Pictures of Grandpa

Here are a few pictures of Grandpa during his last week on this earth.

Grandpa Jerry

My grandfather died last night. We love you Grandpa Jerry.

1969 Cougar for sale!!!

We are trying to sell our 1969 Mercury Cougar. If you are interested or know of anyone who is, please show them the following website.

http://boise.craigslist.org/cto/1051738997.html

Ears, Soccer, and...

I knew there was a happy kid in there somewhere! Emerson is a million times happier now that all the pressure in his inner ear has been released by putting in the tubes and getting rid of the infection. He and I went through a very tough Thursday and Fridy, but this weekend and today have been fabulous for him. We went to the MK Nature Center on Saturday to look at all the fish. There were lots of small baby fish swimming around and we had a great time walking down to the nature center with grandma and grandpa.

Outdoor soccer is here once again. I am again organizing the team and I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up. It is quite time consuming, but well worth it when I get out there on the field. It is a lot of fun meeting new players every season. Brent is still deciding if he wants to play this season or not. He took last season off and I have a feeling he is done with soccer. When you start playing at six years old, eventually you get burned out.

Anyway, we hope everyone is well and we are definitely looking forward to Spring's final arrival!

Ear Surgery

Emerson had his second ear surgery today. We arrived at the surgery center at 6:45 this morning and the nurse took Emerson back at 7:30. At 8:15 we were taken to his bed and he was still sleeping off the anesthesia. The doctor said his adenoids were very inflamed so it is good that they were taken out. He also said that he succtioned a lot of fluid out from behind his ear drums before inserting the new tubes. Emerson slept for about another hour before we could rouse him enough to take him home. Emerson and I dropped Brent off at work by about 9:45 and we headed off to the pharmacy to fill his antibiotic. Of course when we got there we were told they had gotten the prescription, but didn't have any of the antibiotic in stock. Since Emerson is alergic to two of the big three groups of antibiotics, we have to give him medicine that isn't normally stocked in the pharmacy. They did find some for him anyway that they had filled the day before because the prescription had already been called in the previous day by someone else. I love it when doctors communicate with each other. Anyway, we got our prescription and headed home. Emerson ended up sleeping at home for just over another two hours. When he woke up, there was an insane amount of puss and blood coming out of his ears. I called the nurse and asked about it. She told me that he had a major ear infection and it was coming out of the newly inserted tubes. After watching "Cars" Emerson was starting to wake up and feeling much better. He doesn't seem to be bothered at all by his adenoids being taken out. The discharge out of his ears is what is bothering him the most. It is hard to believe that so much puss can reside in one small child's head. The doctor took some out and then even more drained at home. These new tubes should last at least a year instead of the six months from the last ones. Emerson is feeling much better and we would like to thank everyone for all the wellwishes and good thoughts. Thank you so much!

Emerson Ear Update

Emerson will be having ear surgery once again next Thursday, February 19th. Instead of the tubes that last 6-8 months that were put in last time, the doctor is going to put some in that last for a year to 18 months. He will also take out his adenoids (fleshy tissue behind the tonsils) at the same time. That should only add on about 10 minutes to the surgery so the whole thing should take around 25 minutes. The doctor said his breath should have quite the foul smell for 10 days or so because of the adenoid removal. He will be a much happier little man when he recovers. Thank you to everyone for thinking good thoughts for us.

Superbowl 2009

We went to Mom and Dad Dietz's house for Superbowl 2009. Brent made an incredible 10 pounds of hot wings with his secret recipe. It took him a little over two hours to complete the entire process. I think we might just need a bigger fryer so he can fry more than four or five at a time. He has become quite the wing connoisseur. Step 1: marinade them overnight in Brent's special secret sauce. Step 2: make a flour mixture to dredge the wings in, again, a secret concoction. Step 3: fry the dredged wings in peanut oil. Step 4: coat the wings with more of Brent's secret sauce. Step 5: enjoy!

Controlled Burn

Some old abandoned buildings are in the lot across the street from where Brent and I work. There are plans to build a shopping center there so the buildings had to be demolished. Firefighters set up a controlled burn to practice on last week and this week. It was quite interesting to watch, but scary at the same time to know that buildings were burning across the street and it was business as usual. In the second picture you can see our office (CH2M Hill) across the street from the fire. We have parts of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors. Our teamspace on each floor looks out to the buildings so there were always people checking things out. The first picture is taken from one of our teamspaces.

Emerson Ear Update

Well, we just took Emerson to see his ear doctor this morning and found out that both of his tubes have fallen out already. The doctor said that both ears are still filled with fluid causing an infection. He gave us a prescription for an antibiotic to see if it clears up his infection, but since he is allergic to penicillins and cephalosporins (2 of the big 3), he thinks we need to have tubes put into Emerson's ears again. He also thinks his adenoids should be taken out at the same time to try and stop him from getting so many infections. The adenoid removal will add approximately 10 minutes onto the surgery, so that won’t be so bad, but he’ll be in a lot more pain than if the surgery was just for inserting the tubes. He will have to be on a narcotic pain reliever for a few days. We see the doctor again in three weeks to further discuss all this and see if the infection has cleared up, but we are pretty sure we will proceed with the surgery at that point. Emerson is quite the trooper!

Rob's Birthday

Rob's birthday was the last of the month long celebration of numerous birthdays. His birthday is New Year's Day. We went over to Mom and Dad's house to open presents for Rob around 5:00 and then proceeded to Murphy's for birthday dinner. Mom made a delicious cake and brought that to the restaurant as well. The menu is always spectacular and we went home feeling like we'd eaten enough for three weeks worth of meals. It was awesome!


Emerson ate the most gourmet burger and fries that I had ever seen and he enjoyed it immensely as you can tell from the expression on his face and the way he's stuffing it into his very full mouth.