The day began with Ezra so excited about celebrating his first Mother’s Day with his Mom, that he woke up at 4:45am with no intentions of going back to sleep. So, the two of us headed downstairs to get a head start on the planning of the day – which mostly consisted of me asking him when he would be willing to go back to sleep.

Ahna joined us after a little while, and I had the opportunity to make her breakfast while she opened her gifts and cards. Ezra got her a book that they can read together called ‘Mommy Hugs’ which he picked out at the book store last week. After breakfast, we headed out for some coffee, then to run a few errands – including picking out a new hanging plant for the front porch.

In the afternoon we headed down to my parent’s house for the ‘main event’ of the day. When we got there, Ahna, Mom, and Grandma all were booted from the house for about an hour, and the four guys took the time to prepare a high-tea themed meal. We had a bunch of finger foods that were all really tasty, but the surprise was a cake. This was a big surprise due to the fact that it was the first cake that my Grandfather has ever made in his life! When it came time to crack the eggs, he said “I have never broken eggs before, so here goes!” It was a ton of fun, and he made a great cake that everyone enjoyed – especially Grandma.

This is a sneek peak into the card that Ezra gave to Ahna. This was the outside…the inside is for them to share. 🙂

Today the blog and it’s staff celebrate one year of transforming lives, making the world a better place, encouraging the unity of mankind, and pushing for substantive environmental policy.

Wait, I think that what I meant to say was: Today the blog, it’s managing editor, contributing editor, and star performer celebrate one year of bringing you sometimes fun, sometimes silly, sometimes preachy, sometimes useless, sometimes useful, sometimes boring, and sometimes entertaining postings.

It really has been fun to be able to use this as a forum for sharing stories, ideas, and photos of our lives; and to have such an interactive conversation about those things with you all. We hope that you are having as much fun as we are (since we don’t have any plans to stop), and thank you for being part of our lives…

A good friend and fellow blogger is currently living is Switzerland. She found this video which was made by the Swiss Tourism Office and released on April 1st. After viewing it, it became crystal clear to me why the US tourism business is down, and it has nothing to do with the economy…we are simply not cleaning our mountains!

Click Here For The Video

Why, that’s nice that you asked, let me tell you. Way back in the early years, like 1992, Dad found out that he had a bicuspid valve in his heart. It’s most likely a congenital issue, and it means that one of the valves had two parts instead of the normal three. This occurs in about 2% of the general population (including famous folks like Barbara Bush, Arnold, and Robin Williams).

When someone has this, it causes the heart to work harder to get the blood through that valve since it isn’t as efficient as it should be. His condition has been monitored closely since it’s discovery, and about two months ago a test reviled that it was in fact time to get it replaced. It was a good thing that Dad was able to live with the bicuspid valve for as long as he did because most patients will have to have another surgery later in life to replace the new valve – it only has a life in the range of 20 years, and as such, Dad will likely have to have another surgery then.

So this wasn’t an emergency, it wasn’t due to poor dieting or poor exercise…it was something that just happened and needed repair. The decision timeline was short, but that was his decision…why wait any longer than needed? So it was decided, and the surgery happened on Monday.

It took about 6.5 hours total, and included several hours on a heart/lung bypass machine. Dr. Nene performed the procedure and was extremely happy with how it went, and with the results: he now has a bovine valve doing the job. He spend Monday night in the ICU – which is required for all open-heart patients – and then most of the day Tuesday as well. On Tuesday night, he was doing well enough to move to the Cardiac Care floor to complete his hospital stay. Oh, Monday night he stood up and Tuesday he walked across the room!!!!

He has done exceptionally well with the recovery so far: walking all over the place, doing some stairs, and maintaining his energy levels. So well in fact, that Dr. Nene signed his discharge paperwork yesterday morning. Even though those were signed, the decision was jointly made between my Dad and the nurses that one more night wouldn’t hurt anything, so he stayed last night. An average open-heart patient will spend between 5-7 days in the hospital (post op), and Dad was out of there in 5 total (with the option to have left yesterday).

Next up: home and recovery. Dad was discharged this morning and is resting comfortably at home. There is about 4-6 weeks of moderated effort ahead, and then still some therapy after that for a while…but expect to find him back on the e-mail and computer soon. The prognosis is for a full recovery, and to even better health than pre-surgery.

My Grandparents and Uncle came out to Colorado to be here for the surgery and to help with the recovery. It has been a real blessing to have family around for support and I know that Dad couldn’t have made it this far this quick without them being around.

So that’s the news from here and the reason for the reduced postings this week. As everything returns to close-to-normal, so will the updates. Thanks for all of the support and prayers….

We ended up with around 2 feet of snow…some places in Castle Rock reported under, some reported over. I took this shot on Saturday afternoon before the melt started. Today it’s 75 degrees, and 90% of the snow is gone. It seems that all that is left are the piles in the parking lots or trace amounts on the north facing sides of things.

So Dad’s been in the hospital since yesterday morning for a scheduled surgery. He should be in there for the next couple of days, so updates will come when time does. Everyone is doing really well, and Dad is doing great.