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.

Jimmy's New Bedroom

Just a quick post for the evening. Jimmy's new bed was delivered on Saturday so now his bedroom project is finally complete! Here are a few pictures of the final work....sorry I took these pictures before we put sheets on the bed. Although, I actually don't have any queen size sheets at the moment but I plan to take care of that one either this weekend or on Friday since we'll be in Albuquerque for a hockey game. Anyway, here are the pictures...

Tundra Tease

I awoke this morning to find two more cute pictures of Tundra on my email. I'm told that he's growing fast, is healthy and frisky. He's now opened his eyes, which appear blue and I'm not sure if that will change as he gets older or not.

Well he's certainly a boy!

More Tales From The City!

Okay, I know it's been a few days since my last post and I apologize for the delay in finishing up my New York experience. Anyway, Stefanie and I awoke from our "nap" at 2:30am so we could catch a cab to the Brentwood Station at 3:30am. As usual I called the cab company ahead of time and sure enough our cab was right on time. One problem though....it was once again Mr. Child Molester. I couldn't believe our luck, two cab rides and each one with the same driver! He already freaked me out and here we were dealing with him again.

Anyhow, our train into the city was uneventful. Prior to embarking on this trip Stefanie and I decided it would be really cool if we went to The Today Show...hence the reason why we got up so darn early. We arrived at Rockefeller Center at 5am and we were fourth in line! I was so excited, but we were also so cold. That was probably one of the coldest days I've experienced all year. Anyhow, there was a gentleman outside selling cardboard and markers so Stefanie and I decided to make one of those cheesy signs you see on the show. We couldn't think of what to put on the sign, so we put "Hi Mom". I know it sounds boring but it was 5am and we only had two hours of sleep so we couldn't think clearly at that point.

We had a wonderful time on the show. It was nice to view some of the behind the scenes stuff and Stefanie and I did make it on TV a few times, however, nobody saw us. Jim was suppose to tape it but by the time he woke up in the morning the show was over. Mom didn't tape it and neither did Mark so we were out of luck.

After we were through with the cold weather...and our bodies were numb from the waist down, we decided to warm up at Dean & Decula. Stefanie had some coffee and I had some hot tea. From there we went across the street to the NBC Experience store. On a whim we decided to do the NBC Studio Tour. We were able to see the studios for NBC Nightly News, Conan O'Brien, and we finished the tour in a mock studio where we participated in a mock broadcast and mock weather report.

After Rockefeller Center we hopped on the subway and went to the Empire State Building. At the Empire State Building we went to the 86th floor observation room. I have a hard time with heights and really wasn't able to look over the edge and down. I have no problems looking out, providing I'm not very close to the edge, but I can't look down. It was even colder on the 86th floor then the 1st floor so I think we were only out there for maybe 15 minutes.

I believe after the Empire State Building we made our way to Chinatown and had lunch. We found a really cute place that specialized in dumplings (sorry I can't remember the name) that was packed and the food was awesome!

We sat at the dumpling place for a little while warming up before deciding to go to Ground Zero. You still really can't see anything but they do have the names up, a timeline of events, and plans for a memorial. It's still a rather somber place and unfortunately the mood is ruined when you look around and see protesters. I can't believe it's been over 6 years and people are still protesting that 9/11 was an inside job. I personally think these people need to get over it and move on with their lives...what's done is done, let people mourn in peace!

Here's a picture of St. Paul's Cathedral located near Ground Zero.

Once we were done with Ground Zero we made our way up to SoHo to walk around and see the shops. We went into a few shops but we were both tired and very cold at this point. Finally we made our way to Little Italy. Walter (my business associate) had told me about a fantastic Italian Restaurant called Benito II. All I needed to do was throw around a few names of contacts and we were told that "we would be taken care of". And taken care of we were, Stefanie and I originally had plans to split an appetizer and have a dessert (we had lunch just two hours before and neither of us was really hungry). Instead we got no menus, but we did get lots of food placed in front of us. By the time we walked out we were absolutely stuffed! We also decided that the food was good, but we would have preferred to order from the menu.

Cold, tired, and physically exhausted we made our way back to the subway and back to the train to Long Island. Once again while on the train, I called the same cab company to pick us up at Brentwood. It looked as if we had the same Mr. Child Molester again as a driver but luckily it was someone different. Once back at the hotel Stefanie and I crashed, and we crashed hard! She slept till after 11:30 sometime and I slept till after 10:30....very unprecedented of me.

So that was our trip to New York City! We felt like we saw just about everything in one day...it was almost overwhelming.