Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving! Today I am thankful for many things, but the biggest is that our Gretabird has gotten over her Big Sickness. It was a long road to recovery, but a full week and four doctors after it all started, she was given an antibiotic and within 24 hours was back to her old self.

By the time we got her medicine, she was just like a colicky newborn. She'd sleep for most of the day, and any time she was awake she was screaming. She would pitch herself forward, as if her stomach hurt, and scream. We were given answers that it was a virus that she'd get over; that it was a virus that she was pretty much over; and (after a night in the ER) that it was just gas. Finally on Tuesday a doctor in Indy told us she had a bacterial infection in her chest. Yesterday, as I gave her each dose of antibiotic, I was calling Martin to excitedly relay her progress. We were joyful about such stupid things as her opening her eyes (!!), showing interest in my earrings, being awake for an hour and not crying! She smiled for the first time in a week last night, and we were beyond thrilled. She got better and better at lightening speed, and last night we were back to the good old days--up until after midnight with a very happy, insomniac Greta. It was a very worrisome 7 days!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Bringing Home the Bacon...or Venison.

Martin shot this 8 point buckaroo out at Uncle Johnny's farm. This follows the wife he got on Wednesday that is pictured a few posts back, but here's another picture of her.

So actually, I'd forgotten that I had already posted about the doe, and Martin told me I had, and had provided a picture as well. But once I put a picture on here, I don't know how to delete them (unless it's by accident, of course!) so now you're stuck hearing about this deer twice. Sorry.

Greta has been sick since Wednesday. I took her into the doctor yesterday, he said it's a virus. Blah. She's got a fever and is acting very sick and sad. Poor baby. I wish he'd done a test for a bladder infection because she acts like her tummy hurts. If she's not any better by tomorrow, I might take her into the Urgent Care.

I am excited for the holidays. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, and I'm looking forward to putting up our Christmas decorations and getting our tree. I think Anja will really get a kick out of the Advent wreath, though I might not put up the advent calendar this year. I can just see all those little pieces getting carried all over the house by Anja and then Greta choking on them. So that might have to wait until next year. But still, I'm excited.

Also, I think we're going to do the whole Christmas Card thing this year. I really used to think Christmas cards were lame, but I've been thinking about all our friends who have moved away and who would probably get a kick out of receiving a Christmas card from the Schaps. Not only that, but we've get a handful from others every year (EVERY year, as if it's been so long, lol), and I absolutely love them. So I'd better get moving on that idea... but I think it's almost a definite go. Something I always said I'd never do! Oh well, I guess it's one of those many opinions that can change once you have kidders.

We had a possum on our patio tonight and Martin (again) wouldn't let me invite him in to sleep in our bed with us. Grrr. He actually went out and tried to club the poor, adorable, homeless thing. Seriously, people who hate possums should be burned. Do you realize how stinkin' cute they are?!?!?

And speaking of cute....

Double UGH!

Remember way back in my livejournal days when I heard on the radio that Joni Mitchell had put Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" to music and had recorded it on her new album? Do you remember my hatred for her at that time, and my wanting to scream at David Dye, "I DID IT FIRST!!!" Well, it's happened again!! Only this time, it's with the Advent tree that I just posted about the day before yesterday. I am currently reading Amanda Blake Soule's (the famous "SouleMama" blogger and crafter) book, "The Creative Family." I really like it, not only because it's giving me good ideas, but also because it's full of things that I already do, or already plan to do when Anja and Greta are a little older. (I feel like I've posted about this before... have I?) Anyway, I was just reading along enjoying myself when I come across her part about their family's "Season Tree" and how in winter it is an Advent tree, with "something hanging on the tree for each of the days leading up to your celebrated holiday." UGH!! I swear, I thought of it before I read this chapter! But I always feel like such a loser when these things happen, like no one will believe me that it really was an original idea, even if ten thousand million people have already thought of it before. I DON'T GET OUT MUCH!!!

Another idea in her book, which I got from my wonderful neighbor Tara (and admittedly, is a pretty popular idea anyway, according to the author) is to build fairy houses with your kids. I think this is a beautiful idea, and the Cook children used to do this all the time! They even had this huge old aluminum milk jug that held their "Fairy Food." Tara gave this to me to keep until further notice, and I fully intend next summer to give all the fairies in our neighborhood a good feeding. The cutest part about it, is that when I asked Tara on the phone what fairy food was, she wouldn't tell me "mostly birdseed" she just said, "Oh, you know... fairy food." That was it! She is so fun.

Anyway, I HAVE gotten lots of good ideas from this book and lots of encouraging of activities for tykes as young as Anja. The only annoying thing is reading your own ideas in somebody else's book that is making them rich and famous, while you're left looking like a lame-o who is ripping off other people's ideas and trying to pass them off as your own. *sigh*

Happy Hunting

Is there anything more encouraging than a 2-year-old wearing a blaze-orange hat and watching herself dance in the bathroom mirror? Evidently not. Martin took all of Anja's encouragement and went out and shot himself a deer yesterday.

