Farewell Old Friend

Today we lost one of our family members, our dog Zeus had been with us since we rescued him in 2002 with the help of some caring people over at Arizona Boxer Rescue. Below is my creative outlet and my way of dealing with this very sad loss.

Zeus, we will miss you so much and are so grateful for time we got to spend with you! You were a fantastic dog that battled through adversity your whole life. As a puppy you were abandoned and then traded from home to home prior to Arizona Boxer Rescue getting involved and placing you with our family. In 2003 we almost lost you because of some over zealous eating habits that led you to believe that a piece of hard black plastic was the perfect tasty treat for a growing pup.... a rush to the emergency room, stomach surgery, a little ziplock bag labeled "removed this unknown foreign object", and a maxed out credit card later you were back at home with us (we never did figure out what that black piece of plastic was)! A year later you were diagnosed with boxer-cardio-myopothy - a disease that the doctors thought would take your life within a few years, but we didn't give up on you and you on us.... so with the help of some drugs to slow your giant energetic heart down we were back on track and having lots of fun camping, taking trips to the dog park, and doing lots of wrestling around! A few years later you got yourself stung by either bees or a scorpion and scared the bejesus out of me when you wouldn't leave my side and I noticed that your face (and peeper... poor guy) were 4 times the size they ought to be!!! After a bit Benadryl and forced lounging around the house and you were back to the races again! You stuck with us year after year of going in for your halter monitors, walking shamefully around the house in your "special jacket" while the other dogs poked fun at you so the doctors could tell us how far the Boxer-Cardio-Myopothy had progressed. In the end it wasn't any of those things that finally slowed you down... instead it was something hidden, something we couldn't see and you didn't show any signs of... which I think I'm glad for. I'm glad you lived such a full life and one that didn't end with you being in a lot of pain for a long duration of time.

You were such a wonderful friend. You were a dog that I had complete trust in... even when Ethan came along and as the months went by you moved further and further down the chain of command you still showed unconditional love for our family and all it's members. I appreciated how good you were with Ethan letting him constantly try to ride you like a horse or pinch you when he got over excited... or even accidentally fall on you as he practiced walking... and then jumping. You should know he asked about you for the first time tonight on his own on the way back from picking him up from school. Leann and I asked him if he wanted to go out to get dinner (because neither of us felt like making anything at home) to which he replied "No, I want to go home... want to see the dogs: Riley, and Rajah, and Zeus!". He had so much fun with you over the last few weeks and I know that he will miss you a lot as well. Trying to decide what to tell him about why you aren't at home.... why we are only feeding two dogs... and when he starts asking "Where's Zeusee?" has been one of the hardest things I've had to do as a father in this short amount of time that I've been in this position... I haven't had to have the conversation with him yet... but I think I'm going to tell him that you are on a "special mission" and that you won't be coming back home to us because your energy is being put into other things... other VERY IMPORTANT things and we that we should be happy that we got to spend time with you while your mission was with our family. I think he'll get that.... at a minimum he'll think that the mission part is cool :)

In the end I'm sorry that I didn't get to say goodbye to you in person.... I'm sorry I made you get off the couch this weekend when we were watching movies... when all you wanted to do was snuggle with us. I loved you very much as did everyone in this family. You're energy, unconditional love, and snuggles will be sorely missed. I'll do my best to try to convey to Rajah and Riley where you are and what happened... I know they will miss you probably even more than I can imagine and I'll do my best to see them through their mourning period.

Goodbye for now my friend.

Long week, and weekend!

