Seafood and Wine Festival 2008

Ahhhh, Tuesday....
Well, let me start at last Thursday. Trav and I woke up and found a problem with Kayden. Yes, another one! We had no idea what was going on, but it looked like the end of his tail (whats left of it) was just falling off, stitches and all. It was loose and we could see in the gap that the flesh underneath was red. I thought that somehow he had just rubbed it off and figured that if it came off all the way it would tear his stitches out again and we'd be in for another surgery. Our last shot.
My heart was very heavy. It was so hard to work that day. I felt like I could barely breath. Trav called the vet and set an appointment for 3:45 that afternoon. The day seemed to drag on forever. At 4:30 when my phone rang I was so afraid to answer it....what were they going to say? Trav immediately told me that the news was not to bad. Thank God!
The vet said that sometimes the end will just fall off because the wound has started healing underneath it. She just pulled the end right off, and said that the wound actually looked really good. It is healing nicely. But she said this is the most critical time for us to make sure he can't get at it. The flesh is very weak and if he gets at it and breaks it open, we will be back again and the news could be bad. Trav and I were so relieved that at least at that moment things were ok.
The vet said that it was very important that we keep in bandaged when we are sleeping or not home and to air it out (but watch him closely) when we are there. That night we bandaged it up like normal and went to bed.
I woke up at 3 when Kayden got up to eat. I couldn't believe it but it didn't look like the bandage was on. I asked Trav to turn the light on, and sure enough, no bandage. The end of his tail was very smooth now so there was really nothing to hold the bandage on. We'd tried tape previously, but it wouldn't really stick to his fur. Oh great! We bandaged it up again and went back to bed. We woke up and again, no bandage...they were just sliding right off.
Well, we couldn't leave him with that brand new fresh weak flesh all day with no bandage. Trav called his boss and told him he was going to have to stay home.
When I got home, Trav went shopping for a tape that would stick while I babysat the kitty. Our plans that weekend for going to the Seafood and Wine Festival had disappeared before our eyes. We couldn't leave Kayden if his bandages weren't even sticking!
That evening Trav told me he would be happy to stay with Kayden, and that I should join my best friend Air and her BF K at the festival. I couldn't believe how sweet he was to even offer that, but no way was I going to leave him with that responsibility while I went out and had fun! He insited so I finally gave in.
I drove to the coast Saturday morning and got there at about 10:30. It was beautiful weather!! We headed to the fest at 11:30 and the wine drinking began! We had a lot of fun, although I really missed Trav!! Air, K and I stayed until closing before heading back to the condo! When we got back K cooked a crab for dinner and after dinner and more wine we headed to Apollos for more drinking! We lasted about an hour before coming home and crashing into bed at 9!!!
I got up at 8 and drove home.
Kayden is looking pretty good! I think it will boosted his healing to have it air out all weekend! Thanks Trav! I am hoping and praying that the skin at least grows over it before we leave for our trip to Mexico! I think it's very possible!
So, now I'm just in the middle of another work week....
This Friday Trav and I are taking my parents out for my dad's bday! We're taking him to his favorite restaurant, Bentley's in Salem. I'm looking forward to it! Other than that, we will just be babysitting Kayden all weekend....and I'll most likely start packing!!
Have a good week!

