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This has been one wild week! We actually haven’t slowed down the entire month…I can’t believe tomorrow is November already! We took Madi to the Shriner’s Hospital in Greenville, SC on Wed. - Thurs. She had a good report…the braces are helping. We go back in Feb. to see the genetics clinic. Vanessa and Matthan came to take care of the other three while we were gone. She said she would do it anytime, but I wonder…we did at least simplify the schedule while she was here!
The girls were excited to be able to trick or treat in 80 degree weather tonight! They had fun and I am sooooo thankful for that extra hour of sleep we are going to get tonight ( and its going to start as soon as I finish this post!)!
Here are my girls in their costumes (Julia stayed home to pass out candy, but did decide to dress up!):
Madi – the Pop Star Diva
Bailey – the Pirate
Julia – the Good Witch
Avery – the Pink Unicorn
All three going Trick or Treating
I found this on my camera—I guess Vanessa took it while we gone.
Avery enjoyed a great day at the Pumpkin Festival at preschool today. Here are a few pictures:
Tonight was the first night both of the older girls attended The Carolina Cotillion. Julia went last year and Bailey joined this year as a 5th grader. The first dance this season was three weeks ago. But, Bailey had a fever that day and wasn’t able to go and that was the day we thought our dog was dying…I didn’t even take a picture of Julia that night…so tonight was kinda like the first one for the Stampers.
Bailey goes at 6 pm and gets picked up at 7:30. Julia starts at 8 and finishes up at 9:30. Fortunately, Bailey convinced our neighbor and friend, Logan, to join too, so she rode with him. His mom and I had a good chuckle at the two of them tonight. Logan has been taught well and came to the door to get her. He even let me take their picture! (Notice how far apart they are standing!) Then, when they got to the car, he opened the door for her. It was really cute! Don’t tell them, though!
Here are a few more of Julia and Bailey. After looking at them tonight, I realized how old I am! Julia came downstairs wearing my velvet, pointy heels from high school…she couldn’t believe those shoes are 21 years old! I do enjoy each new stage with them (contrary to my last post!) but I really wish I could freeze time sometimes!
Fifth graders have to wear white gloves. They found years ago that the boys and girls acted silly when they had to hold hands to dance and the gloves sloved that! She also got her hair cut (in layers, by mom!) before she left. She loved it…I dried it and used a curling brush to make it flip up at the ends. We’ll see if she hates it tomorrow like Julia did. Although, Julia got a flat iron and has been happy with it ever since.
I have been seeing the signs for months…probably a year, but we have a teenager. She is only 12 in actual age, but we are so there in attitude!! Actually, she is a dream most days, but we are having those moments. She told me on Friday that she really wanted layers in her hair. She has very thick hair, so I thought that would be nice. I decided I could cut it myself. How hard could that be, right? As I was cutting, she told me to make a few bangs that blend down into the layers on the side. OK…no problem. I was pretty proud of myself. It looked good, she was happy and I saved 22 bucks! The next day, she got up and still loved it. Bailey asked if I would cut hers and Julia got all huffy and said, “No, you just want some because I got some!” Then, several of our friends saw her that afternoon and told her how good it looked and that it made her look older. She was beaming!
I was thinking the whole thing had gone pretty well until she washed her hair and dried it Saturday night. She has natural wave in her hair, she the bangs that she wanted straight weren’t cooperating. Also, you know how it is when you get a new style. It takes a while to learn to fix it right. Anyway, she came downstairs, crying and telling us how she hated it, she had never liked it, she had not wanted layers but had only wanted it cut short. As calmly as I could, I replayed all the comments she had made over the last day about it and how everyone had liked it. She was still upset and shaking her head, telling me she hadn’t ever liked it from the moment I cut it. I did what any parent would do: I called her a liar.
After rewetting it and me helping her dry it, it was some better. I will have to buy a hair straightener for her but she has to understand that you can’t use it everyday or she’ll fry off those bangs! It actually looked really cute this morning but I didn’t dare ask her if she liked it. But, she’ll have to wash it again tonight, so we’ll probably have some more drama.
I can’t complain much though…she is so very helpful to us at home. She is finally keeping her room clean and she watches her sisters a lot for us! She also is so great at church. She volunteers on Sunday mornings and watches the kids at our Life Group on Sunday night. I remember the days when I didn’t mind watching little kids…but, by the time you really need to be earning money, you are too busy and don’t want to watch kids anymore!
In other teenager news, I had to write checks for her to go on 2 field trips this morning. They are going to a camp to learn about “common ground plan.” Who knows! Anyway, that was $40. Then, she is going with the Beta Club to tutor some 3rd graders. That costs $5 to go but they need $10 to eat lunch out somewhere. She never eats $10 worth! So, for her to help a 3rd grader, it is costing me $15! Then, she also needed $12 for a band t-shirt. Geez!!! I’m glad we send them to public school! I guess I’m just uptight because I just sent $23 for Bailey’s field trip last week, Madi went swimming everyday with school last week and that cost $20 and she’ll go to the NC Zoo later this year and that will be $40.
