Quick catch-up

I haven't posted in awhile, so here are some photos from the Auburn vs. Florida weekend:

 I must say, our tailgate is pretty awesome:

My brother and Katie:

 I love an Auburn sunset, especially over Jordan Hare Stadium. I stole this photo from a friend's facebook page:

Campus looks lovely in the background of the stadium:



Dad's 60th birthday celebration

I had such a fun weekend! My dad's 60th birthday was 9/26, but with all of the recent craziness (death of his father, Paige's heart transplant), we had to postpone the celebration. My brothers and sister planned a weekend full of Atlanta excitement. Our spouses were unfortunately tied up for the weekend (Kellye with Paige, Andrew in Arkansas with the boys, and Harrison hard at work catching up on grading and lesson plans), so it was just the 'Cunningham Originals.'

Friday kicked off by visiting Paige at her home. It was so nice to see her in the comfortable surroundings of home. She looked great; just a little fussy on some of the new meds. As long as she was in her dad's arms, she was content:

From there we picked up my parents from the Omni Hotel/CNN center. Nate booked them a couple of nights at this nice hotel. We had drinks at Meehan's Irish Pub:

 and then went to the Sundial for dinner. The Sundial is the rotating restaurant at the top of the Westin hotel (on the 72nd floor). The views of the city are phenomenal! We had a fantastic dinner and feasted on some incredible desserts. In 1993, I had my first slice of cheesecake at that restaurant, so I had to try it there again. It did NOT disappoint!

On Saturday, we met my parents at the Georgia Aquarium and spent several hours checking out all of the cool exhibits.

We had lunch at Der Beirgarten on Marietta St. Their version of Oktoberfest was going on during the full month of October, so we wanted to check it out. For lunch, it was pretty tame, but we enjoyed sitting on the deck eating bratwurst, knackwurst, weisswurst, Reuben rolls, and goulash. Everything tasted nice with a tasty Hefeweizen. Aren't they cute?

From there we went to the Sweetwater Brewery for a tasting and a tour. I LOVE me some Sweetwater Blue! For just $10, they gave us a souvenir glass, tickets to sample six beers, a tour, and live music.  The tour was pretty wimpy, but worth the value.

We had dinner at Stats, where we also watched the Auburn game. The game didn't end well, so I'll leave it at that. We had such a great time spending the weekend celebrating with our dear ole dad. Happy 60th, Dad!

Paige has a new heart!

The Cunninghams, immediately prior to Paige's transplant:

Our precious, nearly 11 month old niece had a heart transplant during the early hours of 9/30/11. Paige was only on the transplant list for 16 days before receiving word (late afternoon on 9/29) that she'd been blessed with this opportunity. Surgery only took about 3 hours, as opposed to the expected 6-8 hours. She was only sedated on the ventilator for a few hours before waking up (as opposed to the expected 72 hours...such a strong fighter). Today, her IV cardiac meds (Milrinone and Isupril) and oxygen were discontinued, and she was moved into the cardiac stepdown unit. We are so thankful and amazed at her progress. Thank you for all of the prayers; God is good! Please continue to pray for the donor family, Paige's successful recovery and acceptance of her new heart, the parents (Nate and Kellye ), and the mini-Cunningham's in Kellye 's belly! We'll know this week if Paige is going to have little brothers or little sisters!

Here's a photo that I took of Paige today in the hospital (2 days post-transplant:):

She's a little groggy from the pain meds :-)

Here's Kellye's latest CarePage update from today:

Paige is doing so well! As soon as they brought her to the floor, they took her off oxygen (so she could lose the tubes in her nose) and they removed another one of her IV lines because it didn't seem to be flushing well. So we're down to 1 IV line in her right leg and the Broviac catheter, along with the chest tubes, of course. They will closely monitor the chest tube drainage over night but hopefully those will be removed tomorrow.
I feel like Paige had a better day today than yesterday as far as her pain level. Yesterday, she continued to receive morphine because she would get so agitated and upset, and there was no real calming her down. Today she did not receive any pain meds until after being moved the the CSU (Cardiac Stepdown Unit).
On tomorrow's schedule she should have a chest Xray, an echocardiogram, and labs. All of these tests determine how Paige's new heart is doing and how her body is adjusting to her new heart. We are constantly praying for no rejection or infection because these can pose major setbacks in Paige's recovery.
We are so pleased with how quickly Paige is "jumping these hurdles" to quote Dr. Mahle. At the same time, it's a little scary because Paige has always been the "slow and steady" baby that takes a little while to adjust but eventually she gets it. Apparently with her new heart, she is just taking off and instead of the tortoise, she just might be the hare!
It appears our discharge date may not be too far in the future and she received her heart less than 72 hours ago! Our God is an AWESOME God! We continue to praise and thank Him for the precious gift of Paige's life and all the blessings He has showered on us -- including you (our fan base!) who constantly lift us up in prayer. Y'all are AMAZING!!

