Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Easter
We had a great Easter weekend with my family in Atlanta! Cohen went on an egg hunt at my parent's church on Saturday but had no interest in searching for Easter eggs; he only wanted to play on the playground! He's still a little too young to grasp the concept of an Easter egg hunt but it was fun anyway. On Sunday we went to church and my family came over for Easter lunch. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
New York City
Adam and I had another opportunity to take an amazing trip with the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), this time to New York City. It has been about a month now since our trip...just taken me a while to blog about it. Adam has been to NY before, but I never have, so this was definitely a great experience for us both. Like I said in my previous post about our trip to Montana, the WWP is a non-profit organization that raises money to provide all kind of programs to assist wounded warriors and their caregivers in the healing process. Adam and I cannot say enough positive things about the project as they have helped so many warriors recover from their visible as well as invisible injuries from war.
This trip to NYC was specifically for their major fund-raising event of the year which is the Courage Awards and Benefit Dinner. This year the dinner was held at the Waldorf Astoria which is an absolutely amazing hotel in the heart of Manhattan. There were about 75 wounded warriors and their spouses/caregivers at the event and around 800 people total. Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary under President G.W. Bush, was the MC for the event. There was a silent auction with all kinds of merchandise and vacations for "sale" and you could donate monetarily as well. Also, three awards were given out, two for community service/commitment to WWP and servicemen and women and one to a wounded warrior for courage. We had an amazing time at the awards dinner and were so honored to be invited to this event. Here are a few pictures at the Waldorf Astoria.
The WWP does a fantastic job of planning trips for warriors and caregivers. The day after the Gala we were taken on a tour of NYC escorted by the NYPD. We all loaded up on buses and toured the city including a ferry ride to see the Statue of Liberty and NYC from the water and a tour of the World Trade Center site and 9/11 Memorial, St. Paul's Chapel and the FDNY station next to the World Trade Centers. That evening, we had dinner on the 40th floor of one of the buildings that has recently been rebuilt from September 11th. Here is a picture of us with the view of the city in the background.
This trip to NYC was specifically for their major fund-raising event of the year which is the Courage Awards and Benefit Dinner. This year the dinner was held at the Waldorf Astoria which is an absolutely amazing hotel in the heart of Manhattan. There were about 75 wounded warriors and their spouses/caregivers at the event and around 800 people total. Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary under President G.W. Bush, was the MC for the event. There was a silent auction with all kinds of merchandise and vacations for "sale" and you could donate monetarily as well. Also, three awards were given out, two for community service/commitment to WWP and servicemen and women and one to a wounded warrior for courage. We had an amazing time at the awards dinner and were so honored to be invited to this event. Here are a few pictures at the Waldorf Astoria.
The WWP does a fantastic job of planning trips for warriors and caregivers. The day after the Gala we were taken on a tour of NYC escorted by the NYPD. We all loaded up on buses and toured the city including a ferry ride to see the Statue of Liberty and NYC from the water and a tour of the World Trade Center site and 9/11 Memorial, St. Paul's Chapel and the FDNY station next to the World Trade Centers. That evening, we had dinner on the 40th floor of one of the buildings that has recently been rebuilt from September 11th. Here is a picture of us with the view of the city in the background.
We had a little free time as well and did some shopping on 5th Avenue, went to a local Italian restaurant and spent some time with one of Adam's good friends who lives in NYC. We had an amazing trip and will hopefully be able to go back and visit again soon!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Reunion
Most of you know that before Cohen came along, like most couples, Adam and I had our first "baby" or our dog Cooper. Adam and I got Cooper together but the dog very quickly turned into Adam's best buddy. Cooper likes me of course, but he LOVES Adam. He is an awesome dog and is so good with Cohen, which is one of the reasons we decided to get the kind of dog we did, a Rhodesian Ridgeback. Cooper is not your run of the mill dog but is pretty big (about 90 pounds) and is pretty quirky. He does not play fetch or like water like most large dogs do, but instead looks at you like your an idiot when you throw a ball or frisbee. He thinks he is a lap dog and will try to squeeze into the smallest space on the sofa just to be next to "his people". The breed is called "counter surfers" as they will stand and "walk" along your kitchen counter tops in search of food and Cooper actually jumped over the island in my kitchen one time to escape from me when he was in trouble for eating food in the kitchen. Cooper is a very sweet dog but it's not so easy to find someone to keep a dog like this, especially for an unknown period of time.
