Sunday Sharing

Sunday Sharing this week is that there is no Sunday Sharing.  Sorry, my brain just isn't going that deep today.  And I'm blaming the dog...

The picture above was taken from my bed when I was recovering from surgery.  Blossom, who isn't allowed in my room, waited patiently.  I could tell she couldn't wait until I wasn't in bed anymore.  She was so patient.  I love the loyalty of dogs.

But my patience with Blossom was wearing thin last night.  I'm glad I found the picture above...makes it easier to forgive.  Maybe.  Although during the night I wasn't sure...

The story:  Yesterday Jeran made chocolate chip cookies.  He took care of the chocolate chips, but Blossom figured out how to get them out of the pantry.  She ate 3/4 of a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and after realizing how sick she was last night, we're glad she's still here.

After throwing up all over the house, she spent the night howling and crying, shaking, and tearing around the house and high speed, jumping on the chairs and on top of the table, and even tried to chew the metal bars of her bed...  I kept the bedroom doors shut and just stayed awake with her.  When I'd touch her I could feel her heart racing.

Finally about 4:00 a.m. I was too tired to keep up with her anymore, and put her on a leash.  I laid down on the couch and she pulled and tugged but at least I could keep an eye on her and lay down at the same time.  About an hour later she jumped up on my legs and fell asleep.  Tim woke up about 6:00 a.m. and I passed the leash off to him.  

At this point I've had a total of 4 hours of sleep since I woke up Saturday morning.  We had an awesome day Saturday that would have been my Sunday Sharing post, but I can't do it justice...  Later.  Really.

And since Blossom is snoozing soundly in her bed, I think I will too!

I Know What You Mean, Megan

Tonight Tim and the kids are at the cabin.  I work today and tomorrow, so I get to have to stay here.

Don't get me wrong.  I love the cabin.

And I love my family.

I also love breaks.  The silence around here tonight has been golden. (And don't worry...  Tim gets his break in a few weeks when he goes out of town.)

But not long ago my golden silence was interrupted by a text from Megan.  (Actually I was just starting to miss all of them.)

They're having an all night Harry Potter marathon.  (Guaranteed they'll be asleep soon.)

I texted Megan that Blossom misses her.  (Actually both dogs miss the kids.  You should see them moping around here like their world just ended.)

Megan texted back, "Oh, we miss her...  Sorta, cuz it is relaxing not thinking about the dogs."


I had to laugh, because I know the feeling, Megan!

(And suddenly, just when I was starting to miss my kiddos, the silence turned golden again.  Yes.  Kind of relaxing.)

So Megan...  I'll take care of the dogs.  You give the kids a hug for me, and I'll see you all tomorrow.

(And P.S.  Don't forget prayers.)

Bad Blossom!

It's hard to imagine that this cute little face could be so...

Evil!

When Gabby moved in, Blossom decided she didn't want the competition for attention.  Who was this new family member anyway?  

Within a few days, several items from Gabby's room turned up missing and were found outside...chewed by Blossom.

It was a sad, sad day when Gabby found one of her very favorite shoes outside.  It was her birthday shoe from her 9th birthday party.  

Hard to imagine one little puppy could do so much damage.

The damage was followed by tears...lots and lots of tears.

She told me how special the shoe was, and how many times she wore it.  She knew every memory linked to that very special shoe.

So we decided to make a memorial out of the shoe before we bought a replacement.

One chewed up shoe + one sharpie = a piece of memorabilia.

Gabby told me all her memories of the shoe, and we wrote them on the shoe, then the shoe hung on a nail in her closet for the past 5 months.

Today she was cleaning out her closet and was ready to get rid of it, so we snapped some photos so we could remember.

Good-bye birthday shoe, that reminds Gabby of Jan, school, swimming with friends, dress-up with Joie, dress-up, and Bad Blossom!

But in Gabby's words, "She's so cute that you can't stay mad at her."  

(The picture of Blossom was taken by Megan a few months ago.)

Another Turtle Story

Remember Dollar and Penny, our pet turtles?  Penny continues to help earn reptile merit badges for Boy Scouts around the Great Salt Lake Council.  We still consider ourselves geniuses for coming up with the idea of a traveling pet (that so far doesn't even have a visitation schedule at our house...whew!).

So imagine my surprise Saturday when our neighbor, who had been outside doing yard work, came walking across the street with a turtle in his hands.  His dog had been barking at something in the street, and when he went to investigate, he saw a turtle.

