Team Meyer

Stand In The Rain It's Thanksgiving. Our third one without Dave. The first Thanksgiving after Dave died was the first "major" holiday, and I remember driving to Denise's house, stuck in traffic on the freeway, crawling along at 10 mph, hearing Lonestar's "I'm Already There" and all four of us crying. Rivers of tears. Tears with no end. There weren't any tears this year. My heart didn't simply break into a million piecese when I looked around the table and Dave wasn't there. I didn't expect to see him bounding around the corner, with that little bounce in his step, keys jingling. My eyes didn't fill when I saw Amy or Luke or Jake squeeze through the furniture and thought of Dave putting up his legs, setting up a "toll gate," the price of passage a big Dave-hug. Is that better? In some ways I think it's worse. To absolutely know he's gone. And to have become resigned to it. To have that missing him be...

Wow. It was wonderful. Everything I thought. It was like meeting someone I'd always known. It was peaceful to be with Cheri and Cathy. The weather was cool and foggy most of the time and it was like a little cocoon surrounding us. We relaxed, drank lots of coffee and champagne and talked and talked. We stayed up way too late and ate way too much chocolate. We walked on the beach and watched the surfers on the waves. It was just like it should be. As I was getting off the plane in Sacramento, I wondered....how am I going to recognize Cheri? I've seen some pictures of her, but wasn't sure if I'd know her. From the top of the escalator, I saw her in the lobby and just knew. We hugged and hugged, and even though I was tired, I couldn't stop smiling. Then we embarked on a two-hour drive to the beach house. It was dark and foggy and Cheri hadn't driven there very many times. So we went in quite a few circles. "Right road, wrong way," she'...

Hawk Nelson has a song called California. It goes: I'm not falling for anymore of these tricks, I'm so tired of everything here, The sun is calling me to the west, Everyone's having fun out there, My bags are packed as I'm looking out the window, Everything is so outdated here, I wanna move west where the sun is shining, I want my friends to all be there, Let's pack up and move to California, She's got lots of friends out there, We'll never get bored cause we can go boardin', Let's let the sunshine take us there! Well, I'm going! Mom and Dad have the kids and I'm meeting Cathy from the 58th floor in Chicago and Cheri from California. Do you remember them? We are the three C's. We saw each other through the toughest times in our lives. You can visit them here: Cathy and Cheri I imagine the weekend will be full of chocolate, champagne and kleenex. Oh, and lots of hugs!

It's amazing what things a mom will do to help her child feel better. Meet Snickers. She's adorable. I'm crazy. It's all good. We still miss TwoFace, but this one has a little divider on her face that reminds us a little bit of him. The dogs LOVE her and are beside themselves, trying to stay calm enough not to scare her. At first she'd get all puffy and hissy whenever they came near, but once she approached Smokey, the crabby cat, she decided the dogs weren't so bad. Now they lay down on the floor and she snuggles right up to them. Koda's still a little afraid of her, but Duke's in heaven. Kenny is feeling a LOT better today. He's a bit puffy, but not too bad. He's been good about the ice packs and salt water rinses and taking his meds. He's well enough to go to see the COUGARS with his uncle today, so all is good here. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. It helped more than you know.

“Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.” John W. Gardner Well, we were up until 3:00 am. That's all I'll say about that. It first appeared that today would be a re-run of yesterday. Continued puking. Hydrocodone is hard on an empty stomach. And eating is no fun if you've got major holes in your jaw and your stomach is rolling. Besides, that "soft foods only" instruction is rather annoying to someone who only eats toast, granola, crackers, chips, french fries, apples, nachos, peanuts, popcorn and carrot sticks. Oh....he does eat corn, milk and ice cream, those kind of qualify as soft. No blood now, so the scenes look less like an ax murder took place and more like a bile factory gone wrong. That's something to be happy about. Told my mom and sister they'd have to be witnesses if I was ever suspected of something and those cool CSI guys sprayed my house with luminol. Every room would light up and they'd put me on death row! I should exp...

If you already checked this entry, scroll down...there are updates . For accompanying music, scroll down, click the arrow to play the song and then come back up and read. Today Kenny had all four wisdom teeth removed. Plus one more tooth. All in preparation for braces. Poor kid. Poor, poor kid. But I was so proud of him. We gave him an oral valium before the appointment, then they let him breathe some gas and voila! He let them place and IV so they could sedate him. Dr. Caso is a wiz! We weren't sure this was going to work. Any time Kenny has needed sedation before, we would give him a shot of ketamine, which is an animal tranquilizer, and that would drop him like a stone in about 30 seconds. But the last time they came at him with the shot, he said, "Are you gonna take me down?" And the doc said, "Well, yeah, I guess you could say that." Kenny said, "Not if I get you first." Then he threatened to burn down the dental clinic. So, for some ...