2011 Year in Pictures

Everyone else is doing it, so I guess I should too. Here is a year worth of pictures in one post...

January - First time Ice Skating! She considers herself an old pro now, but that first time was pure sugar-rush! (Pictured with Miss Karen, her teacher in life, and in ice skating!)

January (2) - Ready for dance class! I mostly posted this one for a comparison with the December shot later... She was SO little in January.

February - Snow that led into a perfectly beautiful day for a family walk. The water was literally rushing under the snow it was so warm, but we stayed on the paths and it was a great day.

March - It's not all about Abby, you know. This is a picture I got of the arch on a really nice day.

April - Easter picture! She was so happy to be so dressed up, of course!

May - the invasion began. It would last for about eight weeks, but I post this as a reminder of how bad it was...

June was back to picture-heavy... First up is the newly retired In-Laws! We had a great party at their house, and here they are once the festivities were complete:

I just really like this picture, also from the retirement party.

 July - Abby's first Summer Camp experience, complete with Mogli-Baloo river time.

July (again) - As I worry about running out of "firsts" to share with Abby, here is her first Ferris Wheel ride!

 August - Abby's first professional baseball game!

August (again) - Photobomb by the frog on the left!

August, yet again but this is big - Abby made the second-section cover of the big St Louis newspaper!

September - A great visit with my brother and his family, including niece Shannon!

October - A beautiful, pensive looking picture of Abby. We spent the better part of an hour throwing rocks into the river.

October, again - on another park trip we played near a pond for a long time. Got some fun shots, including this one.

November - VERY thin month for pictures. This is both the best that I got and the only decent one of Abby. This was during our preparation for our Thanksgiving Turkey Trot!

December - Christmas Card Photo Shoot One - best of the night but not good enough. (At the Magic House)

December (2/3) - Another day, another try for the *perfect* picture. I got it, but this one fell short. (Cards have not gone out yet, so I can not post that pic tonight - bummer!)

The final picture of 2011 is this - Celebrating the Noon New Year at the Science Center. Abby got REALLY into it with about 15 minutes to go. It was a blast.

Hoping to take better pictures next year - bummed about some of the thinness here...

Happy New Year!

Oh Christmas Door

Alternate Title: Another Year, Another Weird Idea from the Monroe's

Remember last year's Christmas "tree" from THIS post? Yeah, a tripod and some lights was just enough to wet my appetite for something more creative in our apartment at the holidays.

Again, we have many reasons to not have a tree:
Real: Expensive, Anny is allergic to pretty much any cut conifers, too.
Fake: It's fake, and takes up a lot of storage.

This year we were inspired by a Home Depot commercial, of all things. (HERE, if you have not seen it.) I had thought all year about just cutting a piece of plywood into the shape of a tree. I kept putting it off because I could not figure out a few aspects, and I'm glad that I did. We ended up thinking outside of the box once we saw that commercial, and really like what we ended up with.

We started by going to the local ReStore, the retail outlet for Habitat for Humanity. We ended up getting a folding closet door for $10 and a partially used gallon of paint for $5, which just happened to be the perfect green for Christmas! (By partially used I mean that there was maybe 1/2 cup missing out of the gallon of paint - it is incredibly full, even after finishing our project.)

Without further delay, here is what we did:

Started by taking out the slats from the closet door. Since we are in an apartment and I don't want to risk the white carpet becoming stained, I did this in the basement near our neighbors storage area:

With Abby's help, of course, I cleaned the door on both sides from top to bottom. She insisted on her spray bottle, her own washcloth and the most helpful thing for the really dirty part, the scrubber from Ikea.

Abby helped me paint, too. The proof is in the hair, right before Abby's second bath and hair washing of the day last week:

I finished up painting the rest of the door one night after she went to bed, which made it both easier and a bit less messy. I also put on the first coat of paint on the slats. Since we knew we would not be using all of them back on the door, I only painted about half. Good thing, since I broke four in the putting-back-on process (after breaking four or five during break-down) and we still have extras to spare.

I drilled pilot holes in the one of the not-painted slats to use to keep everything in order. We decided on four holes across to allow space for little ones to fit side by side, or to spread them out across the whole slat.

With the piloted hole, it made it easy for Abby to help in that part, too!

Here is the freshly painted door, before the slats:

Here it is with the slats. I was goofing off when I put the red bag on the light. (Which is to say that I like it and Anny did not, so it becomes my goofing off!) We put one into every fourth hole - made for even spacing to accommodate all sizes of ornaments:

Once we added the lights (string of 70 LED's - low power use, too!) around the edge and hung our ornaments along the slats just as we had planned! We sectioned things off, sort of. Presidential Ornaments on the top left, memory-based stuff on the top right and less-easily-broken ones on the bottom.

Like I said, we're all really happy with the door! Storage will be a snap, too. Someone at work suggested that we could leave it up year round and just hang pictures or such. We are not sure about that, but it is on the table now!

Happy Halloween!

Alternate Title: Movember Eve

Tomorrow I start my month of mustache, or Movember. My brother is spearheading a team as part of a massive program to raise awareness about men's health issues. You can find out more about that HERE.

You can donate to my 'Stache Plan HERE.

While we are still in October I wanted to knock out a quick blog post about Halloween! For Abby we started nine days ago with tonight as the goal at the end. Here is what we did, and what she wore:

Saturday (the 22nd, that is) - Boonanza at Anny's School (Halloween skirt and shirt)
Sunday - Boo at the Zoo (Angel costume)
Wednesday - Magic House Halloween Party (Angel)
Thursday - Kirkwood Halloween Walk (Skirt/Shirt)
Saturday - just hung at home and carved pumpkins - lots of them...
Tonight - Finally Halloween - Trick-or-Treating in her Angel costume!

Our trip to the Zoo was with the cousins, which netted this cute picture of all four:

Abby and Ada went for a ride on the carousel in their costumes - uber cute! (from the Zoo)

Here is Abby in her full on Angel mode! (From The Magic House)

Here is this evening, Abby modeling the pumpkins! Mine is the new logo for my work, Abby's is just a silly face and Anny's is from a pattern. All are fun, but it's Abby's smile is what sells this one!

All in all, below is a picture of tonight's Halloween Haul brought in completely by Abby. It was doubled at the last place we stopped, one of our neighbors in the apartment complex that we have never met. She has a teenager and was trying to unload before the teen could take it all - she plopped down three handfuls of candy into Abby's bag!