Trouble in Paradise

I have had a lot of things on my mind lately....some good, some bad.First of all, Friends. Friendship seems to be so much more complicated and difficult than it should be sometimes. Why do friends have to move away? Don't they understand how that changes the lives of those who love them? So many of my closest friends have moved away over the past few years and it seems that more plan on moving in the coming years. I want all my friends to make the most of thietheirs, but it is hard when I can't celebrate the little things with them. Everyone says "we will keep in touch" but it's never the same. It's hard to keep in touch. And then there are the friends who are still close.....but there are still problems with them. It's so easy to over-analyze and end up with hurt feelings. UnnessesaUnnecessarilyknow...maybe. Either way, it's icky to feel hurt. When your friends make you feel useless and un-needed...even if it is an accident, it hurts.And I over react and decide I don't want to feel this way anymore and I should just cut them out of my life, but whats the point of that? Then you have even less friends. I just want friends that I can feel close to...always. And who will help me when I need help. Sincerely. Not just offer to help until the help is needed and then back out.My kitty, poor little Kayden. Trav and I have not hardly left the house except to go to work for the past almost 3 weeks. I'm getting house fever. I need out! Not only that but I am gaining weight because I can't workout. And I'm paying for a gym membership that I'm not able to use! And I feel so bad for the little guy. I want him to heal so badly! I'm just not patient enough! Trav and I are leaving for a weekend trip this weekend and I am very worried about leaving him. I don't want him to somehow manage to get at his wound again and tear it back open putting up back at square one. Especially not now! Because I am also very worried about leaving him when we go on our vacation to Mexico. I am of course very excited to go to Mexico....we have been saving for and planning this trip for a very long time and we need it! But I want Kayden to be healed up enough that I don't worry about him the whole time, instead of enjoying myself! The vet is supposed to take the stitches out Tuesday teh 26th....I hope and pray that this time the incision has completely healed and his skin is sealed together. If something goes horribly wrong and it opens up again we are going to be in a world of hurt. He'd have to have another surgery and when he got out we'd be almost leaving for Mexico! Who would take care of a kitty that sick who needs constant attention and medication and bandaging and unbandaging? Oh I pray that he will be ok!On the other hand, as long as I can get over my worry I am SO excited to go to the Seafood and Wine Fest this weekend and SO SO SO excited to be leaving for Mexico in only 16 days! I can't believe it is right around the corner.Paying off debt....we are so close! We paid off our Home Depot credit card on Monday! It felt so good! Now we just have the 2nd mortgage and the regular credit card. The regular credit card is mainly filled up with our trip to Mexico. We have the money in an account for that but I don't want to pay it until we are back and everything has gone smoothly! The rest of the credit card bill is vet bills, car bills, gifts, and our Wii. We have the money for the Wii, we just have to apply it, and Trav is getting an extra paycheck this month so we will apply that money to the vet and car bills, etc....so once we are back from our vacation and apply that money to, it should be either gone or very low!Then it will just be our 2nd mortgage and if we get a good tax refund we will apply that to it, if not we will just have to wait until the end of April and it will be gone as well!Once those debts are paid we can start on our wish list! We need a dishwasher desparatly! Also, this spring we are planning odesperatelyot of work to our yard and garden....which costs money! And we need blinds and several other things! We also need to start saving our money so we can build our savings account to a comfortable amount!Other things on my mind....brown stains on my teeth. They are new and ugly. I looked it up online today and found over 100 complaints blaming Crest Pro-Health rinse for causing brown stains on thier teeth. Yep, I just started using it about 2 motheirago myself. Apparently these stains are very difficult to remove. Great...Travis has been concerned about a small white bump on his gumline for a couple months now. He missed his opprotunity to get dental through his employer, so we wopportunityo put him on mine so he could get into the dentist for a cleaning and to have them take a look and make sure the white bump is no big deal. My company said that was no problem and added him effective Feb 1st. We found out yesterday (After 3 canceled appointments and several calls and information sent to my dental company) that they can't cover him until my open enrollment. So we are still worried about this little white bump. We will most likely go ahead and just pay out of pocket for an appointment, but if there is something wrong there will no doubt we expensive procedures needed that we won't be able to afford without insurance. Just another thing to worry about.I love Travis so much. He is my best friend....the only consitancy in my life. He is my rock. I rely on him for so much.consistencymagine my life without him. I am so grateful for such a wonderful man in my life. A lot of people struggle with thier love life....and luckily that is one thing Trav and I have a gtheiron. I'm not saying we don't get on each others nerves every now and then, or that we never argue. We do. But we work it out and we have an understanding of each other and an unconditional love. Thank God for that!Boy oh boy I have babbled a lot. I have just had so much on my chest lately. Also, my car accident last July has left me with almost daily headaches. Bad headaches that drugs don't seem to help. I am still seeing the chiropractor twice a week. I still have problems with my upper back cracking in and out all the time. It just seems like nothing is helping. A year after the accident they won't cover me seeing the chiropractor anymore and I feel like I will still be having problems. And they will try to settle the medical claim which I know is going to be an icky, not fun process. Trav and I need to go meet a lawyer and get that process started. Life seems to throw one thing after the other at us!I just need to thank God for all my blessings. Thank you God, for all my blessings.

