Piper

Around Christmas Steve sensed my nagging longing to have another dog, so we decided to work with the local rescue group associated with the breed we know and love, the German Shorthaired Pointer.  We love how they are sweet but sassy, in fact I think if Olivia were a dog she'd be a GSP.  They aren't a very common breed, but we were patient and wound up finding one needing a new home in the next county.

Meet Piper.

Her family had adopted her as a puppy, but on their farm they have some chickens (E-I-E-I-O) and Piper loved them a little too much.  She's a bird dog after all.  And inside she liked to chase the kitties, and that isn't good for the kitties, so we invited Piper to come live with us.  She's about the same size as Riley was, but her ticking is a little darker.  She's good on the leash, gentle with people who come to the door, and happy in the kennel when we're not home.  She does love to steal kisses, though.

The kids love having a new buddy.  And the new toys.

This week she turned three and we all sang to her.  She's very much still a puppy, so she keeps us busy keeping her busy.  We've had several snowstorms this month, and she loves running around in snow with Olivia.

Road Trip

Steve had a meeting in Baltimore first thing yesterday morning, so he decided to drive the night before so he wouldn't have to get up at the crack of dawn to drive.  I've been wanting to take the kids to Delaware to see some of our old stomping grounds, so Steve agreed to let us come along.  On the way we stopped for dinner in Gaithersburg.  I got to try their seasonal Tweason'ale, which I would marry if I could.

Olivia loves to stay in hotels.  In fact, she woke up at 5ish to play and talk, which meant Steve didn't end up getting any more sleep than he would have if he had gotten up to drive that morning.  Bless his heart.

Small world moment: At breakfast there was our next-door neighbor Kent, also in Baltimore on business.  Olivia was so excited, even though I don't think she fully understood the irony that we were a couple hours from home.

We dropped Steve off at the office and headed up through the harbor tunnel and on to 95.  I do not miss driving on 95.  I do miss our sweet little town, old New Castle.  We stopped in to see my dear friend Bertie at Bertie's Bags and Sew On.  (Get it?  Sew on?  She does monogramming, and put Olivia's name on her little green bag.)

Bertie and her husband just returned from celebrating their 50th anniversary in Savannah and Beaufort, and I have since added Beaufort to my bucket list.  (Visited Savannah in 2010.)  The kids played with Bertie's toys while we visited, and then we walked down to Battery Park on the Delaware River.  I explained to Olivia that the geese used to see Riley coming and would swim out into the water, nervously honking, "Dog... dog... dog..."

While we lived there I never paid much attention to the osage orange tree dropping fruit right on the walking trail, or the wonderful playground in the park.  Funny how life changes my perspective.

We walked back up to Bertie's shop and while we were saying goodbye one of her neighbors offered to make a peanut butter sandwich for Olivia.  This is the kind of town New Castle is.

Next we headed to Newark to visit Lisa at Sparkles Bead Shop where I used to teach classes.  I didn't get a single picture, but I do have some pretty new beads.  I always need more beads.  And I always need a cupcake, so after that we went by Sweet 'n' Sassy Cupcakes on Main Street.  They are my favorite, being about equal parts uber-rich icing and cake.  I wrapped and froze them to enjoy as long as I can.

Then it was time to head back to Baltimore to pick up Steve.  We stopped at Wegmans for dinner on the way home, and we passed through Harper's Ferry just after the sun went down.

It was a fun trip and the kids did really well on the go.  I miss Delaware and could fill several weeks going to visit friends and shops, but I was happy just to have a little taste.

Catching up

It's halfway through the year and I haven't been very good about updating the world on our adventures.  Between Bowen getting older, keeping up with making jewelry, and tracking every single thing I eat for Weight Watchers (which is, as it turns out, quite effective) I just haven't gotten around to blogging. So here are pictures of some of the other things we've done this year.

Matt Maher in concert (with Third Day)

We took an overnight in DC to meet up with my second cousin Susan and her husband Tim.  They are farmers in Minnesota, here in the capitol to lobby and visit their old stomping grounds. 

Another highlight of the trip was having tapas at La Tasca.  Bowen (5 months) did great for his first hotel stay.

I found my feet

Day trip to downtown Leesburg.  This shop's second floor is staged as a Manhattan apartment and I want so badly to live here after hours. 

We also checked out The Cottage, where I found my final pieces for the dining room wall collage...

... and Mom's Apple Pie where I first met Chocolate Bourbon Walnut pie.  OMG.

Steve and I went downtown for our anniversary (#12!), and because it was during the wine festival we found ourselves having to park on the top deck of the parking garage.  I finally found a great place to photograph the library dome, unobstructed by wires.

And new Old Jake...

Oh, and?  Filet mignon was back on the menu at Dancing Goat.  Happy anniversary to us!

After deliberating for years, we had two big (ailing) trees removed from our back yard.  In hindsight I'm really glad we did this as I'm not sure they would have survived the storm we had this past weekend.  In place of this one we now have an Autumn Blaze maple.

