Halloween 2014

 Sydney's 10th Halloween. I don't know how much longer she'll want to do this. Knowing her, we've got about 4 years left I'd say. Halloween this year fell on one of the coldest, nastiest, rainy days we've had so far this fall.

 But we braved it and I took Sydney to my friends house so we could trick or treat with her son and her niece. (Harley Quinn and the cop)

 Sydney was a cat. She had so much fun and just kept telling me how she had a good time, despite the weather. It wasn't too bad except at the end when we were over a block from the house and it started raining. It was cold!

But at least it held off until Sydney could fill her bucket!

Catching Up

 I'd have sworn I'd posted since Chris came home, but I guess not. So, I'll catch you up. Here is a pic of Sydney and her favorite daycare friends. That day they had caught this big weird lizard that I had never seen before, but apparently they're quite common.

 Chris and Sydney were posing here before we left for Chris's birthday dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory.

 This is Auna, Sydney's very best friend. This was taken at Auna's birthday party. Auna didn't want to let Sydney go because she didn't want her to leave. I love this girl.

 We went to a town about an hour away for an arts and crafts festival. It was SO big, we didn't have enough time to cover it all. We will definitely go back next year.

 Another festival with friends. More local this time. This is my friends little boy, Dom. He and Sydney adore each other!

 Sydney carving her mini pumpkin. She came up with this all by herself. She's a big sweetie.

 " I love my family"

And here's my all grown up 10 year old. When did this happen?! I've asked her to stop growing but she just laughs. Tomorrow is Halloween, so I'll have some pics of that soon!

He's home!

 He's out! He's free! I picked him up Monday afternoon (the 18th) and went straight to a local pizza joint that he'd been craving since he'd been in the hospital. I'm not sure why since we don't go there very often, but he was getting whatever he wanted that day.

 Andy missed him.

So did Cori.

And of course, so did me and Sydney. It's been nice to have him home. He's getting around ok, still walking with a walker (he tried a cane and decided it was too soon). He started outpatient therapy on Friday and will go 3 times a week for however long they want to see him. The scheduling has been a bit crazy since he's not driving, plus Sydney doing cross country after school, Dr. appointments (for all of us), meeting with the school, Open House, but with my mom, his mom and his friend Robin, I think we'll figure it all out. Hoping his recovery is short and complete!

Waiting for Daddy and a New Haircut

 Sydney's school pictures will be coming up on the 20th of this month and her hair was a mess. Hadn't been cut in a while, just looking blah. So I thought I'd just take her to get a trim. But she wanted her hair cut like her BFF Auna. I didn't trust just anyone to do this and our normal stylist was off for a funeral, so I ended up going with someone my friend recommended.

She managed to squeeze us in that day and here is the final product. Looks SO much better. I think she'll look cute for her pictures.

So, Chris continues to make progress everyday. He's been in rehab for 9 days now and the therapists are amazed at how quickly he's improving. They said they believe he will regain full function of his legs. Let's hope so! We're shooting for him to be home either Monday or Tuesday which is just another 3 or 4 days. As of yesterday, this whole ordeal has been going on for 3 weeks. Which is just about all the time he had for taking off work. As soon as he gets home, he can work from home and keep the money coming in.

The Unexpected and First Day of Fifth Grade

 Thursday, July 31st was Sydney's first day of Fifth grade. July. Seriously. She loves school, so she was plenty happy to go back. This year, she has a new teacher who is from England. Sydney likes her accent.

 

 And I took this one the other day while we were having lunch at Pizza King, just because she's so stinkin' cute!

So, here's the unexpected part. 2 Thursdays ago, Chris had severe upper back pain and started to lose feeling in his legs. He went to the immediate care center, who sent him via ambulance to the hospital. They did an MRI and determined he had a severely herniated disc in his upper back and it was pushing on his spine because it had herniated in towards his spine instead of out, like it usually would. He got transferred to Jewish and the surgeon there told us it is a very risky surgery, he'd have to have bone around his spine removed and rods and pins put back in it's place. So, he had surgery last Tuesday and just got transferred to Southern Indiana Rehab late yesterday. His right leg is especially weak and doesn't work as well as the left, so he's got a leg brace for his right leg. He'll be in rehab 2-3 weeks, they're estimating. So, I've spent a lot of time at the hospital in the last 2 weeks. It felt like a second home. Fortunately, we had lots of visitors.

