Just another magic moment...

Bloody nose dog...

2012-01-11T13:02:00.000-05:00

The horrifying news came in last night that Pinuki's nose is bleeding in a material way. She bounced back from that amazingly horrific surgery — you can't even tell she had surgery — and now she's bleeding again. She is running and playing with her housemate, happy as can be, and her owner is really scared that she'll have to put her down while she's so happy...

Meanwhile, Jago's brother is home, recovering nicely from his surgery. He's eating well and wagging his tail. Can't ask for better than that.

I used to think that if I could just deal with these three particular things that were a burden to me, that I would have conquered ALL of life's challenges. Clearly, I was young and stupid. I finally dealt with the three things, and it's as though once THOSE were out of the way, the challenges could really get started!

This morning I wrote to a fellow-Berner person about the bloody nose dog, and since a burden shared is a burden lightened, at least I feel better about that, even if it's impossible for Pinuki's mom to.

Christmas is put away...

2012-01-10T09:29:00.000-05:00

We've been "doing" Christmas since October 22 and 23 when we unpacked all the winter village houses and put them up above the kitchen cabinets. The village will stay up for another month or so, but everything else — Christmas trees, birthday tree, decorations — is all put away, organized as established by Mary last year, down in the basement, shelved and covered with dust cloths. Big bags cover the trees.

Phew.

Christmas concluded on January 6th with Epiphany... The photo above cracks me up... The contrast between the super-serious PL and the imp RF "hiding" behind the blinds to hold up the star.

Yesterday I was playing a little game of "how long would Jago need to live to be our oldest dog ever?" and discovering the answer was March 14th. And then an email came in... Jago's littermate brother had surgery yesterday to remove a rear leg due to osteosarcoma. I've heard that the dogs adapt quickly and that it's harder on their people to adjust. The surgery went well and Figaro is in recovery now. I wrote to his family that "all the important parts are still there." Figaro has set amazing records in the dog obedience world, at least in the Berner part of it... You can see him all over the obedience page at my site BernerFirsts.com where he has seven records (and perhaps more, since I need to catch up).

Meanwhile, Jago's impishness is unabated in any way. We fed ducks this morning and she was aghast that I would be throwing food to BIRDS and not HER!

Brrrr....

2012-01-04T23:34:00.000-05:00

So, here I am on Christmas Eve... Aren't I too cute? I've had the vest for a few years, but this year at the Highland Games, I bought the blouse with the embroidery and ordered the skirt, which finally came a couple of weeks ago... It's an outfit with limited usefulness, but I had fun wearing it.

Meanwhile, another time when I was proud of PL recently... We had presents with John's brother's family -- they have the twins, now almost four. RF is developing a sense of what HE likes and what HE thinks is appropriate and what HE thinks is "childish"... So, when he received a Lego set which featured the characters from Cars (the Pixar movie), he would have nothing to do with it. PL immediately leaped to caution him to be quiet and grateful and hush up. RF, to his credit, at least only came and whispered his feelings to ME.

On Christmas Day, our pastor had responsibility for the church service at the local nursing home. We had traded our recent turn with another church, and the pastor was letting our worship leader be with family and doing the job himself. Since we didn't have obligations, we decided to go and keep him company. Both boys were helpful, handing out song books to the residents and sitting quietly through the half-hour, then helping to collect the song books afterwards... This put them both in a church setting three times in less than 24 hours!

I'm telling these stories to remind myself that they ARE really good kids because in between the moments when I was really proud of them were many-a-time when I prayed for bedtime to roll around. Which just makes them normal seven and nine year old boys!

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah!

2012-01-03T14:32:00.000-05:00

No "real" titles are springing to mind after my first try of "Welcome to the End of the World!" and my fall-back position is a tune from Song of the South...

So, it's the first Tuesday of 2012. The kids are back in school. I walked on the treadmill last night. This morning I walked the dogs up the hill through the woods to the water tower, which got my heart going. I'd like to lose around eight pounds, but I'm pleased to have gotten through the great cookie-eating season and not gained five MORE. I've started the taxes. I won an auction on eBay last night for one last Christmas present for the boys. My inbox is down to less than 70 messages. And "Bones," season 6 episodes, are on Netflix.

It's a decent start to the new year.

There have been some moments where I was really, really proud of PL. On Christmas Eve, PL and I went to the grocery store and picked up a few things for our friend Marilyn, suffering from Alzheimer's. By the time we arrived — around 4 PM or so — she had had quite a bit to drink and had no idea who we were. Her two Bernese Mountain Dogs went crazy at our arrival and she came out screeching at them. She broke off part of a front tooth a while back and so has this whole "haggle tooth" look going, so combine that with the screeching and it's quite an effect. PL got quite an earful of new vocabulary. She slipped into a sweeter mood for awhile, and spoke very lovingly to PL while he worked on a little Lego kit we had bought at the store on her kitchen table. When she transitioned into "dog talk" — same exact language and tone she would use to address Sherpa — I'm not sure he even recognized she was speaking to HIM, as he certainly knows when a DOG is being spoken to and not a human! However, it was the first time she didn't know who I was. She's called me since, asking for dog food, as she does, so I suspect it was just the time of day and the amount she'd had to drink, and that another time she would know me. She was pretty slurred in her speech and was asking questions that needed answers, but since we didn't understand the questions we couldn't help her very well. Throughout, PL was brave, answered direct questions, stayed calm with the dogs bouncing around him, and has NOT since repeated any undesirable words!

Two other cases are worthy of documenting, but for the sake of posting, I'll save them for another time.

Christmas...

2011-12-18T20:44:00.000-05:00

It's been a sad time in the dog world... I have cried tears over all sorts of dogs lately... Roxy, Rosie and Luca...

On the other hand, Friday I could cry some big happy tears when Pinuki's mom wrote to say (in excerpt), "she is doing so well today! Her gums are less pale... She is rolling over for tummy rubs. Her mood is fabulous! She sneezed a few times and did not bleed!!!"

That morning Jago did NOT make someone's day... As we came out of the gate, off leash because we were going in the van, some poor guy was walking by... Jago charged him. I'm certain she didn't touch him, but she made a LOT of noise about him, and of course then Tosca had to run out and yell at HER. The guy was not happy. [sigh] There, I've told you about it, so now I can't stop fretting about that. Jago is now fully 8 1/3 and all of her bad behaviors are still intact!

On the other hand, Friday was our "loaner Lab" Scholar's birthday, so we met up with Scholar and her mom for a nice walk in the woods in my after-work-before-kid-pickup window as a gift to Scholar who adores me. And how nice to be adored!

Then I went to school to pick up Mary from a meeting. While I was waiting for her to come to the van, I noticed some things on the floor that might be in her way and leaned down to move them... Wasn't in "park." Smashed a front light on my van and dented the bumper of the CR-V in front of me.

On the other hand, it turned out that the owner of the CR-V couldn't possibly have cared less... In fact, he was disappointed that I hadn't totaled his car. So, the damage seems to be contained to just my lamp. Which will be expensive enough, but I can face that.

So, you know, Merry Christmas. Some things are good. Some things need work. And hey, that's life!

WHAT happened?! (You might ask...)

2011-12-12T22:06:00.000-05:00

Pinuki had her surgery and I'd share a picture, but it's not for the faint of heart. I've looked at the pictures enough that I'm okay with them, but I won't make you do it... The surgeon took out a lot of nasal tissue AND the bone. So, the once beautiful dog has a slit up the center — starting from a finger's length up from her black nose, all the way up to the top of her head, about a finger's length past her rust-colored eye spots, that Berners have, maybe two finger lengths long. It makes you catch your breath to see it.

You're thinking, HE TOOK OUT THE BONE?! WHAT is holding her head together? But it's okay, really... I wondered, too. Think about a human skull -- how much "bone"is there with the nose? The shape of her face is all still there. The incision is sewed up. I've seen some pretty bad spay incisions and they've healed and vanished... This may not vanish, but fur will grow and it will be okay.

I found this image of a skull — the file name makes me think it's a lynx... All the dog ones I found were from the side, but this one, from the front, shows that perhaps it was possible that just those two scored triangle pieces were what was taken out:

The hard part, right now, is that part of the incision must be kept open for air to come and go. Yeah. She's a furry whale. So four times a day, her owner is supposed to soak the incision and prevent the scab from closing up the hole. And, as she uses that hole, her head inflates and deflates.

THAT is a bit freaky. I've seen a video of it, and I won't be sharing that with you either. However, the word today is that despite being finicky about her food, having a stomach ache, and not wanting to take the meds that will help her feel better, she IS healing.

Pinuki...

2011-12-05T21:28:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of links... Clicking on the pictures will start short videos... I hope you'll pursue these short glimpses into the happiness that is embodied in this beautiful Berner called Pinuki or 'Nuki for short...

Link #1 and Link #2

Woo, woo, WOO! 'Nuki says! Isn't she beautiful? And happy? And not at all EIGHT? We know a little bit about dogs not acting their age here, too, MISS JAGO!

Pinuki has suffered frequent, long-lasting nose bleeds to the point of anemia and blood transfusions for no obvious cause, and no less-than-obvious cause either, since last MARCH. Her owner is a social worker reviewing child abuse cases for a day job. She has exhausted her resources trying to help Pinuki and nearly every medical professional has given up on her... But tomorrow, thanks to one last vet, Pinuki will have some pretty amazing surgery which her owner has high hopes will actually be the cure, regardless of the cause.

You can see some of Pinuki's story on her website. Those are just posts from when her owner could bear to write anything... There were lots of other times when she couldn't. Many more times that she despaired of being able to take care of her dog. Offered to GIVE her dog to anyone who could afford to take care of her. You can imagine how many takers there were for an eight-year-old Berner with a mysterious long-term nose-bleed ailment.

Now if you look at those links above, assuming they work for you, imagine she was your dog and no one knew how to help you... A dog that happy, that waggy-tailed, that LOUD, deserves every chance for a normal life. I think of our Ptolli who ran into the veterinary hospital where she underwent surgery for bloat and many thousands of dollars later we had to give up. But we HAD to try.

If you follow on-line groups of Bernese Mountain Dogs, particularly the Berner-L, which is for everybody with a Berner, there are often dogs with issues. There are thousands of people on that List and it's the natural cycle of life that there will be always a dog getting sick, coming to the end of their life. If you want to stay a part of the community, you can't let them ALL get to you.

But Pinuki reached out and grabbed my heart. We've had our own dog with a nosebleed problem — Our Zoey. It wasn't as severe, but it felt bad enough at the time. We developed coping tools -- towels with velcro so we could attach several together to cover vast surfaces to protect couches and beds from the blood. We knew to cover her paws with a towel so she didn't have to lick the blood off of them. We knew to anticipate sneezes and throw a towel over her head so the room didn't quickly resemble a chainsaw massacre.

And we have our own eight-year-old-but-doesn't-act-it Berner right now. Miraculously for ANY eight-year-old Berner, 'Nuki is otherwise healthy. So tonight I pray that this special vet with one last idea sleeps well, eats well, rests well and tomorrow I pray for his calm and steady hands and for sudden enlightenment when he investigates 'Nuki's nasal passages. I pray that all goes exactly as he plans, or better, and that THIS works.

The Law of Anecdotal Value

2011-11-30T08:23:00.000-05:00

I heard about "the law of anecdotal value" from Peter Sagal while listening to a Moth podcast this morning... Basically, the idea is to choose to do those things in life which will give you the best story to tell later... Hmmm...

How to run this...

2011-11-03T13:02:00.000-04:00

By the way, the new layout I put into place yesterday allows the reader to arrange the blog entries however YOU like... So there are seven choices up there in the green bar. My choice is "Sidebar" mode, which lists the entries like file folder tabs down the left, but the others are fun to play around with, too. This layout was one of the choices in Blogger's design mode and it solves the layout glitch I had with the previous, prettier model where the "most recent" blog entries would list out and then repeat again at the bottom... I actually had people who know something about web design look at the layout and they couldn't fix it. Anyway. This version encourages me to include a picture in every post!

A peak moment in PL's life...

2011-11-03T12:34:00.000-04:00

When the two-day Draft Test was over, it was time to pack up "the stuff." Fortunately, many hands make light work and I didn't put anything more than myself and my dogs into my van... 'Course I know that wrapped up in that was the desperation of everyone else to not have any of it go in THEIR van! ;-) But that's okay -- the very next night, when the kids were in bed, we delivered all "the stuff" to the club's storage unit and it is gone from our lives, too...

John brought the dogs and kids back to the show site to "help" and actually they had a terrific time and I was incredibly proud and pleased with all of them. "Dog people" are not frequently "kid people" so to have my kids running around, playing with the dogs and being appropriately exuberant was the perfect ending to the weekend as my dog friends haven't seen my kids in years. See, kids CAN be fun! (But I don't blame you one bit if you'd like to do it in very small doses!)

So here is PL (which stands for Philadelphia Lawyer) holding a cookie and therefore earning Jago's 100% attention. With a steady supply of cookies, he was able to get Jago to pull pumpkins and small hay bales from where they were scattered throughout the maneuvering ring back to the van. Then I swapped dogs and had Tosca pull the big hay bales from all the far points of the show site... They were true "working dogs."

If you visit Karen Hocker's web site -- the professional photographer that crawled around in the grass for the whole weekend and took 5,000 pictures on Saturday alone, you can see a couple of pictures of Jago... THIS LINK will take you to one.

And after we loaded the car with "the stuff" and all the pumpkins and milk cans and flowers and my garden cart and the dog cart, leaving a small space for Tosca to sit in, THIS was the space left for Jago:

It's blurry because it was taken with my phone while driving, which is only slightly less dangerous than texting!

All for now!

Just some quick pics...

2011-11-02T22:01:00.000-04:00

Not sure what the blog layout is doing, but here's some pictures from the last few days while I experiment... Hopefully the duplication is gone and this is better.

Here's RF, astronaut boy... For a while, he was astronaut boy with a pumpkin head, but we didn't get too far down the street, trick-or-treating, before he gave that up... He designed our whole candy center layout, with the lighted pumpkins and the pumpkins on a string, and the "pumpkins 5c" sign... It was sort of a self-help center, although we monitored it for quite a while... Then, when we stopped, someone threw an egg at the car, took one of the pumpkins, hid our stuffed bear wearing a "Boo" sweater in our newspaper box, and carried some other decorations up the street aways... We may be done giving out candy... We're not a hot spot, so we could just have some to give the few kids we know who stop by, but there are some key streets everyone goes to and maybe we'll just visit them instead.

This is a picture of the year -- truly perfect of PL.

Here's our pumpkin head!

And here is Jago, enduring way too much love from PL!

In which I didn't die...

2011-10-13T13:50:00.001-04:00

So, here we are on October 13... Just thought I'd let you know I didn't die. I didn't get the flu (or the shot, yet!) or sink into a dark depression or get run over by a street sweeper.

John's new job commenced on August 22. We had a last wonderful, sunburnt day at the beach with friends on August 26. The kids went back to school on August 30th. We went to the New Hampshire Highland Games September 16-18. The following weekend, I hosted a concert with Jim Malcolm performing at the local UU church. I finally turned my attention to the Draft Test which is coming up on October 22 and 23. Our semi-annual house guests arrived this morning.

Amidst all of that, there's the usual day-to-day... Always shuffling PL's meds. After a month, we declared them a failure and went back to his old ones, with one of the new ones mixed in. Finally, things improved at school. Karate. Doctor visits. Resumption of school committee meetings. Trips to the airport.

Everything could be a story... The drive to the airport this morning, for instance... I left at 7:05 AM in the rain, after finding the iPod, getting the car to talk to it, and cranking up my "Move it!" playlist. As I'm singing along with Uncle Kracker, a mere 15 minutes on my way, traffic suddenly comes to a screeching halt. Perhaps a minute beforehand, someone flipped their Jeep Cherokee (or similar) upside down and that's where it rested, in the middle of the road. The police, ambulance and firetrucks roared up the other side of the highway, u-turned at the official-use-only road and came tearing up behind me, as I wondered if they would use the breakdown lane and so I should stay left, or if *I* should get out of their way and head right... Some of both was the answer, which didn't help confusion.

Traffic was encouraged to pass by and we moved on... Until Peabody anyway. And from there onwards, the speed was five MPH. I never noticed that the Rte 129 overpass bridge was made of wooden slats before. I got all the way through my playlist and started over. Finally, finally, finally, I pulled up at the airport to collect my sleep-deprived charges who had flown in from Las Vegas overnight. The ride home was an easy-breezy hour, with a stop to buy gas for $2.49, using my Stop & Shop gas points, a quick side trip for the guests to see John's new company building, and then home... For them, anyway. I went to work.

So everything COULD be a story, but for now, that's all I'm writing...

What did you do this summer?

2011-08-23T12:36:00.001-04:00

Seems as though we did a fair amount, actually... So here's a list (to which I later added some more items)...

Karate, occasionally... And they both managed to test for a second green stripe on their red belts!
Swim at the pool
Go for walks with Dad
Eat lots and lots of ice cream
A few play dates
A birthday party for RF
4th of July parade
Weekend in Lincoln, NH
Walked down Loon Mountain
Whale's Tale Water Park
Visited Great-Grandmother
Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum
Prudential Tower
Played in the fountain by the Christian Science reflecting pool
Friend's birthday party at Pump It Up
Friend's birthday party at the bowling alley
Vacation Bible School
Watched robins progress from eggs to fledgelings to flight
Canobie Lake Park with cousins and great aunt & uncle
York, Maine day with Nubble light, Short Sands, visit with great aunt and uncle
Built and launched rockets in Hamilton
Weekend in Maine
Two ferry rides to Islesboro, visiting cousins, canoeing, holding chickens, beaches
Miniature golf (best participation EVER!)
Southwick Zoo with family
Old fashioned photo taken downtown
Day at Good Harbor with friends

Not a bad list for a "quiet" summer! (And of course that ignores the Wii and the computer entirely, not that THEY did!) Hopefully, they'll remember some of these things when their teachers ask and NOT just say, "we played on our Wii!" Ugh!

AND a draft test...

2011-08-09T13:31:00.000-04:00

A dog hooked to a cart may look unusual to you, but to me that's just normal... But then I've been watching dogs do this for TWENTY years. Hard to believe, but my regional Bernese Mountain Dog club has been hosting tests for dogs pulling carts for twenty years and I was there back in 1991... Our first Berner, Tycho, pulled a cart as a complete natural. I hooked her up to one, at a club event, and she was like, Okay, so? Some time later, we bought her one. We entered three tests (one per year) and while she never passed, she was a complete natural and "safe as houses" with any sort of load, whether it were kids or stuff. We never passed, because she only had one speed and part of the test is demonstrate a "change of pace," preferably from a normal controlled trot to a slow walk, but she only had SLOW... Especially if it was hot, and there's nothing like a fall draft test to bring out the last Indian Summer weekend of the year.

Tycho was joined by Zoey... You know those loads she was "safe as houses" with? One of them was Zoey as a puppy... And when she got a little older, Zoey was hitched to the back of the cart and trotted along behind, perfectly happy. Where she was NOT perfectly happy was the FRONT of the cart. She was sure it was going to bump into her or bang as she went off a curb and it was making noises back there, and I was not able to convince her it was safe. Her entire life, she trotted along behind the cart while any other dog pulled it.

When Tycho passed, Ptolli came along. Ptolli was the dog to do all I hoped and dreamed and then some, and the very least of that was to pull a cart... She pulled things as a baby puppy -- little logs and sand-filled water jugs hooked to the loose traces of her puppy harness (used about one time and then put away). When she was ready for the actual cart, she was another natural, but the speed? OH MY WORD — look out world! She thought carting should be a timed sport and it was up to me to keep up... We definitely had a change of pace — fast and slightly LESS fast! She was my first Berner to earn titles — novice-level "Draft Dog" in Canada and novice and open level "Draft Dog" with the BMD Club of America.

After Ptolli, Miss Jago earned her novice and open "Draft Dog" titles but it's not her favorite thing to do and I only ask her to do it occasionally now. Tosca will do it but may never earn titles because she won't "come" to the cart, which is part of the test. I can TAKE her to the cart and she will come willingly enough but shaking in terror. Once she's hooked up and we move out, the shaking stops, her tail comes up and we're good to go.

Anyway.

