When I was planning this letter, I was torn between two themes: The Year of the Dog vs. The Year of Big Expenses. They both pretty well describe our year. You could even meld them together to be The Year of the Big Expenses That Did and Didn’t Include Dogs.
In January, this ball of cute walked into our family. His official name is Merry Macalester Tobias Wall, but we call him either Macalester T or Macalester or Mr. Woo-woo. But that’s another story.
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| Cute, Furry, Extra Long Tongue. Macalester T. |
His arrival was not planned, and is really the fault of my friend Linda M. You see, Linda had been looking to add a dog to her family, and emailed a bunch of us about one possibility. While looking at the pup on PetFinders.com, I made the mistake of typing “Scottish Terrier” into the search box. Up popped this picture of a very woolly Scottie pup that was being fostered in Zimmerman. You can guess the rest.
Macalester is a bunch of fun. He’s very vocal, aarrooo-ing at everything he can. We were worried about how Sydney would handle another male dog, but she’s just been thrilled with her little brother. She’s been teaching him many of her naughty tricks, especially table top dancing.
Speaking of Sydney, this year has been a medical nightmare for her. She turned 12 in April, which is pretty old for a Scottie. She had plenty of attitude and spunk to go with it, but something changed in May. She had a series of bladder infections that just would not go away. Just in time for our trip to Washington D.C., Laddie got Rabbit Fever, courtesy of all the rabbits that use our yard as a toilet. So, instead of boarding the dogs at the groomer, they spent 11 days at the vet as boarders/patients.
Our vet bills kept piling up as Sydney would recover, and then get sick again. She was even screened for bladder cancer. Another Scottie owner suggested adding apple cider vinegar to her kibble. That did the trick. Like cranberry juice for humans, the apple cider vinegar makes the bladder a hostile bacteria environment. And everyone got well again.
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| Front: Sydney, Laddie Back: Rachel, Sarah, and Macalester |
Until Sydney got infected anal glands. That was more vet bills and surgery for Sydney. She recovered from that, and two months later, threw out her back. When the vet techs saw her, they asked, “What’s wrong with her now?”
She really suffered with her back injury, lots of pain killers and steroids. Then we had a small ice storm, and she took a big fall on our deck. She got back on her feet, marched into the house, and started acting like her old self. Whatever was bothering her got put back into place with her big fall. She’s done great since, and it’s good to have The Squid back, bossing the household.
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| Sarah on the beam |
Since I’ve done all this talking about the dogs, you might wonder what was up with the rest of the household. The girls are busy with gymnastics year round now. I spent the better part of January and February sitting on my butt for hours (and I mean HOURS) on end in bleachers, watching one or both of them compete.
It’s hard for me, because I’m just not the Mom-of-Gymnasts type. I’m way too rowdy. I would have made a great Football or Basketball Mom. But no, China gave me gymnasts. I try to behave. Sometimes I embarrass Sarah, other times she likes the attention. Rachel loves it all the time. I guess that’s the difference between a tween and a regular kid. Eventually, I will become an embarrassment to Rachel.
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| Rachel on the beam |
The girls work hard on gymnastics. Sarah was promoted from the pre-team (Fireflies) to the competition team (Dragons) this year. Rachel was going to be promoted to the pre-team group until she and her group members staged a mutany over the summer. They were bound and determined to stick together and not leave anyone behind. So they all stayed pre-pre-team (Sparks), but they are practicing and performing at pre-team level. Semper Fi, Sparks.
John has been busy with various home improvement projects. This spring, John decided to install the ultimate range hood in the kitchen. While doing that, a section of our retaining wall collapsed, so we were off to get that fixed. As long as we were spending a ton of money, let’s put in the second bathroom. And so, those projects got underway. The retaining wall was finished at the end of July, and the second bathroom in November.
Between those, we had to suddenly get our roof re-done when our new homeowners insurance company decided to cancel our policy in September. 15 year old roof was apparently totally trashed. It looked OK to us and wasn’t causing any issues. Turns out there were problems — or about to be problems, and there was a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer for pre-mature roof failure. So, there went another pile of money.