Monday is here again!

We had a BEAUTIFUL weekend in the Valley. The weather was just gorgeous! I'm sure the rain will be back, which is going to be a tough adjustment!
Ladd came to stay with us this weekend. It was good to see him again! We haven't seen him since October! Friday night we hung out at the house and played a lot of Wii! It was a great time!
Saturday we headed up to Salem with him to get fitted for a tux. He is in a friends wedding this summer. Then we went to Olive Garden and enjoyed endless soup, salad, and breadsticks! I ate way to much! We headed back and went grocery shopping so we could make a yummy dinner that night.
We started drinking right at 8! We had plans to go cosmic bowling that evening with a bunch of friends. I cleaned out my liquor cabinet. I had about 8 fith's, but they all had only 2 - 3 shots in them. So I had a big variety of drinks, but they were all good!
That evening we played the Wii until it was time to go bowling. We had a lot of fun, but ended up staying up until almost 4!
Sunday we slept in. When we got up we took advantage of the beautiful weather by going for a nice walk to get a slurpee, and then washing our cars and doing some gardening.
It was a really good weekend! This weekend is the Seafood and Wine Fest. I'm very worried about leaving Kayden so I'm still not sure what we're going to do. He is still healing...it's just so darn slow!!
Today hasn't been bad at all for a Monday! I should get back to work now. Have a great week!

Valentine's Day

Trav and I had a wonderful Valentine's Day. Everything just fell into place. I got home a few minutes before him so I got dressed up, and lite candles all around the house. I turned on some romatic music right before he walked in. We danced for a minute, and then opened the champagne so we could toast ourselves!
Then we started on dinner! Everything flowed very smoothly in the kitchen. Once the crab was in and the potatoes were boiling, we sat down and enjoyed our swiss fondue with foccasia bread. It was delicious.
We finished making dinner and sat down to the biggest crab I have ever seen! There was so much meat, we could hardly eat it all!
The asparagus turned out just right, and the greek salad and mashed red potatoes were scrumpcious! It was a wonderful meal. We stuffed ourselves and then sat on the couch with our champagne and talked for a few minutes. We watched "No Reservations" while enjoying strawberries dipped in chocolate fondue and more champagne!
It was a very cozy and romatic evening. We both had a great time! Happy Valentine's Day!

Spring is coming!

I think my husband put it best this weekend when he said "We've almost made it through". When I asked him what he was referring to he said that we were almost through winter and into spring. Thank goodness! I am ready for spring to be here. I'm ready for blooming flowers and sunshine!
We have so much to be grateful for. It seems so easy to get lost in all the problems we have, and forget about all the good stuff! It's mid-February already! Thursday is Valentine's Day and I have a wonderful valentine to spend the day with! We are going to make a gourmet dinner! We are having cheese fondue with bread for the appetizer, greek salad, crab with asparagus and mashed red potatoes for the main course, and chocolate fondue with strawberries and pinapple to dip into it for dessert! Of course we will have champagne flowing throughout the evening! I want to have romatic music playing and eat by candle light. We might even get dressed up for the occasion! I rented a couple romantic movies so we can snuggle up on the couch after dinner and watch them! I'm excited about it!
Saturday we will most likely be going cosmic bowling with a group of people! Cosmic bowling is always a good time! NEXT weekend is the seafood and wine fest, and then only 2 weeks later we are leaving for MEXICO!!! When we get back from Mexico there are only a couple months until we will be able to finish paying off our debt!
I think it's going to be a good year! We're off to a good start anyway!
Kayden is healing a little more every day. It's slow going, but I think he's getting there! We stayed home with him all weekend! Friday night Lindsey and Brian came over and we played the Wii. We had a great time! Saturday we slept in and hung out with Kayden all day. That evening we went out to dinner with my parents and they came back to the house with us for dessert and more Wii! We watched a movie when they headed home, and then went to bed. Sunday we stayed with Kayden until about 1, before heading off to do our Sunday errands! After the errands we went to the gym since we hadn't been since the previous weekend. Taking care of little Kayden has turned into a full time job!
Well, I should get back to work! Have a good week!

