To catch everyone up: I had a friend who I found out last Thursday was in the hospital dying from Sarcoma (cancer). It was swift and fast, she was only sick about a month, and they only knew it was cancer for just over 2 weeks before it took her life. I was able to see her 3 times before she passed. The last time was within an hour before she breathed her last breath. It's been a tough few days since she passed. Her obituary was in the paper yesterday:
Kay Burlison, age 49, a resident of Colorado Springs since 1999 and formerly of Ocean Springs, Mississippi passed away on Monday, April 5, 2010 at the Pikes Peak Hospice Residence after a short battle with cancer. She was an infant care giver at the Child Development Center at the Rampart Range Campus of Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs. Kay Buchanan was born on February 13, 1961 in Wiggins, Mississippi to Gerald and Dottie (Renick) Buchanan. She was a 1979 graduate of Clinton High School and graduated from Mississippi State University in 1983. Kay married Gordon Rogers Burlison on December 18, 1982 in Perkinston, Mississippi. Kay loved her work in child care. She could read an infant's facial expressions, understand their cries and seemed to know their every need. Her motto was, "Babies are such a nice way to start people." She also enjoyed reading, her family and long drives in the mountains of Colorado. She is survived by her loving husband: Gordon; her parents; and her sisters: Donna (husband, John) Lucas of Bedford, Texas and Cynthia (husband, Jim) Harfst of Pheba, Mississippi. Kay is also survived by her husband's parents: Horace and Karin Burlison of Moss Point, Mississippi and her nieces and nephews: Lauren Lindigrin, Amanda, Karleigh, and Ryan Harfst. A Celebration of her life will be held at 7:00 pm on Monday, April 12, 2010 at the Pikes Peak Community College, Child Development Center, Rampart Range Campus, 11195 Highway 83, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921. Memorials may be made to the Kay Burlison Memorial Fund for Infants, in care of Ent Federal Credit Union, 6060 Championship View, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80922.
Brian and I will be attending the memorial service on Monday.
So, the past week has been a busy one. I think I will work backwards.
Today Kasey is 1 year old! I can't believe it. It seems SOOO long ago that I was in labor. But at the same time it feels like it was just yesterday that Kasey arrived in our life. How is it possible to have such conflicting feelings? We will be having a party for her in 2 weeks.
Today we went to the zoo for preschool. As always it was fun. We learned about Hippo's today. It was a super big class, apparently a lot of kids didn't want to go to the zoo yesterday because yesterday was windy and snowy. So they let them come to today's class. It was a little windy today, but the sun was out and the temps were MUCH better.
The zookeeper took the kids into the hippos' pen (the hippos were locked outside) to put the Popsicle treats in. Then the kids came back out and they let the hippos in to find their treats. It was cute!
After preschool was over the girls and I wandered around the zoo. We stopped in the education center and the keeper in there asked Courtney to help her feed the bearded lizard named Walter! Courtney was glad to help! She also helped feed a gecko or something. That is one reason I love the education center, they involve kids as much as possible.
I was looking forward to trying out their new "Grizzly Grill". They re-did their major food place in the zoo. Also the head chef at the zoo recently won some cooking award (but I already knew his cooking was TASTY!). The new Grill opened just in the past week or two, it's been closed for months while they were redoing it. So, after a merry-go-round ride and seeing some animals, we stopped there for lunch. They have quite the wide variety in there now! They have everything from teriyaki bowls, spaghetti, sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, wraps, and more. But as I was walking in, I overheard a guy telling his family how good the Parmesan garlic fries were. Mmmm, I had to try those! And the guy was right, they were WONDERFUL! I also had a chicken teriyaki bowl. It was pretty good. Courtney had a corn dog and that was pretty good too! Kasey picked off my bowl and fries. Yes, even she loved the garlic fries!
After lunch we wandered around the zoo a little more. We stopped in the giraffe house to see the 2 newest additions to the zoo, 2 baby giraffes. Oh my gosh they were SOOOO cute! SOOOO cute!
After that it was a quick trip to stop and feed the giraffes and head for home. Kasey was babbling in the backseat. And she stopped suddenly. I turned to check on why, and I saw why: she was SOUND asleep. She went from babbling to out like a light in 1 second!
The week prior to today has been pretty standard. The usual therapies. Oh, but we did start our regular hippotherapy. Courtney did amazing. She even stood up on the horse! Pretty darn cool! She also rode the horse while the horse was trotting and she loved that. She was giggling and had an ear to ear grin! The horse she rode this week was named Blinkers. She loves telling people that, and she blinks when she does. It's so adorable!
Hubby in in Florida at the moment on a business trip. He gets home tomorrow and a few hours later I take off for the weekend. My MOPS group is having a mom's weekend away. I am looking forward to it. I will be at a bed and breakfast in Black Forest for 2 nights. My neighbor is going too, so we are car pooling and hopefully rooming together (we will get room assignments when we get there).
Easter was good. My parents came up, we had 2 of our cadets here, some friends, and us. We were supposed to have a few more, but it didn't work out. The day before Easter, we had our last 4-H ham defrosting on the counter. Hubby and I went to hospice to see my friend and while the girls stayed at the house with another friend. They ended up playing upstairs the WHOLE time we were gone. When we got back, what was left of the ham was on the living room floor. The dogs had helped themselves. So, we went the store and purchased ham #2.
Courtney and I made the place settings. We made edible bird's nests. They turned out soo cute! And yummy too!
Courtney was excited to get up in the morning. The Easter Bunny had hidden 24 eggs around the living room. She found them in a hurry! Plus there were a few other items in a basket on the table. She had fun. Then when Nana and Papa got here, Nana had more stuff for them. Then Nana took her outside because the Easter Bunny also hid some eggs in the backyard for her. She had fun looking outside for them too!
We are in that time of year where we get too much of everything as far as weather is concerned. We get snow, wind, and warm weather. I can handle most of it, but the wind gets old fast! I am ready for the wind to move along. But last week we got some nice days, and the girls and I were sure to get out and enjoy it!
I have to say, spending a few hours at the zoo this morning really took my mind off the loss of my friend for a while. It was very refreshing!
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