Danielle Blog

What’s worse? – a guest post by Texas Seestor

Texas Seestor emailed me about something that happened to her this week.  I asked her to write a guest blog post about it.

Here it is, in her own words:

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Out for a stroll…

I was out for a stroll on Friday with Danielle’s newest niece in the jogging stroller (walking, not jogging, and with an infant sling for those that might be concerned).

It was a lovely, sunny day and I was aiming for 30-45 minutes. I was about 20 minutes into my walk on a main street through our neighborhood, and thinking that I should hold the stroller tight as I was going somewhat downhill and I was pretty sure I didn’t have the energy or speed to catch it if it got away, when I stepped in something on the sidewalk. I looked back to see what it was…

So, I ask you, what is worse…stepping in dog poop or not realizing until its too late that you just stepped onto a mostly decomposed, but still stinky, armadillo? Oh, and then, a few minutes later, getting dog poop on the stroller wheel and one of your new running shoes while trying to walk in the grass to get rid of any dead animal stuff on your shoe.

Yuck! UGH!

Only in Texas…

I didn’t puke, so that was a good thing. I did keep my walk to 30 minutes as all I could think about the rest of the way home was cleaning my shoe and the stroller with the garden hose. This was also a challenge as I was trying to keep my thumb dry which I had managed to slice open earlier in the week while recycling some cans, thus requiring 4 stitches.

Last week doesn’t seem like it was my week.

Of course, it all seems quite humorous now.

Happy New Year!

This was one of my New Year’s Eve activities – playing playdough with the older of my two nieces.

And we’ve gone to the park for the past couple of days. Yesterday was really nice out, but today was a bit cold when we were there (it was in the 40s).

We’ve also played dress-up some. The sparkly shoes and skirt that I gave her last year are still a big hit too.

We’ve been playing blocks, fingerpainting, riding bikes (and tricycle), reading books, eating snacks, and playing with the bunny.

As for my newborn niece, I’ve held her for a chunk of time every day. And helped keep her awake or played with her when my sister felt like she needed to be awake.

And here is one of the good photos of my new baby niece.

There are a bunch of photos on Flickr.

Vacation!

I haven’t written anything in a while.

The short version is that I had a whirlwind couple of weeks winding up my summer research.

Then the day after it was over, I headed to TX to see Texas Seestor, Trainwreck, and Munchie, and Mom and Dad.  We had a group family vacation and went to a resort – Port Aransas, TX on the Gulf Coast.  It was awesome!  I was able to completely detach from work – I  haven’t checked my email from work once!  Which is what I really  needed.

I fly back today and go back to school tomorrow for some types of ‘pre-meetings’ for the faculty.  I’ll also have time to do some lecture prep and more research prep of things that didn’t get done before I left.

Vacation has so many parts to it, I want to blog about it adequately to try to capture some of my joy.  Some of it has pictures to go along with joyous moments.  Others are just in my mind.  Most of the pictures will be marked private on Flickr.

So, stay tuned!  Gotta finish packing and get ready to fly home!

New niece or nephew in Dec/Jan

Texas Seestor and Trainwreck are expecting a new daughter or son!! Official predicted date of birth: early Jan, 2010!

You know what this means, right? I will have another wee one to pour out my love upon. *grin*

If we are lucky, our new family member will be with us when I visit for Christmas/New Year’s (assuming that they don’t mind my being around). I promise I can cook….
… simple things. I do make some mean chocolate desserts. And what else will calm the raging postpartum hormones better than chocolate dessert?
I’m also good at playing with my niece to keep her busy.
Does it sound like I’m selling myself enough, here?

At this point, she is too little to know what is going on. She will be three when she gets a new sister or brother. At this point, she just knows my sister’s belly button is more fun to poke at right now. *grin*

Congratulations!

Flowers for a fuzzy friend – tulips to remember the Girlie

I set these flowers up in one of the Girlie’s favorite spots. This happens to be my usual spot for taking flower photos, but also happens to be one of her favorite places.

It was a little later in the day than she really liked, but the light was good for photos. So, it was a compromise.

Girlie-girl – Sept 1995 to Feb 26th, 2009

The Girlie-girl died this week around 2:30 am Thursday morning. She was 13.

How do I ever write a synopsis of 13 years of life? Years and years of love… ….just the thought makes me cry.

She was so incredibly important to us, to me. She was always there for me. When HB would be out of town, she was always at home to greet me and was waiting at the top of the stairs.

