It's been two years...

I can't believe it's been exactly two years ago today that my dad had his heart surgery. When my mom told me he was having sextuple bypass surgery (yes, that's SIX arteries!), I didn't think that was possible. I thought quadruple was as many as they could do! Unfortunately, heart issues run in the Voeller side of the family. The scariest part was that he didn't even realize he had a heart attack.

My mom was the rock that held everyone together throughout the whole thing. She's the most optimistic, patient and nurturing person I've ever known. She somehow always knew exactly what needed to be done, what questions to ask the doctors, what would make my dad comfortable, and just how to get through it all. It was extremely tough on her, but there wasn't a day that she wasn't at the hospital or sending out emails and text messages with updates. I aspire to be the wife that she is someday. My brothers and sister were also such a big part of my dads recovery. My brother Bob came up for the surgery, and Debbie came up afterwards to help with the recovery once he was home to help my mom out a little.

AMEN for FAMILY.

Our family uses a LOT of humor in our every day interactions, and especially during the harder times. My favorite story was when my dad was on morphine for the pain in the hospital. He would have this serious look on his face and start telling us all about the midget kung-foo fighting mongolians that were hiding in his garbage can. To this day, he denies telling us these stories, but there's no way we'll ever let him live them down!

The doctors and nurses were AMAZING at St. Joes.... the nurses kept telling him to think of the song from Madagascar, "you've got to move it, move it" so he would continue to exercise and get his heart working. In true stubborn German fashion, he was determined to recover and get the heck out of the hospital as fast as he could. 

When he was released from the hospital, the doctors and nursing staff all gave him a pillow and signed it, in the shape of a heart. That thing was like a security blanket for him. He had to squeeze it when he needed to cough or sneeze, but the personal touch on it reminded him of all of the people who helped him out at the hospital.

Now two years have passed, and no more heart attacks and all of the regular follow up visits have been good! Thank goodness for stubborn Germans, good doctors, good nurses and the best family in the world.

To Lasik or Not to Lasik?

I've been thinking about doing Lasik for a while now... so I finally bit the bullet and scheduled a consultation. My friend/co-worker and I decided that if we're going to do it, we needed to go as a team. We scheduled our appointments, not realizing we would be spending an hour and a half getting poked and prodded in our eyes, and then at the end feel like we were being pressured to buy a used car.  

They were trying to talk us both into this ICL procedure, which sounds really cool and a little more advanced than Lasik, but I'm still a little skeptical... I want long term research to prove its more effective. 

Since I didn't like their sales approach... I will not be going back.

I looked a little scary after they dilated my eyes...

But got some really hot sunshades for my drive home!!

The best part? I get to do this all over again on Monday for a second opinion.

Lovely.

Slight obsession...

I have always had a slight obsession with sunrises and sunsets. I think they are absolutely gorgeous and I love that they are never the same. One of my favorite things about living in Arizona are the GORGEOUS sunrises and sunsets I get to see almost every day. I love looking out in our backyard and trying to capture them in a picture....

LOVE them!

This was actually the sunrise on my way to work... I figured instead of turning my head behind me to try and get a picture, I'd get one out of my side view mirror. (Much safer).

And even when a monsoon is about to hit the sky is still beautiful!!

These next two are from the same sunrise! The progression was BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Do these look like peaches to you?

As I was getting a pedicure a few weeks ago, the lady said to me "I like your tattoo.... peaches, nice!"

And no, she was not calling me "peaches" as a term of endearment. She thought these were peaches.

I didn't even know what else to say besides "thank you."

Zoe, Oliver & Tucker....

I hate to neglect the other half of our farm since I post so many pictures of Brooklyn and Bentley, so here are a few of the kitties ....

Zoe...

                                            Oliver...

... and Tucker

I thought I was already 28....

So I turned 28 on Saturday...

Funny thing, is I thought I was already 28. I remember telling people I was 28 all last year. I guess now I really am.

We have been wanting to have another BBQ, and things were pretty busy in June and July so since this was the first open weekend, we figured we'd do it on my birthday!

Stefan decided he wanted to try doing a pork shoulder and ribs on the grill (which he's never even attempted).... he spent weeks looking up recipes online and watching youtube videos to figure out the best way to do it. He made his own rub and BBQ sauce.... he kept asking me to taste them (and while I tried to make it seem like I could tell the difference, I really couldnt... they were all really good). Needless to say, he got up at 3:45am on Saturday to start getting all the smoke ready (I don't know if those are cooking terms or not) for the meat, and everything turned out SOOOOO good!

Here's a picture of Stefan about mid-way through the cooking process. (Yes, it looks burnt but that's just the "rub" I was told, and it certainly wasn't burnt).

We had some friends over for the delicious grub which included the stuff above, two cedar plank salmon (my favorite), beer brats, and then hot dogs and boca burgers for the kids and non-meat-eating people. Sides? Yah.... we had a lot. I got the recipe for cousin Cynthia's macaroni and cheese (remember this post?) which was sooooo good! We also had corn on the cob, baked beans (Amy), coleslaw (ML), garlic potato salad (ML), veggies (Ron), fruit (Dawn), some really good pepper jack dip (Shawn), fruit (Dawn), cheese platter, baked goat cheese with a tomato basil relish, vegan brownies, and CUPCAKES!

These cupcakes were so dang cute, made by Simply Sweets!

We played a little flippy cup....

And had a few leftovers....

We had a whole pitcher of Sangria leftover, which goes really well with blogging :)

After cleaning up on Sunday and realizing we had about a half of a keg leftover, our neighbor Ron came over to help us (me) finish it off.... We drank beer, Ron brought Grimaldi's pizza over and we just relaxed by the pool.... perfect way to finish off a fun weekend! 

And then I passed out on the couch at 7pm.

Thanks to everyone for making my birthday so much fun!!