Tug of War

Tom gets pneumonia, Peter finds a job, and what do I post about…?

Finding Quinn on the couch (a no-no), looking cute, cozy and completely NOT guilty!

These two have become fast friends.  Soon Quinn will be at least as big as --and much redder than -- Shasta!

So you’re wondering about Tom and Peter?  Both deserve their own posts, but it’s been crazy around here, so here’s the Reader’s Digest versions:

Last Wednesday I called Tom at 4:00 to ask if he could pick Kat up at UW.  Not sounding quite himself, he said, “Well, I would, but… I’M IN THE HOSPITAL.”

Excuse me?

Tom hadn’t been feeling well for about a week, during which time we traveled to Idaho to see our nephew graduate from high school and sent him off to the US Air Force Academy…

Then his mother and brother came to Seattle for a visit, during which time Tom coughed a lot and slept whenever possible.  All of us, it seemed, had caught a cold, so Tom encountered some choice words from me about all of us being sick and me needing more participation and help from him. 

Yeah, I do feel sufficiently guilty, knowing that… Well, as I was saying --

“Excuse me?!  Why are you in the hospital?!”

Turns out that Tom had two back-to-back meetings and ran from one in an attempt to get to the other, and then couldn’t catch his breath.  Like, for 30-some minutes, he couldn’t breathe well.  Thinking (shudder!) heart attack, his boss called the Boeing paramedics, who hooked him up to oxygen and brought him to the hospital. 

Mind you, this was at 9:30 AM.  Did anyone call me?  Noooooo.  (Grrrrr!)

He spent the day at the hospital, undergoing a series of tests, trying to determine what was going on.  By 4:00 they still weren’t sure, but did anyone call the wifey to tell her what was going on?  Nooooo!  (Grrrr!)

So I heard about all this when I called Tom to ask him to pick up Kat!  (Grrrr!)

Once pneumonia (of the “walking” variety) was diagnosed, Tom was released and drove himself home and has been recuperating since.  He said he didn’t call me because he didn’t want to worry me and he knew I had a full plate that day.  And plus, he said, he didn’t have any facts to give me, as when I called they were still trying to determine what was going on.  I reminded him that in a marriage, partners need to be at one another’s side during times like this, facts be damned!  I reminded him that I SO would have called him when I was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, asking him to drop everything and be with me.  Because I guess I’m selfish and needy like that.  I made him promise that he would never wait to call me in a situation like that again. 

He knew there was only one answer to that: “Yes dear.”

And Peter!  Yes, Peter found a job!  Get this: he had an interview at this environmental consulting firm in Yakima (yes, Yakima) on a Friday and they asked him to return for a second interview the next Friday afternoon, at which time they offered him the job and asked whether he’d be willing to start ON MONDAY if they put him up in a hotel.  There’s really only one answer to that question in that situation.  So last Sunday night Peter drove to Yakima with just some business clothes, checked into a hotel, and started work on Monday morning!  He was thrown head first into an intense, demanding, and challenging job which he will ROCK at!  On his few off-hours he looked for a place to live and, fingers crossed, it looks like he’ll move into his apartment this coming Tuesday.  Talk about zero to a hundred in five seconds…!

He’s been sleeping most of the weekend except for a quick trip to Ikea to get some furniture for his new place.  The poor guy is beyond exhausted – physically and mentally.

And Kat has found a house in Seattle that she’ll share with two other women next year, her senior year at UW.  (How did that happen?!)  She can move in next Friday, so next weekend we’ll rent a trailer on Friday afternoon, bringing all Kat’s furniture and belongings to her new house that night… and then Saturday morning we’ll load up the same trailer with Peter’s furniture and belongings, drive out to Yakima, and help him move in.  Crazy busy – and even busier because Tom isn’t allowed to exert himself much! 

I am, um, woman… hear me, um, roar?

The effect of puppy chow and snuggles on a Golden Retriever puppy

They grow!

Quinn loves the camera – thank goodness!

And she also loves Shasta.

Happy Father's Day to my beloved daddy!

Slideshow design personalized with Smilebox

Shasta and Quinn: Serial cuteness

I’ve posted these on Facebook, but my blog is a much more reliable chronicle, so I want to include them here, too.  As you can see, these two are becoming fast friends – and partners in crimes of serial cute-itude!

And to think that we wondered whether Shasta would welcome a puppy…

Nursedom accomplished!

Just before she graduated from UC Berkeley in 2006, Elisabeth secured a job as a Product Manager with a major medical device company.  Instead of taking a few months off or taking a post-graduation trip to Europe, as some of her friends did, Elisabeth headed directly to an intensive summer of training and then to an intense job in which she travelled extensively and enjoyed some great perks (car, laptop, expense account, etc.), but also worked crazy hours and was headed toward workaholicism.  (I decided that’s a word.)