On the weekend of October 22 and 23, I am chairing a two-day Draft Test event at Cogswell's Grant in Essex. The last time I chaired a test was in 2003, when Jago was just a baby... Wow. Last fall, we attended a performance of the Lippizan stallions at this site and I immediately thought that it would be a great location for a draft test... And it's coming together nicely with only a modicum of attention from me, miraculously... I signed up good volunteers and they're all doing their jobs!

Coming soon to a little harbor town...

2011-08-06T07:58:00.000-04:00

Saturday, September 24, 2011 — 8 PM

Jim Malcolm in Concert

SECOND annual trip to Cape Ann!

I'm hosting this concert to be held at the Unitarian Universalist Society (aka UU Church) at 4 Cleaves Street, and I'm delighted to be given a second opportunity since the first went so well last year. Jim sings authentic Scottish folk music, and being from Perth, Scotland, has that delightful Scottish accent with which to spin fun stories about his homeland and travels. In addition to classic Scottish topics, he has put a Robert Frost poem to music and even penned a tune about our own Mass Pike. And in my opinion, could open the phone book to a random page and make a pretty decent song out of it. He is an award-winning singer/song-writer, and if you are able to spend the evening with us, you will absolutely enjoy some hours of unparalleled talent.

Tickets ahead of time are available from me!

Things are looking up...

2011-08-06T07:46:00.000-04:00

I wrote all this ages ago, and will let it go for now... It just took ages to get the pictures to go with it... RF is now seven PLUS a week...

John's got something new in the works... Feature #1? It's close! NOT a two-hour each way commute. Closer than his OLD job, even. Truly inconceivable... And it's moving rather quickly. Meanwhile two other rather thrilling things are in process, although both are serious commutes. Today? Things are good.

RF turns SEVEN on Friday! A small party for six kids is planned with Mentos explosions, water balloons, cupcakes, and whatever else a handful of boys feels like doing for a couple of hours... No bounce house this year! But for kicks and giggles, here's our YouTube video from several years ago (listen for a classic "NO!" when Mary says they need to have a bath afterwards):

Meanwhile, a few weeks back, we noticed that Mrs. Robin had set up housekeeping in the wisteria... That would be the wisteria bush immediately next to the gate that we go in and out of many, many times each day... And each and every time, she would fly out of her nest in a panic. I gave a gentle and quick poke one day to see if there was anything in there and then had John take a picture...

Four beautiful eggs! But still, every time we went in and out, Mrs. Robin would fly off. How on earth were those eggs going to be incubated if she was so infrequently sitting on them? Well, one day I heard a small squeak and saw movement through the growth on the wisteria. John took another picture...

How many IS that? Two obviously, but more? Hard to know... And STILL, every time we came and went, Mrs. Robin flew off and chirped her outrage at us from the safety of a far-off tree. Those were the most pathetic looking baby birds I had ever seen, but then maybe I haven't seen that many? They did not make much noise. Their heads lolled against the side of the nest as they sat there with their mouths open. Many times I thought they needed to be rescued, but I held out hope that nature knew best and what would happen would be for the best, one way or another...

The wisteria, meanwhile, was growing completely out of control. In deference to the robin family, we had not been giving it the usual near-daily trim that it gets most summers. But one day, in an attempt to maintain our ability to use the gate, I quietly took the clippers to it and filled a bag, mostly to save the entire enterprise from John who was going to take the electric hedge trimmer to it! And a day or so later, when I peeked into the bush, now with more visibility, there was a young, alert robin... And the next time a group of us went out the gate, that young robin was launched and gone, leaving one...

The next day, as we were all leaving again, the other one decided to give it a go... It was a rough beginning...

... but after a couple of false starts, young robin #2 was off. Later that day, I think I saw THREE robins in a grouping flying together out of the yard and I hoped that meant Mrs. Robin had rounded up her two youngsters and given them a few lessons on life in the real world.

Seriously? NOW you take a picture?

Somehow I don't think it's supposed to work this way...

Give me a minute and I'll try that again...

Sitting around, doin' nothin'...

2011-07-16T22:26:00.000-04:00

KIDDING!

John took kids to karate and dropped off his dry cleaning
I took two loads to the laundromat (washer is waiting for service), which John picked up
Bought a birthday present at the variety store
Made hummus/lettuce/pita sandwiches
Delivered sandwiches to church
Picked up color copies at the copy store
Took the boys to a birthday party at the bowling alley
Folded programs for memorial service while at the bowling alley
Dropped kids at home and went to church to drop off programs
Sliced memorial photo cards (4 per sheet, 20 sheets)
"Helped" bell quartet rehearse in absence of one member of the quartet (without marked music, I'm not much help)
Went home and ironed a shirt to wear for the memorial service
Delivered everyone to the memorial service
Helped decorate the church for VBS, mostly by moving things from upstairs to downstairs, holding ladders, finding staplers...
Took the kids home, peeked at the baby robins, and fed the kids.
Designed the VBS newsletter and dropped in provided content.
Played Garden of Time on Facebook until I had exhausted "energy" and coins for the moment.
Read blogs.

Just another day...

Moving on!

2011-07-15T11:50:00.000-04:00

Okay, so while that was a disappointment, the majority of the regret was about having to start the process all over again. I know for myself, if I have to do something twice, like clean up a spill only to turn around and cause another spill in the same spot a minute later, that spurs my fury like nothing else. So, now you know... I lose my temper. Last night I dropped a window screen AND a fan on my toe. Both should find themselves suffering eternal conscious torment based on the words spoken, but shockingly, neither item is conscious to start with, so they are just in the window where they were headed anyway.

ANYWAY.

In retrospect, the loss of that job was quite probably for the best. We had worked pretty hard to get ourselves psyched about it since it was a live opportunity, but there are definitely some red flags we were glossing over in our wish to be done with this process. If they had offered John a job and he'd said yes, based on things we've learned in the last couple of days about the market they operate in, then we'd be suffering some heavy angst about the future of the company now that we had tied OUR future to theirs... Which we haven't, so now we're forward focused.

John's applied to at least six jobs this week and today is the first in-person interview of the biggest opportunity so far. The drawback is that it's in Norwood. 63 miles away. If you time it right, you can get there in about an hour, but there's no easy getting home from there. However, this is the first situation where from the outset they seem to recognize how much value John could bring to the table. Hard to ignore that, despite the miles.

We spent a couple of days in Lincoln, NH, using a Groupon I'd bought back in January. We drove up on Sunday and stopped by my cousin's house to pick up some maple syrup. That was a nice visit and visiting Joel always inspires us to dream of a day when life could be simpler—hard work for sure, but simpler. He had to get back to cutting wood for the winter, but he gave us the impetus to go climb a mountain... Well, since we aren't regular mountain climbing types, we went to Loon and took the gondola UP. And when we got to the top, we pointed out to the kids that we COULD walk down. "Let's do that!" they said. HA. They had no idea. It takes a good couple of hours to get down, and there was plenty of whining, but there was also romping through fields of wild flowers and attempts to catch the thousands of butterflies that were flitting about. When we finally, FINALLY got down again, we took the gondola up and straight back down again without getting off — I wanted my money's worth from that ticket! ;-)

The funny thing about kids is that they whine about how hard something is, and then suddenly when life is good again, they have a ton of energy. How is that even possible? John and I were crippled! We went to the hotel and it turned out to be a really nice suite with a bathroom big enough to have a party in, including a whirlpool bathtub for FOUR. The kids immediately filled it up, added shampoo for suds and went swimming in it!

After swimming in the bathtub, we went and got some groceries. THEN, they wanted to try out the hotel pools, accessible by an underground tunnel... And what kid doesn't like a secret passageway? Their energy was mind-boggling.

Next day, we went to the Whale's Tale Water Park for 4 1/2 hours. I think my nose might be peeling, but otherwise, we did pretty well with sun exposure. PL could've stayed in the wave pool all day and RF was equally happy in the "lazy river." Later in the day, PL swam the length of the lazy river twice, hunting for coins that had fallen out to the bottom! He came home 46 cents richer! We followed that up with a drive through Littleton, some ice cream, Mexican take-out and some TV time.

After checking out on Tuesday, we toured the Basin area of Franconia Notch where once-upon-a-time Tycho swam in a mountain stream, and then headed towards home with a detour to visit my grandmother and uncle. I read out loud almost the entire time in the car, and we finished Here Be Monsters and began Scary School.

Meanwhile, John has arrived in Norwood in plenty of time for his 11:45 appointment... Onwards and Upwards!

No. [Cry...]

2011-07-11T19:18:00.002-04:00

Writing with one finger on the iPod so will be short. They said, No. So, now the process has to begin again. But it is very easy to be discouraged.

Miraculously, I'm NOT deaf...

2011-07-09T19:26:00.001-04:00

Last night I went with a friend to hear Keith Urban in concert at the Garden... It was SO loud! I haven't been to a concert like that since Garth Brooks, also at the Garden... I remember having numb ears afterwards, but I also remember being able to sing along, hear the words, hear HIM a little better... Was it LESS loud back then? But then the numb ears...

Anyway, while the concert did nothing to enhance my appreciation of KU's music (I could barely recognize the songs at that volume), it totally enhanced my appreciation of HIM. His set-up is a lot of metal roller-coaster hardware with loop-de-loops, and one large full circle on the left is used to frame a giant, GIANT screen on which they splash live camera images of the performance, so even though the people are about the size of your thumb to the first joint, you can see them HUGE, and that really made the whole experience incredible. He was incredibly happy to be performing, and his smiles made me think he still enjoyed the music, still thought about the meaning of the words as he sang them, and also thoroughly enjoyed the crowd. Lots of appreciation of the audience, lots of incorporating "Boston" and "Massachusetts" and "Bruins/Stanley Cup" into either the songs or the schtick in-between songs to rile up the crowd. His new album is called "Get Closer" and that's the theme of his concerts, too, with no fences separating the audience and the stage and some times where he mingles with the crowd — a mini-stage out in the middle of the floor that rose up and spun slowly while he sang a few songs, and another time when he climbed up into the bleachers, where we were, performed a song and then GAVE AWAY the guitar he was playing to a random girl in the audience. We saw her later in the train station, hugging it to her chest and still looking totally stunned and unable to respond to anything else.

His Australian sweetness is just as real in his performance as it has ever appeared in videos or interviews and that's a thrill -- to shell out the dough for a concert ticket and come away pleased. He was so genuine and sincere, thanking people for choosing to spend their limited, especially in this economy, concert dollars on HIS concert, as though he were just a small-town singer and not this global performer.

Gotta get packing! We're leaving MOST technology behind for a three-day get-away... Meanwhile we hope to hear on Monday about the Cambridge job...

What do I have to give today?

2011-07-08T10:55:00.001-04:00

You probably won't care two whits about this (or is that two bits?), but I tripped over this, this morning, and really appreciated the tribute to rural America as well as the humor:

Turns out, that's Michael Perry, author, musician, local EMT-type, who lives on a farm in Wisconsin. He's got that bit of quiet charisma that induces instant crushes... There's a guy in this town, a stone mason, and I don't know how he gets anything done because as he works, building stone walls, there's a steady stream of cars stopping to talk to him, ask about his work, just say hello... He's got that charisma, too.

ANYWAY. John is off to Cambridge this morning AGAIN, for a third in-person interview. He was instructed to NOT come in a suit, so he's wearing Dockers, a short-sleeved but still button-down black shirt, and his more casual Birkenstock lace-ups... John does not get more casual than that out of the house. He won't even go to the mailbox in his "pajamas" which are sweatpants and an old, old rugby shirt. But on Wednesday during his second in-person interview, he talked to a guy wearing shorts, a white undershirt and flip-flops. While wearing his Brooks Brothers interview suit. I suppose he could've worn one of his Utilikilts and his Keene sandals, just to prove he could be REALLY casual.

At this point, we'd like him to GET this job and be done interviewing for it... My prayer this morning is for peace and confidence. And that he GET the job. I hate to be specific that way, but if he doesn't, the rollercoaster ride downward is not going to be of the scream-and-wave-your-hands fun variety.

Big hands...

2011-07-07T10:39:00.000-04:00

This morning I woke up before 7 AM and decided it was early enough to take the dogs for a quick walk... Downstairs, I asked if anyone wanted to come and PL decided he would come. YAY! I had him just come in his pajamas, he threw on his shoes and off we went... This was pre-ADHD morning pill, but nevertheless, he was manageable.

For the majority of the walk to the field, around the field, and onwards, I was amazed that PL was actually in the moment and NOT talking about Legos and eBay purchases, his usual compulsive-obsessive topics... He was, instead, obsessed with poor Jago's tail, despite repeated threats to LEAVE IT ALONE. I'm afraid that for Jago, heaven will be defined as without PL in it. She LOVES people. Nothing makes her happier than to greet and meet people. But PL drives her CRAZY. Yesterday when it was so hot, she was extremely short-tempered with him and would not even allow him to pet her properly, appropriately, without growling at him in her "KNOCK IT OFF, KID" voice. Mary was concerned that Jago might be sick, and this morning she did up-chuck a lovely mess of grass, etc.

But the POINT of all this, was that periodically as we walked this morning, PL would take my hand. I'm going to make myself cry... [sigh] When he was little-little, it was SUCH a trial to get him to hold my hand for safety, crossing streets or walking in parking lots or walking ANYWHERE... He did NOT want to hold hands. We used a kid harness and a leash with him and it worked beautifully. He didn't mind and we had peace of mind. But as he got older, he could tolerate holding hands more and now that he's the grand old age of 8 1/2, it's extremely special to me and I treasure each time it happens that he will reach for my hand... it's an unconscious, guileless, intuitive gesture... A little thing that gives me a jolt of happiness... WHILE threatening him with "there will be no Wii today if you don't stop touching Jago's tail!" with his other hand.

And at long last, the point... When PL took my hand this morning, I was stunned by how enormous it was... it's still small enough to fit inside my hand, but already it has more substance than my hand does... When did THAT happen? How is that possible?!

Anyway, it was a short walk, ambling around the field, and I took us through the hardware store for a few cookies (they open at 7 AM). PL had never seen the process, and it made me happy to share a glimpse of my usual morning routine with him... And then we went home... Where I sweated out another 25 minute walk on the treadmill to make up for eating (1) ice cream at the hospital, (2) a donut gifted by friends so HAD to eat it, right?! and (3) ice cream in Beverly Farms with friends...

Tomorrow... A long-awaited excitement... Going to Boston with a friend to see THIS (gotta get past a shampoo commercial at the beginning...):

The ups and downs...

2011-06-29T17:05:00.000-04:00

So the various extra dogs went home again... Scholar is always coming and going, in fact she came and went again for one night after her week with us when her mom was in Nicaragua. Noah will be back for a week in July... Otherwise, we can enjoy a little peaceful managing of just our own two.

There was terribly sad dog news in town this week... A Berner that we have babysat named Maggie, just five years old, succumbed to complications from bloat, early Sunday morning. I spent some time on the phone with the wife on Monday and had trouble saying anything and not just crying the whole time... Last night I again shared their grief in a conversation with the husband. The grief that goes with this is truly terrible to endure. As I said about Ptolli, "SHE IS SUPPOSED TO BE HERE." There is a feeling of being robbed. How do we ever figure out how to get up and continue on, when so much of life includes this dog? Someone's at the door — grab the dog... Feed the dog, walk the dog, where will the dog spend her morning, her afternoon... Stop the dog from harassing her housemate, a ten-year-old grouchy-old-man cockapoo to whom Maggie was devoted... Stop Jasper from harassing Maggie. She would get up with the early-rising husband and they had their little 5 AM routine of breakfast and wandering the yard for a little bit... How do you get up at 5 AM if your companion isn't there? It's a sucker punch to the stomach, this kind of grief...

I have relived the circumstances that led to Ptolli's death quite a bit, these last several days... Before Maggie, I was typing up some tips and giving some basic info. in emails to someone on the subject of bloat preparedness. This other person's Berner, named Pinuki, is having nosebleeds for no reason anyone can determine... We have some experience with nosebleeds, although Zoey's had cause, and so we dialogue back and forth... She asked about bloat and since I have both a failure story and a success story, I can easily provide the basics... So I had just been revisiting Ptolli's situation the day before Maggie's mother called.

If you ever need someone to cry with you about something, I have a gift...

Meanwhile... Today we had two extra kids, one of whom is a savant about letters, spelling and reading. He'll be repeating kindergarten for social skills reasons, but he is a ton of fun... He announced to another visitor, "this is my best friend, Miss Elizabeth, and we're playing the "letter of the day" game." I could really play it all day with him. He has a script in his head from a show he's seen, be it World World or Sesame Street, and we worked through a lot of letters of the alphabet, rearranging our big collection of magnetic letters on the kitchen counter to spell "impossible" and "rocketship" while he recites the game show host script.

PL started a new ADHD medication today. I took a pill, too, just to give myself that little extra boost of tolerance and mellowness. The new medication is an extended release form, as we've had before, but it had to be started at a very low dose... He's been at 35 mg and we're starting at FIVE. They're different medicines, but still similar. Fortunately, the doctor said to call him every three days and he'll boost it up as often as that until we get to something stable again, because PL has already been on a high dose of something else. Anticipating some insane times for a few days.

Today John had an interview in Cambridge for a possible job. Neither of us are good at driving in the city. I can get certain places, such as Children's Hospital, without any difficulty, but we had never been to Cambridge. So yesterday morning, we left at 7:30 AM to do a dry run. HA. First mistake was deciding to take Rte. 93 instead of Rte. 1. During non-commuter hours, that's a no-brainer -- take 93 and don't pay the $3 toll. But during rush-hour? The Tobin Bridge has to be taken... Yesterday, there were at least two car accidents to make things take even longer. We finally, FINALLY reach Storrow Drive and the directions simply say "continue onto the Longfellow Bridge." "Continue." As in, don't do anything stupid, just keep going.

In all my years of driving to Children's Hospital and New England Baptist Hospital and driving on Storrow Drive to get places, I have often wondered what that ramp to the left was for, THE ONE WITH NO SIGNAGE WHATSOEVER. I wonder where that goes, I've said to myself.

Okay, I just took a snapshot out of Google Earth... There IS a sign. Let me show you... You've seen this a thousand times yourself, I'm sure...

Okay, so there IS a sign. It talks about Kendall Square and Government Center and maybe in small print, "Mass General Hospital." Does it mention Longfellow Bridge? MIT? Harvard Square? Cambridge? No, it most certainly does NOT.

So, only after we went sailing down Storrow Drive, dutifully following the "continue" direction, did we realize we'd made a mistake. There goes the Longfellow Bridge and we have no way to get on it... Huh. In the end we found our destination, just off of Harvard Square, having gone way, WAY down to get there. We retraced the route more correctly, although in reverse, crossed the Longfellow Bridge, and as we did John craned his neck to see the other side and how on earth we were supposed to have gotten onto it the other way... Ah-HA!! There it is!

Just to allay any possible concerns, we actually continued on our way "home" and when we were far enough North on Rte 1 that we could get off AND get back on again (somewhere North of Chelsea), we turned around, and did it again... Over the Tobin, through the toll, off to Storrow Drive, left to the mysteriously UNDER-SIGNED ramp, over the Longfellow Bridge, through MIT, up Massachusetts Avenue and into Harvard Square. Ta-DA!

THEN we went home. Today John sailed into the interview in one hour and fifteen minutes, met with a whole host of people at the company, tried his darndest to make a good impression and hopes to hear back about a second in-person interview, maybe for next week...

The train/subway combo would've taken 101 minutes to complete, plus five minutes to walk from our house and five minutes to walk from the subway station...

And I gotta run... Craziness awaits at home, I'm sure... along with "what's for supper?"

FIVE dogs...

2011-06-16T22:06:00.001-04:00

We haven't had this many in a while... I think the most we've ever had was eleven... Five is plenty. Abigail and Casco Bay are here while the cousins are in Montana. Scholar is here while her mom is in Nicaragua. And our own two. Amazingly, after a little bit of showing off, everyone has settled down to ignoring each other appropriately. Abigail and Tosca are both on the bed right now. Scholar has wandered off but she often sleeps in Ptolli's cave on the dog bed there. Jago is at the foot of the stairs and Casco is in the front room — she's pretty crippled and doesn't do a lot of stairs... At least she's stopped barking. She wasn't content in the living room — too far away from everyone else, I guess. Or else I just can't hear her over the fan.

