Playtime!!!

Sorry everyone but I really haven't had much to post lately. So, I thought I would share a few pictures of Tundra taken throughout the week during playtime. Jim and I continue to marvel at how big he's getting. Today, I plan on taking both dogs to Overlook Park....by myself. Jimmy and I went last weekend and it was really difficult on me, I was in tremendous pain by the time we returned. Jim plans to spend the day working in the yard so since he's busy I'll try this adventure alone. Anyway, here are the pictures from the week.

Monkey See Monkey Do

So I know its been a while since my last post, but I've been extremely busy these days. School has been almost overwhelming and work has been filled with drama. So when I get home in the evenings I'm either doing homework or trying to clear my head. Not to mention, now that I'm off crutches I've been doing some chores around the house in the evenings. Anyway, I've got a really cute story to tell all of you about Tundra and Nanook. At the end of this post you'll find some updated pictures...we can't get over how quickly he's growing.

Anyway, when we got Tundra naturally we got him a few toys to chew on as well. My mother had gotten him a toy bone and another plastic toy with a rope through it. For some reason the rope toy has been Tundra's favorite and he really hasn't paid much attention to the toy bone...or at least not at this point.



One evening Jim thought it would be a good idea to give Nanook his rawhide (we only give it to him every so often). I was a little hesitant since I wasn't sure how Tundra would react. So, Nanook lays down on the floor and begins to enjoy his bone. Meanwhile, Tundra is staring at him trying to figure out what he's doing and he begins to bark at him. Next thing we knew Tundra runs to grab his toy bone and lays down in front of Nanook and proceeds to imitate his every move. Tundra was holding the bone between his paws just the same way Nanook was and Tundra was chewing on his toy bone the exact same way Nanook was. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen! I actually told Jim that I had no idea that dogs imitate each other....monkey see monkey do.

Ahh, this is our little penthouse boy. He sleeps like this all the time!

Tundra Has Arrived!

Well after many months of waiting Tundra has finally arrived! All of us are very excited and we really enjoy watching him play and get to know the other animals of the house. So far everyone is getting along really well. Nanook doesn't know what to think of the little guy and he has been growling a little. He hasn't snapped at Tundra, but he's certainly been showing Tundra who is boss. To my surprise, Corki is doing really well. I'm not sure if you guys remember or not, but I was expecting Corki to live on top of the refrigerator for the next several months, but he doesn't to notice Tundra. Sasha is a different story...she's not a happy cat. She's also all of a sudden become skittish of sudden moves. I'm sure she'll get over it, but it may take a few months.

Anyway, I took some pictures of Tundra yesterday during play time so I hope you enjoy the following photos:

These are my two favorite pictures thus far.

Beautiful Banff

Jim and I had an amazing time in Banff!!! I can't say enough about how beautiful this town is and how much I would love to live there some day. Everything about our weekend was such a dream and even though I was on crutches I still made the most of it. We arrived in Calgary on Thursday and we spent the afternoon driving around just getting to know the town. I was a little disappointed in Calgary, I was expecting it to be similar to Colorado Springs in the sense that Colorado Springs is nestled up against the mountains. Calgary is a little over an hour from the mountains...not nestled up against the mountains. Between Calgary and Banff there is a lot of open space used mainly for farming, but also has rolling hills.

On Friday Jim and I slept in and then we headed up the mountain in a gondola to enjoy the view. It was rather cold on top of the mountain, but the views were amazing! We finished up the day back in Calgary where we watched the Calgary Flames take on the Nashville Predators...the flames lost but Jim thoroughly enjoyed the game and the people. Saturday was spent hanging around Banff and doing some shopping. Yes, even though I was on crutches I was still able to shop! When we woke up on Saturday morning I decided that I wasn't going to let those darn crutches ruin our weekend so I crutched around Banff all day. Of course I took a few pain killers during the course of the day though...to help with the arm pain of course. I even managed to wear Jim out walking around town! Moving on, Sunday was spent in Lake Louise and then back to Calgary to catch our flight home.

I decided during the weekend that Jim and I need to make this an annual trip. He came up with the idea of rotating seasons...summer one year, winter the next. We hope to go again next summer and I'm hoping to take Zach, Sam, Aaron, and Jimmy with us. The entire time we were in Banff I kept thinking to myself how much Zach and Sam would love this town and I can't imagine being there without them. I have numerous pictures to share with you, so sit back and enjoy the show.

Here are a few images from out hotel.

We stayed in a castle in Banff (The Fairmont Banff Springs), so here are a few images of the hotel. I have a better "airel" view later on during this post.

The next two pictures are of a "bus" used to take tourists to the columbian ice fields. We were very intrigued by the sheer size of this thing.

The following pictures were taken during our gondola ride.

This picture was taken on the gondola ride, and you can see our "castle in the woods". Its located in the bottom-center of the photo in case you can't see it.

This is downtown Banff.
Here I am at Lake Louise. Crutching my way to the lake....


This picture is a hockey rink on Lake Louise. The lake was frozen...allowing people full access to walk on water. Which included playing hockey on the lake, ice skating on the lake, and walking from end to the other. This was a completely different concept to me...one that was hard to comprehend.

Here's the ice skating rink that I mentioned above.

Here's Jim standing on the hockey rink.
And finally, here's me standing on the lake...something I've never done before.

Coming Soon!

