Every few months or so Hannah-dog decides to chew some section of her body raw.  So last weekend it was time for another round and she started in on her tail.  It was getting so bad two days ago we put on the lovely elizabethan collar otherwise known as the doggy torture device.  Once you put that thing on her she turns into a freak!  It’s like something out of a cartoon where the character is trying to get away and is running as fast as it can but isn’t even moving.  That’s Hannah and boy do my hardwood floors love it when she goes into e-collar mode!

Soooo… yesterday morning, we’re a bit behind schedule and I’m running around trying to get the kids fed and dressed thinking that we’ll be just right on time.  Then Hannah decided it was time to puke everywhere: first on her bed, then the floor then another puddle on the way to the door.  I don’t do puke, luckily dog vomit isn’t as bad as kid vomit and she did just avoid the carpet.  I took the bed outside to get it out of the way.  Finally get that all cleaned up and then went to let the dog back in.  She wass lying on the puked-on bed!!!  AARRGGHH! I had to wipe her down while she’s freaking out with the e-collar.  Now comical in retrospect, not so comical at the time.

So then I bring her to the vet, and we go into the vet routine — chattering teeth, whole body shakes, madly pulling for the door, panting as if in a desert, eyes bugging out of her head, the whole bit…  She ended up getting her entire butt shaved and the area is all raw, bumpy and just yucky.  Now she’s doubly freaked because now she’s also embarassed about being shaved.   There are definitely days I have to remind myself that I really am a dog lover.

Here’s Hannah on a better day…

Luckily, today is going much better!  Off to a little shin-dig tonight and then tomorrow I’m hoping to head to the Portland area for a bright and early morning here (http://queenoftarte.blogspot.com/)  before returning home for the “Civil War” game between the Beaver and Ducks!  (And taping the only football game that we regularly watch each year, that is when we remember too…  Army Navy — Go Army!!!)  Hope you have fun plans for the weekend too!

Yesterday Alice wanted to look at her “special book”  (one of the albums I’ve made for her).  She was looking at the pages from her birth and she was looking at the first picture we’re they’ve just pulled her out (c-section) and I tell her “That’s when you came out of mommy’s tummy.”  She burst into tears and became hysterical.  I finally got her to calm down enough to tell me what was wrong.  “I don’t want them to cut me out of your tummy!  I want to stay in your tummy!”  If it wasn’t so sad it would have been funny!  She wouldn’t let me put the scrapbook away and kept turning back to the picture and crying and crying.  I finally was able to pull her away and get her down for a nap.  Needless to say, the scrapbook was hidden away and won’t be pulled out for quite a while!  Who knew scrapbooking could be so traumatic?!?

This morning Jack and I were watching the Today show and saw a segment on Miss Puerto Rico (her makeup and evening gown were peppered sprayed — sick….).  Jack turned to me and said, “Mommy, I hope next time you win that contest!”  Too sweet!  I guess he’s managed to miss my lack of stature, crow’s feet, thick thighs and less than beauty queen looks…  I think I’ll keep him around… 

I hope everyone had a great long weekend.  We really enjoyed ours.  The weather was beautiful the entire weekend in Oregon — as long as you don’t mind the cold.  (Having lived in Maine and the North Country of New York Oregon cold is nothing!)  When I woke up Thursday and looked out the bedroom window, the view was so perfect I had to run and grab my camera.  I’m definitely grateful to wake up to this view each morning — you would never know that we are in the middle of a subdivision!

We went over to our friend Sara’s boyfriend’s house for the feast.  There ended up being 13 of us and  it was a nice size for a gathering.  Sara is an an AMAZING cook and she prepared almost everything.  Luckily we only brought a couple of veggie dishes (I can’t do without brussels sprouts now that I figured out how good they are roasted with bacon!) as Scott and Jack went with some friends to do the kids’ run at the Turkey Trot and Ali and I decided it was a jammie morning. 

It was so nice to celebrate the day with friends.  I love the idea of Thanksgiving — a day to be grateful for all that you have, to enjoy the company of others and the communion of sharing a meal that much love and thought has gone into.  Oh, and to stuff yourself until you can’t move!

The other Jack doing a bit of turkey hunting…

The lawn tractor was also a big hit.

Gracie need her pink bear, flash cards and sunhat on our long walk…

And Alice thought she would sunbathe in the 40 degree weather….

 The next day we headed down to Eugene for our next-door neighbor’s surprise 50th birthday.  Her husband went all out!  He really wanted to surprise her so he invited about 20 couples to spend the night at a nice hotel in Eugene, about an hour away.  They were obstensibly going down to have a turkey dinner at his sister’s house.  There was a “festival of trees” at the hotel we were all at (trees are decorated by individual and groups in the community, auctioned off and all proceeds go to the local hospice) and when the turkey took longer to cook than expected (that was the rouse), they decided to go check out the trees while waiting.  And there we all were to yell surprise.  Fortunately, no one spilled the beans and she really was surprised!  Her husband Ken organized an amazing dinner, a roast and a 192 photo slideshow of Carol’s life.  Ken spoke quite a bit about Carol’s basketball career – she had played in international leagues both in Italy and Japan and was on the gold winning 1984 Olympic team.  We knew little about Carol’s past accomplishments and it was so fasinating to hear more about her career.  Carol really seemed to enjoy her evening and so did all her guests.  We especially loved a free night away from the kids (their much beloved former babysitter came down to watch them and they went to a holiday parade so we weren’t missed).

If you happen to be an Oprah fan and are watching tomorrow and notice a red-headed producer in the first couple of segments, that’s my cousin Tara…  I for one will be tuning in tomorrow! 

WARNING:  If you have small children, keep them away from synthetic packing peanuts!  Jack and Alice got a hold of a small box , 7″x4″x3″, (I had to measure it because I couldn’t believe it could possibly have been so small) filled with peanuts.  Scott and I were cleaning up in the kitchen and the kids were in the family room playing together.  And then I realized that they seemed to be having a little too much fun and I had better investigate.  Sure enough, there was trouble.  They had smashed all the peanuts into little tiny pieces and had thrown them all over the room which illicited squeals of glee from them.  I really should have taken a photo because it’s almost impossible to believe that that tiny little box could hold enough peanuts to cover an entire room!  And you know how those things have that horrible static cling?  They were just about impossible to pick up (finally got smart and resorted to the vacuum)!  Annoying as it was, I did have to marvel at my children’s industriousness!