This morning I walked four of them to the field and back without incident! THAT was a miracle, I thought. But it seems to have helped everyone chill out a bit since Scholar and Abigail got to run around in a larger space, rather than figure out how their hierarchy worked in a small space.

And NONE of them howled at the Strawberry Moon!

Gotta go look for a recipe... All for now.

Ring, phone, ring!

2011-06-15T10:26:00.001-04:00

We are back to praying for the phone to ring. Its lack of ringing is sending John spiraling downward after the incredible hopefulness it inspired late last week. Otherwise, as foretold, the openings are drying up as summer arrives...

Meanwhile, two more dogs arrive today. We will have FIVE through Monday morning, when Scholar-dear goes home. The other two go home next Thursday morning. But all that is the least of the hectic schedule for today...

No rain at the picnic!

2011-06-15T10:21:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning I ran around early getting a couple of things done before the field trip, accompanied by a slight drizzle and light use of the windshield wipers. By the time it was 8:25 AM and time to leave, though, there was no rain. I packed our rain coats but left jackets behind. And it did NOT rain! OR thunderstorm! The train ride was loud and full of excited kids. Then we walked to the Public Garden. I wish I could say I could get there on my own now, but not a chance. Not only did we take some winding way to get there, but then we went some OTHER way on the return trip. RF, having just had field day the previous day, was not happy about walking. But once we arrived at the garden and lined up for the short queue for the swan boats, all was well. The ride was short and sweet — there are a pair of nesting swans and tons of ducks. Then we had lunch and a bit of free time which the kids used to play tag all over the place. All the statuary are dressed in Bruins outfits, including the famous "Make Way for Ducklings" ducks. And then it was time for the walk back to North Station. I expected tired and whiney, but nope, all was well and we successfully shepherded everyone back onto the train for another very LOUD ride home.

I was quite ready for a padded room or one of those sensory deprivation chambers, but instead I dragged PL off to karate and sat in the unused second dojo room and enjoyed some relative peace.

It was a good day, actually, and I'm hopeful to take both boys there soon.

Planes, trains and swan boats...

2011-06-13T20:41:00.000-04:00

Well, no planes. But there will be trains and swan boats tomorrow for RF's field trip, assuming it doesn't RAIN. Hmm... Let's go check the weather... Yeah, this is pretty much what you do NOT want to see on field trip day:

At least the kids won't get overheated! I get to go, so happy me, assuming it's not cancelled.

This week's prayer...

2011-06-13T10:15:00.000-04:00

Last week, I really wanted John to get a phone call of some sort. Any kind of phone call would do, just SOMETHING so John could maintain motivation for the process. And he DID get a phone call for a job newly applied for and there should be phone interviews and hopefully that will be followed with in-person interviews... This new opportunity has some exciting elements... The best part was the recruiter's enthusiasm for John. John was able to carry that over, keep on applying other places, and at least for a while, have enough sense of self-worth to consider the lack of interest from other sources as, "oh well, their loss..."

That certainly felt like a prayer answered. Spirits were buoyed. And there is hope. I feel encouraged to start the week with a new prayer and already I feel it being responded to.

This week, I feel that rather than asking, we are listening. This week, the prayer is for guidance. A sort of "show us the way because things might get exciting and scary and we need to know... if something comes of this, is this really the way to go?"

And the way that prayer already has responses is that John received two replies today — one for the job I wrote about before to say that it's been filled. It was only open momentarily, so it's likely that it was filled internally or never really existed. It was closed when their own recruiters were still working it. What's up with that? And another job he was actively pursuing closed their opening wherever it was listed.

In addition, our first impression of the commute to this new opportunity was that it was completely impossible. We'd have to move or get John an apartment. Our second impression, upon studying Google directions a little more closely, was that if it was timed just right, it would only be an hour... Not great, but not impossible... Certainly as much as John was considering spending on the train if only this one company in Boston would be willing to consider him...

So that felt a bit like guidance, too. Meanwhile, keep on keeping on. Wait for the expected follow-up phone interview. Help us to be still and listen.

And this is the last week of school. GOD HELP US ALL.

Wondering...

2011-06-09T10:00:00.000-04:00

Is it an invasion of your personal space if there's a window between you? I'm at my desk at work where my desk is right up against the wall with a window in it. And right outside, someone is washing that window — the company hired a professional window cleaner (every ten years whether it needs it or not). But it's a little weird to be THIS close to someone. He is literally six inches from the back of my laptop's screen. Phew. He's done.

Waiting...

2011-06-07T12:56:00.000-04:00

I'm attempting to password protect an external hard drive and it involves this encryption process which is apparently going to take the rest of my life... Or else just not work. So while I'm watching the lack of progress on this progress bar, I popped up this window to share the experience with YOU. Aren't YOU lucky?!

It's a beautiful sunny day and in about 45 minutes I'm going to go out and participate in it by doing something thrilling like take the trash to the transfer station... Wow -- did you see that alliteration? "Take The Trash To The Transfer..."

ANYWAY. I'm embracing my ADHD.

This morning started out wonderfully as PL did NOT come bouncing in screeching, his normal mode of arrival, at 6 AM. Just the overly bright sun woke me up closer to 6:45. Delicious! I took the dogs for a short walk and a round of errands... We went to the field and happened to meet up with my friend and her young Golden Retriever puppy named Hayden. He has the most adorable button black nose. Then we went to the hardware store and used a $5 coupon to buy some dog cookies, plus some extras straight to the dogs from their friend Candy... Then to the bank... Then on the way home we met a friend who stopped to schedule a date for Noah to visit (July 18-22)... Next we met up with an older lady and her very, VERY tiny dog. Both were friendly, so we stopped to meet-and-greet... Her little chihuahua type dog was such a mix of colors -- merles and brindles and spots, hard to believe the mixture contained in such a small package. He was totally fearless in the face of meeting my two.

And then a lady in a wheelchair, I'm guessing waiting for a bus, was effusive, so I let the dogs go see her. Quite a round of socializing in just a quick walk around the block!

A shower and a throw-on dress and I was out the door to drop off the kids at school and go to work.

I'm back to really wishing my clothes fit better, so I'm being AWARE of what I eat. I read a blog recently about parenting and the suggestion that day was to aim to have better MOMENTS. Don't set yourself up for failure by saying, "I'm going to shout less" or "I'm going to listen more." Instead, tell yourself, "I'm going to sit down for the next five minutes and listen to my child." And so I'm trying to also have better food choice moments... Think, you know, I *want* a handful of ginger snaps from the company supply, but could I wait? How about a glass of fizzy water instead?

Consequently, I'm VERY psyched to be out of here in a half hour and get LUNCH. There's leftover stroganoff from last night... Or a tuna, cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwich would be lovely... Something good that will really tide me over through the afternoon.

Yeah, so I'm not too convinced about this whole encryption process thing... I just took a dry erase marker and covered up the progress bar so that if I see it peaking out past the line I drew, then I'll know it's actually moved.

So, yesterday John followed up on a resume submission he sent last week. He had called this company previously to say, who should I talk to. The lady said, talk to this guy. So in his cover letter to that guy, John said this lady directed me to send this to you. So yesterday when he called, the lady was completely belligerent and wouldn't even connect him to the guy's voice mail -- said that she had never "recommended" him and if they wanted to call him they would. When John read to her what he said, she was still angry and not at all mollified.

That was a crushing disappointment since this particular job was one John was so very hopeful about. Fortunately, later in the day he was part of an email dialogue (note DIALOGUE, as in back and forth, not just ONE WAY) with recruiters for this same company in California, one introducing John to the other, passing along his resume, the new one saying she'd be sure someone relevant would see it, in connection with this local job.

The thing is, the local people are all part of a company that was bought out by the larger company, headquartered in California. So they could be feeling tense and angry and anxious, particularly in a hiring scenario. But still.

So, I'll go home in a bit and see what he's been up to this morning. He works hard at it, for sure. Barely takes a break for lunch. Sometimes I think he should take a break just so something can happen so he can find it...

Meanwhile, I put up a bunch of pictures at Facebook... Here's one of the best:

And another, from April vacation and the great canal digging project:

Well, the progress bar has definitely made it past my mark on the screen... I guess I'll leave it to finish and maybe come back later and check on it. HA. Like I'll remember. But I've left a note so hopefully my experiment will be left alone.

This year's concert with Jim Malcolm is finally coming together, I think. I had a possible site respond yesterday and I'll give the other two I investigated another day or two to respond before finalizing.

And then I need to think about the fall draft test. After I got a site and staff, I quit thinking about it, but food, especially, needs to get organized.

Next Tuesday, RF's class is going to Boston on the train to walk to the public garden and ride the Swan Boats. John (tentatively) and I are going to go, too! We've never been, and we'll have to go again soon so that PL will have a chance. A nice way to start the summer.

Nothing planned for the children for this summer. We will re-enroll them for another year of karate, so they'll have that this summer and I'm excited for RF to have his birthday and then he and PL can go at the same time — so twice a week instead of FOUR times a week for me!

Otherwise, there is reading practice and swimming at the pool and going to the beach when the sun sinks down a bit... And we'll find adventures to take when we can drag John away from his more-than-due diligence job hunting efforts. We're entering the time of year when apparently people do NOT get jobs because there's no one around to interview them and deal with the process, but I know that won't stop John from trying... And how admirable is that. VERY.

Well, I guess this is enough for now... YA think?!

Somebody should write something!

2011-06-05T09:05:00.000-04:00

I subscribe to 36 blogs in my RSS feed and another few that are linked to here, the ones I haven't figured out how to RSS subscribe to, for some reason... Yesterday I was bemoaning that NOBODY out of all of those blogs was WRITING anything... UGH!

Yeah, pot, meet kettle, etc. So, maybe *I* should write something? Then I could read THAT! ;-)

Perhaps I will... Later. I've been processing photos, so MAYBE I'll have photos later. At the very least, I want to put them up on Facebook...

(A few people did come in out of the beautiful day and write something later... Just so you know, I read those posts nearly immediately!)

Prayers...

2011-06-05T00:31:00.000-04:00

Tonight, I'm taking a moment to pray and I'm blogging it so you can pray, too... There is a job that COULD be really awesome... May we trust that the future will unfold peacefully and SOON. John is pouring heart and soul into hunting for a job and cannot, will not rest until he KNOWS that he can provide for his family. He has much to offer, given the opportunity... And THIS opportunity that exists, well, it SEEMS excellent. Please, could he get a phone call this week... Please, could it result in an interview SOON? We are trying to trust that there is a plan unfolding, but may John have a modicum of peace that it is, that it will.

We know that everyone does not get happy endings. Some get really lousy stories and there is much suffering in the world. We are not suffering, outside of the mental anguish that seems to arrive every Friday after a week of searching and networking and LinkedIn-ing, of emailing and cold-calling, and nothing to show for it. But because of the state of the world, we don't feel entitled to good things happening... On the other hand, we are encouraged to ask, aren't we... And we ask, not just for John, but for each of us in the family and for our ability to care for others beyond ourselves, as our energies are directed inward, as we hold ourselves carefully and tightly and not always calmly.

Still, John continues. While he has done all he can to be a part of this potential job opportunity process, even if he makes it to at least a return phone call, and logic dictates that he should be based on skills and circumstances, he is not standing still on this spot... He has found a whole handful of things this weekend and come Monday, I know he'll be pursuing each and every one of them.

So this prayer is for SOMETHING to happen this week. Whether it be the opportunity that seems right to us, or something else we don't even know about yet... A phone call, the opportunity to talk to someone and convince them that their company, their product, their customers would all be more amazing for having John on board with their team...

And after that, maybe John could work on developing some inner peace of his own... Peace that comes from being content, trusting that what will be, will be and that whatever happens, we'll figure it out...

Thanks for riding the rollercoaster along with us. And thank you very much for your prayers on our behalf. The other night I said a prayer with the boys and RF said, "and I want to add that please can Daddy have a job where people like him." It was incredibly sweet. Indeed, THAT would be a bonus, for sure.

Worth a post...

2011-05-20T23:43:00.002-04:00

This makes me smile, ear-to-ear...

The story...

2011-05-05T10:06:00.000-04:00

My dear friend MP had written me an email asking if I had given the chocolates she left on my desk to my boys... I had to say, OF COURSE NOT, I ate them! So, she said she would be leaving me two more for the CHILDREN. I came in to find ONE chocolate on my desk. I thought that was strange, but as I went about plugging my laptop into its various cables, I noticed some little orange fragments which led my eye over the backside of my desk and voila! THERE was the missing chocolate, quite chewed.

The office is known to have a mouse problem so this wasn't a huge shock. I decided to take a picture and send it to MP and tell her about it... First idea was to DRAW a mouse, but as I quickly drew the lines in my mind, I recognized that my mouse would look too much like a cat... How about a Google image? And that's where I found that wonderful 3-D looking photo of three mice... I printed the image, placed the chocolate strategically and my other office friend took the photo...

It scared the bejeebus out of another office-mate who is quite the mouse-a-phobe... She just couldn't wrap her mind around the idea that it was a PHOTO.

What happened here?!

2011-05-04T11:27:00.000-04:00

Kleenex alert...

2011-05-02T09:49:00.000-04:00

This was posted on one of my Berner email groups this morning, and I had to capture it here for posterity because it's so perfect, particularly when I look at Miss Jago. I bathed both dogs yesterday which always makes them impish and full of fun. I started with Tosca and before I got to Jago she was already bouncing around the house, stealing towels, inviting Tosca to play tug and keep-away with her... She is the least seven-(and 3/4ths)-year-old ACTING dog imaginable.

Anyway, here's the poem... His mom's website is HERE.

Old Dog With a Young Dog's Soul

By Kyle Paulson

It doesn't seem like long ago

You'd bounce and bark and play

Tail spinning in the air

The joy of puppy shining in your eyes

Could it be that happiness just never fades

Or that it really was just yesterday?

I see you slowing down though,

Your bounces aren't as high, your bark not as loud

The spinning tail no longer threatening to lift you off

But I look in your eyes, and still see the puppy there

You're an old dog now

With a young dog's soul.

A day of play, when you were young

Would wear me out faster then you

Now you're done before I am

But that's okay to me

My old dog

With a young dog's soul.

I know that soon we will have to part

And your young dog's soul will be free again

To run and bark and play

With the other young dog souls

At the Gates of Heaven

But before we get that far, I've something I'd like to ask

When you finally do see me, walking up that path

And in your barking leaping joy, when Saint Peter opens up the door.

Please don't knock me over.

Sneeze!

2011-04-26T12:00:00.000-04:00

Today I am grateful for Mucinex (the one with the sinus element) and ibruprophen... I love that warm, sleepy feeling I get when I'm completely doped... The two of them together are managing my cold symptoms fairly well.

After a night of obsessive/compulsive dreaming, I woke up, got my blogs all read and was out for a walk before 7 AM... It was damp and foggy but not raining. Not wanting muddy dogs, we went downtown and explored various pier and harbor walkways, often off-leash, since there weren't very many people around. Both dogs could use a bath, and I need to scrounge up the energy to do it. They LOOK pretty, but they SMELL doggy. Shocking, being dogs and all, I know.

Last Tuesday John had a second round of interviews. A week later and the company is "still thinking." Even the headhunter is getting a bit impatient, so perhaps it is time to move on to the next idea. In the meantime, John has been studying up on the project management software that company uses as well as exploring all the other alternatives. And he's ironed all his shirts.

Today's extracurricular activities include grocery shopping, one kid to karate, and a stewards meeting at church... THEN bed.

Good Friday Groceries...

2011-04-22T21:42:00.000-04:00

Apparently tomorrow is all about RAIN. Which is good for a bit of new baby grass we're coaxing along, but not so good for trying to keep small boys off computers and video games... And lousy for grocery shopping, which we will do tonight instead...

John has had a second round of interviews... Ancient history now—last TUESDAY—but still no word as to whether or not it will result in a job. It's hard to believe that it's been SEVENTEEN days since John's last day of work. John hasn't taken off that many days in a row EVER. And yet, other than do laundry, nothing in particular has happened... Two in-person job interviews and whole heck of a lot of worrying. Also this was school vacation week, so John was called upon to aid in various canal projects that were launched in the yard. Poor PL now has to WRITE about his canal project. Oh, the torture.

[....]

In that space there, we went to the grocery store and while we were out I remembered what all has taken up our time for the last couple of weeks... Flu. Fun times. The kids had the flu and then John had the flu and even had to cancel and reschedule his second round of job interviews... That was a tough one. Do you get yourself there on a stretcher with an IV no matter what? Or do you spare the company your contagious flu germs and stay home? John said there was no way he was getting there and if he DID get there (like, say, I drove him), he'd spend the entire time using their restroom. No point, clearly. The rescheduled interview on Tuesday seemed to indicate no harm done with that... But then there's been NO word since Tuesday. John is getting to practice NOT going out of his mind.

So, kids on vacation... Canal digging... Pool swimming... Wednesday, they had a play date elsewhere in the afternoon. Thursday, they had a loooooooong play date here, followed by PL going to the dentist. With kids, you never know if they're listening. They act like the NEVER listen 99% of the time. But right before we went to the dentist, PL quietly went into the bathroom and brushed his teeth on his own SO forcefully that the hygienist came out to report that his gums were incredibly inflamed and agitated from a recent event. REALLY. So all those times we said he need to brush more because he had plaque build-up on the front two teeth? He apparently decided that he'd do what he could to get it off last minute. But not a word on the topic. He just did it.

Today we got up and out and went to the Museum of Science... We saw the butterfly exhibit for the first time, and then we saw the Great Lakes movie in the Omni Theatre (again, at PL's request), and then went to the Planetarium. And then we came straight home. I finished reading The Warrior Sheep in the car...

We've also used this vacation to cut PL's addiction to pediasure WAY back. Instead of five a day, ONE. At this point, I don't MUCH care WHAT he eats as long as he actually has to masticate it. Chips, ice cream sandwiches, pasta, Hershey bars... CHEW!

Here's a bit of trivia... The Saab is getting 36 MPG with average highway driving! Not a bad switch from the Jetta getting 49 MPG on diesel! Obviously less, but not insanely less and there's the benefit of it being fun and quiet... Sweet!

So, I'm reaching that excessive exhaustion point, but I'm looking forward to blogging the canal digging photos for you... Some of them are really sweet... And John took RF's picture-of-the-year the other day at the pool... But I'm just too tired to format them for here...

Pluto!

2011-04-07T12:28:00.002-04:00

During our trip to Arizona, we visited the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona which is where the planet (or dwarf planet) Pluto was discovered. Then in last summer's VBS parade, a friend of ours was Pluto... This turned out to create GREAT entertainment along the parade as people either cheered for Pluto or mocked Pluto as being demoted... So, we now have this "something" about Pluto. Well, our Amanda's namesake, an astronomer working in Australia and currently attending a conference in the UK, just produced this very amusing video... She posted it originally on her website HERE, where she makes this qualification:

"as much as i like the song as it is, the last verse might lead one to believe that i would like to reinstate pluto as a planet. i want to state for the record that this is NOT the case! i'm pleased that astronomers have decided on a definition of a planet that is based on some actual physics! the song is just fun and i hope people enjoy it."

Pluto, the previous planet from carolune on Vimeo.

Laugh and laugh and laugh...

2011-04-07T11:49:00.000-04:00

Went to dinner last night at P.F Changs with friends and we laughed and laughed... All involved were actually quite tired and might've preferred to just crawl into bed, but we assembled anyway and had a terrific time. Thanks to my friend C and her husband who can always be counted on to save the day when it matters! Who knew what frame of mind John might be in after his last day at work, so I wanted to be sure we did something that was celebratory rather than mopey. There was NO moping! Just lots and lots of laughter... Perfect.

Less perfect is that BOTH boys are home from school sick today, but hopefully the worst of it is past. PL is normally so continuously healthy, that he is a lousy patient. RF is wiped out and content enough on the couch. PL moans and cries and when he is weakened, apparently that leaves him vulnerable to Alice in Wonderland episodes. He and Mary watched House Hunters ALL night, as watching mind-numbing television helps his ability to focus correctly. During an AIWS episode, he panics because everything is suddenly big and he is small or vice versa.

Back to work for now...

Okay, so here's the thing...

2011-04-06T11:12:00.000-04:00

TODAY is the day. TODAY is John's LAST day at his job of 24 years... It's pretty scary, but as I have mentioned, I read Jon Katz's blog and he talks a lot about how fear is such a waste... Just yesterday he said, "Fear crushes happiness and hope, erodes the will and keeps us from feeling the joy and hope and creativity that dwells within us... I see fear as a symptom – a feeling accompanying something – but not the real thing."