So, it's been a long 7 days for the Cork family.  We're just now starting to feel better.  Leann is getting back into health, as am I, and the munchkin too! Ethan has been a bit feverish and drooly the last couple of nights so we think he is teething and getting in his top chompers.  He finally stopped having his super runny nose today and he and I made a trip to CostCo together and gave mom a chance to get some much needed rest.  All in all we had a good weekend that was rooted in rest and getting healthy.  Many a naps were taken and Ethan got to sleep in our bed because he wasn't feeling well. Not a lot of pictures lately because we haven't been feeling well.  We are excited to get into this next week and away from being so sick!  Leann and I both signed up for our new Stickk.com challenge... mine is around exercise and eating right and Leann's is around losing weight.  We actually started last week... thank goodness for that "if we are sick" clause or else we'd be out some money :) 

I also resigned from my position on the Laveen Association of HOAs this week... after talking to family and friends and my doctor I decided I needed to drop some stuff from my plate and started with those duties as they made the most sense.  I also got some encouragement from my boss at work that I was doing well there which helps to alleviate the stress.   I'm going to try to start making more time for Exercise and a healthy lifestyle that we started ~15 weeks ago with our last Stickk.com challenge.  Last time Leann and I both lost about 20 pounds each and we are hoping to do that again over the next 8 - 12 weeks!  My plan right now is to add swimming to my weekly routine and to really focus on not cheating on the diet.  I've also decided to try to regulate my schedule a bit more with a daily wake up time regardless of if I'm doing weight lifting or cardio (in the past I've woke up later on cardio days because it takes less time).  I'm also hoping to start a big new project... I've purchased a domain name that I'd like to start a health and fitness community under.  The domain is www.iUpgrade.me but there really isn't anything there right now but I'm hoping to build a community website around health and fitness and allow people to focus on the social aspects of getting health and fit as well.  We'll see how that goes... just one more project in the cooker! :)  Anywho, this is turning into a long post so I'll leave it at that.  Catch up with you next time!

Singing Baby Boy!

So, here's a video of Leann getting Ethan to help her sing "Old MacDonald" he doesn't quite get the "O" part out... but he's got the "E I, E I" part down pat.  This video was taking about a week or so ago.

 

The Rock Band Video....

by popular request here it is.... 10 minutes in length.... some funny stuff just watch the whole thing. A little tidbit.... right after the video ends (Because I had reached the magic youtube 10 minutes and the video stopped) Zach had a beer spilled all over his back by accident. Aubrey the little girl in the background jumped on Jason and party foul beer spill ensued on the scotch guarded couch and zach's shirt.

I love sleep....

So, we've had the munchkin back from surgery for two days now and personally... I'm spent!
We have to give him 3 different types of medication about every 4 hours and whew! It's tough to keep up. We (especially me) have been catching up on sleep here and there where we can. Lots of little one or two hours naps here and there. Today is mother's day and we haven't done anything really excited for Leann today. I got her some gifts that she really liked but i didn't even go out and buy a card (I know I'm a terrible husband).... although I think the card is less important to Leann than spending time together is. We had a good time last night spending time together playing with her new mother's day gift as a family.... A ROCK BAND FAMILY! Yup, that's one of the things that I got for Leann for Mother's day, a special edition rock band game for the XBOX! It comes with another Guitar, a Drum Set, and a microphone for singing. We rocked out last night and I took some funny videos that I'll be posting to YouTube shortly. For now here are some pics of our "mother's day" family event.

Enjoy!

Bouncing Baby... Laughing Grandma!

Testing out some new gadgets...

So I'm using "Windows Live Writer" to write this blog post.  It's a desktop app that I got from Microsoft when I downloaded and installed Windows Live Gallery so I could upload a lot of my photos to Flickr.  This seems pretty cool as it is spellchecking on the fly.  I also have buttons to the right for inserting pictures, tables, maps, tags, videos, and hyperlinks.  It also looks like it supports other Plug-ins as well.  Pretty interesting.

Here's a picture that I've posted:

I now see that I have lots of options for this picture... in an advanced tab where I can set certain effects on the picture like black and white etc...  Pretty cool stuff!

