Cute Hannah story and a busy week for Abby...

So, cute story from the other night. Yes, it’s potty-training related again (sort-of), but it’s a good one. Ron came home late almost every night last week so he didn’t get to see the girls before bedtime. Friday night Abby waited up for him (not by my choice – she just wouldn’t go to sleep) so he did get to see her briefly before sending her back to bed. He went in to kiss Hannah good night and her pajama pants were wet (she’d wet the bed two nights earlier in the week but has generally been dry lately otherwise). So he grabbed one of the few pull-ups that were left in her drawer and quickly changed her into it and just left her in the pajama top and pull-up. She was awake enough to ask to come and snuggle in our bed, so he brought her in bed with us for a while. I woke her up closer to morning and had her go back to her own bed.

When Abby and Hannah came in to wake me up on Saturday morning, the very first thing that Hannah said to me was, “Mommy, my pants fell off of me last night!”. Apparently she hadn’t quite been awake when Ron changed her and hadn’t noticed the lack of pants when she went back to her bed later on. When I explained that Daddy had changed her pants when he got home, I got a big “Ohhhhhh!” as if the world again made sense to her. I can imagine that it would be somewhat disconcerting to go to sleep with pajama pants on but then to wake up with no pants on!

Busy, busy week for Abby this week. Every evening this week she’s going to KidsGames, which is the community-wide vacation bible school program that our church is helping sponsor. She had a blast last night but since it runs until 9pm every night and her usual bedtime is 8pm, she’s going to be a tired munchkin by the end of the week, I’m sure. Also, the supervised playground program through our school district started yesterday so she goes to the elementary school across the street from our daycare from 9-12am and then again most days from 1-4pm. On Tuesday afternoons they bus the kids over to the middle school for swimming and on Thursday afternoons they have field trips. I’m not comfortable with every one of the field trips but she can go on some of them. Have I mentioned that this is FREE?! And our daycare provider is being very flexible and only charging us for the hours that Abby is actually at daycare. So some weeks she will cost us more than she did during the school year (since she was in kindergarten for only half-days), some weeks she’ll cost us the same and some weeks will actually be cheaper. Wow. August will be hard since the supervised playgrounds will be done and we’ll have to pay full price for her that month until school starts, but since she’ll be in 1^st grade this fall and Hannah will be in Young 5’s (like pre-K) for half-days, our daycare bill will go down somewhat considerably then, so we’ll just have to manage for August. Abby will also be going crazy without the extra stimulation (she’s a child that needs to be constantly challenged, so she’s much happier when school is in session), but thankfully they do have activities every day at daycare and I will try to keep her as busy at home as I can too in the evenings. One more of the 50,000 reasons that I wish I didn’t have to work full-time…

Potty talk

Yes, it’s the obligatory potty training post. Something every parent can relate to because we all have to go through it! I’m sure there are many stories out there – here is ours so far.

So our second daughter, Hannah, is 4 ½ years old. And at the rate at which she’s been potty training, she’ll probably be fully potty trained by, oh college maybe. Honestly it feels like that. Abby was very easy to potty train – she potty trained fairly late, not until just before her 3^rd birthday, but once it happened, it happened fairly quickly or so it seemed. She was dry at night from the very beginning even and I don’t think she has ever wet the bed. At the time that we were training Abby, Hannah was about 18 months and she was really interested in that little potty chair too. I have pictures of our little toddler sitting on the potty chair and she even would go in it (both kinds!) if we sat her on it. We didn’t want to push her, but inwardly we were cheering and looking forward to the diaper-free days we saw before us not too far away. Or at least diaper-free until baby #3 came along anyway. After over a year of two kids in diapers, we were more than ready to save some of the cost and effort.