Well, I just thought I would let everyone know that I am alive and well. The last few weeks have been extremely hectic for me. Jim and I just returned from Banff, plus Tundra is now home with us. I don't have time for a big post but I promise pictures of Calgary/Banff will be posted soon, as well as, pictures of Tundra.

My Life on Crutches

Well it's been three weeks since I've been dealing with these dreaded crutches and life has been interesting. I've officially hit my half way mark, which means I have three more weeks to go (and believe me I'm counting down). Although, I realized the other day that I'll probably be using the crutches for more then three weeks. After the six week mark I'll be able to start putting weight on my knee again, but I know it will still take me some time before I build those muscles up again to put my full weight on that leg.

Things have been very interesting the last several weeks. While I feel very useless for the most part and I've put a damper on the last few weeks for Jim and I, I've come across some really wonderful people. Above all I think I'm more sympathetic to people with disabilities since this experience has made me open my eyes to a different side of the world. I've run into many people willing to help me out (strangers included) and yet I've also run into people that have flat out ignored the click-clack of my crutches.

Last week I went to our local bagel shop to find a complete stranger more then willing to help me get my drink, open the door, and walk me to my car. Ironically, I later saw the same gentleman at Dr. Lubowitz's office filling out new patient paperwork. Jim has also been a huge help to me and he's certainly risen to the occasion to pick up the extra slack here at the house. I pretty much can't do anything here at home, so between him and Jimmy they're getting my daily and weekly chores done.

As I type this though, I must say, I've also run into a few people that can't seem to notice that it's difficult for me to open a door and consequently the door has slammed in my face. I also had one woman practically knock me over on my way to class. Which brings me to another point....parking has been a continuous struggle for me. At the credit union we have one available parking spot extremely close to the front door, that's not handicapped. I try very hard to get that spot everyday. For the most part I've done pretty well getting that spot, however, every time I leave the credit union the spot is gone when I return. To make matters worse, it's the same employee taking that spot each time....

Anyway, I just wanted to send everyone a quick update on me. I hope to make another post soon so that I can update everyone on Tundra.

Another Tundra Tease and Other News

FYI, the spell checker in blogger seems to have kicked the bucket so I appologize...my spelling is horrible.

I think I'll go ahead and start by showing off a few more pictures of Tundra. I recieved these on Monday and he's getting so big and soooo cute! In case I didn't mention it, he comes home on March 10th!

Moving on to other news. I think most of you are unaware, but I had knee surgery last Wednesday. I know this sounds odd, but I made it my New Year's resolution to get my knee fixed. Here's a quick history on my knee...

Jim thought it would be a great idea to hike the Grand Canyon for our honeymoon. Not exactly my idea for a honeymoon but a marriage is about compremising and this was something he really wanted to do. I actually thought I would do really well on this hike and my concern was actaully for Jim. Boy was I wrong! Jim had no problems with this hike...I on the other hand was a wreck. Basically, my knee has never fully healed since that hike and its slowly gotten worse and worse. Not to mention, I also think sliding in softball was a factor to my knee problems.

My knee had gotten so bad that I was unable to walk up or down stairs, I had a hard time walking up any incline, and knew in this condition I wouldn't be able to play softball this year and golf was up in the air. I also still have a few pounds to lose since Jim and I did our IVF stuff, so exercising was difficult. So I figured now would be a great time to get it fixed....I had enough!


I have five months before softball begins for the season so I began to search doctors and go through testing. I had an x-ray done that proved that the bones were fine. After the x-ray I was referred to Dr. Lubowitz from Taos (whom is world renowed and the physican for the U.S. Ski Team and was once the physican for the Phillies) who thought there might be meniscus tear...so he ordered an MRI. The MRI came back inconclusive and it didn't appear there was any sort of tear.

After some discussion with Dr. Lubowitz we decided to have the knee scoped out in the hopes that the scopping job would clear the persistent pain. I was told I would be on crutches for 2-3 days max and back to normal activity after a month. So, I go into surgery and when I wake up a few hours later I was told that they found severe cartilage damage. I was also told that they drilled my knee to create bleeding and somehow this generates new cartilage. I'm not 100% sure what they did (I was heavily drugged at this point) but it was something along those lines. What I do remember them saying is I'm not allowed to put any weight on that knee for six weeks...which means crutches for six long weeks. Needless to say, I wasn't entirely thrilled. Although I am glad that it should start to get better soon. There's also a possibility that I might need future treatment.

So, here I am...pretty crippled at the moment trying to go about my daily activities on crutches. The crutches suck! My arms, hands, and wrists, are so sore and it hasn't been a complete week yet. I have no idea how I'm going to manage for six weeks. Oh yeah, Jim and I are going to Ruidoso this weekend to celebrate Valentine's Day and March 6th Jim and I leave to go to Calgary...all of which I get to do on crutches...yuck!

This past weekend was a sad, sad weekend. I'm here crippled and poor Jim had a bad case of broncitis, so neither one of us was much use to the other. Oh, and Jim was kind enough to help me cook dinner Sunday night but he sliced his thumb really bad cutting potatos for me. Poor guy, I know he was trying to be nice and he wanted to help me. He took himself to urgent care on Monday morning to have it looked at (his second trip in less then a week).

So that's about it for us. I'm here at the house unable to really do anything but watch television and get caught up on homework. Jim is feeling better now...although his thumb still hurts. He's also doing a wonderful job of helping me out.