Harvey Dog & Pumpkins

Harvey Update:

We got a call from the vet on Thursday (10.22) saying that they had "bad news" the biopsy came back as spindle cell sarcoma (cancer). The Dr. said that they continue to be dumbfounded as an isolated spindle cell sarcoma in the location where Harvey has it is unheard of. Due to this the Dr. hesitantly informed that they assumed Harvey's cancer had spread, meaning he had terminal cancer and his days were numbered. Due to this they wanted to do an ultrasound in order to check his lymph nodes. This of course was the worst news possible, and we couldn't help but be a bit devastated.

We luckily got Harvey in right away for the ultrasound. We were welcomed in the room to watch the process, which to us looked like a bunch of blurs on the screen. Jill didn't pay attention to the screen but rather intently watched the faces of the Dr. preforming the ultrasound in order to try and read her facial expressions etc. The process took only a couple minutes, which felt like infinity! In the end we were informed that everything was clear and that Harvey had a clean bill of health on the inside, besides the cancerous tumor in his leg of course. Pheeew! This meant that we were cleared and ready to move forward with the amputation, we welcomed this option because clearly it beat him having terminal cancer. We made an appointment for an amputation consultation and happily left the vet! :)

Here's our boy out for a walk, he picked this stick up in someones yard and carried it all the way home. :)

After a good day at the vet we picked up some pumpkins and spent the night carving them...

Harvey helping Stu.

Jill's monster

Stu's work of art

Our front porch/ pumpkin home.

Happy Halloween.

Jimmy & Jen visit

Yaaaay! Our friends Jimmy and Jen came to visit for a long weekend. Unfortunately we were cursed with rain almost everyday they were here. This however, gave us a good excuse to laze around in PJ's, chat, eat, drink, and play Wii. We did manage to get out of the house on Friday for Happy Hour @ Capitol City Brewery... which then lead to us going to another bar for more drinks and some intense games of darts.

On Saturday we headed out into the rain in order to attend the Solar Decathlon on the National Mall. This was exciting, as it featured the top 20 prototype green homes, all of which were decked out in top of the line green technology. Smart lighting, integrated heating/cooling systems, solar panels, grey water collection system, etc... were just some of the features each home demonstrated. The University of Minnesota's home placed 5th overall, so were were sure to stop by and congratulate our fellow Gophers.

While in DC we also attempted to show Jimmy and Jen Eastern Market, however due to the rain there wasn't much to brag about. We also went to National Botanical Garden which was a nice warm escape from the rainy cold weather we were walking around in all morning.

On Sunday we loaded up the Prius and headed out to Rohrerville, MD.

Our initial plan was to head to Shenandoah National Park and camp for a night, however once we saw the forecast calling for 5 days of straight rain we made alternative plans. Awhile back we had heard about a Maple Tree Campground, so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to check them out.

This is where we 'camped' for the night. Our cabin, named Bonsai was nothing fancy, no electricity, just a wood bringing stove, a table/chairs and beds, it however was a perfect! Harvey also joined us for the trip, the cabin option worked perfect for him too considering his activity was limited, so he held down the fort for us while we explored. The weather was chilly, but we were thankful to have escaped the rain. Once we moved all of our blankets, food, and gear into our cabin we went outside and explored, hiked around, checked out the Appalachian Trail etc.. and then came back to our warm cozy cabin, and Harvey. We also took a nice long drive through winding back country roads taking in the fall colors as we drove through little quaint towns. The country side was scattered with farms and farmettes, it was lovely and reminded us all of rural WI. For dinner we cooked up a HUGE pot of clam chowder on top of the wood burning stove. Our night was filled with cooking, eating, drinking, and a never-ending game of Phase 10.

On Monday we took a short 15 minute drive from our cabin MD, into VA, and then into WV to Harper's Ferry, WV. Harper's Ferry is a quaint, historic community, at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. It was a really unique experience that seemed as though we stepped into the past. We took our time and strolled through the picturesque streets and shops, stopping for a delicious lunch before hitting the road back to northern VA.

We got back to our house just in time for Jimmy and Jen to pack up their stuff, exchange pictures, and get them to DCA.

As anytime we have visitors time went way too fast, but a great time none the less.

Harvey Dog-Update

As most of you know back in August Harvey started limping a bit with his back right leg. At first we thought he was playing too hard, but when it continued we took him to the vet. They checked everything out and said that nothing seemed torn/broken, they informed us to rest him for 2-weeks. This meant no dog parks, no tennis ball chasing, no running, and no long walks... all of which is next to impossible for Harvey.

A couple days later he went chasing after his favorite neighbor dog, and collapsed onto his back right leg. We rushed him to the vet, x-rays were done and nothing was found. They did notice one small 'unknown' spot by his joint, and recommended taking the x-rays to a specialist. We did that after Labor Day, and were yet again told that the 'unknown' spot didn't seem concerning, and that he most likely had a soft tissue bruise, so we were to keep resting him.