Yeah, um ok. Maybe we jinxed something there or I don’t know what. We started ‘officially’ potty training Hannah when she hit about 2 ½. It was summer, seemed like a good time, plus I was newly pregnant with baby #3 so we were figuring on at least a few diaper-free months. Hannah did great at first – even started being dry at night, so we thought we were done. Nope. After a few great weeks, she backslid completely and was back fully in pull-ups (we refused to go all the way back to diapers) by fall. We let it go and waited until her 3^rd birthday in November then started again. So a year and a half later – we’re still working on it. I can’t say that she has ever been what I would consider ‘fully’ potty trained. She’ll go a couple of weeks with no accidents and we’ll breathe easier. Then she’ll go a couple of weeks with accidents every day. It was a big problem at preschool this past year. We’ve tried sticker charts, incentives, dis-incentives, everything we can think of other than outright punishing her for accidents (which Ron wants to do but I refuse since I don’t think it’s entirely her fault). I think it’s at least partly a control issue – Hannah is one of those children who only does things (like learning to walk) when she is darn good and ready and not before. It’s very hard to give a child an incentive (or dis-incentive) when she changes the things she cares about and thinks are important almost weekly. Candy, stickers, stuffed animals, toys, money – she could care less if she gets them or not. We have yet to find the ‘one thing’ that matters most to her. And believe me, we've tried.

I have to put in a plug here for Pediacast, a podcast that I started listening to a couple of months ago. Dr. Mike gives wonderful explanations of things that doctors just don’t have time to go into in the office. Thanks to his infamous ‘poop’ episodes, I came to realize that part of Hannah’s problem may be constipation. Something I’d never really considered before (even though I’ve struggled with it lifelong) because she does go on a regular basis. But, as I learned from Dr. Mike, you can still be constipated even if you go regularly, and constipation can be one reason for older children to be having wet accidents. And Hannah has been complaining of stomach aches for a while now too. So I made an appointment with our pediatrician and as of this morning we are trying a two-pronged approach. First of all – back to basics. We will have her sit on the potty every 2 hours (I’m going to find a timer or something this weekend so it’ll be easier to keep track of) with no incentives or dis-incentives for now. We also have a prescription for MiraLax, which hopefully will help the constipation issue – we’re going to try for a month or so and check back in when we go for Becca’s 18-month appointment at the end of July. At this point I’m hoping we have some luck or at this rate, Becca will be potty trained before Hannah is! Do I see diaper-free days ahead again? I’m not getting my hopes up this time, but we’ll see…

Families

I was thinking today about families. My mom is coming to visit this weekend as she does every month or two and I look forward to her arrival for many reasons. My kids absolutely love the time that Grandma has to dedicate specifically to them, which then gives me a bit of a break. I myself like to spend time with her as well. And she generally takes us out to eat one night, so I look forward to an evening out at a restaurant – something we can’t always afford on our own. Ok, so that’s a bit of a selfish reason, but hey, I’m being honest here.

I’m very glad that my kids have the chance to know their grandparents – all 4 of their grandparents are still alive and well right now, and hopefully will remain so for some time. My own experience was much different as my mom’s parents were both deceased by the time I was born, and my dad’s parents were gone by the time I hit early elementary school. I only have a few memories of them and my younger brother doesn’t remember them at all. I’m glad that my kids will have the chance to create memories with and of their own grandparents since I never really had that chance.

Like many other families today, my own is somewhat blended as a result of divorces and remarriages. Even the question, “How many brothers and sisters do you have?” is getting harder and harder for many people to give a simple answer to. In my own case, I usually just state that I have one brother since going into the half and (previous) step siblings would require a lot more time and effort than I think most people are really interested in. Then again, they are (or were in some cases) a part of my family, and a part of my life in one form or another.

