Mama On The Move

One of the puppies favorite games is to try to get to each other underneath the legs of the computer chair.  Never mind that they can get to each other easily by standing up and stepping over the base.  Or walking around the base.  They like the idea that this is somehow a challenge.

Our TV has been slowly dying.  It's an old TV, one of those giant old monsters they don't even make any more.  The picture has gotten so blurry we can't even read the words on the TV guide channel.  We've know for a while that we needed a new set but we've been putting it off because TV's are expensive and it's not a "need", it's a "want". After Christmas, Kerry and I saw a fantastic deal on a TV.  I love after Christmas sales when stores are trying to sell everything they can and you can get a really good bargain. We trotted down to Best Buy where they had an awesome flat screen TV for $180 less than the regular price (boom!) and had a long talk with a salesman about how to hook up this TV to our cable box, Wii, DVD player, and some other thing with buttons that lets us switch from TV to Wii to DVD player.  He assured us that it was extremely simple to hook up. I've always been the one to hook up new equipment in our family...

This Christmas Eve, the girls and I decided to volunteer in the church nursery for the 2:30 service, then we would meet up with the menfolk and attend the 4:00 service. When we arrived at the church for our volunteer time, Emily was sent to the baby room, while Katie and I were assigned the two to four year olds. We only had four children in our room.  One four-year old girl and three two-year olds.  We had all of them sit at a table and gave them all a snack and a drink.  In the falsely cheerful voice that I use when talking to a group of very young kids who have just been forcibly separated from their parents I announced, "Wow!  We have four big kids in here!" The four-year old girl looked at me steadily and said, "No.  You have one big kid in here and that's me ."  She pointed at herself, then continued on, pointing at the other three, "They're little ." *********************************** A short time later, one of the two-year olds w...

Because I know you need it.

We were heading into the mall and Emily very exuberantly ran up to the sliding doors in order to be the one who makes them magically slide open (because she's still four years old when it comes to sliding doors - heaven help us if we come to a revolving door). She was expecting them to part in the middle, but instead it slid to the left . And she smacked right into the door. Good thing she's so smart (I have proof - 32).  Can you imagine the trouble she'd get into if she was dumb??

Katie randomly asked me today if the name "Libby" is short for something. "Well, my college roommate's name was Libi, " I told her, "and it was short for Elizabeth." "Ms. Mary's daughter is called Libby, but it's short for Liberty," Katie remembered. "People can make a nickname from anything," I said. "Yeah," Katie said, "Like the way Emily calls me Butt-Munch .  You can shorten any name to a nickname."

We were so excited to get home from our Thanksgiving trip and get Ringo out of jail. We had boarded him at a new kennel as all the other kennels we've used had filled up.  We warned the kennel man that Ringo had recently lost his brother and this would be the first time he had been in a kennel by himself, ever.  Ringo has a whooping cough style of bark that can really get under your skin.  I've taken him to groomers before who called to tell me that Ringo "is really letting us know he wants to go home."  I was afraid the kennel man would just turn him loose after the first day of listening to him sound his distress over being left there. When we went to pick him up, the kennel man told us that Ringo didn't bark.  He also didn't eat for his first two days there.  Then he finally gave Ringo a can of food instead of the dry food we had left for him and then Ringo was his best friend.   The girls went with us to pick him up.  We had barel...

The girls got an early Christmas present from Kerry's parents! Now they each have a puppy of their very own!  Both male Shih Tzus, which Emily is not allergic to! They were promptly christened "Leotus and Asparagus" or "Leo and Gus" for short. Yes, there's a story behind that. When the kids were little, Kerry would make up fairy tales for them to keep them entertained.  One day he made up a story about a clam named Leotus and a fish named Asparagus.  The kids never forgot that particular story and it seemed like a great fit for our new family members. We are not used to having puppies and we have laughed and laughed at them.  They suddenly leap up and run around like mad, lose their balance and tumble head over heels.  They battle each other with their tiny barks and their tiny teeth.  Then they collapse on each other and sleep all snuggled up. Leo is quickly establishing himself as the loud, hyper one.  Gus is the calm, sle...

My girls made an apple pie from scratch! I know, not their sort of thing, usually.  Even they thought the idea was ludicrous.  They even made the crust from scratch.  Rolled it out themselves.  Pondered the implications of knowing how to cook something that I might now require them to make on a regular basis because now I know they can.  Peeled, cored, and sliced a whole lotta apples.  I helped with that part.  Added cinnamon.  Added sugar. And voila!   It was absolutely the best pie ever!  Making it from scratch really makes a difference!

