Twas the Night Before

'Twas the night before school . . . and I'm feeling a bit blue. It's funny, but I get like this every year. I really like my job and I like to think that I'm a good teacher. Yet every year I get those "post vacation blues." So, here I am again at 8:40 pm on the night before the first day of school and I'm feeling a sadness come over me. Okay, I've been feeling it all day (ask Sean, I'm pretty sure he's been tip toeing around most of today). But I need to be thankful. Sean reminded me that I have a job and there are those in this country who have been out of work for some time. I also am reminded that this year I start out with a smaller class size than the past few years. Of course, I work with a fabulous bunch of teachers in a wonderful school. So, on this night before school, I am changing my tune and counting my blessings. Go away blues!

Big Dog

Winter is 8 months old today and around 60 pounds. She has truly become a little beast. Lately she has reverted to some of her not-so-acceptable behavior . . . digging holes in the flower beds, eating my petunias, stealing socks, carrying around the lawn sprinkler, chewing the watering can, chewing open a motor oil can and spilling oil everywhere. But in spite of it all, we love her. We keep saying that she's getting by on her looks. Here are a few new pictures. They prove that she sure is cute and that's why she's getting by. Enjoy!

Link

Happy "coming to america" anniversary, to me.

My mom reminded me earlier this week that we very recently celebrated our 16th year living in the USA. The exact date we arrived here was August 3rd, 1993 - or something close to that anyway. Every year at this time, a few memories glance across my mind as I recall those early days of us moving here.

1. Landing at JFK after a 24 hour flight from South Africa. We stepped out of the plane into the summer humidity, and for some reason the only thing I remember about that moment was hearing the Concorde take off behind us. It sounded like 100 tons of dynamite going off.

2. Seeing my Dad for the fist time in a few months. That was cool.

3. Feeling too tired and jet lagged to really absorb the moment, and the realization that I was in a different country on the planet.

4. MTV - the first season of "the real world" remember?

5. Beavis and Butthead. Funny no matter where you are from.

6. Thinking a big mac was just a huge meal, too much food. Now I supersize em.

7. Remembering that every time I spoke a word, my accent would give me away as a foreign person.

8. Remembering that every time my accent gave me away, I would soon be answering the craziest questions about where I was from.

Top 5 questions asked of a person from South Africa, now living in America.

1: Are your parents missionaries?

2: Are you from Australia?

3: Do you know (so and so) She/he lived in South Africa too!

4. Why did you come to Lancaster County?

5: Are you British?

6: Are there like, Tigers and stuff in Africa?

Here are the answers:

1. No. White people have been living in South Africa for 5 generations. Imagine that.

2. No. If I was from Australia, my name would be Bruce, and I'd be putting shrimp on the "barbee"

3. No. I don't have a clue who you know, or who you are even talking about. When we left, there were 42 million people in the country.

4. Because we just did.

5. No. But they sure do make great breakfast over there.

6. There are no Tigers anywhere in Africa. Tigers live in Asia.

So there you have it. I am now a taxpaying, voting citizen of this great land.

God Bless America.

Sean.

Boys

My nephews came for a visit! They live in Arizona and unfortunately, we do not see them very often. My mom flew out to bring them back to PA for about a month, so Sean and I took the opportunity to have them stay with us for a few days. If you are not familiar with little boys, let me tell you that it's non-stop action and words. But we loved it! We visited a friend's farm and pet the calves, climbed on big machines and had a picnic. We went swimming in our neighborhood pool and played on our neighborhood playground. We watched movies and cartoons. We chased Winter around the yard and played fetch with her. We read books together. We played airplane games on the X-Box. We went to the park and played on the playground, did art projects and visited the petting farm. We went for walks. We ate at McDonald's. We went to Hershey Chocolate World and Zoo America. Like I said, it was non-stop fun! Now that they are gone, I'm having a day of rest. Although, I will miss them. Winter does too. She spent some time yesterday looking for them in the bedrooms and on the couch. Where did those fun boys go?

