Around the neighborhood

Well it's finally happened. Shara didn't want to join me to pick up the farm order the other day because she was too busy playing with the neighborhood kids. How fun! She went over to her friends the other day and came traipsing home with several kids in tow. It looks like they played tag a bit, ran through the house to the front yard, back through the house to the basement, got some juice bags, back outside, then it was time for them all to go home!

new sneakers

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Virus alert

If shara's week couldn't have gotten any worse, Saturday afternoon she came down with a virus, a fever and then throwing up a few times. Luckily it ended early yesterday.evening and she's been hyper ever since.

Monday Shara went to the dentist and had a great report. Later she had her 7 year old checkup and we talked to the doctor about her stomach aches. To make sure nothing serious was going on, Shara had her first blood test. That wasn't very pleasant, but then the x-ray wasn't bad. We got good news that she doesn't have celiac (wheat allergies) but she does need to drink Miralax daily for a couple of months. After that, she'll need to make sure she continues to drink a lot of water and eat her veggies and fruits. Probably have to lower the amount of dairy as well. The doctor said some people need to eat well all the time. We'll see how things go once her tummy starts feeling better all the time. She'll probably have a better appetite and then eat more, so she'll get enough of the good stuff.

Last night we got to go to school and meet her teacher and see her class. That was fun and it was great to see Shara so excited about being in school. She really loves it. We can see how the teachers are gearing up for the MCAS though. But it makes sense to memorize adding numbers because when the problems become more complex, you don't want to be wasting time counting on fingers.

Today though was a sad time for all of us. We went to pick up the CSA order and when we got home, couldn't find Alan. My phone wasn't getting a connection so I couldn't hear the voice mail he left, but he called and said he was at the animal hospital with George. We knew he was getting thin, but everything else seemed ok. Yesterday he actually let Shara pet him, and that's what got Alan suspicious. He was certainly happy, but when Alan came home today and pet him, George almost fell over. He also got sick when Alan fed him some tuna juice to try to get him to drink something. Then it looked like he was trying to go to the bathroom but couldn't. So he packed him up and took him to the vets and they were pretty sure they felt a tumor and it wasn't a blockage. They couldn't be sure without several tests and leaving him overnight, but we decided long ago that we wouldn't put another pet through what Scratchy went through and decided to end any potential suffering. The doctor said his body had already started shutting down. Shara and I went to the hospital to say goodbye and he was very tired looking but purred the whole time. Alan stayed with him as he died and it was quick.
Good bye Georgie. We miss you.

RIP Scratchy and George

Cat day

Today shara is having"cat day". The refrigerator is being delivered now and she is working hard to keep the cats occupied.

She had a very busy week. This was her first week with dance and she's happy to be back. It doesn't seem as though having 2 classes back to back is going to be too much for her.

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School's Great!

Oh it was a fun first day of 2nd grade and she knew lots of kids in her class. Today was gym, it was fun, and she saw some friends from last year during lunch, so it sounds like they'll have recess together. It's rainy so it was indoor recess today. I think the only thing she finds disappointing about school is that she's almost never pictured or a mention in the newsletter. I told her it was probably because I wasn't at school as often as the other moms and they're the ones who take the pictures. That it has nothing to do with her. I really believe that too and it's natural to take pictures of your friends' kids rather than someone you don't really know.

However, she was very happy when I got home this evening. She even helped cook dinner - she asked if we could have the bacon wrapped dates (we got the ingredients at the market yesterday) and I was thinking it would be good to have because she wasn't going to like the eggplant I had planned. Originally she planned on making them with me but then lost interest last night. I thought she'd like to today and she did. I really just got her set up, showed her how to do one and left her alone to do the rest while I cooked dinner. She must have eaten 8 of them. And I'm just remembering we forgot to put in the nuts - just prosciutto and blue cheese. Yummy. She wants to take the leftovers (only 3 left!) for snack tomorrow.

Big second grader!

First day back and very happy to be starting her new school year.

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Sister's chicken

My sister Jill raised several meat chickens and I was lucky enough to get a couple. I roasted this using Dorie's method from Around my French Table. Looks great, assuming it will taste good too!

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Salsa

Yesterday we made salsa. Shara helped stir and even got dressed for the occasion. It took me a while to realize when she said fesh, she was trying to remember the word "chef". We had a good laugh. She was such a big help though. All day she did little jobs here and there that really added up to big time savers for me.

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A Day At the Races

 Last weekend we picked Shara up from Aunt Jill's. She had spent the week there and had a great time. Maybe some day she'll post some memories about it. We picked her up Friday and had a leisurely morning getting all Shara's stuff packed up and spending some more time visiting before heading to Saratoga. I grew up in the area, spent lots of time in Saratoga, my dad, Grandpa Bobby, even had a horse that raced at the harness track, but I had never been to the flat track before. It's one thing to read about it and see it on tv but completely different to actually be there. So much to see and smell and hear. Had I gone when I was younger, I would make sure we went every year or so. We happened to go on Traver's day to boot. So what we experienced may not have been the norm, but I'm guessing it was pretty close. Women of all ages in hats of all styles and heals of all heights! We watched a couple of races, bet and lost on one, then made our way toward a very late lunch. We hadn't gotten there until about 1 PM, but our schedules hadn't been regular since before vacation, so who cared if we had lunch at 3 PM? We went searching for the Shake Shack and boy was it worth it! Shara ate a whole cheeseburger and we split fries and a special dusty track shake? I can't remember the name but it was a salted caramel shake topped with ground chocolate. The salt may not have been very noticeable from the salt on the fries. Didn't matter, it was great. As we were heading out, trying to beat any rain from Irene, who did we run into but cousin Howard! Out of all the people we spotted him!

I'm glad we did because it had been a very long time since I'd seen him and he and Shara got to meet. I say this all the time, but we really need to go to the Capitol District for a much longer stay. It's always a whirl-wind. One of the things Shara got to do during her week there was spend some time with Bubbe as well as the Lookers. Bubbe took Shara to Jumpin' Jack's. Crazy that the next week they were under water. This is why it's so important to get out and go place and experience all that's around us. You never know when that chance won't be there. Jumpin' Jack's as well as the strong people of Vermont will rebuild, but to think that the if we had planned our vacation two weeks later, we would have had to cancel or go elsewhere. I feel we've been very fortunate in so many ways.