Katie was in the play "Get Smart" this past weekend.  She played "Princess Ingrid", a Scandinavian princess.  We had to put her in a blond wig and high, high heels to make her look a little more Scandinavian. Everyone said she looked like she was going on an episode of "Toddlers and Tiaras".  Princess Ingrid was being guarded by Agent 86 and Agent 99.  No she did not sing or dance in the play, despite what this photo is telling you.  Princess Ingrid is brainwashed by "Mr Big" and winds up holding her guards hostage. Katie loved that she got to play a sweet beautiful princess and an evil kidnapper all in one play. The princess' brain was restored, she released the good guys, and they saved the world. All in a good days work!

My best good friend Mary popped up and surprised me this week! I was at a play rehearsal and turned around to find her sitting in one of the seats! Talk about a shock!  She lives in Alabama and I certainly wasn't expecting to find her here!  Turns out she and Kerry had been in cahoots and cooked up this plan.  So, do I post the photo that a good one of me, but Mary's eyes are closed? Or do I post the one that's better of Mary, but the rainbow glow shining off her face pretty much obscures me?

One morning this past week I woke up early and headed downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs, on the wall facing me, was a poster which had not been there the night before.  I was looking at it sleepily, thinking, "E 2?"  Obviously the girls made a poster after I went to bed.  I assumed the "E" was for "Emily" but how did the "2" stand for "Katie"?  I started looking at the other things written on the poster and suddenly it hit me:  Emily had gotten her ACT scores back and she had made a 32!!  We knew the scores could be posted as early as the 11th but they also could take up to two weeks to post them.  Emily had clearly stayed up until midnight to see if her scores were posted, and yes, they were (one of the benefits of having a last name that starts with a letter close to the beginning of the alphabet)! Emily was still in bed but she said she heard me come out of my room, she heard me walking down the stairs, t...

Katie and Emily were sitting at the dining room table discussing "Iron Man 3": Katie:  I always get Robert Downey Jr and Martin Luther King Jr mixed up. Emily:  Umm.....HOW can you mix them up?  They are nothing alike! Katie:  Well, their names are similar. Emily:  Not really... Katie:  Martin Luther King Jr was the one with the peanuts, right? Emily:  That was George Washington Carver! Katie: Oh. Which one was Martin Luther King Jr? Emily: He fought for black rights, he was assassinated... Katie: He was assassinated?? Emily: Yes, Katie! Katie:  Well, sorry.  I'm only studying ancient history about Jesus, like, five billion years ago. Emily:  Jesus was only  two thousand years ago!

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind. They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster. You have been spotted, and when you and your spec...

Now that we are back home with the dogs, we have started the slow process of watching Rigger go down by degrees. It's so odd that one day he was mostly fine and walking around and the next day he was unable to walk and so terribly sick.  We knew this time was coming, I just thought it would be different somehow. He doesn't want to eat much.  Foods that he loved before have no interest for him now.  And there were very few foods that he didn't love.  He spit out an onion once.  And once at the vet when he was younger, he refused an organic dog treat.  I think that's about it for his list of "no" foods. Now he will eat only ham and chicken, and even then he refuses those about half the time.  He doesn't want dog food, even the canned kind, which was usually enough to make him knock Ringo over trying to get to it.  We tried to give him Pediasure for the vitamins, he wouldn't even try it.  He doesn't want his doggie treats.  He even re...

All the way back to Illinois, Rigger just lay in the back of the van.  He didn't want to stand up and stick his head out of the window. Occasionally, he would lift his head up and poke it up between the girls to let us know he was okay. Ringo, on the other hand, perched like a mountain goat between the girls.   Nothing like a dog butt in your face to make a trip more entertaining.

We're losing our Rigger. He's been having trouble for a while with his leg.  It's been swelling and the vet has had him on antibiotics and has tried a laser treatment to help with his circulation.  Each thing we tried would help for a bit but then the swelling would come back.  He's been having more and more trouble standing up and sitting down. Then Sunday morning around 2:30, Katie heard Rigger whining.  She got up to see what he wanted and found him collapsed partway up the staircase.  She called for me and Kerry and we ran to try to help him.  There was some blood on the stairs and I was worried that he had injured himself somewhere but we couldn't see a wound.  Rigger was unable to move, he was just lying partially on the stairs gasping and moaning. We were all sitting with him trying to pet him and talk to him to keep him calm.  I really felt that he wouldn't survive very long and expected him to stop breathing any moment.  In a f...

Not exactly the fortune Kerry likes to get in his cookie......

 My baby is fourteen.  It doesn't seem possible that our little eskimo has grown so fast. She was just four a week ago, I swear. Her daddy could pick her up and dance with her just last week.....  And suddenly, she bloomed, blossomed, and sprouted into an actual teenager. Here's to a happy birthday for my beautiful brown-eyed girl!

I have no idea what's going on in any of the photos from Ben's trip to PR but it looks like they were having a good time!