Alright then, let's deal with REAL stuff. I also read a blog the other day that talked about not using the word "But" to qualify things... So, here we go. John is unemployed for the first time in his life. AND the severance package is pretty nice, if we can accept the attached strings. There is health insurance for six months. There is freedom from ever having to care about THOSE particular problems, THOSE particular people ever again. Potentially, he never, EVER has to go to Japan ever again. Right about now, we can lift prayerful hands in praise and say, "THANK YOU GOD" for that one.

John already has some irons in the fire. The resume we put together has been deemed "lovely" which is some kind of miracle since he hasn't done one since he graduated from college. He's aced a first phone interview and been invited to a series of in-person interviews on Friday. And regardless of whether or not he wants THAT job, he is getting positive feedback from people who are not this company that he's worked for, for 24 years, while being stomped upon. And that's giving him some confidence.

There has certainly been a classic element of abuse — that being abused by what you know is less frightening than facing the unknown. AND it's over now. He has his suit, his car (an extension of his suit, right?) and he can build anything, fix anything, learn anything, invent anything... And he's got a good bit of time to figure out the future. Let's see what it holds!!

Stayed up WAY too late...

2011-04-04T10:41:00.000-04:00

I seem to be staying up WAY too late at least once a week. Last night, after drinking a caffeinated cola to help me get some home bookkeeping done, I made the mistake of picking up a book — Two Kisses for Maddy. Hand me a book and it's a disaster. Please don't. I love books. Absolutely love them. And if you hand me one, I am completely and totally, thoroughly and utterly incapable of putting it down.

1:50AM and I finally tripped over a sentence in this book that was "dull" enough to interrupt the flow and I could make myself stop and go to bed. As a reader of the author's blog for three years, I was glad to get the book... It's obviously a sad, sad story that reviews material I'm already familiar with, but the author had promised a new approach and I was eager to see it. It isn't ALL sad. The beginning is happy. And Maddy is a VERY happy child and is such a blast of sunshine to all who know her... But clearly you can't escape the the sadness. As the author says, "I wish I weren't a writer" because the only reason he is, is because he had to write about his experience.

Wish I could talk about it all...

2011-04-03T23:45:00.000-04:00

... But sometimes discretion is the better part of sense and sensibility... Or something. I desperately WANT to talk about it, 'cause it's certainly part of the journey, but for now, I had better hush up about the bigger things in our life... ANYWAY! ;-)

PL's medicine quit working on March 14. Things have NOT been good at school since that day. No idea what accounts for the sudden switch, but to add to the headache, his ADHD doctor's on vacation until APRIL ELEVENTH. Our next appointment? The 13th. Ugh. I have sent an impassioned email at the suggestion of the front desk at his office, but since that didn't generate a reply, I'll have to see if any other doctor in the practice would consider adjusting the protocol. Highly unlikely.

The sad thing is that PL so very much WANTS to be good. And his teachers see that. His daily behavior reports that come home on Fridays reflect that his behavior, especially between 2 and 3 PM is totally out of his own control. He can NOT help it. And they see that. At least THAT's something. We've been giving his medicine later in hopes that it will stretch out the effectiveness.

And so our lives have been kind of preoccupied with that worry and with the other thing... Whoops... Gotta get away from that topic again! Let's see... Noah came back! Gosh, this is depressing... Noah's mom went to have an x-ray prior to having her final "there, you're all better" appointment and they discovered that the "cage" they put in her back to hold her spine together had migrated! They needed to do surgery again immediately! And when they did? They took out the cage and put NOTHING back in. Her osteoporosis apparently means that they didn't think the stabilizing was going to work at all, so they just took it out and she'll have to heal without it. Her daughter called and says the doctor thinks she shouldn't live alone or be trying to take care of a dog. And of course Noah is a bit of a challenge... You would NOT hand Noah to just anybody and say, "HERE, have a lovely dog... He's no trouble at all." So, I made a suggestion to her daughter that might salvage the situation regarding the home set-up, but there's still the question of her living alone and in a home that's not set up for an older person...

Meanwhile, little Noah's been hanging out here, sleeping under John's desk at night and basking in the sun on the deck during the day. Poor fella.

I may have mentioned before that I read Jon Katz's blog. It's very satisfying as he posts about a dozen times a day -- photographs and short paragraphs and now the occasional video. It's not like he's being a thrill-a-minute with these posts, but they are often reflective in a down-to-earth kind of way and frequently include pictures of his dogs... One of things he talks about is fear -- just this minute he posted about how fear is "a killer of spirituality, along with other things." And that theme has been somewhat central here (and I'm still talking around that topic!)... Fear is crushing... But we're going to move out into the sunlight, I think, and it's going to be completely the greatest thing that ever happened... We just have to get through it. Change is scary stuff, though.

April Fools!

2011-04-01T12:41:00.000-04:00

Another April 1st snow storm... THAT wasn't an April Fools' joke, but RF did play one on me with Mary's help and he TOTALLY had me. I was walking by and he said, "you have a big spot on your pants!" And my mind immediately raced to what on earth could I have gotten into since I'd only been dressed for ten minutes and my period was over so it couldn't be anything related to that.... And then he said, "April Fools!" And I laughed and laughed -- he SO had me!

What-all's up?

2011-03-24T07:12:00.000-04:00

Let's see... So, we bought the 4-year-old Saab and John's in love... A ray of sunshine in amongst all the chaos and anxiety lately. He actually probably cherishes his drive to work now, in a "YAY, I get to drive my car!" kind of way. And that makes me happy. Now, we need to find him a job where he feels the same way... "YAY, I can't wait to get in my car and drive to WORK!" It's on the to-do list.

Tuesday, a nice young couple with 9-month-old little boy came to consider buying the Jetta and made an offer we accepted. So THAT's exciting. All things going to plan, they'll be back on Saturday to get the car. It feels nice to know the car is going to a good home.

I'm working on the event applications to host a two-day draft test in October (22 and 23) at Cogswell's Grant in Essex. This is a test for dogs, mostly Bernese Mountain Dogs, pulling carts through a maneuvering course and on a half-mile freight haul. We saw the Lipizann stallions perform in this spot and it's just beautiful. I have two judges from the New England area and then one from Colorado who will work both days. I also have two secretaries, two chief stewards, someone to do the premium list (aka booklet with entry forms) and the beginnings of an official "committee"... The application is due in April but I don't wait 'til the last minute...

One thing that I finally got out of the way yesterday morning was an email to the executive director of the local Music Center... Last August I hosted Jim Malcolm in concert at the Lanesville Community Center. When his wife and manager got in touch with me, I suggested that one possibility was to have Jim at the Shalin Liu. Susie suggested it would be helpful to send a note of endorsement to the Executive Director. However, that has taken a bit of creative energy and I didn't seem to have any for ages! Now THAT's done and I hope they recognize what an incredible talent he is and sign him up.

I'm sending faxes and emails in a variety of directions, dealing with finances... I need to catch up on my own personal accounting... And I need to do taxes for two people SOON.

Noah went home after 24 days to a new fenced-in yard. His mom thinks that he thinks, "what did I do wrong to be put in a box?" but he was perfectly happy in MY fenced-in yard... Maybe he just is glad to be home and wants to be with her in the house. She didn't choose to make the fenced-in area include a doorway from the house, so she has to take him out to the yard and leave him... There's a distinction there -- being let out of the house into contained freedom and being put into a fenced space... I went to see them yesterday to help set up a new laser printer, and Noah promptly demonstrated how to get OUT of the fence! Fortunately, we found a hole and blocked it with a couple of rocks -- I was scared for a minute that he'd gone OVER. Talk about "disaster for Scotland..." (Sorry, you had to be there...)

Tonight, John is doing a presentation to a bunch of college kids on St. Patrick -- this was meant to be a fun dorm floor activity and I'm confident that he'll make it edifying AND funny, but he's racing to get his slides done. Did you know that the whole idea that St. Patrick drove out the snakes from Ireland is hooey? There never were snakes in Ireland... Apparently, not even GARTER snakes. John says the glaciers sheered all the wildlife off, and the snakes never got back. So, there, now you know a fun fact about Ireland... And apparently the same is true for New Zealand. Too bad Australia missed that glacier! Although Steve Irwin would've been sad, I guess....

Oh, and I'm knitting... I have launched the beginnings of a project where I hope to make a little sleeveless sweater. FYI, this is NOT the cheap way to get a sweater. Yarn is expensive! But I wanted something to do with this whole knitting thing that resulted in something useful at the end... If I'm going to learn this, then I'm going to LEARN it. So far, I do NOT look like those people who knit without even looking at what they're doing with the needles just flowing back and forth. But at least I'm slowly getting a better understanding of how the two stitches I know how to do are working together. It's slow going... I'm halfway through a scarf that uses both of them, but it wasn't until I took some time out to do a little sampler with some bargain-bin yarn that I really got what was happening... This is what happens when you don't learn anything new for YEARS -- your brain atrophies. [sigh] Anyway, step one on the sweater project is to make a sample square using the yarn and needles bought for the project and see if the expected number of stitches actually yields what the pattern expects, something like 25 stitches = four inches. I think my square is done, so I'll go check it out this afternoon with my knitting teacher... Then, maybe I can actually start on the real thing!

Tonight is the grand opening of the school art show at the Art Association. I think every kid in the school has something on display. Earlier this year, Duncan had something special on display at a particular Montserrat gallery, but when we went to see it at the suggested time, it was closed. So, we WILL be there for the big deal presentation tonight.

Having fixed this posts's cases of "tomorrow" to "today/tonight," I'm going to POST it and go walk the dogs... Fortunately, I don't see any snow out my window and I'm PSYCHED about that!

Oh, Hi!

2011-03-07T07:34:00.000-05:00

This morning as I look over the top of the covers, I'm also looking over the tops of two big dogs, stretched out together. Jago doesn't have enough room for all her feet so one of them is on top of Tosca, whose feet are hanging off the foot of the bed, which I can see in the mirrored closet doors. I really ought to get up and walk everybody after a long day of confinement yesterday, but we didn't sleep much last night, fretting over the purchase of a car... I know it'll all be fine, but at the moment we're in "OMG, what did we do" mode. Still, there was a lot of logic that went into getting this particular car, and the logical parts of our minds are on board with it. The parts of our minds that tend to pessimism and panic, however, haven't caught up... We collect the car on Thursday, if all goes according to plan.

Perhaps I'll have more to say later, but in the meantime, Hi!

Just beautiful...

2011-02-09T09:37:00.000-05:00

Dogs, dogs, dogs...

2011-02-07T10:58:00.001-05:00

... and dog-tired.... Although I don't know any dogs that are tired. Because no dogs have been out of the yard in days. But I'm juggling a bunch of cold-like symptoms and while I got plenty of sleep last night, one of the medicines I took this morning may be making me feel drugged. So, I'm at work with Scholar, and Noah, Tosca and Jago are chillin' at home while the house gets cleaned.

I took a bit of time this morning to get flood ready... With snow like this, it's just going to be a fact of life. The basement will get water in it this spring. Nothing we can do about it but be ready. So everything's off the floor, the Christmas trees are all in new bags I just bought for that purpose, and the grooming room is de-furred.

We're almost ready to press "check-out" on a back-up sump pump. Ours has been doing its job just fine for the last TWELVE years and since it came with the house, we can assume some number of years beyond twelve. So, the only intelligent thing to do is have a back-up on hand. Our cellar has never gotten beyond ankle deep, if that, but we do have to go and shovel the water from the downhill side over the top of the hill to the other side where the pump is... The "hill" isn't much of one, maybe a half-inch or an inch, but it's enough that we have to go encourage the water up and over to the other side.

Scholar goes home this afternoon. Noah goes home on Wednesday. Casco and Abby arrive on Thursday. Here's a photo of Noah, being king of his own mountain of snow... He's had a wonderful time racing around in the snow and making snow angels.

(If you click on the photos, they get bigger, and you can click on them again, and make them even bigger!)

My throat has been sore since Friday night. Friday into Saturday morning I'm pretty sure I had a fever. I got up early, took some Advil, and I think the fever broke. The sore throat lingers but is held back by alternating advil and aspirin. There's head congestion and the netti pot is coaxing out all kinds of yuckiness. There's some coughing. But energy levels aren't too bad, so I can carry on. And for THAT, I'm very grateful.

I'm up to my armpits, literally, in incoming mail at work, so gotta get to it!

They might not "friend" each other...

2011-02-03T11:49:00.000-05:00

... on Facebook, but the dogs are doing fairly at well at getting along with our guest dog. At his house, he has a dog bed under the kitchen table, so at our house, I set up a bed under the table/desk in John's office, off our bedroom (open connecting door) where he's quite content. He seems to be having a WONDERFUL time outside in the snow... zipping back and forth, rolling in the snow, shoving his head down into it... All things I doubt he would really get to do while being "walked" on leash. So I'm happy for him to have this time. He's even been eating his meals, which is phenomenal, since he's not much of an eater, especially when he's not at home. The children are being careful with him and he's minding his manners with them, so as long as we don't get lazy on that point, things should be okay.

Sherpa and Shandy are going to stay home on Friday (yay!), so that's a worry off our plate.

All for now.

It's snowing again...

2011-02-01T12:06:00.000-05:00

... oh, no, my love's at an end...

At least my love for winter is at an end... But that's a big club... Lotsa members. Definitely NOT lonely.

Anyway, last Friday I backed into someone's bumper and broke it. Based on the damage to my car, I can guess that the bumper was ABOVE my backup sensors, so maybe I'm not completely irresponsible for having done this... But I couldn't have backed into anyone nicer. Without having any idea who the vehicle belonged to, I left a note to call me. And a nice guy named Zac did a bit later, grateful that I had left my number... Not only was it the right thing to do, but it was a HUGE teachable moment for PL who was in the car with me at the time. And he was SO sweet, trying to reassure me... "I think I noticed it was broken when we parked there and walked by that car." Sure, dear. The guy got a couple of estimates yesterday, seems happy to go with the less expensive one, and I should be able to just about pay for HIS damage with doggy-daycare over the next couple of months...

Ah, that's right... Let me tell you about dog schedule... So, yesterday we had Scholar. No trouble. She's cute and friendly. I took her to work with me where they love Labs, and who wouldn't love Scholar anyway. So she had an "exciting" day seeing everyone at work, the mailman and the mobile lube oil change guy... Took her home and played with her in the backyard for a bit and then her mom came to collect her... A nice break from being nearly housebound with her mom, whose ankle she broke playing at high velocity with a dog friend. That incident took place WAY out in the woods somewhere and they called... wait for it... the HARBORMASTER to come rescue her. Go figure.

So, we had Scholar yesterday and we'll have her again next Monday. This morning, I picked up Noah. Noah is a spitz-type mix of things with a slightly unreliable temperament. He's very sweet and we like him just fine, but he has a bit of an edge that we're careful of and we constantly remind PL to be careful with him, too. He also disturbs the house energy a bit but I hope that will settle down in a few days... Jago and Tosca take turns rabble rousing, telling him off for invisible infractions, so we keep them somewhat separate when we aren't actively watching. Noah stays through the 9th.

This Friday, the 4th, we'll have Marilyn's two Berners, Sherpa and Shandy for the day while she has a pre-op doctor visit at MGH. Whenever her rotator cuff surgery gets scheduled, we'll have her dogs for some number of days.

On the 10th, the Maine cousins arrive, briefly, and drop off their two dogs. One is a very old border collie named Casco Bay and the other is their new Rough Collie/English Shepherd mix named Abby. Imagine Lassie only slight and with light coat. Hopefully after a couple of days she'll decide we're okay. She worries about men, but during her one recent visit she would sneak over to John for pats, as long as he didn't make any overtures towards her. They stay 'til the 22nd.

On the 23rd, Noah comes back. His mom has surgery on her back on the 25th and then will be in recovery for who-knows-how-long. Come spring (spring IS coming... RIGHT?!), she'll be fencing her yard so she can let Noah out a door in her house into a part of her yard.

We haven't had a dog-infested February in a long time.

Spinning a yarn...

2011-01-30T22:36:00.000-05:00

Three friends went yarn exploring this afternoon... Each of the three places had their highlights:

First, in Gloucester... A "tiny" shop called Coveted Yarn. Wow. You'd never know by the outside, but walk in and the amount of yarn on display was mind-boggling... And the place is a LOT bigger on the inside. Think Tardis.

Second, in South Hamilton, Cranberry Quilters. I actually bought something here from a sale bin -- three skeins of a magenta-colored yarn made by "Simply Shetland" in lambswool and cashmere. No idea what I'll do with it, but something before I get anything more... The rooms were sunny and there was a lot of selection here. It was lovely and the lady was super helpful and kind. Both of these shops were just overwhelming... SO much lovely stuff and so many lovely samples of creations and where do you even start? This would be lovely and that's so sweet and look at how soft THIS is and ooooooh, this color... You get the picture.

The last shop was in Beverly Farms... Yarns in the Farms... Tiny little shop, but here, you felt as though you could curl up on the couch with friends who would be happy to show you how to fix the mess you had gotten your project into. Technically, that's true for all three, but here that atmosphere really came through.

Still some Sunday Night tidying up to do, so all for now... Remind me to tell you about the dog schedule this month. Oh, HA.

Lazy, hazy, crazy days of...

2011-01-29T18:46:00.000-05:00

Well, okay, so it wasn't hazy. Or Summer. But it was certainly WARMER! And it was a VERY lazy day. Got SOME stuff done, but it was mostly the sort of day where Mary asks, "what's the plan?" And we reply, "we don't have one."

The deck got shoveled off finally. After the last snow on Thursday, there was just too much of it. We shoveled our way out and cleared the driveway and that was all. Today I made an enormous hill in the yard of all the snow that was on the deck. What else...

Made porridge for breakfast
Went to the dump
Took some old medicine to the police station for disposal
Mailed an Amazon return
Went to Gloucester to get John a sandwich
Went to Market Basket for a few things (their price for hamburger was not any less than Stop & Shop, but they DO have larger packages)
Went to see Marilyn, delivered her groceries and got her sorted for the week
Made shepherd's pie for supper
Off-loaded all the pictures from the camera's memory card
printed pictures for Mary's scrapbooking project
John did all the laundry
John played with the boys ALL day, outside of lunch
Tosca and Jago wrestled in the snow while I was shoveling

Not much at all, actually. But we SLEPT IN. That was lovely! And I'm thinking we just might give the taxes a start when the boys go to bed...

Living under a cloud...

2011-01-26T11:04:00.000-05:00

It's true! I'm looking out the window and the sky is right THERE, just above the cross on top of the Methodist Church's cupola. We're going to get walloped. But that's okay. We're all relatively healthy for a change, so we can take it.

I wish I had the camera with me this morning... I took the dogs for a run-around and at the top of the hill where I parked, the trees were all wintery white and gray with fog/mist/clouds mixed in among them. Which reminds me — one Christmas-y thing I saw this season was a holly bush with red Christmas lights strung around it. Really, just the perfect thing for this time of year — a bright spot of color in all this gray.

PL has resumed morning and night insanity — chocolate no longer does much of anything. Unless he's glued to technology, he frequently acts like a stereotypical person in an asylum. I dropped him off at karate yesterday and went to recycle $8.95 worth of fizzy water bottles rather than stay to watch. It's test week, and he actually earned his stripe yesterday. When I showed up for the last fifteen minutes of class, he was actually doing a stunning job of controlling himself and was really RIGHT ON the job. That was definitely not the kid I dropped off, for sure. But once we were home, the insanity resumed. It's exhausting to be around.

RF seems to have been in trouble during music yesterday — he and some of his classmates were making bird calls during music. What strikes me as very, VERY weird is that the "punishment" is for his entire class to have a five minute time-out on FRIDAY. Of course this is the story gleaned from the Master Storyteller, so WHO KNOWS what the story REALLY is. But the punishment part of it is laughable... Maybe it's true, but if so, it deserves a big eye-rolling, "WHAT-EV-ER."

Anyway, just wanted to pop a few words into the ol' blog here... Working on one of my favorite once-a-year projects at work so I need to get back to it. Stay warm! Be ready to make LOTS of French Toast!

Wanted... Pediatrician who cares...

