Father's Night

Last night was Father's Night at School for Little People. Kresee gets so excited for these nights. She looks forward to it for weeks.

 I love this one that Mrs. Erica took of the two of them since Kerry won't ever take any pictures with his phone.

Kohen loves it too because that means he and I get to go on a date. He picked Johnny Carinos:)

Team

Tonight's practice was all about being a team. That you can't do anything individually and have to work together. They held hand doing different drills the whole team. I love both of these groups of boys. They have an amazing coach. I've seen such growth in Kohen as a player because of him. He loves working with these boys and gives so much of his time. Coaching soccer I know how much we put into it and I always am so appreciative of the coaches that work with Kohen to make him not only a better player but a better person.

A little trip

We we didn't get to wait 2 weeks as planned. I noticed on Sunday that Red's pupil looked like a slit and I was a little concerned. I showed Kerry and he is more worried than I am. Dr. Munger said to call no matter what b/c he didn't want us worrying. We sent him pictures of Red's eye and he said he didn't want to wait until next week and to get him down there soon. So we took off work today for an appointment this morning. He wanted us there in case he needed to do a minor procedure during his lunch break.

Thankfully no procedure had to be done like we thought might happen. His iris looks like a tear drop but just being pulled up a little by the lens that was placed during the initial surgery. Dr. Munger was afraid there was some leakage and wanted us to bring him in. Dr. Munger said everything looked great, optic nerve was good and retina looked fine. He does have a small divot that he filled with some tissue adhesive. So it's not interfering with his vision and shouldn't be an issue. Can be addressed at a later date if need be. So we feel much better and we now get a two week break. Don't go back till feb 12th. Yay!!

 Seriously, isn't he the cutest thing ever. He is just like a baby and will snuggle however you place him!

Post Op Check Up

We headed down to Dallas yesterday for a one week check up with Red. Here he is riding in my lap on the way down. I'm glad he rides well in the car.

 We were excited because his stitches were coming out today. I miss those big huge bug eyes and I know he is ready to see fully.

Dr. Munger said he looked so good he couldn't believe he was only one week post op. So instead of going back next week, we get a two week break! Yay! His tear production is low but ...eye pressure was good. So off the eye pressure meds and add the tear production eye drops. He got his stitches out so he looks back to his normal self. Weird seeing big ole brown eyes instead of eyes with huge white cataracts in them. He kind of looks younger. He is getting more spunkier by the day. I kind of think he likes this whole being able to see thing--haha. He still has the cone but we can give him breaks from it which will be nice. Still gonna limit his activity with the dogs so no one bumps or scratches his pretty new eyes.

Look at the difference in those eyes. One week apart:)

 

Gorgeous Day

The kids didn't have school today so we had to take advantage of this beautiful day outside. Who can complain about shorts/tshirt in January! We loaded up the bikes and went to Sikes Lake to ride around the trail a few times. Kohen ended up doing 3 miles. Kresee and I went 2 miles which was good for her little legs.

Big Day!!!

We drove down to Dallas Wednesday night. That 4:45 am stuff was too early for me and we had no where to go afterwards. The clinic recommended this hotel that was pet friendly and gave discounts to the animals staying there for surgery. They were super sweet and we enjoyed our hotel. Red did not sleep at all Wednesday night. It was like he knew something big was happening the next day. So we were pretty exhausted. These were the last two pictures I planned on taking of him blind!! Sweet, sweet boy didn't have a clue the rough day he was about to go through.

We dropped him off bright and early and thankfully was able to go right back to the hotel and rest until they called us. We were exhausted! No one had still called us around lunch time so we were getting worried. We walked to a sandwich shop close to the hotel and decided we would call after lunch. The lady said Red was doing well but that Dr. Munger would call us later. Not long after one of the vet techs called. She tried explaining the surgery but I was thankful Dr. Munger called not long afterwards to give a better explanation of how everything went. He said that Red had a rough day and is still pretty sedated bc he wasn't being to nice to the vet techs. They had to give him an extra dose of sedative to keep him calm. He could see them coming and didn't want to be poked and prodded anymore. Haha. BUT he could see them!!! The doctor said bc he's been blind for so long the surgery was pretty tough. They weren't able to place an intraocular lens in the right eye but were able to in the left. Basically the 'fake' lens helps the eye focus. So if something is fairly close to him it might be a bit blurry but will still be able to see fine out of it at other distances. The left eye with the lens should be good to go. We weren't able to pick Red up until 6:00 pm that night and so we couldn't wait to see him. It had been an extremely long day. Because of the extra sedative, my hope of him seeing me for the first time and being all excited didn't happen. The guy was so drugged up he didn't know a thing. We went back to the hotel and he slept and slept. He wouldn't even stand up to go potty. He stayed like this for many hours. Finally at midnight he kind of started waking up but was still groggy. His eyes were sewn shut so he could only peek out the slits anyways and they were all gooped up.