For anyone wondering, our dog, Maizey, is doing better!!! It was still touch and go until last Monday or so and we realized she was getting back to her old, normal self. She still has limited time due to the tumor and heart disease, but she is enjoying being with the Stampers. I am thrilled because we love her so much and I really didn’t want to have to make a decision. The girls have been so wonderful: I don’t know the last time they have wanted to do things for her, but I don’t even have to ask them to help feed her every morning and each evening.
We had another whirlwind weekend! I hate that I can’t blog more than I do…I really don’t know how I ever wrote something every day or so. Its all I can do to get to the end of each day without collapsing…and then when I finally get upstairs, I have to move all the laundry off the bed that didn’t get folded that day. Then, I put it back on my bed the next morning in hopeful anticipation of getting folded. Mostly, we just pull clean stuff out of a pile and wear it. I don’t know if life will ever slow down, but I really hope it does…if not, I’ll just look forward to a vacation and SOON!!! Christmas can’t get her fast enough!
I realized tonight that I have a very big mouth. I am on the costume committee for the play the girls are in. I have done that committee before and it has never been a tremendous amount of work. Well, so far, we had 4 people show up for the first meeting on Sunday and only 3 of us were back tonight for the first fitting. I’m not sure how many people are on the committee, but it is considered a “major” committee and every parent has to be on one major and one minor committee. Anyway, as we were fitting the costumes tonight, I realized I kept saying, “oh that just needs to be hemmed. I can do that.” Or, “oh, we just need to add a little fabric to make that skirt be able to button. I can do that.” And so it continued until I had a pile of 8 things to alter (one is not just altering…it is completely making a skirt from scratch). I knew I was in trouble when the one lady said, “well, you’re the seamstress, so you might better decide which dress looks best on her.” Seamstress??!!? Oh my! And this was just from the first group of characters to be fitted. I will go to the rest of the meetings/fittings, but I will keep my mouth shut!!! I’m not sure when I thought I could fit all this work in my schedule…maybe I can convince my mom to come visit me and help!!! 
***As an update on my last post about our dog, Maizey: she is still here but not really better and not really worse. I don’t think she is hurting…or at least she is not letting us know…and I just can not make myself make a decision to put her to sleep. Please pray for us all…we have all been on a roller coaster of emotions since last Thursday night. I know she will not get better. I know the end is near. I just want it to come naturally and peacefully…please pray God will be merciful on us all by letting her go pain-free in the night.***
Last week was one that was so busy, I had to keep my calendar with me at all times! I never even used to keep a calendar…I would write down important dates on notes on the fridge. But, now I almost need a color-coded 3 ring binder to keep our schedules straight. Between our jobs, dance, play practice, various after school activities, we were non-stop last week.
To top it off, our 10 year old dog, Maizey, started acting strange on Thursday night. She has been showing signs of age for about 2 years. We got the new dog last year hoping to see some rejuvenation…and we have. She is also taking senior adult dog vitamins and a chronic joint medicine. This, in addition to sleeping in the garage where it isn’t so cold in the winter has seemed to help somewhat. But, Thursday night, her breathing was very labored and she was “crying.” There was no change Friday morning, so Thayer called the vet. They could not see her until 2 pm. We always thought we would have time to see a gradual diminishing before we had to make tough decisions, but she was very sick and we love her too much to watch her suffer. She had not been eating or drinking for about 12 hours. The girls were devastated and ended up not going to school. We all cried all day.
When we went to the vet’s, she rallied. He said that happens a lot due to animals being so nervous about being there. She seemed like she was back to her normal, but aged, self. We found out she does have a mammary tumor and probable heart disease based on the exam. Her time is limited…the life expectancy for labs is around 11 or 12 years and she 10 1/2. But, I couldn’t do it. I begged the vet and Thayer to let us bring her home for observation for another day or so. I was hoping it was just an infection or something temporary.
By late Friday night, I was thinking I had made a mistake…she was no better when we got home. I had to pick up Julia from her first Cotillion of the year and when we got back about 10 pm, Maizey was walking around the yard. She had eaten all the food I had left out and drank a bowl of water. Then, this morning, she ate again and drank tons of water. But, she is still walking very slowly and sleeps all the time. She ate a little more before bed time tonight.
We are so torn! We know we have one more day to observe her: the vet isn’t open on Sunday. She is so special to all of us…most especially to Thayer. He trained her and spent hours and hours with her. She even brought her ball to him on Friday morning when she was so sick. We wish that she’d either be totally back to her normal self (which is still old and we know there isn’t that much time left) or that she would pass away peacefully in her sleep. We do not want to have to decide whether or not to take her back next week.
Watching her is horrible. She doesn’t appear to be in that much pain…that is the only consolation for us. The breathing has gotten better and she is eating, but she still is not right. Why or why do we let ourselves get so close to our pets?!? I’ll risk being thought of as a crazy lady and go ahead and ask for prayer for her, but mainly for us as we deal with decisions and possibly the loss of our sweet Maizey this week.