Here are a few pics from our time together . . . Boys

Vacation

Why do vacations have to come to an end? Why isn't there someone here to make my bed for me every day or turn down the covers and place my slippers by the bed, take my order at one of five resort restaurants, or bring me a mojito by the pool? I want to go back to Mexico!

Sean and I spent 7 fabulous days at Dreams Resort and Spa in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We had a lovely suite overlooking the pool and the ocean. We would sleep in and then wander down to the restaurant of our choice to have breakfast. Then we would walk around the resort for a bit before heading back to the room to get ready for a day relaxing by the water. Sean would swim and float around while I basked in the sun or under an umbrella with a good book (or a good book that I downloaded onto my new Kindle 2). Many times we would take a late afternoon nap and then get dressed for dinner at one of the 5 restaurants at the resort. We did spend several hours one day riding ATVs and then another day down in Cabo by the marina. Sean spent a morning on his own in San Jose del Cabo, taking in the sites and snapping pictures while I lounged some more by the pool. I also treated myself to a massage . . . ahhh! The weather was a perfect, dry 95 degrees every day. The food and drinks were delicious. Life is good in Mexico.

Click to check out our photos . . . Cabo

Winter's New Do

Sean and I returned home from Mexico late Tuesday night (more on our trip to come) and were looking forward to picking up Winter from the vet where we had kenneled her for the week we were away. After last week's trauma, we were excited to have our puppy back. So Wednesday morning Sean headed off to work and I headed off to pick up the pooch. When they brought her out to me, this is what she looked like . . . (kind of like a black and white lion, big mane, skinny body).


Let me explain. When we dropped off Winter, we received the red carpet treatment. They were falling over themselves to accommodate our needs. After our horrific experience of having Winter's incision open up and thus having emergency surgery, the vet's office gave her a free stay in the canine courtyard. They also were having a vet check on her every day that we were gone. Great, we knew she would be in a good place and have time to heal. Before we left, Sean asked if they would be able to clip her down while we were gone. He specifically said that we'd like a little fluff on her, so clip her to about an inch or so. If they couldn't do it, that was fun with us. We'd schedule a grooming appointment after her stitches were removed. Sean called the vet while we were in Mexico to just check up on her. Sean again asked if they could schedule a hair cut and gave specific instructions indicating how we wanted her groomed and if it didn't work this time due to her incision, we were fine with that. I had a message on my cell when were laid over in Houston, saying that the groomer didn't feel comfortable clipping Winter at this time due to her stitches and Winter's "hyperactivity." Yes, she is a bit hyper, so we were fine with that decision. You can imagine my surprise to see my dog clipped down to her skin on her body and with a full head of hair. It was explained to me that since the groomer wasn't comfortable doing the clipping, a nurse did it so it's not as good as it would normally be. The nurse also did not do Winter's head since Winter starting biting at her (apparently something we need to work on). So our fluffy puppy is no longer. We have what looks to be a malnourished, rescue dog. Her fur is clipped completely to the pink skin in some parts, and in other parts there are clumps of thick longer hair. Why they just didn't follow our instructions to let it be if she couldn't be groomed, I'll never know. So Sean and I tried to at least make her head look like the rest of her body and this is the result of that undertaking . . .


She looks a bit pathetic. It's just hair and she'll grow out to be all fluffy again. But I'm pretty sure she's enjoying the "cooler" new do.

Winter's Week

Our puppy has been quite the entertaining little beast for the past 4 months. However, this week took an interesting turn. Each day held its own little surprise.

Tuesday morning: Winter has routine spay procedure since she is 6 months old. Procedure goes smoothly and vet calls to say that Winter is awake and standing in the crate staring at her. No lying down long for this little doggie.

Tuesday evening: Winter comes home and sleeps a lot. (She also comes home with medication for skin infection.) She has a few episodes of, well, vomiting. Winter vomits every hour and a half from 2:00 am until about 8:30 am the next morning.

