Khloe's Surgery

Poor Khloe had to have surgery to remove most of her teeth.

Apparently as dogs get older, their teeth suffer the most. While she may have a small amount of teeth, that doesn't stop her from eating. I never believed her or Lola ever chewed their food anyway.

Cemetery Decorations

This is a subject I don't usually talk about but here goes.

Teresa and I purchased the niche for ourselves next to Mom and Dad. We also purchased a vase. While I was updating my asset book with new information, I got to thinking about that vase. It could be 20 or 30 years (I'm very optimistic) before we would use that vase and with a cost of $350 I wanted to be able to use it now.

So we asked the cemetery to install it since Mom was so fond of flowers. It's not often I visit the cemetery but for my Mom and Dad it was worth it.

Tonsillectomy, Adenoids and a Clip of the Tongue

Poor Violet has been suffering with ear infections since the beginning of summer. After a trip to an ENT, it was determined her tonsils were huge and needed to come out. Plus the range of motion with her tongue wasn't correct so they also did a lingual frenectomy (Google it for a better definition).

Surgery went well and now she's on the mend.

Now me, on the other hand.....I had the pleasure of entertaining Hazel for the day. After dropping Lincoln off at school we did a WalMart run. The good thing about Hazel is she loves to do housework so she helped me put away all my purchases.

Then back to her house for painting pictures. That only lasted so long so she decided to take my phone and take a lot of pictures. Nothing worth keeping but it kept her busy until Violet got home. I don't know who was more tired, me or Violet.

9/11 Stair Climb Memorial

In honor of the 343 firefighters who lost their lives responding to the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11, firefighters from Missouri and Kansas climbed 110 flights of stairs, each one carrying about 75 pounds of gear and a photo of a firefighter who died.

Three years ago Jamie participated and this year he decided to give it another try. 

The firefighters climbed 34 flights of stairs at the Town Pavilion in downtown Kansas City, rode down the elevator and climbed the 34 flights 2 more times. Then they climbed another 8 flights to make a total of 110 stories, the number of flights of each twin tower.

When they finished they announced the name of the firefighter they were representing then walked down a runway to the stage. People cheered them on but the most touching pic for me was when Jamie slapped hands with Lincoln.

Then they rang a bell to complete their journey.

I'm not sure if Jamie will do this again. He's approaching 40 this year and it's an extremely hard climb. I'm so proud to have him part of my family.

Eight Months Old

Another month has passed and now Goldie is 8 months old. While still being an extremely happy baby, she's suffering from cutting teeth which causes quite a bit of fussiness.  This may be a very cute smile but actually she's grinding her teeth.

She loves trying new foods. Melissa kept putting slices of cucumber on her tray and she would suck every bit of juice out of each slice. Pasta salad is another of her favorites. She loves standing up. The problem is she can't stand on her own. Goldie also recognizes faces. She lights up when she notices someone she knows. I get quite a few smiles. Baby's first words are usually mama or dada...I'm trying to teach her how to say "Ma". A grandmother can only hope!