Home Sweet Home

First off sick dog on a plane is not good even if he is sedated....I am not sure if it was because he isn't feeling well or if he would be like that on the plane regardless of how he felt. All I know was I had a lot of sympathy for mom's traveling alone with children because you can't just drug them and put them under the seat! All in all after a rough trip to Idaho we arrived in Lewiston and Mom was there to pick me up...needless to say she got a kick out of my nightmare of a trip. We were off to Sharp's Burger Ranch which is always the first stop when flying into Lewiston. Mom and I got to Pierce and as my Uncle Dan and Aunt Terri pulled into the house to see me it started to snow. I thought wow this is going to be an exciting trip...stuck in the house while it snows in May. Thank goodness that was the only day that it snowed and it didn't actually stick to the ground. On Thursday we headed to Boise to pick up Dad from the airport and then onto Salt Lake City for Todd's graduation.

When we got back from Salt Lake City my Cousin Tori and her son Jayden had arrived in town from ATL. It was a lot of fun to spend time with them, we went to Orofino to get Tori's hair cut and colored. (Yes she does go all the way to Idaho to have that done....I told her she was crazy). Aunt Terri and I went for a walk where we ended up getting caught in a down pour....I will never forget her saying "It's not going to cut loose" and then 5 minutes later being soaked through my clothes in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm. Sly freaked out at the thunder and lightning, Uncle Dan tried to rescue us, and we actually jogged trying to get back to the house faster. The two fools that we are danced in the rain on the baseball field...that only lasted until lightning hit the bleachers and scared us. We are probably lucky we didn't get struck by lightning. My silly dog is afraid of mud puddles so I ended up carrying him part of the way. As we stripped out of our wet clothes and I borrowed something from my Aunt to wear I told her..."I earned my Costco cupcake!"

I got to see a lot of friends that I hadn't seen in a very long time of course you always wish you had more time with everyone, but there are only so many hours in the day. My mom's parents were also at the house and Tori's brother Tyson come up with his family. It was nice to have everyone together where we had time to visit and we weren't dealing with some big event. Dad had a bunch of stuff outside that needed burned so we had two big fires. Of course me being the pyromaniac that I am got too close (OK I also had diesel) and singed my hair....the best part was I didn't notice until I walked up to my Aunt Terri to tell her a BIG STORY. She was laughing so hard she couldn't talk and I couldn't figure out what was going on...I did figure it out! Afraid of the bald spot I was going to have I ran in the house to wash my hair and assess the damage. This wasn't the first time I have done this and it probably will not be the last. By the time I came back out with my baseball hat on my Dad had singed his eyebrows and shortly after that Aunt Terri got her bangs. We had a good laugh roasted hot dogs and had S'mores....couldn't have asked for a better time.

Well a trip home to Pierce would not be complete with out a trip to the Orofino Golf course....and not that I have ever been a good golfer, but since I don't golf on a regular basis any more it is really bad. That being said it was a lot of fun and I actually was starting to get my swing back...well here and there anyway. Aunt Terri's new clubs are really sweet....maybe it is time for me to get back into the "swing" of things and buy a new set of clubs myself. Tori made a comment at one point that if she would have known that Auntie and I sucked so bad she would have golfed with us more...we really aren't that bad. Well OK maybe I am but the "short bus driver" in the picture to the right is pretty good when her daughter and niece aren't giving her a hard time.

Happy endings and sad good byes! As my wonderful trip came to an end Mom made Mexican food and my cousin Bo, his wife Lenne, my cousin Amy and their children came up to Pierce for the evening. Along with the rest of the gang it was a house full but it was just like old times...it's hard to leave that comfort. I never thought the time would come in my life that I would say I was sad to leave Pierce....but this time I was sad to leave Pierce. My life started there it is my home and every inch of that place has memories and most of them GREAT! You run into family, friends, old classmates, and I even made a new friend at the grocery store...people are friendly not rude pushing, cutting people off in a rush to be some where. They take the time to wave while driving down the road and are actually being friendly not sarcastic. It was refreshing and relaxing to be HOME! Now that I am back in California after I cringe my teeth at someone trying to be one step ahead of me I smile and remember how not long ago I was moving at a much different pace. It makes me really appreciate what Idaho has to offer.

