Easily offended? Then don't read about poor Kaygen...

Poor Kaygen! Kaygen is our 12yr. old chocolate lab. He's had a rough last couple of weeks. We had a mass removed on his neck & took a biopsy of some weird skin stuff behind his ear. Biopsy came back as a mast cell tumor Grade 1, completely excised- thanks Doc! This was round two with the mast cell tumors, but it's been two years since the first go round. For those of you that aren't familiar with mast cell tumors- they are malignant, aggressive, fast growing, and once you have them- you keep getting more.

Monday morning Kaygen had horrendous diarrhea ALL over the house. It took me over an hour to clean it up. After I got it all cleaned up and the kids dropped off, the dogs & I headed up to work. I brought Kaygen because I just couldn't bear coming home to more diarrhea & I always have to bring Gigi for Kaygen- she's his moral support. I was trying to get Gigi settled in the kennel while Kaygen was outside. Kaygen decided he didn't want to be left out and tried to slip in the door as it was closing- tail got caught & cut pretty badly in the door. Blood was everywhere and Kaygen was just a waggin' that tail and slingin' blood everywhere. Aghhh!! Dr. Godfrey helped me out and got a bandage on that tail, later she ended up stitching it up and bandaging it again- thanks Dr. G.!

Fast forward to today... I brought Kaygen back in so Dr. G. could take the bandage off and look at his tail. What does she find... a huge nasty lump on his scrotum and his right testicle is SUPER huge compared to the left one!! This was not there on Monday and it looks like another mast cell tumor...grrrr....! So, Kaygen is having surgery AGAIN tomorrow. Okay, here's the potentially offensive parts- I'm explaining to the kids tonight that Kaygen has to have surgery tomorrow on his "hoo-hoo," because he's got another bump back there. Emma-Rae says- where? on one of those pee bags he has back there by his booty? OMG!! I think I almost fell out of the chair laughing, which ticks her off- of course. Then, as she's all puffed up because I was laughing at the whole "pee bag" terminology- she asks me, in the snottiest voice ever- WHAT were we doing looking down THERE anyways? The girl just kills me. Wish Kaygen luck tomorrow, think good thoughts. He's old and we love him very much.

What does Gigi do all day?

I'd really love to know what in the WORLD Gigi does all day while we're gone. When we left this morning her little devil horns were neat as could be, her red bows were tied just so. When we got home tonight- this is what we found!

She Loves Him, She Loves Him Not ?????

For the last month John-Robert has been sleeping in Emma-Rae's room. I can't remember what started it initially, just that Emma-Rae began making a pallet in the floor for him to sleep on. After seeing that for several days in a row I decided that we should move John-Robert's mattress into Emma-Rae's room so he would be more comfortable.

For the last few days Emma-Rae has been griping about Brother sleeping in her room and his mattress taking up so much space on her floor. John and I told her Sunday night that we'd move it but it got kind of late so we didn't, and it got too late Monday night as well so John ended up pinky promising Rae that he would move Brother back into his room Tuesday night. We thought this was a pretty good idea because the kids start back to school next month and we need to get back into some sort of routine. John moved John-Rob's bed back into his own room last night, they were each watching a movie, had their snack, had their dog- Kaygen sleeps with Rob & Gigi was sleeping with Rae- everything was back to normal. We turned off the lights and went to bed.

This is what I find this morning when I go in to check on them. Looks like Sister is back to making pallets again. You've just got to love them...

Catch Up

Yikes! I really had all of these good intentions about keeping this blog updated and I realize that it's been a month since I've posted anything.

One of the veterinarians I work with, Dr. Godfrey

has a great blog and has inspired me to get my act together. Mainly because she put a link to my blog on hers and... I hate to disappoint. :)

I had a blowout on the interstate & instead of just needing a new tire- I needed $750 worth of work done on my car. My hero John came & bailed me out- as usual!