So, in honor of Father’s Day coming up, here’s my entire family description – since it’s based pretty much on my dad’s life. My dad’s first marriage produced two children – my half sister and brother. They were pretty much grown when their parents divorced and then my dad married my mom. My half-brother, Rick, lived with my parents for the first couple of years until he himself got married. My half-sister, Linda, was married soon after my parents were. I haven’t seen Linda or her family (she has two boys and I have no idea if either of them has any kids) since I was 16, which was 20 years ago. Rick has one son, Adam, who is married and himself has 2 boys. It must have been odd for my dad to be having children himself at the same time that his older children were – I am only about a year older than my oldest half-nephew and my younger brother has half-nephews who are older than he is. Adam’s two sons are around the same ages as my own kids. I have one younger brother, Donnie, who is my full brother. Our parents divorced when I was 20 and my dad re-married soon afterward. For 10 years, we had a stepmother, a stepsister and two stepbrothers. And 5 step-nieces. Donnie and I never really felt like part of that family – mainly because we were so old when our dad re-married, so that we never actually lived with our stepmom. And because stepfamilies can be fleeting – my dad and former stepmom divorced a few years ago and I haven’t seen or talked to any of my former step siblings since. At 78 years old, my dad is unlikely to marry again, but he does have a steady girlfriend, so I suppose you never know. My mom has never remarried.

So that’s the long version of my family. Confused yet? :) Hopefully my kids’ will never get so complicated – it’ll be hard enough to explain my own to them someday.

Fifth Disease and the not so littlest pet shop

I think I know what caused the rash! It seems to be the same thing that caused Ron’s body aches last week. Someone here at work thought my rash looks like Fifth Disease, which is uncommon in adults, but not unheard of. My symptoms seem to be classic of this disease – feeling ill with headache slight fever then a few days later breaking out into a (usually non-itchy) rash on face, extremities and torso. Joint pain is also associated with the disease in adults, so I think that I probably caught it from Ron who got the joint pain part, and if he had the rash at all, it probably just looked like sunburn, especially since he’s outside a lot during the day. We’ll have to wait and see now if any of the kids get it – there’s no treatment or way to prevent it since it’s just a virus like a cold. I’d never heard of it before. Apparently the rash can last up to a month, so I guess I’d better get used to being pink. At least it just looks like a mild sunburn, which is easily explained this time of year. Having a rash like this in January might cause a lot more comment.

The kids made a ‘pet store’ with all of their (many, many) stuffed animals last night in the living room. There was an area for stuffed dogs, stuffed cats, horses, monkeys, giraffes, fish, you get the idea. I was allowed to purchase a multicolored Care Bear for $10 of imaginary money and a stuffed unicorn for 2 imaginary dollars. I was originally told I could only purchase one animal at a time, but successfully pleaded my case that my stuffed animal ‘pet’ would need a friend so that it wouldn’t be too lonely. However, when a stuffed ‘Lumpy’ elephant wanted to join my menagerie, I was strictly told that I would have to return one of my previous purchases. Decisions, decisions! The ‘pet store’ was ultimately disrupted when someone let a 16-month-old toddler loose in the living room store and she decided that she wanted to play with and ‘adopt’ all of the pets that she could get her little hands on. This caused a serious rift between the business owners (my 6 and 4-year-olds) and said toddler, amid screams of “Becca’s ruining our store”, and “Hey, she didn’t pay for that!”. So the pet store had to close up shop and all stuffed pets were returned to whence they came, namely the older girls’ room. So ends their first foray into free enterprise. And I realized that my children have way, way too many stuffed animals.

Pink splotches

Hmmm, I woke up this morning covered in pink splotches. They don't itch, they don't seem to be spreading, they just... are. It's very interesting actually - I've spent way more time inspecting them today at work than I probably should be. And they're everywhere - arms, legs, stomach, back. If I weren't so freckled and splotchy in general, it would probably be a lot more noticeable on my face and arms - so far nobody's noticed to the extent of actually asking me if I'm ok. Or maybe they just think that this is a new look for me - who knows...

