The Anderson Update

All victims of hand, foot and mouth disease are no longer contagious and are merely dealing with dry/dead skin issues.  If I had the C-average version, David had the A+++ variety.  I don't recommend it...ever.  That was worse than the chicken pox.  The kids' barely even registered on the scale.  I guess in hindsight it was better that they didn't the scary version, but it still sucked.

We took Vader into the vet last weekend for his yearly check up and shots. Here's a paraphrase how the exchange went between the doctor and myself:

So it's been 7 years since he's been diagnosed diabetic.
Yeah...that sounds about right.
And 3 years without monitoring.  (FYI - monitoring = expensive blood tests that take all day every couple weeks which Vader hates and we hate).
Yeah...that sounds about right too.  Can't really afford it right now.
So he's just a little heavy but otherwise doing great.
Yeah...he's always been that way.
Well I think I need to shake your hand since it's not often that a diabetic cat makes it this far let alone continuing to thrive.
(Jenny laughs hard on the inside)

Vader is about 13 1/2 right now.  He does take a little longer to get up and sit down than he used to, but once he's up he can still run if the spirit moves him.  I'm guessing I'll be getting less guilt trips from the vet about monitoring his blood work than I have in the past.

David is still up to ears with phone calls/tasks/researching to arrange to get Grandma Linda up here.  I'm thinking it will happen soon.  Probably as soon as we get a place locked down for her to go to, everything else pretty much hinges on that.  It sounds like she's doing good with physical therapy and is able to do a little more than she used to.  So everything is progressing in the positive direction.

I hoping not to jinx myself, but I just might be able to get out in my yard this weekend.  It might be dry enough and myself well enough to be able to get something done.  I also have my pickling class on Sunday so I'm excited about that too.

The kids are doing great.  Johnny sings songs all the time, counts all the time (2 and 9 seem to be his favorites), tons of new vocab and has taken up coloring with a passion.  Now I ask him if he pooped his pants he grins and points to his butt. Nice!  Holiday is doing great in school.  I just submitted her registration papers for Kindergarten.  I additionally submitted the Choice form since we're requesting that she attend a school near where we work as opposed to where we live.  We'll see how that goes.  The really big thing right now is that it has been over a month since she's wet the bed.  Super Awesome!

Family Pictures

Here is the family picture we sent out around Christmas.  I hadn't gotten around to posting it till now.

This one turned out so well that I had to get a few copies.

This is Holiday's school mugshot.  It was hard to choose which pose to go with.  She's quite photogenic.

Our sad news of our beloved brother - Mike Anderson

David and I found out last week that his older brother Mike passed away of a heart attack.  He had multiple health problems which is probably why it happened to him so young.  David went down to Bakersfield to see Grandma Linda and start taking care of arrangements for everything.  David's back now and we're trying to do what we can from a distance.  Now we're are in the process of getting Grandma Linda moved up here so we can take care of her.  Likely David will need to go back down there at some point to box up everything.  It's been a big upheaval so we appreciate all the advice we've been getting and help that's been offered.  We will keep everyone in loop when it's time for Mike's memorial service.

Crazy week

Wow...it's been a crazy week.  David's been ill with some sort of mysterious ailment, so much so that he hasn't worked since Tuesday because it was too painful for him to walk.  Every day he's seen a different batch of doctors and they all have different theories.  I haven't been happy about some of the possible diagnosis', some of them are scary.  Which just makes me think that we simply need to wait till the blood work and biopsy results come back and have some idea of what we're dealing with, because it's pretty clear to me that the doctors don't know what it is yet.  David was more functional this morning and was able to walk a little better.  I'll take any positive points I can get.  They have him some medication and it does seem to help, there's just a lot of side affects to deal with.  I'm just hoping this passes quickly as possible for David's sake.

Spending Winter thinking about Spring

We're finally over all the sickness and survived the Boat Show. Yea!  And we're halfway through winter which always makes me excited about working in the yard.  I'm thinking about doing my own canning this year so I'm thinking out what to plant with that in mind.  It seems like a lot of the home arts/crafts are becoming extinct these days.  Kind of like less and less people know how to use a sewing machine let alone sew a button back on.  Canning is one of those things I always meant to learn how to do and haven't done it.  I remember my mom canning applesauce when I was a kid and it was so delicious it was practically dessert.  It was probably because it was made from scratch that it tasted so good.  I still owe it to my great-grandma to learn how to tat.  She was the fastest tatter I ever saw and maybe that's why I couldn't figure it out.  I need to see happen in slow motion.  I think I was the only great-grandkid even interested in needle work so I was her best bet.  My thing is counted cross-stitch but that is far easier than tatting.  One day, GeeGee, one day I'll learn how to tat.  The kids are both filling out their clothes so I think I'll need to start window shopping for good deals.  Holiday and Johnny are starting to get that urge to play outside again too.  Since it rained at our house on Saturday I took them on a nature walk instead.  We at least got some fresh air and Holiday learned a couple of names of plants and trees that we passed.  She had all the names of the birds we saw down.  Ducks, geese, crows and seagulls.  I took them to Pritchard Beach near our house.  It's a teeny-tiny beach but it also has a wooded trail that goes through the wetland.  It's the right length to walk a preschooler and a stroller through from our house and get back home without a meltdown.  The kids slept great that night.