We've been BUSY!! Emma-Rae has finished softball with her St. Ann team and tried out for a local competitive team, she made it! She's the youngest on the team but she's very athletic and really hustles out there on the field. We're very proud of her, she is having a GREAT time! John-Robert is enjoying his summer. He swims like a fish now. Last night when we went to Aunt Stacy's to eat he goes up to Uncle Dave & asks if he can fix his hair for him(in a mohawk) and give him some boy perfume. He's so funny. Uncle Dave even hooked him up with some black spray in haircolor for his mohawk. He asked me the other morning in the car if he could be a rock star when he grew up, I told him of course he could, he could be anything he wanted to be. He then asked me if he could be an astronaut, I said sure- did he think he would like to be in outer space? He said, nah I don't want to be an astronaut, outer space is scary- I'll just stick with being a rock start. Mind you, we're having this discussion as we're buckling up and heading out of the driveway. John-Robert had some problems with his buckle & of course Miss Bossy big sis has to tell him what he's doing wrong. All of a sudden this is what I hear from John-Robert- God Almighty Emma-Rae, would you just stay out of my business! Now, I don't know what kind of "business" a 5yr. old has but I have no doubt that one day John-Robert will be and do whatever HE wants to.

We had a nice weekend at Uncle Billy & Aunt Steph's a few weeks ago. Uncle Billy got called in to work, he works for MLG&W- the utility company, and we didn't get to see him much but John filled in for him and cooked us all some great burgers.

For some reason there are those little, tiny water balloons all over my house. You can tell I'm past the baby stage now, don't have to worry about anyone choking on those. Some of them even ended up in my BED! When John saw that he declared it was time for a water balloon fight.

My g-pa passed away week before last. He was very special and I will miss him very much. The Pet Health Center team sent me a beautiful peace lily, they are all so great! I will do my best to keep it alive! The following obituary was posted in the Owatonna, MN newspaper.

Verne Arthur Redeker
Posted: Thursday, July 17, 2008 2:36 pm1919 2008MESA, Ariz.

Verne Arthur Redeker, a retired businessman and father of four, passed away at his home in Mesa, Ariz. on July 15, 2008.Mr. Redeker was born in Mason City, Iowa on Dec. 8, 1919. He was married to the late Ruth Elizabeth Pauley. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and was posted in Panama. He made his living as a sheet metal worker, finish carpenter, wood products salesman and proprietor of a heating and air conditioning company. His work took him and his family to Duluth, Arlington Heights, Ill., Owatonna and back to Mason City before retiring in Arizona. Mr. Redeker was an avid golfer, craftsman, and loving father. He was a member of the Victory Lutheran Church congregation in Mesa. He is survived by his children, Meredith, Susan, Bill, and Elizabeth as well as five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.He lived his life with dignity, honesty and self reliance. He will be profoundly missed by his children, dear friend Eleanor Finlayson and many others who knew, respected and cherished him.

Pictured below: left to right clockwise- Mom(Elizabeth), Uncle Bill, Aunt Susan, & G-pa

Last weekend John & I had a "grown-up" weekend. Which I really appreciated. We went with my two sister-in-laws & their husbands to St. Louis. We all got tickets several months ago for the Cruefest. Motley Crue, Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Sixx Am, & Trapt were the bands that played. We headed up Saturday a.m. & stopped in Sikeston, MO @ the Lambert's Throwed Rolls restaurant- yes, they throw these huge, delicious, hot rolls @ you and have great country cookin'. Of course, we only had an hour wait or so... everyone except for Angela & I became addicted to those machines where you drop the quarters in & the infinitesimally move the other quarters closer to the edge until a few fall off. They were all sure that they were going to hit the jackpot! Saturday night we drove over the river into Illinois and went to my cousin's house. They were having a cookout and swimming, we had a good time visiting with them and their new puppy- Ringo. My nephew and his new wife met us at my cousin's house and drove back to St. Louis with us. We all had a good time catching up with each other and enjoying the pool Sunday morning. Sunday was concert day!!! John, Dave, & I played the RockBand on stage & got second place. We pretty much just grabbed this guy out of the crowd to play drums for us and he'd never played before so, yes- we're blaming our loss on him. :) All of the bands were great, so were the $16 margaritas. It was 100 degrees in St. Louis that day and the festival was outside, luckily our tickets were close enough to the stage that we were under the canopy. All in all, great weekend!!

Tonight we're off to Stacy & Dave's for a Hannah Montana party! Woohoo!!! Taryn, a few of her neighborhood friends, Rae & Rob, and Kaitlyn & Zachary are going to watch the Hannah Montana concert in 3D in Dave's "man room." This means the room with the humongous TV. Uncle Dave has already picked up the 3D glasses for everyone. Actually, I'm really looking forward to it- the kiddos will be entertained and the adults will have plenty of time to sit down & visit. I have to go in to work tomorrow so I'm hoping we head home at a fairly reasonable hour. We usually either end up spending the night out there or coming home insanely late. Probably because we play Rock Band until 5 a.m......... Love you all!!!