ready for the big night!

We carved pumpkins on Wednesday night. We held out as long as possible since the climate where we live now is not the best for preserving carved pumpkins outside for extended periods of time (today it was 70° and when I got home from work tonight, there was one very large family of flies feasting on our festive jack-o-lanterns...yuck!). Anyway, the kids had fun and they are PUMPED for tomorrow. They even got to test out their costumes a couple of times this week. Grace was allowed to wear hers to dance class (and Sam decided that he needed to wear his there, too, to sit and color while the class danced) and yesterday, they had their Halloween parties at school. They were flying high with excitement when Miss Katie picked them up from school...guess I should have warned her! Oops...forgot to mention it :) More pics to come of trick-or-treating tomorrow, but for now, pumpkins:

Oh, and I almost forgot! Molly's ready, too:
This is why I really needed a dog...the cat just won't tolerate this kind of crap. :)

Fall photos

Yesterday, we went out looking for color. Unfortunately, Kentucky doesn't boast the fall colors quite as well as Michigan does. It goes from green to brown in about two days, so the window for color is very small! We did manage to find a few spots to get a few pictures, though. True, some of these don't even look "fall", but we still had fun on our nature walks.

a rare moment...

Me: "Sam, it's your turn to pick the movie."

Sam: "I'm going to pick Cinderella."

Me: "Good choice."

Sam: "I picked that because I knew Grace would be happy."

Grace (with big smile): "Thank you, Sam!"

Sam: "Aw...it was nothing."

:)

still growing...

Not much of a puppy anymore...at least in size :)


Only 7 months old...curious to see how big she is at the 1-year mark!

we're special...

You know those cute photo settings with a hole cut out for your face? So you can get a cute (and maybe a little cheesy) photo to commemorate a fun trip or experience? Sometimes, you get photos like these:

And then you notice a cute school bus with a few cut-outs so you can get both of your children's smiling faces peeking through the adorable, illustrative bus. Except when your kids are my kids. Then you get this:

I know it's a little difficult to see, but that would be my children fighting over who gets to drive. Oh, the fond, fond memories!

recent work

A recent order for a friend...
Little Huston has yet to be born, but I hope he loves this when he arrives!

Congratulations, Skinners!

Congratulations to the Skinners on the arrival of little Tate early this morning! Thank you to all who were praying for Brook and Tate and the whole family after her water broke at 32 weeks. Luckily, they were able to hold Tate off for just over a week and a half longer to give him a little more time to grow. So far, he's doing well! Can't wait to meet the little man!

say a little prayer...

Once again, we have friends in a tough spot. Please keep our good friends, the Skinners, in your thoughts and prayers. Brook is 32 weeks pregnant with their third little boy, Tate, and her water broke this past weekend. She is stuck in the hospital on strict bedrest for the duration. They are hoping to get her to 34 or 35 weeks before having to deliver...watching for signs of infection and making sure baby is safe constantly. If you want to check in on how things are going for them, Brook will be updating her blog pretty regularly, because...well...she has the time! Click here to get updates. Thank you!

what's that they say...

...about dogs resembling their owners?

bottom photo courtesy of Grace

caught

The scissors were missing.

We had just come home from the library and the kids were excited to get into the backpack we had just checked out containing materials all about pets. We headed into the kitchen, chatting the whole way. I opened the drawer while still talking to and looking at the kids. I needed to get the scissors out to cut the plastic ziptie that the library puts on the backpack so that no materials are removed from it until it arrives at the home of the person checking it out. I started to open the drawer and I saw Grace's eyes dart down toward the floor. When I looked over at the open drawer, the scissors were missing.

I looked back and forth from the little girl who was quietly staring at the floor to the boy who was still bouncing up and down talking about how awesome he had done on the baseball game on the library computer 15 minutes prior to this moment and completely oblivious to the fact that the scissors were missing.

My suspect was pretty easy to spot. She knew the green tray in the drawer was empty (well, except for the random assortment of scraps of paper and pens and paper clips and pens that don't write anymore...I could go on and on). And I was pretty sure she knew where I could find the item that belonged there.