The Apple Blossom Festival...

Firefighter's Parade

Gettin' Bloomed (with Grandma) - Grand Feature Parade

Mother's Day flowers

John & Jenni's wedding

The National Zoo in DC

Girlfriends' Getaway with my college roommates Kristin, Val, & Jessica

Learning how to shepherd these little hearts...

Hanging out with Miss Marge while the moms watch the DVDs

Blandy Farm with Camille's family...

 Western Loudon Art Studio Tour...

Jeff & Liz Hall's kitties (and sculpture)

Once preschool let out for the summer our schedule has been more relaxed, but I have instituted "no TV during the week" so that we might be a little more creative with our time.  Like sprinklering.

And gymnastics...

We had a relaxing long weekend at the cabin in North Carolina...

And said goodbye to our beloved Riley.

I'm doing okay.  I think it was harder for me when she was sick, knowing that she wasn't her wiggly happy self and not knowing how long we had left.  Ten days after the MRI it was clear that it was time to let her go.  And I miss her so much, but it's actually easier now knowing she's not in pain any more.  She was such a great dog!

Olivia handled it really well.  We told her Riley was in heaven with God, and she seemed to be okay with that.  Sometimes she'll ask things like how Riley got there, but otherwise she just accepts that Riley is gone.  My friend Debora sent me a card that said Riley is in heaven making God's sofa smell like dog, which makes me feel better.  And on that happier note I'll include one of the outtakes from the cabin, which cracks me up every time I see it.

Riley

Riley.  Dear, sweet Riley.  In many ways our first child, the only dog I've known since she was a puppy.  Die-hard retriever, giant lap dog, crumb-fetcher extraordinaire.

Around Easter this energetic dog started losing her pep.  She would fetch a ball a few times, but then stop bringing it back.  She'd yelp in pain after doing certain things.  We knew something was wrong, but we couldn't find anything.  Arthritis?  She's eight years old, middle-aged for a dog.

The night before taking her to the vet we finally found a laceration on the pad of one of her front paws. Finally an answer! But once that healed Riley was still moving a little slowly, not wanting to lower her head, prefering to stay on the sofa a lot.  Back at the vet a more thorough exam indicated a neck muscle/disc issue.  Had she somehow injured herself internally when she cut her paw?  Pain meds and an anti-inflammatory helped immediately, but after 10 days the meds ran out and Riley was not better.  So the vet referred us to a chiropractor. 

That's right.  A chiropractor for my dog.  (The vet suggested acupuncture if that didn't work.)

I am not a chiropractor person, and I'm not entirely on board with alternative medicine, but I hate to see my dog in pain so I was willing to try it.  The chiropractor couldn't find anything wrong with her neck and speculated that she might have Lyme.  So back to the vet we went.  We started a course of antibiotics in case of lyme.  This vet (who has an orthopedic background) found an issue with the tendons/ligaments/vertebrae farther down Riley's back.  He showed me how to massage the area, but by the time we got home Riley could barely walk.  Anti-inflammatory meds helped with that, but another massage a few days later yielded the same results.  When Riley didn't improve with rest the vet suggested an MRI and referred us to a neurologist in Leesburg.

That's right.  An MRI for my dog. 

Steve took Riley in last week, but it was like when your car makes "that noise" until you bring it into the mechanic.  Riley was still on anti-inflammatory meds, so it was hard for the neurologist to find anything wrong with her and he didn't want the meds to affect the MRI so he sent Riley home and we took her off the meds to get a clear diagnostic.  Bloodwork came back negative for a bunch of things, which was a relief.  We confined her in the baby fence and watched as she got worse and worse by the day.  She could barely stand up by herself, and when it was time to go outside she'd take tiny, limpy steps.  So finally today I took her back for the MRI and the neurologist was guessing it would be some sort of injury like a herniated disc. 

Nope. 

Riley has a tumor growing on her spine, compressing her spinal cord.  The neurologist suspects that it is an osteosarcoma and we can expect Riley to live for a matter of weeks/months, maybe a year if we treat it really agressively.  I'm relieved to finally have some answers, but this is not what I was expecting and it has been a sad, rainy day. 

But we're going to enjoy Riley as long as she's around, spoiling her rotten and trying not to think about life without her.  Please feel free to stop by for a visit and see her (while I try not to dissolve into a blubbery mess).  She's on meds to make her comfortable, so her tail is wagging again.

Big shout-out to my parents; Mom played with Olivia for hours and took her to gymnastics while Dad came with me to the specialist to help with Riley and Bowen.  I'm so thankful for them, and Riley loves her grandma and grand-paw too.

Buddies (2010)

Conversations with Olivia

Olivia: I see Riley's poop in the grass. Why is she [sic] poop in the grass?

Me: Because animals poop outside.

Olivia: Like sheep... and giraffes... and little giraffeses.   I poop in the potty.