Thinking it was ours he came to return the lost pet.  We happily informed him that our turtle is doing it's civic duty to Boy Scouts somewhere in Utah, and this couldn't be ours.

We watched it crawl around on the grass for a few minutes, wondering how it got into the middle of our street when I remembered swapping turtle stories with a neighbor a street over (directly west of our street) telling me how they had built a pond in the back yard for their turtle, and it had burrowed for the winter...

Never to be seen again.  

I snapped the above photo and texted it to her.

No response.

I called and left a message.

No response.

So the turtle hung out at our house for a while...the whole time they were feeding it, giving it water to swim in, and showing it around the neighborhood, I could be heard repeating, "He's not spending the night!"

Then it was time for the boys to walk the dog, so they got creative and decided to walk the turtle at the same time....

Yes, there is a turtle in that bucket that is bungeed to the skateboard...being pulled by a rope.  (And I think that's Jeran in the background...not sure what he's doing.  Being a turtle?)

The walk didn't last long.  The turtle was a little stressed out by the bumpy ride, and happy just to be back at home our front yard.

"But remember, he's not spending the night!"  (Me again...just making sure they knew we weren't going to have another turtle for a pet.)

A few minutes later, they decided to take the turtle on a walk again, this time carrying it...

And they stopped to see if the neighbor who we thought might have lost the turtle a few years earlier was home yet...  Good news!  They were home!

Better news!  The turtle was theirs!  

Spike was home again, after 3 long years.  Spike's boy was very, very happy.

The end.

Almost.

Except that Jeran and Joie spent the rest of the evening (while I was at the laundromat) hauling rocks from our front parking strip (which will be grass soon) through the yards of neighbors and across fences to make Spike's pond more secure so he couldn't escape.

Somehow in all of the excitement, this happened.

That would be Joie's lip.  I'm still not sure of the entire story except it had to do with coming face to face with a basketball stand.

When I pulled into the driveway from doing laundry at 9:30, my phone rang.  It was the neighbor's mom telling me she thought Joie might need stitches.

Thankfully we have a nurse in the neighborhood too who reassured me Joie's lip would be ok.

Two days later she talks a little funny, and has a hard time eating...

But Spike is home.

After 3 long years, Spike is home.

Incredible if you think about it.  

(And one of the kids mentioned the big idea of Incredible Journey 3:  Spike's Journey Home.)

(All photos courtesy of Megan, who is earning the title of family photojournalist.  Can you believe she took a picture of Joie's lip?  And can you believe Joie asked me if I blogged about her lip?  Crazy kids...)

Turtle Update (Because you're dying to know...)

Good news for Penny, the traveling turtle!  She's lined up to help earn 5 more reptile merit badges.  Congratulations to Penny...we won't have to worry about her until May...but hoping the list continues to grow.  It's our personal mission to make sure Penny doesn't have to come back home...help every boy in the Great Salt Lake Council earn their reptile merit badge.  

Pet Rotation: The Latest in Creative Pet Care

If pets were children, we wouldn't be allowed to adopt.  Let's just say we've gotten kind of creative with pet care.

I'm not sure if any of you remember Dollar and Penny (a.k.a. 50 Cents), our pet turtles.  Following the saga of acquiring and homing the turtles, our attempt at reptile care was fairly uneventful.

...Except for the weekly monthly episodes of changing the water and cleaning the tank, and cleaning the filter several times a week...and feeding, and unclogging the filter, and changing bulbs, and turning on and off lights...  And all the above were much larger tasks than it would seem because of the amount of work it took to convince the boys pet owners that they needed to care for the their  pet reptile.

No it wasn't a big deal at all.  In fact, it was going so well, we decided we could share the joy.

We were in luck.  A neighbor friend wanted the turtle.  Then the friend's mom had the wonderful idea that all the boys in the scout troop should earn their reptile merit badge, something which required the turtle to stay at each boy's house for 30 days.  


It was a proud moment at the most recent Court of Honor when the list of reptile merit badges was read off.  We knew we had contributed in some small way to the success of Troop 915.

It's been over six months since I last saw Penny, and I'd almost forgotten about her.  Then today a mother of one of the boys asked me, "Did the turtle originate at your house?"  


I was tempted to say, "No," but I didn't.  I was quick to add, "But it's ok if it just keeps traveling."