From all of the other events from the week we have about the same amount already set aside in a bowl. I'm not sure what we are going to do with all of this candy, but the Daddy Tax will be coming down quickly, especially since we are short on Snickers in this stack! :)

Happy Halloween to one and all!

Fall Colors!

Alternate Title: Finally a Picture Post!

I keep wanting to get out with the camera without the focus of my shots being on people. I snagged a fun shot last weekend while pumpkin-picking, but that is one shot out of the last 30 days. Oy.

Today the weather was perfect and I had hours to burn off at work. Anny was also home from school, so we picked Abby up and headed straight for Lone Elk Park to visit the Elk, Bison, Geese, Ducks and whoever else wanted to play. I'm SO glad that we decided to go - it was a perfect trip, AND I got to have some fun with the camera. Win win.

One of the nice things about my new camera is that the panorama setting is pretty idiot-proof. It literally has a line and a plus sign on each side. Line up the plus from left to right and it takes the next shot for you. If you go too far off-kilter, it kills your attempt. Very cool feature, and helped me pull this off:

Shortly after that we ran into the big Elk Herd - one buck and a dozen or more cows (lady-elk) were hanging out down by the large pond/small lake. The buck was busy scaring the geese away from the cows, which was funny to see. I could not get a good picture of him in motion, but he's a big guy and here's proof:

Another cool thing is that on part of the park property is a Bison area. They are separated from the Elk, with good reason. I would imagine that there would be some major clashes! This was the first trip that Anny got to see the Bison, and they were really close to the car. I took this picture without much zoom, and if you look closely to the right of the Bison-Behinds you will notice another animal, very camouflaged this time of year, a whitetail deer:

Not my last picture of the day, but I think I like the finality of it:

Turns out we missed the best of the leaves around here, but I'm still really glad that we made the trip. Certainly a better way to spend the afternoon than sitting behind my desk!

A Good Visit - Kidney Update

Alternate Title: Better than a Punch in the Face!

Last month I was afraid - genuinely afraid - of what I had done to my body over the last year by going off of my kidney medicine. I had not seen a doctor in over a year, and my first trip back made me fearful that a professional would not only give me grief, but would also want to punch me in the face for such stupidity. The thing about a first-appointment, though, is that there is nothing to work with aside from height, weight and, in the case of kidney patients, swelling. I was relieved to not be punched in the face, but still nervous after the appointment at what actual lab results would show.

I will be honest that even a setback in my long term health might have been worth the year of being medication-free. Especially in a year of moving, new jobs, settling, et cetera. Not saying it was smart, but I am glad that I did it.

Today I went back to the nephrologist having done a 24 hour urine and 10 other tests three weeks ago, as well as a spot sample with only four test about a week ago. We were going to have real data to see how things are working in my system. This is what I put on Facebook:

"So, not nearly as nervous as a month ago, but headed back to the doc's office. Today should be about coming up with a plan of attack on my body. Sounds harsh, but that is the reality of living with disease."

This morning I was almost shocked at the conversation with the doctor. I began preparing myself about a week ago for steroids and all that goes with it - superhuman strength ability to sleep, gorging myself on crappy food and blaming the medicine and, of course, Moon Face that accompanies such. I also braced myself for something like the immunosuppresants that I have been taking for so many years that they were as much a part of me as my fingernails. (though they tasted much nastier – gross!)

The shock part of the appointment is that he does not want me to do any of that type of stuff right now – my levels are high but not bad for a kidney disease patient! (He actually said "High for a normal person, but really low for someone with your condition.")

My stats, since some folks care and know what they mean:

Creatinine – 1.2 (almost down to a "regular" person)

Protein – 4 grams (lowest in a long time for me)

Cholesterol – LDL is 127, total is 200 (good, not great)

Blood Pressure – 125/94 (oops – that's high!)

Yes, my blood pressure is high, which is not uncommon with people with kidney disease. Last month the doctor put me on 5 milligrams of Lisinopril, a very low dose. Due to my test results, and the desire to stay off some of the really bad drugs as long as everything else is stable, this is an opportunity to change things up. Looks like changing them up in a BIG way, too. Going from 5 milligrams once daily to 10 milligrams twice a day. Eek! This is an effort to lower blood pressure, so he warned me that I will likely feel dizzy for at least a week and to be careful with that. I think I will start by taking them at work instead of before leaving and driving around town on my way to work, just to start anyway.

My weight is also down a couple of pounds, I think. I will not publish that number here for fear that those close to me will hunt me down, but I really have been making efforts to eat better and get a lot more walking in at work than you would think! (I have done away with our mailroom and walk the mail to our co-workers on a daily basis. Our main level is about 250 cubicles and 50 or so offices, lots of walking to be done!) I think I have convinced myself to run in the local Turkey Trot which is about three miles. It's also only about a month away, so I guess I had best get started on training for that… eek!

Things are going well enough with the doctor that he ordered lab work for one month and I will not go back for a visit until December – just before my birthday actually. THAT could prove to be interesting!

Menu Monday for this Week

Alternate Title - Mmmm, food.

So yeah, it's been a crazy two weeks - I ended up going on a second retreat with church and finally caught up on enough sleep over this weekend that I am awake enough in the mornings to get a blog post or two written. Guess I'm not as young as I used to be - I remember bouncing back from a weekend retreat in like a day!

Anyway, since it has been a couple of weeks, I'm going to post our food from last week and then ours plan for this week. Anny has Parent-Teacher conferences on Tuesday and Thursday, so the plan is less creative on those days...

Last week, and how it went:
Sunday - Accidental Dinner out with friends - those are always nice.
Monday - Baked Talipia with Creamed Cauliflower, which we were supposed to have several weeks ago. Oops! Abby thought the cauliflower was potatoes, so she immediately turned her nose up. Ugh.
Tuesday - Reuben Cubans - Messed these up as we did not have any ground pork. I was bummed about the way they turned out, but they were yummy anyway.
Wednesday - Bow Tie Broccoli - basically bow tie pasta and broccoli with a pesto-type sauce. Yummy, and made for good leftovers.
Thursday - Buttermilk Baked Chicken - BEST! My boss at work forwarded a link to it after seeing it on TV. We decided that this will be our company-is-coming-over meal - really great stuff!
Friday - Food Truck Friday - 17 Food Trucks gathered in Tower Grove Park for the last time for the year. We got to try a couple of trucks we had not been to, and of course got desert from our regular Thursday place, Sarah's Cake Stop!

