Italy--Venice continued

 After we got back to Venice from Burano, we grabbed our first gelato. Yummy stuff. We then meandered back to our hotel in the dark and explored a few churches on the way. On the bottom left is a hotel we stumbled on that we decided if Jon had to have another episode--it would at least be fun to explore that place! It was fantastic!

 Rialto bridge and then for dinner our first Italian Pizza

 The next morning we were up early again and headed to Ca' d' Oro. Beautiful mansion with lots of cool historic art inside.

 And more churches and walking around Venice. So many famous artists in those churches...too bad no pictures!

 Then Ca' Rezzonico, another mansion that was more preserved as a house-- crazy that some people lived with that much decoration! (no photos were aloud inside, so take my word for it)

 Then we walked to my favorite church in Venice! The black plague church (ok so its not called that its the Santa Maria del Salute, built as sorta a bribe for good health during the plague in the 1600s). It is right on the end of the grand canal giving it an awesome view! And all the artwork inside was plague related. Just all in all a cool church!

I just kept thinking the whole trip "holy crap! I'm in Venice!!"

ITALY--first night/Murano & Burano

 The welcome gate to Venice! The restaurant we randomly picked for dinner our first night in Venice was called the Walter bar! It was destiny. I loved just walking around and exploring! Venice was a drug to me....I would have loved to meander for days. We stumbled on this awesome painted hallway...ah!  And all the pretty doors and unique buildings....Jon kept losing me cause I would stop unannounced to soak in something else I loved.

 Our first full day in Venice we started early (Jon and I took in the view from our hotel's rooftop and learned that Jon can't keep his eyes from squinting terribly to save his life!). We took a trip to Murano for glass making and then over to Burano for lace!

 I loved loved loved the smaller islands! Less foot traffic but just as much charm! The doors---SO PRETTY!

 BEAUTIFUL church we stumbled on.

 First water fountain in Italy!

 And my dear husband....he was the master is silly faces the entire trip. Part of why I love him, he always makes me smile!

 And we found my mom's boat in Murano!

 BURANO! I loved the cute little perfect island! And lace....*sigh* how I love lace! The bright colors, tiny canals, old ladies in shops making lace. It was like walking in a dream.

ITALY--getting there

*So I decided to split Italy up into segments to make it easier to write about! Be warned-- these posts will be FULL of random pictures I took that I can't narrow down to just a few because I love them all. It's my blog and my memories, so get over it!*

So as I previously stated, Jon got released from the hospital at 6pm. We left New Jersey at 8pm to go drive his truck to the office and leave it there for when he got back. Then we drove 9 hours through the night to Ohio to meet my parents at the Columbus airport. We then jumped on a flight from Ohio to Houston.

Don't we look lovely after being in the car all night?

Then my dear friend Leslie picked us up from the Houston airport and let us crash at her place for a few short hours. Leslie always makes my heart happy--love her so!

 Then she dropped us off at the other airport in Houston to hop our next flight. We met up with our travel buddies and headed to Germany!

 After 9 hours to Germany and then a short flight to Venice, we got on a Vaporetto (water bus). That poor bus was just about the slowest form of transportation I've ever encountered, but at least it had pretty views of Venice!

Jon's Health Scare

 On Saturday Feb 29th Jon went to work for a half day. When he came home he was complaining that he didn't feel very good. About 30 minutes later he was writhing on our bed in pain and hastily decided he better get to an ER quick. Funny thing about still using your GPS to go to the grocery store....trying to find an ER is tricky! I used Google maps to find an ER but it said it was 30 min away. So I started driving toward a busier area and searched again, and found a place. (Note that I asked Jon repeatedly if he needed me to just call an ambulance. He kept saying, "I don't think so, just get to somewhere quick!") He was sweating and moaning--clearly miserable. I have never seen him anywhere near that ill. Freaked me out! So we finally get to the ER-- and we have a car full or kids. We mutually decided that taking all the kids inside wouldn't help him relax, so I just dropped him off at the ambulance door. In my mind I thought "well, hopefully I'll see you later..." I couldn't make myself leave. Jon initially told me to just go to a birthday party for Kate and he would call when he needed picked up. But we still didn't know what was going on. Was he having a heart attack? I figured he had a stomach ulcer that burst or something. About an hour later he tells me that the pain has lessened considerably, and the doctor thought it was just a case of gastritis. But decided to run blood work just in case. Hours later, blood work came back showing signs of liver failure. The ER doc said--here are some pills for gastritis, but follow up with a doctor tomorrow for further testing. Next morning, the doctor took a quick look at his bloodwork and said it was absolutely not gastritis (I must admit I am still disappointed it wasn't just some bad gas that landed him in the hospital....that would have been prime joke material for years to come.) The doctor sent him to be admitted to the hospital for more tests, cat scan, MRI, bloodwork etc. His liver numbers were worse than the day before, and the doc decided it was leftover gallstones from when his gallbladder was removed. They put him out and did surgery to see what was going on. They found stones and cleaned out the liver duct. Also the surgeon made an incision so he wouldn't have problems in the future.

 So they observed him for a few days hours and decided he looked good.

 And they send him home. Jon felt great. His brother Kevin and wife Kelsi came to help us while Jon was in the hospital. Jon wanted to take them to our local park and have fun, so despite my warning he did. The girls had a blast playing with their cousin and their tiny dogs!

 So then Sunday night he passed out in the shower. He was weak, and just overall pathetic. He decided to wait and go back to the doctor Monday morning. The doctor sent him back to the hospital. The surgeon went back in and found that she nicked an artery when making the incision and it was bleeding. She cauterized it. But then after monitoring him for another day his hemoglobin levels were still dropping so she had to go back in AGAIN and she clamped off the artery. His numbers still weren't leveling out like she wanted to see so she gave him a transfusion. Finally at 6:30pm Thursday the 10th, they let him go again.

And what did we do? As per his instance (And his surgeon and doctor saying they THOUGHT he would be fine), we loaded up our van to take the kids to my parent's house and hop our flight to Italy. 

Daily Life

 My girls are everywhere. Loud. Sweet. Crazy. Funny. Obnoxious. I make a big effort to document the big events in our lives, but sometimes don't take time to write down the little day to day things. SO here are a few. Meet Rainbowlee Lilly Jem Walter, the girls new pet. The previous renters here left this yard owl, and the girls found it yesterday. They begged and pleaded with me to convince me it needed to live in their room. I turned them down, but when they started making plans to come outside every morning before the sun came up so they could feed and take good care of Rainbowlee I decided it might be safer if I let them keep their pet downstairs. All I need are my kids running free outside before I wake up.... These kids are too funny Kate also decided she wanted her name to now be Violinda and she wants to become a violin player/dancer. And Abby wants to be called Rex.

 Poor Abby I feel has been getting the short end of the stick with this move. She doesn't have preschool anymore (we will be putting her in perschool next year) and she doesn't have any kids to do playdates with. She is pretty much stuck with me and Jane all the time. And I've been lax in keeping up her schooling at home. BUT a few days ago she wrote her name by herself for the first time! I was pretty proud she could at least do that much without me being on the ball. I got to get myself in gear for that girl.

And a shout out needs to go out the worlds most patient dog. This dog puts up with so much tough love from our girls. We should have named him Champ instead of Chance! I looked over at him the other day when we were reading stories at bedtime and found him still wearing necklaces and bows....Poor guy I had no idea how long he'd been dressed up.