2011-01-19T11:41:00.000-05:00

Our current pediatrician is brilliant in his own way and he does hear when you talk, but after driving over an hour to reach his office, you really want to get the impression that you have exhausted all your concerns and had them addressed and this isn't just a total roll of the dice and let's see if THIS works. We had a visit yesterday, driving in the rain through parts of the world that had a lot more snow than we do, and we had tried to really prepare by sending an email ahead of time so we wouldn't forget anything. But apparently I needed to have the email in hand so I could know all the points had been covered and not leave thinking, "oh, CRAP. I forgot to ask about THAT." I was able to squeeze one more point in as he signed three months' of prescriptions but when I got home I was peppered with questions and had no answers... We saw the doctor for maybe five minutes.

PL is doing GREAT in school. His daily behavior charts reflect that what we and they are doing is effective. He's on task, participating, focused with occasional reminders... You could almost imagine the end of his IEP! Which would be a disaster, of course. Finding a collection of pieces that work together really well does NOT mean OK! He's cured! Take all the accommodations away now!

And the difference can readily be tied to his new medicine which is actually an increased dose. So BRAVO! to the doctor for listening to our concerns and changing it. But I guess I'd like a little more hand-holding... His only suggestion yesterday was that PL should talk to a psychologist/psychiatrist sort of person about the Alice In Wonderland symptoms. PL, in the meantime, is teaching himself how to cope and control them. BY HIMSELF. So Bravo! to PL!

Otherwise, home-time continues to be a lot of insanity unless we just let him do what he prefers -- computer, computer, computer. And eat what he prefers -- chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. The chocolate does seem to create a more malleable child because of course stimulated + stimulant = calm. We get that. But it was a little shocking to have him weigh in at 60 pounds yesterday!!!

All for now.

Fasting...

2011-01-16T15:32:00.000-05:00

In our study group at church, we are working through Celebration of Discipline and the next chapter to be discussed is fasting. We are to have read the chapter and tried it out in advance. Fortunately, it was suggested that you can start small and fast from the night before until 3 PM. So, since the next meeting was this Tuesday, and I can't NOT eat at work (I thought), I took today as the last chance... And successfully fasted until 3 PM. That was my goal. And once I met it, I promptly sat down and ate some leftover salad and some potato chips.

I wasn't as hungry as I thought I would be. I did choose a time when I would be fairly busy, but also it was a time when I had to resist eating... It was Second Sunday Sundaes at church after worship, for instance. And then we brought home a friend and I made lunch for them all. With potato chips! But I just poured myself a glass of fizzy water and started working on supper — a kit soup that was a Christmas gift from our cousins. I got hungry, but not ravenously so. The chapter talked about treating your hunger pains like a bratty child — something not to be catered to, but to be addressed with discipline.

The study guide also talked about fasting from technology and I could totally get into that. And this day of skipping breakfast and lunch has been interesting. I typed this up quickly afterwards to sort of hold onto the feeling of not letting my stomach dictate my life, if only for a few hours.

All for now.

Happy New Day's Hour!

2011-01-06T12:50:00.000-05:00

'Cause that whole "New Year's Day" thing? It's not really working for me... Here it is, the SIXTH of January and nothing profoundly "NEW" has been undertaken. So, rather than feel as though I have failed, I'm going with a constant reminder that every DAY is New.

But first, let's review a little history... PL turned EIGHT on December 22nd...

Pyromaniac at work... Inserting his own candles, lighting them himself... We got to play the trick of using those candles that relight themselves... What a hoot... The clear balloons were his idea. The lady at the balloon store was skeptical, but they turned out to look like giant bubbles and the effect was amazing.

We invited four friends to join us after school, the day after his birthday. It was a half day at school, which worked out brilliantly since we still had benefit of the ADHD meds at that hour. After we gathered everyone at our house, we then extracted them from our house (difficult, since they had already launched themselves into their "playdate") and went to the House of Pizza. I ordered ahead, so there was no waiting and we got through that step beautifully. Orange sodas all around!

Then we went to bowling, played a few dollars worth of games and came home to cake, ice cream, popsicles and LEGO kits, which I had meant as party favors but they dived into them and it turned out to be the PERFECT way to close out the party with everyone quietly building their kit. Imagine six boys for three hours and having it end quietly! WEIRD!

Next, I promised to show you the cookie tree... It's just a bit of sugar but I wrapped up quite a bit of sentimental meaning in it... The last time I was going to do this project, I made the cookies and then Ptolli bloated and died. Four years later, when I was ready to try again, before I could start, Tosca bloated... and LIVED. So here is the celebration of that...

The amusing thing is that I made two of these. With the first one, the frosting was too stiff and so when I applied it to the tree, it looked more like garland than snow. But I went with it, sprinkled the colored sugar and accepted it the way it was. For the second one, I loosened the frosting and applied it much more effectively and was very happy with the result... Even went back to the first one and put more "snow" on it so it was better... So the two trees are on the kitchen counter. Do you see where this is going?

Miss Jago stole one, ran off to the living room which she considers her personal picnic destination, and ate the whole thing. LUCKILY, it was the "rough draft" one and this one was saved! So I quickly took pictures of it and then contemplated just GIVING it to the dog then to save her the trouble of stealing it! But I took it instead to a church event and it went on to decorate several other holiday festivities.

A few more pictures that are cute... These pictures were used to make gift tags from the boys for the soap we had them give. They chose the scents and colors and the labels that were then printed, and then wrapped all the presents... Our friend Donna orchestrated the whole project and she was a life-saver! What a thrill it was to have all the teacher gifts DONE, wrapped, labeled, and EARLY.

This may be the best "posed" picture taken of PL all year. Posed = grimaced, and his school picture was a nightmare, the first time around. The second one is slightly better, but intensely serious.

Yes, we went ahead and used this one... See, it made you smile, right?

And of course THIS one does!

Lastly, we can celebrate TODAY — Epiphany! The day that a bunch of gentiles visited the toddler Jesus, and brought gifts!

Here are the pictures we used to craft a homemade epiphany card that went out to a handful of people vs. the mass mailing of our Christmas card. We send them to the teachers, for instance, to remind them of the "reason for the season" not being just reindeer and dreidels. John and the kids are dressed in the costumes they wore for the church Christmas pageant which you can see HERE. We had the crowns from our own epiphany decoration collection... The scarves are from Marshalls. The green fabric was going to be turned into jingle bell collars for dogs (not ours), but Mary got real and we bought those dogs toys instead! Gillis made the vessel John is holding. Check out RF giving a little peek!

That picture was positioned on the card to face this next picture:

This is just about the only picture of Jesus as a toddler we have ever seen (by David C. Cook). The house is made of sugar cubes (John and PL made it a few years ago), spraypainted.

Because today is actually excessively full, schedule-wise, we decided to celebrate last night. So all the presents we hadn't given yet were wrapped and under the tree, we had House of Pizza for supper and then UNWRAP! That thing that you all did on Christmas Day, we finally did on January 5th! We had saved some fun things but also the things that wouldn't be such an instant thrill like a Lego kit would be... BOOKS, for instance... But really cool books... Leonardo da Vinci's journal as a pop-up book... A giant coffee table book of churches and cathedrals for our budding architects to consider... A whole book of puzzles and enigmas... A book about Merlin and Arthur...

The best thing was this:

So, we roasted marshmallows to celebrate epiphany!

Things that matter...

2010-12-07T11:43:00.002-05:00

REAL things have happened in the last bit of time... And by "real" I mean things that matter, that were for a while a matter of life and death... Compare to a five-year-old boy being silly and challenging, seeing if you will still love him if he pushes your buttons... That five-year-old boy was rejected and left behind by certain people for a bit of silliness that was indeed rude, but as he grows and absorbs the reality of how people responded to his silliness, what will the lesson be that he learned? THAT, too, will be REAL. And unfortunate, I think.

But meanwhile, other things happen that are very REAL and worthy of concern. On Monday, last week, Tosca developed bloat, which you can read about in much detail at Wikipedia HERE. Four years ago, this medical emergency resulted in Ptolli's death. This time? This time, we got a happy ending. I was watching, paying attention and actively monitoring Tosca's symptoms. First, she was quite anxious, nervous, clingy. But that could've been a fly in the house. I put a t-shirt on her, which is meant to act as an anxiety wrap. That didn't make any difference in her demeanor. Then she went out to a back corner of the yard and lay down. WEIRD. She was alternating between plastering herself to Mary and going out and getting away and hiding. She'd had a big drink of water. I finally called her to me and checked her stomach. Classic. Hard.

My local vet has office hours in a small auxiliary office on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and he was just finishing up when I called him there to say, "I'm having a bloat panic attack." He said, "well, let's not do that, come on up." So I grabbed my coat and the dog and we drove up, a mere mile or so away. He checked her out and his thought was "this isn't right, but I don't think it's bloat." Still, we had to get it seen to, whatever it was. So he agreed to call ahead to the hospital in Woburn. At that moment, John was just entering town on his commute home, so within two minutes we were in the same vehicle headed for Woburn, which took less than 40 minutes. Tosca continued to behave strangely — she clearly felt wrong but was not in a lot of distress, which in itself was a sign of how wrong she was — she doesn't like to ride in the car, but she was putting herself in a trance.

We got to Woburn and of course they get the idea of "emergency" and saw us right away. The vet there thought it wasn't bloat either, but was worried about her spleen. They dashed her off for x-ray and what-do-you-know, it IS bloat and they would be operating within the hour. So, by 8:30 PM she was in surgery. Because they wouldn't be letting us see her, we went home to wait for the result. By 10:30 PM they called to say that she'd woken up and gotten on her feet within 40 minutes of the surgery... They put her stomach back in place, tacked it down, and by the time they were ready to close up, the esophagus and spleen looked much better — both things that had been twisted and lost circulation for a while.

On Tuesday, we decided to not visit her because how do you explain to the dog that you're leaving them there AGAIN? But they let us "skype" her! Actually, it was "ooVoo" but the same idea. I patched together a bit of that:

On Wednesday morning, the early morning vet report was that she wasn't eating, we should come visit her to coax her to eat, she couldn't go home until she was eating. But the mid-day vet report was that she had eaten her breakfast AND her lunch and SHE was requesting her discharge papers. So we went to get her. She was so, SO happy to see us and cried and whimpered and cried and kept crying until about half way home. She ate and drank and went to bed and all was well. At the hospital, they said it was if she were recovering from eating a tennis ball, rather than from bloat, that her youth and good health had helped tremendously.

What a different story to the tragedy that happened four years ago, later this month... I'd link to that story but that was lost in the great Journalspace debaucle of 2008 (right CF?). Ptolli had had a quiet afternoon, but suddenly something was wrong. We rushed to Woburn, they did the surgery, but there were complications and they ran out of fingers to plug all the holes... They couldn't control her heart arrthymias, she was bleeding, they did plasma transfusions, and through it all, her life-long issues with some mysterious liver function (bad numbers but no symptoms) was, for sure, not helping. We had to give up the battle.

This time, we get a happy ending! Sunday afternoon, we went and had this taken (Jago on the left, Tosca on the right):

Four years ago, I spent the last afternoon of Ptolli's life, making a sugar cookie Christmas tree. I haven't done it since, because whenever I think about that project, I remember that I was so wrapped up in it and didn't pay much attention to her all day. So many regrets about that last week... Things I said that I haven't forgotten... But four years later, I had begun to think it was time to make a new memory and try that again... I hadn't done it yet, when Tosca bloated... So when she survived, I felt it was definitely time to go ahead and use the tree to celebrate. The cookies are baked, I just need to assemble it now. I'll take a picture when it is.

But today, the drama is not quite over. Tosca has been lame in one front leg for a while, even before last week's big adventure, so we're going to see the vet at 5 PM and see what's to be done about THAT. Want to know the other bit of Christmas miracle? Tosca has health insurance!! I had regretted renewing the policy because the premium is VERY high, especially as the plan we have is a "wellness" plan so covers vaccines and physicals, but now? Best money ever spent!!

Carrot cake to render people speechless...

2010-11-27T19:47:00.000-05:00

First, you need 1 1/2 cups of pureed, cooked carrots. There are two ways to achieve this. You can buy carrots in the babyfood section. OR, you can cook up some "baby" carrots by boiling them gently for 20 minutes or so and then put them in the food processor with enough water to keep the mixture swirling nicely. 1 1/2 cups = 12 ounces. I would cook up about two cups or 16 oz. of carrots because (1) cooked carrots are YUM and (2) any leftover puree becomes dog food. Also, with my food processor, I find a few chunks that sneak into the batter, and if I have extra puree, I can fish out the carrot chunks and replace with more puree.

Anyway. 1 1/2 cups of pureed carrots. Check.
Whisk pureed carrots with:
4 eggs (or 1 cup of Eggbeaters)
2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil (canola)

Mix very well.

Fold into the batter:

2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking SODA
1 tsp. salt
1 T. cinnamon.

Now you have two options. Use either a cookie sheet (11X17) or a 9X13 pan. Plenty delicious either way. You can stretch it a little further on the cookie sheet, as the "cake" is more bar-like. Spray with pan-spray and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes (cookie sheet) or until the center springs back when touched.

Cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups powdered sugar

Blend all ingredients until smooth and then spread on cooled carrot cake/bars. If you can find "fall" colored sprinkles, they would add a nice touch.

This is not my invention. This came from the Penzey's catalog (page 16 of that PDF) courtesy of a nice lady named Patti Jones. I assume she's nice, because these carrot cake/bar things? I promise you that people who eat them can't find words to express how yummy they are.

Just a typical Saturday...

2010-11-20T18:35:00.000-05:00

That is to say, it was NOT boring!

This morning was the huge PTO craft fair at school. I would've liked to have browsed longer, but the day was a bit packed. Yesterday I helped package the kids' gingerbread houses—a pre-stuck-together house made of graham crackers and frosting, a bag of miscellaneous candy decorations and a little tub of frosting, with the house glued to a plate with more frosting and the whole thing inserted into a bread bag and then tied with two ribbons. It was quite a rush of assembly. Anyway, I bought two and the boys did them after supper tonight.

I visited my friend with memory loss after that and took her for a few errands—got groceries, newspaper, coffee, muffin and a sandwich. Back at home, got everything unpacked and put away. I hope she eats the carrot cake I left her. She needs the calories, but it's hard to get her to eat anything much in one sitting. It was a miracle that she left the dogs long enough to run the errands.

Meanwhile, John had taken the boys to math club, then to the craft fair briefly, and then to get haircuts.

At 12:30 we had guests—PL's favorite model railroading guy—and thanks to John's frantic efforts, everything was running on PL's own model railroad, so they could go upstairs and check it out for a little while. After plying Bill and his wife, Lee, with carrot cake, we went to a very special occasion—an open house at a place called Plum Cove Studios where they make backyard railroad engines and cars and have a sweet track loop that includes a bit of aqueduct or viaduct bridge construct. It was decorated with a fun selection of inflated Christmas elements, including an inflated, powered Christmas merry-go-round. It's in a beautiful spot overlooking Plum Cove and the wind was blowing. We were told it can be much, MUCH colder for this event, but it was cold enough with the wind coming off the ocean. The boys were in heaven—RF announced, "I just can't stop riding!" And they didn't need to for ages, as this event is not advertised and so it was over an hour before anyone else needing a ride showed up. Most of the guys just wanted to see how things were built and how they worked. So the boys rode on their own with the driver for several times and then rode with Bill for a few rounds.

Tonight I'm working on church publishing... I need to print the newsletter (which I don't DO anymore, just print and occasionally rescue the editor when she has as problem with InDesign), the program for tomorrow night's Thanksgiving Service, and the Stewardship Letter.

When I look down, there's Jago... Upside down and twisted like a pretzel with hind feet pointed one way and front feet the other... THAT looks comfy!

Hope...

2010-11-18T19:36:00.000-05:00

Two and a half weeks after starting a new medicine, PL may be showing some improvement. School has definitely been better with the teachers reporting more independent participation in class, but evenings and mornings have been complete insanity. The ADHD pediatrician switched him when we reported that no way was the previous medication lasting 12 hours. But as he adjusted to the new medication, it seemed like things were worse than ever at the ends of the day. There have been glimmers, though, and today seemed really good. At his late-in-the-day karate class (5:30-6:15), he was much more calm and stable, less like a marionette doll with a bad handler. And eating?! Gracious. He shoveled in spaghetti at supper, as well as his roll and some french fries, and even was interested in RF's pizza slice. I could totally get used to THAT. A REAL "kid that eats." I won't count on it, but it would be so great.

I know maniacal laughter and craziness is not the end of the world. But in the moment, it's really, really hard to remember that. He's all impulsivity and zero self-control. This kid who has an enormous vocabulary and can converse with you in great detail and with tremendous maturity is reduced to a handful of words —"Maniac on wheels! Diapers! Vomit! Bombs!" All accompanied by hysterical laughter.

RF, meanwhile, just illustrated his math homework with a maze. I'm not sure his teacher will be too thrilled about that, but he'll find out. We sent a report from the ADHD pediatrician about RF to the school and the SPED department called a meeting (IEP-type) for November 29th. The pediatrician declared him "an enigma" and did not give him a diagnosis, but DID provide a long list of recommendations for various accommodations and therapies. It should be interesting.

"I'm one of those kids that eats..."

2010-11-17T21:43:00.000-05:00

Honest to God, RF said that tonight. "I'm one of those kids that eats." This followed his directive to bring goldfish crackers in the car so he could eat them on the way to and home from karate. The kid who eats approximately six things can say this. My children have zero idea of the variety of food that exists in the world. But it was inspiring to hear the school principal tell us that his kid doesn't eat either.

The other day RF asked me about a shirt I was wearing. It's a soft fleece v-neck pullover in green with a rose pattern print from Coldwater Creek. RF said that if he came in my room and went into a drawer and found it, he would put it on his legs like pants and snuggle in it. Okay then. It's green and soft and that was the appeal.

I feel like I've missed so many of these wonderful little comments that are just gone forever, but at least THOSE were captured.

What's for dinner -- an ANSWER!

2010-11-15T21:53:00.000-05:00

Early in the afternoon, I was asked, what was for dinner. I had to confess I had no idea and again it was suggested I make a plan for the week to take all the stress out of it. That would be lovely, but then I'd end up facing the fact that really, the plan would just be "go to the House of Pizza" three or four times. But today, there was a special Holiday edition of People magazine in the mail and the inside back cover had some advertising-sponsored recipes... I adapted one and was completely surprised at how delicious it was!

Stir fry one cut-up onion in olive oil until translucent and then add one package of Morningstar Crumbles. Continue to stir/fry until thawed. Add half a jar of spaghetti sauce (recipe calls for 1 14 oz. jar, but who has those?) and stir until blended. Pour this mixture in the bottom of a baking dish. Top with a package of prepared macaroni and cheese. I used Culinary Circle from Shaws. Sprinkle with shredded Mozarella cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes or until your husband shows up to eat it.

Not being a Mac-n-cheese fan, I didn't expect to like this. I *make* my own Mac-n-cheese which I like just fine, but otherwise, I'm kind of fussy about my melted cheese flavors. But this was awesome! And EASY.

The original recipe called for preparing a 14 oz. package of Kraft Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese dinner, browning and draining ground beef, adding the spaghetti sauce. Then layering half the spaghetti sauce mixture, half the Mac-n-cheese and repeating those layers, THEN topping with shredded cheese and later parmesan cheese. HERE it is.

My vegetarian version worked out pretty darn great!

Curious, but not THAT curious...

2010-11-08T11:24:00.000-05:00

My chest hurts this morning. Weird, really. But I know better than to Google it! I'd have myself in the hospital by lunch time. Instead, I will look forward to going to RF's class this afternoon to "help."

Later, we have an appointment for PL to see his ADHD doctor in North Andover where we HOPE he'll finally increase the level of the supporting med (vs. the main one). The early mornings and late afternoons just can't go on being as manic as they are. The energy in the whole house is just crazed as we all rotate around the emotional flurry that is PL when he has no impulse control. I *know* it could be much, MUCH worse, but surely it could be better.

Last week I took a day off to start sorting six years of accumulated "filing." As of this morning, I'm 90% done. The piles that were in danger of toppling are GONE. As in bare wood is exposed for the first time! There's a couple of things that need finishing up, but I truly expect the cleaning ladies to faint. I left them a note: "Surprise!" as they haven't seen that surface EVER.