She loved to be petted. We had this wonderful routine of sitting on the couch after supper. I’d get settled in with the blanket and I’d pat the couch next to me and say “come on” (a little bit high-pitched). She’d jump up and would get into the petting position. I’d usually pet her for 30-45 min. It either ended when my arm wore out, or when she decided she’d had enough for the night.

In addition to being petted, she loved to sleep.

And we loved to watch her sleep. She would tuck into these adorable positions with her body all curled up and the top of her head smushed against the floor, chair, or couch.

Going through the photos I have of her, it was surprising how many of them were of her sleeping or playing with tissue paper. That was really her favorite toy. She could really rip into it. I imagine she liked the satisfaction of getting her claws into it and shredding it. I know that she liked the crackle of it.

We always had to watch out for her claws and teeth. She was quick to use them when we were playing.

And she loved to investigate and be located wherever we were located. Anytime I did a flower photo-shoot, she was right there with me.

Those are some of my favorites. It, of course, shows the flowers, but it also shows my girlie, so curious, so involved.

My very favorites of her are ones with us. But because they show our faces, you’ll have to log in to Flickr to see them. But they are located here. I’ve winnowed my favorite photos of her down to 35 photos. Since I started with 294, it was hard to restrict them to a manageable number, but I did it. Today, HB has scanned some of our prints from her earlier years. We still have a few to go, but I wanted to get this done today.

You might be wondering what happened to her. Well, she stopped defecating, and we thought maybe she’d stopped eating, but we weren’t really sure. We took her to the University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center. They admitted her last Saturday in the late afternoon into the ICU. They suspected a kidney infection and gave her antibiotics and iv fluids. She was in the ICU until Tuesday night when we brought her home. They thought that she would do better at home, since she gets so stressed in medical facilities. And, the doctors thought she was ready to switch to oral antibiotics and not iv.  The U of M Vet Med Center was really wonderful with us.  They spent a lot of time talking to us and going over her care with us.  I’m really glad we took her there.

She seemed much happier at home. I know that we, at least, were happy to have her home. The main concern, though, was that she was not eating much, and was drinking minimal amounts of water.

Wednesday night, I must have petted and brushed her for 45 min before supper. And then a half hour here and a half hour there over the course of the evening. We all went to bed, and she was in bed with us, in her usual spot between HB’s legs, when she meowed and woke us up.   We had just enough time to turn the light on, pet her, and try to see what was wrong when she took her last breaths.

The vets had noticed a heart murmur (which is a valve defect) when they had examined her. They warned us that she could end up dying of cardiac failure. That was probably what happened to her, but we’ll never really know.

The main thing is that she was with us, and not at the hospital when she died. And we’d spent so much time with her, focused on her, and petting her that night. I’ll always be grateful that we had that time together with her at the end.

It has been an emotional week. Today, I spent the day going through albums and my digital archives, trying to find every picture that I have of her and collecting them into a set on Flickr. I have put them all into a huge set.  It was really comforting to remember so many happy moments. That is part of why I have posted them here. It helps to think of all of the good times we had together.

But it was hard to get to the last photos that I took of her this Christmas and then the ones in January in front of the fireplace and realize I’d reached the end.

HB bought some yellow tulips in memory of her. If I’m up to it tomorrow or so, I’ll take some photos of them.

For now, I’m adjusting to the loss of her not being here. At work, I get busy with work, am distracted, and it is less noticeable. But at home, every time I turn around, I expect her to be there. She was such a creature of routine. She tended to lay in certain spots at certain times of the day. So, I walk past those spots and still expect to see her there. I still detour around areas where I always had to be careful of stepping on her. I catch myself doing it, and it makes me sad all over again.

I really miss her.

I have to believe that her spirit has moved onto heaven, and that I’ll see her again someday.

But for now, I just      wish      she      were      here.

Here is the shirt that Texas Seestor, Trainwreck, and The Busy One, got me for Christmas.  I think it is pretty clever.

Since my policy is to not show pictures of anyone’s faces, you’ll have to look on Flickr to see some of the dress-up gifts I gave my niece.  She was afraid of the cape that I made, but I would imagine that with time, she’ll become more comfortable with it.  In addition, I gave her a princess hat, a cowboy hat, beads (and a small bag to put them in), boas (white and pink), sparkly glitter shoes (red and pink), a cat outfit (ears, tail and bowtie), and ballerina skirts. Oh, and I got her a mirror from the dollar store.  It was a total impulse buy and appears to be one of her favorite parts of her Christmas gifts.

Here is a picture of the cape when I was sewing it, and when I’d finished it.  Note the sequins and sparkly silver ribbon.

And here is a picture of the sweetie Max.

