Happy Halloween!

Fall & dragons

<-- She used real leaves on this. It had several more leaves on it before Petey found them and ripped them off.

We've had a really urgent, very sad dog situation that's been taking up much of my time and mental space lately. It just never ends. On the very positive side, our "puppy mill bill" that's been forefront for all of us, passed unanimously on Tuesday. We were surprised and very, very happy! It's another tiny victory, but we will definitely savor it briefly before we move on to the next.

We've also had a contractor working on installing a new door in the side entryway. I'm so happy we're finally getting it done, as we've needed to for quite a while. It's just so stressful for me to have people come in and do work. Making sure the animals don't get out, get into anything dangerous, get too stressed and get sick--it keeps me on pins and needles the whole time we're getting the work done. I'm going to have to just deal, because we have many more projects that need to be done. I have to stop putting these things off, but it's just so unpleasant!

L has been prolific with her art again lately. We are going to go broke trying to keep up with her need for sketch pads and books! She informed me yesterday that all she wants for xmas are books and cat figurines. You've seen photos of her extensive cat figurine collection taking up my entire living room. She has tons of them already! She even knows the exact count. She uses them frequently, so I can't really complain, but I just can't fathom the need for so many. It actually amazes me to watch her play with them. She has names for all of them and they all have clans and affiliations, and she can get lost for hours playing with those cats--either by herself or with a friend. I have never, in my entire life, played that way or understood how people could. I have always been imaginations impaired. I'm glad she's not!

Catching cooties...

One of the activities L & I worked on this week was creating cootie catchers. I have no idea why they are called 'cootie catchers'. I remembered loving these as a child at that age, and I thought she too would enjoy them. She caught on really quickly, and made three of them—all with different ‘fortunes’ or predictions. Ivan even stars in one fortune. She then decided it would be cool to nest them, stacking all three of them and using them that way. I’m glad we did those together. We had a lot of fun, even though I had to keep picking colors/numbers/animals over and over and over, for hours on end! I so enjoy sharing things from my childhood with her—especially when she really likes it.

Her predictions really give some insight as to how her little mind works these days. Here are all of them from her three creations, exactly as she has written them. My commentary/explanations are in parenthesis.

Cootie Catcher #1 predictions:
1. You will be a doctor for ugly people
2. I will make sure you wear a baby diaper! Ha ha
3. This is my year. Where does that leave you? DEAD! (with a picture of a smiling girl drawn next to it.)
4. What do dogs think? “Someday they will leave the gate open!”
5. Follow this map (map drawn, with an X marking the spot) Now be quiet (written next to the X)
6. I’m a queen so you’re a peasant now!
7. Fly away. Of course you have wings. Pull your ears wide.
8. Go jump in a lake and you will turn into a frog!

Cootie Catcher #2 predictions:
1. You will have a winning streak!
2. I van my cat will make you suffer!
3. You will have bad luck. Ha ha
4. A tiger will take you to the jungle today!
5. You will be bitten by a crazy monkey.
6. You will own a cat.
7. You’re going to turn into a fairy.
8. You will get a heart, so try to be nice.

Cootie Catcher #3 predictions:
1. You wanna know the meaning of life? You were put here so live here!
2. You’re going to have bad luck today!
3. You will find a penny, pick it up, and all day you’ll have a mousetrap stuck on your butt.
4. You want my advice? Shut up, listen, and stand still. I’m gonna knock your block off. (she picks up such lovely things from Charlie Brown)
5. You will have to think it through. That shows how you have no brains, so go away hollow head!
6. Go jump in that pool. Oh noooooooooo, those are not sharks. Those are plastic fins.
7. You’re going to have luck today.
8. You will marry a monkey! LOL

The funny thing is, while I clearly remember making and using these things quite often, I have no recollection of anything I wrote inside. I’m sure none of it was as unique and interesting as her items! I can’t even come up with one thing I might possibly have written in a cootie catcher. It’s a complete blank. It’s maddening! Stuff like that makes me very irritated with my brain, which seems to just randomly pick and choose little snippets of life to remember. That’s one of so many reasons I have stuck with blogging. I have many memories, but many more ‘blanks’ from my childhood. Maybe my kids will look back and want to fill in the blanks, maybe they won’t, but the information is there and easily accessible to them if they do want to know more about the day-to-day moments that made up their lives.