February 7th

4 years ago today Travis asked me to be his wife. He was so sweet! Made reservations at a 5 star resturant in Portland called the London Grill. It was all lite by candle light and very romantic. Before dinner he told me how much he loved me and how I was the best thing in his life, and before I knew it he was down on one knee asking me to be his wife! Of course I said yes, and it is the best decision I've made!
After dinner he took me to the Opera, where he had reserved box seats for us! He made the night SO special for me.
Thank you sweetie. I love you and I am so happy to be your wife! Cheers to 80 more years!

February is here

The past few days in the Clark household have been eventful to say the least! Ladd was not able to stay with us last weekend as planned. The pass was actually closed! I shouldn't have been suprised, since we even got snow on the valley floor! I'm sure the pass was a mess!
Anyway, we had my parents over for chicken enchilada's on Friday night. We had a lot of fun! My mom and I had strawberry margarita's while Trav and my dad drank wine. We showed them the Wii (since technically they got it for us for Christmas). My dad loved it and ended up playing for 6 hours!!
Saturday we slept in....I mean REALLY slept in! We didn't have a lot to do and we both needed some catch up sleep! It was great. Then we headed to the gym and back home. We had some friends over that night and had a good time talking and laughing into the wee hours of the night!
Sunday was SUPERBOWL Sunday! We got up early to take care of all our Sunday chores. We headed to Air and K's at about 2:30 and then headed to Cheryl's at 3:30 to watch the game. We had a great time with everyone there, eating, drinking, and yelling for our team! It was a good game. Air and I won a bet on "squares" so that was fun!!!
Monday came to quickly and with a bad spin. We had an auditor coming to work so Monday was very busy spent preparing. After lunch Trav took Kayden to the vet to get his wound re-wrapped. He called with bad news. The vet said the wound was not healing with the bandage on so we needed to leave it off so it could air out. She said if it didn't heal they could try surgery one more time, but if that didn't work....well that would be the last shot. My heart died. Why is this happening? I love little Kayden SO much. We were very concerned leaving the bandage off with the wound in such a fragile state. The whole reason we're still dealing with this is because he manages to get around his bandage and his collar and mess with his tail. I had to use everything in me to finish out the work day. I would have been home in a second if it wasn't for the audit. Trav ended up going home at 3:30 to be with him. When I got home I asked if we could get a bigger collar, and possibly a sedative so he would remain calm. The vet said yes, so we went to get both.
We put the new collar on him and gave him a sedative before heading to Ame and Jays for our dinner date. We were late, but Ame and Jay were very understanding!! Thier house so so beautiful! We had a good time at dinner, although I was worried about Kayden.We all headed back to our house for dessert after dinner. When I walked through the door my heart broke. Kayden had managed to get the collar off his head and had been ripping the metal staples out of his tail. :*( I wish he understood what he was doing. So we had to re-wrap it, defeting the drying it out purpose, but we didn't know what else to do! That night was awful to say the least. He was very rambucious and I didn't want him to get his collar off or mess with his tail anymore so I stayed up with him almost all night. I felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest.
Tuesday we left his tail wrapped since we couldn't be home to watch him. I got off work at 4 to go home and be with him. We had lots of plans this week but we cancelled them all so we can just go home and be with Kayden in the evenings and take the badage off. Last night that is all we did...just watched Kadyen. Basically what it looks like is happening right now is since the bandage kept so much moisture on the wound it cause the skin to get "soggy" and die. So it just came off. So it looks really bad because a big chunk of his skin is missing and it's red and raw. We have to watch it closely so it doesn't get infection, but as long as he can't get to it and we can continue to dry it out it should start to scab over and heal. As far as we can tell the incision is still all together. It still needs to heal also though. It's not going to be as pretty as we expected if it does heal, but I don't care. I just want him alive and healthy!!! If he does get to it though, he will try to "clean" the open wound, which will end up hurting him because it's already so thin there, he will end up re-opening the incision which means another surgery and then we could end up right back where we are anyway. So every moment that I can't be home watching him is killing me. And we have to leave it wrapped when we're not around to watch him so it's not airing out. We pray for him all the time, and all my friends and family are praying for him to. I am happy to report that it is looking a little better today, although it still has a long way to go!
Drama in the Clark household! Thats all thats going on for now. It's Wednesday....only 2 more days of work this week. Thank goodness for that!
Happy Birthday to our good friend K!! He turned 26 on the 5th!