We've always kept the scissors there, and, while I'd questioned whether I should put them higher before, I'd always convinced myself that if they were going to go after them, I'd rather they go after them from the ground than from perched atop a pile of mail on top of the counter after strategically placing a chair next to the counter so they could climb up there. Yes, maybe I'm my mother's daughter (she is the queen of the worst case scenario, but I am slowly earning my reign as princess...just wait for my circus post in a few days), but I have found items missing from on top of the fridge before, so I feel this decision was justified.

So, instead, since they are also too smart for child locks, we have always taught them which scissors were the "safe" scissors (the kids' craft scissors) and where those were kept (with the art supplies, easy to access) and which ones were off limits without the help of Mom or Dad.

I posed the question to both of them. That's when Sam stopped bouncing. He firmly stated, "Grace took them." The look on his face was his I-knew-she-was-doing-something-dangerous-but-I-couldn't-
bring-myself-to-tattle-until-you-asked-point-blank look, so I knew he was telling the truth. I looked at Grace, who still had her head down, but was peeking up at me to see my reaction. I held my anger (this is not the first time items have come up missing around here). I calmly asked her if she knew where I could find the scissors. She nodded and headed up to her room with me on her heels. She went right to her bed, crouched down, moved a basket of toys, and there, underneath a pile of doll clothes she had strategically placed, was the missing item. She handed them to me and I thanked her.

As we walked back downstairs to get back to the library materials, I had to ask her why she had scissors hidden in her room. Her response? "To open the fruit snacks that I hide for bedtime."

Stupid me.

Halloween preview

We're all set for Halloween costumes in this house. This year, the kids have really surprised me and I'm beaming with pride!

Last year, Grace almost had an anxiety attack in Meijer trying to decide between the ladybug and bumblebee costumes. At that time, she settled on the ladybug, but stated that she would be a bumblebee next (this) year. Throughout the year, whenever the subject has come up, she has stuck to that decision. In September, it hit me that she was actually going to follow through with it, so I starting planning her costume in my head. I really wanted to make it...had a definite idea on how I wanted it to look and was mapping out the execution in my head. But, we happened upon a big, overstuffed, cheesy bee costume in the store one day and she fell in love. At least she saved me a little time, I guess. Here's a little preview:


Now Sam is a different story. Last year, he told me that he was going to be Batman this year. He was pumped to be a fireman for Halloween '08 and I had resigned myself to the fact that it would probably be the last year that we could avoid the superhero costume. For him, though, throughout the year, whenever the subject has come up, he had a different costume in mind. In September, I told him that he needed to decide because we were going to have to get his costume figured out very soon. He looked at me very seriously and declared that he was going to be a police officer. I was thrilled, but not really clinging to any hope that he would actually stick with that once he saw a store full of a variety of costumes.

We hit Target first since I had seen the police officer costume online there. As we went up and down the aisles and he darted from "cool" costume to "awesome" costume, we started to realize that they didn't have the police officer in stock at that store. I gave him the option, at that point, of either proceeding to another store to look for it, or pick another costume at the store we were at. This choice prompted another walk up and down each costume-lined aisle, and, after that, I was so pleased when he said, "no, I want to keep looking for the police officer."

This is the third year in a row that he has picked a service role for Halloween! When he was 2, he was a garbage man (ahem...sanitation engineer); when he was 3, he was a firefighter; and now this year, at 4, he has chosen a police officer! We'll see what next year holds, but for now, a little preview of this year:


They are counting the days until the 31st!

call her frickin' Dr. Doolittle

One weekend afternoon
Grace comes downstairs with a couple of scratches on her face. I ask her what happened. She answers in a ticked off manner that "Gordon did it!"

Later that night
Kris and I head upstairs to bed and meet Gordon in the hallway. He looks like he's wet in several places. When I touch him, he's feels greasy in some places and crusty on the top of his head. I proceed to clean him up with baby wipes and the crusty stuff on the top of his head comes off black on the wipe.

The next morning
I ask Grace what happened to Gordon and she replies that she doesn't know. I continue on by telling her that I know she put something on him and she needed to tell me what it was. She takes me to her bathroom, hands me her froggy handsoap dispenser and says she only put soap on him. I believe it for the greasy spots...not so much for the black stuff on top of his head.

Later that morning
I take a shower and get myself ready to venture out of the house that day. As I pull my mascara wand out of the container, I see it is interlaced with cat hair.