When Adam first was injured, Cooper initially stayed with our neighbor but he soon deployed in a couple of months. Then Cooper went to stay with a good friend in Clarksville until he deployed in December. After that we did not have anywhere to send Cooper since I did not want to burden anyone else so Adam suggested I contacted the breeder, Ann, where we got Cooper to see if she if she could keep him while we were gone. Ann ended up contacting a couple, Scott and Debbie, who live about an hour from Clarksville to see if they could keep Cooper. This couple had a Ridgeback that died just a couple months prior and they were pretty distraught. And, it would be much easier logistically to get Cooper to their home than all the way to Atlanta where Ann lives. So as soon as Ann contacted Scott he said "yes", they would take Cooper, before he even called his wife to ask her! Of course she was on board with adopting Cooper temporarily too. A couple of days later Scott and Debbie went to our friends house to pick up Cooper and ended up taking care of him for the next six months. No questions asked and at the time, for an unknown period of time. I kept in touch with Scott and Debbie via email and phone while we were in Tampa, Atlanta and Bethesda but Adam and I did not meet them until we went to visit Cooper in April of 2010. Adam and I finally ended up getting our Copper back in the Summer of 2010.
Scott and Debbie were wonderful "parents" for our Cooper and were such a blessing for us. We have now become great friends with this amazing couple who now have a new Ridgeback puppy of their own and a new baby in their family! About a month ago, Ann came to Nashville to visit Scott and Debbie and to show their Ridgeback puppy in a local dog show. Adam, Cohen and I went to the dog show to support Rafa, the new puppy, and to see Ann, Scott, Debbie and baby Caleb. Our little reunion was so great! Here are a few pictures:
When Adam first was injured, Cooper initially stayed with our neighbor but he soon deployed in a couple of months. Then Cooper went to stay with a good friend in Clarksville until he deployed in December. After that we did not have anywhere to send Cooper since I did not want to burden anyone else so Adam suggested I contacted the breeder, Ann, where we got Cooper to see if she if she could keep him while we were gone. Ann ended up contacting a couple, Scott and Debbie, who live about an hour from Clarksville to see if they could keep Cooper. This couple had a Ridgeback that died just a couple months prior and they were pretty distraught. And, it would be much easier logistically to get Cooper to their home than all the way to Atlanta where Ann lives. So as soon as Ann contacted Scott he said "yes", they would take Cooper, before he even called his wife to ask her! Of course she was on board with adopting Cooper temporarily too. A couple of days later Scott and Debbie went to our friends house to pick up Cooper and ended up taking care of him for the next six months. No questions asked and at the time, for an unknown period of time. I kept in touch with Scott and Debbie via email and phone while we were in Tampa, Atlanta and Bethesda but Adam and I did not meet them until we went to visit Cooper in April of 2010. Adam and I finally ended up getting our Copper back in the Summer of 2010.
Scott and Debbie were wonderful "parents" for our Cooper and were such a blessing for us. We have now become great friends with this amazing couple who now have a new Ridgeback puppy of their own and a new baby in their family! About a month ago, Ann came to Nashville to visit Scott and Debbie and to show their Ridgeback puppy in a local dog show. Adam, Cohen and I went to the dog show to support Rafa, the new puppy, and to see Ann, Scott, Debbie and baby Caleb. Our little reunion was so great! Here are a few pictures:
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| Reunion with Cooper at Scott and Debbie's Summer 2010 |
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| Reunion of everyone in March 2011: Adam, Scott, Carrie, Ann, Debbie, Cohen, baby Caleb and Rafa |
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| Cooper |
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Busy Busy!