The doctor said his eyes looked really good yesterday at his post-op appointment. We go back Thursday for another check up. The outside of his eyelids are going to stay stitched up until next week to help with moisture and tear production. He's still been snoozing a lot as usual but I know he's been through a lot. We can't let him roam/explore too much so he can't bump into something. He can't really judge anything quite yet and the cone doesn't help with that;) I don't know how long he will wear the cone. He can definitely see and will take some time adjusting. You can tell he's trying to figure it all out again. He was excited to see the kids yesterday. He wags his little bootie when he sees me and comes to me. On the bed, he knows it's the dogs and will snuggle with them. But if he sees one walk across the room or outside he freaks out a bit. We don't know of he wants to play or maybe be a little rude to this 'new dog'. I don't think he realizes those are the same dogs he lives with--haha. They can't play or bother him right now so just trying to keep everyone calm and relaxed. I know it will be weeks before we can let him kind of do his own thing. They say his sight will continue to improve as the inflammation and swelling improve. I think he looks pretty good. He is on 5 different medications and not sure how long he takes all of those. We are just glad to be home and thankful the surgery was successful.

 

Thunder Game

Tonight we played the Thunder. Dream Team won 22-2 and Kohen scored 7 points. He is playing so well and has improved sooooo much from just a year ago. I'm thankful he had the opportunity to play on the summer league team. I think it's made a huge difference in his playing and confidence.

Parker stuck

Parker was crying a little. I looked in the room and realized she was stuck. So of course I had to take a picture. I kept telling her to come out but she is such a frightened dog at all times she didn't know what to do. She found something under there that she really needed and then couldn't get back out. I found it very funny; she did not.

Snuggle Bug

Seriously, if he only knew what was coming in a few days. I keep getting more nervous and excited at the same time. This dog is in complete heaven when he's smushed in your armpit. I could lay with him forever as well:)

 

OU Girl

One of Kohen's friends mommy saw this cute little dress at the Cracker Barrel. I'm so glad she thought of sweet Kresee and grabbed it. It was on sale for a great bargain! And Kresee LOVES her OU dress. I told her she looks like a little college girl with her dress and boots (that are two sizes too big!). This girl is growing up way too fast and I'm not liking it. Haha!

1st Boys Club Game

Last night was our first boys club basketball game against the All Stars. They played well. Won 12-4 and Kohen scored 1 point (free throw).

 Tonight we had a YMCA game against the Timberwolves. We won 27-4 and Kohen scored 6 points tonight. This kid is worn out. He fell asleep on the way home!! I don't think we've recovered completely from skiing. Then having school all week plus basketball is exhausting. Hoping to rest up this weekend for sure!

Red's Appointment

Kerry and I have been thinking a lot about this sweet boy. We adopted him back on March 30th knowing he was a blind dog. We were obviously completely OK with that; knowing he would have special needs and be different from any other dog we've had. He has done great with us and has been one amazing little guy. We took him to Dallas Ophthalmology back in June with Dr. Munger just for a checkup to make sure everything with his eyes was just fine. He suggested that we could do the tests to see if he was a candidate for cataract surgery (around $700 just for the test) or don't do anything because he gets around just fine and has a good quality of life. So we decided to hold off. Red was still new to us; adjusting to two kids and 3 other dogs. At Christmas, Kerry mentioned how much he has been thinking about getting the tests done. Red had been with us long enough and we want more for him if we can. We felt in our hearts that he would be a candidate. So I called and today was our appointment. He had to be semi-sedated so that he was nice and calm. We dropped him off first thing this morning. Got up at 4:45 AM to drive to Dallas and expected him to not be ready to be picked up until 3:00 this afternoon. But they called us around lunchtime to say he was already ready to go. Red is a candidate for eye surgery in both eyes!!!! And he goes next Thursday the 16th to have the cataract surgery. We are so stinking excited but pretty nervous at the same time. I'm nervous something might go wrong but Kerry says what could happen "he can't see?" and that's true. He's nervous about it changing his personality. What if he can see and then he decides he really doesn't like little kids or our other dogs. I'm not too worried about that. He is so sweet and loving that I can't see it turning him mean other than your typical boston behaviors. But we are thankful he is a candidate and we can give this opportunity to him. He has no idea what is in store!

 

Red River 2014

We just got back from Red River, NM yesterday. We had our annual ski trip with the kiddos. My dad and Sallye came along too. I'm always thankful when they do come and the kids enjoy spending time with them. It helps because Sallye only skiis a half day so she is there to keep Kresee in the afternoon when we go back out after lunch time.

 

We broke it up this year like last year which I like. Went to Dumas last Tuesday and spent the night. Another fun eventful New Years Eve. But this year was so much better driving into Red River. Last year was some terrible weather; so much I was pretty worried about getting there. This year was only crazy b/c of the wind and 1,000 tumbleweeds. Kohen thought it was hysterical. It was like a video game of dodging massive tumbleweeds. It will killing me because I didn't want them hitting my new car, but we couldn't avoid them all. It was seriously the craziest thing I've seen in a long time.

 

My favorite view is this lake that is frozen over coming around a sharp curve. It means you are super close to getting there.

 We got into town and our condo wasn't quite ready yet. So we went and got our skiis/boots. We let the kids play outside a little bit in the snow.

 We went ahead and bought tubing tickets for that first day to get it out of the way. After a full day of skiing, it's hard to make it in and then you are pretty exhausted.

 Thursday and Friday we skied as much as possible. Kresee did great for her 2nd time around. Kohen again is a little pro and needs no help.

 

 

 

 

 

 Playing in all the snow at the condo...

 

 

 

 Then constant iPad in the evenings. We would all get in our jammies and hang out and eat dinner. Had plenty of excellent bowl games to watch including OU beating Alabama!!!

I have our ski pictures but need to find the CD to add them on here:)