I spent the last several days getting my butt kicked by strep throat. I haven't had strep since I had my tonsils removed ten years ago. I used to get it several times a year, so this ten-year break has been nice. I'm hoping it will be another ten years before I get it again. I'm still not at 100%!

The girls left a HUGE mess in the kitchen, after carving their giant pumpkins. Dej called to see if her sister wanted to carve pumpkins with them tonight. L is thrilled to be invited to do just about anything with her very cool, big sister. It was so wonderful to see them having fun together! Luke came with Dej, but L didn't mind. It just gives her one more person to boss around.
She was excited that this year she did all of it by herself, for the first time. She carved a Snoopy and a Woodstock on her pumpkin (and carved her name). She still plans to do her 'regular' pumpkin carving with daddy later this week.

That means two batches of delicious pumpkin seeds the year. L has asked about every two minutes if the current batch of pumpkin seeds are done yet! Dej carved a Garfield head on her pumpkin.

L had her first test in Bharatanatyam class today. She only lost one point, for missing the 14th step of step 12. Yeah, you might need to read that mess twice. There are many, many steps, and each step contains many distinct movements that are also called steps. In addition to learning all the steps and movements, she has to learn Sanskrit--with pages and pages of slokas that need to be memorized. She's doing very well. Half the class was out sick today.

L is recovering from strep throat. She started antibiotics on Monday night and is feeling much better already. She bounces back from things quicker than anyone I know. She's also so cheerful and happy most of the time--even when she's sick.

I got the virus too but not the strep. I'm still amazed by the fact that I haven't had strep since I got my tonsils out at the age of 30! I had always had it 3-4 times a year before that. I felt rotten from the virus but not nearly as bad as I would have with strep.

We were home sick yesterday and had as enjoyable of a sick day as we could. We snuggled together in my bed and watched the marathon of "A Haunting". She loves that show. Even sick, she was a little on the chatty side, so I didn't get as much naptime as I needed. Soon enough, she'll be too big to chatter my ear off in bed, though, so I can live without the nap!

The piggies got greens and red peppers tonight. It was the first time I've given them the red peppers, which is a great source for the extra vitamin C they need. All six of them loved it! They snatched it right out of my hands--even baby Luna. They each have such distinctive little personalities. We're having so much fun getting to know each of them and their likes and dislikes. The rabbits seem surprisingly uninterested in them so far, which kind of surprised me. We also learned tonight that the rabbits do not want anything to do with red peppers!

Notice that L's hair is much shorter than it was a couple of days ago. She's been nagging me relentlessly to cut it. I finally gave in yesterday, after her bringing it up repeatedly while we were resting. This length is what she wanted, but not what I wanted. M & I both intended for it to be several inches longer than what she was asking for. Unfortunately, by the time I was satisfied that it was perfectly even all the way around, it ended up being this length. She's happy with it, and M & I also agree that she's pretty adorable this way!

Daisy Bell

Look at this little lady. Doesn't she look perfectly angelic? Don't believe the sweet little eyes. She's lying. She's either just done something naughty/gross or she's about to. We were thrilled to find that Daisy will not in fact eat absolutely anything. She has a boundary. She doesn't eat cat hairballs. She will eat the vomit surrounding the hairball, but kindly leaves the actual disgusting hairball itself for me to clean up. Apparently on the Daisy scale, a ball of yakked hair is somehow nastier than cat poop from a litter box, any dog poop, walls, couches, socks, remotes, toys, and markers.

I frequently sing the song, "Daisy, Daisy / Give me your answer true / I'm half crazy all for the love of you". I usually customize the "Give me your answer true" part to suit the situation a little better--for example "What the hell did you do-oo". I didn't know the name of the song, though, so I googled based on the lyrics. I was interested to learn that the song title is not, "Daisy, Daisy" as I would have guessed. It's "Daisy Bell".

