For My Mom

 I spoke with my mom and some of our family last night and we felt that it would be best to include everyone who's interested, in this difficult time in our lives. As some of you know, for the past 3 years my mom has had some difficulty with her speech and communication. Unfortunately her condition has gotten worse and she's been seeing doctors for the past few years trying to come up with answers. Last week I went with my parents to the U of U neurology center and we spoke with a doctor who gave us a diagnosis, which we will do some further testing to confirm. He told us that my mom has a condition called PSP or Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. In this condition, people are affected by paralysis of the facial muscles that control expression, eye, tongue, mouth and throat movement. This progressively slows the rest of the body down as well and ultimately causes immobilization. It eliminates the ability to form words and the ability to communicate by speaking. It makes it hard for my mom to keep eye contact and focus in situations. My mom's thought process and memory do remain intact and by other means she is still able to communicate with us. This condition has no treatments or cures. It is eventually fatal.

I believe I can speak for my family when I say that this has taken quite the toll on all of us, especially this last week. But I think that it is relieving in a way to have an answer, one that we have been searching for, for a long time. I am amazed at all the many people, friends and family, that have stepped up to help out. They have lightened the burden and I am so grateful for all of them. God has blessed us with so many angels in our lives. Thank you.

I have to mention one person in specific, who without we'd all be lost and has been so amazing. My dad.  He has a heart of gold. He has never left my mom's side and he never will. He's been the strong one, holding us all together throughout everything. He works so hard, every day and never stops to think of himself. He is the most selfless person I know. He would do anything and everything for any of us. I hope he know's how important he is to me and our family. My mom is so lucky to have him.

If anyone is interested psp.org has more info on her condition. We would embrace any help that anyone would like to give. Please remember to keep her in your prayers.

Now for the fun part... Here's to so many great memories!

 I love you mom!

Year 2, a Success with a Tragic Ending

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary yesterday. It's crazy that it's already been 2 years, I don't know where the time as gone. We had a nice weekend together. On Saturday we hiked up South Fork Canyon where we had our wedding reception and the fall colors were so beautiful! Then that night we went to an awesome birthday bash for Ryan's boss up at a cabin in the Canyons. On Sunday we took it easy and Ryan had to write a paper so we didn't do too much. Then last night we had dinner at Chef's Table and then went star gazing and looked at Jupiter with the telescope. We kept it pretty low key this year, but I do have to tell you about my tragedy...

So I decided to get creative yesterday and be a good little wife and make us a red velvet cake for desert. I have always wanted to make one and finally had the perfect occasion. I baked the cake and made the frosting from scratch and then after like 2 hrs in the kitchen, I started frosting the cake. I had the cake on my cooling rack that has collapsable legs (which I should have transferred it to a cake platter, I know, I know). Ryan had just walked in the door, home from work/school and was surprised to find me being so homely and wife-like making a cake and all. Anyways, while I was frosting, somehow one of the legs slipped off the edge of the counter and the rack collapsed letting my entire cake (which was nearly finished) fall to the floor.  Ryan ran to my rescue and abiding by the 5 second rule helped me put the cake back together into a scrambled mess. I was a teary mess myself and far from being a good homely wife. Luckily I caught about 2 pieces worth in my hands before they splatted on the floor and we were able to enjoy that later for desert. Needless to say, it still tasted amazing, so my baking skills still remain intact. It was quite tragic but we did end up having a great night anyways.

By the way, our camera forgot to tag along for the weekend so I apologize on it's behalf that we have no pictures to show ya'll.

