What an eventful weekend

It was definitely a weekend of ups and downs in our house.

We've been enjoying a visit from my aunt and uncle from Pennsylvania. It's always nice to have family in town.

We also spent time picking blueberries here. We went with my brother and his family and had a great time, even though we got rained on a little bit.

They are by far the best blueberries I've ever tasted, even Mike was seen eating a few. We made a blueberry cake with a vanilla glaze for dinner that same night, and it was like eating a giant blueberry muffin. Definitely something we'd make again, and it could be changed to different fruit, really easily. We currently have 17.5 pounds of blueberries and have frozen more than half, leaving the rest to be made into jam in the very near future.

We also took Che lunchbox shopping for his journey to a new school. He'll be starting on August 17th, and is very excited about it. He can't wait to carry his new froggy lunchbox to school and play on their playground.

We also graduated to the 2nd trimester, with this update:

"This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb! Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him — a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb.In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches — about the size of a lemon — and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces. His body's growing faster than his head, which now sits upon a more distinct neck. By the end of this week, his arms will have grown to a length that's in proportion to the rest of his body. (His legs still have some lengthening to do.) He's starting to develop an ultra-fine, downy covering of hair, called lanugo, all over his body. Your baby's liver starts making bile this week — a sign that it's doing its job right — and his spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells. Though you can't feel his tiny punches and kicks yet, your little pugilist's hands and feet (which now measure about 1/2 inch long) are more flexible and active. "

Of course with the good weekend, comes the bad. We took our dog, Candy, to the vet on Friday afternoon, she had been vomiting and had tremendously terrible breath. They drew blood and gave her an antibiotic thinking that she probably had an infection in her mouth. Of course Saturday morning came with the results of the blood test, showing that she had advanced renal failure. Mike graciously took her to the vet to talk about options, and after learning that IV fluids would take 3-4 days and may not help at all made the decision to put her down. She was 11, and we'd had her for 4 years. She was a really good dog. Luckily we knew that this was a possible outcome so Che was able to say goodbye and have an explanation as to what may happen. He still is not quite aware, but I'm sure once her tray in the kitchen disappears he'll understand more. He asked where she was on Sunday, but seemed to accept the answer that she had died, just like my mom's dog Cooter, and Papa. It's sad to me that my 3 1/2 year old knows the word die, and what it means.

Goodbye Good Dog!

Sigh. Such is life.