One thing I'm getting rid of is the envelope of PL's x-rays from when he swallowed the nickel and it lodged at the top of his epiglottis, ready to tip either way -- either down his esophagus or blocking his trachea. Fun times. And, Google tells me that today is the 115th anniversary of the discovery of X-rays. I'm going to give them to the health teacher to use anonymously.

Tomorrow I get to drive to North Andover AGAIN to discuss RF. I don't anticipate him suggesting medication. Really, if we could just get PL to operate at a calmer level, ALL of us would be calmer.

And for right now, that's all I've got. Although I'm VERY happy that the wind seems to have died down and the sunshine is poking through the clouds. I fully expected to wake up to snow today.

Sometimes a tranquilizer helps...

2010-10-30T18:01:00.000-04:00

Just one... Just occasionally, but when I feel that heat racing around my head, it's really quite pleasant to take a "chill pill" and have all that tone down to where I can watch the insanity and not feed into it. So far, I've had the prescription since August 19th and only taken three. So, I'm not an addict yet. But it's comforting to know that when things start ramping up, I have a way out.

Better living by chemistry!

Happy Fall pictures...

2010-10-27T11:07:00.000-04:00

Here's Jago and PL hanging out... I love how much PL loves "his" dog. Poor dog puts up with him for only so long and then says, "Grrr... I've had ENOUGH."

Jago after her foot surgery...

Note the cute little flower the vet staff added to her pretty bandage... It's all better now.

And here's Tosca, posing with the pumpkins and Mums...

Tosca, HIGH FIVE!

Super pretty girl...

Witness to sadness...

2010-10-21T11:58:00.000-04:00

Today will include a visit to a friend with Alzheimer's who has had her license revoked after a recent incident. She wants her license back, but if she's medically well enough to have it, then she's medically well enough to stand trial for the various charges involved with the incident. If her doctors agree with the police that she should NOT have her license back, then she is very sad but might escape the worst of the prosecution. I haven't seen her yet, since all this happened, but I know she is sad, frustrated and angry. I just concocted a plan to stop and get her some Richardson's ice cream on the way, although ice cream can't make everything all better. But there isn't any "all better" with this.

Pay attention when they say, no strenuous exercise!

2010-10-19T14:33:00.000-04:00

So yesterday was the usual busyness... I did a short cartwork outing with Tosca, bringing Jago along on a hands-free leash for her first "walk" since surgery on her foot. Picked up the kids from school and then off we went to RF's karate class. Because of the next item on the agenda, we all went and PL and I went in another room and practiced the "Principles of Practice" which if the kids can recite it, they get a large embroidered patch... And PL taught me a game (basically dodge ball) which we adapted for two players.

Then from there we went for me to give blood. The boys and Mary went so they could see what happens. RF announced that he would find some OTHER way to help people. I can hardly blame him. First, my iron test was low by a tenth. They needed it to be 12.5 and it was 12.4. After going to all the trouble to have everyone there with me, I said, sure, go ahead and try again. So another nurse comes along, does a nicer job of it on the other middle finger and voila—12.9. I should look up and see if lack of sleep can contribute to a low iron reading. So, TWO fingers with band-aids.

Then the first phlebotomist had trouble getting a vein, but another one quickly stepped in and got it going. Ow. A few minutes later and I was done. I "dutifully" ate a package of Lorna Doones and an orange juice. RF discovered that he liked cranberry juice cocktail. We're always looking for variety, even if it includes sugar.

Time was getting short, so I drove everybody home, got the kids started on supper and ran off to handbell rehearsal. On the way, I stopped at the House of Pizza and got a sandwich and a chocolate milk, because I knew this was pushing the envelope—giving a pint of blood AND going to handbells. I was psyched to be there, actually, as my music is ALL marked, which means I can actually PLAY it rather than struggling and fighting for every note. Only problem was, after a little bit, I needed to sit down. And then I needed to LIE down. With my feet over my head. Fortunately, there were two trained medical professionals there and after the sweats and lightheadedness had passed, one of them drove me home. Who knew that handbells counted as strenuous exercise?! But it IS all about arms..

I was in bed at 8 PM and got up this morning at 6 AM. Nice! Still a little whoozy, strength-wise, but doing much better.

Still, I wasn't looking forward to doing the full-body wrestle that taking PF to the dentist CAN be. However, with no notice—"PF, we're leaving!" "NOW?!" "Yeah, we're going to the dentist this morning... Oops, guess we forgot to tell you..." —he still rolled with it amazingly well. After all, there would be a Burger King milkshake to follow. And no needles. The hygienist we had today was NOT the one we've had before, however, and she was pretty rigid. Poor RF did NOT get to pick a prize out of the treasure box because he kicked and screamed some. She clearly had no idea what we USUALLY had to deal with. He was a virtual angel compared to previous visits. Even cooperated fully when the dentist came to check him out. And he was happy with his new green toothbrush... And I was happy that I just had to restrain his arms and legs a little bit while sitting next to him.

We actually had a really wonderful morning, talking about things, observing things... We had a bit of a wait when we first got to the office and so we spent a long time observing the fish... One of the little fancy crayfish things with many super long antennae had become fish food and so it was fun to observe this one big fish playing with the bits of hollowed out exoskeleton and chasing other fish off of its prize.

Got to get one more thing in the mail and then get going on THIS afternoon!

This will make YOU smile! ;-)

2010-10-15T13:30:00.001-04:00

Yesterday's extracurricular activities...

2010-10-13T10:13:00.001-04:00

So, after work yesterday, I did the overdue grocery shopping in two stores, and got back just in time to pick up the boys at school. RF declared that school felt like it lasted five minutes! How awesome was that?! We dashed home where I unloaded most of the groceries and then took PL to karate.

At karate, I sat next to a mom who was quite chatty and so we had a wonderful 45 minutes of comparing notes about our kids and then another mom came along and joined us and the three of us had a great conversation, joking about how hard it is to not step in and "help" when our kids are in class there. I haven't connected with very many moms throughout this kid-raising venture, so this moment in time was pretty golden for me.

Then PL and I went to the grocery store to try to recycle the cans from church as a sort of "service project" only to discover that the bag was full of beer cans that you apparently can't recycle at the grocery store. [sigh] At least we tried. Then we picked up some food items that PL was interested in and dashed home again.

After a bit of a scurry, I was able to leave and go pick up my friend. We drove to The Cheesecake Factory and had the most DELISH dinner and fabulous conversation and it was all just perfect. She introduced me to this item on the menu:

Oh, my gosh. Avocado egg rolls are delectably yummy. I had the aforementioned monterey cheeseburger with salad on the side and Lemoncello Cream Torte, most of which I brought home. It was great with strawberries, but really needs MORE strawberries to finish it. Good food, great friend, good conversation—that'll last me a while!

Then we went to the airport and collected the boys' adopted "grandparents" from Arizona.

Today is nearly boring (not). I'm going to walk Tosca after work, then pick up the boys. RF has karate today and I'm hoping to see that other mom again. Then Miss Jago has a vet appointment. I think he'll be pleased with the surgery location and horrified at what's going on with the rest of that foot -- some kind of fungus or infection (gangrene?) — something awful anyway. I cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide yesterday and dried it well. This morning it was black and gunky. The hydrogen peroxide bubbled and fizzed this morning which means its working, but also means well, it's working ON something. It's pretty horrifying looking.

There's a tiny window of opportunity to feed everyone — I made a lasagna recently, so perhaps I can just make a salad to go with it. Then I'm off to school committee (7-9 PM or so). After that, I really need to focus on the draft catalog and the armbands to go with it. Looks like it will be raining this weekend, so those armbands are going to need to be laminated.

What's for dinner?

2010-10-12T11:37:00.002-04:00

This might be what's for dinner tonight! For ME anyway. I have a trip to the airport scheduled, to collect friends from an 8 PM flight, but had thought to go out for dessert with another friend. So, we've combined it — she's coming with me and we're leaving early and having supper at The Cheesecake Factory! Yippee!

Laugh-Out-Loud funny...

2010-10-06T20:00:00.001-04:00

Unexpected...

2010-10-06T10:40:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I'm taking Miss Jago in for a small surgery... She's had this tiny little spot on a rear foot pad that bleeds off and on, and it's been doing this for a couple of months. And man-o-man, this tiny little spot — no bigger than a pin-prick, bleeds QUARTS all over the place. Okay, maybe not actual quarts, but a LOT. My vet said, "I'm sorry, but THAT is not normal." A sore on a pad IS hard to heal, but it shouldn't have been going on for this long... Especially when we get it to heal for days at a time and then it bleeds again.

So, he looked at it with some magnification, and voila, you can see that it's just a tiny, tiny bit of abnormal tissue and that's why it won't heal properly. He doesn't think it's anything more involved, although he reserved judgment on how exactly he'll perform the operation—punch biopsy, slicing and stitching, lasering—until he has her sedated. And maybe she'll get her teeth cleaned while he's at it.

All will be well.

Just so you're not the last person to see this...

2010-10-06T09:23:00.001-04:00

MORE time passed?

2010-10-05T12:31:00.000-04:00

How does this keep happening? 12 days since my last post... And I was just getting started on some pictures... Ah well. I'll give you this one taken with my computer yesterday...

It's October! Cold feet and hands in the office mean the space heater is running and my fingerless gloves come out... Lucky for me, I have these really cute gloves!

Happy Birthday to me!

2010-09-23T21:47:00.001-04:00

It was just the usual crazy day... Kids to school, me to work, an appointment at 1:30, then school pick-up, followed by a playdate... I visited with the other mom for a bit and then ran home to make a cake which the boys later decorated... Then off to school committee meeting. You know, just another day!

That morning I had a glimpse of awesomeness. I took the dogs for a short outing, just down to the field. Because Jago recently injured a rear leg (she's doing very well), I try to minimize the rough-housing between the two dogs, which means one of them is usually on leash. That way one can't turn to the other and say, "Wanna start somethin'?!" So I was working Tosca's heel work. I noticed last weekend that Tosca's obedience work is pretty situational -- she does great at this field but she's not so polished any where else. And then there's our "come" problem, which I'll tell you about in another post. So this morning, I set her up to come and when I called her, she came running but didn't actually come to me. She did let me catch her, though, and so I tried something that had been suggested to me... Rather than correct her by running backwards and pulling her into the front position, I put her in HEEL position and bounced her a little bit while saying "Come, come, come!" It was very illogical, but perhaps only because I haven't done any reading or studying or attending of seminars about this bounce thing. So, rather than "correct" her, I put her in heel position and made "come" sound fun because of the bouncing... Then I set her up for another recall and she did it perfectly. How 'bout that.

Even though it was just a short session -- a little heeling and the recall practice -- it had a nice feel to it. So it was a great way to start the day — with a bit of positive, auspicious energy.

And then a month goes by...

2010-09-21T08:16:00.001-04:00

Let's see if it's possible to review the last month... When last I said anything, it was to mention in passing what was my obsession at the time — preparing for the Jim Malcolm concert. What a fabulous venture that was. It all came off brilliantly...

Naturally, we couldn't JUST be hosting a concert, we ALSO had company. When I glanced out the window and saw Jim, wearing nearly the same blue shirt as shown in a photo below (like an album cover, come to life), coming in the gate, we had five other guests sitting around our table eating rice crispy squares. Luckily, Jim likes rice crispy squares, too! So we folded him into the family. What a totally great guy he is, which just became more obvious as we got to sit around and chit-chat.

After lunch, I took some of our visitors to the beach and John took Jim for a tour of Rockport before he went to have a nap, still suffering from jet lag. Most of our visitors left and we turned our focus to the concert. The night before John and I drove over to the venue, dropped off the food, set up chairs and a few tables and decided that perhaps this was going to be a great situation... I had been a little worried — it's not the most glamorous spot — but on the other hand, a $150 donation got us all the space and chairs we needed plus bathrooms and a kitchen... Not half bad!

An hour before the concert we drove over to be ready. When we arrived, there was this strange, STRANGE individual there. He had quite a few of his belongings with him, was dressed in a white "wife-beater" undershirt and white shorts, had white hair and a white beard. He had a home-made peace sign hanging from his neck, perhaps made from a coat hanger... And also a sign that said, "BEAM ME UP." He began to talk Jim's ear off. He said to me, "do you mind if I toot my own horn?" and then let off one of those air-horn things people take to sports events. EEK. I think he may actually have bought a CD from Jim. Our friend who had come to help us with selling tickets locked visually onto the fact that he was suffering from a very nasally-involved cold and hoped he would stay away from the food table... Whimper! But then he wandered off towards the liquor store and thankfully didn't come BACK after that!

We planned for just about everything, but THAT wasn't on our radar at all!

After that, things went splendidly. The phone had been ringing all day with people wanting to come, and then 22 more people showed up that hadn't contacted me at all, for a total of 73. For a space that held 100 maximum, and considering we'd started with a goal of 40 people in my living room, this was fan-tabulous! I spent the week beforehand making a different batch of cookies every night... Snickerdoodles. Chocolate-chocolate chip. Banana-chocolate chip. Blueberry oatmeal. Peanut butter. Rice crispy squares (Mary made those). Double batch of brownies. I put those all out for free and there was very little to bring home!

Jim's music was well received and most of the people were not familiar with his music before the event, so that was thrilling. I was a bit nervous about making the introduction at the beginning, but I came up with something to say which I think ended with, "Jim's music is the soundtrack of our lives" — and got out of the way.

About two weeks before the concert someone told me about a Celtic music person in Gloucester, had I told him? Well, I tracked him down and it turned out that he already had seen the flyer and was "flabbergasted" that it was being held at this venue "of all places." Yikes. But in the end, he turned out to be a really nice guy, helped by telling "his" people about the concert and even saved the end of the evening by bringing along a couple of six-packs of micro-brewed beer so Jim could have a couple to unwind with. Next time we'll know... Yeah, we're considering "next time"!

After the concert, three people (this Celtic music guy, his girlfriend, and another friend) came back to our house and hung out with Jim in our living room while I sorted out the money. We eventually sent Jim off to bed with one of PL's melatonin tablets and he left the next day refreshed. I decided maybe jet lag was conserved, though, as I was BEAT! ;-)

Some of the house guests from Saturday returned on Monday for a short overnight visit, getting to participate in all the excitement of THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. I do have a picture (although it's not a gem), but not on this computer... However, I can sum up how we feel about school this year — we are delighted, excited and extremely happy. How's that? I know that not everyone at school can say this, but WE can.

PL's teacher keeps a neat and clean, almost minimalist classroom. It's SO soothing to walk in there. Last year's classroom was a complete overload of the senses with STUFF piled everywhere. (We've recently learned that they carved the nurses office out of that classroom which explains why it's so cluttered — it's smaller than all the others and there's just no where to put anything.) So, first off, the room itself is calming. Then the teacher and her assigned assistant teacher have worked together in the past and they "finish each other's sentences." So, they work well together, like each other, know their roles. Perfect. Next, they both seem to really LIKE my kid! So, that's pretty great. PL has finished thirteen days of school and it's all just been "a great transition to second grade." Well. Who could imagine.

RF has not had such a great transition to first grade, but it's a good situation. We met with his teacher last week, and she's reading books by some of the same people we've read and she suggested another author — Mary's already deep into the book we came home and ordered. She has twins of her own — one "easy" and one "not easy." She recognizes RF's sweetness and also sees that he is missing skills — anger management, frustration management, transition management — that he needs. She is not writing him off but is getting to know him and will work on those skills in small pieces. Last Friday she escorted him to me after school so that she could report that he had finished his work and got to enjoy choice time! Well, BRAVO! The previous week he could not enjoy choice time because he had NOT finished his work and then he refused to do anything and walked around in a huff.

To see both of our boys surrounded by such excellent teachers is a tremendous relief. It's really a too-good-to-be-true situation. We are very, very grateful. The lower grades had their curriculum open house on September 9th and I came home wanting to go to second grade, myself! What fun they'll have. I wished they didn't have to have so many "specials" (music, art, technology, gym (2X), library) so they could spend more time with their main teachers! In fact, that is the only glitch at the moment — on Thursdays, PL has two specials, three services, two recesses and lunch. I think he gets to see his teacher for fifteen minutes in the morning and again the afternoon! But this will settle out. I'm not sure he needs two of the three services, but they're in his IEP, so we'll do them for now. One of them is planned to be phased out by Christmas break, anyway. He gets DAILY literacy assistance with another staff person we're delighted with — she has such a calm, soothing manner. Knowing her, and knowing that her own daughter is ADHD, we can know that we're not lousy parents — ADHD just happens. And we know that PL's literacy is going to take off this year, we just KNOW it.

So, that sums up school. Not easy for either of them, but they're in good hands. You couldn't ask for anything better.

I'll start with this and post again.

astropixie: fly to the moon

2010-09-04T20:36:00.000-04:00

astropixie: fly to the moon

Jim Malcolm, from Scotland, singing in Gloucester!!!

2010-08-26T10:27:00.001-04:00

Okay, so the LEAST I could do is announce on my BLOG what I'm doing this weekend, while I'm running around everywhere else in the world announcing it. Jim Malcolm, award winning Scottish folk performer, is coming at my request to the Lanesville Community Center in Gloucester. How psyched am I?!

Very psyched, very, VERY psyched. He arrives at my house late Saturday afternoon for the 8 PM performance. If I neglected to tell YOU, now YOU know, too! I have enough reservations to make it worth it, and now I get to wring my hands worrying that too many people will show up spontaneously at the door, but we'll look forward to having THAT problem! I've made banana chocolate chip cookies, blueberry oatmeal cookies, and chocolate chocolate chip cookies... Still to make: snickerdoodles, rice crispy squares, and dark chocolate brownies... As if the man's voice weren't sweets enough! ;-)

Here's the press release which I *hope* appears in the GD Times today...

===========================================================

Leading Scottish Singer/songwriter performs in Gloucester MA on Saturday August 28th, 2010

Jim Malcolm, one of Scotland's finest traditional singers and songwriters, is bringing his award-winning music to Gloucester MA next week.

Malcolm, who has twice been booked to sing for Prince Charles, was voted Scotland's Songwriter of the Year in 2004 and was shortlisted for the Scots Singer of the Year award in 2004, 2005 and 2009. He has been described as "one of the most outstanding talents to emerge from the Scottish Folk Scene in years". So how come he's playing in Gloucester MA this year?

The concert is being organised by Elizabeth Malcolmson, who with her husband has been hearing Malcolm perform for years at house concerts and in larger venues with Old Blind Dogs, and wanted to bring the artist closer to home. "Jim combines amazing music with great stories," said Elizabeth, "and I thought how wonderful it would be to hear him play for my family, friends and other musical enthusiasts, in my own home town. To my delight it all worked out and we can't wait for the concert."

And Malcolm, for his part, is looking forward to playing in MA. "I love playing for American audiences, which have always been good to me," he said. "Scottish audiences can be a bit reserved but Americans seem better at having a good time - my concerts are usually really good fun. I'm looking forward to playing in Gloucester MA for the first time."

Malcolm, who was front man with the much-loved Old Blind Dogs for seven years, plays guitar and mouthorgan and sings songs from the Scots tradition, as well as his own award-winning compositions.

Often played on the radio show Thistle & Shamrock, Malcolm was brought up in the Perthshire and Angus areas of Scotland and was steeped in traditional music and song from a young age. He learned to play guitar while at school and by his early twenties was winning songwriting contests and playing in folk clubs all over Scotland. He later took up harmonica and is now a leading exponent of simultaneous guitar and harmonica, "displaying more talent than many who have made their living from harmonica alone," as one critic wrote.

In December 2004 Malcolm won the coveted Songwriter of the Year title in the Scots Trad Music Awards, and he has eight solo CDs to his credit. Malcolm's first CD, Sconeward, released in 1995, was acclaimed by critics and chosen as one of the year's best by Radio Scotland's folk programs Traveling Folk and Celtic Connections. The album brought in bookings at folk clubs and festivals in Britain and abroad, and established Jim as one of the leading songwriters in the traditional idiom in Scotland. He was dubbed "the new male voice of Scotland".

In January 1999 Jim joined one of Scotland's most popular international folk acts, the Old Blind Dogs from north east Scotland, and over the next seven years worked with them all over the UK, in France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Germany, USA, Canada and Bulgaria. Among many highlights was singing at two parties thrown by Prince Charles at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Royal Family's home in Edinburgh, Scotland.

A short story...