Speaking of Flickr (okay, I mentioned it only briefly above), I've spent a bunch of time with my pictures today because of that darn website!  I like it a lot... but I'm now forced to rething my photos.  I've been spending the last hour or so tagging all my photos.  I successfully have tagged all my dog photos and stored them into individual shots (tagged with their name) as well as a generic category titled "dogs".  Hopefully I keep this up.  .... although, now thinking about it.  I'll have to tag them in Flickr from now on as most of them will be uploaded automatically because I'm using EyeFi.. hmmm interesting... my Flickr images will be tagged but the local copies will not if I do decide to do that.... hmm.  I guess that's something to noodle on while I sleep tonight.  Anywho, it just occured to me that I've not posted before using this tool and if I don't stop typing soon I could have a whole lot of content that I can't post on my hands ;)

So until next time!

Laters Gators

A trying week….

Wow, this has been one of those weeks! Ethan had been fussy all weekend but mom took care of things because Dad was down and out with the flu. Then on Monday when Dad started feeling better Ethan's teething kicked into high gear. He really started fussing a lot and Leann called the doctor's office. They told him that if he doesn't respond well to baby Tylenol on the gums and/or we see him rubbing an ear a lot to bring him in as it may be an ear infection. By the time Wednesday rolled around the Tylenol on the gums thing was pretty ineffective and he started to get a persistent fever. Off to the doctor's office we went! After some serous crying as the doctor was getting mass amounts of wax out of his ears she deemed the issue an ear ache indeed. On Thursday night we began giving him his prescribed dosage of Amoxicillin… which is bright pink and seems to be an exceedingly large amount for his tiny mouth. Needless to say Ethan is not a fan of Amoxicillin… and now I understand why my mom use to always claim I was allergic to it when the doctors suggested it :). Anywho, the crazytrain at work wasn't stopping for either of us as we both had tons of stuff to do at work as well as a little emergency / crisis on Pop's website for his business that I was helping to resolve Monday through Wednesday. Thankfully for me Leann volunteered to stay at home with Ethan for two days and work from home while he pushed through his fever. I was very thankful because it seemed like I had a barrage of non stop face to face meetings that I was required to be in. By the time Friday rolled around we were both exhausted… I was working late at night on block watch and HOA stuff as well as work stuff for my face to face meetings. Ethan was only sleeping 2 or maybe 3 hours at a time and Leann was taking on the brunt of it (meaning sleep deprivation).

To top things off the pink die from Ethan's Amoxicillin (remember I mentioned that it was bright pink above) seemed to move through his body and directly to his hiney and turned it bright red! That's right… by Friday Ethan had a raging diaper rash and now wanted to cry in both a sitting and standing position! Changing time is no longer fun for him… he's in a ton of pain when we wipe his bottom and he lets us know it! Luckily Leann is a superhero in the field of dealing with unhappy baby's and their sleepy fathers. She has been doing so awesome taking care of him as well as me without getting sick (thank goodness). I don't know how she does it… but I'm so thankful for her strength and ability in this area!

We are looking forward to a visit from Granny Sweetpea in a little over a week. Ethan has been talking to us a lot lately and I image that he's telling us how excited he is as asking us how much longer till we granny gets here. To which we reply "4 more miles" :)

Anywho, that's the skinny for now.
Until next time, take care!

Sick Josh...

So, Thursday morning I woke up at 3am with a headache! Yuck.... I took some Advil and headed back to bed. I got up at 5:30am and I could tell that I was coming down with something but I had a face to face with my management team at work and I needed to be there. So I took my Claratin D and I headed off to our plant in Ocotillo (about a 45 minute drive) for the face to face meeting. I got to the plant and bout a rockstar energy drink and some hot food for breakfast hoping that it would help me feel better. I held out until about 1pm when things started to get worse as the Advil and Claratin started wearing off. By 4pm I could feel a fever coming on and I had to leave so I tried to bow out gracefully. I jumped into the Murano and headed home... the Murano was probably 100 degrees inside but it felt great because by this time I was having bad cold chills! That lasted through the night and into the next day (Friday) with alternating hot and cold feverish yuckyness! I slept from 5pm Thursday night till 7:30 and then took some NyQuil and slept from 9pm till about 1pm on Friday. I was then up for a few hours and then back to sleep again until 5 or 6pm! I couldn't believe how tired and sore I was! I passed out again on Friday night about midnight with the aid of some more NyQuil and woke up this morning around 11am. A few naps here and there today and I'm finally feeling a bit better. We made the Trek to Costco and got some dinner out tonight so I'm feeling a bit better. Tomorrow is Easter and we have big plans all day apparently so hopefully I'm feeling better.

