Grampa!

Elinore loves spending time with her grandpa! I think she's sucking her thumb in every picture we got of her that weekend.

Mom and Dad, I'm glad you came for a visit. We had a great time! 

Satisfaction

I finished my quilt today!! Yippee! 

More Sad News

Well, I found out today from Mom that Pebbles is in the beginning stages of renal failure and we are not sure how much longer she is going to be with us. I'm not going to lie, I feel like our family is sort of falling apart...at least the furry ones anyway. I'm very sad

Elinore, the trooper

Thanks for meeting us for dinner, Mom, Dad, and Cait. It was great to see you (and to have something to do for those boring 6 hours). As we told you, our trip to Thailand was great!! I've posted a bit more on our own blog site (follow the link to the right). Elinore was such a trooper. She learned how to sleep just about anywhere and spent a good part of everyday in her snuggly. All of the clothes you sent us were worn and we were grateful to have such summery things to dress her in. Kevin was especially glad she had a couple outfits that were not pink!

Giant Feet in a Small World

Considering this was my third trip to Chile, don't get me wrong, but I didn't expect to "discover" very many things about Chilean culture. I guess I somewhat smugly assume that I am an "old hand" when it comes to Santiago. However, I was able to spend just enough time down south to not be overwhelmed by the differences, but be amazed at how I'd overlooked them on my previous visits.

#1. (And this was not so much a discovery as a confirmation/reminder of a previous discovery) US Rules of the Road DO NOT APPLY in Chile. Lanes are mere suggestions to motorists, and in fact, really have nothing to do with turning at intersections. You are free to turn left, right, or continue straight ahead from whichever lane you choose in Santiago. Rolling down your window while the light is red to inform the other driver that you will be turning in front of him or her is considered good etiquette, but is by no means necessary. One will use judgment however when deciding whether or not to turn in front of the big yellow micros.

#2. When Angela, Irache, and I went to the mall in search of wedding outfit accessories, the food court at lunch time was packed. (You'll notice the wonderfully traditional fast food joints that we could choose from) I followed as they searched out a table with 3 chairs and 1 old man sitting peacefully, finishing his lunch. My heart began to beat wildly as Irache sat down at the table next to the man, Angela pulled out a chair for me, and then Angela stood near the man waiting for him to finish so she could take his seat. I was appalled by my friends' rudeness in pressuring the poor man to choke down those empanadas, until I realized that this must be normal behavior. Knowing that Chileans and Americans have different concepts of personal space should have made this not quite so momentous, but it was a phenomenon that I somehow missed before.

#3. The world is not too small to meet the student who is currently staying with your host family (in CHILE, I might add) and find out he is from Naperville.

#4. Being an ambassador of the US Culture can range anywhere from refusing to be silent when it becomes clear that Chileans do not understand the "YMCA" (I was horrified to observe that those brave souls who did not walk off the dance floor when the YMCA began to play, all waved their arms around during the "Y.... M.. CA", but did not make the letters!!), to teaching your host brother the art of the S'MORE. (Everything was authentic except the campfire)

#5. (And this was shocking indeed) According to Chilean standards, I have GIANT feet. I don't mean to say large, I mean GIANT. Now for those of you who are scrolling back up to see if my feet have made it in any of the pictures, let me just say that I wear a US size 8. That's just about as average as they come. HOWEVER, while shopping for shoes in Santiago I was discouraged to find out in the first few stores that when I asked for a particular shoe in a size 38-39, the shoe attendant looked at me a little surprised and shook his head no. Angela ended up walking into every store before I even started looking at their shoes to ask if they even carried anything in a 39. When finally they would say yes, she would ask them to just bring whatever they had. Oh the shame! I eventually was able to find a winning shoe, but I will think twice before taking these colossal feet for Chilean outfitting again any time soon.

As Jen and Kevin recently said in reference to their trip in Thailand, the best travel stories come when things go wrong. I could tell you all about the wedding, the beach, the 90 degree weather, the ice cream, the sea lions, the kiwi, pear, papaya, strawberry, raspberry, apricot, peach, and cactus fruit nectar I got to drink on a daily basis, but that's not nearly as fun as recreating the moments when I found my inner-self shouting "What is going on?!"

Funny Story

This made me laugh.

