: 0

Tuesday – drove up to Wellington Lake near Bailey.  Spent all day fishing, saw some deer and a bald eagle.
Total fish caught: 0

Wednesday – drove up to Roosevelt National Forest near Ward. Hiked 6-miles (rt) to Blue Lake (above the tree line at over 11,000-ft).

Here are some pictures from our escapades.  Hopefully the mini-vacation helped convince Kenny that it’s ok to move out of Ventura County (and into Colorado).