Jerry Update

Here's a photo, taken three minutes ago, of Jerry. He's chewing on a bone and making a mess of my carpet. He doesn't act or look sick at all. That's one reason this is so difficult -- we get lulled into the false belief that he's okay. He's not.

On October 1st we saw the second vet. That was the day he was diagnosed and given two weeks to live. Good job, Jerry. He's just not ready yet.

Happy November

My mood continues to be extremely melancholic. I am just so heartbroken over Jerry Lee. He is doing very well.

We live on a street where lots of homes give out trick or treat candy, but the houses on either side of us do not. Plus we do not have sidewalks, and that is a recipe for exclusion. I watched out my door and counted 50 trick or treaters, and not one came to my house. So I told Bob to grab Jerry's leash, and we'd go T&Ting too.

Jerry did great. We went around the block, and it is a long block. We stopped at every house and had jerry in a sit stay. Jerry was a perfect angel and really enjoyed watching all the kids running around in ghost and goblin and witch and devil form. He would rest, but was raring to go. He had a great night. His tail wagged the whole time.

Thomas got more candy than ever. He split it into two piles: That which he would eat and the other pile was for dad. It was about a 50/50 split. My child will not eat Nestle Crunch, KitKats or most suckers. He will take a very long time to devour the consumable stash, although he's been picking away at it.

Halloween was fun. It lifted my spirits to be out and about and get fresh air.

This year we made three pumpkins. I did a very generic haunted house, the first time I've used a pattern wihtout Bob's help. What a PITA that was! It took forever. Thoams and I watched spooky haunted house shows while we carved pumpkins. I kept asking him if it would scare him and he assured me that it would not.

Later that evening, Bob fell asleep on the couch and guess who requested to sleep with him. I asked him why and he sheepishly informed me that the shows did scare him a little. So nice to know I'm still a safety net.

We're still looking forward to our new puppy. We're wondering if Jerry Lee might be around when she comes. Stranger things could happen. He's doing very well, but if he tunrs, I'm sure it will go fast. We take things one day at a time with him and enjoy him to pieces.

We're thinking of puppy names. We've made lists and lists. We've added on, scratched out, inked in many more. We've searched every pet naming site online, plus baby nameing online sites. Some of our favorites are:

Sadie, Sasha, Licorish, Misty, Missy, Cassie, Inky, Patsy, and Black Beauty, BB for short.

That list changes on a daily basis, but those names always remain.

We have not heard back from our breeder for awhile. We have asked a few questions, specifically when we can come visit and she hasn't gottne back to us. Oh well. Pups are two weeks old now, so they're at that "finally getting cute" stage. Newborn puppies are beautiful, but definitely not cute yet.

School today was pajama school! I love those days when we do that, but dread the doorbell ringing. We got a lot done today, even though we were slow and relaxed. Thomas finished reading The Call of the Wild. It is now his favorite book of all time. Of course after he finishes reading every book, it becomes his favorite book of all time. Next book on the agenda is Anne Frank.

I broke my rule and we watched the movie before he had read the book. Thanks to our library for that. I should own that book myself, though, so it's my fault. I'm thinking of buying a copy and donating it to our library. Will talk to the librarian about that in the future.

I got a comment on my blog entry about my library not having Anne Frank that I wish to share.

Anonymous said...
Hi
My name is Lucy, I'm the Head of Education at the Anne Frank Trust in the UK. Your blog showed up on my Google alert. (Big Brother's watching!!!)

I am appalled at the lack of the Diary in your library - I'd send you one to put in there is it didn't cost twice as mush as a the book itself to get it there!

I see you're homeschooling. I thought I'd mention an online tool which has just launched its American arm you might like to use with the children:

http://www.annefrankguide.net/en-US/default.asp?resetculture=1

You don't need a library for that!

Good luck.

Lucy

4:50 AM


Anonymous said...
Apologies for the typos in my previous post - they don't do my reputation much good!

- Lucy

4:52 AM

I checked out the website, and it looks good. Will spend more time there next week. Thank you for sharing. As I said, I am thinking of donating a copy. No library should be without Anne Frank.

I'm looking forward to the changing of the clocks this weekend. With all this extra sun, trick or treating in the sunlight was just weird.

Wally World

We hit our two grocery stores tonight and not a pumpkin was to be found. The three of us then set out for our brand-spanking-new Walmart. Okay, it's two months old, but it's there...thankfully.

Bob found a nice pumpkin and put it in the cart. I told him we needed at least two. Bob was very agitated. I am not staying up until all hours tonight carving pumpkins. There will be no time to do this tomorrow.

Me: Why?

Bob: Because of school.

Me: Ever hear of art? Go with the flow, bud.

Bob: Oh.

Me: Let's get three, one for each of us.

And so we did.

Thomas and I have this homeschool thing down, but Bob forgets.

So tomorrow, after math and language arts, we'll be doing art. Most likely for the rest of the day.

Candy

Did anyone else buy all their Halloween candy early and then eat it all?

We're off to the store tonight to buy more. We're hoping they have a pumpkin left because we didn't get that ahead of time. Our priorities were all messed up.

We're winners

Last week I got a letter in the mail from my City. I had no idea what it could be. I had completely forgotten that we had gone to the city hall open house the week prior. Bob and I each got a free CF Light bulb equivalent to a 100 watt bulb. Fantastic! They're expensive and we have been slowly making the switch to all CF's in our house.

I opened my letter and...I'm a winner. I won a conservation kit. I took my letter to city hall to pick up my prize. I got three more CF light bulbs, 20 switch plate insulators, a refrigerator thermometer, a nightlight that only costs 26 cents a year to run (and it is completely worthless), an attachment for my heater filter that will whistle when it's time to change the filter -- I'm forgetting something. There were a couple more doohickeys in there, but I forget what they are now.

When I said thank you, the nice lady at city hall said, "Here, have another free light bulb." So I actually came home with four.

How cool is that!

On Saturday, Bob took Thomas to Kmart for their in-store Halloween celebration. They both told me it was very lame. Thomas brought home about six candy bars, a few stickers and a bag. Oh, and they bought all our Halloween candy while they were there. Thomas signed up for a free drawing for a Kmart cash card while there.

I got the strangest phone call last night. A teen-aged boy said, "Is Tom there? I'm thinking -- who the heck is Tom? OH. Okay, who the heck are you? I told him yes and what was this regarding. Luckily he told me. Tom has won a Kmart gift card from the Halloween thing we had. I don't know anything about it, they gave me his number to call him, and all I know is they don't have the gift cards here right now."

lol...So who knows if Thomas will actually receive the card. I asked how much the card was for and, of course, he didn't know. We think it's either five or ten dollars. Still cool for a 12-year-old.

So we're winners.

We need a few positives around here right now.