Our First Winter Storm

We had our first winter storm a few weeks ago.  It didn't seem that bad, but we got enough freezing rain and ice to bring down some trees.  These are on the path at the corner of our lot.

 

The lake was beautiful surrounded by the ice covered trees.

 

You can see the back of our house in the center of this picture way in the background.

 

The kids had a lot of fun sledding with their friends during their two snow days.  We needed more snow!

 

Gracie - One Week Post Surgery Number 2

My sweet girl sure has had a tough time lately.  She was trying to run and chase the cat 3-4 days after her first surgery.  She felt so good.  That was the problem.  This time around, she's just now starting to lower her leg to balance when standing still.  She is still not putting weight on it to walk.  The vet ran some sort of stitch all the way around her kneecap.  We don't know it she's in extra pain or if everything is just so much tighter inside.  Her incision has weeped a lot.  It's healing from the bottom up and other than the top about 1 inch, it looks much better.  I'll be glad to have that healed and get the stitches and staples out on the 31st so we can take her cone off.  She's wearing a big plastic one this time instead of the soft blue one.  Gracie spends her days sleeping on a sea of towels in the living room where we have her leashed to the leg of the couch.  I'm not taking on chances on her sliding on the hard floor this time.  This has not been fun one little bit!

Out and About

Saturday was a beautiful day so we took the kids to DC to see the National Christmas Tree.  Honestly, I was expecting something bigger and more grandiose.  It was just a planted tree.  I'm sure there's a story behind it, but I couldn't read the placard because people were blocking it.  The actual tree wasn't even decorated.  There was a net with lights and ornaments.  I'm sure it would have been much prettier at night ;).  I will tell you that if you like trains, they did the trains right.  It was fun to inspect all the little scenes with the trains running around the tree.  It made me want to run out and buy a train to go under our tree.

 

There are 50 trees around the big tree decorated with ornaments made in each state.  Here's HOME.

 

While we were right at the visitor's center, we asked how to go about getting tickets to tour the White House.  I have to call our congressman and jump through a few secret service hoops and then in 3-6 months, they'll tell us when we can come. We only have 7-8 months left in DC so I had better get on it!

 

Next up with the Museum of American History.  I don't care how many times I see the real "Star Spangled Banner" that was flying over Ft. McHenry that morning in 1812 when Francis Scott Key could see it still waving, it gives me chills every single time.  I love Americana.

 

We enjoyed the special Golden Books exhibit too.  Dan loved the Doctor Dan book.

 

We walked through the National Sculpture Garden on our way back to the metro.  It wasn't nearly as good as the Hirschhorn's.  Too much modern art that I just don't get.  These were our favorites.

 

The thinking bunny!

 

I'm sure this wasn't supposed to be a shadow wall, but that's what we got from it :).

 

Definitely the favorite of the day.  Someone said it was a typewriter eraser???  Those must have been before my time.

 

Last but not least and the main reason we went into the city...Zoo Lights!

 

If you've ever wanted to see "Panda Claus" dancing in a giant snow globe, here's your chance!

 

Gotcha Day

I'm only 22 days late...oops.  December 1st, we celebrated our 10th Gotcha Day.  Can you believe it's been 10 years since we brought our sweet girls home?  They are growing into beautiful young ladies who I want to hug one moment and then shake the next.  We are most definitely and very quickly approaching the teen years :).

 

We gave the kids each a new Christmas Ornament (Russian Nesting Dolls for the girls and a German Nutcracker for Caden.) and of course we made our gingerbread houses. I so love the crafting and creativity that comes with Christmas time.

 

Gracie Update

So apparently. We have a crazy, active dog who literally ripped out all of her internal stitches. She had her second knee surgery this afternoon. The vet resutured and repaired the ripped tissue (ow) from the first sutures. I'll pick her up tomorrow morning. This time around instead of "confined to one floor," she will be confined to her crate or a leash with me at all times. No chasing the cat, running for the doorbell, or sneaking onto the furniture. Thankfully, the second surgery is going to be no cost to us. That's a great, big praise.