Piper, our new dog

We spent all of our time last weekend with this sweet girl:

This adorable Brittany Spaniel showed up on my in-laws door step two weeks ago, has not wandered off, and has not been claimed. She wasn't wearing a collar and she looked pretty healthy. I took her into the vet on Friday to see if she had a microchip or signs of being spayed, which might indicate that she had an owner that was probably looking for her. She was clear of both, and she checked out to be very healthy. She has a slight case of hookworm, as many strays do, but that's easy to clear up (just 3 days of meds). We had assumed that she was still in the 'puppy stages' due to her temperament, but the vet said she's likely between 2-5. She informed me that most Brittanys have a lot of energy! She also told me that she's heard of cases where Brittanys will stray from their masters while trying to pick up smells. The hunters will get frustrated that the dog doesn't return timely, as trained, and 'give up' on them. Sad! If that's the case and she's a wanderer, I need to get a chip in her and a tag for her new collar soon!

I told the vet that we intended to keep her since she'd been with us for two weeks without anyone responding to ads or posting 'lost' ads. I had her groomed and vaccinated, and then our family officially named her Piper. We had a laundry list of names that we liked, but because we're 'sharing custody' of her with my in-laws (the ones with the nice big yard, which we are missing), we all needed to come to an agreement. 'Piper' is cute and very fitting of her peppy personality.

On Saturday, we made several trips to PetCo and Big Lots. We wanted to see how she would act inside our home. We got a puppy gate, a bed, and some toys. She was super excited all day, running all over the apartment. It was a lot to handle. Occasionally she'd settle down for a few minutes and use her bed:

We gated her off in the kitchen overnight, and she did pretty well. Our overall takeaway from the experience is that she is predominately an outside dog (needing to be with Harrison's parents until we eventually get our home in the country), but we can have play dates and sleepovers with her a few times a month :)
We miss her :(


Monday was my dad's 60th BIRTHDAY! My mom did something special to his tool truck without him knowing. People were honking at him all morning:

Hope you had a great birthday, Dad. We're all looking forward to getting together very soon in Atlanta to celebrate BIG!


On another note, I took a few pictures of where I work, since Harrison wonders what Union Springs/my office is like.

Here's the quaint little town of Union Springs, AL:

The office (bad photo):

 Office entrance:

 I love the waiting area:

My office:

I need to dig out all of my books that are still in storage (in-laws' house) and stock them in my bookcase. That's a bust of Hippocrates (the father of Western medicine) on the shelf. Can you guess who might've gifted that to me?

Having a private office bathroom is pretty sweet:

One of my exam rooms:

Another view:

We're going back to Asheville this coming weekend for a wedding and to visit friends! I'm BEYOND excited!

Have to include a picture of the most beautiful baby ever, Miss Paige:

XOXO, Paige. Love, Aunt Trey & Uncle Harrison

Egleston, then Pennsylvania... and a dog?

I spent this past Saturday visiting with Nate, Kellye, and Paige at Egleston (Children's Hospital of Atlanta). Paige was full of energy and cuteness. She's learned how to wave good-bye and she sits up with so much strength now! She likes to show off her new bottom teeth, as you see above.

On Sunday, Nate, David and I headed to the airport at 5:30 am to get on our flight to Philadelphia for my grandfather's funeral. Harrison would've come, but the $700 price tag per ticket (last minute) was just a little high. We arrived early and had some time to grab lunch in the city before meeting up with family. My cousin (Philly resident), Tim, suggested McGillin's Old Ale House. It was an awesome old pub downtown, situated in an alley. I would've never found it on my own. It was well worth it. I'm a bit of a beer snob after having lived in Asheville (Beer City USA), so I was excited to try out Stoudt's Octoberfest and McGillan's Lager. Both brews were very tasty. There was a nice fall chill in the air, so I had a bowl of chili with a grilled cheese which completely hit the spot.

On our way back to the car, we dipped into this crazy alley and discovered 'The Graffiti Bar.'

It actually looked pretty upscale. I think it's a brilliant use of space in the city!

We drove out to Lansdale where we met up with my cousins, aunt, uncles, sister and her family. After dinner and some reminiscing about our dear Grandpop, several of us decided to head out to watch a Phillies game. Afterall, my grandfather was a big fan. During our last phone conversation, he'd been watching a Phillies game.

Nate, David, me, and Christine (cousin)

The stadium was really awesome! It was complete with all of the great Philadelphia food, of which I indulged: Philly cheese steak, crabby fries, hot pretzels, and Rolling Rock. We all ate so much we felt sick.

The Philly Fanatic put on a cute show:

On Monday, we celebrated the life of my grandfather. He was a military man and the military service at the gravesite was very special. It was followed by a nice meal with all of our family at a nearby restaurant. We had a little more time to visit back at my aunt's house before we had to catch our flight home. We got into Atlanta around 10pm, so I stayed at David's apartment for the night. The next morning, he and I went back to visit Baby Paige at Egleston. She was really enjoying her new Philly Fanatic:

When I made it back to Auburn, I met Harrison at his parents home where he's been taking care of a sweet, stray Brittany Spaniel. No one has yet claimed it, and we're considering keeping her. If you've ever seen my blog's 'puppy love' page, you know that we've always wanted a Brittany Spaniel. She's a sweety. She has a ton of energy though and needs to live in a place with a big yard. Our living situation isn't ideal for her, so Perry and Esther may be keeping her (with us visiting frequently) until we get a bigger place. I'll probably take her to the vet this Friday if no one claims her.

When I got back to our apartment, Harrison had these beautiful flowers waiting for me! They're my favorite: Ambiance roses (carried them in our wedding).