I did call the doctor, just in case this turns out to be some new type of plague or incredibly contagious in some fashion. I had gone into the doctor on Friday for what I thought was probably another of the myriad of sinus infections that I get - I'd felt tired and lethargic since Tuesday, had no appetite and a horrible headache. All of which usually signals a sinus infection although my sinuses didn't actually seem too bad this time. The doctor couldn't find much but (since I was pretty sure something was wrong) she did give me a prescription for an antibiotic, but suggested that I wait to fill it and see if I felt better over the weekend. I did feel better, so I never filled the prescription. So I explained all of that to the nurse today since I don't know if this mystery rash is related to how I was feeling last week or not. When they called back, I was told it was probably a reaction to the medication (apparently the fact that I didn't fill the prescription didn't get relayed) or something viral. They didn't think it would be any more contagious than a cold, which is good news for my co-workers and family, I guess. I'm supposed to keep an eye on it (hard not to do) and call them back if it gets worse or starts itching. Ok. So until then, or until it decides to go away, I guess I just get to be pink and splotchy all over!

Bring Back Geography!

As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, I am a GIS Analyst. We’ll go into exactly what GIS is at a later date. But when skimming through an industry periodical today, I ran across the following article, entitled “Bring Back Geography”, written by Jerome E. Dobson in the Spring 2007 issue of ArcNews. Hmmm, I hadn’t actually ever thought about it before but apparently I majored in a subject that has been ‘purged’ from most American universities, especially in the Ivy League. The article makes some very good points about how geography as a discipline has been largely ignored, purged or reinvented under other names such as ‘Earth Science’ or ‘Place Studies’. Geography is really much more, as explained by Mr. Dobson,

“Geography is more than you think. Geography is to space what history is to time. It is a spatial way of thinking, a science with distinctive methods and tools, a body of knowledge about places, and a set of information technologies that have been around for centuries. Geography is about understanding people and places and how real-world places function in a viscerally organic sense. It's about understanding spatial distributions and interpreting what they mean. It's about using technology to study, in the words of the late professor J. Rowland Illick, "why people do what they do where they do it." Geography is a dimensional science and humanity based on spatial logic in which locations, flows, and spatial associations are considered to be primary evidence of earth processes, both physical and cultural. Its hallmarks are spatial analysis, place-based research (e.g., regional studies, area studies, urban studies), and scientific integration.

The familiar litany also implies that geography is just for kids, something you learn in elementary school or high school if you're lucky, and use for the rest of your life without any need for new learning. Does geography really matter for grownups? Of course it does. Geographic knowledge, understanding, and skills matter, for instance, in formulating foreign policy, designing and using GIS, and just about everything else in society that involves locations, movements, and flows.”

Wow. This really makes me think about a couple of things. First is that when I went through a period a few years ago of thinking to go back to school and study elementary education, I contacted the local public university here to see what I would need to do since I already have a Bachelor’s Degree. Well, apparently if your existing degree is in what’s considered to be a ‘teachable major’ then all you have to do is complete the certification process and ouila! Very simple. However, if your major is not considered ‘teachable’ then you basically have to start from scratch. Guess what’s not considered a teachable major? Yep, Geography. Hmmm, somehow that escaped me back when I was majoring in it and one of the options for specialization was ‘Teaching of Geography’. Now granted that it was an option to teach geography at the secondary (high school) level, but still.

The other thought I had when I read this article is actually related to something I was watching on tv last night. I haven’t seen much of the popular show, “Are You Smarter Than a 5^th Grader”, but due to the lack of much other than re-runs on television right now, I had this show on last night. One of the questions given to the contestant (the grade level this question was aimed at escapes me right now) was something like “Which great lake does the state of Indiana border?”. Now given that I live in the “Great Lakes” state of Michigan (which also borders Indiana), to me this was a gimmee. But even so I was totally amazed when both the contestant as well as his 10-year-old ‘classmate’ got this question wrong, choosing Lake Erie instead of Lake Michigan. I can (somewhat) understand not being able to place the exact locations of some of the interior states (especially the ones all shaped like rectangles, which I have to admit I have trouble with as well sometimes) but the Great Lakes comprise some of the country’s most distinctive and (I would think) easy-to-recognize geographical area. Hmmm. “Bring Back Geography!”? I guess so.