The rest of September he got worse and worse, not able to walk in the morning, barely getting out for two 10-minute walks a day. Up to this point we were unsure what specific part of his leg was hurting him as he would pull the whole thing up. Last week Jill noticed some swelling in his joint, so we got him into the vet ASAP. They immediately said they were concerned that it was a tumor, so more x-rays were taken. The 'unknown' spot had now grown and taken over the whole joint, which caused the joint to look swollen. They expressed concern about a tumor, and referred up to a specialist, who we saw on Monday.

The consultation was hard to swallow as the Dr. said he had "never seen anything like this." He suggested that Harvey had terminal cancer and that his 'unknown' spot had spread from another area of the body. In order to rule this option out they wanted to do a chest x-ray. We then waited a grueling 3 hours to find out if cancer was elsewhere. Thankfully everything was clear, but we still had to figure out what was up with his leg.

Harvey went in for a biopsy on Tuesday, this consisted of them going inside and removing part of the 'unknown' spot. Prior to the surgery the Dr. had mentioned that the 'unknown' spot could be a cyst. He would determine this by the color of the fluid once he saw inside Harvey's leg, if it was a yellow color he would then remove the cyst and transfer bone marrow from his upper leg to make the bone re-grow. Our fingers were crossed and we waited anxiously all day to hear from the Dr.

Finally we did, and we were not as lucky as we had hoped. The fluid was gray-ish, therefore the Dr. is still unsure what is going on. The Dr. indicated that the color/texture of Harvey's 'unknown' spot isn't typical of Osteosarcoma (bone cancer) but that the biopsy would have to be sent out in order to test it.

We now are playing the waiting game, as it typically takes 7-10 days to get results back. Poor Harvey had a rough Tuesday night as he came out of sedation. He also had a number of spots shaved on his body from the surgery, one being his whole back leg! :(

It's been 2 full days since the surgery and Harvey is doing great. He is in his wonderful/goofy mood today, which is great because we haven't seen that for almost a month!!

We will take the red bandage off tomorrow and hope to hear back from the Dr. soon!

Moving forward, we are prepared for them to suggest amputation. We have come to terms with this option and know that Harvey is the type of dog that could definitely handle this. Until then we have to keep his poor leg warm!

Canning Extravaganza

Our first shot at canning/preserving was a success. We spent 20+ hours in the kitchen across Saturday/Sunday/Monday making apple goodies. We had plenty of help from Harvey and his dog-friend Mr. D (who we were dog-sitting) throughout the process.

When all was said and done we made apple butter, apple marmalade, apple curry chutney, dehydrated apple slices, and apple/pumpkin muffins. Sadly we have not even gone through 1/2 of the apples we picked, so the Hansen household is apple crazy right now. The process of each was our own little adventure. Some were more time consuming than others, we quickly learned that we despise all recipes that state "stir constantly." Thankfully Trish let us borrow the Apple Master which is a brilliant little machine!!

The Apple Master's work

The chutney brewing.

Prepping the jars

Carefully filling the jars

The apple butter coming out

What a fun time we had! We look forward to continuing to learn more about canning/preserving and try more and more recipes. Our first adventure was a definite success.

Mmmmmmmm....

Our goods, minus 5-10 jars of which we've already given away.

Apple Picking Marker-Miller Orchards 10.10.09

Autumn means apple season so we headed out to the Valley- Winchester, VA to go the the highly recommended Marker-Miller Orchard to see what we could find.... It was their Apple Harvest weekend, so plenty of people were there picking, filling up on apple cider, and their famous apple donuts. Luckily they have miles of row after row after row of apple trees in every kind. Granny Smith, Ida Red, Golden Delicious, Niffany, York, Rome, Fuji, and Red Delicious are just a few of what they had available for us to pick from.

Some of the trees were crazy and looked more like vines of tomatoes rather than an apple tree.

Soooo many apples!

We had a great time strolling through the rows and sampling each kind of apple. By the end we were so full our stomachs hurts. We have never eaten so many delicious apples in our life.

Our loot for the day.

Now we have more fun to figure out what to make with all of these!

... more posts to come to follow our adventure in canning/preserving.

Hail to the Redskins 10.4.09

We converted to Redskins fans for a day, luckily to our advantage their colors are the same as the Gophers, so we were able to play the part pretty well. Jill's co-workers versed her in "Redskin ways" which consisted of bitching about the owner Don Snyder, complaining about the team sucking, and talking about Zorn getting fired. Thank goodness they did this, because with in 5 minutes of parking our fellow tailgating neighbors were badmouthing Snyder.

Tailgating w/ FedEx Field in the back ground.

