Let’s go back in time, to a place before Ben’s birthday, before the house started to get torn apart. After sad good-byes to pets and endless class parties. We flew to sunny Florida to a Waterhouse vacation in the Walt Disney World Resort!
I have a ton of pictures on my Flickr account and posted some favorites here – sorry they are backwards order. I still can’t figure out how WordPress uploads (maybe it defaults to reverse chronological order?).
The park was crazy crowded as we expected. Despite that, we had some great meals, rode more rides than I expected, and had a great time with family. We did some new things, like character meals and meeting Chewbacca, that were fun and unexpected! We did some old favorites like Star Tours, Haunted Mansion, and Soarin.’ I loved the newer rides, like Toy Story Mania and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
We were exhausted and stuffed with memories by the end of the trip. On Pena Boulevard Sam asked if we were headed to Disneyland (his general term). Sorry kiddo, it’s time to go back to real life.
We are READY and counting down for Christmas. The kids are amped. The tree is drowning in presents. I’ve baked up pounds of butter into cookies and cakes.
This new blog has a link to my ravelry project page – and I love that. But please do not explore until AFTER Christmas. As usual, a few of you can expect knitted goodies under your tree. Unless you want to spoil the surprise – do not click.
Today we put both of our pets to sleep. It’s been a sad week and a very sad day. We feel relief and are confident we made the right decision at the right time, but it’s still immensely sad.
Molly was dwindling for months. I’m fairly sure she was diabetic or had another renal problem. She lost most of her muscle mass and had little interest in her food or play. Her toileting has never been stellar, but it’s become a real problem the last few months.
Jem got sick with diarrhea before Thanksgiving, then added a cough and vomiting. We ran bloodwork and got her on antibiotics. She would seem to be getting better, then it would come back just as strong. She spent most of her days laying around, obviously in pain. More medication, no improvement. When the vet said that the next steps would be more imaging studies, looking for masses or other causes that would need drastic interventions, we decided it was time to be done.
We have a trip coming up and then at least a month of major house work. That’s not WHY we made our decision. Rather, as Ben put it, those events put up a mirror to view the pets through. We realized we were uncomfortable putting either pet through either situation, and if we didn’t think they could handle another week without us, that meant it was time to put them to rest.
We took Jem to the vet this morning and she had a very easy, very peaceful passing. It was good to be with her and feel her finally relax and feel good before slipping away.
A little later today a home-visiting vet came to do Molly at home. I was uncomfortable with taking her anywhere because she hates travel so very much. The home vet was kind, efficient, and soothing. An expensive option, but a nice way to go. Molly had ice cream and ham and then cuddled until she drifted off.
The kids are taking it well. Ben and I had a lot of guilt and the decision was hard to make. Andy called me and talked yesterday and it was really good to be validated.
Ben found some old photos of the animals today and it was shocking to see how much they had changed because it happened so gradually. Our robust, happy animals were already gone.
We are relieved and looking forward to enjoying Christmas and travel and house remodeling without stressing about the pets. We miss them, we cried a lot. But we also let the kids have a movie-picnic in the living room for the first time ever. I think I scrubbed my last daily-fecal mess. I won’t have pet hair on everything. We have good memories and are confident we did our best for them.
It’s been a holiday whirlwind so far. Here’s some choice selections from my day to day happenings.
Sam visits Santa.
Jack visits Santa.
The Alamo put floating candles and castle walls on the hallway into the theater for Fantastic Beasts. They also had a photo booth in the lobby.
Jem has a sick tummy and cuddles a Santa hat.
Jack has his “Star Week” and brings in a poster and show-and-tell items about himself.
Amanda manages a fire drill in the middle of Act 1 of Peter and the Starcatcher.
Jack learns to knit.
Sam will join primary as a Sunbeam in the new year. They brought in the little ones to practice sitting with the group. They have new matching sweaters on this day.
Didn’t my cranberry bundt cake turn out fantastic? Ha, no. Tasted good. But I replenished my empty can of Baker’s Joy the next day. Never rely on Pam for a bundt.
I bought an Ikea kitchen!!! This is some of the cabinet style. Hopefully I will have a resplendent kitchen enjoy soon!
Found this amazing candy shop in Park Meadows mall. Had to tell Santa about it for stocking stuffers.
MagicBands arrived! We are so pumped!
Don’t you nap best with a mountain of manly machines to keep company?
Recently I had the pleasure of being the “special visitor” for both my boys’ classrooms.
Sam’s preschool teacher invited all the parents to come share their professions or talents if it ties in with the class activities. Last month the classroom centers included farms and arts and crafts, so I volunteered to teach the children about sheep, wool, and knitting.
It was so much fun to be a part of their class! I brought in Amanda’s giant sheep to talk about the animals. I brought lots of roving to pass out and talk about colors, and showed them how it is carded and spun on my wheel. Then I showed them some projects I have made and talked about how sheep give us warm clothes.
I didn’t personally take any photos, but the next week I found myself on the bulletin board outside the classroom! Here’s a close-up of those (with overly-intense-face from me):
Today I came to speak to the whole first grade at Jack’s school about Christmas in Germany. They are doing a “holidays around the world” unit and the teachers solicited parents to come share if they had experiences. With my collection bolstered by my mom and sister’s Christkindlmarkt hoards, I had quite a lot to show! I talked about Germany in general, where and why I lived there, all the familiar traditions we get from Germany, and the ways they do things a little differently. At the end I had time to read the Brothers Grimm tale about the Shoemaker and the Elves. The teacher took some pictures and shared them on ClassDojo for me:
I brought in homemade Stollen and Bratapfel for the kids to try. I took a poll at the end and it was about 50-50, half thought it was yummy and half thought it was a little too weird. Personally, I’m loving the baked apples, which I made with this recipe. Sam got super brave and tried the vanilla custard (made from scratch because they don’t sell that kind of thing at King Soopers). He declared it delicious in a shocked voice. It’s sugar and eggs, boy – what did you expect? 🙂 Jack’s favorite is the stollen. He had two extra pieces as an after-school snack.
A special part of the project was collaborating with my long-time pen pal, Stefanie! We have been writing since the third grade, first on paper and then by email, writing a few times a year to tell each other about school, marriage, and now kids! She was very helpful in describing an authentic German Christmas. She also sent me pictures of her family to share.
The last thing, that I’m so pleased worked out, is we exchanged carols! I asked her to send me a video of her kids singing a German Christmas song for me to show the class. I received it last minute this morning!
I played these videos for the class while they snacked on baked treats. Then we recorded this message to send all the way around the world to Germany! I sent it to Steffi this afternoon. I hope her kids like seeing it!
We spent the holiday in Grand Junction with a plethora of relatives. Not only my entire immediate family, my parents, Ben’s parents, and all my siblings, but the Arndt family came to visit too!
A few of us got ill during the trip, but we were all well enough on the big turkey day.
(I’m new to WordPress and these pictures were uploaded in reverse order. Still learning the ropes.)
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