Luckily Leann and Ethan have not fallen victim to this flu that I've had (Although, if you were looking for a poop status update.... Ethan had tonight what I can only describe as bright green cottage cheese poop.... so he may actually be sick as well :)). Leann has been taking great care of me and Ethan by herself for the last two days and I don't know what I would do with out her! Little Ethan has been doing great these last few weeks... He's been sleeping a bit less because he's really started to Teethe (if that's how you spell it)... and that's been taking its toll on mom. He's sitting up pretty well on his own now as you can see from these photos. He's also gotten pretty good at grabbing things with his hands. He's all smiles lately as well. The Ladies at day care as well as a few family members and friends have been encouraging us to take him to a talent agency and get him in some commercials or print work because of his smiley attitude and cute face! We'll see how that pans out.

It has been so long since our last good post because we've been pretty busy! I've been super involved with the block watch, the HOA, and now I'm a core member of the village association of HOA's as well! On top of all that we've been trying to get in some quality time with Ethan, also Leann's brother Zach has been living with us for the last month trying to get grounded and transition from being a highschool student into the work force and getting into a community college. Leann and her sister Cori have been working with him to help get him his drivers license, and his GED. We've also been trying to spend some quality time hanging out with him as well! Additionally this month was, apparently, our annual spend money on the dogs month. Last weekend saw us spend about $500 bucks on Rajah because of a limp, and some prework to make sure she is okay to have a gum and teeth cleaning under anestheia. Not only that but it was time for Zeus's annual heart monitor session and that cost big bucks... much more than we normally pay because it's a new docotor and new technology... that cost about $800 bucks! Pretty crazy! They are totally worth it.... but it takes the wind out of you a bit. We will be keeping busy moving forward as well... I've got trips to Chicago, Portland, and San Diego planned. Additionally we are headed off to Michigan for Marcy's wedding in July! That will be are big vacation and we are pretty excited because it's been a long time since we've taken a nice long vacation to relax and visit with family. Additionally it will be the first time that lots of our family gets to see Ethan!

Anywho, that's the skinny for now.

It's that time of year again....

Actually we are a couple of months late...

From Taken on Marc...

Each year Zeus gets a halter monitor to see how far his "Boxer CardioMyopathy" has progressed (you can click on the link to see an explantion of what it is). This year he has a new Doctor and a new halter. As you can see in the picture this one is just bandaged on. The previous monitory was a vest of sorts that held a computer that was protected by being placed inside a modified altoid can. You can see a picture of the old vest here.

The new Doctor assures us that this monitor is much better and provides him with much better data. It had better be... the price tripped and we ended up walking out paying almost a grand! Leann talked them into giving us a discount because they didn't tell us that the price had gone up so much until after we were there and they had already started things. They were really good about it because they had a bunch of scheduling issues with the provide of the monitor. They actually outsource the data retrieval and report generation as opposed to creating it themselves like they used to. For Zeus we just have to keep a little diary so they can compare his activities with that they see on the output from the electrodes... for example if someone were to knock on the door while he was sleeping and he jumped up and barked and ran to the door they would see a huge spike on the monitor when they look at the data. Anywho that's the skinny for now. He's resting on his dog bet looking very humiliated being in this wrap that holds the electrodes. At least he got to go for a car ride today! Tomorrow I have to bring him back (24 hours later .... so they have 24 hours of data) and they will remove the wrap and electrodes.

SuperDuper Business Idea

I'm testing a new business idea... I think it's SuperDuper!

Good Times...

