When it rains it pours (and we aren't talking salt)

Did I mention flowers before??? Well, here pose Mason and Colin in front of one of 4 fantastic flowering bushes (Alfie told me the name of the bush but I forgot) in the front of our house (one on each side of the two doors...). The past week's summary? Hmm... well... we took Al to the hospital with chest pains and trouble breathing 2 Thursdays ago. 3-4 days in the hospital and many tests showed progression of the cancer and shook us all a bit. Even though he now needs oxygen to continue functioning normally, he is back at the house and more or less stabilized back into the wonderful, loveable Al we all know. Lise and Ann came in from Chicago and Elena flew in today. Irene was visiting when the crisis happened and has also been here helping us through this... We have been busy of course in the usual Alschuler family fashion of having meetings where making lists, giggling, crying, planning, and hugging are the wonderful norm. In the midst of it all four Ruhes came down with horrible achy/flemy/sneezy bichos (bugs). I have a warm box of tissues next to the keyboard as I type this to the soft wailing rythm of Bjork from a collection given to me by the famous uncle chocolate (thanks again Jamal). So it has been an extremely full week which is culminating tonight by updating the blog and paying bills. I start work on monday and have a whole bunch of forms I need to fill out before that and then there's always laundry. Wow... Here's a few more images from the week+: The get well picture that Aman drew for Isaiah (he got sick first) and the thank you card that Isaiah made for Aman(notice what he calls Aman in the center of pic). Mason and Aman "relaxing" in the bath (the reality was that they spent a little over and hour making flatulence sounds with cups and water and giggling loudly). The rocky outcrop where we stopped on a hike with Oma before we all got sick. And... I could not resist... guess who? (I don't even recognize myself as a yittle dude but Dad says that's me)