2010-08-03T10:55:00.000-04:00

Today I walked ONE...

TWO...

THREE...

FOUR....

FOUR DOGS!

And while we were out, we saw ONE...

Basset Hound named Cledus and ONE...

Basset Hound named Henry. The End.

RF turns SIX!

2010-07-30T10:50:00.000-04:00

The little guy turned six yesterday... Those are orange soda-flavored cupcakes... There was no time to make a cake, so I bought these two things—cake and cupcakes—and put them together because Duncan wanted something to do with Atlantis and buildings with pillars. He's still asking, so I guess these little stands made out of Legos didn't quite pull off what he had in mind, but he was happy enough.

Next up, his party tomorrow. Please pray that he's kind to all his guests and manages to control himself while in the throes of all that excitement.

And here's a picture of Tosca and Greta. Now tell me you can't tell them apart.

What's the point?

2010-07-19T08:58:00.000-04:00

The collection of blogs I read is a strange mix... It's funny how I find them and I imagine it's the same for everyone who reads blogs... This one says something interesting about that one who says something interesting about the next one and before you know it, you're addicted to reading about someone in Texas with seven kids and you have NO IDEA how you ever heard about her... One of the more recent additions to my collection is the author Jon Katz. He is a satisfying person to have in my RSS feed because he sometimes posts a paragraph and a picture as often as ten times a day, maybe more... And they are peaceful posts, reflective, soothing. This morning he said:

"I am learning about intentions. Asking myself what my intentions are for the day, for the week, for my life. This week, my intentions are to be peaceful. To be spiritual. To be creative. To appreciate time with Maria. My farm. My dogs.

"To be creative. To take interesting photographs. To connect with the person I am, not the one I thought I was. To be loving, and be loved. To accept myself, and live in the moment. For now. For now, life is good. I have so much work to do. I am so excited about it. I am so excited to feel so much love in my life, when I had all but given up on the idea of it."

What's my point? This minute? Today? As much as this week? I can't see my life beyond Wednesday... I could've just read and deleted this post, but somehow my brain snagged on the idea of "intentions"... I had to stop and face it. At the moment, I need to face three projects, but I would really like to STOP the head-long rush and develop some real intent.

Greta, meanwhile, intends to get into the space under my desk and has nudged my ankle with firm intent to indicate I need to move so she can do that.

Too much sneaky caffeine...

2010-07-16T16:28:00.000-04:00

Today I have the jitters... Which means that the Special Dark with almonds that was my snack this morning is getting to me. Makes it that much harder to keep calm. I do NOT drink coffee.

We're getting ready for a "Brazil Party" for tomorrow. Our Albanian missionary guest (arrived July 1st, leaves the 27th) was also a missionary to Brazil previously. Which is how she knows Mary's brother, John's uncle Bob. She was instrumental in caring for Bob's first wife when she had an aneurysm and subsequently passed away in Brazil. There's a new family in our church here who is originally from Brazil... So we're getting all these people together in one place so they can talk Brazil (and hopefully not all of it in Portuguese!)... Bob's adult daughter is coming, along with his second wife, and later the pastor and his wife will join us. So, by the time you add them all up, kids included, there are 15 people here tomorrow.

So far, I've made two chocolate pies -- one with a homemade chocolate crumb crust and the other with a baked Pillsbury pie crust. I prefer crumbs, Mary prefers "real" crust, and since I need a LOT of pieces, I made both. Next up, my "famous" apple cake. Mary already made potato salad and plans to make rice crispie squares. We're going to go easy and have hotdogs.

Well, this was a nice break in my refrigerated bedroom, but I'd better get back downstairs before Phineas and Ferb is over...

All sorts of things...

2010-07-13T12:50:00.000-04:00

Well, I changed the template again... That pink business was making me ill. And in response to an actual request to post, I shall do so! That and the little email that comes telling me how many people visited my blog last week reported ZERO. No surprise — if you don't write, no one reads!

Let's start with GRETA! She's very cute and very little. Tiny head, tiny bones, tiny self... Just 69 pounds. Might not seem tiny to the small dog folks, but tiny compared to Tosca! She came with a few "issues" which we have narrowed down to about 1 1/2. She supposedly didn't like men. When she first came, I had to escort her to this spot sitting with John and then she tolerated it while not making eye contact. Then we had a LOT of people here, in and out, for the 4th of July festivities and she discovered that all men are not like men she had known and she began going to them for loving. Check! Supposedly she likes children a lot. She pays no attention to ours whatsoever, unless they're eating. Whatever.

And the remaining problems — she is difficult to walk on leash. Okay, well, I didn't want to give up my morning walks with dogs, so I put a pinch collar on her and away we went. No problem at all. She controls herself perfectly and I don't get my arm yanked off. I've tried her a couple of times without it, and she certainly would choose to lunge here and there to sniff things and get places. With the pinch collar, neither of us is hurt — she doesn't pull against it and I don't lose a shoulder. So, I call that a half a problem. Someone with time and patience can work her through it using the "be a tree" method, but in the meantime, I'm getting the dog out and walked.

The big problem is that if she sees a small dog, especially a small dog barking at her, she goes ballistic back. But even this problem is relatively manageable — don't just stand there! WALK ON! And request her attention and praise her with food when you get it. And if possible, once she's stopped barking, let the dogs meet each other. That's not going to be possible often, though. The small dog going ballistic tends to continue going ballistic until out of sight.

I take her to the field and turn her loose with the others and she's fine... She streaks around like a border collie — zip, zip, ZOOM! But she doesn't take off and she's fairly responsive and when everyone's "done their thing" and I've cleaned up, I can get everyone back on leash for the balance of the walk.

Someone is going to get a really great little dog. She sits on feet, especially of women. That's just how she says, "hello, love me?" She turns into them and sits on their feet. This makes most everybody fall in love with her immediately. She's very companionable. When I take her to work with me, she goes into the space under my desk for my feet, curls up and lies down. I haven't had a footwarmer since Tycho (who died in 1998). And her BEST feature is how she'll come up and punch you with her nose. The other morning, she was all happy and hoping I'd get out of bed now that clearly everyone was awake thanks to some kid-generated disturbance, so she came over and punched me (gently!) in the ear with her cold, wet nose. It's very funny.

She eats this funny Pro Plan food that she came with, as long as I stir in some yogurt and then has these tiny little poops — the rest of it goes into making energy, I guess!

Tosca bullied her a bit when she first came but that hasn't happened for a while and Greta has also found her spine, now that she's been with us for over two weeks, and so doesn't let Tosca push her around too much. They charge through doors together and if they bump as they go through, they don't even bother to grumble at each other about it. Tosca is clearly superior on the status totem pole, but they've settled into their spots and don't have to argue about it. At the field, when they're all loose, the three dogs all get some good running around and are happy even if they don't necessarily play WITH each other.

That's all I have time for at the moment... I assure you, though, it's the LEAST of what's been keeping me busy lately! NO, she is NOT staying! ;-)

This week's insanity at a glance...

2010-06-28T13:49:00.000-04:00

The two blogs I can post to are about to overlap! Today I meet "Greta" — a foster Bernese Mountain Dog, aged 6. She can't STAY! I hereby announce it! She can NOT stay!! Got that?! ;-) Her own family has had a tough time of it... They got Greta from a person who is "known" in Rescue... Known to be a problem... I can't remember if she's a "breeder" or a broker, but regardless, she makes headaches for Rescue. Then Greta's family had a baby. The baby has some medical issues. Then they had another baby. That one has some issues, too. Then the dad had a seizure while driving. Now he can't drive until he's been seizure-free for a year. They moved to a dog-friendly apartment complex so the dad can walk a mile to the train to get to work. But poor Greta hasn't been getting walks since the kids came along and the apartment complex is full of KIDS! that all need looking after, and small yappy DOGS! that need to be alerted to... So, they're a good family that just had a bad run of circumstances. Greta spent the day with a foster home but Rescue thought she might be happier with some kids to follow around and away from the 7-month-old English Shepherd growing up at the first foster home. And if she comes to stay with us for a while, that'll leave that other foster home free to help out with the other two dogs that may soon be entering Rescue.

I wonder if there's time to give her a bath tonight... It would have to be in our upstairs tub because we have company arriving on Thursday and there's really not time to clean that bathroom to company-pristine levels again.

Monday:
noon: PL's riding lesson [check]
1:30-3 PM finish work
5 PM leave to go pick up Greta
6 PM meet Greta in Bedford
7:30 PM arrive home... Wash Greta?

Tuesday:
6 AM Attempt dog walk.
8 AM Vet appointment for Greta
9-1 Work
1:30 PM take PL to vision therapy, take all to see bison, take Greta with?
3 PM vision therapy
5:30 PM Home again
6:30 PM leave for nutrition seminar

Wednesday:
8:30-12:30 Work
1 PM Friend and son arriving for visit

Thursday:
6:40 AM Leave for the airport
7:40 AM Pick up Missionary for 27-day stay
8:40 AM home
9-1 Work
12:45-2:45 PM Therapist works with PL this week
3 PM Meet friends up the street to go to the beach on the bus... Okay, that's over the top.

Friday:
9-1 Work
Call ADHD pediatrician

Saturday:
Additional guest arrives.
Take 7 people to fireworks in Gloucester.

Sunday:
Church.
4th of July Parade. Believe me, those four little words don't begin to describe the project that the 4th of July Parade represents for our church, especially Mary. If we don't win a trophy, I'll be surprised.

A title would be nice... Ah well.

2010-06-25T11:38:00.003-04:00

The watercolors may drive you crazy and I'm likely to switch things around, but at least I figured out how to make it so the YouTube videos don't get their edges chopped off. And yay, NEW templates! 'Cause I don't know how to do this without a template... And while I *loved* the lighthouse template, I didn't love sharing it with Jaycee Dugard's abductor. Yeah. That's NOT a link to his website -- I only visited it once and was horrified to see MY lighthouses there!

So, the first full week of summer... Monday, PL had his riding lesson with a different teacher who did great with him. It was interesting in that he talks a mile-a-minute OFF the pony and doesn't say a word while riding. Clearly, riding takes everything he's got. Afterwards, I dropped him off at home and went back to work. When I got home two hours later, he hadn't moved. But after the lesson, he DID say it was the happiest day of his life. Not sure why exactly, since all the talking had to do with the Lego and not with the pony, but I'll take it.

Tuesday was pottery -- they glazed the things they worked on during the last two visits. Later in the day PL had his first Vision Therapy appointment. He cooperated with the process and his homework, which we have yet to actually enact, is to lie on his back under a suspended rubber baseball with letters written on it and practice peripheral vision. I managed to actually BUY the ball, but we haven't installed it yet.

Wednesday was intro to Karate. RF was AWESOME. They both have a lot to learn about being quiet, but they were very responsive to the teacher's quiet persistence. PL liked it "this much." I suspected he would be less thrilled when he actually had to DO what was asked. And then RF saw that his best buddy and fellow trouble-maker was in the group class that followed his private intro. The friend couldn't focus to save his life once he realized RF was there watching!

I'll interject here that we have learned the class assignments for next year. PL has an apparently AWESOME teacher and situation... I'm so psyched about that... Really, second grade can only be better, especially with all we're trying to do for him now with the riding, the vision therapy and maybe the karate, as well as the home-tutoring and the hopefully new drug protocol. His doctor went on vacation before the blood results came back, so we're still on the same introductory level of the new drug, which the doctor felt was SO low that we weren't seeing any effects.

And we learned that RF has been separated from ALL of the boys in his class this year and will be in a multi-age class. Were they thinking, "give him a chance for a total fresh start"? Or maybe mix him with a bunch of second grade boys who will expect him to act older and that will drag him forward? I'm happy about the placement but curious to see how it goes. Some of the girls from his K class are with him, at least, and maybe THAT will teach him to "like" girls a bit more if they're the only friendly faces he sees.

Back to the week. Thursday was play therapy with it being RF's turn this week. And today we have Karate again. In there somewhere we've been swimming two or three times as well. John comes home from Japan tomorrow after enduring two weeks of rain, heat and humidity. Meanwhile, I've kept the dehumidifier in the garage empty and cleaned his work bench area... I took the opportunity to take a few things of the "we might need that some day" variety to the transfer station. A lot of MY stuff, too... Went through clothes I wore when I was a toddler and picked out a couple outfits I'd love to see my nieces in and was able to discard a TON of clothes from my young adult life... Good grief — I was EVER that thin? And if THAT was a size ten back in the day, then today's ridiculously thin people in Hollywood must be in negative sizes based on today's size numbering. It's all headed to the swap shop.

No shortage of things to do before tomorrow night when I head to the airport... But no time now to list it all out... Just look for a tasmanian devil-style whirling dervish going by and that'll be me!

Please play this at my funeral...

2010-06-21T10:30:00.000-04:00

Every word works for me...

A surprise...

2010-06-18T10:16:00.001-04:00

"Inconceivable!"

2010-06-17T10:31:00.000-04:00

I know that I'm not alone in finding it inconceivable that today is the last day of school. While I'm sure that September will come and I will be so relieved to have an hour of peace, right now I'm very happy that "peace" will be a break for all of us from the school experience.

This morning finds me a bit bleary-eyed. Last night I hand-wrote eleven thank you notes on cards with photos of the boys glued on. I composed my thoughts on the computer first and then transcribed all the notes onto the cards while watching episodes of SeaQuest. That took a while. This morning Mary and I hand delivered them all so we could say good-bye in person to each person we felt had made a difference... We unfortunately had to leave out hall/recess monitors as we don't know how many of them there are and what their names are — they certainly had their share of challenges with the boys this year... At least with RF.

We have been tipped off that without naming names (which would be meaningless to us anyway), we have an excellent situation for PL for his second grade teacher. Yahoo! Now we can just wait with curiosity but not much concern about RF's placement in first grade. Will he have the same teacher PL had this year? Or will he have someone new? I'm merely curious.

The summer stretches ahead... Mondays at noon is PL's riding lesson. I'll work before and after. Tuesday afternoons, late-ish, we'll drive to Newburyport for PL's vision therapy session, after which I hope I get to see my best friend, at least sometimes, which will be more than lately. Thursdays, the boys will take turns working with the play therapist. Next Wednesday, they will both meet the teacher at the Karate school where RF attended a birthday party last weekend. Karate was recommended for PL for a variety of reasons — ADHD-related things and the physical side, too, but I have high, high hopes that this could really make a difference for RF. I heard some really good things while I sat and listened to this guy run a group of 12 or 14 kids around playing games and keeping them under control. RF required more one-one-one to stay calm, but he also did well with it and actually asked if he could take Karate, which I think might be the very first time he asked to do something. He hates horses. Had no interest in having a bike or a scooter (although because of fairness and a need to get him outside with PL, has both). But this, he asked. That's big. And I hope it lasts.

John has huge concerns — "give an already violent child tools that he can use to hurt someon" — but I think he didn't watch enough Kung Fu: The Legend Continues with me. Or missed the point. Does Kwai Chang Caine ever WANT to get into a fight? Was there ever a more peace-loving person? No. And I'm thinking that the kids who go around saying, "I know karate" are NOT actually the ones taking it. What I heard and what this school's website talks about that RF really needs are wrapped up in this quote: "The character development component of our curriculum includes teaching children to identify and integrate values such as respect, self control, and responsibility into their daily lives."

It feels a bit broken that we have to hire people to teach our children something as fundamental as character development, but then if we're so close to our children that their flaws are OUR flaws and we can't overcome ourselves, than perhaps it's at least understandable that we have to appeal to outside assistance.

Anyway, if they are accepted into the school, then that will be twice a week and at different times for each of them. And then we'll be homeschooling reading for both boys all summer, too... I'm psyched to try and read Harry Potter all summer since it seems to have an appeal -- the writing is very immediate -- even without pictures, they get it. So while we haven't been huge fans, if it gets them listening, then we'll read it.

So, September is practically the day after tomorrow at this rate!

Eight days and counting...

2010-06-08T10:21:00.000-04:00

We have a busy week... Today is actually relatively care-free in that our usual Tuesday afternoon playdate kids aren't coming, but John has a meeting tonight. Tomorrow is the last day we take the boys to Project C.H.I.L.L.D. so we're putting together a little thank-you package for the two therapists there. Tomorrow night John and I are going out to dinner! Just the two of us! [faint!] Thursday, PL is going for a check-up with his ADHD pediatrician which is going to involve a blood draw. I haven't told him. That night we'll get John packed. Friday John leaves for Japan for TWO weeks. Friday afternoon is play therapy as usual. Saturday, the kids go to pottery class, and then a birthday party and then RF has a second birthday party and THEN we all go to the church picnic. Next week, the boys have two full days of school followed by two half-days of school and then they are done, Done, DONE for the summer! "Home days" all the time! RF will be SO happy!

The summer stretches before us... PL will have a riding lesson on Monday and vision therapy on Tuesdays. The play therapist will come on Wednesday or Thursday and alternate each week between focusing on PL and then on RF, unless John comes back from Japan feeling more optimistic about the future... Then we might have her come twice a week, once for each. Vacation Bible School is a week in July. And there's a robotic Lego "camp" in August -- three hours each morning for a week. In between times, PL should be doing "homework" to help keep his literacy progress on track and RF should has a workbook, too. If, between them, they accumulate 32 checkmarks in a week for doing "homework" then there will be "extras" like visiting a garden train in Connecticut or going to Coco Key... While John's away, we'll probably go to Chuck E. Cheese just to get THAT out of the way.

And there's swimming at the pool, going to the beach in the late afternoons, riding bikes... And trying like heck to get them away from the computer and the TV!

We started reading Harry Potter to them the other day. Not that we love this story, but it has an immediacy that reaches them... We've had a hard time of late finding good things to read to them... John read a whole series of classics -- Doctor Doolittle and Swiss Family Robinson and Around the World in 80 Days and so forth -- that had been adapted pretty well for their ages. But we haven't found anything since those that reaches them... So, because they've heard about this guy "Harry Potter," we decided to give it a try... And it's working! And while I hope the next thing doesn't have to be Stephen King (which is what my elementary school best friend read and prior to that she hated reading), to some extent we can advocate this series if it gets them listening to the written word without pictures beyond the small one at the start of each chapter.

But in the meantime, time to do some WORK!

Red Fox on a rampage...

2010-05-25T12:31:00.000-04:00

That title is MOSTLY just alliterative... Mostly. Last week, there was an incident where RF had a good talking-to by the principal and his teacher after he responded inappropriately when the monitors whistled the end of recess and he wasn't ready. In an effort to make an impression, we told RF that when HE behaves like that, it means WE have done something wrong and so we ALL had to go apologize to the principal. The principal happens to be one of THE nicest people I have EVER met, so we were a little worried that me might be conciliatory but he played his role perfectly and spoke sternly again to RF about how it was pretty disappointing that his parents had to come in and speak with the principal like that. Our house guests said afterwards that they had never seen RF look so sober.

Who knows if it'll help. You mix RF with other kids and he loses any sort of good sense, trying to impress and be the comedian in the group.

Immediately after our visit, we collected everyone and went back to school for the first-through-third grade open houses. RF saw the principal in the hall and was quick to say, "Hi!" Probably looking to see if he was still in trouble or not... It's like watching me all over again... I remember how I felt at similar moments, although it was always my parents, never the principal. I had to visit the principal in something like 5th grade when I slugged this kid who really had it coming, to the point where I didn't even CARE that I was in trouble, and that's huge... AND there was the benefit of peer approval! They didn't know I had it in me, so suddenly I was hearing whatever-they-said-back-then for "You go, girl!" from people who normally never noticed I existed.

ANYWAY. After we got through that, on Friday afternoon, we took both boys for haircuts at the local female barber. There were protests but then PL closed his eyes and endured and after a while RF stopped caterwauling. RF actually put up with the whole haircut except for the razor... He drew the line there and we decided to let that one go this time.

That night, John brought home a new bike for RF. After a very bouncy and quick supper, the bike was assembled. RF was VERY excited about it... Up to the point where he was handed his helmet. Suddenly he wasn't going to ride the bike ever! But PL saved the day! PL swapped helmets with him and the crisis was averted. PL handles him SO well. So, we went next door to the neighbor's yard to practice. RF fell a few times and was FINE. Miracles never cease, apparently. He rode and rode until it was almost too dark to see. And the next day, we took the bikes to their grandfather's house and they rode in his driveway, round and round and round. It was really amazing — PL was making a career out of it, round and round... Came up with a plan that he was going to ride his bike for two-and-a-half hours solid. Right. He certainly did it for a solid HOUR, for sure, before the adults had had enough! And considering that RF had essentially NEVER ridden a bike before, it was definitely miraculous. The other small bike we have just doesn't pedal well, and is smaller, so it became more frustrating than conducive to progress.