She laughed, then told me about how eager the previous family was to pass the turtle on to her.  Apparently the creative pet care gene is spreading.

Anyone know of another young scout eager to earn a reptile merit badge?  In about 30 days, Penny will be ready to move again.

Blossom

This afternoon on the way to drop off Megan, Jeran and Joie at band practice, we saw a truck parked in an empty lot with a huge sign on the window for beagle puppies.  We didn't stop, even though they begged and begged.  On the way back home from dropping them off, Nate and I stopped "just to look."  There were several other interested parties gathered around the last remaining puppy, vying for her attention.  She walked right over to Nate, who was a little unsure if he should pick her up or not, and pawed at his foot.  Then she stood there and looked at him until the owner told Nate he could pick her up, which he did.  We asked all the standard questions, just being curious while we were holding her, and one by one, the other people left.  

I don't quite remember how we got from "just looking" to falling in love with her.  Nate, who has been having a really difficult few months had lit up like a child.  I said something about needing to call Tim, but with my phone in my hand I thought of the pending conversation.  I'd have to convince his rational mind that my emotional mind was right.  I decided not to call Tim.  I know.  I broke all the rules of responsibility associated with getting a new pet (not to mention rules associated with maintaining a healthy marriage relationship), but Tim is on board too.  It actually didn't take much convincing.  I called her a therapy dog, and he was on board.

Thirty minutes later, an 8 week old puppy was flopping around our living room, and it was time for me to go get the other kids from band practice.  I didn't tell them about the dog.  As we drove past the now empty lot where the truck had been, I could hear their disappointed groans.  They had missed their chance to see the puppy.  "They must have found an owner," I said, hiding a smile.  We arrived home.  Nate was laying on the floor looking under the couch.  Jeran kicked Nate to make sure he was still breathing.  "Dude, why are you looking under the couch?"

Nate says nothing.  Jeran shrugs and walks away.

Megan and Joie kind of look under the couch but don't see anything. 

Jeran, still a little curious, returns and looks.  He saw fur under the couch and started feeling around.  Instantly, he jerked his hand back with excitement, jumped to his feet and whispers, "I felt a puppy!" 

Energy filled the room, and there were children happy dancing all over the place. 

Immediately, Nate informed them it was his puppy. Several hours later, everyone but Joie is ok with that. They have their drums, piano, viola, singing, basketball, soccer, etc. Nate has a puppy.  Nate trained Champ.  Nate likes animals.  Champ can't do agility and Nate wants an agility dog.  Enter Beagle puppy. 

Naming a pet is always interesting.  Nate named his Beagle puppy Blossom because (in Megan's words) "It's a beautiful spring day, and she's a ball of sunshine." 

We'll beat our track record for second dogs this time.  Really, we will.  Champ likes her.  Unlike Angel, who annoyed Champ and tried to boss him around, Blossom is indifferent to Champ.  Within 10 minutes of meeting Angel, Champ had growled at her and bitten her.  So far Champ and Blossom just play.  She's courteous and he's curious. 

And Nate is the proud new owner of Blossom.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Champ's new trick: Pulling food off the counter. Apparently the smells of Thanksgiving dinner were just too overwhelming, so he had to see what was up there. We came home yesterday to the remains of an apple pie on the kitchen floor. Today Tim left the leftover turkey carcass out on the counter when he left for work...with quite a bit of turkey left on it. We weren't home yet, so Champ decided since it worked once he'd try it again. This time he ate the entire thing--carcass and meat. The only remaining evidence was a small piece of bone left on the ground. I'm not loving this new trick. I think I liked it better when he wasn't so curious.

Our "new" living room

In an attempt to hide Angel chewed furniture, we moved the upstairs furniture downstairs and the downstairs furniture upstairs. Mom, the "Grandma couch" is now our main couch, so if you come visit, you may have to sleep in the living room. The leather chairs came from Tim's parents' house last year. I've tolerated them downstairs, but love them now that they are upstairs. I love our living room again. Something about the feng shui of the entire room was off, and now we have it back. Esther, be sure to thank Angel for us...and don't ever, ever let her on your couch!

