Dean Kentner, dad, passes away.

My father has had heart issues a major portion of his adult life. He had a pacemaker put in when he was about 50. I always knew that when dad died it probably would be because of his heart. Well he had congestive heart failure for years. I know when I saw my dad a couple of years ago he didn't look good. His heart was getting weaker and everytime he sat down he fell asleep. He had a hard time just going up and down the stairs. I knew it wouldn't be long before his heart completely gave out.
Around Christmas time my brother and sisters that live by my parents told me that dad wasn't doing good at all. January came and I wanted to go see my dad, but we were getting ready for a missionary to leave in February and I didn't know if we could do it. We had Sean's farewell in January and would have to plan around that. So I told Sean that if he wanted to go to California to see my dad that I would drop everything and go. I knew Sean probably wouldn't be able to see my dad again since he was soon leaving for two years to serve a mission. I knew that dad wouldn't last that long. So after a couple of days of thinking Sean came to me and asked me if we could go to California. So Sean, Adam and I left a couple of days later to drive to California. Gavin and Kary couldn't go so Sean helped me drive the whole way there. The day that we ended up driving we found out that dad was put into the hospital. He was having some reaction to medication and they wanted to keep an eye on him. So we got there late and decided to go to the hospital the next day to see dad. The few days that we were there we went to the hospital every day to visit him. My dad's lungs were beginning to fill with fluid and he had a hard time drinking water. If he drank water he ended up coughing and throwing up the liquid. The doctor thought that dad should go into a nursing home to recouperate from his medical problems. So reluctantly dad was moved into a nursing home. My dad always said he never wanted to go into a nursing home....that once you go in you never come out. He would say that he didn't want to die in a nursing home. So the doctors kept reassuring my dad that he would get better enough to go home, he just needed some interim care, care that my mom wouldn't be able to give him.
We went to see him while he was in the nursing home and he wasn't doing so good. They thickened his liquids so that he wouldn't have problems with fluids. But my dad would refuse to drink it. He kept asking for water and it was so sad not to be able to give it to him. One night while most of the family was there visiting, we asked the nurse if he could have ice chips. She brought some and dad loved it......but it wasn't a good thing for him. He would cough and cough after having the ice chips. At one point I was sitting by the head of his bed and he coughed so hard I could tell that he was going to throw up. I quickly grabbed a towel and let dad throw up into that. I could tell he wasn't liking feeling so helpless. I look back at that moment and feel so glad that I could be there to help my dad in that time when he couldn't help himself. After all the giving he had given to me over the years, that small act of helping him was satisfying for me.
The next day we came to visit dad again and I knew it would be the last time I would probably see him. The boys and I were leaving to go back to Utah the next morning. Again most of the family was there and alot of the time dad was not making sense when he spoke. He would say things like how mean they were at the nursing home and that he didn't get breakfast until noon....stuff like that. Then he would be confused and ask my mom if we were at my Aunt Pat's house. Pat is his sister. At one point before we were going to leave my brother Jim asked dad if he would like a Priesthood blessing. He said yes and asked Sean if he had ever been the "voice" of the blessing. Sean said he hadn't, and my dad then asked Sean if he would give him the blessing. You see Sean had only been an Elder for about a month at that point and had helped assist in a blessing, but had never given one. I could tell Sean was nervous but that he would do as Grandpa desired. As he was getting ready to do the blessing, my dad seemed to come out of his fog and talked to all of us about things. His last farewell to the family. He talked about how important it is to treat your comapanion (spouse) well and let them be first in your life. He spoke about how hard it has been for him to be "old" and somewhat "forgotten". He said that it is important to send a physical letter to those you love to thank them for things and to tell them you love them. Letters mean so much, he said. He told us how it didn't matter who gave him a blessing...someone with lots of experience or someone who has no experience (Sean). That the blessing is given through the power of God and that what is said can be worded many different ways...but it means the same. So finally Sean gave dad a blessing. Comfort was mostly the message he gave to my dad, and that the family can remember all the good times. He closed the blessing and then my dad told him thank you and wished him well on his mission. I gave him a hug and told him I'd be back to visit in the summer. But in my heart I knew that this would be the last time. Then all of a sudden dad was back in his fog and couldn't remember where he was or who had come to visit. I knew that my dad was given the gift of clarity right before, during and right after the blessing so that he could communicate the things to his family that he thought needed to be shared.
So we left the next morning to come back to Utah. We got home that night and got to bed late. I woke up the next morning and got the boys off to school and me off to work. I had received a message at about 11:00 am from my sister. I was at work so when I got a chance to check my messages I listened to hers. She told me that my dad had "coded" and they were taking him back to the hospital. I went home and called her and found more messages on my home phone. By the time I called back, dad had passed away.
The funeral was planned for that Friday. Back in the car, going to California......this time the whole family was coming. Even Trent and Brandee rode with us.
The whole funeral was so surreal. I knew this moment would eventually come, but I didn't want to say goodbye to my dad. I was also really sick during the funeral. The day I came home from California the first time I was getting a cold and cough. By the time we left to go back to California I had a bad cough and went to go get some codeine cough syrup before we left. That cold ended up lasting me a couple of months. I could not shake it.
February is a defining moment in my life. I think of my dad all the time and do feel his love. I just wish I could talk to him. I miss that.

