One week in October – without Tim

October 17, 2008

It has been awhile since I have taken the time to post to the blog.  I am WAY overdue.  In the past few weeks we have had many postable events, including a family reunion in Wadsworth with our new nephew Markus.  Those will have to wait.  For tonight, I thought I would give you a glimpse at what this week has held for us.

Tim has been in Austin for work since Monday morning.  My mom, a.k.a. Grandma Marilyn, was here until Wednesday and helped me get through a few of the days without Tim.  We managed to stay fairly busy, making jam, soup, taking Alana to swim lessons (which started this week), and other things of that nature.

Alana had an itching episode on Sunday afternoon which did not go away.  Grandma observed that she was not sleeping well, scratching the night away.  I took her to the doctor’s office on Thursday to find it was a flair-up of eczema.  So, after $75 in prescription creams, she is sleeping better and not as itchy.

Thursday night, we headed to Leed’s Farm, a good-old fashioned farm with lots of non-farm kids stuff too.  From goats and pigs, to hay rides, zip lines, and a corn maze, the kids ran wild for 2 and a half hours.  The farm was rented out by the school, so it was all families from school, giving the boys plenty of friends to pal around with.  It was a really nice time.  Afterwards, Benton had two friends spend the night, and spent most of Friday morning assembling Legos with his friends and his brother.

Tonight, Benton basically saved the dogs from lots of ugly complications when he quickly realized that the dogs had eaten a bottle of Elwyn’s arthritis medicine that had gotten dumped on the floor.  I was in the shower, so he brought me the bottle and explained that the dogs had eaten them.  I quickly dried off and called the vet, who had me administer hydrogen peroxide to get them to vomit.  Molly took a little longer to vomit and Elwyn did not seem to vomit any pills, so to be on the safe side, I had to run them to the vet and get a treatment of activated charcoal to feed them.  By 7:15pm, about an hour and a half after the incident started, they were gleefully eating up the black, tarry looking charcoal that was mixed in with some canned food and thinking it was pretty yummy.  This part might have been overkill, but since I could not say for sure if they had vomited most of it up, I chose the safe route.  All in all, I am extremely thankful that Benton made the connection and quickly informed me.  The Mexican dinner which Benton was looking forward to became Wendy’s on the way home from the vets, so I owe him big time.  We will have to have that Mexican food later this weekend.

Molly, pictured here from last summer, ate at least 11 pills and did NOT like seeing me the second time I came with a syringe full of the peroxide.

Elwyn, also pictured from last summer, did not like seeing me with the syringe, but at age 13 is a little less able to do anything about it.

I am also extremely thankful that Tim is on a plane from Houston to Columbus as I write this.  It is always nice to have him back and another level headed adult to help me steer my course through each day and week.  Onward – to Halloween and beyond…….

Posted in Alana, Benton, Carson, Elwyn, Julie, Miscellaneous, Molly