Road Trip, School, and a Connection to Iraq

A few times this summer we've said we want to go to Colorado to visit my sister, Esther, and it has never worked out. So on the last official weekend of summer, we made it a priority and guess what? We went! And it was fun! We loved Esther's little farm and are jealous of her lifestyle. Her garden is amazing and makes us wish for more land ourselves. She amazes me. I have loved Colorado since my Philmont days, and driving through and being there always makes me wish I could move...either Colorado or Seattle...my two dream spots to live. We wish we could have spent more time, but leaving us hungry to go back is a good thing, right? Our other reason to go back and visit has four paws and a tail...yes, more pet drama. After a lot of thought and discussion, we left our puppy, Angel, in Esther's competent hands. Angel was already showing us she was happy with the farm, so she now belongs to Esther. We've heard she's adjusting well...still being Alpha girl, but Esther will be Alpha before long. We miss her but are happy she's happy. We took on a dog when our hearts wanted to say "yes" and our lives were too crazy to make the commitment. We're glad she's with Esther, because she wasn't a very happy dog here.

And on to school. It's going well. After almost 2 weeks back, the kids are doing well. All my nervousness about Nate going to middle school wasn't necessary after all. But would I be a mom if I didn't worry? I kept telling people I worried because I had no frame of reference. My own middle/jr. high experience was 2 teachers in the same building where I went to elementary school. It was a tough mental task to visualize my own son walking through a maze of nearly 1,000 students and 6 hallways to find his locker, open it, and get where he needed to be when he needed to be there. On back to school night, I stopped in the middle of a random hallway and said, "Ok Nate. Can you find your locker from here?" He said yes and asked how long I gave him. I said, "Three minutes." He said, "Easy, and open it too." And he did...probably in two minutes. I was ok after that. The crazy things moms do, right? As for the others, nothing new. Joie has more homework than she was used to last year, but she's the kind of kid who loves the challenge. Megan has figured out she loves math, thanks to a really supportive teacher last year. Megan came home and said, "Mom, guess what? I LOVE math!" Granted we're only in the second week of school, but all of the moms out there know you kind of breathe a sigh of relief any time you don't have to persuade a child to do homework. And Jeran...what can we say about Jeran? He loves school. He's in the same class as Megan so it caught us off guard this year when he said he didn't like his teacher. He usually loves to live up to the challenges teachers throw out. Jeran doesn't struggle in school so a little heat once in a while is good, right?

And a connection to Iraq. I've recently started working with more children of refugee families at work. These are often children who have witnessed horrible things in their home countries, usually African countries. But the other day one of the supervisors told me he put a 4 year old Iraqi girl into my schedule. I didn't think much of it until I did the assessment, and as I heard their story I felt a sense of awe for what Joe is doing. Tough cases bring out the fight in me and I found myself working so hard for this family to help them hopefully see a brighter day. From the time this little girl was about 2 1/2 until about a year ago she witnessed horrible things happening to her family. One night their home was attacked and militants threw a grenade under the door that exploded in the living room when she was the only one there. Another night they threw the burned body of her uncle into the house and she witnessed everything and knew also that it was her uncle. She was also in the home when it was burned and her father was beaten. He was the one telling the story in the assessment and told how he passed out after being beaten. The house was on fire and she was in the living room with flames around her when he came to. His leg was broken but he was able to get her out. They are just looking for help because this little girl wakes up screaming every night that "they're coming to get us," and one night was sleepwalking and they found her trying to climb over the second story balcony to get out of the house because "they are coming to get us." I rarely start therapy on the first visit, but felt like I couldn't send them home without helping them. The entire session took place with an interpreter, who thankfully could get animated and on this little girl's level. She colored in places on a picture of a body where she feels the scary feelings, and colored in her head and stomach. Then we practiced with blowing bubbles to get them out--blowing them into the bubbles and running after the bubbles to pop them. Then I gave her a worry rock and she practiced holding it and putting all the scary feelings into the rock, and also her nightmares. It isn't a miracle, but the family left with hope on their faces. The dad came to me and said he needs help too, which was the best part--for him to see what was happening with his daughter and feel like he had enough faith in it to ask for help himself. I was able to sit with the parents and explain PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) to them and the heirarchy of safety so they could see where they are at and where they can be headed. As I've thought about it, it breaks my heart that horrible, hateful people could do so much damage to a child and a family, and to know there are probably thousands of other families going through the same thing, or worse, is sad. I remembered Joe's story about the Iraqi man thanking him and was touched by the heart of this man. It helps to see first hand that the good in that country is just as real as the evil, and I'm proud Joe is doing what he does...and our part is even smaller, just to support him and people who need help.