Making our way in to Fed Ex Field.

Inside, our theory is that the Skins only had enough money to fertilize to the 36 yard line, and the more they win the more fertilizer becomes available.... Maybe they will get the whole field done by the end of the season.

Jason Campbell throwing an interception.

Although the Redskins played horrible, they managed to pull off the win!! It was definitely a fun but MUCH different NFL experience when compared to Lambeau.

Nationals game against the Mets 9/29

About a year ago we set a 'goal' to make sure and see a game for each of the DC teams. We got to Caps (hockey) game this past winter, and a United (soccer) game this summer. We were running out of time to make it to a Nationals game until Stu's good work friend, Mike, and his fiance, Amanda invited us to the last home game of the season. Seeing as the Nats didn't do the greatest this year AND they were playing the Mets, who had a sub-par season... there wasn't that great of turn out, but it was great to get to "Nats-town" none the less.

The Nats were down the whole game, but in true American fasion we enjoyed some beer & Nats-dogs which helped.

It was a bit rainy right when we got there which made us all happy we were up under the eve shelter. Good bird's eye view too. The new stadium is great, and has a nice view over DC/ Georgetown.

The Nats decided to end their season in a dramatic fashion.... Bottom of the 9th, 2 outs, bases loaded, Justin Zimmerman hit a Grand-Slam to win it 7-4. Yaaaay! What a fun ending! Although a bit chilly, it was definitely a great game to catch!

Capitols Game: Check

United Game: Check

National Game: Check

Redskins Game: 10/4/09

Looks like we're just about ready to move back! ;)

"Good Bye" Q Party

Sadly one of our good friends Mike, better known as Q is moving to CT on October 2nd. This weekend he and his girlfriend hosted one last bash to celebrate him moving on to bigger and better things.

The night was like pretty indicitative of most nights spent with Q...., good food, video games, drinking, which eventually turned into taking shots.

DC Walk to Stop Child-Slavery

Our friends Trish & Dan coordinated us as a team for the Walk to End Modern Slavery. The McKenna fam made their way to our house bright and early. After a a big delicious breakfast of coffee, eggs, banana bread & pancakes w/ homemade fig compote we made our way in to the city for the walk.

This was the first year of the organized fundraiser walk and luckily a cold gray day didn't stop many of people from coming out. It is sad that this issue needs as much attention as it's getting, but it's great to see so many people & so many organizations at this event.

It wasn't a long walk but fun to see a new park in DC & be out for a good cause!

After watching some entertainment, hearing a few speakers & making our rounds, we headed back in just enough time to dodge some rain.

We spent the the rest of the afternoon in doors relaxing, sipping Sam Adams & snacking away.

9/3/09-9/7/09 Labor Day Weekend

For this Labor Day we had an extra fun and secretive schedule planned. In January 2009, Bill & Elaine, very close friends of Alan & Jolene's (Stu's parents), contacted us to present the idea of a surprise 35th Wedding Anniversary. After months of planning, secret phone conferences, and a few small lies, the plan finally came into action over Labor Day weekend. We flew to Minneapolis on Thursday and spent the night with Jimmy & Jen. As always we love catching up with them and feel right at home in their lovely place.

On Friday we nervously drove down to Rochester. We didn't take our eyes off the rear view mirror, as Alan was traveling home from CA for work and was on the road the same time as us. Luckily we had no encounters on 52S. We headed straight to Bill & Elaine's who are party-planning extraordinaries and did not miss a detail in pulling this celebration together. As an extra treat Alan & Jolene's British friends, (Caroline & Richard) who they met living in Germany in the early 1990's, flew to Minnesota to surprise them as well!! We had the joy of meeting up with them at Bill & Elaine's as we all frantically finished up all the last minute details. Seeing Caroline & Richard was extra special for Stuart as he had not seen them since the age of 12!!

Lindsey & Daryl (Lily & Lulu too) were in charge of getting Alan & Jolene to the Bill & Elaine's as they thought they were going for dinner.

The surprise went off with out a hitch, Alan & Jolene were more than surprised about the party in general, but also that we made the trip home, and even more so that Caroline & Richard were there (this was their 1st trip to the US).

Check out a video of the surprise here

The party was an excellent time! It was great catching up with family & friends as well as seeing Alan & Jolene enjoy the company of all those close to them.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing nothing but eating, drinking, having fun & just relaxing, something that always seems to come easy back in Rochester.

We ended up getting out for brunch in downtown Rochester's 'Peace Plaza.' Lily loved the fountain! It was another great chance to keep catching up & enjoy the great weather.

There was also time to show Caroline & Richard some of the Midwest's finest rescued animals at Oxbow Park. Another hay day for Lily, she loved watching all the critters & getting to pet a hee-hee (horsey).

A perfect last getaway for our summer!!!