thanksgiving in colorado and thereafter

i am still behind yall
seriously, i think once i am done teaching things will ease up a bit.
at least that is what i am telling myself.
anywho, i know it is weeks later, but lemme tell you about thanksgiving.

we went to see my sister, her husband greg and their son (my favorite nephew) ben.
not only were we spending turkey time with them, thanksgiving thursday was also ben's birthday
so really it was a two for one.

our flight to colorado was pretty uneventful. we left hella early so we were tired, but what was great is that the flight was not so full so both jes and i got to get our own row and catch some zzz's.
when i woke up i sat back up with her and we watched an episode of "dexter" on my ipod jes got me for graduation.
first of all, love my ipod that lets me watch video, second of all, love "dexter." seriously, it's a show about a guy who kills people (only bad people) but kills them nonetheless, and i love it. at times it can be heavy headed and the acting isn't always great, but in general, i can't wait to watch the next episode.

our first day there we just hung out and relaxed.

on thursday morning we got up and ben opened his presents and then we spent the entire day cooking.
we made mashed potatoes, sweet potato caserole, green beans, and stuffing muffins. we also helped kath with turkey which was ginormous. folks were coming over at 4pm and we almost got everything done before they started arriving. kath had invited a bunch of her friends and most of them have kids and/or are pregnant. after i finished eating, i got to hold a six week old baby girl while her mom ate. she was perfect and tiny and a little bit gassy. good times!

after dinner and perhaps too much wine, i went upstairs just to "lay down for a minute" which quickly turned into a two hour nap. i woke up and everyone was gone. it was totally bonkers. we watched ratatouille, which is actually a pretty good kids movie. i recommend it.

on friday greg, ben, my mom and i all went to "the jumping place" while kath stayed home (she didn't feel great) and so did jes (she needed to study for finals). it was a pretty fun place and much less crowded than i thought it would be. its basically all these blown up huge toy things you just bounce around on. here is a picture of ben before we started a jumpin:



i also didn't expect that all that bouncing and climbing would wear me out like it did. i was a huffing and a puffing all through the joint. i think what it made clear to me is that i need to get back on some cardio and pronto. i was able to catch my breath while greg and ben played a little air hockey:



and here is a picture of me and ben just kicking it:



now we got ben two presents for his birthday: a pair of spidey pj's with webs under the arms. please see the photo below:



while he looks pretty happy about them here, he was not so crazy about them when he opened them, but he was THRILLED for present #2: an optimus prime (transformer) toy. kath and greg's mom have been searching for this toy for a long time and we found it (VICTORY!) he was really happy to get it but also a bit frustrated by the process of transforming it. i really couldn't help him, but jes could b/c she had transformers when she was a kid. he carried it around with him the entire day, it was kind of cute. that night we watched the movie "transformers" which was pretty entertaining.

like i said a couple of the ladies at thanksgiving and one of those ladies is my sister. from the back you can't really tell she is pregnant, but from the side you can:



she is due in february, so stay tuned for the birth of my OTHER favorite nephew!

saturday morning we got up and headed to the airport for another early flight. before we left, we took a few last photos:





i wish i could say the flight home was uneventful like the flight out to colorado, but i can't.

about ten minutes into the flight, the "fasten seatbelt" light went off and a woman two seats in front of me got up and started walking toward the bathroom. when she got one seat behind mine she began vomiting in the aisle. instead of continuing to the bathroom, she just stood in the aisle and kept puking. i pushed the flight attendant light and they came a running and immediately threw down some packets of coffee to deal with the smell (so smart, right?). the next hour was spent cleaning up the mess and tending to the sick lady (who seemed pretty out of it). the good news? we got free tv b/c she threw up near us. the bad news? a little of her hurl splattered on my jacket. i promptly took it off and put it in my bag. while it was a little scary during it, we totally laugh about it now.

the night we got back, sarah and kim came over for a little wii and mexican dominoes. neither of them had played wii but i think they both really liked it. especially the boxing. here is a picture of them bringing the heat:



they also taught us how to play mexican dominoes. it was this really fun. i was super apprehensive about learning the game, and while i don't think i had the best strategery, i still had a lot of fun and i drank a lot of wine, but it was good wine, so i had fun doing it.

on sunday we got up and i noticed that larry was kind of breathing weird. i didn't think too much of it. on monday i went to work and jes called me there and said she thought that we should take larry in b/c his breathing was really labored. she came and got me on the way to the vet and she was really upset. i didn't get it, i assumed larry had a cold or *maybe* an upper respiratory infection or something.

we got to the vet and she agreed his breathing was weird. then she told us she could not hear his lungs so good on one side and ordered a chest xray. a few minutes later she came back with the xray and told us we needed to go to these specialists outside of the perimeter (read: far away in traffic and in the land of suv's and coach purses). she told us that the xray showed either a lot of fluid in his chest or a mass (read: cancer). jes and i were both stunned. we got our referral and directions to the specialists and hit the road.

while he was sort of panting, larry seemed normal otherwise. he had been eating, sleeping, peeing and pooping, so we just didn't understand what was going on. long story short: we finally talk to the emergency doctor there and she tells us she is almost certain its a cancerous mass and there is nothing we can do (outside of thoracic surgery and/or chemotherapy). jes and i just took turns losing our shit. she said they would drain the fluid from his chest and then in the morning, the internal medicine doc on duty would do an ultrasound of larry's thorax. all this costs loads of money and guaranteed nothing. it was one of the worst nights of our lives. when we left we both thought we were coming back in the morning to put larry down.

the next day at work was the worst. everytime the fucking phone rang i was sure it was the doctor telling me larry had died. by 2pm he had not called and i was about to lose it, so i called and they couldn't tell me shit except the doctor was going to call me after he finished the tests. one the one hand, jes and i were furious b/c they were leaving us hanging for so fucking long. on the other hand, we figured if he was really bad they would have called us first thing. finally at 3pm the doctor called me and told me that he was certain it WAS NOT a mass (this was very good news) but that he thought larry has restrictive cardiomyopathy which really means congestive heart failure and/or heart disease. now in the long run, this sucks b/c it means his life span will probably be shorter than we thought. in the short run it means that larry is still alive and kicking, he is taking a diuertic to keep the fluid out of his chest cavity and some heart medication to help his heart pump right. right this second he is getting a bath from his sister while sitting on jes's lap.

we went to the cardiologist on thursday to have her check his chest and take some blood. his chest looked great: no fluid! but his kidney levels are really high b/c of the meds he is taking. unfortunately, when it comes to kitties, drugs that are good for the heart are not so good for the kidneys. because larry and emily are older (17 years old!) they are both in the beginning stages of kidney failure. while we are both alarmed by his kidney levels, our vet here in decatur said we need to focus on his health now, and enjoy every day he is with us. so that is what we are trying to do. just love him and hug him and kiss him as much as we can.

here are some cute pics of him post emergency vet visit. he has a few shaved spots that are so cute:



and here is one of larry with his #1 lovah:



i am not joking when i say that he is seriously crazy in love with her.

ok this has been a long ass post yall. i need to rest and drink a glass of wine.
today was so gorgeous. seriously like late spring/early summer gorgeous. in the 70's and sunny.
i walked to the gym at school and i was like "oy i love the south!"
i hope you had a great sunday wherever you are.