Now for this week:
Sunday - Steak-Um's - One of those that Abby thinks is awful until she tastes and has a revelation that it's yummy. Drives. Me. Crazy.
Monday - Meatloaf from Freezer
Tuesday - Veggie Grilled Cheese - Shredded Carrots, a little Broccoli, lots of cheese
Wednesday - Crock Pot Chicken - Old Bay this time around!
Thursday - Chicken Quesadillas (with leftovers from Wednesday)
Friday - Tuna Pockets - we have made twice with crescent rolls - going to try with Grand's Biscuits
Saturday - Muffin Tin Gorditas - new recipe, found HERE.

That's our plan - what are you having this week?

Abby's First Tent Camping!

Alternate Title: When Did We Get So Old?

(First off an apology - I did not get ANY tent pictures! When we set it up Abby was playing on the playground and I never actually saw her awake in the thing! Oy!)

Last weekend we went out to Mound Ridge for an All Church Retreat. Our first trip out there was last fall for the same event, but this is also where we went for summer camp last summer. Bottom line, Abby is VERY comfortable in this camp/retreat space, and that makes my soul happy. She knows the camp staff, and they know her. She knows the paths and how to get to the river or to the playground by herself. She knows all of the rules about fire, and how to beg for a s'more from the right people (i.e. not me) to get one without the work that most others have to do!

On Friday afternoon we took off early and picked Abby up on our way. She had been asking every day for two weeks if it was the day to go to camp, so you can only imagine her complete excitement about finally starting the journey! We got there and went to the main part of the property where lots of folks had begun to gather. Since it was still light out I let her know that we were going to go and set up our tent, then come back for dinner. (Putting the reward for participation out there in advance - go me!)

Abby stopped in her tracks - she did not want to camp in a tent anymore! After a bit of talking her down, we figured out that the tent is something new but that she really loves the cabin facilities there! We decided, and then convinced her, that we would try the tent for one night before deciding on the second night. She was happy because she expected a cabin-night, and we were happy because we wanted to get in the tent for at least one night so that she has that experience!

We drove up the hill so that we did not have to lug all of our stuff up, found a spot and pulled everything out. I scoped out the area for Black Walnuts, which are huge and lumpy for sleep. We got all of those cleared out and put up the easiest tent in the world. (As it turns out, I have a bruise to prove that we did not clear out ALL of them...)

(insert picture here, had I thought about it, which I did not.)

Fast forward to 8:30-ish and Abby and Anny head back for the tent. Abby went to sleep without a fight from what I have been told. She slept through the night, too! In the morning, though, she was quick to point out that she did her one night in the tent and we would be moving to the cabin on Saturday night. A deal is a deal, so we relented* and made that as our plan.

*Okay - so Anny and I realized at bed time that neither of us has been in a tent for camping since we went with a group of campers in July. July of 2002 that is! We both slept off and on all night. At 3:30 in the morning we had a conversation and had already decided that we both needed a cabin to get any real sleep on Saturday night. Abby thinks she won, we know we won - definition of Win-Win!

I was afraid that Abby's quick reversion to the cabin meant that she was not a fan of the tent, which would be a bummer. There are some incredible places that we would love to explore around Missouri and tent camping is a much easier way to do that. This was a test for us, in a safe place that Abby was comfortable, and it seemed to fail.

On Sunday when we were walking up to our car to leave Abby declared, loudly, that next time we come to camp we will sleep in a tent for TWO nights instead of one! Seems that all she needed was to know that the cabins are still there and available, but she really DID have fun.

That's my girl.

Hot Date Follow-Up

Alternate Title: Filled 'Er Up and Turned 'Er In (Gross, I know. Sorry.)

LAST weekend I had my Hot Date with a plastic bottle. I managed to make the most of my day my doing laundry and making dinner, as well as taking in copious amounts of football. Remember the before picture of my bottle? Here is an after:

KIDDING! You gross weirdo. Why would you want a picture of my pee?

I did my test on Sunday and had to take the Jug-O-Pee into a Lab on Monday morning. I was glad to find a little, quiet, insurance-covered clinic about ten minutes from home and even closer to the office. Since I am in the same hospital-system as the Lab is, it was kind of funny to "talk shop" with someone drawing my blood and looking at my whiz.

It was not until I was walking in the door to drop off my Jug that I remember just how many check boxes had been checked on the Lab Slip: 11. Eek - eleven?! Lucky for me I know some of the tricks for having blood drawn - the first that works for me is a clenched fist starting as they call my name and the more important one is to drink lots of water before going in for a blood draw. It helps keep blood flow up and pulls the veins up to the top, making them easier to poke.

I was glad to see that I was only going to have five tubes of blood drawn. I am the type that can not watch my own blood being drawn, but have no problem with seeing it on the counter. Still a little weird, but does not make me faint, so that's a good thing.

The most humorous part of the Lab visit was when I got the look from the technician and a "joke" of sorts: "I need a sample of your urine, which is funny because I have a whole bottle right here!" Yes indeed, even though I had a half gallon of Liquid Gold, or is that Golden Liquid, I needed to give her just a little bit more for one of the tests. Craziness.

Fast forward to Friday and my having just orgotten about the blood and pee fest from five days earlier when the phone rings and it is my Nephrologists office. I ducked the call for reasons that require their own blog post, but when I called back I was not sure what to expect. I spoke with the nurse and she said there is not too much concern on the Doctor's part, he does want to get me onto some meds pretty quickly to see how things go:

50,000 units of Vitamin D weekly for one month (1,000 units daily after that, OTC)
5 mg Lisinopril (for high blood pressure)

I am releived that it was not a "need to see you this week" call and that the drugs prescribed are fairly mundane as far as Kidney Disease goes. We are going to re-test again mid-week next week so that we have results to look at before our appointment on the 17th. At that time I am bracing for a bit more in the medicine department, probably a lecture on my weight and activity and a plan for proceeding. Not in that order.

Menu Monday

Alternate Title: Still at It - YUM!

Tonight we tried something new, by which I mean I looked at a recipe and thought "well, hell, I am not going to put all of that crap together, but thanks cookbook-man for the suggestion." I cut out all of the special-buy stuff and it turned out well.

I have said before that we plan our meals out a week at a time, and we cycle things in about once every five or six weeks. We have gotten much better about eating in instead of out, and that is due to the plan, completely and totally! It is a great system for us since I can look out and know what to look for at the grocery store sales, since Abby and I grocery shop before Anny is up and moving on Sunday mornings. :)

It appears that I was on a roll for about one month a long while ago about posting our Meal Plan for the week to the blog to share. Not surprised that I let it go about the time that my blogging slipped to twice monthly instead of twice weekly. We have been using our meal planning, just not blogging about it.

