Blessings...

On Friday, Daddy, Gramma Duck and Mason took a quick trip to Marshfield to pick up our first piece of "owned" equipment for Mason. I had assumed that they placed the order for this through our insurance and our insurance surprisingly gave them no issues, but that was not the case. This was a gift from the Children's Miracle Network. Thank you to all that make donations to this cause because it allows families like ours to get the equipment we need. This very expensive stander may be the one thing that keeps Mason from future hip surgery from his hips not forming appropriately.

Today we had a father's day lunch to celebrate with the daddy's in our lives (minus Grampa Mrdutt - who'll we get to spend 3 days with for the 4th.) I can't believe how much food we end up with at these gatherings. I can't figure out if its the competitiveness of all of us proving our cooking skills or if we seem to think that a hundred people are going to show up unannounced. Regardless, it was all awesome. I made a cheesecake from scratch for the first time, definitely a keeper recipe but apparently cheesecake isn't supposed to jiggle when you remove it from the oven....I'll try it again soon. We also had: chicken on the grill, broc/cauliflower salad, two types of potato salad, baked beans, fresh fruit, grilled veggies, brownies, meatballs, crab dip and chips. Oh, and some mango salsa that I shouldn't even speak of. Nasty stuff...don't ever buy it from Sam's Club.

It was a gorgeous day to spend some time in the yard. Our beautiful yard...I'm so proud of all the work we put into it (and others in our family that just so happened to build the deck and bring in the dirt...you know who you are...) Our yard was filled with family and food...just how it should be. I wish every summer day could be just like this one.



I hope all you Dad's had a great day today. I am so blessed to have all of you in my life...especially my husband, who sets the standard higher and higher each day of what a great dad should be. I am so lucky.

Discoveries

We got down to the land today to plant more in the garden...added potatoes and onions. I still need to plant my herbs, pumpkin and squash, but its coming along.

While walking around our property, a few cool things were discovered:

WILD ROSES!

RASPBERRY BUSHES!!

AN APPLE TREE!

Oh, and a chippy.

All of this makes me very excited to live there...

Strawberry Pickin'

Mason had his first visit to a strawberry farm this morning. It was his nap-time, so we were only able to pick about 9/10 lbs before we had to go. He was a big fan of eating them though!

The normal swing of things...

The Mrdutt/Konkol Wedding 2.0 was pretty darn fantastic. The three of us were so proud to be a part of it. Of course, my sister's incredible attention to detail really paid off and the whole day went off without a hitch. Of course, we did have a little bump....but I'll leave that story to be told in person.

Of course, my camera hardly left my purse as I attended to Mason and completed my bridesmaidly duties. I did manage to capture the only pictures that were taken on the limo bus.


If I were to do the Mrdutt/Konkol 1.0 wedding over again, I would definitely build in some time for a limo bus and some barhopping...that was my favorite part of the night! Overall the day was super emotional for me, as Katie and Ben really made us feel like a part of their day by dedicating their "kissing" tradition to VCFS kids everywhere, and asked for donations towards the educational foundation. The part that my little sister got married to one of the nicest guys I've ever met may have had a little to do with the tears too. ;)

As things return to normal here in stinky-town, I realize just how abnormal our lives are. We've had a crazy busy week and Mason's sleep schedule is erratic. We did manage to tend to our garden today and I was very pleased to find out that I DO have a green thumb!


I look forward to planting some more things this weekend and cleaning up the land a bit. Our 2 acres seem to be swimming in poison ivy as well, so that's been a challenge.

Mason's speech therapy has been going very well. Mason is slowly getting better and bringing his upper lip down to meet the spoon and his liquid intake has REALLY increased. I do believe we could be completely dependent on oral feedings if it weren't for his medicines. I am, by no means, considering the removal of his G-tube, as it is something that we will maintain for emergencies. You never know when that next flu or seizure is around the corner. **Knock on Wood**

Today Chris called the hospital to check up on the order for Mason's equipment. To our surprise, we found out that they put in for the stander already and it arrived! Mason will get his new super decked out stander next Friday. This also caused us to realize just how inadequate the space is becoming in our Trailblazer. It's time to start looking for something with more cabin space and we're considering an "upgrade" to a Suburban or a Yukon. I haven't been happy with the search so far but maybe we'll get lucky. (Did I remember to pick up that Powerball ticket?)

Other than this minor news...our life is slowly sliding back into our "normal". I look forward to the next 3 weekends with no set-in-stone plans to just catch up on our day to day.

I'm hoping that all of you are maintaining your "normals" as well!

Memorial Day Weekend

We attended my cousin's lovely wedding on Saturday in Milwaukee. Everything was gorgeous! Congratulations Mike & Carey! I wish I would remember that I have my camera so that I can take and share pictures...guess that proves how much fun I was having instead!

On Sunday, we took the 5 hour drive back up to the lake...

Although we didn't get a lot of time in Cumberland, it was enough time to take Mason swimming in his new Mickey swimsuit. He L.O.V.E.D. it!




Addy was pretty tuckered out from all her play-time with Jake, by 3:00 on Monday, she was ready to hit the road!



We better rest up...we have another crazy weekend ahead of us!!!