A Long Update

Wow, I have been absolutely terrible at keeping this updated. I am going to try to make a better effort so all you far away people can stay updated on our lives. My goal right now is to post once a month, possibly more. We shall see!

So apparently, my last post was about the planning stages of our wedding. We just had our 1 year anniversary last weekend. Things are going good for us :-) We went "up north" for the weekend. This involved good food, good beer, and good friends. We went to Short's Fest on Saturday and Ryan had a bike race on Sunday, while I hung out on the lake all day. It was a very nice weekend.

Since my last post, we bought a house in a cute little neighborhood. The neighborhood was a big seller for us. Everyone is very active and looking out for each other (despite the petty complaints on our facebook page haha). We love our house but still have a few updates that need to be done, mostly outside the house itself.

We got married. It was a nice casual ceremony/reception just like we wanted. More of a family reunion feel than a wedding.

I worked a lot this past year. I had 2 more long term sub positions and was a regular working at 3 schools.

This summer has been pretty packed and a little stressful.

We got a puppy at the end of April. She is pretty awesome. Her name is Lucy, and we have no real idea what she is. She was a stray when picked up at 5months old. We got her a few weeks later. She looks identical to a Kelpie, but we've been told a number of other things too. She's 10 months old and 45lbs. Her growth has slowed down so I think she is about at the size she will always be. She is knee high, fast, slender and muscular and loves body slamming other dogs. Her favorite activities at home include playing hide and seek or chasing Ryan's remote controlled quad-copter.

The last week of school, Keyser got an intestinal blockage. We rushed him to the ER at 5am and it took all day to get him officially diagnosed. He had surgery that evening and they found a tumor but he also had a rupture. He was monitored by the vet for 48hrs, his fever broke and he was allowed to come home Friday. My cousin Katie's wedding was Saturday and Ryan already cancelled his flight Wednesday when we learned Keyser needed surgery/recovery. My flight was for 7:50pm Friday. 5pm Friday, Ryan gets home from work and says "Has Ky been making these noises all day?" I said, "What noises?" and then he projectile vomited more black liquid than I ever would have believed would fit inside his stomach. I, admittedly, freaked out. Luckily, I was already packed and grabbed my things on our way out the door to the vet. We got him checked in, they started running tests to make sure he was ok, and asked if we could leave and come back... because it was now 6pm and I needed to be at the airport at 7pm. Turns out it was old/back-up blood leftover from the intestinal surgery. Ryan spent the long weekend taking care of him while I visited with family.

One week after his surgery (and the day before I returned home) we got the call that the tumor was cancerous. Keyser has small cell lymphoma. This type of cancer responds well to chemo but it also spreads easily, especially in the intestine. Luckily, the vet who did the surgery took out 8cm to try to make sure he cleared all edges of the tumor. His blood work and ultrasound looked clean after surgery. We started chemo pills and steroids. He has now had 3 rounds of chemo and is doing really well. His blood work has been normal the whole time and his latest ultrasound shows no signs of the lymphoma (no re-growth) which means we might have remission. A couple more rounds of chemo and as long as his tests are still clear we will be declared in remission and go to getting regular check-ups instead of treatment.

A little over a week ago, I got my first interview with the local district I have been subbing for. They are a high demand district. Over 800 people applied for the posted position, "Elementary Teachers (multiple positions), location/position undetermined". They picked 45 of us for the first round. We were split into 3 groups and interviewed with one of the 3 panels of teachers/principals. My panel had 12 people. Last Wednesday, I got the email telling me to sign up for another interview. My interview is tomorrow and it will be round robin with 14 principals. School starts 3 weeks from today. Next week is new teacher training/orientation and the week after is mandatory start-up PD. Hopefully they make their decisions fast!