I am happy with last weeks plan, so I am going to share what we had then before I pull out this weeks, just for fun.

Last week:
Sunday - Pan Seared Pork Chops with Corn on the Cob
Monday - Baked Salmon, couscous and fresh green beans
Tuesday - Burgers and pasta (burgers made last month and frozen - time saver!)
Wednesday - Frozen Pizza
Thursday - Tuna Pockets (recipe here)
Friday - Kielbasa and Sauerkraut with rice
Saturday - Peanut Butter Pancakes - not good enough to share that recipe. Boo.

Abby was not excited about ANY of these meals, even the pizza, until we just sort of pushed a little harder than we should have needed to. She even raised a stink about pepperoni pizza. She is clearly four.

This week:
Sunday - Rob's Quick Steak Stir Fry
Monday - Aloha Kebabs and pasta (Recipe from Deceptively Delicious)
Tuesday - Home Made Corn Dogs (baked) (Recipe from Silly Snacks)
Wednesday - Grilled Ham and Cheese and broccoli
Thursday - Baked Cod in Bacon (from the new Jamie Oliver book) and Mashed Cauliflower (recipe here)
Friday/Saturday - Church Family Retreat Weekend! :)

That is what our plan is - what are you eating this week?

HOT DATE!

Alternate Title: Someones Gotta Have All the Fun!

On Sunday my wife and daughter are going to join another family on a trip to the local Pirate Festival. Think Renaissance Festival without the frilly clothes swords and hoochie mama's rotten fake English accents boisterous kings and queens, replaced by boisterous pirates and wenches. It's a neat idea, and we have never been, so the girls are looking forward to the trip. Without me.

I will be having a hot date without them, so it's not all a loss for me, right? I've had a kind-of standing date, on and off, for about ten years. Really cute partner, short and chubby. Always too orange, but that changes as the day goes on.

Back when I worked at camp I would just have my date at work - there were only three of us and so there was not really a chance for too much disruption. I would cordon off part of the office - usually down the hallway or, on a nice day, all of one of our retreat cabins just for me. I have never been one for PDA, so I want my own space for this kind of stuff.

Once I moved to a more "proper office" style of office closer to the city I would just take a whole day off of work for my dates. They were infrequent enough that I would use the day to catch up on other things around the house. I had plenty of days at my disposal as far as vacation/sick days, so I never worried about that stuff. Some date-days I would even just work from home at the same time, still not trying to be a distraction to others.

Now that I am a receptionist and with an organization that counts sick, vacation and holidays all in one bank it appears that my dates are going to be pinned to Sunday's for the foreseeable future. Sunday is football day in the fall, and hockey day in the spring, and my companion does not mind sports as much as my wife does. (And does not interrupt me in the midst of a last-minute touchdown drive to ask the score, which is clearly written on the screen, dear wife.) Heck, I could play video games on the TV during halftime and not hear a single peep, my date is quiet about that stuff.

Funny that I've been having this date for a decade now and I'm still not a fan of it. Kind of a ritual that I have dreaded. Have to have it, but do not want to do it. Kind of like cutting my hair, but more messy.

Want to see my partner for the day on Sunday?

That's right: My Empty Bottle!

It will not be empty for long, you can count on that. This bottle is my collector for a 24 hour urine sample.

Yes, every time that I pee, I have to keep hold of it like it's a precious diamonds, which it is not. It's pee. Gross, gross urine. The thing that you have to wash off your hands any time they are near it - yeah, that's the stuff. I can not imagine how much worse it is for my female friends who have to do collections like this, but you can be sure that I do not envy them.

While my girls are out having fun with peg-legs and swashbucklers I will be at home with my TV, a big cup of water and an even bigger bottle of pee.

What are YOU doing this weekend?

Abby's Wishful Thinking

Alternate Title: Growing Up, In Her Head

Abby is at an age where she is latching onto things for all that they are worth, and then some. At least once a week since her birthday we have had some sort of birthday celebration in our home. Please note that she is a June baby and Anny and I share a birthday in December, so there has really been nothing, but she had such a blast at her birthday that she wants to celebrate daily. Some nights she even warns us - Daddy, tomorrow will be your pretend birthday, okay?

(She also thinks that we HAVE to move before her fifth birthday, but that's another blog post for another day...)

She is one of those funny children that has to see a movie over and over after seeing it once. We Netflixed 101 Dalmatians three weeks ago and have watched it at least once for each four legged dog in the movie, not just the spotted ones. (Okay, exaggeration, but we have watched it more times than I would care to admit, especially since she really only watches about 45 minutes of PBS a day!)

A couple of months back there was a book release party at our local Borders, may they rest in peace, for the release of the book Silverlicious. It's the latest in the Pinkalicious series and it's wonderfully illustrated, kid-and-parent funny and all around perfect for our house. It is about Pink's first tooth loss and a delay by the Tooth Fairy. I do not want to ruin plot lines (ha!) but it goes on for like a week in book terms.

Before this book Abby had never mentioned the Tooth Fairy, in part because only her cousin Ellie was dealing with the loss of teeth and she does not make a big deal out of things like that. For a week or so Abby was hopeful that she would lose a tooth or two. At age four. We hoped that would not be the case and are very glad that she finally took "when you are about six years old" and that helped stave off her need for Tooth Attention for a while.

In the last few weeks, though, the Tooth Fairy talk has picked up again. She has gone as far as asking me to transcribe a note for her to the Tooth Fairy. She is very specific in her requests, so I wanted to share:

Transcribed from my awful handwriting, it reads:

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I want to keep my tooth. When I am six my tooth will come out.

Love,

Abby

She was headed out the door for a walk with Anny. I could hear her bursting to get Anny to read it, out loud, so that she knew we were all on the same page.

I think I might have a theme in mind for her sixth birthday, because at this point I am likely going to have to knock one out for her the day she turns six or there will be an epic meltdown that none of us want to be a part of!

Kidney Update - Updated!

Well, the good news is that I did not get punched in the face.

I had my first visit with my new nephrologist in Missouri, a little bit more than a year after we have moved. I told him the whole story of my life, or at least what he deemed pertinent to my health overall with a few snippets tossed in for fun.

I forgot how long it takes to get a specialist to actually show up for an appointment, but that is another post for another day. I was extremely nervous going into this appointment, but can say with manly pride that I did not cry or pass out, just had a bit of a headache from getting myself worked up.  (See previous post for details on why I was so nervous, but bottom line is I self-weened all of my medicines a year ago and have a long-term, chronic Kidney Disease called FSGS.)

