For the last “real” weekend of summer we went to Raging Waters for the day. This is one of our favorite summer hang outs. We pack the cooler with drinks and sandwiches, claim our spot amongst the shade of the trees and play in the water and sun all day.
Sam is getting more confident in the water and going down the slides. He rode one of the big slides by himself!
Austin, Sam, Roscoe, and I went hiking up Mueller Park Canyon above our house to watch the sunset. We are blessed to live in such a beautiful place, with incredible views.
This was a HUGE slug! YUCK!!
Austin looking at tree fungi
If you ask Sam what happened, he’ll tell you a bear scratched him.
Sam loves to be silly and crazy. Today he was so excited to show me his “cool moves,” as he called them.
Me, 1989. Oh, how I love the hair!!Twenty years since graduation? Really? Wow, time does really fly!
Ten of the past twenty years I have spent building my skills and knowledge for my current career. The previous nine years of the twenty I worked on my college degree. All but five of these years I have been a parent and the last six years I have been a wife. So many changes have occurred in the past twenty years, so many lessons learned, so many decisions made, so many moments of laughter and tears of joy, hurt, and sadness. Now I guess the time has come that I get to enjoy the ride of life, but the lessons of life will never stop coming my direction!
Isik and I at the dinner.
Isik with my very good friend Melanie. I have know Melanie since I was in the 4th Grade. Rich, her husband, was working out of town so Isik had two dates for the evening.
After dinner a group of us went to a local bar to spend more time mingling, sharing stories, and reconnecting. It was so great to catch up with old friends and class mates.
Isik, truly a trooper!! He was a good sport reliving high school stories with me.
Lindsay and Jim
Duffy, Lindsay’s husband. I used to give him rides home when he was in Jr. High.
Melanie
Lis
Nicki and Jennifer
Sherri, Lis, Andy, Danna and Jennifer
Part of the group
(Warning…. some pictures may be too much if you have a weak stomach!)
Leo and Roscoe have been challenging each other and fighting. It’s VERY crazy when they do this because they are getting so big. They definitely know their place with us “humans” but as dogs do, they are establishing their place amongst each other.
Austin was working in the backyard when Leo and Roscoe started fighting. Of course, Austin didn’t want them fighting so he got in the middle and tried to break them up. BAD IDEA!!! Two eighty-pound, 7-month old puppies, have no idea what they are capable of. For some reason, even he doesn’t know, he bent over and this kid that stands over 5’9” got his head between the dogs and either a tooth or a claw met his ear and split it open. Luckily, Isik was home and immediately ran him to the emergency room. I immediately left work and met them at the hospital.
Because the cartilage in his ear had been split, the emergency room doctor would not sew him back up. We had to wait… and wait… and wait… for the plastic surgeon to get out of surgery. They told us it would only be about 2 hours.
Well, we waited… and waited some more…
Isik got a chance to look at all the great surgical supplies…
oh the many possibilities… because we were just waiting….
They couldn’t give Austin anything orally, because they didn’t know what the plastic surgeon would have to do. If they had to actually take him into surgery, he couldn’t have anything in his stomach. So after a couple hours, and a discussion with the ER doc, I allowed them to give Austin an injection of morphine to help with the pain.
Within minutes he was sleeping.
Finally, after 7 hours, not the initial 2 hours we were told, the plastic surgeon FINALLY arrived. We got to watch him create his art, which is exactly what he did.
Just prior to getting Austin prepped this is what his ear looked like.
After getting him prepped.
Numbing the ear.
The doc said that the numbing creates the ear to relax, the bleeding stopped, the cuts opened wider. He put gauze in the ear canal to prevent any liquid from going into the ear. Now would have been the perfect time to just put a bar through his ear, but the doc didn’t think that was such a great idea. Austin could have had a one-of-a-kind piercing… oh well…
Just in case you ever wondered what the cartilage in your ear looks like, now you know.
The first set of stitches is done.
The final set of stitches in done.
A total of 34 stitches, internally and externally.
Dr. Eric Ashby did an amazing job! This is 24 hours later.
Although it was a little swollen (the left ear), it looks amazing!
2 1/2 months later, the cartilage is a little bumpy because it takes cartilage so long to heal. Other than that, you can only see the faint remnants of a scar if you look closely.
Austin certainly won’t try to break up two fighting dogs again.