 This is my all grown up niece, Cali and her step-brother Jake. Cali's mom brought me pop tarts and doritos, a real life saver. My friend Amber also came by and brought me lots of my favorite candy, plus some magaznines, which helped to pass the time.

 When Sydney visited, she'd just sleep

This is the day of surgery. She found herself a nice little place to take a nap. I got NO sleep the night before and thought for sure I'd be crashing too, but I couldn't. The surgery took about 4 hours, but we were out there even longer than that.

So, that's what we've been up to. It really blindsided us and we just couldn't believe it turned into something so serious. But I believe everything happens for a reason and I can already see many fruits coming from this seemingly bad situation, so I just have to trust God that it will all turn out according to His will.

Dunes and Farms

Oh my gosh! 2 posts in such a short amount of time. And I don't even think Mike has noticed. This weekend, we drove to the Indiana Dunes. It's on Lake Michigan, there's a beach and everything. I was so pumped to climb the dunes, but after 1, I was done! Hiking up a hill in sand is super hard.

 A beach in Indiana! Who knew?

 Sydney was chomping at the bit to get in the water. But we had to hike a little first.

 The smoke stacks kind of take away from the beauty

 A picture after we had hiked up the dune, looking back at the beach

 Then we found this boardwalk/path and decided to see where it went. The campground, it turns out. Not very exciting, but it was still pretty.

 When we left the beach, we drove about an hour back, towards Fair Oaks Farms, because that was where we were going Sunday. We stopped at this candy factory. It's cute!

 This was a real life flowing pipe of chocolate! Chris REALLY thought this was cool.

 Sydney, making her own giant pixie stick. I think you can tour the factory too, which would have been really neat, but it was over for the day. Bummer, we might have to go back!

 Sunday, we went to Fair Oaks Farm. We got to tour the dairy barns from a bus and then we got off and watched them being milked. They are supposed to watch for signs of labor with the pregnant cows and move them to another barn where they give birth, but I think they missed this one, cause she had just had this baby and was still cleaning it off.

 Here's the milking machine. They know what to do, it's so cute. They know when to back off of it and when to get on. However, you do have some sneaky cows who DON'T get off and take a free ride. They say they really like going around on this thing. Don't worry, they can tell if a cow has already been milked so they just let her ride.

 After the ride was over, we went back to where we boarded the bus from and there were all kinds of cow related things to look at. Here's Sydney, trying to attach the milking machine to the cow.

 Next up was the Pig Adventure!!!! I was in hog heaven (pun intended). I must have this print (above)

 They don't let anyone come in direct contact with any of the animals to keep them and you from getting sick. So, they have a pig window, where they bring in a brand new, just born piglet! We got our pictures taken with it.

So many pigs!! I really wanted to smuggle a baby one out of there, but since there was no contact, my plan was foiled. I learned a few things about cows and pigs. It was a neat experience and I would recommend it.

What we've been up to

 We celebrated my grandma's 81st birthday at Huber's. The whole gang was there!

 I don't think I've posted any pics of my new cat. He's been with us 1 year and 2 days now. His name is Andy. We went into the pet store for hermit crab bedding and came out with him. He's very fat. About 19 lbs now. He was 14 lbs when we got him. I wondered how he was getting so big since I was only feeding him twice a day, then I discovered Chris was feeding him again, cause he just couldn't resist the kitty face.

 Sydney got to pet a wild baby bunny. This was in our yard and I think the bunny was literally frozen stiff with fear because our dog, Cori had just run by.

 We went to Myrtle Beach in June. This is the view from our balcony. It was great weather and Chris's mom and dad went with us, so it was nice to get to spend time with them and for them to get a whole week with Sydney.

 A man had this turtle out in a shopping center, taking donations for the rescue of sea animals, or something. It was probably for a drug addiction, but whatever. We actually took a wrong turn and found this, so that was kind of neat.

 Sydney found the coral (seaweed?) below and it had all these tiny crabs (above) crawling all over it.

 Sydney rode the bull! She needs some practice though.

 And here she is relaxing on the slip n slide in the front yard while I was slaving away doing landscaping.

 Relaxing with Andy.

My beautiful baby after our Mother/Daughter photo shoot. A local photographer wanted models that fit that bill for something special she's got planned, so we went. She looked SO cute and my mom fixed her hair so pretty! We had fun and I'm excited to see how they come out.