Mom's weekend - relaxing? Maybe...

So my friend Mary had invited me a while back to a 'moms-only' weekend at her house the first weekend of June. Her hubby had agreed to take their kids camping for the weekend, leaving her home alone. I jumped at the chance and informed Ron that he would be responsible for our kids that weekend - either staying home with them or making childcare arrangements. Which, of course, he put off doing until a week beforehand, but that's not the subject of this post, so I'm not going to dwell on that. Or the 15-year-old niece he lined up to babysit all day Saturday for $50. Yes, she is very responsible, but it just makes me a bit nervous. I don't know how the weekend would've gone if we'd been able to have it at Mary's house as originally planned, but the weather gods did not shine down upon us and given the forecast was for rain, we agreed to meet in Kalamazoo and split the cost for a hotel for the night. Since I live near Grand Rapids and she lives near Coldwater, it's a good in-between spot and it also helps that we both went to college there (which is where we met) so we know the area pretty well. Believe me, that definitely helped during the weekend!

So I took off on Saturday and after a few stops (credit union, gas station, etc.) I was on my way. I actually got to K'zoo early (yes, I know such a rare occurrence for a busy mom - must've been my kid-free state...) and beat Mary to the hotel. Since it was nice out, I sat in my van with the driver's side door open and actually spent the next half hour on the phone with Mary as she drove there. When she arrived, we checked in (thankfully the hotel had a room ready since it was well before the regular check-in time - quick shout out to the Country Inn & Suites in Kalamazoo - it was a nice hotel at a decent cost) and unloaded our bags. We then moved a loft bed from my van to Mary's.

Ok, I'm not going to give a rundown of the whole weekend but the previous information is important in terms of what happened next. It started with the power sliding door on my van which suddenly stopped working while we were unloading and then moving the bed. So we took Mary's van during the afternoon to let mine sit for a while. We had a great lunch at Big Apple Bagel - the theme of the weekend was to do everything that we can't usually do with kids. So we sat at the 2-person tables with the 'tall' chairs (very nice for us vertically challenged folks!), that kind of thing. Had a nice, relaxing lunch then hit the stores. See the earlier 'pajama' post for more specifics on the shopping if you want but we had a good time shopping at our leisure. We did manage to get 'lost' at one point, trying to find an alternative route over the freeway due to road construction, but we saw some very nice neighborhoods that we had never seen before. Not to mention a couple of large homes for sale next door to each other that we decided that if we could afford, we'd just have to look at further. Since neither of us can afford to move though, we drove on.

Really the next piece of excitement came that night when we returned to the hotel and I went to put some shopping bags in my van. So at this point, not only the power door had stopped working but I noticed that the clicker thingy on my keychain wasn't unlocking the doors either. Hmmm. And the dome light was very, very dim when I opened the door. So I tried starting the van - nothing. Not a buzz, ding or beep, much less the engine turning over. Oops. Now I don't think that the half hour of sitting there with the door open earlier that day would've drained the battery that much. I do know that the tailgate didn't shut completely after we moved the bed over, but at that point, the power sliding door was already not working. But having that door ajar for the rest of the day probably just drained the last bit of energy from the battery completely.

So of course, it's now Saturday night, away from home - thankfully we did have one working vehicle and a working cell phone (Mary's, since mine was dead and the only charger I had with me was the car charger - yeah, not an option at this point). And my van was in the hotel parking lot rather than on the side of the road or something. So, we were not going to let this slight hiccup ruin our weekend fun. Which consisted of... lots of sleep. Yep, we're both sleep-deprived moms for whom the thought of an uninterrupted 8 hours - or more - was one of the main reasons for this whole escapade. When we finally awoke, breakfasted, scrapbooked for a while, then loaded up and checked out, we had a plan.

