Reno, a cake, cute boys, ER trip, Nibi and a funeral! OH MY!

Well, the last 2 weeks have been a little crazy to say the least!  As you can tell from the title, we have had just a few things going on in our lives!  So let's start from the beginning and I'll try not to bore you with all the fun details.

So a few weeks ago we realized that our very first "baby", Nibi, had been losing weight and was pretty skinny.  So I took her to the vet.  She was a black cat that came into our lives a few weeks after we were married, so almost 11 years ago.  She was only 5 weeks old at the time a very skinny.  At the recent vet visit they ran some tests and sadly we found out that Nibi had diabetes.  We were devastated to say the least.  We found that it could possibly be managed, with shots twice a day and many visits to the vet for blood work.  We agonized over the decision, and came to the conclusion that she would not be a happy kitty getting tons of shots and having to go the vet (which she hated).  We also decided to choose quality over quantity.  A very difficult and heart breaking decision.  She had a good life and was spoiled rotten.  So we chose to put Nibi to sleep on Thursday May 13th.  It was a very difficult thing for us to do and we cried horribly over our loss.  We were with her until the end and had her cremated.  We will miss her terribly and always remember our first "baby".

Nibi as a baby!  She was soooo tiny!

She was very playful and loved to hide under the kitchen rug!

We took her outside to play in the yard for the last time.  She was an indoor cat, but loved when we took her outside to play in a contained area. She loved laying the grass and rolling around. The boys came in to play with her and pet her and tried to feed her some grass.  RIP Nibi!  We miss you baby girl!

After we left the appointment to put Nibi to sleep, we drove to my in-laws house to pick up some luggage for a trip that Bryan and I were taking to Reno.  We were scheduled to leave the next day.  When we arrived at the house, my father-in-law, Bud, was sound asleep.  When my mother-in-law, Teri, tried to wake him and ask him a question, she couldn't get him to wake up.  And then once he started to wake, he didn't make any sense and was slurring his words and his hands were shaking.  We decided to call 911, and the ambulance came to check him out.  They decided to transport him to the hospital, so we followed them over.  After staying in the ER until 9:00pm, Bryan and I headed home.  After everything, it sounds like Bud had worked in the yard too much that day, and it was really hot and he didn't drink any water.  And then we think when he came in, and went to take some pain pills, he mistakenly took 2 sleeping pills.  To be on the safe side, the Dr. is monitoring his heart to make sure nothing else is actually wrong.  He is home now and seems to be fine.

And that leads me to our trip to Reno!  Last year I won a 2 night stay at the Peppermill Hotel and Casino in Reno and we kept putting off going.  Well, it was going to expire at the end of May, so we decided to go!  Now this was a big deal to us to go because we have not flown anywhere on vacation together since our honeymoon, almost 11 years ago!  We got up early Friday morning (May 14th) and headed to Reno!  When I say early, I mean we got up at 3:00am to leave at 4:00am to catch our flight at 5:30am!  Now mind you, we didn't get home from the hospital until 9:30pm and had not had dinner or started packing.  Plus we had put Nibi to sleep at 4:00 the day before we left, so we were tired as well from that.  So we stayed up past midnight getting packed and tidying up the house before leaving.  So needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we arrived in Reno.  But we had to wait for our room, so we had lunch!  Once our room was available at 12:00, we headed upstairs!  It was the nicest room we have EVER stayed in before!  It was in the new Tuscany Tower Suite.  So fancy and beautiful!  The hotel itself was amazing as well!  So once we got to our room, we decided to lay down and rest.  We ended up taking a 4 hour nap together!!!  We absolutely needed it though after the day we had before and how little sleep we got.  Our entire 3 days and 2 nights we spent in Reno were a wonderful relaxing time together to do whatever we wanted!  No schedule, no plans, no rushing around!  We spoiled ourselves with breakfast in our room one morning (they came in and set the table up all nice and pretty too)!  We enjoyed the hot tub and laying out by the pool and relaxing!  We stayed up gambling until midnight and enjoyed wonderful food at the many restaurants at our hotel!  We also agreed that we CAN NOT and WILL NOT wait 10 years to do something like this again!  We are going to make the extra effort to take time for ourselves to enjoy time like this again!  I think I fell in love my hubby a little more while we were away as well!  He really is my best friend and I love being married to him and spending time with him!

Chalk image drawn of us while in Reno!  The guy did a great job!

Waiting for our room to be ready! We were sooooo tired!

My handsome hubby at lunch when we first arrived!

Our GORGEOUS room!

The bathroom!  Double sinks, powder counter and TV!

The jacuzzi tub (it was awesome) and the huge walk in shower with double shower-heads!

The view from our room, down to the many pools and hot tubs!

My cute hubby again, doing a little gambling!

When we came home from our trip, I had lot's of work to do!  I have been doing cake decorating and had been asked by close family friends to make their 50th wedding anniversary cake!  We decided it would be my biggest yet (3 layers) and covered in fondant roses!  After about 36+ hours of work with a lot of my mom's help, we completed an absolutely beautiful cake!  Our friends were in awe when they saw it and were choked up!  So it was 3 layers (bottom layer was white cake with vanilla pudding filling, middle layer was chocolate cake with chocolate pudding filling, and the top was lemon with lemon pudding filling)!  It was covered in buttercream frosting (30 cups) and a swag of 80 purple and lavendar fondant roses with gold leaf accents!  Fondant heart cut-outs with gold candy dots were put on the rest of the cake to give a nice accent!  And it was topped with Dottie's grand-parents 50th anniversary cake topper!  It was beautiful (and yummy too)!

And of course, I must include the cutest picture of our growing little men!  They were dressed so very handsome for the anniversary party and we took tons of pics of them!  Here is the best one we got! 

Cameron Michael Caine & Daniel Ryan Caine!

So after the anniversary party was over on Saturday, we relaxed for a little bit.  But then my mom and myself needed to prepare for a funeral we needed to attend on Sunday.  It was the most difficult funeral because it was a 3 year old little girl that was tragically killed by accident, when a wooden play structure fell on her at her babysitters house.  We never met little Abbie Mucha, however, I grew up with Abbie's dad Kurt and his brother Kevin.  Kevin and I graduated together, and we have known the Mucha family since I was in preschool.  It was so sad to have such a young life cut short early, but the family found it in their hearts to donate many of her organs to others, so that Abbie would live on.  It was especially hard because she was only 7 months younger than the boys.  I could not even imagine the pain the family feels.  But it was nice to see so many from the community come to the service to support the family, and so many that graduated with Kurt.  This is one of the benefits of living in a small town and I'm proud of the closeness of our classes.  Please keep Kurt, Angie and Lilly Mucha and the entire Mucha family in your prayers. Here is her picture and the link to her obituary.

This is the 2nd child's funeral I have been too, and it breaks my heart.  Children should not die.  It simply is not fair.  So please hug and kiss your children any chance you get.  Life is a precious gift and we do not know how long we will be here, or how long our loved ones will be here.  And don't forget to tell the the ones you love how much you love them. 

So all our love to you from the Caine Family.

Love,
Jen