When I was talking with my new doctor this morning and told him the saga of being medicine-free and needing to take that step to feel good about my self, physically and mentally, after years of being on gross medicines. I told him he was welcome to take one of two positions:

Say, hey, that's cool with me

or

Punch me in the face

I braced for a solid left hook, but it didn't come. He talked about the academics behind FSGS versus MCD (Minimal Change Disease, which is more common than my disease but usually starts at a younger age than mine did.) We talked about possible triggers and such. He looked at me and sort of took my side on the whole matter saying I had taken a "calculated risk" but had covered bases nicely with an out clause insisted on by Anny.

In other words - no harm, no foul.

Now comes the fun part - seeing how much harm I may or may not have done. I am slated for a11 blood and/or urine tests at some point in the next two weeks*. (All at once, I just have flex on when I get it done.) I did double take, twice, as he was checking things off left and right on the order sheet!

Without those tests there was very little that he could tell me from today's visit from a kidney point of view. I do not have much swelling at all, and have not for a long time. (Certainly not compared to my friend Jenn - check hers out!) I have lost about 15 pounds over the last year, but I attribute that mostly to cutting out soda and going off of the medicine, we will see how the next year goes. He did note that my Blood Pressure is a bit high, which is not surprising considering I have been off of my meds for more than a year. (130/100 for those who care to know, and for record keeping purposes.)

When I left I was given the list of 11 tests and a "see you in a month" from the doctor. That will give me two weeks to get the tests done, two weeks for him to look them over (uh-huh, sure) and we will come back and develop a plan of attack. Right now I am open to anything and committed to doing whatever we agree is right for my long term health. I dread the idea of going back on steroids, but it has been more than ten years and maybe it's time for another kick of that. I am open to trial medication - someone has to be a guinea pig, why not me?

So, that is the story of my doctor's visit today.

*One of those is a 24 hour urine sample, and any of my friends in the Nephrotic Community can tell you how "fun" that is! Actually, he suggested setting up for a Sunday and just say "well, I'm tied to the house, darling, and have to stay home and watch football today!" Guess he does not realize that works for me on any Sunday already. :)

Kidney Lack-of-Update

This morning I am a little excited, and a lot of nervous. I am mostly hoping that I do not end up in tears by 10 am. I've been keeping a secret that is going to either pay off or blow up in my face, and I will know by lunch today.

You see, last year we moved. Yes, I've written about that a dozen times, so clearly that is not bothering me too much. I am no longer nervous about that aspect of my life, and it is not going to bring me to tears, that's for sure.

About six years ago I had a wonderful nephrologist. He is the one that I teared up with when I told him that I needed to leave his practice because 90 minutes of driving did not make sense for a 20 minute appointment any more. At that appointment he told me that he was going to ween me from the immunosuppressants that I had been on for several years already. With my departure from his practice, he was not comfortable with that plan any longer because he would not be the one monitoring me any more.

Fast forward five years and that brings us to last summer. During those five years my nephrologist in Maryland had basically kept the status quo as far as the immunosuppressants. There were other meds in and out of the regimen, but he did nothing to raise or lower the rough ones. In May (2010) when I went to see him for a regular visit it was also the visit to say "guess what, I'm moving in two months" to him. Unfortunately for me and my psyche he started our appointment by saying that he was going to ween me from my meds because it looked like my body was ready.

Then we moved and I had to find a new nephrologist on this side of the river. Oy.

It took me a month to finally get the guts to talk with Anny about weening myself from the meds. If two doctors, five years apart, felt like I was making enough progress to tell me that they would have weened me before finding out I was leaving their practice, I did not want to walk into another practice and have them stick with the norm for another five years.

She balked. A lot. Then we talked about it. A lot.

We came up with an agreement - I would ween myself from my medicine (cyclosporine if you want to look THAT up...) in agreement that I had one year to make an appointment, and if any major effects were felt by my body in ANY way, that year would truncate and make for an immediate visit to a professional.

That being said, I began to ween myself pretty much the week that we moved. I was out of work, so stress would be lower. I actually managed to lose some weight - might have been from eating better or from not taking the crazy medication that I had been on for eight years.

I wanted to feel good about myself. I realized that being tied to those meds had begun to make me feel hopeless and depressed a bit. I do not know that I could have articulated that a year ago, but looking back I can certainly peg that from here.

That brings us to today. In less than two hours I have an appointment with a new nephrologist here in St Louis. I will likely find out today how my protein (in my urine) levels are, which will be an indication of whether my "experiment" has either kept my health the same, brought about a good turn in my kidney journey, or set me back by a year.

I am hopeful but nervous. I am so filled with emotion right now that I genuinely have a fear of breaking down in tears on my way to work, no matter what the news is or plan of action becomes.

Children are Funny v2

Another three quick but cute stories about Abby!

Story One: Sharing is Caring
A few weeks ago one of my co-workers gave Abby a little heart-shaped, green "gem" ring. It is nicer than the others that we have because it adjusts down to the tiny size of her finger. Abby was so touched about the random act of kindness that she actually came home and handed me another one and said "Please take this to Miss Mary and tell her thank you!" How sweet!

Story Two: Meet Your New Mommy?
This afternoon Abby was wearing said adjustable ring as part of her dressing up. She was decked out in hair-clip earrings, necklaces and all! Anny asked where Abby got such a beautiful ring. Abby did not hesitate before saying "One of daddy's girlfriends at work gave it to me!"

In my defense, when we ran into Mary at the park a few weeks ago she did tell my family that I am "everyone at the office's Work Husband!" Yes, I can see how this could be confusing. Also, I can see that we need to work with Abby on what "co-worker" means so that she can use it properly!

Story Three: I Wanna Dance!
Anny and I were in the kitchen as I was cooking and she was emptying the dishwasher as Abby was playing with her Little People in the living room. The music was on, too. Anny was telling me about a co-worker that has a four year old daughter whose soccer team is in desperate need of players. We do not really want to get her into organized sports yet. She has years of that in front of her and for now we just want her goofing off in the park. That being said, we really want her to make a bunch of new friends so that we can expand our friend base at the same time. Yes, we are parents and we are sometimes selfish. :)

Anyway, as we were talking in the loud kitchen about whether to look into the soccer team a bit more or sign her up for the dancing class at the local rec center. We decided we would talk with her about it over dinner, but we were aided in a plan pretty quickly when Abby yelled "you HAVE TO sign me up for dance class, you know!" in a loving-but-very-sarcastic tone! Guess we had our answer, and she meant it!

