It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

With five days until the 25th, it better be looking a lot like Christmas!  Today was the first day of holiday break for the monsters.  Glenn and I are at work most of the week - well Glenn's at work more than me - but we were both very jealous of all of the sleeping in that was happening at the house this morning.  

We are in the homestretch of the holiday preparations.  Most of the presents have been purchased, but not wrapped.  The house is so decorated that it's almost over-decorated.  The baking is mostly done.  The Christmas cards... well those are still on the to-do list.  But we are just about ready.  

Coco can't stay away from my very precious Lego village.  

At the beginning of the month, I had to make some cookies for the Tea Room at Christmas House. I made an error in trying a new recipe for the first time.  I found a recipe for rocky road cookies and it called for adding just one marshmallow to the dough before cooking.  I didn't think that was enough so I added two marshmallows and then popped the cookies in the oven.  When they came out, I realized that I had created some cute aliens.  They still tasted delicious.  

Finally, it's German Christmas cookie time. This is the batch of lepkugen fresh from the oven. 

 

Pictures of pets

Our house is still full of pets.  They've all adapted to having the house to themselves all day since I'm back at my office and the kids are in school. The dogs still love a trip to the field and the cats still try to sneak outside unless it's super cold.  Last month, Reina and I had to take both cats and one of the dogs to the vet for their annual appointment.  That trip was as chaotic as it sounds.  But they are all as cute as ever and we humans fight over who gets to sit next to the snuggly dog when it's cold in the evening.  

Reina would love to help me with chores but she's stuck on the sofa until Coco decides to change venues. 

Charlie loves to snuggle even if he's snuggling the back of my neck.  

Coco helping me with my latest sewing project.  So helpful!  

A tale of three pets at the vet. Pet 1 -  Coco preferred to sit on my shoulder facing the wall and (I can only assume) imagine herself in an alternative location.  

Pet 2 insisted on sitting in my lap in the waiting room and darting for the door anytime it looked like the appointment might be wrapping up.  

Pet 3 sat on the examining table and purred.  

Trigger helping me have a lazy Sunday.

 

First week of school

Shoot! I'm having trouble formatting my pictures and the page is a little messed up so the first day of school post will have to be sans captions. The kids have been in school for a week and besides Covid craziness, everyone is doing well. None of us have Covid right now but there isn't a mask mandate in the schools (right now also) and almost every day I'll get a message from one of the two schools about positive cases and students in quarantine. Both kids are vaxxed so we have that sense of protection but the whole system seems so much more chaotic than last year. But again - I"m not turning this into a Covid rant. Both kiddos had mostly positive reports from their first week of school. Reina is adapting to Jr High wait Middle School pretty well and besides being crankily tired on Friday night, had a good week. She says she likes her English class the most but she's also really liking art. And science. And French/Spanish. Etc. Will is pretty busy with football after school and more homework than last year at night but he's doing well too. This post will include a picture of Coco looking beautiful (naturally), a picture of Charlie looking concerned on the first day of school, Will and Reina in first day of school outfits looking too grown-up (hey I made it through the first day of school without crying!). There are several pictures of Will's first football game. He's #33. One picture shows him getting ready to sack the quarterback and if I'd had my wits about me, I would've kept taking pics instead of dropping the camera to scream "GETTTTTT HIMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!" which he did. There's also a pic of Will trying to get by a kid who's several sizes bigger than him and another pic of Will getting a great block for his teammate to run down the sidelines. Will's team won their first game 38-9 and we just love watching that kid play. We end the photo roll with our beautiful girl looking way to ready to conquer 7th grade.

Kids at Water World and pet pics

It's been a super weird week but I'm saving that story for another post.  In the meantime, a few weeks ago we took the little monsters, the big monsters, the grandparents, and some friends to Water World for our Official Last Fun Event of the summer.  Well not the Last Fun Event, but maybe the last fun event in Denver?  Anyway, we piled everyone into the car and headed south.  The little monster cousins hadn't been to WW before and none of us had been there since the summer of 2019 because of Covid so we had a great time!  

E talking to his juice box - or talking to me to say 'stop taking my picture'

Where did this grown up girl come from?  

E is not a huge fan of the water and the fact that he walked in up to his knees was very big news. 

Reina and the lazy river 

I didn't get any pictures of Will, or at least any pictures that I'm allowed to post but he was there too and he did a great job with his younger cousins.  He sat in the little wave pool with them and even convinced E to go on a giant inner tube on the "Journey to the Center of the Earth" complete with dinosaurs and lava.  E announced to everyone after the ride that Aunt Lucy had ruined his life by encouraging him to go.  Oh well, I had a nice run as Cool Aunt Lucy but all good things come to an end. 