Our new puppy Tucker

Our New Puppy Tucker!!

We were all so lonely after Scout and Sadie died. We started looking into getting a puppy but weren't sure what kind of dog we wanted. After some searching online we came across this breed, Coton de Tulear. It comes from the same family as a Maltese and Bichon Frisse. He is very cute and has very soft hair. It took us a couple of days to decide on a name....but Tucker it is! We got him at the end of March 2009. He was actually born December 14th. So he is 12 weeks old. He's not been housetrained so we are having fun with that right now!

Oh...he loves toilet paper!! He is just like a two year old! We have to keep the bathroom door closed or else this is what happens!

Our Sweet Sadie Passes Away

What a sweet little dog Sadie was. Her illness started around the end of January. She wasn't eating very well....in fact she quit eating and I was getting worried. I attributed this to the fact that I had just purchased new dog food and I thought she was protesting. I kept thinking that she would eventually eat if she got hungry enough. The last week of January while she wasn't eating she was spending a lot of time outside...just sitting there. She wouldn't come inside and it was really cold out there. I would coax her in and she would go right back out a couple of minutes later. On Sunday February 1st we went to church and came home. Of course she wasn't in the house and we made her come in. She proceeded to throw up and I told Kary that she looked like she was dying. She was looking like Scout did when he was close to dying. A couple of hours went by and after she threw up a few more times I decided to take her to the emergency vet. When the vet examined her she took blood samples and found bad news. From her blood she could tell that she had diabetes ketoacidosis. A pretty bad case of diabetes. She was also concerned because she was throwing up blood which meant that her esophogus was being affected. She believed that she had pancreatitis too. When an animal has that it can get to a state where the acids start eating away at the organs and whatever else it comes in contact with inside their body. She told me that we had a hard decision to make. If we decided to keep her alive then she would require probably 3 shots of insulin a day. We would have to do that the rest of her life...whether it be two weeks or 2 years. But she believed that with the pancreatitis Sadie didn't have long. Her breathing was not good and she looked like she didn't feel good. Kary and I decided that we needed to put her down because it was the humane thing to do at this point. Sure we could've kept her alive for awhile....but she could've lived in pain the rest of her life. I didn't want that for her.

Sadie was so lonely without Scout. After he died she kind of moped around the house and wasn't her usual self. She never knew any other life than with Scout. We got her when he was a year old. She loved sitting by him and grooming him. She is running and playing now with Scout. I truly believe that these two sweet dogs will greet me in heaven! I can't wait to play with them again. I know that there is a special place in heaven for our pets....I just know that a loving Heavenly Father would allow our pets to be reunited with tus again.

It has been lonely without our dogs. We will get another dog again. We just need to greive for these two first.

