National Zoo

Yesterday Ly+Alan's good friends invited them to go to the National Zoo. Never one to miss a chance to see pandas, Ly dropped her plans and immediately agreed...besides she has to take advantage of her husband pushing her around in the wheelchair while she can. While they did see the pandas, the highlight was the lion exhibit - the lions were quite active, even attacking some ice meat the keepers threw out there for them. Here's a photo for your enjoyment, taken, shockingly enough, by Alan. He's quite proud, as he should be.

Alive & Kickin' (well sorta)

No worries, both Ly + Alan are alive and at least one of them is kicking. They haven't updated in quite sometime because there has been one adventure after another in the Ly+Alan household. First off, Ly's mom is in town to help with her recovery from surgery and they've been to busy having fun to post. So don't worry there will be tales to follow (once Ly downloads her photos) involving geese, purple casts, trips, movies, quilting and wheelchair escapades.

Pain.

This last time in the hospital, Ly got to experience working with Palliative care. For those, like her, who did not know what that means, it's basically a group of doctors who work with people who have illnesses that don't go away and often get worse with time...Alan compared it to Hospice. Anyway. The people are really nice and their method of pain control really seemed to help.

Working with them really got Ly interested in pain management and the whole notion of pain. It is difficult to treat pain when it is so subjective (honestly how effective is that 1-10 scale, really?). Luckily there are so many options and the medications the doctors were finally able to prescribe for Ly's pain have really been helping. They do have some odd side effects though. One of which is having crazy dreams.

Case in Point:

Last night Ly dreamed that she gave birth to a few babies. She didn't dream about the actual birthing process, just a bunch of newborn babies ended up in a hospital bassinet all swaddled up. Anyway more kept appearing and so Ly sat up in bed and literally screamed:

"Where are all these babies coming from!?"

Silence.

"Holy cow. Now they are turning into bunnies!"

Yup, she'll be around all week for your entertainment needs.

Anyway it is now 3:25 in the morning and this talk of pain is reminding Ly that her ankle hurts. A lot. And it doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon. In fact, maybe it's time to take a pain pill.


*image courtesy http://farm1.static.flickr.com/68/191905347_9a88e63b02.jpg

In honor of mother's day

Some parenting tips via the Canadian Goose (in no particular order)

1. Great parents provide excellent nests. They always are sure to provide a place where their young can be safe - with a stream or pond, some nice grass, a few hills and lots of shade. Basically they are sure that their nest is where all the other geese want to have their friends hang out.

2. Excellent parents educate their children about dangers of the world (cars, foxes, etc) - and try to protect them, yet are there to help them out when they get hurt.

3. Awesome parents give helpful dating tips - what places to avoid and where the ladies like to be shown a night on the town.

4. Good parents teach the importance of staying physically fit - just to keep swimming and that they will always be a hop, skip, or a jump away.

5. Day care is a plus. Even a goose understands that sometimes a parent just needs a break.


*It should be noted that this blog hasn't turned into a goose blog. Also should also be noted that the author of this blog doesn't actually have any offspring.

And we're back.

After a mere three days in the hospital, lots of specialists, and uncomfortable beds, we're proud to announce that the surgery was an apparent success and we are now resting up at home.

Thank you for all of your well wishes, prayers and thoughts on our behalf.

Here we go again...

Well, we're off to our favorite place aka Virginia Hospital Center for Ly's final (hopefully) ankle surgery. We are cautiously optimistic that the hospital stay won't be nearly as long as it was last time and things will run much smoother....we're not a fan of ambulances, pneumonia, or days of hospital food.

Anyway we'll keep you updated as time permits!

*image courtesy of pipereport.com

Hop's Family on a Sunday Afternoon

For your enjoyment...

Hop's New Siblings

Yesterday was a day just like any other - doctors appointments, grocery shopping, visiting the DMV, basically nothing too exciting that is until Ly spotted some baby geese while at the mall. Excited, she ran home to get her camera (even though you would think she would've learned by now to carry it with her at all times) and immediately went to visit Hop's family. As expected, there were 5 baby geese! Hop must be so excited to have so many new siblings. His family obviously remembered her because they allowed her to get within 10 feet of the goslings without so much as raising their head.

Ly also saw another goose family with 3 little goslings and they were a bit more weary and did not allow her to get close at all. But that's okay, they'll get to know her eventually, just like Hop's family did.