We recently bought Will a new bed to match is taller physique and a new bed meant new bedding which resulted in a weeks-long search for the perfect comforter and sheet set.  One night while perusing TJ Maxx and sending 10 (TEN!!) pictures to Will of navy and white comforters in all shades and patterns, I stumbled across this welcome mat that had to come with me. I left without a comforter too but later that weekend, Glenn and Will went shopping and came back with the manliest of manly bedding in the form of black and dark gray and I'm just happy that he found one that he likes.  

Since I'm back at the office, the pets and I don't get to hang out like we used to.  We still find time to go to the F I E L D (can't say it out loud where they can hear you) on the weekends.  

A happy bunch post run at their favorite place.

I came upstairs on one particularly hot evening last week to find Coco sleeping in our sink.  While it was a nice cool place to nap, it was also convenient for reminding me that she'd like a refreshing drink 
directly from the tap.  

A rare sighting, a tuxedo cat and a tuxedo dog sharing the same bed.  Soxy still doesn't prefer the dogs be in her direct orbit but for some reason she tolerated it yesterday. 

 

How cold is it?

We are having typical Wyoming winter weather this week.  We only have about 1.5 inches of snow on the ground but it's chilly.  How chilly is it?  Well it's 9 degrees outside tonight and inside it's cold enough for Coco to tolerate a little snuggle time with Charlie.  For the record, Charlie loves the cats.  He wants to play with the cats but his version of play is not something that they are interested in participating in.  Soxy usually keeps her distance from him but Coco will let herself be nuzzled for a few minutes before she hisses, swats at him and walks away.  But not tonight.  She let him curl up on the sofa next to him and while he tried to stay awake, he eventually napped too.  

Day 204

On Day 204, I'm still working from home.  I go into the office on occasion but most of my time is spent at the dining room table hooked up to multiple screens.  Sometimes I'll work from the kitchen island or I'll take the laptop out onto the deck.  I've appreciated the flexibility to get my work done and be in a comfortable environment.  And I'll admit it, it's been fun to have the pets around.  Granted, both cats decided to try playing the piano while I was teaching a workshop online and the piano shows up on my computer's camera so the workshop participants were treated to a short little concert before I turned around and yelled "get down!"  The dogs follow my around the house when I move to a new location so I'm rarely alone, even when all of the other humans are out of the house.  On Friday, I saw Coco sitting outside in the fall sun and I snapped a picture.  She always has a grumpy look, but I think she's a pretty happy cat.  

 

Day 68

Day 68 can be summed as follows: 

While I was cleaning up dinner, Coco snuck out the door behind Glenn as he went to sit on the front porch and talk to a friend on the phone about turkey hunting.  Unbeknownst to the rest of us, Coco shimmied up the tallest aspen tree in our front yard.  This tree is tall.  The other aspen are in front of the house and lead to the roof but this one is on it's own.  Glenn gets off the phone and says "Hey Lucy, you should come out and see this."  I think he's talking about a family of hawks who've been hanging out nearby but instead I see Coco perched in the top of the tree, think it's cute for about 30 seconds and then start to panic about my weird calico cat and a two-story plunge to the ground.  She tries heading down the tree a few times but can't find solid footing so immediately turns back up the tree and climbs a little higher.  She also keeps getting distracted by the birds flying by so she's not really too concerned about her predicament.  Naturally.  I start to panic.  Reina starts to panic.  Will and Glenn are calm but I do notice a little bit of tension in Will's voice when he asks Glenn to get the ladder after Glenn tried climbing the tree himself.  Coco starts to meow.  I start to cry which makes Reina howl.  Right before this, Reina ran to our neighbor's to ask if they have a really tall ladder (our neighbors are saints, truly.  We have more crises than the average neighbor and 90% of our crises involve pets getting out or four-square balls stuck in tall trees.)  Anyway, I'm calling for Coco to come towards us while also trying to figure out where I should stand so I can catch her if she loses her grip, she's meowing, Glenn's insisting that she can get down on her own (I know she probably could but  I couldn't leave her out there to try).  Will suggests using a big 2x4 to see if she'll climb down that.  It doesn't reach her spot from the ground but Glenn climbs up our ladder and holds the board in place.  After a little investigation and coaxing, she starts to walk down the board to Glenn.  He grabs her, hands the board to Will, hands the cat to me and is the hero of the day.  All's well that end's well.    Phew.  

Day 10

Day 10 is a Tuesday. I think?  Another sunny day but super windy so our outside time was limited by events that we could do with the wind at our back.  Glenn and I both had busy work mornings but I ended up taking the afternoon off because by 1:00 p.m., both kids were crying and it just felt like we all needed some hanging-out time instead of multi-tasking time.  Reina and I took a walk and Will and I just talked.  Later Reina drew a springtime picture for our door while I made more masks.  It's become a fun little hobby and while my masks definitely won't be winning any seamstress awards, I hope they will help. 