We popped the hood on my van and attempted to remove the battery so we could take it to an auto parts store and replace it. Um yeah. Until we realized that whoever designed the engine compartment of the 1998 Pontiac Transport did so with the idea to keep auto mechanics in business. The battery on my van is literally buried below several other parts of the engine and we did not feel at all equipped to attempt to remove it ourselves. Yes, we are pretty independent, smart women, but this one was beyond our capability. One passerby with a remote car jump starter (like this) tried to jump the van without success. After considering plans B, C, and D, I thought to call my car insurance company. Big plug here for the 24-hour Good Neighbor service from State Farm! I easily reached a real person who verified that we do have roadside assistance for this vehicle as part of our policy. So an hour later, after we had a very large tow truck come and jumpstart the van, it was running again. Phew! And it continued to run even after we shut it off (after driving it to the car parts store, just in case). So we went ahead with the rest of our day, which included more shopping (of course!), lunch, and a movie. Then, our moms-only weekend was over and it was time to head home.

In retrospect, I think we might've had more time to relax if we'd gone to Mary's, but not as much shopping and probably not a movie. So all in all I think the weekend was a success. And as for what caused my minivan battery to die in the first place? It's worked fine since, so I have no idea. Maybe I'll just have to not tempt fate and stay put at home for a while now.

Just for a simple pair of pajamas...

So after years of wearing maternity and nursing nightwear, I came to realize recently that I have absolutely no summer pajamas anymore. Ok, well none that fit anyway. That's a whole separate issue! So when my friend Mary and I were planning our big 'moms only' weekend get together last weekend, I said that the one thing that I wanted to find while shopping was a pair of comfy summer pj's. Shirt and shorts. You wouldn't think that this would be such a tall order.

First of all, unless you are a super-skinny model type, most of the styles of clothing today are out. Our first stop was Meijer and neither of the 2 racks of nightwear had anything close to what I was looking for. Then we headed to Target. Lots of options - if you are a super-skinny, model type. I couldn't believe the skimpy shorts and baby doll t-shirts that were pretty much everything they had. Ok, well so maybe 10 years ago I MIGHT have fit into something like that. Not after 3 kids however. I just wanted something comfortable.

We had better luck at Sears, thankfully. Finally a store that recognizes that women come in all shapes and sizes! They had a great 3-piece set of pajamas, complete with both shorts and pants, in a variety of sizes and colors (see photo for example). Very cute, very comfortable-looking. Without going into specifics of what size I was looking for (too depressing to think about), I was having trouble locating the correct size in a print that I liked. The ones I seemed to like the best came only in a sleeveless version, and I really wanted short sleeves. Ok, so I finally settled on a pair in pink, which did fit, but if they shrank at all then it would be close. After getting home on Sunday, I thought well maybe I'll just run up to the Sears here and see if they have a pair in the correct size. No big deal. When I got there, they had only one pair in my size, and I hated the colors. I did see one in a color that I liked, which was a size bigger than I needed. I unwrapped them and held them up and thought, ok well these will shrink, so maybe I can make them work. So I did the exchange and headed home to change into my new, comfy pj's.

I got home and put on the shirt, which was indeed tent-like on me. Then I put on the shorts - which barely fit. Hmmm. So I looked at the sizes on each of them. The shirt was the size which I had purchased (huge). The shorts were 2 sizes smaller (the size of the pair that I'd just returned). The pants were in between - the size that I actually needed. Three parts to the set and each one a different size. And it had been packaged just as if it had never been opened. I thought about it long and hard - I know, way too much stress over what to wear to sleep in. And since I had to run out to the other mall to pick up something else anyway.... I figured it couldn't hurt to look there and see if I could (finally) find something that would work. So today at lunch, i headed over there. And finally found, in the correct size (yes, I double-checked all 3 pieces), and in a nice blue color that I really like, a pair of pajamas. Now I just have to wait 9 hours or so to put them on. Hmmm, maybe I'll put them on when I get home and just wear them all evening. Yep, that's what I'll do. :)

A little more background is probably in order...

So here I am at post #4 on this blog already and I haven't really explained much about me or who I am. So here goes...