PL is hoping we'll trade his bike up for one with gears and handbrakes. The one tricky moment was that RF's new bike has handbrakes, but PL was just excited for him and didn't pitch a fit. See, MORE miracles!

Overuse of the word "stupendous" ahead...

2010-05-24T10:15:00.000-04:00

It was a STUPENDOUS morning with the dogs... I decided that this morning would be a carting work-out for Tosca and Jago could come along, orbiting around us on a six-foot leash. It started out really well, in that I didn't have to work very hard to catch Tosca and escort her downstairs to the garage where the cart is. A big step in the right direction to get started! I harnessed and hitched, got my leashes organized and away we went. This works amazingly well, considering that most of my attention needs to be on Tosca and Jago needs to not get her leash tangled or get her feet run-over as we go along.

My plan was to go up to the school so that I could turn both dogs loose for a quick and likely-to-be-productive run-around before continuing towards home. We started out really well, in that with a few "Beautiful! Perfect PUPPY!" compliments, Tosca's tail was untucked and waving along happily before we'd even turned the first corner by our house. I noticed as we went along that she was seemed really comfortable. She wasn't flinching at every jostle, creak or bump as the cart rolled along behind her. She was taking direction -- left, right -- quite nicely. And we even were able to navigate some curbs -- up and down sidewalk edges -- carefully but without any apparent concern. What a difference from the not-so-distant past when Tosca was terrified of the whole thing, glancing over her shoulder at this thing she couldn't escape, tail tucked whenever there was a jostle or jounce.

Our route towards the school was heavily trafficked this morning – this was the first round student arrival time. And the route is really crazy. I've called in "Rockport Raceway" since we moved to town... Driving down H street which has parking on both sides, two-way traffic and no line or shoulder. Then a hard right for a few hundred feet. Then a hard left for a few dozen feet. Then another hard right. Navigate the handicap-accessible van parked in the road to collect a client every morning, forcing a two-way road into a one-lane road at the busiest time of the day. Then a stop sign. STOP at it — police are watching. Then proceed to the next stop sign and turn right for school drop-off or left to proceed.

So, we're trying to stay out of the way of the traffic and navigate around the miscellaneous parked cars and telephone poles which are giving us lots of "narrows" practice. As we take the hard left, a dog goes crazy on the other side of a fence, which forces me to focus on Jago as we take that turn... There's something about Jago that makes other dogs, especially chihuahua-sized ones, go all "you want a piece of me?!!!"And Jago's usual response is, "why, YES, YES, I would LOVE a piece of you!" Although we're getting better since I've been walking more.

And so when my focus switched from Tosca to Jago on that corner, Tosca clipped the corner and flipped the cart. The potential for disaster at that moment was pretty huge. Tosca's immediate instinct is FLIGHT, and I've got Jago who is still thinking about the barking dog. But I keep a death grip on Tosca's leash, get the cart right-side up, get the stuff in it (a mat, my jacket, the bag of cheese cubes) back in it, reward Tosca with some of the spilled cheese cubes for standing her ground, albeit at the end of the tightly held leash, stop Jago from continuing to self-reward with the rest of the cheese, put HER in sit-stay. Get Tosca headed in the right direction, re-organize my leashes, take a few steps forward and then make the hard right turn...

And here's where we throw out another "stupendous." As we start up the hill towards the school, with me tossing out "Beautiful!" and "PERFECT dog!" Tosca's tail actually untucked! She spent a length of that hill glancing over her shoulder, which I wasn't surprised to see, but then she was OKAY! She actually recovered! She actually recognized that the flip was a freak accident and that she was NOT in imminent danger of it happening again. This could have been a HUGE set-back.

We got to the school. Tosca was under control. She was not bolting. She was listening and taking direction. We navigated some turns and made it through a narrow space with me giving step-by-step cautionary guidance. I took them out behind the building to a field, and there I turned them both loose. This was really risky. In the past, given an opportunity to flee from carting, Tosca will grab that opportunity and run with it, literally. But not today! Today, Miss Stupendous came when I whistled for her TWICE, even as I ran towards the cart (which is where the cheese cubes were). Lots of praise and cheese for THAT, you can be sure!

After a quick run-around, I re-hitched Tosca to her cart and we started on the way home. With just a bit more to go, I decided to TRY Jago being tied to the back of the cart. Historically, Jago has not understood the concept that if she was tied to the back, then she needed to trot along behind it, carefully, rather than lunging to one side or the other to avoid the tires and nearly flipping the cart in the process. This morning? She was STUPENDOUS, and just trotted along as if she had done it all her life. I'm sure being hot and tired didn't hurt!

So, all-in-all, a GREAT morning, with a great leap forward in Tosca's cart work, complete with a challenge which was worked through rather than resulting in a major setback. She was even doing downhills with total control and I actually was able to walk WITH her rather than racing to keep up with her or giving up and just working from behind — great for the advanced Canadian test, but not so good for feeling like we were in control! I'm starting to look forward to our fall Draft Tests. Previously, I thought we'd never survive "harness and hitch" because Tosca would take off or shake in terror and I'd never convince the judges that she'd be okay as soon as we made the first turn. The biggest skill she needs to learn now is backing up. Then we'll start adding weight to the cart. She may turn out to be my best yet!

Six pounds down and holding!

2010-05-17T07:58:00.001-04:00

And every one of those pounds was hard won! This morning I walked an hour and 15 minutes and now I'm slurping my smoothie... My feet still hurt, but it's incredible to be motivated to fight my way to better condition. There are days where I just give up trying to record the calories consumed, but the overall pattern is better.

It's cleaning lady day, we survived a three-hour play date with PL's new friend, his twin brother and their mom yesterday, and a week of adventures stretches out before me. Tonight is handbell rehearsal. Tomorrow morning I'm picking up the V's a the airport for their semi-annual two-week visit. Tomorrow night John and I are driving in to Cambridge to Christopher's for dinner with family who have gathered to see my cousin Erica graduate with a Master's. Wednesday, I'm going to drive in to the airport and take the Silver Line to Downtown Crossing and find my way to the graduation ceremony (all by myself!). Thursday I'll get my hair done. Thursday my co-worker leaves for a vacation in California with her son for TWELVE days! Saturday we'll go visit my father-in-law. Sunday I'm responsible for snacks at church...

And there you go. Just another ordinary week!

Relief!

2010-05-14T11:20:00.001-04:00

So, it turns out that skinny kids (ones that eat a pretzel rod for breakfast, nothing for lunch, a popsicle for snack in the afternoon, and two bits of rice for supper) throw off bad EKGs. Who knew?! PL's echocardiogram was perfectly normal while his EKG (2nd one) continued to be abnormal, but since the echo is more definitive, we are permitted to cross that off the list of things to panic about!

The ADHD pediatrician is on vacation but should be back next week and we'll look forward to starting a new prescription regimen by the end of next week.

What shall we talk about?

2010-05-07T11:59:00.000-04:00

As long as it's NOT Mother's Day. I'm glad to be a mom, I love my boys, but a few mother's days back there was this big THING that went on and so I'd just as soon not have all this hype about a day, 'cause all I remember when I think of Mother's Day is the THING. Make a big deal of my birthday instead. Really.

So, instead, on this beautiful day let's talk about other things, things that actually MATTER. For instance, a couple of months ago, we went to see a new pediatrician about the management of PL's ADHD. He looked at the big notebook of materials we had put together and asked us to get a new neuropsychological evaluation done. We actually were able to get the in-person part of that done that same Saturday and then took a couple of weeks or so to get the parent and teacher questionnaires filled out. The report was written, we met with the PhD doctor to go over it, and then we met with the pediatrician again.

He felt that PL has a severe case of ADHD, nothing else -- NOT bipolar, NOT non-verbal learning disorder, NOT aspberger's. He also felt that he was on the maximum effective dose of his current ADHD medicine (concerta 27 mg) and that to get better results, we should try a second tier medicine that would support the concerta. The one he would try is apparently very safe as long as you take only the right amount (not a problem with our very careful doling out and recording of all medicines and supplements), it's been around for a very long time (1950s), and there's a lot of research about it. BUT, one needs to have an EKG first before taking it because if you have this particular heart condition (Long Q-T syndrome?) it's not good.

So off to Children's Hospital we went for PL's first-ever EKG. I've never had one. It was no problem at all — we skated right through the experience and stopped for supper at Fuddruckers afterwards. Meanwhile, back at Children's, someone IMMEDIATELY read the EKG, and then IMMEDIATELY called the requesting pediatrician. And when we got home, we just about walked in the door and the pediatrician was on the phone... The EKG was NOT normal. He doesn't have the Long Q-T problem, so the medicine is likely to be fine, but his left heart muscle is too big.

ACK! AND, the pediatrician says, I'm worried about the concerta with this heart question. What's he like without it? Yeah. I had to say, over-the-top silly ALL day, to the point where we couldn't really send him to school that way. But he's been on it for a year, so the plan became, change nothing and go see cardiology. THEN we'll make a plan to change his meds.

So, now we have an appointment next week to get another EKG and an echocardiogram and see a cardiologist. That took some arranging. They expect YOU to know what's wrong (all I know is his EKG is not normal and I didn't go to medical school... How about YOU tell ME what's wrong...), and who you'd like to see, and if you'd like an associate or a fellow... Uhhhh? Well, fortunately, they had an opening with an associate (apparently more full-fledged than a fellow), so I got that one right by accident. They didn't tell us we needed another EKG and an echocardiogram until we called back to see if there might be something more they might want... Well, duh! Of course! But it's all arranged now.

Then Mary spent a few minutes googling, always dangerous when you're wondering about some medical condition. She stumbled over cardiomyopathy and that there is an entire department at Children's, just for that. We asked the pediatrician if we should change to that department and he wrote, amused and amusingly, "as is typical for internet searches, you've identified the most severe and least likely of the possibilities." So we left our appointment with general cardiology.

But we are neverendingly grateful that we decided to NOT just accept the slap-dash offer of our local pediatrician to increase his current medication... The new one thinks PL is already on the maximum effective dose AND now he's worried about THAT because of the EKG. Now, the EKG thing may turn out to be a big nothing, but still — the things that MIGHT've happened boggle the mind.

Yesterday we had PL's IEP team meeting... Eight people present. It went really well, and he'll be getting five days a week of structured literacy tutorial assistance during school — a double dose of the Fundations material he gets in the classroom. He's OT (which is more about handwriting than anything) will be in the classroom and may be phased out all-together next December. And he gets to move to second grade, even though he's definitely in a catch-up position. That's a relief, at least. Also, they explained the second grade positioning — that the kids are very carefully arranged to create classes that balance out skills, gender and temperament. And there will be a classroom assistant. So, THAT's all good.

Meanwhile, we've bought some materials to help tutor PL over the summer so he can hopefully make some reading progress and not just stagnate. A wonderful lady in our church tutors kids in reading as well as SAT and MCAS preparation... So she was able to coach us in what materials we needed from the Wilson language program, which is what the school Fundations program is based on.

And RF (which stands for Red Fox, which you find when you google "animals that scream")? What's he been up to? Well, today he finally visited the principal's office. Unfortunately, there was only an "acting" principal on duty today, so he didn't get to see the "real" head honcho. Apparently there was a game of tag going on and he didn't want to be tagged so he picked up a handful of the chopped-up rubber tire mulch on the playground and hucked it at a classmate... Only problem was, there was a rock in the handful of mulch and it hit the kid in the eye. The story was told to me pretty matter-of-fact, so I hope that means that the rock was very accidental... If it had JUST been mulch, then it would be a big nothing, other than throwing things is bad... RF doesn't like to be trapped or chased, so I can picture it perfectly... [sigh] At least we had a couple of good days this week.

So, as usual, we've been bored to tears.... HA!

Home.

2010-04-28T10:00:00.001-04:00

How to snuggle an elephant seal...

2010-04-26T11:23:00.000-04:00

Or a Bernese Mountain Dog... There are similarities!

HERE is a link to where you can see the video that WAS here. YouTube lost it.

There's an app for that!

2010-04-24T13:43:00.001-04:00

So, my friend lamented that in my iPhone-less life was it possible for me to use this app she was using to track calories and exercise? Ah-HA! I may not have a phone, but I have an iPod Touch, which is the iPhone without the phone... So, we've been using "Lose It!" and wow, has THAT been eye opening! My good SNACKS previously were probably a 1,000 calories, unbeknownst to me. In addition to mapping out a plan to lose the pounds I want to lose, and counting the calories in what I eat, I can also balance out the program by getting on the treadmill... So, if I get to the end of the day and find myself 150 calories over, I go treadmilling for 45 minutes and watch another episode of Bones, my most recent addiction.

I've been working hard -- nearly daily on the treadmill, getting up and walking the dogs for an hour before work, finding times to walk for a half hour here and there... And I'm feeling pretty good! But I broke down and bought a new pair of sneakers, Reebok this time... My toes were SCREAMING at me -- sharp shooting pain sideways through the base of my big toe... A lot of athletic shoes seem to be all about supporting your heel and not worrying about your toes... These Reeboks are awesome -- my toes feel like something is actually between them and the ground... And my inserts fit into them without having to take out the inserts they come with. I still have the pain, but it's drastically improved.

Yesterday we took the day off to do something with the kids on their April vacation. We went into Boston and parked at the Museum of Fine Arts ($24—ow!)... We made a last-minute run down to the library and picked up a pass, so it only cost $10 for the four of us to get in—YAY!

The kids have a tendency to get VERY silly, especially when Gillis's meds aren't working well and the silly talk goes right off the charts... It's probably normal, but what do I know? I was a meek, quiet, timid little thing and never said boo. But when they get silly, it's all "diapers on wheels! HAHAHAHAHA!" and "Babies on wheels! HAHAHAHA!" and so forth. So we go to the MFA. And WHAT do they have right outside the main entrance of this beautiful building with gracious stairs going up to the doorway? Two GIANT baby heads. Just the heads. Giant bronze structures. Like six or seven feet tall. GIANT. One with eyes open ("Day"), one with eyes closed (wait for it... "Night"). Did I need this?! Some spanish dude's idea of art. Well, and a few other people's since someone gave the money for the museum to buy them.

But what can you do... The museum experience was pretty good as far as the kids went... We had to go through the cafeteria because suddenly RF (previously known as "Tiger" but who want to call anyone THAT these days?) was going to die from thirst and starvation. It was a fine cafeteria, though. The kids quickly established things that were their favorites, particularly the rotunda. I guess I've become a bit of a snob, even though the last thing I am is any sort of art critic... But we've been to the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, so the MFA's Renaissance art seemed a bit meager to me.

John asked me later what my favorite part was and I had to say the cafeteria, but remember, we did this WITH the children, so really this was about herding ferrets, not enjoying art. I would've enjoyed actually trying to appreciate the finer points of their collection, but that wasn't what this was about... It was about showing all the Egyptian artifacts to the boys.

We survived and were there for almost three hours. A long time. Then we moved on to the Museum of Science in HOPES of going on a Duck Boat tour. Ha. At 1:45, the next available tour was 5:30. So instead, we used our free passes and went to an Omni theatre presentation — only $14 for the four of us — about Antarctica. Very cool experience. Thank goodness for the membership, because we went in and out of the museum twice. And the parking was $4.99 or something. A whole lot better than at the MFA!

After we finally left to go home, PL announced that the reason he'd essentially been stalling (trying to make the day last as long as possible) was to give the package he was waiting for more time to arrive... How cool is THAT thinking for a seven year old? Luckily for all of us, I didn't check on the status of the package until long after they had gone to bed, because it HAD arrived (at work). When he bounced into our room this morning, I could tell him that it had arrived and that when I got up and AFTER he had cleaned off the table in the Lego room, we would go get it and he could build it. So that was the big thrill today.

That and ice cream cones and a nice walk with dogs during which PL fell in a brook and we heard bag pipes on the way home and I made a cool connection... Turns out the bag pipe player is the guy who bought the first tickets to my Jim Malcolm concert in August!

The day's agenda...

2010-04-14T10:26:00.000-04:00

Work.

Lunch.

Appointment.

Project Chilld.

Walk with dogs.

Supper.

School Committee.

Bejeweled.

Bed.

Did I miss anything?

So long, trees!

2010-04-13T10:29:00.000-04:00

The yard guys are in my yard this morning... They started by taking down FOUR trees. And thinning others... The goal is SUNSHINE in my backyard so grass can grow. They'll come back in a few weeks to spread some dirt to smooth out the lumps and bumps and then seed it. The maple trees are busily leafing out, so I know the shock will subside pretty quickly... And hopefully it'll be a positive change... We might need to plant a bush or two. Might be a good time to plant something in the back corner where the dogs especially like to charge the fence.

Good thing I sacrificed my middle yard to the boys' canal construction. No one will be allowed to breathe in the backyard!

In honor of Rachel's arrival, we had my homemade mac-and-cheese, green beans with almonds and chocolate pie with whipped cream. Yeah, it was good to eat at our house last night!

Just a trim...

2010-04-12T12:07:00.000-04:00

I trimmed a few names off my list of frequent fly-by blogs — I found their RSS feeds instead. What a brilliant idea that is... Just sit back and wait for them to post and not have to check to see if they did!

Wish I could say I'd trimmed some pounds, but still no joy. Ah well. Not slitting my wrists quite yet over it. Last week, on Wednesday, it turned out SO hot that I had to leave the dogs home and do my whole walk all alone... But I did do it! And then came home and gave blood for the first time in my life! That was a great weight-loss plan, but unfortunately the effects are not lasting. Trying to find times to sneak a walk of some sort in here and there... Thursday, I walked to the school and collected the boys and walked home — a first for us! It wasn't nearly as long as I imagined, but they were tuckered out.

I walked to school because the car was in the shop... My warranty expires in ten miles. Eek! Not that any of the repair work they did was covered... New tires, new bushings, new belts, oil change and the 60K service. Ow. They broke a tire sensor replacing the tires (I get to pay for that, too, because it was corroded, thus obviously a "wear" item).

Saturday list of things accomplished, not necessarily in order... Went to the bank. Went to the post office. Went to the dump. Bought dog food. Went to Common Crow and bought vegan worcestershire sauce. Bought John a sandwich. Helped John swap the snow tires off and the regular tires back onto his car. Hunted and hunted and hunted for the remembered hole in one of those non-snow tires. Did not find it. Tires held air. Huh. Cross imagined tire repair off the to-do list. Brought the trellis upstairs to put in the garden where it serves as a visual to not fall off the deck. Moved the rest of the crushed rocks out of the driveway one bucket at a time into the yard — various walkways and "pee zones" that were getting a little light. Washed tarp (that the stones had been delivered onto) and hung it up to dry. Relocated two handfuls of worms from under the tarp to the garden. (That's one entire yard of crushed stones moved into the yard one bucket at a time. Using the wheelbarrow just seemed like more work. Put them in the wheelbarrow. Navigate the wheelbarrow into the yard. Get them out of the wheelbarrow. Ugh.) Visited a friend and delivered some frozen food we weren't going to use. (Working backwards here...) Mary cleaned the freezer after a glass of grape juice spilled in it. I re-loaded the freezer. Babysat a dog. Meanwhile, John worked on our home server all day. With some success. Due to inadvertent copying of backups over-top of new stuff, he ended up rebuilding it four times. It was a long day for John. I fell asleep reading the chapter for Sunday school. Somewhere in there, I sorted some clothes, swapped summer for winter, took a bagful to the swap shop.

And that was JUST Saturday, on about five and a half hours of sleep. At one point, when I was driving over to get the sandwich for John, I almost pulled over to take a quick nap, but worked through it. Fortunately, the kids played ALL DAY. And not just on the computer. They were just in full-blown play-hard, all day. They had John help them build their cardboard box house — PL had an idea about putting his train back into its boxes and putting it in the box house's attic." At one point, I offered to take them to the beach, but it was just an interruption they didn't want. Okay, then.

So, I'm finishing up some things here and then I'm off to walk the dogs, and get ready for company — Rachel's back!!! Just for a week, but I'm so psyched to see her!