The theory
Gordon always retreats to under our bathroom cabinet to get away from the kids...he learned long ago how to open the door and sneak in with the door closing behind him. I usually find him with his face near the back while his back feet and tail stay near the door. I picture my little cat whisperer giving Gordon beauty tips while crouching near his back feet and getting scratched in the face by his back claws...the only ones he has.

That child will never learn. Luckily, though, the cat has...he's learned that it is way easier to get away from the dog than get away from the kids and has started to spend more time downstairs again under my watchful eyes. And I see a glimmer in his blue eyes every time he manages to land a little blondie in time out.

Monday, Monday...

I'm optimistic that this Monday will be better than last Monday. It has started out pretty great. Although, last Monday started out pretty great as well. Last Monday was my mom's birthday. Before calling Grandma for her birthday, we headed off to sell some stuff to the second-hand children's store in town. I was pleased to walk out with a little cash in hand. Then we called mom for her birthday, got some stuff done around the house and had lunch. Then things went south.

The dog started vomiting around 2 o'clock and it continued until I finally decided I better call the vet around 4 o'clock. The vet wanted me to bring her in...obviously. So, before waking crabby Grace up from her nap, I layered blankets and puppy pads all over the back of the car and put the middle seat up so Molly would be barricaded in for the 5-minute drive to the vet. (And she did end up making use of that on the way.)

We arrived at the office and I struggled to form the parade in...two bickering preschoolers, one of which was plucked from her cozy bed just minutes before, and one very sick puppy dog who didn't even want to walk through the parking lot. Molly didn't throw up the entire time we were waiting for the doctor to come in.

The decision was made to do x-rays to determine if there was something in her belly. When they took the dog out of the room, I grilled the kids on whether they had seen Molly eat anything out of the ordinary that day. Sam was quick to let me know that Grace had fed her something at lunchtime: 2 bites of yogurt straight off of her spoon (yuck!). I let them know that the yogurt was most likely not the reason for the throwing up, but also that it was pretty disgusting to feed the dog off of your own spoon!

The review of the x-ray minutes later determined that Molly did have some foreign object in her belly, but we couldn't tell what it might be. Grace frantically rushed across the exam room, though, pointing and proclaiming, "Oh no! That's my yogurt in there!" In between getting a referral to another vet clinic to possibly have a scope done and figuring out whether I would have to take the kids with me or if Kris was home from work, yet, I calmed Grace and let her know that this was not her fault and that was not her yogurt in the picture. :) At this point, Molly had still not thrown up again.

Off the four of us went to another clinic who was staying open late for us to tend to our sick little girl. The whole way, I was adding up in my head what we might be spending and what items I could make for my Etsy shop to make up for the growing vet charges. I knew Kris was going to be beyond irritated.

We arrived at the next vet and Molly did not throw up the entire 20 minute drive over there. This doctor was a little more conservative than the last. She was still planning on the medications, but I think she could see the anguish on my face as I was torn between making sure the dog was okay and avoiding telling my husband that our vet charges would be inching towards a grand. So, she suggested, since the vomiting had subsided, that we give her the meds and she spend the night and the following day with them so they could monitor her. The plan was to do the scope if the vomiting started back up at any point and to feed her and see if she could keep it down if she seemed to be doing okay in the morning.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep much Monday night. I was so worried they would be calling to tell me I had a dead dog in the morning, which actually would have been easier for me to tell Kris than if they were to call and tell me they had to do the scope and they had to proceed to surgery. I held off calling right at 7:30 when they opened. As soon as I dropped the kids off to school and was on the road to work, though, I placed the call. Thankfully, so far, so good. The day proceeded well.

I picked Molly up at 6 on my way home and, for the first time, she was so excited to see me that she peed all over the vet lobby (usually, Kris is the only one lucky enough to get that reaction out of her!). They loaded me up with meds, prescription food for the week and instructions on what symptoms to watch for that might indicate an intestinal blockage, took my money (which was still slightly closer to $0 than $1,000) and sent us on our way.

And I got her home and...she immediately ate the arm off of a Little People construction worker. Ugh. I know this was a learning experience, just not necessarily for the dog. :) Thankfully, she seems to be doing well a week later. Now, we have to work on getting her weight back up, since she's all ribs, again, after this whole ordeal.

Stay tuned...tomorrow, I'll be posting on the cat and Grace's cat whisperer abilities.