I have another blog post bouncing around in my brain. Might get to them tonight, but probably not since we're going out dancing with Abby and a handful of other friends!

Abby's First Baseball Game!

Alternate Title: Technically, the Experiment Worked

(I am realizing that part of the reason I do not blog as often is that I include updates about Abby and myself over on Facebook. That being said, I am going to start to incorporate more of those updates here.)

From FB, on our way to the game:
Take me out to the ball game - take me out to the crowd!
Pre-bought hot dogs and soda-pop, extra fun 'cause we're going with a cop.
Yes it's root, root root for the home team, If they don't win it's expected. (sorry, but it's true!)
For it's one (gorgeous day), two (train rides too!), three (of us going)
to the old.... baaallll..... game!

Yesterday afternoon we took Abby to her first baseball game ever! The weather was great, and we were there as part of a great deal from a group of children at church who started a service organization called Kids Who Care. We got tickets and lunch for less than it would have cost us for a movie, and we got to actually hang out and not just sit and stare at a screen!

We ended up sitting a row in front of some friends from church, so we hooked up with them beforehand to ride the train together, too. Always more fun to do something like that with friends, right?

When we first arrived, and for about an hour of the game, we were in the hot sunlight. We finally convinced Abby to put a hat on and that helped bring her whining into check. I think that if she knew a little bit more about baseball she might have had more interest, but I was doing my best to keep her into the game. I think that the reason I like other sports better is that I can tell Abby "there are ten more minutes left" instead of "I have no idea kid, if this guy makes a hit this could go on for another hour!"

Before the game actually started I thought Abby might get into the game as Fredbird (the Redbird i.e. Cardinal) came out onto the field. Abby knows him through a lot of our outings to festivals and such.

Some time during the 5th inning I needed to get Abby up and moving, as she was already saying it was time to go home. We went around just a little bit and found a really awesome photo-op spot!

She actually got a bit more into the game from this vantage point - we were only a little bit closer, but there was more room for her to be up and about, and SHADE! (By the time we got back to our seats the shade was more plentiful, and I got her ice cream.)

I also got here a tiny baseball bat! She loved trying to swing it - which was okay until she started accidentally hitting people. We had to put it away right after this picture:

Busch Stadium is the cleanest I have been to, outside of the first trip down to MCI/Verizon Center when it was brand new. The trains were also exceptionally clean, though a bit confusing for us newbies. Great to have people with us that knew routes and such better than we did!

At the end of the day I asked Abby what was her favorite part of the game. Fredbird? Nope. Ice Cream? Nope, surprisingly. Her new Pink Bat? Nope. It was playing with her friend Henry. That's my girl!

Abby in the St Louis Post Dispatch!

Alternate Title: Do I really need an alternate title, Abby's in the paper?!

So it is clear that we like to take Abby out dancing, even more clear if you saw all of our Facebook status updates. If there is a free show we are there, especially if it is an outdoor show. This weekend we ended up at two - one massive outdoor festival and one local park-opening. Can you guess which got a picture of Abby into the St. Louis Post-Dispatch?

Since we do not get a newspaper anymore, I put out a call on Facebook and ended up with two or three copies of the newspaper above! (For a clearer image of the picture in the picture, click HERE.) Not only did she get a picture in the paper, but a huge picture at that! (The article is not great - a lot of focus on some random guy five blocks away that had to clean up trash from his yard from a person that paid $10 to park in his yard. Oh well, the picture is fun!)

The guy in the blue shirt is someone we do not know, and will likely never see again, but he and Abby had a blast dancing for a while, mostly to get a better picture for the photographer. She is used to me taking her picture, but the guy from the newspaper had a bigger camera, and was a complete stranger, so she needed some coaxing. Just as I was going to go up and get her twirling and hopping, the guy in the picture hopped up to join it.

It was completely hilarious for me - I never get to see how silly I look when I dance with her in public. Now I know how silly it looks, but I plan to keep it up!

So, here is Abby's first newspaper appearance. In this day and age that also means that she has her own "tag" on the newspaper's website. Crazy. Cool, but very crazy!

(Other things we did this weekend include the aforementioned second-concert that included climbing in and around a fire truck; some yummy ice dream at a home made candy store; a little hockey for me this evening. Next weekend will also be big - Sunday will be Abby's first baseball game! Hopeful for good weather and a Card's win!)

Daddy Daughter Dinner Picnic!

Alternate Title: Making up for a Summer in an Evening

Remember two weeks ago when I posted about how great it was that my wife and daughter were headed back to school and our "normal" routine would finally come back together? (Here it is, if you need a refresher.) Bottom line is that I was jealous of the time they got to spend together every day.

I have had some opportunities over the last few days to make up for an entire summer of jealousy in having a good chunk of Saturday and all of Monday all to myself with Abby. Saturday Anny went with the Middle Schoolers at church to help out as they volunteered at a food kitchen. Monday was a weird schedule thing with the day care who runs off of the school calendar. Though teachers had reported almost a week earlier, they were closed Monday. 

What really made up for the summer was Back-To-School night for Anny. I asked Abby in the morning what she wanted to do, and she was clear that she wanted to have a PB&J Picnic! While she played after we got home I made a couple of sandwiches and grabbed some goldfish and strawberries. We packed up the the tiniest picnic basket she could find and were off:

I suggested we drive, but mostly because I wanted to stop for dessert on the way home. I could not tell hert that was my reason. Abby had her heart set on walking to the park. I had my heart set on not walking the stroller over there and told her that if we went she would have to walk both ways, without complaint. She thought about it for a minute, then decided it was a good plan. Walking to the park we caught up about each of our days. It was nice. 

When we got to the park Abby was already pretty hungry and looking for a quick place to eat. We walked around the lake a bit until Abby found just the right place. 

It did not last for long because she needed a potty run. We packed our stuff up and headed for the potty, and closer to the playground itself. After doing-what-she-does she declared that we were going to eat the rest of our dinner ON the playground! How about no, kiddo. We found a new spot to sit and eat that was out in the grass, but close enough to see the Green Dinosaur that is half of the reason she likes Kirkwood Park. 

We sat and at the rest of our sandwiches, shared some strawberries and had some goldfish. I always seem to take more of those than we end up needing! 

(Notice that we created no trash! Thanks Camp K, for teaching Abby that we can be trash-free, even when we pack a picnic!)

