Sunday Afternoon Roundup

Whew! I've been meaning to sit down and blog all week but something always got in my way. It's been a busy week (but good!).

This week promises to be just as full of good things - Abby and I are going strawberry picking at the farm with her preschool class, and Abby and her mama have a mommy-daughter date at school! Plus, we only have two weeks - count them - two weeks left of school. I'm pretty excited about this - I can't WAIT to have her all to myself! :) We've been working on our phonics a lot lately; she's up to G in knowing the sounds that the letters make.

Speaking of being out of school: the twins finished up school early this year, and I finally got a chance to get a blog up and running for Elizabeth - Forever A Country Girl. I think I'm going to ask them both to post twice a week over the summer - maybe less for Elizabeth if she starts college courses over the summer instead of in the fall. This week is the big week - I take them Thursday (the day after their sixteenth birthday) to the college to get them registered, placement tests taken, etc. Elizabeth is looking at a 2-year massage therapy program, and Allen is looking to knock out several semesters worth of math and engineering classes. I'm just excited to be handing over the bulk of their schooling to someone else. It's been an honor and a privilege (and yes, even a pleasure most of the time!!!) to get to teach them for the last three years, but part of that pleasure is getting to turn them loose to higher things and watching them succeed, as I know they will.

I got a tablet this week!!!

It's an Asus Transformer and I couldn't be more pleased, even though I've resisted Android platforms for awhile, positive I'd be lost. In reality, I find the Androir platform to be amazingly intuitive. I loaded a few apps - Kindle (of course), a crossword puzzle game, Angry Birds (so. addicted.), the KJV Bible (so I can legitimately use my cool toy in church), and, in honor of Star Wars Day, a lightsaber app. :)

Did you know about Star Wars Day? I didn't until the day before, so my celebrations were limited to playing the soundtrack to Episode One on the way to VBS rehearsal, but next year, watch out. I'm already thinking of ways to celebrate, beyond the obvious (and, alright, very appealing) - watching all six movies in an epic Star Wars marathon. :) Some ideas:

• Wear a Leia-inspired hairstyle
• Bake/decorate something Star Wars related (a death star cake? Or probe droid cupcakes, maybe? :))
• Load the soundtracks onto my Fuze and got for a long run
• Buy Star Wars pajamas

Any more? :)

I have become a redneck chicken-mommy. Since my dad is out of commission due to his torn achilles tendon, and I can't get Allen to help me out, I have accepted the fact that a chicken coop - even a very simple one - is going to be awhile. In the meantime, the chickens are TOO BIG to be indoors. It's just that simple, really. I came home from church today to find three chickens happily strolling the mudroom, having escaped from their washbasin-home. They were not happy about being put back inside. The solution? An old dog house inside their chain link dog run. *sigh* Eventually I will have a little coop with a door, but for now... dog houses and dog runs, people.

Finally, a bit of humor: we were sitting around last week, and started fooling around, and the result was this email that we sent to Anna as a practical joke:

"Hey, Anna!

We weren't sure whether or not to tell you this until after you got home, but we were afraid that Mom might mention it on her blog or facebook without thinking and we wanted you to hear it from us. Don't worry, your cat is FINE!
On Sunday, we came home from church and Ranger had lost a LOT of hair - like, big patches along his back and belly. Maggie was afraid he'd gotten into a fight with another cat, but he didn't have any marks on him. On Monday morning when we woke up, the garage looked like Ranger had exploded in a puff of fur - it was everywhere, and Ranger was almost completely naked. We couldn't find him for a long time because I guess he was so embarrassed he wouldn't come out of hiding. We took him to the vet that afternoon (they were so good, we had to wait a long time because they had no appointments but they managed to squeeze us in) and they said it was actually quite common for some cats to develop severe food allergies if the allergens are in large amounts in their regular diet (like humans), but they decided to do a blood test to figure out exactly what was bothering him since it was such a severe reaction. It ended up being gluten, which is actually good because Heather has been doing the gluten-free diet with Xena and so we called her to get some tips.
We checked all the labels on his food and his Temptations and EVERYTHING has gluten so right now all he can eat is food that we prepare for him. Maggie has taken this on as a challenge and has been in the kitchen ever since. He is eating homemade wet food, but he misses the Temptations the most, so Maggie is still working on a good solution. She tried flaking and dehydrating some fresh salmon, but he stuck his nose up at it so she's going to try to mash it up with some tuna and try baking it instead. The house stinks, but he seems to like it - we have to keep him inside because his skin is so sensitive and we're worried about him getting sunburned. The vet also gave us an anti-itching lotion that we have to apply twice a day. He doesn't like it and tries to get away, but it makes his skin slippery so Maggie has to pin him down while I apply it. You owe me, I have lost skin on my arms!!!
Luckily Giant has been having great seafood sales because he won't eat regular chicken or beef at all right now and the vet says it's important to keep him eating so he doesn't get a hairball (??? He doesn't have any hair!) and have it block up his intestines, cuz they're so inflamed from the allergic reaction. He does like lamb kidneys but we have to puree them in the blender until it's very, very smooth (we've just decided that can be his blender from now on, we will get a new one). Maggie's also giving him some herbs to help the hair come back quickly.

I want to take lots of pictures - he looks so funny! - but Maggie won't let me, lol, you're probably going to be on her side. She did let me take these to send you because otherwise you'd never believe us. You were right, he really is skinny under all the hair.

 

 

Mom says not to worry about the cost of the seafood, we know he is more important to you than the flooring.

Maggie says she read on Google that cat hair grows very quickly, and he should be back to normal by the time you get home.

Love you,

Sarah, Maggie, Lizzie, Ruth, Allen, and parents

P.S. we hope you had as much fun reading this as we did making it ALL up!"

The hilarious part is, she actually believed it until she reached the end of the email!!! (I still can't believe it worked, Maggie kept saying we were ruining it because it was just too unbelievable!). We received this reply:

Very, very, very funny (just kidding, not really, I'm gonna kill you guys).

The only thing that kept me from getting angry is knowing how much fun you had writing this. After I got over the initial shock...and shock...and more shock... I did laugh about it. It was a great story.

:)