Snip Snip

It's the saddest thing when you're taking your dog to the vet and he's so excited because he gets to go on a car ride, but he has no clue what's about to happen. Poor Recon lost his manhood yesterday. Unfortunently we had no choice in the matter since he is an AKC certified dog we had to sign that we would neuter him when he was old enough. We are very sad for him, but what else can we do. He was pretty funny all doped up though. He could hardly walk when we got home, pretty much all he did yesterday was sleep. He's almost back to normal today just still kinda tired. But good thing, he still lifts his leg when he goes! It was kinda funny, last night I took him out to go and he has this bush that he always goes on in front of the house. He stumbled up to it and literally walked right into the brick wall behind it. Then he did his business and then just sat there with his head up to the brick with a blank stare on his face not knowing what to do next. I had to help him get out of the bush. Poor thing. The vet weighed him yesterday and he was 87 lbs! They say that puppies don't stop growing until they are 18 months old and Recon's dad was 90-100 lbs. We sure hope he doesn't get much bigger since he's only 7 months now.

Pretty much all he did yestderday

So sad

Dopey

Pearl brought James over today and I watched him for a few hours while she was doing some training at work. It's been a while since I've seen him and he's grown so much! He's starting to talk now and he was so much fun to play with. He really liked Recon and constantly wanted to go out in the backyard to see him, but as soon as Recon would come up to see him and give him kisses James would get all nervous. 

He has the biggest blue eyes

After like 30 different applicants and 3 months of hard work we have finally rented out our apartment. We found a nice couple that is getting married in October and she just moved in last night. It was hard to see the place go and not be able to go down there anymore, but it will be nice to have the income again. We just hope they take good care of the place. It's so weird that it's done, I feel like I need to be doing something right now. It will be nice to have some time to myself again. I think I will spend it making Banana Peanut-Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins today! Surprise for Ryan when he gets home from work.

Yummy!

Wyoming

Last week we left for a little road trip through Yellowstone and then to Ryan's parent's cabin in Hyattville, Wy. We camped outside of Jackson in the Teton's national park. Then we drove through yellowstone the next day. I was bummed that we didn't see any bears or wolves, but we did see tons of buffalo which Recon was going nuts for. He tried to jump out the window a few times. We stayed in Hyattville for 3 days and then we made the long drive home yesterday. I have to admit that this was shamefully our first time out camping this year. Recon loved it though, he had lots of fun rummaging around in the dirt and trees. 

Hyattville was so nice and relaxing. I have been looking forward to this trip for the last few months. We have been working non stop on the house, and neither of us have been able to take a break. We set up the hammock by the river and I enjoyed laying back and reading. We played a few games of botchi ball and chipped the golf balls around the yard. Recon and I got up in the mornings and ran down a pretty road following the river. We even got out fishing with Ryan's dad this time. Ryan's grandma and grandpa Dunlop made it down saturday and spent the night. It was fun to see them. Ryan and his mom had a rib cook off which made for a delicious dinner. 

Now we're back to the fast paced life that we too often get caught up in. Good thing places like Hyattville still exist. 

Ryan's dad and Recon surprisingly love each other!

Finally

What a crazy last few months! We have taken on the biggest project either of us have ever done and we are finally finished, we just have a few last finishing touches! We have completely renovated our basement apartment. Our tenants moved out the beginning of June and when we went through the apartment after, we found that it was worse than we had remembered when we bought the house. It was just so old and in some dire need of updating. So we deciding to put the money that we had been saving for our master bathroom into the basement instead. Ryan's brother Sean came out the first week and helped us rip out the old kitchen and put the new one in as well as the flooring. Him and Ryan worked so hard that week staying up til 1 in the morning some nights. We are so lucky to have had Sean's help. Ryan and I have worked so hard over the last 2 months, so many countless hours and I feel like I have had no life outside of work. We were hoping to have it finished a few weeks ago, but with Ryan finishing up his school semester and so many other things going on it was hard. We've put an add online and are hoping to find some renters in the next week or so. So if you know anyone in need of an apartment, let us know.

Now that it's finished and I've taken some pictures, I'm completely regretting not taking any pictures before and during the project. I have a picture of the old kitchen but nothing else. But I can tell you now that it looks 100% better than before.

Sean was awesome and put in our backsplash for us in our kitchen while he was here! 

Sean and Ryan also installed our new front door, it still needs to be stained but we love it! 

As for an update on our only child, he weighed in at 75 lbs last night. 

He still thinks he's little and can fit through everything