We watched a men's league softball game for a few minutes before going to play on the swings and heading home. The thing I am just realizing is that she wanted to go to "The Green Dinosaur" park, but did not even ride on the green dinosaur. Funny duck.

I am proud of Abby - she planned an evening with minimal help, AND she committed to walking to the park and home without complaint, and she did just that. She carried her little basket both ways, too! I am sure we will do another picnic dinner with Anny as we get into the fall routines a bit more, but I was glad to share a special picnic with just Abby. With pictures like this one, it has become apparent that she is getting older, and quick:

I have said before and will say again, I do not want to miss a thing when it comes to my daughter growing up!

Meeting Our Moving Goals, Mostly

Alternate Title: Not All for Naught

Before we moved we talked a lot about when, why and how we would move. The "when" discussion lasted for about four years before finally pulling the trigger, including a brief plan the year before to move that was called off. Few people know this, but we were one interview away from moving to Missouri instead of Maryland when we left Virginia. We are both very glad that we landed in Maryland for the time we were there, but are also very happy to be where we are now.

One of the things we did is talk about the "why" of moving a lot, and talked through goals of our move. No point in moving halfway across the country if we would be just as unhappy about parts of our life as we were if we stayed put, right? We never wrote down our goals, but in and out of the packing process and on countless road trips we would each come with an agenda to the conversation and talk through our reasons and concerns about different things.

Like any other homeowner we assumed that our sale would be "tough" (in quotes) in this economy, but we did not realize that it would be as tough (no quotes, and very bolded) as it was. When we started talking about the sale we immediately started talking about what size house we wanted - never starting at the small and working up, but starting the other way. Once we actually sold the house and lost almost as much in the sale as it would cost us to buy said big-townhouse we realized that we had to completely change our thinking.

So we did.

Some of our goals, and how we're doing so far:

Live Smaller - the house we bought was too big for our needs. Abby is an only child and we did not need to buy such a big house. Our apartment is the perfect size for our needs right now, and for a while into the future. If we need more space where we are there are townhouses to rent that would be a slight upgrade in space and buying even longer.

Pay Down Debt - our house-payoff was done in a *very* creative mix of borrowing from family, a bank and a zero-interest credit card. Our smaller living has allowed us to pay down the institutional debt in chunks this year. We will not be done at the end of this year as we had hoped, due in part to how long the credit union dragged on and we had to keep paying for several months longer than we should have. We will keep paying those and then get to the family debt (if you're reading this, family, I promise!) and, with luck and some thought-out planning, be done in the next 18 months.

Do Not Add Debt - funny, right? This should not have to be a goal after all that we went through, but when you are in a new place and unsure of things is when you tend to spend money you do not have. We were lucky to be living in someone else's house and paying practically nothing for the first four months. We did not succeed completely on this one because the transmission in both cars needed work. We are working to pay that one down, too. Aside from that, though, nothing has gone to plastic - even our two trips back to Maryland.

Live Locally - we have been Farmer's Market frequenters for a few years, but that was about all of the local-living we did on purpose. If we went out to eat we started thinking with big companies before the little ones. For a bit more than a year we have flipped that around. Our first choice is the place with the fewest locations, followed by places with their bases in the metro area. I joke that I only shop local... or Target. Our apartment is on the outskirts of Downtown Kirkwood, which is a great place for local businesses, so it's worked out great on that front too. 

Live Near Work or Play - this was because traffic sucks and back in Maryland we both had commutes and would never hang out at the mall closest to our house (Beltway Plaza - gross!). Now neither of us have commutes to work, Abby's daycare is only a five minute drive. We are close to a big mall, and only about 20 minutes from the city. We walk a lot of places, like the park or to church. Success on this one is high.

No Volunteering for a Year - well, I missed the mark on this in major ways. I made contact with Nephcure, a non-profit that works with patients with FSGS (my kidney disease), about help with finding local nephrologist suggestions and have ended up helping to get a local chapter going! At church I lasted a little bit longer than I think Anny expected - I did not volunteer for anything until just about six months after we moved which is probably what we both expected in reality. (I tend to get sucked in, willingly, to things I am passionate about at church. After the All Church Retreat last fall I was pretty much ready to sign wherever requested to help plan for the next one.)

There are still days that I with I could just pop over and have Thursday Family Dinner with my family, or days that I think "why don't we call (insert name here) and go grab dinner" before realizing that they are hundreds of miles away. We made our move for dozens of reasons, but how cool would it be to have the ability to have done both - move and bring everyone with?!

All in all I think that we're doing pretty good on meeting our reasons for moving. Still getting a feel for the place, and for the people. We have some friends, but are working to strengthen those right now. We will get there.

Back At It!

Alternate Title: ...It's the most wonderful time of the year...!

For starters, our heat wave seems to be a thing of the past. It lasted for the month of July, and then just long enough for a full ten day visit by the In-Laws. Once they fled back to Wyoming the heat went away. Coincidence? I think not...

I am confident that I only feel this way because Abby is not in *real* school yet, but I love this time of year, but I love back to school!

If I'm being completely up front, it is mostly because I am a jealous person and Anny and Abby have had all sorts of fun without me this summer as they passed time! They did several trips to the zoo. A full set of swimming lessons. Trips to the Science Center. More trips to the mall than I can try to count. Two tons of laundry at the laundromat.

Okay, maybe not jealous about the last one, but you get my point. I have been sitting at my desk at work, day after day, as they have been out and about having fun. Even when it was not "having fun" at least they were together. Together without me.

Anny is excited to be going back, I think. She really loves her school and co-workers, which is awesome. This will be just her second year at school in the new district. It is still very funny to see the differences between this small school district from the last ones that Anny has worked at.

To use the word excited would be an understatement for our dear Abby. Elated? Beside Herself with Exuberance? That is a mouthful, but much closer to Abby's feelings about the return of "School Year Normal" around here! She has been talking about returning to Ms. Karen's house for about three weeks. When strangers ask her how her summer has been, she says something along the lines of "great, and I get to go to Ms. Karen's again after Nana and Grandpa's visit!"

As for me, I guess nothing changes. I am still at my desk during the day and thinking about how short the evenings seem to be. (I think that is why Abby only takes one bath mid-week and one on Sunday morning!) Now when I get home I will hear different stories about how my ladies have spent their days - Abby all excited and Anny all "students were students today" types of stories, mostly.

The In-Laws felt like they overstayed and for the last couple of days said "we will leave so you can get back to normal" and I could not wrap my mind around what the means for us. Now that I have written it down, I think I do!