To tell you the truth, other than the color, the roof looks just the same to me. John says he can see the difference. Maybe if I decided to spend some time on the roof, I’d see the difference, too.
John’s next home improvement projects will be to add more shelving to our bedroom and to add shelves to Sarah’s room. Sarah is making that transition from kid to teen, so she’s trying out a new look for her room. If she’d get rid of some of the kid stuff, she’d have room to make a transition. But that’s another story.
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| Senator Klobuchar’s Office |
I suppose I should fill you in on the trip to Washington D.C. John’s organist guild had their convention over the 4th of July in D.C., and we decided back in January we would go. John could go do organist stuff, the kids and I would paint D.C. red. John agreed to go by train, provided we had a sleeping car for the overnight part. He was not thrilled at the prospect, but he became an enthusiast about 24 hours into the trip.
The coach car had plenty of room to stretch out and move, he loved the lounge car for people watching, and he found it very pleasant to be in the family bedroom part of the sleeping car. It was a spendy proposition, but not really more than airfare for four and baggage fees. Oh, we could take all the baggage we wanted and it didn’t matter how much each piece weighed.
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| Senator Franken’s Office |
We spent a week in D.C., and still had a huge list of things we didn’t get to do. We did go to the Washington Monument, see the National Fireworks show, toured the Lincoln, Jefferson, Korean War, and World War II memorials. We hit the Metro and went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Library of Congress, Mount Vernon, and Target (yes, Target).
We toured the capital and got to sit in the House of Representatives gallery. Unfortunately, Congress was out of session. We did get to visit Senator Franken’s and Senator Klobuchar’s offices and visit with their staff. Both senators’ staffs went out of their way to make our visits memorable. Senator Klobuchar’s staff in particular went out of their way to get us into a fully booked White House tour, calling us just days before we left to tell us there was an opening.
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| “We’re grumpy because we can’t take pictures inside tomorrow. Boo, hiss.” |
Touring the White House was wonderful. You only get to see the first floor, and you can’t take any pictures inside, but it was wonderful. So much history, and little pieces I’ve seen over my lifetime and that the kids had read about. Outside, I could use my cell phone to take some pictures, but we were only allowed on the grounds for a limited amount of time. I wish I could have seen the Rose Garden, but that, and the Obama Girls’ playground were not even visible from where we were.
The trip back included a long stopover in Chicago, where we took the water taxi and walked a mile or more up Michigan Avenue to the American Girl store. Everything the girls wanted was out of stock, and they really didn’t want much. We left the store with very small shopping bags. Most people had huge bags full of stuff and the dads and brothers didn’t look as excited as the moms and sisters.
The train ride home was just as lovely as the ride home. We were happy to be back in cooler weather — only in the low 90’s. We had been in D.C. during the East Coast heatwave, and had gotten use to living with 104 degree day and 70 degree dewpoints all the time. The summer heat waves in Minnesota felt like nothing after D.C.
After the big trip and between Sydney’s afflictions and various remodeling and home repair events, I prepared to teach two new-to-me classes at Metro State for the fall and started writing for a huge compensation project at Securian. In the fall, Sarah started her final year at Randolph Heights as a 6th grader, Rachel settled into the 3rd grade routine, and John continued on with some volunteer work at the school while doing his Sunday organist job at Emerson.
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| At the top of Ramsey Hill – Mile 12 |
The girls and I participated for the first time in the St. Paul Bike Classic, riding 15 miles together through the streets of St. Paul. We had been training all summer, and it was a big deal that we did it. Next year, we’re going for 24 miles.
That pretty well sums up the year for us. I’m hoping 2011 is less busy and less stressful, although I’ve been put on notice by the gymnastics coaches that I will be spending EVEN MORE bleacher time this year. Good thing I bought a stadium chair over the summer.
From the Walls to you, have a festive holiday season, and best wishes for a happy 2011.
Carol Anne