Todd's Graduation!

I went home for my brother's Law School Graduation from the University of Utah. It was a lot of fun. First I hadn't been to Salt Lake City since I was in college and it was actually a lot nicer then I remember. The graduation was great (you know for a law school graduation) and my brother was so proud...as we all were of him. I was telling one of my friends it was really cool to see Todd as proud as he was over this, because he has his BS and Masters and never had walked at graduation. Words can't even begin to express how proud of him I am. We got into SLC about 2am local time the night before graduation. Todd had to be there early so all of us drove to The U in Dad's truck. As we pulled up Krista (my sister in law) remembered she had forgot her camera and we were early enough that she could go back to the house and grab it. As the time got closer to graduation she still hadn't showed up and me being the worry wort that I am went out front to wait for her. My real panic set in as Todd's class began to walk in, I couldn't believe Graduation was starting and she wasn't here. I knew she wouldn't miss his graduation so I went to talk to her mom to see if I was worried for nothing, but she was concerned too. Krista had found an older gentleman who's son was graduating with Todd and he was lost. Being the sweetheart she is she walked with him instead of running ahead to make sure he made it to his son's graduation. Both Krista and I were a little unimpressed that so many people had brought children to a Law School Graduation...I was like "is this really the place?" then I remembered where I was. I was quickly put in my place when the class' awesome guest speaker who was from Africa said what a blessing it is to hear all the children crying and screaming during the ceremony....I guess we just weren't on the same page. She was really Awesome though telling her story about her struggle to be a Lawyer where most females don't even go through elementary school. After graduation The Kinard's were off to eat! As we walked back to the car the Coke man went after a few sodas that had fell off his cart and we watched (it seemed like slow motion) as the rest of the card got away from him and spilled. All of us in our dress clothes stopped and help him pick up the soda and the poor guy was so embarrassed, but at least we got it taken care of before everyone else started coming that way and saw him. It was a really great day and fun to spend it with family. That evening after my brother got all geeked out about his new lawn mower and mowed the grass his friends came over and we BBQ'd. He has a really good group of friends and I hope I can get back up to Salt Lake City to visit with him and Krista soon.

My brother and Krista just bought a new house and it is so cute. Krista doesn't let grass grow under her feet. Her mom Evelyn and her had been doing the landscaping the week before we arrived and it is beautiful. She didn't stop planting, watering, going the entire time I was there. It made me smile. Her mom is a ton of fun to be around....the two of us went in search of a grocery store and giggled until my stomach hurt. As we were leaving the store Evelyn remembered she had some onions in her hands we still needed to pay for it was too funny. On the way to the store some silly light popped on in Dad's truck and my first reaction was "OH NO what did I do?" All of you that know my dad knows as soon as I told him about the light he began to worry about the pick up. Thank God that we had no problems with it on the way home or since then for that matter...maybe the truck just wanted to give me a hard time :-) My mom had given me this book to read when I first arrived in Pierce and I totally got sucked into it while in SLC....so much that when we were all sitting outside Evelyn finally yelled "HELLO" to me to get my attention. Needless to say the rest of my visit home my dad kept teasing me and saying "HELLO!" It was a great weekend with lot of memory's and I can't wait to get back to visit....my brother and sister in law might get a bit sick of me and my dog :-)

Back to my roots!

It has been a long time since I have been excited to go to Pierce. Don't get me wrong I love seeing my family, but most the time it is more enjoyable when we meet somewhere other then a place where I don't get cell phone reception or have high speed Internet access. I am headed home in 5 days and all I can say it is what I desperately need. Even though I will be going to Salt Lake City, Utah for my brother's Law School Graduation (I am a proud Big Sis if you can't tell) I will be spending most of my time in my home town. I think it is much over due I need to "get back to my roots." I think one of my biggest fears when I moved to California was losing my "small town, country girl" heart. I have had a rude awaking this week and one thing that came rushing to the surface was "I will not forget how I was raised or taught to act" no matter how far acting out of character might take me. I was very proud of myself when I stood up to my boss and told him "I was raised different then that" and I won't give that up for anything, not even to get ahead in the rat race. So as I sit and reflect about the world around me I am looking forward to having time to reflect on my up bring as I sit by the creek, ride the four wheeler, take a hike in the woods and count the seconds as time goes by slower then molasses in January. The cell phone will not be ringing, the emails will wait, and my job will go on without me as I enjoy the time with my family. And yeah I might not be a big fan of my shoes getting muddy, the cold weather, I might complain about being bored and I might need help starting the four wheeler ever now and then, but when you look deep down that country girl from Idaho is still there no matter how "Big City" my Mom might say I am.