(Usually there is more "why?" followup from her, to the point where we could fund her college education if we had a nickel for every time we start a sentence with "because.")

Happy birthday to our first baby

Riley is eight!  

8 weeks old, October 2003

It doesn't seem that long ago that she looked like the Poky Little Puppy.

Ever since she was about 10 weeks old she has insisted on leading the pack if we're walking. Not poky at all.

It's true what people say about having a dog (especially a puppy) gets you ready for having kids.  The shift of focus & responsibility from self to another, helpless being.  Poo immunity.  Remembering to feed, water, walk, take to the doctor, arrange for a sitter.

I'm starting to notice more gray on Riley's face, which makes me sad, but she's in great health and still as sweet as ever.

When Steve goes running without her, she howls like a hound dog.  (She's a German Shorthaired Pointer)  The neighbors at the cabin said she'd do the same thing when we'd go to Asheville for the morning. Good thing they thought it was funny.

She LOVES to swim in the pond, but won't have anything to do with a body of water the size of, say, a bathtub or kiddie pool (except stealing a drink when nobody's around).

She patrols the yard all day long to protect us from invasion by squirrels or rabbits.  Or kids on skateboards.

She loves to play fetch with a tennis ball, but no other toy. 

She curls up in a ball to sleep on the sofa next to us when it gets dark outside.

Riley doesn't love Olivia, it's more like a curious tolerance.  Riley will fetch a ball if Olivia throws it, but if Olivia walks up to Riley to pet her, Riley just dips her head in submission and runs away as soon as the petting ends.  (To Riley's credit, Olivia hasn't always been the gentlest person.)

We love you, Riley! 

Because I have nothing else to do

One night back in high school I spent the night over at my friend Melanie's house.  Like typical highschoolers, heh, we decided it would be fun to sneak out and drink bake bread from scratch.  So that evening we assembled all the necessary ingredients, mixed, kneaded, waited for it to rise, punched it down, waited for it to rise again, ...  I think it finally finished baking at like 2am.  It apparently scarred me for life, because as delicious as homemade bread smells and tastes, in my head it takes all day so it's too much trouble. A couple years ago when Olivia was a wee little one, I tried and loved the dough hook on our Kitchenaid mixer, plus I got a whole wheat baking book from my in-laws for Christmas, so I finally got around to making bread again.

Yesterday, in between my 5 trips into the nursery to assess why Olivia wouldn't nap, I used the recipe in my mixer handbook.  I successfully proofed my "old" yeast so I used it, but it baked up into a loaf of stone bread and batch of stone rolls that my parents graciously ate and then took off my hands last night. 

Today I bought new yeast and went searching for the recipe that used to be on the back of the King Arthur wheat flour.  (Now they have some quick version on the bag which, based on Elizabeth's experience, I am going to skip.)  I think it's the molasses that really gets me; so much flavor!  (Note to self: make Ginger Chews soon.)  This time I also added wheat gluten (Thanks for that info too, Elizabeth) to make a better texture since I was using whole wheat flour.  I mixed the dry ingredients together and then put all the wet ingredients together in a 2c measuring cup.  The bread didn't rise at. all. after two hours in a warm place.  Maybe should have mixed the warm water and yeast separately?  Maybe my gluten had gone bad?  Too much flour?  Not enough?  I am no bread dough detective.

Anyway, I had a ball of dense dough on hand and I didn't want to throw it out or bake it into weaponry again.  The thought popped in my head to roll them out and cut them into squares to bake.  Riley had a dreaded bath this morning and has been such a good girl aside from eating my chocolate bar from Grenada.  And now that these were being compared to Milk Bones and not bread, they were moist and chewy and Riley waited around for more after I put them in her tin.  Then I made a batch of granola to end on a high note.  Will try whole wheat bread again another day.


Chuck is my hero



Also?  Last night we tried coconut snow cream using a can of coconut milk and maybe 1/2 cup sugar for the base.  Then I mixed in snow until it looked right *and didn't measure*.  It turned out well, not difficult at all.  The fat in the coconut milk isn't all that great when cold, but that was my only criticism.

Halloween

Olivia had more fun than I expected last night.  She and Steve would go out, visit a few houses, come back to warm up and eat candy, then back out to visit a few more neighbors. 

Steve said at first it was a little scary for her to be greeted with a basket of candy in her face at the door, but then he had to keep her from going inside each house, and after a while she didn't want to come home.  Meanwhile I manned our door and got some filing done during the lulls.  I thought this was the most creative costume.  His candy went in the bowl in front... 

Olivia tried some of her M&Ms... it turns out they do melt in your hands.  This is how she looked after I gave her one blue M&M and she walked in the other room for 30 seconds, but judging from the incredible coverage I think Riley had something to do with it. 

And later Livi practiced her licking...

We each took out parental "taxes" on her candy stash.  Part of the joy of having kids, right?