So, we've been having lots of fun with Ethan as of late (actually... he's always been fun). He's starting to roll over now. He had is first official roll over a few weeks back and though Momma has been trying she's not been able to catch another on camera. Ethan loves to grab at things now. He is much more articulate with his left hand than his right. He has a lot of dexterity with his left hand but his right hand he just kind of swings around (he got me right in the eye this morning!). He really likes to stand up... if you are playing with him he wants to be stood up and push his feet down. He can't by any means stand on his own but he likes practicing. He started playing with his feet a couple weeks ago and now he will grab his feet and roll to his side in his bed. He likes to grab his feet any chance he gets. He as started drooling everywhere. It is time to get out the bibs to catch the drool. We also finally put together his rain forest jumperoo.... which is a toy that he sits in and it swivels around and he can bounce up and down and play with a bunch of toys that are attached to it. He loves it! He spent almost 2 hours in it this morning. We will put some pictures out here of him in it when we get a chance to snap a few.
Other than that not a ton to report... Ethan is all smiles for now... even though he is getting over numerous colds and what not. Last week he visited with lots of family and friends at Uncle John's house for the superbowl and Ethan got passed from woman to woman... he was all smiles and grins... he was a big het! Anywho, that's all for today. Until next time.
Laters Gators
Josh and Leann

It's been a while....

Since we've blogged anything that wasn't a picture with a quick note...

A lot has been going on lately! Tiffany, Robert and their 4 month old daughter are in town staying with us for a few more days. Tiffany and MaKenna have been here for the last 3 weeks or so. Since we last blogged Cori and Danon have had a healthy little baby boy born into the world. His name is Keegan Jackson and weighed in at 7pounds, 4ounces at birth. About that time the germs in the house started to have a party and they've been jumping from person to person every day! I've been sick for almost 2 weeks now and it seems like everyone in the house has a little something going on. Leann and Ethan have been staying strong the whole time with out getting sick thank goodness. Hopefully that continues! Other than that we've beens spending our time working on block watch stuff, working with Little Ethan on rolling over, and just trying to stay healthy. We've got lots of good pictures from the last few weeks that I've posted below.
Enjoy!
Josh

Multi-Baby Photo Shoot...

Today at the Cork / Law household Leann and Tiffany held a baby photoshoot... completely spontaneous I'm sure... Anywho, there's the output... I take no credit for the wonderful photography!

Rocking Momma!

So Leann received a copy of Guitar Hero 3 for Christmas and has since spent at least 6 hours rocking out on the guitar playing that game. I think she likes it... and I can safely say that Ethan did a fantastic job of picking out a Christmas present for his mommy!

Granny Sweetpea is coming!

So in about a half hour we are headed off to the airport to pick up Ethan's grandma! They are going to meet for the first time and Little Ethan is wearing one of his cutest outfits! We are excited because we are planning on hanging out a bunch! We might be going to the zoo and maybe headed off to the mall one day, but this time we are planning on just doing a lot of hanging out at home with little Ethan.

Anywho that's the skinny for now. I need to go and clean out the inside of the car.
Laters.

Where does time go???

Wow, time flies when you have a baby!

Not only has it already been two weeks... but I don't know where our days go! I had great intentions of getting tons of stuff done today... like putting a few decorations outside for the trick or treaters, bringing a "boo" package over to a couple neighbor's house, shipping out some ebay items i sold, etc...

But just like that it's 5:20pm and I've not done hardly anything that i want to do today. Leann and I did get in a nap, we watched some of 50 first dates, and some of Bruce Almighty. On the serious side I did meet with a landscaper about putting in a winter lawn and I did take Riley to the vet's office to find out that he is perfectly okay. :)

Ethan and I had a great time today hanging out. I kept him busy for a bit so mom could shower and have some time for herself. We also called the Dr's office today because he has been throwing up about every other day and soaking his shirt with it... the Dr. said it's pretty normal and to try to get that last birp out of him before he goes to sleep after feeding.

Anywho, that's the skinny... I'm sure I'm supposed to be downstairs helping Leann out right now. Laters.