She stayed in that job until she paid off her fairly intensive school loans and then, just about three years ago, she quit that job and took a job with a much lower intensity level in a women’s health research clinic.  Although she loved working in the healthcare arena, she had decided that she wanted to work directly with patients in a nursing capacity instead of selling medical devices.  Not more than three months after starting that job, the economy went crazy and she was laid off.  And that lay-off allowed her to go back to school, fully funded, to get her RN certificate.  (Kind of like my recent lay-off has allowed me to start my own business while having the safety net of unemployment compensation.)

Last night was the pinning ceremony for the 26 RN graduates.  And next month Elisabeth starts her new job as an ICU nurse at Swedish Hospital’s Neuro ICU.  It’s challenging and intense work in which she works very closely with doctors and the medical teams, but she’s up for it!

I didn’t get a photo of her pinning, but I did get a quick video:

Afterwards we grabbed a few photos:

Elisabeth and “her” Danny – whom we all adore.

Elisabeth and her nana – a mutual adoration.

“The twins.” (I haven’t called them that forever, but for some reason this goofball photo prompted it!)

And this photo of my four kidlets.  Notice how much Peter likes it when I say, “OK, now just a quick picture of the four of you…”  (“Mom – stop with the pictures already!”)

Congratulations, Elisabeth!  I am so proud of you for deciding to make a difference in healthcare, and in people’s lives. 

Puppy dogs: Small, medium and huge!

This is Quinn, our new puppy… Grace, Elisabeth’s boyfriend’s puppy–yes, PUPPY… and Shasta, who thinks she’s a puppy.

Easy Canvas Prints–a product review

I often get requests to review products on my blog.  I turn down 99% of them because I don’t want my blog to become a commercialized product blog.  However, once in a blue moon I’ll accept the offer – with the stipulation that I make no promises to review the product on my blog.  In fact, I go even further and stipulate that I will review the product if I love it or if I hate it but not if I’m indifferent to it.  The risk of a bad review or no review is the company’s to take.

When Megan from Easy Canvas Prints wrote to me, we had just finished painting the living room and had plans to paint the bedroom and family room.  The thought of a personalized photo on canvas was intriguing, so I accepted her offer and proceeded to order one of the photos of our goofy family as a canvas print. 

I love the result!  See that canvas texture? Love it!

I had the choice of how I want the edges – thinner or thicker and wrapped with a continuous photo image, a mirrored photo image, or in black.  I think the black makes it look more like a “museum print.”

They even finished it off with a hanger for me.  (It’s the little things…)

I decided that the perfect place for the new canvas print of our family is in the “gallery hall” downstairs. 

Because we have a crazy split level house, visitors will see it when they walk in the door, along the other portrait of us that I love (but it’s now about ten years old).

I wouldn’t say this unless I believed it (because this is not a product review blog!), but I really do like this idea and the resulting product! 

Shasta and Quinn: It looks like they’ll be friends after all!

Since we brought Quinn home three days ago, Shasta has been less than enthusiastic,  tolerating the feisty little puppy and anxious to earn our approval, but preferring to avoid her whenever possible. 

Then, very suddenly and without warning, THIS happened:

Quinn loves Northwest Ladybug!

And Northwest Ladybug loves Quinn (who I have started calling “Quinn-ley”)!

Introducing Quinn, the newest (and cutest) member of our family!

What do we do when our kids are all adults and have, for the most part, flown the nest?  We find someone to baby!

Introducing Quinn – our sweet, calm, loving, adorable Golden Retriever puppy !

Her name is short for Quinnalt, in keeping with our “mountains and lakes” theme for our dogs’ names.

Quinn is our third Golden Retriever.  We got Tahoe in 1990 when we had four kids under the age of five at home and, in an insane but wonderful move, decided to add a puppy to the mix.

Tahoe was with us from 1990 to 2004  She died suddenly on Christmas morning that year – the same year that my mother died on April 11th, which was Easter morning.

Coincidentally, Shasta was born a year to the day after my mom died – April 11, 2005.  She was an adorable puppy, wasn’t she?!

And in another interesting coincidence, Quinn was born six years to the day after Shasta, as we found out as we signed her adoption papers!  So it seems that April 11th is multi-significant day for beloved souls in our family.

All the Snider humans adore Quinn --

(Tom is adoring her from afar until Monday, as he’s traveling.  But we’re updating inundating him with photos!)

Quinn absolutely adores Shasta…

…but Shasta isn’t so sure yet.

But we’re not worried.  I have a feeling they’ll be fast friends. 

Especially because Quinn has taken an instant liking to tennis balls!  How did THAT happen so fast?!

Poor Quinn has had quite a day, and she can’t keep her eyes open anymore!

Yeah, I think we’ve all fallen madly in love!