Vacation in TX – entry 2

and it is really good in large

Here is the pool from the other direction (opposite from my first entry). I took this from the water slide platform. We hung out at the farthest pool. Because of the way they are connected with waterfalls, we were at the lowest one in elevation. We always got a good table with a nice umbrella for shade. On the last day, we got one next to the music speakers, which was really great, since the music list they were playing was perfect.

That is Munchie, Trainwreck, and Dad hanging out by the bar stools as they watch the kids jumping off of and playing around the waterfall.

That would be Texas Seestor, Munchie, and Trainwreck hanging out in the pool.

A little out of order, but that is the sunrise photo I shot on the first morning. I walked out on the balcony, was pleasantly surprised at the humidity and the sound of the ocean, and was joyous that I caught the sunrise.

And speaking of mornings, this next pic is one of Munchie licking the cream cheese off of her breakfast bagel.

I guess she really loves cream cheese, as it turns out. And the funny thing is that the first thing she does when she gets a piece of bread, is licks it to see if there is cream cheese or butter on it. It almost breaks your heart when she gets just plain bread and you see her lick it and lick it, trying to find the cream cheese or butter. But it is so dang cute, you don’t feel sorry for her for long.

Let’s see, what other pics can I put up here…

This is a photo that Dad took of me watching the waves the night before the hurricane hit the area south of us.

And here is a photo that Texas Seestor took with her camera of the waves that night. My photos don’t look very good. I was so busy taking these wide shots to encompass the feeling of seeing such a large stretch of rough surf, that I didn’t really get good close-ups.

We hung out on the balcony for a while that night. I like this one of Munchie because of the railing, I think.

And here I am playing Super Mario Galaxy (at least I think that is what it was called) with the Wii on our one rainy day.

We didn’t go to the aquarium, because there were tornado warnings around the area, but we stayed in and had a lot of fun playing games. I also played a lot of Mario Kart, which is a driving game. I really love driving games.

And while I am on the topic of our rainy day, I will mention that we really lucked out and our next day (which was our last full day) was nice enough that we hung out at the pool again all day. It was really terrific.

On our last morning, we walked down the boardwalk to the beach to see the state of the waves and beach. And then Texas Seestor and I went down the water slide 6 or 7 times! It was a blast and a great way to end our time there.

I know I’m skipping around some, but here are a couple shots of us playing.

And here was a moment when Munchie got so close when we were playing that she was standing on my hand. Actually, I think she might’ve been coming for my camera.

And I think I will end with this photo. In this one, Munchie is pointing out at the ocean and the birds and saying “See!” It is one of her favorite things to do.

All in all, it was a wonderfully fantastical fabuloso vacation.

vacation in TX – entry 1

We made it to Port Aransas and are having a wonderful time.

The day we arrived, we had time to go to this pool and check out 4 of the 5 pools. I also went down the 2 slides. The closed one is kind of spooky because it was black inside, but the open one was a lot of fun.

That first night, we went to the hot tub too. It felt sooooooooooooo good. And they have so many hot tubs that we almost got to have it all to ourselves!

We’ve spent most of the time at the pool. Specifically the one that is on the lower part of the picture. I took that picture from the restaurant, BTW. I am unable to upload more than one or two pictures while I am here at the condo. It took at least 20 min, if not more, in order to just do that one photo. I’ll have to do more once we get back to Texas Seestor’s place.

We went to the beach a couple of times. Most recently, we went to the beach to see the crazy surf that is stirred up because of hurricane Dolly. I don’t know if anyone has put 2 and 2 together, but at one point, we were predicted to be in the northern part of the potential path. Now, it is south of here, and we are just getting rain. So, we are glad we had a few really good weather days. And really more pleased that we aren’t in the path and had to evacuate.

I’ve been having a ton of fun with my niece. I’ve played with her a lot, but most noteworthy is that we played in the pool for a really long time yesterday. Well, long for her. She usually only makes it about 30 min before getting too tired. And we were out 40 min and I had her for most of that time. It was really a great time.

I also played with her for a couple of hours this morning. She really likes to play chase or follow. Fortunately, there is a really good loop of hallways around the condo, which is just perfect.

The best part is when she reaches for me to hold her. She really adjusted to me on the 2nd day. I don’t know how much she remembers and how much she is just comfortable with new people (or if I remind her of my seestor), but it makes me really happy.

I’ve been so busy with her, or with just laying around in the pool, that I’ve barely been online and haven’t read my book at all. But I Have taken lots of pictures (of course). I’m looking forward to uploading them.

It looks like with today’s rain, we are going to go to a local aquarium. I always love aquariums and evidently my niece really likes to look at the fishies too. She is really into pointing and saying “see!”

