Get Well Soon Grampy Great

This week Jeremy's Grampy (pictured here when Merrick was born) met with a heart specialist.  He has been having problems with low blood pressure and wanted to have it checked out.

It turns out he had a fairly severe blockage and his heart muscle had deteriorated quite a bit.  The doctors determined that surgery was necessary and on Friday he had triple by-pass surgery.  They were also supposed to repair a valve, but once they completed the by-pass they determined that the valve was working well enough that a repair was not necessary.

By all accounts the surgery was a success.  Now comes the long process of recovery.  The thing about Grampy is that he is very strong and hard working.  There is no doubt in my mind that his recovery will be quick and complete and he will be with us for the birth of baby number two and long after.

Time for a Little Balance

Once upon a time I would have said that Merrick was a mommy's boy, well lately it seems like he could take me or leave me, but dad is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I started thinking about this when we were on vacation in Washington. Each morning Jeremy and Merrick would take off on their bikes and leave me in the dust since I was not able to ride along. I could not help but think about having this baby girl join our family and how it will bring some balance to the universe.

Yesterday, Jeremy was locked away all day studying and my most challenging task was trying to convince Merrick that I was cool too and that he did not need to constantly go in and disturb dad. It was a losing battle and we were all relieved when Jeremy's day of studying was done.

After that Merrick was glued to Jeremy's side. He was his sidekick at the grocery store and going to pick up dinner. After dinner the one thing he wanted to do was play a race car video game with dad. At one point I had the audacity to come in the room and check on them. Merrick quickly told me that he and dad were racing and I could not play because I was not very good at playing those kinds of games.

All I can say is that I am ready for a little more girlie stuff around here. Let hope she wants to be the girlie girl I have imagined in my head. If not it will at least be a little while before she can express herself and until then I will enjoy every minute of my girl time.

Daughters and Desserts

This weekend was my baby shower. Becca and a friend of mine from church, Heather, did an amazing job of putting together a wonderful shower with the theme "daugthers and desserts". This little girl and I were very spoiled. All the desserts were super yummy (ok so I did not actually try them all, but they all looked fantastic and the ones I tried were great)and it was like a pink explosion with all the cute pink clothes. It was a very nice, relaxed evening. We did not really play any games, but just ate, talked, and opened presents.

I only have one regret from the evening and that is that all my family and friends in Arizona (and a few other places as well) were not able to come. I just wish everyone could have been there. To that end, I will now inundate you with so many pictures you will feel like you were there, whether you were or not.

Spring Break

I guess it is time I get around to blogging about our trip to Long Beach, Washington over spring break. The problem is that with my pregnancy brain I have already forgotten most of what happened so this post may be short and sweet.

What I do remember very vividly is that we headed out about 11am and made it about 10 miles before we were cut off by a semi truck. Jeremy hit the breaks and all of a sudden several warning lights turned on the dashboard. We got off the the freeway and went to the nearest repair shop where we stayed for the next 4 hours. Most of the indicators were for a freak thing that somehow a hose connected to the engine came loose, but one indicator was because our rear brakes were dangerously worn and the fluid was full of water. The bottom line is that it was not safe for us to drive and had we not gotten it fixed prior to our trip, we could have had a real problem.

Eventually we made it safely to the coast. We got there with just enough time to have a short walk on the beach before dinner and settling in for the night.

It was just a short two night stay, but we made the most of it. We started each morning with Merrick and Jeremy going for long bike rides while I walked along behind them and did my best to keep up. We played on the beach for hours, ate dinner on the beach, had a beach bonfire and made s'mores, and Jeremy fulfilled what was apparently a lifelong dream to drive a car along the beach.

The trip was over before we knew it and Merrick was very sad to go home. He cried and said that he wanted to live at the hotel. Eventually we did convince him it would be okay to go home and we actually had some fun along the way, stopping and spending some time in another beach town.

We rarely go on family vacations, but this inspired me to make it more of a priority. It was great to spend this time together before our family grows in just a few short weeks.