Sorry it has been over a month since I last updated the blog...probably the longest since I started Adam's caringbridge website back in September of 2009. We have been super busy the past month with lots of new happenings...
A lot of people have been asking how Adam is doing driving and are completely amazed that he is able to drive now. He is doing great and we both love that he now has more independence than we ever thought possible since his injury. He drives pretty much everywhere in Clarksville, to all his appointments and anywhere else he wants to go! I still drive on long trips, on the highway and in big cities like Nashville or Atlanta which I'm sure he does not mind :) I have taken a couple of long weekend trips to Atlanta for various reasons and Adam can stay in Clarksville by himself now and not have to worry about having transportation! It is so great that we both have independence--another step towards normalcy.
I started working about a month ago--YAY! I'm only working two days a week for a lady in town who has her own pediatric therapy practice. She is wonderful to work for and I am loving being back at work part-time. I am very blessed to have a career that I love and that is very rewarding. It worked out really well because Adam started driving right before I went back to work so now he can take Cohen to daycare if he has an appointment; otherwise Adam watches Cohen while I am working.
We also put our house on the market about three weeks ago. We have no idea when Adam will be getting out of the Army and when we are moving; however, we think it will be in the next few months. Our realtor told us it would take about five months to sell our house so we wanted to go ahead and get it listed. We are definitely hoping to be moved in the next five months--if everything goes as planned; however, the problem is we have no control over the Army ;) It was a little crazy trying to get the house ready to put on the market the week I started working and getting ready to go out of town the following week...
Adam, Cohen and I took about a week of travel in March to go visit Charlotte, visit friends in Asheville and then to a friends wedding in Knoxville. We had a great time on our little road trip. Cohen was quite a handful at the wedding--thank goodness it was a beautiful day and he could run around outside with all of the other children. Here is a picture of him at the wedding and a few more recent pictures:
A lot of people have been asking how Adam is doing driving and are completely amazed that he is able to drive now. He is doing great and we both love that he now has more independence than we ever thought possible since his injury. He drives pretty much everywhere in Clarksville, to all his appointments and anywhere else he wants to go! I still drive on long trips, on the highway and in big cities like Nashville or Atlanta which I'm sure he does not mind :) I have taken a couple of long weekend trips to Atlanta for various reasons and Adam can stay in Clarksville by himself now and not have to worry about having transportation! It is so great that we both have independence--another step towards normalcy.
I started working about a month ago--YAY! I'm only working two days a week for a lady in town who has her own pediatric therapy practice. She is wonderful to work for and I am loving being back at work part-time. I am very blessed to have a career that I love and that is very rewarding. It worked out really well because Adam started driving right before I went back to work so now he can take Cohen to daycare if he has an appointment; otherwise Adam watches Cohen while I am working.
We also put our house on the market about three weeks ago. We have no idea when Adam will be getting out of the Army and when we are moving; however, we think it will be in the next few months. Our realtor told us it would take about five months to sell our house so we wanted to go ahead and get it listed. We are definitely hoping to be moved in the next five months--if everything goes as planned; however, the problem is we have no control over the Army ;) It was a little crazy trying to get the house ready to put on the market the week I started working and getting ready to go out of town the following week...
Adam, Cohen and I took about a week of travel in March to go visit Charlotte, visit friends in Asheville and then to a friends wedding in Knoxville. We had a great time on our little road trip. Cohen was quite a handful at the wedding--thank goodness it was a beautiful day and he could run around outside with all of the other children. Here is a picture of him at the wedding and a few more recent pictures:
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| Cohen at my friend Anna's wedding--being well-behaved for the time being! |
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| Loves hats! |
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| Cohen with his Aunt Lorra and cousin Benjamin |
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