A nice fat doe who will be soon turned into summer sausage and all sorts of other deliciousness to be stored away in our chest freezer to last us all year.

We actually have a video of Anja in her orange hat doing what we call her "Happy Hunting Dance" but we tried and tried last night to get it to post not sideways, and we couldn't figure it out. It is SO CUTE though. She has the craziest way of dancing.

And then last night Greta threw up and was awake crying for most of the night. Poor baby! She seems to be feeling much better now though, which is good.

My Good Idea

Okay, seriously, I go weeks without posting and then I make three posts in a day. haha! I just had to share my good idea though, since it's about the first one I've had in my whole life! So I was driving home from buying some non-weight control cat food with Greta just now and thinking about Christmas music and Advent and the Holidays in general, and I was thinking it'd be nice to start a few fresh traditions for our little family. And I came up with one, that everyone is welcome to steal (or claim, and let me know that I am a total loser for thinking I'd come up with it on my own!) I thought it would be cute to combine the advent calendar/growing nativity idea and make an ornament for every day of Advent. They would be not just the people/characters of the nativity, but of the entire advent season, including Elizabeth and John the Baptist, and maybe if you run out of people you could throw in some animals too. I thought it would be cute if the girls could make little clothespin people ornaments every year in this tradition. Cute, huh? Obviously we won't be starting this tradition THIS year, but soon, hopefully. Or maybe I'll just do it by myself. Maybe we could have an advent tree AND a christmas tree. Or maybe that's a little much. I dunno, just an idea.

And because I can't help it, even if it does embarrass him, and even if it is a little gushy, I have to share Martin's good idea, which was to send me something in the mail. I recieved it today and it read: "(pet name for me): I am glad you are my best friend. Your best friend, (pet name for him.) " Do you recognize it? It's the letter Frog sent to Toad in the story!!!! Anja is completely obsessed with "Frog and Toad are Friends" these days and we read it over and over and over and over again. SHE LOVES IT. And that happens to be my favorite story in the book, and I think it's cute that Martin sneakily mailed me a letter just like that.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Soooo.... Martin and I have started using "Time-Out" as a punishment for Anja when she intentionally beats up on her little sister. Yeah. It is SO not working. She loves Time-Out, and I really have no idea why. After she hits/bites/smothers/kicks Greta, we talk to her in a firm voice, telling her that Greta is very sad because Anja hit/bit/smothered/kicked her. Then Anja practically begs to be put into her Time-Out chair. The Chair is one of the dining room chairs, just a normal wooden chair, pretty, but nothing super special. When we noticed that the chair alone wasn't working, then Martin told her she has to sit up straight, because she's in Time-Out. But she loves that too, and she'll sit up very straight with this proud little princess smile on her face. I really don't get it. And what makes it horrible is that Martin has to talk through his hand to tell her to sit up straight while I'm holding Greta in front of my face because we are HORRIBLE PARENTS who can never stop laughing over Anja's cuteness, even when she is being absolutely rotten!!!!!

Okay, that's not true.... I don't ever laugh when she hurts Greta. It's just that Greta recovers quickly and then we all think life's so funny that Time-Out seems like just another funny thing. Ugh. I"m afraid our kids are going to grow up to be really annoying people, thanks to us. I sometimes wonder what God was thinking giving us children at all!?!?

"His Weight Saved Him"

As you know, we have a hefty cat. He hadn't been weighed in awhile, but we took him to the vet this morning and Theodore weighed in (on the dog scale) at 22lbs 4oz. The last time Anja was weighed she was 23lbs. Our cat is as big as our two-year-old! He is my precious loveyboy and I love him as much as I love my daughters, even though he is kind of disgusting and has a habit of missing his litter box. Anyway.... we've been noticing that he's been acting weird for a few months. We had a short battle with fleas late in the summer, so we became very diligent about the flea medicine. Then in the past week he's developed all these bald spots and sores, and has been really kind of crazy and almost eating himself he licks and chews his skin so often. I know, this is so gross. So we took him into the vet (I love our vet) and as it turns out, we've been doing EVERYTHING WRONG. First, we feed him weight control food. Evidently that's very bad. It doesn't supply them with the nutrients they need, and the sores on his skin were because his skin was deteriorating from not having enough nutrients!! How awful is that?! We are supposed to make sure he gets more fiber (luckily, he loves Cheerios!) and we are putting him on regular Iams food, not weight control. The vet predicts he'll drop below 20lbs in six weeks. The other thing we've been doing is using over-the-counter flea medicine, which is very toxic and builds up in their bodies and they can actually die. This vet has had nine animals die this year from cheap flea medicine. Isn't that terrible?! And this is where they told us "his weight saved him." MY LOVEYBOY COULD HAVE DIED!!!!! I feel like such a horrible pet owner, doing everything wrong. But the good news is, we know what to do now, we've got good flea medicine (Advantage) and hopefully Theodore will be feeling better and acting normal and dropping some poundage over the next few weeks. Poor boy!