Sent from my iPhone

Surgery Fail...Frustrated

Gracie has a luxating patella which basically means her knee cap slides out of place.  Surgery is the only way to fix it.  Not fixing it means pain and arthritis when Gracie is on older girl.  After saving $2500 (ouch), she had surgery a week ago.  Things were going well and then yesterday, her knee cap slid over.  It did it twice yesterday.  I called the vet and they said to keep her crated except for pottying and to bring her in early next week.  Today, it slipped out when Dan was walking her in a straight line on carpet out of the house to potty.  It was HARD to get it back in.  It slid out again while she was outside again walking on a relatively flat surface.  I'm so discouraged.  Not only does it feel like we wasted a ton of money, but it feels like the problem is worse :(.  Would you pray? 

Joy to the World...It's Finished :)

A Joint Sewing Venture

Trying again
> As if I don't have enough to do, I decided I wanted something special to hang over the mantel for Christmas. I found my inspiration quilt and Jae and I got started earlier this week with material from our scrap bin. I'm impressed with Jaelyns sewing skills. Four or five of the joys are hers.
>
> Sent from my iPhone

Surgery for our Furry Girl

Blogger is being weird again. I can email pictures from my phone, but the email body always gets lost in translation.

> Gracie has had what is called a luxating patella since she was a puppy. That's a fancy way of saying dislocating knee-cap encase you didn't know ;). It's gotten worse since an injury in June. She had surgery on Friday. The surgery went well, but it was the easy part. She now has a six week recovery period to get through. I feel so bad watching her limp around. It's sad. She especially doesn't like limping around with the cone on her head...I warned her about the consequences of licking :).
>
> Sent from my iPhone

A Joint Sewing Venture

Surgery for our Furry Girl

The Christmas Spirit

I've never gotten excited about Christmas like I am this year.  The nativity and stockings are ready on the mantel.  The Christmas tree is decorated.  The kids and I have been busy crafting up new ornaments.  This weekend, we made adorable ornaments out of Styrofoam balls and left over material.  I sprayed them with adhesive and sprinkled glitter on them.  They are so pretty on the tree. 

Tonight we painted corn starch and baking soda ornaments. 

 

Here are the ornaments I made.  Don't laugh at my evil cat.  Dan did.  The kids ornaments didn't turn out very well. It was harder to shape them than play dough.  I'm going to make more and let them paint them because they have major fun with the painting.

Jaelyn and I have a crafting Walmart list to restock our supplies so we can make more.  It's so much fun.  I'm tempted to buy lights and "stuff" to decorate outside, but I can't make myself go there.  There's something about moving every couple of years that makes me not accumulate that sort of stuff.  I did have a box of knotted lights that I haven't used in 3-4 years, but of course now that I have a house I WANT to decorate, I got rid of them before our last move.

I think I'm done with my Christmas shopping.  I'm just waiting on UPS to bring me my goodies and then I can start wrapping.  Did I mention I'm excited?????

Randomness before Thanksgiving

Can you believe it's the end of November because I sure can't.  I used to say the days drag, but the weeks fly, but these days, the days fly and the weeks pass by at super speed.  Life is crazy.  We did get a little breather at the end of Dan's first quarter.  Actually he had so much of a breather, that he's having trouble getting back into the 5-9 groove - 9-5 is so much easier :). 

 

Reports cards were good.  Everyone (including Dan) made all As with 1 B.  Allie's teacher resigned recently.  She's had a sub for two weeks and won't have her new teacher until the second week in December.  It's really effected her school work.  I don't think we'll be seeing the AB honor roll this quarter for her.  She's all over the place with her grades.  As things are evening out with Jaelyn, it's making me consider homeschooling all three next year.  I must be insane :).

 

I'm sure there's more news I've missed, but I can't think of anything else out of the ordinary.

 

We had planned to go to Busch Gardens for Thanksgiving to see the lights, but it's starting to feel a lot like winter.  The predicted 31 degrees was just too cold to chance.  Instead, we went back to Abingdon Thanksgiving Tradition and went to Medieval Times.  It was a lot of fun to cheer for our knight and eat with our hands.  Caden even loved the roasted chicken this time. 

 

 

This service dog cracked me up.  He was a good sport to wear his crown :).

 

I decided to put up our tree today.  It was a little bit crazy, but it's up.  I'm excited about Christmas.  The kids have never woken up in their own beds on Christmas morning.  My parents are coming to visit after Christmas.  It's going to be great to stop for a week or so and spend time with them without having to load up and drive for 2 days there and back.  Unfortunately, Dan won't be able to stop, but hopefully he'll be able to take some time off.