A dress has been picked!! I thought about it, talked to a few people, and decided that I would pick Dress #2. While the other would've been a bit easier for the reception, I really fell in love with the first one and had to go with it (it was less $$$ too...). Didn't get any emails from here, but I did have a few people look at 'em and say they could tell I was more excited about the one I picked. Thanks to all who helped!!

Well, I went dress shopping at David's Bridal and tried on what must've been a dozen dresses (I picked out several on their website ahead of time, and wrote down the item numbers, to make it a little easier during my appointment.) I had a 2pm appointment and my mom and I were there for about an hour and a half. I've managed to narrow it down to two dresses after much thought. I have to decide by this evening at 9pm, because that's when their sale ends, and any amount of money I can take off the price is welcome. But, if you're curious, and want to see what two dresses I picked, even want to email me with suggestions, here are the two choices:

• Dress 1
• Dress 2

My e-mail address can be found here.

Yeah!!! We have a wedding date set! I made reservations yesterday afternoon with a very nice restaurant that provides banquet rooms for receptions, anniversaries, etc. Even better, they had our ideal date (well, mine anyway -- he didn't care too much) of June 15 open still. Also, we decided to add the optional extra hour (optional, but not free of course) so we can also have the wedding there immediately before the reception. It's much simpler in many respects. 1.) Neither one of us belongs to a church (so a church wedding is more or less out, since we have no particular interest in joining one). 2.) There's only one place we need to go to set everything up and make sure it's all taken care of, and there's one less check to write and/or one less entry on the credit card bill statement. 3.) All our guests (especially out of town guests who don't know the area well) will only have to find one place, not two, and they'll have less travelling to do (they can sit at their tables during the ceremony).

Tomorrow, I get to go dress shopping...

I should've written this yesterday, but I didn't get the chance. My sister is home! She left the hospital Wednesday evening (the 25th). The doctor finally decided that since she was off the IV, and now able to eat once again, that there was no reason to keep her in the hospital any longer. She was very happy! My fiancé and I visited her later that evening, and she was looking and feeling a whole lot better. In fact, she said as soon as she got home, she totally pigged out on dinner. (While being able to eat at all is good, being able to eat other than hospital food is even better.) She is to come in some time the following week for followup with the doctor she saw at the hospital, and then some time after that to go in with her regular doctor for further followup. Also, she's to take it easy for a month to six weeks.

Latest update is she's now off the IV for good. Yesterday she started getting what they call "infiltration", as evidenced by a pink line going away from where the IV is in, and lotsa pain. So, they tried to move it but couldn't find another vein so they took it out. It was out for a while, so she finally was able to eat something (her nausea lessened enough). A little while after that, they tried to find a place for the IV again (after letting at least some of the food digest so she didn't throw it all back up). They finally did, but it hurt so much they took it out again. They called her doctor (this was after 9pm last night) who gave the order that she can stay off IV antibiotics and go on oral antibiotics, since she was able to eat. She (the doctor) had wanted to keep her on the IV drugs because they're more effective, but my sister apparently has rather tiny veins to begin with, and antibiotics screw up blood vessel tissue a bit, so it wasn't possible anymore.

So, the earliest she's likely to come home is probably tomorrow, so they can keep her on observation on the oral meds for a day or so before she goes home. But, she's very happy to be off the IV, because not only was it uncomfortable at best, but she couldn't leave the hospital until she was off it. Had they kept her on an IV as long as they wanted (until tomorrow or Thursday) she might not have gone home until Friday or so. This way, she might get to go home a bit sooner. Let's all hope!!!

I just got an email from my mom on how my sister's doing. Last night the earliest they were going to let her out of the hospital is tomorrow (Saturday). Now, they're saying that they want to keep her for a full 7 days, which since they admitted her Tuesday night (after having been in emergency since noon or so that day) means she won't get to leave until Monday or Tuesday. The only comfort is that the doctor decided she was still young enough that he didn't want to do surgery on her for something that wasn't life-threatening, so apparently it is shrinking (or not getting bigger, anyway). So, they're not going to operate, which is a relief.

They also had to move the IV because it'd been in the same place for 3 days (I wasn't aware there was a time limit on such things) but there was trouble with that. First, they changed arms & put it in the back of her left hand. But, her hand swelled up really bad (my mom said it "like one of those surgical gloves when they've filled it with popcorn") so they moved it to her right hand. However, they had trouble first finding, and then getting into, a vein. It'd been a while between that and when Mom went to see her but she was still shaking from the experience, and she said she was very pale and her skin was still cold.

I guess it's really good they don't have to do surgery to remove the cyst, but I know she's going to hate having to stay in the hospital until Monday/Tuesday. What she doesn't mind though, is the doctor told her that after she leaves she should take it easy for a good 4-6 weeks. I guess that means she won't be going back to work between now and going back to school, but I don't know that she minds that much.

Good news and bad news. How about bad news first? My sister went into the hospital the next day after we got back from our vacation. She's going to be okay; they found a cyst and they're trying to shrink it. They're going to do another ultrasound and see if it shrank enough, so the earliest she'll be going home is tomorrow. If it hasn't shrunk, that means surgery (big !!) so we're all hoping the antibiotics are doing the trick. She is feeling better (they're giving her anti-pain drugs too) although can't wait to sleep in her own bed and eat solid food again.

Okay, now here's the good news. My fiancé, Jeremy, and I have come very close to setting a date for our wedding. We became engaged over New Years' (yes, at midnight!) but at the time he lived in a different city 300 miles away. He is now living with me (as of nearly 3 weeks ago) and so we can start planning the wedding. (Or, rather, I can start planning the wedding, as it's already clear he's not going to offer much input...) We originally wanted a fall wedding, specifically early to mid October of 2002, but there are a couple catches. First, he might be taking teaching classes, and of course that means he'll be in school during October. Second, my sister is my maid of honor, and is still in college, so she'll also be in school then. And, she's going to school about 200 miles away so it's going to be hard enough planning, let alone trying to schedule the wedding then (she often has weekend commitments during school). So... we have decided to move it closer, and make sure we're past the end of school. Unless we can't book anything, it's going to be either June 15 or June 22 of 2002. I'm leaning towards the 15th, but it could depend on whether we can reserve a place to get married and have the reception on either date. For those dates, I'm already "behind" in planning, and a good number of weddings take place in the month of June, so there's a good chance getting reservations anywhere might be a bit difficult.

Bacon's home again! I was gone from July 9 until last night, so I just saw Alana's latest update she put up on July 13. The doctors did a decent job of amputating Bacon's leg, and she's doing well, although a bit lonely in her room by herself. To find out more, just check out Alana's page (the link is further up in this section).

Well, Bacon has had her x-rays and her surgery. Her leg was too badly shattered to be reattached with pins, so they had to amputate. She had surgery today, and will recover, but with three legs. You can read more in an update made by Bacon's human on her page I linked below. (There are some really cute pictures of her kittens as well!)

I wanted to alert you to a "meow-my" in need. A young woman's cat was hit by a car almost right after giving birth to five kittens, and needs surgery. I found mention of it on the Crosswinds Updates Page, and the woman's site where she put the information can be found by going to Alana's Page. Just as Tony was not asked to post her emergency to the updates page, I also am posting this of my own free will -- I saw this first thing this morning before work and have only sent her an email asking how I can help (so I haven't even heard back from her yet). Anyone seeing this and wanting to help, go to her site and use her contact info at the bottom of the page to let her know you want to help.

Thanks!

Kate (aka playfulkitten)