Who am I? Well, I guess the short answer is a mom, a wife, a GIS Analyst, a sister, daughter and friend. I'm not going to give my life history here - first of all I'd bore everyone to death probably and second of all, it's really not necessary. Who knows if anyone else will ever read this, but if so, they will probably learn more about me just by reading over time. But, I suppose that I probably should give at least a few 'vital statistics'.

Born on November 6, 1970 (yes, that makes me 36 years old as of this writing), in Southfield, Michigan. I grew up in the same house until I moved away for college and my parents divorced soon afterward. I have an older half-sister and half-brother, and one younger brother. For about 10 years, I also had a step-sister, 2 step-brothers and 5 step-nieces, but my dad and his 3rd wife divorced several years ago. Both of my parents still live outside Detroit, while I live outside of Grand Rapids - on the western side of Michigan. Ron grew up here and his family is still in the area. Close to family, close to the beautiful beaches of Lake Michigan, this area is now home.

So here's a list of things about me that I answered for a post on a message board that I'm active on. It's as good of an introduction as anything and it doesn't require additional typing.

1. What is your full name ? Deborah
2. Where do you live/are you from ? I live in Grandville, but am from the Detroit area (Southfield).
3. What are your husband/SO/kid's names, ages ? Ron is 37, Abby is 6, Hannah is 4 and Becca is 16 months.
4. Are you a SAHM/WAHM/Work outside of the home ? What do you do ? I work full-time doing mapping (GIS).
6. What is/are you favorite TV show(s) ? Gilmore Girls, all of the CSI's, 7th Heaven, Psych, The Closer, American Idol, Heroes, and the New Adventures of Old Christine.
7. What type of music do you like ? mostly Alternative, some pop or Christian.
8. Who is/are your favorite actor(s)/actress(es) ? Don't really have a favorite.
9. What is your favorite color ? Green
10. What is your favorite food ? Pizza
11. What are your hobbies ? Crocheting, reading, walking, have been trying to get into scrapbooking more.
12. What is/are your favorite smilies ? These are the ones that I use the most:
13. If you could go anywhere for a vacation, where would it be and why ? Ireland, Wales, Scotland
14. If you had $500 to spend ONLY on yourself, what would you do with the money ? Hmmm, clothes, books, music, yarn, sewing lessons
15. What is your "dream job" ? Being a

Pets

Ok, well so a little bit of pet history here. I always had pets growing up, dogs, cats, even gerbils for a few years and one goldfish - well, the fish was my brother's. Oh yes, and I had a pet mouse for a while too. My hubby, Ron, also grew up with pets in the house although I can't tell you exactly what kinds or for how long. When we met, I had 2 cats and he had 1. Well, his family had 1 - he lived with his parents at the time, although technically the cat was his, not his parents'. So, when we moved in together, we tried to merge the pets into a 'yours and ours' situation. This did not go well. Ron's small black cat, Molly, terrorized my 2 cats completely. For the week that we had Molly in our apartment, I don't think that either of my cats, Antigone or Cory, came out from under the bed. We tried, but it just didn't work. Molly went back home to Ron's parents' house.

When we had our first child, things worked out fine with the baby and the 2 cats. We have many cute pictures of the cats sniffing Abby, with expressions of, "hey what is this 'thing' you've brought into our house?" on their kitty faces. All in all though, baby and kitties co-existed peacefully. When I was pregnant with our second child though, I decided that 2 kids and 2 kitties was too much to handle. So we found a good home for Cory before Hannah was born. When we found our current home, the previous owners had (for some obscure reason) decided that white carpeting in the living room and main hallway was a good selling point. That can be debated, but my feeling was the a black kitty (Antigone) and white carpeting was not a good mix. So, Antigone went to live with my mom. The carpet was not the only reason - Antigone is a very lap-friendly kitty who needs a lot of attention (which she was not getting in our home) and since my mom lives alone, it made sense. So that left us pet-free, which didn't hurt my feelings any.

