Not for WEAK!

I am posting pictures of Matthew's casts. Do NOT look below if you don't like this kind of thing. If you followed Matthew's Caring Bridge site through surgery, you know that he has been struggeling with his Plastic Bronchitis again. He has coughed out a total of 5 casts so far since this surgery. I think it is fascinating and am just in awe that he can cough these out so I am sharing because some people like gross stuff and are curious! Matthew coughed the thicker one out (on the bottom) Tuesday morning with some effort and then woke up during the night and coughed out the smaller one a little more easily (on the top). It's really quite amazing. They are called casts because they actually form around the bronchial trees as a liquid and then harden there...You can see them here...all the little branches. Something makes them decide to let go and then the only way out is by coughing them out. Some of them have been a little scary because as you can see, they are quite large and block the airways as they try to pass. Especially after heart surgery, it can be quite difficult to cough hard enough to get it through.




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Actually, they are not that bad!

It's FINALLY gone!

Ever since we moved into this house 9 years ago, I have hated this pine tree that sat in our front yard. It was way too big for the house and the neighborhood. It was dead besides...leaving sticks and pine cones to clean up constantly. Just an ugly sore spot of our property.

Finally today, we were arriving home from running errands and we could not see the towering tree from the back of the house. It's gone! Had we known it would be so cheap and easy to get rid of it we would have done it years ago. We can see our house now. It's great! The boys were so bummed that we missed them taking it down. They said they would be here early this week and so we sat at home for 3 days waiting. This morning, it was pouring rain so we thought for sure they wouldn't do it this morning. Oh well! Just the stump left...they will come in a few days to grind that down. The first quote we got they said they would have to take it down piece by piece and it would destroy the yard. This company just took it down into the street, fast, simple, not a bit of damage to anything, anywhere.