Once Glenn was done with his workday, we had a family challenge with the Bop-It and broiled some chicken for dinner.  Now we are watching Rockies re-runs and dialing down the day.  More quarantining planned for tomorrow but we are getting takeout for dinner to help support local restaurants and also because everyone (mostly me) is tired of my cooking. 

I've been worried that Coco the cat is not feeling well because yesterday she managed to hiss at each of us, including all of the other pets, at least once during the day.  After watching her eat like normal and sit in her window, I think she's actually just tired of everyone being home and not having any alone time.  Hang in there kitty cat.  I feel ya.

The rest of the week

The last week of January has been a doozy.  Relatively speaking, of course.  I started to feel puny last Saturday with a stomach bug. I was sick Sunday into Monday.  Reina started to feel yucky Sunday and stayed home with me on Monday.  Glenn and Will went to work and school on Monday.  When they walked into the house Monday night after practice, Will announced that he'd thrown up in Dad's truck 7 times on the way home.  School is about 5 minutes away so you know that was an intense ride.  Glenn looked like a man who had been through some things.  Will didn't use his backpack or bag to catch the vomit, instead he aimed for Glenn's cupholders.... that aren't removable.  So the three of us stayed home together on Tuesday.  

But it's Friday and we are back on track.  Reina is reading Nancy Drew books which delights me.  She's reading the actual books that I read as a kid that were at least a generation old at that point.  She's a voracious reader.  Her birthday is right around the corner and it's a hot topic of conversation.  

Dressed up for basketball.  They have to dress nicely on game days. 

Reina camping out with three of the four pets on one of her sick days.  I think the dogs were delighted that we were feeling under the weather.  

I received this text from Glenn over the weekend.  Clearly someone hacked his phone.  I just can't figure out who the culprit is!  

It's beginning to look a lot like something

How many times have I used that phrase as a blog title in December?  More than once I'm sure.  With less than a week left until the holiday, it's definitely looking like Christmas.  The tree is up and while Coco rearranges some of the ornaments daily, it's decorated.  Most of the presents are bought, none of them are wrapped but that's what the weekend is for.  I've started sending out Christmas cards and the big packages have all been mailed.  Tomorrow is the last day of school for the kids for two whole weeks and Glenn and I are winding down our work days for the rest of the year. We are all ready for a break. 

The day we bring the tree home is Coco's favorite day of the year.  She and Tootsie carefully inspected this one.  

At the beginning of the month, Vicky and I volunteered at Christmas House.  This was our first year volunteering together and it was a lot of fun.  We worked in the tea room in the morning and then served in the house in the afternoon.

Vicky and a sample of some of the tea room wares.  We didn't bake most of those goodies but we had fun serving them up.  

That weekend, our Aunt Mary from Minnesota came out for a quick visit and we packed a lot of shopping, eating delicious food and hanging out.  It was a great way to start the holiday season.  On Saturday morning, we dropped the girls off at the church program practice and Will was at baseball practice so the girls and Everett went shopping downtown.  We walked into our favorite local kitchen store, Everett took a look around and announced that he was all down shopping at this place.  Oh buddy.

Just two cousins hanging out at the mall 

I bought an indoor snowball fight kit on Black Friday and couldn't wait for 12/25 to open it up.  Much hilarity has ensued but I think the cats are having the most fun.  

That time Vicky and I took two cats to the vet

How was your Monday?  Did you take two cats (who aren't best friends yet) to the vet?  No?  Well then your day wasn't nearly as entertaining as mine.  Coco was due for her annual check-up and Soxy hadn't been to our vet yet so it made sense to schedule them at the same time.  Once I realized the logistics were going to be tough, my amazing sis volunteered to come along and help wrangle cats.  

We dropped R off at school and we headed out.  Vicky took a great video of two cats howling in the backseat and we had that as our musical accompaniment as we drove across town.  I kept Soxy in the cardboard carrier we had leftover from Coco's previous visits and let Coco sit on laps or seats as she saw fit.  Soxy kept peering through the wholes in the cardboard with her eye and it was a little freaky - like a pirate cat or something.  

Okay.  Yes I do recognize that this is one whole post devoted to a visit to the vet but really, it's one of the more entertaining moments we've had and it was really fun to go with Vicky who is still fighting her battle with breast cancer but is feeling good enough to accompany cats that she is not legally responsible for to the doctor.  What's more fun than that?!  

So thrilled.  So very very thrilled. 

Once inside the exam room, I let both cats out while we waited to see the vet.  Soxy was brave and explored the room. 

Love this picture - she looks like she's getting ready to read her file on the computer.  

I didn't know she could stand on her hind legs to check out the shelf.  