As the kids have gotten older, they have asked for various pets. We did try a guinea pig for a while, but we came to realize that it wasn't the right pet for us, so we gave her to our niece, who had a couple of other guinea pigs to keep her company. Then, we found out that another of our nieces had a cat that had just had kittens (this was July of 2005). The conversation between my husband and myself included taking our (at the time) 2 kids to 'visit' the kittens. Now, I knew that once my girls saw and played with the kittens that the inevitable, 'can we have one?' would come up with an infinite number of pleases and whining involved. So, when we went to 'visit' the kittens, (who were just as adorable as I knew they would be), I caved - but I managed to place several restrictions on my approval of bringing a small fluffy kitten into the house. First of all, my husband would be forever and ever responsible for the litter box (one chore he was always able to ditch before since our previous cats were really 'my' cats and not 'his', at least according to him). Plus, I also got him to agree to vacuum the house (and furniture) OFTEN. So finally, I relented and our kitten, Misty, came home. Our girls were not great with her at first - poor Misty was petted, carried, hugged and placed into a great quantity of objects either of her own free will or that of a preschooler or toddler. But as Misty grew, she and the girls have done well.

Of course, then another niece had a cat who had kittens in March of 2006. And of course, we went to 'visit' the kittens. And of course, the girls decided that Misty needed a friend, so we brought home Peaches. Peaches fared better with the girls who were older now and also used to having a cat around. However, she developed the bad habit of chewing on various items around the house, unfortunately including the interlocking foam square tiles that cover a great portion of our basement floor. Right before Christmas, she got sick, so we took her to the vet. Over $500 and a week later, Peaches came home - the verdict was bowel obstruction. Thankfully for our pocketbook, she managed to pass the piece of foam on her own so the treatment was mainly IV fluids since she was severely dehydrated when we brought her in. She wasn't quite the same, carefree kitty afterwards, and within a few weeks she had also started chewing on foam again. This time, we didn't get her to the vet quick enough and Ron found her body in our bathtub one day. Thankfully the girls and I weren't home at the time. We said our goodbyes to Peaches and the girls learned about death for the first time in their short lives. Misty seemed lonely without her friend but was managing ok on her own.

Well, Ron's mom had kept one of Peaches' siblings (named Muddy Waters for her muddy tan color) and earlier this year informed us that Muddy was expecting kittens. As soon as my girls heard, they decided that Misty needed a new friend. The kittens were born the day after Abby's birthday, so Grandma told Abby that she and Hannah could pick out a new kitty to bring home. Just a few weeks ago, little Snuggly joined the family. After a few days, she and Misty are now getting along well and our older girls are doing great with her. Becca is a slightly different story - at 16 months she thinks that the kitten is a live version of one of her stuffed animals or baby dolls, so the poor kitten gets picked up by whatever body part Becca can get a hold of if she can't manage to get her hands around Snuggly's middle. We're working on that with her. Little Snuggly though, has a habit of getting underfoot, as kittens do, and trying to sneak her way into various cupboards, closets and outside.

So, all of this (loooong - sorry!) background brings me to last Friday. I stopped home at lunchtime after spending the morning helping with Beach Day at Abby's kindergarten class. When I walked into the house, I could hear the kitten crying so began looking for her, thinking she'd gotten shut into a bedroom or closet. I finally found her - in the refrigerator. The poor little thing must've gotten shut in there that morning and had been stuck for hours. She seemed ok, just a bit cold and shaky. After several minutes of snuggling and petting her she was fine. She'd done quite well for herself in there - had helped herself to a portion of a leftover hamburger patty that Ron had put in a plastic baggie in the fridge and also to a cup of milk that one of the girls had placed in there. I'm not sure who shut the refrigerator door without noticing her in there, but I'm sure that it was one of the girls. So I had a bit of a talk with them about watching to make sure there's no kitten in the fridge before they close it, and hopefully they will remember that. I'm just happy that I stopped home at lunch that day!