I was intrigued when my eye scanned the Wiki page and spotted the word, 'vegetarian'. Since I'm too lazy to summarize, so I'm just going to copy and paste the portion that I found so interesting:

"Daisy Bell" was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892. ... It is said that a real Daisy inspired the song: "Daisy" the Countess of Warwick, Frances Evelyn Maynard, one of the wealthiest and most desirable English women of the period. In her lifetime, she became a vegetarian, championed women's education, and stood as a Labour
(leftist/socialist) candidate. At one point, she was mistress of the Prince of Wales
(subsequently Edward VII of the United Kingdom, 1901–10).

What a cool woman!

Cute cavies

We have all of the guinea pigs here now, and they seem to be settling in well. We ended up with six--three pairs. My friend, Julie, left her little lonely guy here to stay with us. Jolsy was becoming very depressed and lonely after losing his partner. He and Vivi hit it off and are now best of friends and roommates. He's neutered, so we can safely pair him with a female. They look adorable together. L had changed Vivi's name to Daffodil, but she kept forgetting and calling her Vivi, so she decided to just leave that as her name.

They now use the same hidey house, even though they have two. So precious!
<--Oona (mommy pig)


<--Luna (baby)

We went to pick up the baby that we had adopted a few weeks ago (with the other three), as they are now old enough to leave mommy. Since we didn't want a singleton, L was going to pick another one to share a room with the baby. I let her go down with Charlene (the rescue woman) to pick, so she would make her choice completely independent of me. I always choose the least adoptable--oldest, least cute, health problems, because I don't mind that but others do. I wanted this to be totally her choice.

She came back upstairs proudly with the two girls she picked. A baby--the runty one who had an ulcer in her eye and the mommy, who was half bald from hormone problems. That's my girl! They are adorable and absolutely perfect!

Blossom and pansy like their lap time almost as much as they like their fresh produce. It's been easy to get them used to be handled, because they are so food motivated! Unfortunately for them, they are on the rotund side, so their food intake has to be limited.

It does add time to our already full daily feeding and cleaning schedule, but it's okay. It is so nice to have piggies again! We really missed their happy little squeals and fun personalities. Jolsy and the five grand ladies are loaded with personality! I do find it a bit odd the obscene amount of poop they produce every day. It's just so much. At least it's tidy little dry odor-free pellets, and not runny or stinky!

Already?!

L added this lovely sign to her door after our trip to Home Depot on Sunday. It's nestled in amongst her Beatrix Potter character stickers. One of her parents refused to purchase a rude sign (that could be made at home for free!) for .79. The other parent found it amusing and said that it's only .79 and put it in our otherwise empty cart.

I need a waterproof cell phone!

I so enjoyed my furlough day Monday! A two-day work week is even better than my normal three-day week. It started out really well but at some point it turned on me. Then I spent the next 36 hours having one disaster after another. I think the worst is passed now. I hope.

I cut a sizeable chunk off the tip of my right thumb. It was an accident, and I'll just leave it at that. It's so bizarre and extra-specially stupid, that you wouldn't believe it if I tried to explain. I am so obscenely clumsy! It took a couple of hours to get the bleeding to stop, but it will be fine. Still hurts a lot. I can't believe what a hindrance it is to not be able to use that thumb. It has really slowed me down! I've been trying to show Mark how to put a bobby pin in my hair for me and work my jewelry clasps, but it's not going well. I will just have to look a bit rough until my thumb is back in use.

It continued to go downhill from there. If I touched something, I dropped it, broke it, or both. I left things like keys and phones places that required me back tracking a very long walk. The high point came last night. I was in a mad rush, trying to feed L & H before class. Mark was out of town speaking, so I had no help. Just before walking out the door to drop the kids at my mom's and go to class, I decided to make one last quick bathroom stop. It was then that my phone catapaulted out of my damn pants pocket into the toilet. I snatched it out right away and proceeded to try to dry it. Since I was giving an exam, it was rather important that I get to class on time, so I didn't have much time to mess with it. I've since dried it out, but it's still not working. I had a rather suckish night, but the curse seems to have lifted today.