Adam's Baptism & Birthday Celebration

On January 3rd, 2009 Adam was baptized. His baptism was at 6 pm at our local Stake Center. He was baptized with another little boy from our ward Trey Worrell. He and Trey are friends and it was fun that they were baptized together. I spoke on the Holy ghost and Gavin said the opening prayer. Sean was a witness and Kary did the baptism and confirmation. So all of us were involved somehow. Trent wasn't here but he was baptizing a convert in The Netherlands on the same day. So we all were involved on his special day.

The Whole Burke family came.

Here is a picture of just the five of us...

We also celebrated his birthday that afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa Burke's house. I made a cake for him and we opened presents and everything. He got a pair of Heely's shoes/skates, a Nintendo DS game called Wall-E and a set of new scriptures with a case.

Christmas is coming soon! I can't believe it's already December and we are counting down until Christmas. I just had to put this you tube link in here for my favorite Christmas parody. I think you'll enjoy it! No snow yet here in Utah. My boys are so anxious for snow to come that they just can't stand it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQkF7fpw-wI

Scout

Our beloved pet Scout passed away on September 23rd, 2008. Over the fourth of July weekend Scout had some breathing problems and orientation problems so I ended up taking him to an emergency vet (on the evening of the 4th). The vet took one look at him and felt his abdomen and told me that he believed that Scout had a tumor in his belly. He gave me three options. 1-I could take him home and let nature take it's course and in a few days he would probably be gone. 2-I could have the vet do surgery, take the tumor out and see if it is benign or malignant. The operation would buy him time at the least. 3- I could just have the vet put him down right then. Of course my whole family was up on a mountain camping and I had to make the decision alone. So I decided to have him operate on Scout. Scout stayed the night and by the next morning he was able to come home. Two weeks later we found out that the tumor was malignant and he had cancer of the liver. They told me at that time that Scout would live about a month, maybe two if we were lucky. Our Scout was 9 years old. He was such a fun part of our family and we all miss him. Sadie, our other dog, misses him terribly. She has never known life without him. We felt extremely lucky that we had an extra 2 1/2 months with him. That last week of his life he started acting lethargic again and had no interest in eating or playing. He was breathing funny again so we decided it was time to let him go. That was a really tough day.

Claudean

Poor Adam!

First of all I'm sorry that it has taken me forever to post again on here. I'm going to try to be better at it.


In July we were all excited because we would be going to my family's house in California. We were busy getting packed and talking about all the fun that we would be having there. We had our plan trip set for August 4th. I would be flying out with the kids and then Kary would come later.


Adam was so social this summer! He was always playing with someone and going to friends houses or they were coming to mine. It was fun to see him open up so much. When we lived in Thailand he didn't ever want to leave the house!


On August 2nd Adam had a friend over and they were playing down in our unfinished basement. All of a sudden I heard screams of pain! I ran downstairs and found Adam laying on the floor next to the fooseball table and I couldn't get him to settle down. So I helped him upstairs and laid him on the couch. Come to find out he had been on top of the fooseball table trying to walk in between the bars. He had lost his balance and fallen off. His leg got stuck in between the bars...but then he fell to the floor. Now understand it was a friday afternoon at 4:00 pm. Kary had gone to youth conference the day before with Gavin and Sean. I took a look at Adam's legs and noticed that his right leg looked a little different than the other one. So I made a quick decision to take him to IHC instacare before they closed. I knew that if I waited too long than I would have to take him to the emergency room if he needed medical help. Five minutes away and $35.00 vs. 30 minutes away and $85.00. I decided to drive the 5 minutes and have them take a look at his leg. Well, they x-rayed his leg and it was definately broken. They put a splint on his leg and told me that we had to wait until monday to cast it because they wait for the swelling to go down. I started to panic....our flight was on monday! How were we going to get to California if we couldn't make the flight! They scheduled our appt. with the orthopedic surgeon for 8:00 a.m on Monday morning. It turned out that our flight was at 5:00 pm that evening! Thank goodness it all still worked out.
Here he is with his first cast! He wanted bright red and he had to wear shorts all the time. It was a good thing it was still summer and the weather cooperated with his wardrobe needs!
We borrowed a wheelchair from Kary's parents and that saved our life! We made it back from the orthopedic surgeon just in time to get ready for our trip to California. This would add an extra element of fun to our trip!