Ooh, My Tummy Hurts

Easter Sunday we decided since we had no family within a few hundred miles we would spend the day with friends who were in the same boat. We had a whole day of fun planned. A feast of a brunch, bocce ball, an amazing Easter Egg hunt with prizes & banana grams (a super fun fast version of scrabble)

We had a ton of fun and were with our friends from noon till night. Monday morning Kris woke up and said, "Ooh, my tummy hurts." I thought perhaps it was the pounds of ham & mac n cheese that he had consumed the day before. He decided to disregard his pains and headed off to his 8am team meeting.

Apparently throughout the meeting the tummy pain stayed consistent, until eventually his team convinced him to stop by the student clinic to check it out. Once at the clinic the doctors immediately sent him off to the ER because they thought he had appendicitis.

I met Kris at the ER, and after 8 hours and a lot of waiting time while listening to a drunkard coming down from getting wasted before a medical detox, at 10pm Kris was headed to the operating room for a routine appendectomy. The docs assured me that it would be a simple hour long surgery and that he would be headed home the next afternoon.

Well, 1 hour turned into 2, then 4.... and finally at 2am Kris was out of surgery. He had some complications (granulomatous appendicitis, which is very very rare) because the crazy kid was walking around for several days with a burst appendix! His body had created an abscess in order to protect his body, so the surgeons had to remove the appendix, abscess, part of the small intestine & colon! Apparently his body did a really good job of protecting itself by creating the abscess and it may have even saved his life.

He had 6 days of recovery in the hospital, and by the time he left he had been poked and pricked about a hundred times, but somehow left with all of the nursing staff smitten. Must have been his great hair!

He's home now and little by little things are getting back to normal. His follow-up appointment was today and his docs were happily surprised at how well he is healing. Just 4 more weeks until he can head back to the gym, and believe me, he is counting the days.

Although it was a little scary to have all of this happen when we are so far from home we received a ton of support from school, work & friends. One of Kris' professors even called the hospital room the morning after his surgery! It's nice to know that in the short time we've been here that we've developed our own little network of support.

Thanks for all of the well wishes & check-ins.

His & Hers

When we moved into our new apartment in Ann Arbor we were lucky enough to have lots of natural light. Two of the sources are window box sky lights that are located directly above two small closets. In these closets we have his and hers alpha storage systems where we keep some of our clothes.

On one fateful trip to IKEA we decided to each pick out a plant to put into our respective sky light shelves. We went with succulents, each a little different from the other... just like us.

Now, 7 months later, our His & Hers plants have had some time to grow and get comfortable, each in their own way.

His is very direct in his search for sunlight & sustenance.

Hers is a little all over the place, with a need to check out everything.

I think this says a lot about us.

How do we get to Canadialand?

A few weeks back ago on a Sunday Kris, Dane and I had nothing to do, so we thought, with Windsor, Canada less than an hour away, why not hop in the car to what what we could see.

We headed north on the freeway, passed Detroit, paid a toll and got to cross a bridge. Not quite the Golden Gate, huh?

We stopped at the travel center on the way in to pick up some maps

Kris & Dane were very excited to receive these information booklets. (Don't adjust your computer screens folks... they really are that pale)

We grabbed some Chinese food, headed to Caesar's Palace and watched the US lose to Canada in hockey... what else was there to do on a Sunday.

And we passed this on our way out of Canada, it must be where babies go to get their drink on, no?

Boulderific

This past weekend Kris headed to Boulder, Colorado to compete in the regional portion of a MBA Venture Capital Competition. He went with a team of his fellow students which included one of his closest friends in Ann Arbor, Mr. Dane Johnson. Dane's fiance Ellen and I decided to take Friday off to join them in Boulder for the remainder of the weekend.

We had a blast exploring the town and surrounding area. It was actually kind of warm compared to the chilly temps we've been having in Ann Arbor. The downtown area was in walking distance from our hotel and was filled with restaurants, shops and sights to see. The town had a very laid back vibe and the locals were incredibly nice. Here are some photos of the fun.

Here's a nice picture of the three of us at the top of a mountain just outside of Boulder (that's Dane in the background:))

Kris' team ended up winning the Entrepreneurs Choice in the competition, but unfortunately won't get to continue onto nationals. They did a great job, but the other teams had some questionable advantages. They did get to walk away with a HUGE check for $500 which they get to split 5 ways! Of course the check went everywhere we did for the rest of the weekend.

The boys celebrated their big win,

Again

And again!

Then the check had to go home with us and was carried on. It had to go though security several times, while many by standers gave annoyed faces and asked, "What's that for anyways?"

But it made it back with us in one piece... with a few bumps, scratches and dents.

Before we headed back to the airport we stopped through Denver and walked around downtown and near the art museum. This giant cow statue was just begging for this photo opp!

This little horsey did not want to be left out.

Ellen and I wrapped up the trip with a final pose.

Finally, photos from the holidays

About a month late, but better late than never, right? Here are some photos from the holidays that I finally managed to get from my camera to the computer. Such a great time filled with so many of our loved ones!

Kris, Jeremy (an old colleague from KPMG) and I on the roof top of Peggy & Ed's in SF on NYE.

10 years prior to this date Peggy's friend Tania Kiani (pictured on left) dragged her to SF for a NYE party. It was at this party that Ed and his friend Laura (pictured on right) met the lovely Peggy. 4 years later on this date Laura married them in their lovely home in SF.

Grammy and Anne posing together on NYE

Kris and I helped Oliver find his toys. Quite the stash!

The Walls hosted the family holiday celebration on Christmas evening in Santa Barbara

Kris & Grammy

Rich & Katie

Guess what Grandma made for us for Christmas?

Kris & I were part of the new tradition of going out to Chinese on Christmas Eve with my Dad and brother Cliff. The restaurant was packed and it was delicious, I think we'll keep up this tradition.

I have officially shut down my recruiting/interview process and accepted a summer internship in the investment banking division of UBS in San Francisco. Thank goodness I can continue working for a firm that is technically Swiss.

Back to the Midwest

We know this post is very late, but we're back in the Midwest and settling into life here after our wonderful holiday break. We're experiencing some technical difficulties so we have not been able to get our pictures from the camera to the computer, hopefully we'll sort that out soon and post some pics of our time in CA. The above picture was taken by my brother Cliff in my family's backyard on Christmas morning, such a sunny and beautiful day.

Kris is in crazy productive mode and is back in school on top of interviewing for his summer internship. He's hoping to land a position in Finance on the West Coast, so think good thoughts for him.

I'm back at work and we just have the nicest group of families right now. I'm really enjoying working more closely with families again. Tons of people from the community have been calling me and wanting to get involved. Friday I met with the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity's Philanthropy Chair, his group would like to begin volunteering with us, which means that I may have to hold a training at the Frat House in the next couple of weeks. Should be interesting!

On a happy note Kris recently participated in the Venture Capital Investment Competition, a national competition for MBAs. His team won the first round of the competition on Friday and received funding to represent U of M at the regional competition in Boulder, CO in February. Woo Woo!