Can you tell I’m enamored?

Talk to you later!

Fun times were had by all *Addition at end*

Betcha can’t guess where we all went while we were visiting Texas Seestor, Trainwreck, and Munchie (formerly Baby Texas Bunny) in Texas!

That’s right! The fair and rodeo!

uh oh. That would be three statements using exclamation points. hmmm… well, I guess I’m in a good mood thinking about our time in Texas.

So, where was I?

Oh yes.

One of the first things we saw when we walked in were the looooooooonghorns, as Sheryl says (in a comment on Flickr).

Yes, very long.

And just in case you decided to get too close and get stabbed by one of the horns, they had their safety disclaimer.

Note the Texas flags in the distance in the photo.

As we headed toward the livestock, we saw some guys doing rope tricks.

Then we were off to see the livestock! We walked in the barn, saw about 3 things of interest and couldn’t decide which direction to go. Well, I knew where I wanted to go, and that was toward more longhorns.

Most of them were only a year or two old, so their horns were still pretty short. But boy did they have impressive coats.

Isn’t the baby just adorable? So precious.

After walking through the longhorns, we wandered through the goats. After a while, it had that “you’ve seen one goat, you’ve seen them all” sort of feel to it. Boy were there a lot of goats.

That was one of the recalcitrant goats. That would be one of two we saw that day that did Not want to go where their handler wanted to take them.
“grumble, grumble, stubborn ol’ things”

We watched the showing of the longhorns in the arena for a while and saw the judges doing their judging from horseback – which was unexpected, but made sense once you thought about it since the longhorns had to cover a lot of ground to show off their stride, etc.

And we headed to the mini herfordshires. Mini Herfords? Mini Herfordshires? one or the other. We’ll just call them The Mini Cool Brown Cows with the White Head and Feet. Cattle, technically, but I didn’t grow up around cattle, so I tend to say cows without thinking. Must’ve been all those “A is for Apple, B is for Ball, C is for Cow” books when I was growing up.

They had the longest, whitest eyelashes. I wish I’d been able to get a good photo of them, but it is one of those things I’ll just have to tuck away in my memory since I don’t have a picture.

so cute. I love their big white heads. I call that one patterns II. (roman numeral 2, of course)

Do you see the pattern?

I called this next one patterns I.

Those are actually longhorns, by the way, so I’m skipping around a bit. But I liked the pattern of the spots on their BEhinds, their tails and legs.

I got to pet one of the Mini Cool Brown Cows with the White Head and Feet. Dad has the photo of that. Maybe one day he’ll put it on Flickr (hint, hint, Dad). Its hair was very coarse and scratchy. Not soft at all, like it looks. But it did have a bit of a wave of curl in it, which was very cute close up.

We headed to the petting (zoo) part of the building and lo’ and behold!

What’s a kangaroo doing at a Texas Fair!?

Who knows. But it was interesting to see. Very skittish. I didn’t get to touch it, like I’d hoped. It seemed mostly interested in the people who had the little cups of food to give them.

That was the case with most of the animals in the petting area. They only wanted to see you if you had food.

The goat, evidently, thought my camera could substitute for food.

The deer didn’t seem to care either way.

Aren’t those deer kind of strange looking? They have such big heads. Almost like donkey heads…. very odd. But I guess they really are deer, as odd as they seem to me. I forget which kind of deer. Hmmm. This would be where the Texas folk could chime in, if they so desired, and show off their nature smarts.

We made one more pass through the longhorns and look what we found!

The mommy cow and the baby cow were standing up!
I love how their coats match so closely. I guess this is one baby that resembles its mommy.

Wait a minute. Is that really the same one as before? The mom has the same white blaze on her forehead, but their positions are backwards now. (before, they were tied to the railing with the baby on the left). Hmmm…. maybe they got shown in the arena in the meantime and got shifted around. That might explain why they are standing up now.

What do you think? Are they the same ones as in the earlier picture where they were lying down?

Either way, aren’t they pretty?

We ended our trip by my listening to some music while the others looked at the ‘fair’ part of the locale.

And that was the finale to our day’s adventure.

- The End -

P.S. Munchie slept through the whole thing. Can you believe she missed her first fair and rodeo?! No cows, no goats, no kangaroo…
…. no Mini Cool Brown Cows with the White Head and Feet.

Ah well, I know there will be a next time. Maybe if we’re lucky in the petting area the goat will try to eat her dress. Tee hee, that happened to someone else I know when she was little…
… or was it her sandals? hmmm… maybe she’ll tell us. hint, hint. ;-D

P.P.S.

Texas Seestor came through with the photo!