I just got used to this phone (it takes me several months to become one with my phones & computers). Now I have to go through the stress of trying to chose another phone and adjusting to it. So, if you've called or texted me since Tuesday afternoon, I haven't received it. I'm really hoping that they are able to get all of my phone numbers and info from my card. I'm an IT person, so of course I haven't backed it up. You really would think after all of the information I've lost through the years I would be better about backups, but nope. I don't do it nearly enough.

Tomorrow will be a very full day of homeschool work, and I'm hoping to find a little time to grade all of the exams from Tuesday night. Have I expressed how much I hate grading lately? I really hate grading. I'd like to switch to the happy face/frowny face grading system. It would certainly be quicker and less painful for me than all the damn rubrics!

I also have a friend coming over in the afternoon to bring her guinea pig to meet ours. He may be joining us, because he's very sad and lonely in his current location.

L & I also have to find time within the next couple of days to sew up a bunch of guinea pig mats. We have all the fabric--just need to do the cutting and sewing. L really likes to step on the sewing machine pedal and go at full speed. The problem is that she can't keep to a straight line when she goes that fast. Sewing the mats will give her lots of opportunity to work on straight lines.

I made and distributed new catnips toys to the cats tonight, so they are being very entertaining. Except Ivan who is being an ass. He likes to hold his catnip toy, lie in the middle of the living room, and then growl at all the other cats if they walk in the living room.

Furlough Eve

We went to Madison on Saturday to watch L's dance school (Kalaanjali) perform at the Overture Center. They did several pieces depicting Lord Krishna's early years. It's a very festive time, with Diwali ocurring on the 17th, though the parties and celebrations were held this weekend.

We went to Barnes & Noble after that, which is a very dangerous place for our family of book addicts! I had fun picking out some books for Terrance & Ginu's newly arrived baby girl, Jessica. We threw a baby shower for them last Monday. The baby was due on the 18th, but she had the baby early Weds. morning. I have such a passion for books, and really love high-quality children's books, so that is my preferred new baby gift. It's fun for me to try to find beautiful, timeless books that both the parents and the child will enjoy. We walked out of there with two bags full of books!

We had reservations to stay at a hotel in Madison, so we checked in and got settled after we left B&N. We went to Maharaja--the closest Indian restaurant to our hotel and enjoyed some wonderful food. L & I both got aloo chole and mango juice. YUM!!

Back to the hotel then for swimming and movies with our girl.

I had purchased tickets for Dej (and her current piece) to go to the movie, "Paranormal Activity". It's only playing in select locations, and Janesville is most definitely not a "select" location. I purchased the tickets online several days before, and it's a good thing, as the movie was sold out well ahead of time. The theater was packed (and it was quite large), and when the movie ended, there was applause.

It was very good. It was what all 'scary' movies should be. There were three people in the entire movie; no special effects; no gore. It was strictly psychological terror. If I were capable of being scared by movies, that would have done it. I totally enjoyed it, but have come to terms with the fact that I can no longer be frightened by movies.

It really makes me sad. It's a feeling I miss, which is very ironic since I spent most of my childhood and teen years lying awake in terror and sleeping with my lights on! Dej asked me why I would miss feeling that way. It is kind of weird. I'm thinking about why. Not exactly able to verbalize it yet though. Terror, like pain, is a very pure, unmuddied feeling. When in terror or pain, my mind can't wander to the ugly real terrors that it usually plays constantly. Maybe that's the reason? That's the best my armchair psychology has come up with so far.

Poor Dej didn't sleep until 4:00 this morning, and she had Luke with her, because she was too frightened to be alone. I'm so envious of her. I didn't even have a scary dream!

I got back to the hotel room to find L still awake at 11:45. Not at all unusual for her.

We came back home this morning and were happy to see the rest of our family. Chores took up the rest of the day for M & me. We also missed Hunter. I feel very guilty about not including him, even though I know he wouldn't have enjoyed those activites very much. :( The kids played cat town for most of the day, only cleaning it up when it was time for our bedtime reading.