(I will miss the two free weekly concerts that we have been frequenting this summer! We will have to find weeknight alternatives, and quick!)

They both went back on Wednesday, though Abby's daycare is closed Monday due to some weird thing in their school district calendar. I decided today that I will take the day off so that I can have my Abby day for the summer!

Communication Brain Leak

In just the last week I have communicated with friends and family via:

Phone
Text
Facebook (Chat, Messages and Wall posts)
Email
Google+
Twitter
Google Reader
Commenting on friends' blogs

I have had opportunity but passed up:

Skype
Google Chat
Google Voice Chat
Good Reads
Nephspace (for Kidney Disease folks)

I never thought I could be one to fall to using terms like "information overload" but at this point I sometimes feel like I am going crazy.

Can not reply to Facebook messages via email. Can not get on Facebook/twitter from the office. Feel weird replying to Facebook messages via regular email.

On occasion I even get a blog comment or two here.

Rather than try to do any more communicating tonight. Going to watch a movie with my wife and her parents.

Happy weekend to all!

Quick Bits

Another one of those annoying, bullet point blog posts. Oh well.

The bat from a few posts ago is back in our window, and has actually made a habit of staying in our window during the day. I've done some looking online and it seems that it is not something we should have concern about, so we are just letting him... hang out! A friend of ours said that if we saw it more than once we had to name it, so Abby decided on Elmo.

Because of all of the heat, my camera is hibernating. It's unfortunate, but none of us want to be outside for more than ten minutes or so. A week! I can deal with lower 90's, but we have not been that low in a while. Last night at 8:30 I was on my way home from a meeting at church and the car thermometer still read 101 degrees. That is just gross. I hereby faux-vow to not complain when it gets bone-chilling cold next winter.

I am a fan of Netflix. I know people are complaining about the rate hike, but for us an extra $60 for the YEAR is not significant. I have been enjoying watching the series Scrubs over again, starting with the first episode. Anny has gotten into Bones thanks to the streaming option, again starting at the beginning. Really fun was the pilot episode of MacGuyver with my father-in-law on Monday. I can not fathom pitching that show idea to TV executives with as cheesy as the premiere turned out!

We have been experimenting with lots of fun foods this summer and some have turned out great! Tuna pockets went over better than we thought it would for Abby. Mixing sausage-meat into turkey to create stuffed burgers is better than I ever could have thought. Home made Corn Dogs were a hit, but that was not a surprise. I am most looking forward to Steak 'Um Pita's later this week or early next!

We have been experimenting with lots of fun foods this summer and some have turned out awful! Aloha Chicken was fun to make and yummy to eat, except the parts of chicken that were still raw. The only thing worse than that was when we had company over and tried a new recipe for "mint chocolate chip" "ice cream" that was really greek yogurt and spinach with chocolate chips and peppermint extract. We trashed all leftovers before our guests left. Abby loved it, to be honest, but I think it is mostly because she did so much of the work to make it!

I want to blog more, but don't want to be completely boring. I hope to get another post up this week, but who knows. This heat is so oppressive that I sometimes can not keep thoughts long enough to type them out... Really.

Another Fun Way to Beat the Heat!

This week has obviously been hot - hot enough to warrant a full blog post earlier. We have been to movies and the pool, to the mall and to the couch in our apartment where it is nice and cool.

Yesterday we went to a place that would easily be counted as the coooolest - a cave tour!

Missouri is known as The Cave State due to thousands of miles worth of caves. There is a really big, really commercialized cave or two. There are a bunch of unmapped caves. There are some that are on maps, but blocked off to the public for safety/vandalism reasons.

Commercial caves are very expensive (would have run us about $50 today), and the unmapped ones are most likely unsafe when you have a small child in tow. I'm not a fan of forking out $50 for an experience that I am not sure that Abby will enjoy, so we had to find a middle ground one.

Yesterday morning we went to Meremac State Park for a tour of The Fisher Cave. It is not a commercial one, but is a big one that offers tours several times during the day. For $8 per adult. Total.

We had little to no idea what to expect when we arrived at the Park, and even less clue when we arrived at the Cave on the back side of the park. The website offers some of the history of the cave, but little clues about the tour itself. We always like to prep Abby when we go on a new adventure, so we told her as much as we knew:

• It will be dark
• It will be cold
• There will be lots of water
• There will be bats!

There were things that we found out when we arrived:

• No outside flashlights
• No outside water
• No Cameras

WHAT? No camera? Me?

They are dealing with a disease in the bat colony that is brought in on equipment that has been used in other caves. That have their own lights to use, so that was not a concern. In retrospect, I'm so glad that I could not bring the camera - I got to be absorbed in the Abby-shared-experience. It was actually a good thing anyway, based on our cave experience.

We were the first ones to arrive for the 9:30 tour. We arrived at 9:25, hoping that we did not have to have put in a reservation earlier. There is an 11:30 tour, so we figured that if we got bumped from the 9:30 we would just hike a little and maybe splash in the Meremac River. As it turns out, no one else showed up for the 9:30 tour, so we had a private tour with Tim the Guide!

The cave tour lasted about an hour, and we got to ask all sorts of questions and get all sorts of fun stories out of him. Anny was mostly interested in the chemistry of it. I mostly wanted to know how much exploring Tim has done when he does not have silly tourists on his tail! The cave was used as early back as 1904 for fun times, which they know because people wrote their names on some of the formations! A lot looked to be from around the time of the 1904 World's Fair, which is kind of cool. There was a massive room that people used to hike to for big, formal dances. That is craziness!

Abby was not sure if she could talk, which is one of those things that I guess we did not think to explain to her. Tim was talking about all sorts of stuff from the history of the cave to the types of formations we were looking at. He was in teaching mode, and we were in learning mode. Abby was just unsure, and at one point whispered to me "Daddy, when we have a moment could I talk too?" How funny!

(Turns out when she got her moment to talk, about ten seconds after she asked by the way, she just wanted to tell Tim that she is on summer break and will be going back to Ms Karen's house in a few weeks. Goofball!)

After our cave tour we went for a half-mile hike that circles, climbs and comes back down part of the mountain that we had just been inside. That part I was allowed to have my camera for. That is where I got this shot:

We could not tell if Abby had a good time in the cave, mostly because she had been so darned quiet, which is not her norm. As we were leaving for the day she declared "The next time we come I want to talk more and ask questions!"

Guess we will line up a trip again next summer!