So those are my random thoughts about the week. I feel blessed to be a mom, to have the family I do, and to live in America.

50 Cents

No, I'm not into rap music. Since Dollar was the name of our first turtle, Nate likes the name 50 cents for our new turtle (who actually is about half the size of our first turtle) ...Wait, wait...I feel another turtle story coming on!

So, we decided last weekend to buy a new turtle. After all, we had $200.00 worth of turtle equipment, and no turtle. Turtles were a whopping $15.00 at the pet store, so we made the commitment to turtle #2...and aside from picking a name, it didn't appear this would really turn into a story.

With his tank filled (50 gallon with about 50 extra pounds of rocks inside), 50 cents (or whatever his/her name will be) was enjoying his new, albeit artificial environment when his ever so attentive 12 year old owner discovered the tank was sitting on top of the cord to the all important UVA/UVB artificial full-spectrum lighting. Our solution (after not being able to move the tank) was to let the turtle live without the all important artificial lighting until Tim got home to help move the tank. Forget emptying the tank...that would have been too much work. So Tim got home, grabbed the fully loaded tank and pulled. The tank didn't move, but the glass down the back of the tank broke from top to bottom. Instantly there was water leaking out the back of the tank and the next few minutes were a blur of towels, shop vac suctioning water (which also got too full and flooded) and more towels. The poor turtle spent the day in the sink while we debated returning him because he no longer had a home, or buying another tank. But being the devoted parents we are, we replaced the tank (we're now a whopping $321.00 into turtle supplies and have only ever spent $15.00 on a turtle...but who's counting?)

We're still trying to name the turtle...suggestions are 50 Cents, Peso, Penny (since based on internet pictures "it" looks female), and I think Yen, Euro, and Pound were also thrown out as suggestions. Please don't ask why we're naming our turtles after money...Dollar was a name that stuck so we seem to just have a theme going on here. Feel free to cast your vote!

Dollar

Dollar is a turtle. Dollar used to be named Turtlini and belonged to a co-worker. Turtlini didn't get along with Mrs. Turtlini so they went their seperate ways, and Turtlini came to live with us and became Dribble (named after the turtle in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing), then became Dollar...and Dollar is the name that stuck.

Next we spent about $200.00 on an appropriate home for our free pet...tank, filter, lights, basking log, food, water treatments...we got it all. And Dollar has been a very happy turtle. He swims; he eats; he basks; he eats; he sleeps; he eats...you get the picture. We've also heard that turtles like outdoor habitats, so we've taken him outdoors a few times to enjoy the real sun rather than the artificial UVA and UVB spectrum lights provided in his aquarium. He's done ok out there--no different really...just basks. Such is the life of a turtle.

A few weeks ago we decided to take him to our cabin with us rather than finding a neighbor to come in daily to care for him. After all, what turtle in his right mind wouldn't prefer a real outdoor habitat to artificial UVA and UVB spectrum lighting, artificial plant pellets, and and artificially heated tank? At the cabin we carefully prepared the blue vinyl wading pool (it was outdoors, so technically the pool was the only artificial part of his environment), filled it with water, added real logs and rocks, and put him in. He swam, then basked. He tried to climb out, but the vinyl was too slippery and seemed to keep him inside ok. He looked so happy basking on that log.

We spent the next little while going about our business of relaxing at the cabin. About 30 minutes later, Jeran yelled, "Dollar's missing!" We went outside and sure enough the call of the wild proved to be too great for little Dollar to ignore...and apparently the artificial vinyl wading pool wasn't enough of a natural habitat to satisfy his craving for a walk on the wild side. The good news is the cabin is in an area where there is a high water table and is surrounded by a lot of marshy swamp land. The bad news is we lost Dollar. We looked for him the whole time we were up there, and didn't find him. We kept thinking he had to come out to bask sometime, but apparently he was basking in a really good hiding spot because we didn't find him. When we originally researched how to take care of him we read about people who keep their turtles outside and in cold climates they supposedly burrow for the winter. Hope he's good at burrowing because Midway, Utah can get cold in the winter (sigh).

Already the boys have cleaned out the tank so we can go get a new turtle. Joie wants a bunny instead. Problem is Champ and Angel (the dogs) probably would also really, really like a bunny, but for different reasons.