Wednesday morning: Return to vet. Winter gets a shot to settle her stomach and goes home with more medication and a bland diet to eat over the next day or so.

Wednesday evening: Winter perks up a bit. We need to keep her from running and jumping.

Thursday morning: Winter has her appetite back and we work hard to keep her from running and jumping.

Thursday evening: Winter jumps from back step onto driveway. I discover a drop of blood on our kitchen floor. Return to vet once again. Winter has 2 staples put in to keep her incision together and must now wear the lovely "cone" to prevent licking and biting at the wound. Oh boy!

Friday: Winter wears cone all day and runs into everything. We hate the cone!

Saturday: Pleasant start to the day. Winter behaves, so we remove the cone that evening.

Now here's where the graphic part begins . . .Winter didn't bother with her incision at all and it seemed to be knitting together. We let her lay in the front yard. I had checked on her and she was simply laying there watching cars go by. About 5 minutes after I looked out, I heard her barking excessively (unusual for her) and Sean went to see what she was doing. All of a sudden, I heard him say "Oh, God!" and I race down the stairs. Brace yourself . . . I ran out the back door only to see my puppy running in circles and yelping an unbelievable yelp of pain that I will forever remember. As I looked closely, I saw Sean trying to grab her at the same time I also saw that her intestines were hanging out of her abdomen. Her incision had completely come apart. We will never know what happened. She had just been laying on the grass, now here she was completely coming undone. Sean and I spring into action. I grabbed towels, keys and my phone from inside of the house as Sean somehow managed to pick up Winter. He in some way managed to slide into the cargo space of our car as I ran out of the house. Sean had her in such a tight grip against him. I jumped in the driver's seat and just took off, calling the vet as I went to get the pet ER number. We arrived in a matter of minutes. I'm not sure how I got there. I ran inside to get help. The vet techs came out wheeling one of those restaurant bus boy carts covered in a towel. I guess that is a pet gurney. As they put Winter on the cart, she reached up and put a paw on either side of the young man's face. That was the last we saw of her until after she woke up from her surgery. As we waited, I cried a lot. I truly lost it when Sean told me that as he sat in the back and her insides were on the outside, Winter looked at him and started to lick his face. This is the dog we love. After what felt like an eternity, the wonderful doctor got her all put together and stitched up. She was fine and we were elated. She did have to stay overnight. When Sean picked her up today, the nurse said it was a good thing because Winter was standing up in her crate and barking every time the nurse walked by. She wanted out. Our little pup also decided she did not like her IV and tore it out herself. She's a tough one.

Winter is home now. She is doing well. Her incision is stitched tightly together and she's back to her usual shenanigans. I do believe Winter is going to be just fine. Thank goodness!

Sean displaying our large and unexpected medical bill

Birthday Puppy

Winter is 6 months old today! She's been a great puppy . . . most of the time. I have to admit, there were many times that we second guessed our decision to get a puppy. She's a handful, but we love her anyway. How could we not love that cute face! As I type this, she is at the vet's office ready to be spayed. Poor thing. They told me that we'll need to keep her calm and not allow her to jump for the next 3 to 5 days. Yeah right! Do they know Winter? There's nothing "calm" about this dog. So happy birthday, Winter!

Winter at 6 weeks, the day we picked her out.

Winter at 6 months. Look how she's grown. She's 48 pounds.

Click here for some new photos of the beast . . . Winter
Click here to see what she was like at 6 weeks . . . Baby Winter

School's Out

Yes, another year complete! We said goodbye to the kiddos on Thursday and yesterday was a teacher day to finish packing up our rooms for the summer and tying up all of those loose ends. Now the summer is before me and I can't wait. I know it will go fast. It always does.

Huh?

We haven't blogged in a while.

We're just to frikkin' busy. So a big sorry to the 3 of you that actually read this blog.

We shall return soon, I promise, as soon as this all slows down!

Sean.