Home Sweet Home: Summer 2010 Edition

So the short story on how lucky I was to go home and play for a week with the fam is...well...there is no story. I'm just a lucky girl! Daniel was back to work; therefore, my nursing duties had been lifted. And my nieces and nephews were all in town and I said, "Hey...what about me?!" Next thing I knew, I was on a plane to MO! Lucky, I know.

In the week I was home we did all my favorite summer time activities! Which mostly consisted of going to the pool...EVERY SINGLE DAY! We did switch it up one day and took the kids to the LS waterpark. They've built this waterpark in Lee's Summit since I've moved away and it's so cool! Why couldn't they have had cool stuff like that when I was growing up? Anyway, we all had a blast! Take a look for yourself...

I don't get to make it home over the summer anymore and I absolutely loved being home for a solid week! Other fun stuff included: sleeping in, shopping with mom and Maddy, SMOOTHIES, layin around the house with Jasper, laughing at all the funny stuff Noah says, convincing Liv to crawl in Jasper's cage, homemade ice cream, taking long walks around Raintree, meeting baby Brandon and baby Emmett (sorry no pics of Emmett, woops), daddy-daughter date to see Paul McCartney, my 3 yr old niece Sydney remembered me and custards last stand (delic)! 

Hopefully...sometime soon...we'll be able to visit MO in the summer more often! Thanks family for such a great week. Love you :)

Sir Paul McCartney

Sir Paul McCartney has arrived!!! In Kansas City, MO!!!  My dad and I went to see Paul McCartney at the Sprint Center in KC and it...was...AMAZING! We are both Beatles fans and it was by far one of the coolest things I've ever done to see Paul McCartney perform live!

He sang a lot of the classics, which were my fav cause I only really know the Beatles albums. But he also sang lots of Wings songs...didn't know too much of those. Regardless, the 68 year old Brit still has it! 

The coolest thing he did was that he had a different guitar brought to him after every song he sang! About half-way through the show he was finally like, "if you're wondering why I change guitars every song it's because I just have so many and I like to show them off." HAHA! One of the guitars he played was the original guitar he played when the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. COOL!

Paul played for almost 3 hours and did 3 encores! No one would leave! On his final encore Paul was like, "I've got to go home sometime!!!" Finally the lights came on and we all went home! I'm so glad I got to see the legendary Paul McCartney with my dad cause we'll probably never see him perform live again! 

Thanks for a great time Dad :)

Mama Mia

What have the Tracy's been up to you ask? Well, just this past weekend we met up with my mom and my brother Jason in Detroit! My mom drove up from Missouri with Jay to look for houses cause he is moving there for a new job. Soooooo, we thought hey we'll meet you in Detroit, hang for a day or two and then take mom back with us to Grand Rapids! We helped Jay look for houses in the area they want to live in and got him situated before taking off back to Grand Rapids with my mom.

Once back in Grand Rapids, we spent a day at Grand Haven Beach and sadly regretted not bringing our swim suits. We just thought we could walk around, get some lunch and shop. Once we got there, all we really wanted to do was get in the water because it was 90 degrees outside! But it was a lot of fun nonetheless to walk this cute little beach town.

On Grand Haven Beach is their light house, which sits on the end of the pier. That was a lot of fun too to see the view of the coast and out towards the lake. Again, all we wanted to do was jump off the end of it, but still way cool.

I always love hanging out with my mama! It was fun to have her here for a few days and show her around where we've been living. Thanks for a great weekend mom!

Well Daniel is still recovering from his surgery, but he has been cleared to go back to work, woo hoo! (money is always nice) So he is taking it easy, catching up on work while I have been relieved of my nursing duties until he gets home at the end of the day. Yes, I read my books, surf the net and watch my TV shows in peace now. Not that it wasn't too bad before :) 

So Michigan is still treating us nice, but we are both anxious to get back to our home in Phoenix. 5 more weeks!

Happy Birthday America

4th of July is my FAVORITE holiday (next to christmas of course). Outdoors, swimming, the lake, BBQ-ing, homemade ice cream, family, fireworks...although this year we've had to miss out on the festivities and simply count our blessings that Daniel was released from the hospital yesterday, so our usual holiday activities have been put on hold this year. But that didn't stop us from having a little fun!

Stacia Woodworth is the BIGGEST sweetheart and brought over a 4th of July feast for all of us to share! Hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, corn on the cob, drinks....the works. It was so thoughtful of her to think of us and want to spend the holiday with us. We love having company over, but we especially love having Stacia over! 1) She brings food ha but 2) She's a lot of fun and I love being able to hang out with a familiar face in an unfamiliar area. Dan likes it cause he has someone new to tease besides me :)

I tried my hand at the traditional "Flag" cake. I meant to get a picture BEFORE a piece was taken, but what can I say...Tracy boys. Dan assumed the usual position on the couch and did his best to stay conscious. I'd like to give a shout out to the makers of Vicodin. Thank you for keeping my husband semi-comfortable this holiday :)

So even though it's been a laid back 4th for us we're grateful we weren't spending it in a hospital bed. Dan's home now and has a 2 week recovery before he's cleared to go back to work. So needless to say, we will be doing a whole lot of nothing for the next little bit lol. Quality time right?

Thanks again to Stacia who truly brightened our day and we hope everyone has a very happy 4th of July! God bless America :)

HE LIVES!

Daniel had his surgery Tuesday, June 29th and everything...went...GREAT! We are currently still stationed in the East wing, section 4E, room 46 of the hospital and will be until Saturday. Dan is such a trooper and his recovery is going very smoothly according to his Doctor. We can't help but realize how blessed we truly are. Thank you so much for all your thoughts and prayers :)

Dan's mom flew up for the surgery and it was a great relief to have her here for several reasons. 1) Who doesn't love company? 2) I knew Dan appreciated having his mother here for support through a serious surgery such as this. 3) When they took him away for surgery, I resisted the need to fall apart balling b/c I had someone to distract me while I knew someone was slicing my husband up like a sardine lol. And 4) we just love mom's!

Our daily activities include and ARE limited to the following: At least once an hour use the Repirex to help with lung expansion. About 5-6 times per day, get up and walk the halls to get blood circulating through the legs. Try and sit up for little bit everyday to stretch muscles. And make my bed for a nice restless sleep (whatever). Everything else in between is filled with what else besides Dan reading every single sports news article available on the world wide web.

Thanks for all the emails, notes, kind words, cards and treats! He loves them, and so do I! Especially if they are yummy :)

And now what you've all been waiting for...dun dun dun. THE SCAR! Dr. Lobo (surgeon) told us Dan would be left with about a 3 inch scar on his side where they opened him up to operate on the kidney. 3 inch scar our BUTTS! Today they took off the bandage and this is what we discovered...

If you can't tell, it's more like a 6 inch scar! It looks like they had enough room to open him up, play shuffle board with his organs, and put them back in their rightful place. Yikes. But to look at the bride side, at least he'll be left with a manly scar. He can toss around stories like, "yeah a shark got a hold of me...but I ate it before it ate me."

All is well and more to come on my little patient!