I can't believe summer is halfway over already! The first 5 weeks was the craziest for us. Not only did we go to Hawaii for a week, but we always made 4 trips to Salt Lake, that's right, 4 trips in 4 weeks! But, as far as I know, we won't be going up again until August. Coming home from Hawaii was extremely depressing, I had no worries there, it was perfect; But, life goes on and we've had a couple of exciting things happen since we got home.
First, we've had two little Shih Tzu dogs for about 4 years. They were twins and looked almost exactly the same. Well, one of them, Gus, was having some skin problems that the vet was having a hard time figuring out. We had tried many things, even Prednisone, but we couldn't determine the cause or the cure. It was making Gus miserable, he was scratching all the time and was sick too. I finally decided that we weren't being good owners if we continued to make him suffer like he was. It was not easy, but I took him to the vet to be put to sleep. I hated it, Gus was my buddy, but it needed to happen.
Our other dog, Rebel, followed Gus everywhere and we were afraid he was going to be lonely, so we decided to get him a new friend. We got another little, 6-week-old Shih Tzu puppy, and after a lot of arguing and debating, we decided to name him Milo (or should I say that Abby decided to name him Milo.) Brock's top choice was Zeus, and when you see the puppy, you'll understand why that wouldn't work, and Britt wanted to name him Kevin, I don't think we even need an explanation about why we didn't choose that name. Nobody really cared what I wanted to name him, so Milo was the name. He's adorable. I don't know if I've ever seen a cuter puppy. He's Abby's dog and she just can't get enough of him, actually, none of us can. He's a lot of work though, but I think we can handle it. We sure miss Gus, but we love our new Milo.
Last week I also got an email from the foundation director at Primary Children's. We had been in contact the past few weeks because they had asked if Abby would be willing to be a speaker at their big golf fundraiser coming up in August, which she is going to do. But, this time they wanted to invite her to the new music therapy room ribbon cutting at Primary Children's. Of course that meant another 600 miles of driving, but Abby really wanted to go.....and good thing we did! As we were standing out in the hall waiting to go into the ceremony, Abby and Britt's biggest, most famous heartthrob walked by. It was so funny, Abby's cheeks turned bright red and she couldn't even talk. I couldn't figure out who he was, but finally Abby whispered, "It's Derek!!! Derek from Dancing With the Stars!" How could I not know that????? As soon as he walked by again, and after Abby wiped the drool from her chin, we were able to get a picture, and Abby was set for the day! When we sent the picture to Britt, she was so mad that she didn't come with us! She was so jealous, I think she maybe even shed a tear or two :)
The rest of the day at Primary Children's was also fun and we were able to spend the day with some of heart friends too. Abby and the other kids had a front row seat to listen to both Linkin Park and the Stone Temple Pilots perform some of their songs. We were able to tour the new Forever Young zone and the new music therapy room too, they are both amazing. Abby actually said that she'll be excited to spend some time in there next time she's admitted, which is hopefully never!!! It was a good day and I think it was even worth the drive. Here's a link to the story that was on KUTV: http://www.kutv.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_5626.shtml
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| Linkin Park |
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| Stone Temple Pilots |
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| Matthew Sperry, a heart transplant friend, cutting the ribbon! |
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| Abby and Steve Young |
Last thing....This Friday, the 12th, is Abby's 2-year heart anniversary! We are going to do the same thing that we did last year and make in the 2nd annual "Pay if Forward for Abby" Day! If you're on Facebook, go to the page and see what we did last year. Or, you can click this link and see what we did last year: http://www.abbyninja.blogspot.com/2012/06/pay-it-forward-for-abby.html
To honor Abby's donor family and to show how thankful we are for her new heart, we ask everyone to do something for someone else on July 12th, Pay it Forward for Abby!