So I went to Target a little while ago to get a new tote bag, as I have decided to deactivate from Delta Gamma, and can not use the bag with letters on it. I had seen some bags I liked at the Target at home for laptops, so I went to go see what they had. I found one I really liked it had a spot for the computer, things for pencils and what not it was perfect. So I grabbed it as well as some chips and stuff for that fantastic chili dip for super bowl sunday and then I checked out. When I got back to my house I was looking over the reciept and realized that the bag I had just bought rang up as a diaper bag. I was SOOO confused because I had gotten it in the laptop accessories isle, so I looked at the tag attached to the bag and read what the contents were: a changing mat, insulated bottle bag, a dirty diaper bag...I opened it to see there is in fact a changing pad, bottle bag, and dirty diaper holder. However, my laptop DOES in fact fit in the bag, and if I didn't tell you it was a diaper bag you would never know. I was expecting it to cost me somewhere around $25 but amazingly it only cost $6!!! What a find, I'll be sure to pass the bottle bag, dirty diaper carrier, and the changing mat to Jen and Kev when they return from Thailand.

Growing Like a Weed

I just wanted you all to know how little Elinore is growing. She had an appointment today! She weighs 11#4.5 and she's already 23.5" long! I can't keep up with her!

The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships

Funny, the name Elinore actually comes from "Helen". How will we ever keep her modest? 

Well all,

I have successfully made it back to school and after a very frustrating day of cleaning off files from my desktop, I have successfully done it. All I have to do now is load those files on to my laptop and get the Microsoft stuff from IT and all should be sugar and popsicles. I'm happy to be back at school!!

The Peanut Fairy

Sometime over dedication weekend, the peanut fairy visited our house. We discovered two whole unopened jars of peanuts!! I wonder how that happened... 

Peace

Lately, whenever we lay Elinore on her tummy, she falls asleep within five minutes. The other day she fell asleep on her playmat with her hand in her mouth. I think she is just such a picture of peace. 

These are the only photos I could get to download. The first one is of Shadow and me in July of 1990. She was just 8 weeks and I was four. The one of her staring into the fireplace is from New Years weekend. And the last picture is a picture from her last few hours at home.

Beginnings and Endings

Here is one of the pictures of Elinore from New Year's weekend.. (It's hard to post without a picture of the star of the family!)

On a sadder note, Shadow the kitty didn't improve after a few days of IV fluids. Laura was able to bring her home today and spend some time with her, but the vet made it clear that she was not feeling well and it was unlikely that she would last the night. We put it off as long as possible, but just before closing we took her back to the clinic so she wouldn't have to suffer anymore. We were all with her as she died, and it was very quick and seemed painless. She was a nice cat and had a good life, and it will seem strange without her. I'm sure she is already climbing trees and exploring the terrain in kitty heaven, but we will miss her.

Well, today has been a very black day. Over the weekend I noticed some changes in Shadow's behavior. She was more irritable and kind of grumpy. Then last night things just got really bad. She was staggering around, didn't want to be touched, she was very lethargic and then she was trying to use the litterbox and not able to. Plus she was really quiet and when she did meow it just sounded like she was hurting. The last two nights she hasn't slept in my room and this morning we made an appointment and took her to the vet. He took some x-rays and did some blood tests and told us he would call with the results this evening. I hoped it wasn't anything serious, my thought it might be a thyroid problem, like Pebbles. The vet called at 5:45 with some very bad news. He said Shadow has advanced kidney disease and her kidneys are starting to shut down. He told us we could bring her in and they would give her IV fluids to try and help her improve and get her to start eating again. Unfortunately her chances of improving aren't high, they're less than 50%. We're giving it 4 days on the IV fluids and if she does not improve we are going to bring her home and make a decision. As I'm sure you can imagine, I'm not taking this very well. Shadow is my baby and if she doesn't get better it's going to be real hard for me. I knew this was going to happen eventually, I just wasn't expecting it to happen so soon. Not a great way to start the year

Chrismanewyears

Little Ella bean is just too cute, and getting cuter every time we see her. It was a very merry belated christmas/a fun and happy new years. We can't wait to come next weekend!!

grrrrr

you know what's dumb...the stupid blog not letting me put a new picture in for my profile because it's not 50 kb except that i can't get anything via the internet that is that size, it doesn't work and i'm grrr about it

YAY CHRISTMAS

Hey everyone!!! This is my first picture with my new digital camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was gonna try and post the picture of dad cutting the frozen cheesecake, but they're on caity's camera so I'll leave that up to her. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Today we celebrated Christmas with the Wolthuis Family...Elinore was very excited for the spiked Eggnog.  

Our little Christmas present!! 

Who Knew Your Life Could Change So Fast

I just took Elinore in for her 2 week checkup. Her weight wa 9#3, so she's back up to her birthweight. Everything looks great, and the doctor answered all of my questions, most of them with a "that's normal." She is definitely keeping us on our toes. We've had good nights and bad nights, good days and bad days. Mostly we just love her immensely and think she is just amazing. Anyway, just wanted to give you all a little update.