No Cancer!!

I got great news from the Vet today. There were some concerns that Sly had stomach cancer and even though it is unusual for his age it was a relief to know that wasn't the case. We are adding another medication to his treatment plan (for a total of 5 now), but am very happy that we are hopefully on the road to recovery.

I am hoping that the Meds will kick in quickly and we will have an enjoyable trip to Idaho!

Thanks for all your prayers and support through all of this.

Updates on Sly!

Well we have had a very interesting Month the little guy and I. This little man has had digestive problems since he was about 8 months old. I thought we had the pretty much under control, but last month I started seeing blood and mucus in the poo again and knew this wasn't a good sign. He has never really been a great eater, so when he loses his appetite it really doesn't suprise me all that much. Off we went to the Vet and after reviewing his chart she didn't even feel that it was necessary to take blood since we have been down this road so many time. This time it was two different antibiotics for two weeks and let me tell you it work because this guy ate like a champ. He ate like I have never seen him eat before, so I thought well this time it worked. After the course of antibiotics he continued to do well until about the 7th day and I notice a lose of appetite again. This was on Sunday and by Tuesday he was barely eating again, I stopped by my friends Ruby and Leo after work and Sly wouldn't eat. He ended up throwing up that night, but I didn't think a lot about it because this was pretty normal in his life. Just to be safe though I called the Vet Wednesday morning and asked what she thought. We were back to the Chicken and rice diet which I am not a big fan of since I don't even cook for myself and now I am cooking for the dog. I knew it wasn't a good sign when he stopped eating the Chicken and Rice. On Friday I made an appointment with the Vet for Monday because our usual vet wasn't in on Friday. Things weren't out of control so I thought we could wait until then....I was kind of wrong. He did eat ok on Friday, but Saturday that came to a hault. We went for a walk at Genentech and when he did his business I knew everything was not ok....the crazy thing about all of this for the most part he acted normal with the exception of not eating. He was still running around playing with the toys everything and even ate pretty well Saturday night. That wasn't the case Sunday when I woke up to bloody vomit in the bathroom. We chilled Sunday and before we went to the vet Monday morning we had blood coming out both directions, but his demeanor was still ok. I told the vet she wasn't going to believe me that he was sick. That was until she took his temp...the temp was fine but the thermometer was covered in blood. I left him at the hospital for testing (xrays and blood work) and was suppose to pick him up at 2:30pm. When I got the call at 12:30pm I knew it couldn't be good news...Sly was going have a special kind of xray to determine if he had a foreign body in his stomach. The Vet didn't seem to think that was the case, but she wanted to be sure. When I picked him up at 5:00pm he was so excited to see me he had a pretty rough day. The conclusions of the xrays were that both his stomach and intestinal walls are about 3 times the size they should be. His gastrointestinal tract is showing signs of abnormality and there is something in his stomach which they are not sure if it is abnormal folding in the stomach or exactly what it is. She stops short of saying a tumor especially since the blood work is not back. I did ask about Stomach Cancer and it is one of her concerns, but since he is so young would like to believe that isn't the case. For now we are taking four different types of meds which is very interesting because he won't eat food so you can imagine the fun we are having pushing pills down his throat. I have got him to eat a little bit of food today (scrambled eggs and some beef steak)...he won't have anything to do with chicken or rice, so we are trying potatoes which are a little bit better. I should have the blood tests back today or tomorrow and hopefully they will bring good new for Sly. Until then we will take baby steps to getting him to eat a little more food and get him ready for our trip to Idaho. The Vet thinks it will be less stressful for him to come with me on the plane then to be away from me for 2 weeks.....This could be a lot of fun! Keep us in your prayers and I will continue to keep you updated on the situation. The Vet just can't believe that he doesn't get upset when you touch his stomach and how well he is acting with all of this going on...he has been such a good boy through all of this.

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