Dunkin' Dawgs day

We were supposed to be camping this weekend, but the weather didn't cooperate with us. We're staying at home and have lots of fun family activities planned instead. It just wasn't a good year for camping for the B-D family. We're hoping next year will more than make up for it!

The dogs went to their swimming appointment today. Daisy was SO happy. I never guessed she would be the one of the three who loved it most! Her curly little tail flops back and forth the whole time she's in the pool. No more swimming in circles today, either. She got the hang of swimming in a straight line. She had the most stamina of the three.

Jezebel was timid and fearful again at the beginning, but she's that way with absolutely everything. She got into it after the first couple of times and even made an effort to grab one of the toys as she swam past. She got tired toward the end though and kept trying to hide so she didn't have to go back in and do another lap.

Chloe--the one who most needs to be there (hip displaysia) was the one who got tired the quickest. She also needs the most help in and out, because her back end is weak--even moreso when she's dripping wet and it's slippery. I had to lift her in and out, while Nancy (the doggy pool owner) stayed in the water to work with her. She is a heavy dog. We were both wet , and I got a major workout! I did something very, very bad to my lower back while lifting her and twisting, and I've been in pain since we got home.

We got home and Luce and I snuggled up and watched the movie, "The Others". It's just about the right level of scariness for her. She likes 'scary' movies (those that are appropriate for her age/maturity), and so does Dej. I'm glad my girls like them, because my husband most definitely does NOT like them, and it's nice to have someone to watch with. I'm very excited about going to see the move, "Paranormal Activity", Saturday night with Dej! October is a great month for those of us who like 'scary' movies (which never actually scare me, but I keep trying)!

Two on Tuesday

The in-laws came for a visit this weekend. We celebrated Mark's mom's birthday, which is actually next week, but since we were together this weekend, we celebrated. Luciana played games with Grandma Carolyn and Uncle Dan. Ivan behaved just horribly, as he often does when we have guests. He seems particularly obnoxious when either of our parents are here. He's such an antisocial little turd. He made a point to frequently march through the middle of the game, over to Luciana, where he claimed her as his own.

My favorite pictures:

1. Ivan staking his claim on L, as she plays cards with Grandma C.

2. Luciana brings in Grandma C's birthday treat. (I had already baked a zillion cupcakes for the baby shower, and I didn't want to bake. I made a very yummy dark chocolate candy with dried apricots, raisins, and walnuts--healthfood. ;)

Piggies

Luciana's new babies came to live with us Friday night. We adopted them from WI Guinea Pig Rescue. One of the women who is involved with the rescue builds these great, huge cages for the piggies. She uses closet shelving, and they are brilliantly simple and cheap! She brought the supplies and built the cage right in the bird room, because that's the only way it would fit in the room. It's 3' x 7' and is divided into two units. It's raised, and there's plenty of room underneath both to store supplies and for the rabbits to play in. That's also one of the most poorly constructed sentences I've ever read, but I'm too lazy to work on reconstructing it right now.

She brought home 3 girls for now with more to follow later. She named them Blossom, Pansy, and Daffodil. They're quite cute! They're shy yet, and don't like to be picked up, but once they're out are happy to cuddle up in our laps. It's nice to have guinea pigs again. I wasn't thrilled about Luciana's proposition, but I'm glad I finally caved in to her nagging.

Intervention?

Luciana is unwell with a nasty cold again. I have a very sore throat, so I'm sure I'm only a few days behind her. YUK! She told me when she finally woke up (a little before 10:00) that she was feeling a little sick to her stomach and might throw up (drainage). She wanted plain noodles for breakfast, and she chowed those right down. Then she got a jar of pickles and started shoveling those in. I said, "Pickles, for breakfast? I thought you were kind of sick." She said, "But they're sweet pickles." and that she was a little sick but the pickles smelled really good. I guess as long as the pickles are sweet, that makes them a breakfast food.

I keep catching Jasper perusing our medicine cabinet. I hope poor little Jaspy isn't turning to drugs. ;) He's started 'asking' me to open the door for him when it's latched and he can't pull it open. He's so cute!