 Meanwhile, Coco was not in the mood for exploring. 

Still not thrilled.

Both cats got up to date on their shots and both had a clean bill of health.  I took both dogs to the vet last week and they need a supplement for their joints and one of them (Tootsie cough cough) needs a little diet.  But not the kitties.  They are fluffy and healthy and I'm hoping that their shared traumatic experience will help them be better friends.  Or at least to stop fighting in the middle of the night. 

Lately

It's officially the last week of summer and we are packing in a lot of stuff.  Will has started football practice and Reina is hanging out with her aunt and grandma and friends.  We are packing in all of the last little bits of this summer and here's proof.  

Coco would like for certain members of the family to go back to school as soon as possible. 

Well shoot.  I took this cool pic of Reina at the Rockies game and now it's rotated.  Urgh.  

Ditto for Will.  He was more thrilled to be at the Rockies game than he looks in this picture but hey that's tweenhood.

I canned some peach jam on Sunday and by the end of the project, it felt like it was 900 degrees in the kitchen.  Coco still decided the best place for a nap was the dining room table next to the warm cans of jam.  

7th grade football is happening.

Pioneer Girl

I have several posts sitting in the drafts folder but haven't had time to tackle the multitude of events that are happening in these last few weeks of May so I decided to post little snippets of our month before summer is here.  Reina's class was supposed to go on a field trip last week but it was canceled because of snow.  That's right - too much snow!  So they moved the Pioneer Days celebration to school and I volunteered to help with the trading post. 

My pioneer girl in full costume.  For comparison's sake, on this day in his fourth grade, Will agreed to wear jeans and a nike shirt.  

The students had a variety of pioneer themed activities besides the trading post.  They did a craft, ate biscuits and gravy, learned how to square dance, played pioneer games and learned how to rope.  It was a lot of fun watching all of the activities. At the trading post, the kids could use buttons they had earned in class to barter for old fashioned candy, pickles, cards and giant wooden flutes. I asked the teacher if she was mad at us parents.  She was happy to tell me that there were enough flutes for all of the kids in both classes.  

Reina brought me a thank-you note home on Friday.  

Dear Mom, Thank you so much for helping with are "feild trip."  You were the greatest bag hander ever! You should get a job were you just hand out bags! I hope your ready for when the flute comes home, I am planning on having a concert!  P.S. Prepare to be smashed in Slap Jack!  Sincerely, Reina  

The morning that Reina was getting ready, she decided that Coco needed to get dressed for Pioneer Days too.  As you can tell, she's really excited. I didn't realize it until I posted this picture, but our new cat to be named later is sitting outside.  She's not an outside cat but more on her later.  

What happened to April?

One little blog post in April?  Lucy, what is your problem?  Well, in my defense it's been a hectic but fun month.  We've had lots of weekend activities and practices at night.  Aunt Vicky has been pushing through her last month of chemo and needed some extra help with the little cousins now and then.  Glenn's been super busy at work and I've had a few out of town trips to add to the fun. We packed a lot into April and I'll do my best to adequately recap it. 

The weekend before his actual birthday, we celebrated Glenn's 50th with a party.  It was a fun chance to bring friends together, celebrate the greatest guy I know and have a lot of fun.  We kept the menu simple and invited a lot of people.  We had kids of all ages and friends from all corners of our lives and it was a really special evening.  Glenn was touched by all of the attention and I think it was a great way to kick off his next decade. 

Little cousins super interested in the birthday pie... more on this to come.  

Singing happy birthday.  As part of the decorations - well really the only decorations, I hung up pictures of Glenn from his teens, twenties and thirties.  Many of our friends have only known him in the last decade so it was fun to see college aged Glenn ... he was into body-building.  Hubba hubba.

The whole family getting ready to sing and a photobomb from a cutie.  

 So we all sang happy birthday, Glenn blushed, leaned down to blow out the candles on his blueberry birthday pie and saw that somebody blonde and little had beaten him to it.  Toddler Cousin politely waited until "Happy Birthday" was finished and blew out the candles for Uncle Glenn.  I giggled for the rest of the weekend thinking about it. 

The little helper and big sister.  

 The next weekend was Easter and the weather mostly cooperated.  We got up early to help with the breakfast at church and came home for an Easter Egg hunt after lunch. 

Glenn barking egg hunt orders or something like that.  

Reina being engulfed by a pine tree.  

The kid who at first said he didn't need an egg hunt this year and then luckily changed his mind.  Tweens, am I right? 

Just casually eating candy, looking for eggs, looking cool.  

Someone in the family still takes her egg hunting very seriously.  

She didn't get to participate in the hunt but she was a very interested observer.  We've had crazy weather - 70 one day and 7 inches of snow the next.  Coco likes her time in the cat tent.  

Summer is right around the corner.