Maggie vs Husky

In early November, while I was teaching lessons - the weather was warm and the kids were running (literally) in and out the doors playing together.  Maggie was sitting out on our front lawn and a Husky (he lives the next street over) had gotten out.  The teenager from the Husky's house was chasing after him - and he saw what happened next and so did Cole's best friend, Connor.  The husky picked up Maggie and shook her fiercely.  She fought for her life and got away - but there were injuries: a puncture wound on her tummy, a puncture wound on her side, a broken tooth (which was pulled later) and she also got stitches in her paw.  She was also traumatized - she wasn't our Maggie for the next month+.  She had a hard time with her appetite and just seemed miserable.

She kept gnawing at her wounds, so I put a t-shirt on her to keep her from touching the wounds.  I didn't realize she had developed an abscess in the side wound - we went back to the vet and she had a drain placed and new antibiotics.  The drain was only for a few days and it healed very quickly.  

I had to be very creative to get medicine into this little girl. YouTube really is amazing - I learned how to make pills out of chicken that would dissolve when placed in the side of her cheek - otherwise she would have been even more miserable without the pain killers and antibiotics.

This is the drain.

A new shirt for Maggie 

I'm terribly behind in blogging - so FYI, she is back to herself now.  She sits in her window spot and tries to get out if the kids leave a door open.  It's nice to have Maggie acting like Maggie - we're all happy to have her with us a little longer.  

This is how we HALLOWEEN

*warning!  this is a long post because we LOVE Halloween in this house!

Haunted Garage

First, we have to clean out the garage - and that means EVERYTHING goes out to the patio in the backyard.  Then we start to hang those plastic coverings to be our walls and make the HAUNTED GARAGE.  I tried to get pics this year - this is our 4th or 5th year of doing the Haunted Garage - and you know what - it's hard to take pics at nighttime and show what REALLY happens in here.  It was our best one yet - Shayne is the mastermind and creative genius. 

This is what my front room looks like for a couple weeks - all these costume and prop bins!!

This year's theme as you entered was a restaurant.  Here are some goodies on the shelf to eat...

Our maitre d' was Hunter.  

This is the photo that was in the frame as you entered.  Hunter introduced the special man who made our restaurant AMAZING and asked them to look at his spatula closely - then BAM, the picture would fall out and Sheldon was behind the picture all glorified in creepy make-up.  We got a lot of screams on this one.  (from adults!)

Next room...  would like to try our food?

It might have jumped out at a few people, here are a few of our helpers this year (Chans and Liam)

Next room - creepy masks that glowed in the dark.  Like I said - I can't take pictures of dark... but it was a great room with several kids in black too.

Next room - here are a few props I fixed up...

Danny, Ben, and Elsie

Creepy little kid's room...  with scary kids coming to get ya'

Halloween Parties

A visit to a local pumpkin patch with the preschool kiddos

Preschool Halloween party

I made this AMAZING witch's brew!  Some didn't want to drink it though after watching me put in worms and such (I didn't let them see if was candy worms)

Grown-ups have parties too.  

Pumpkins!

We've entered a new stage in life when our kids do their own pumpkins - Skyler needed help, of course, but Danny, Cole, and Hunter did their own!!

Cole's artwork

  This is Shayne's pumpkin

Going to School

Dracula and Ghost-Buster

Later that night, Cole changed his look to this 

Skyler decided to be a snake last minute 

And Hunter was a stick-man - all glowsticks.  It was fantastic!

Enjoying some loot...

 

Grand Cayman Island

Shayne earned President's Club status this past year at work - and that meant a TRIP!  All expenses paid and a week of adventure.  We actually flew in a day early so we could enjoy a leisure day before the planned activities started.  

We checked into the RITZ CARLTON (really, they take great care of us!) and we headed off to a turtle place.  We were able to hold the turtles and even swim with large ones.  It was really cool!

That night there was a welcome party - luckily there were two other couples from Shayne's office that also don't drink - that was kinda nice to not be the only ones!

Early the next morning - we were off to our deep sea fishing adventure.  It ended up being a really long boat ride with not much fishing - it was still great to be out on the boat!

Back at the hotel - there was a beautiful pool to enjoy - the beach of course - and getting to visit with everyone from the offices from across the States.

Cole had one request - a sanddollar - is this big enough Cole?  (it was really decor - but it would have been fun to pack that one in the suitcase!)

Sting Ray City Adventure

The company rented a catamaran and took us to Sting Ray City - which is basically a sand bar a mile or two from the beach and the sting rays have become so accustomed to being fed at this spot that they congregate here.  We were the first boat to arrive and had the area to ourselves.  This was definitely one of my most favorite things I've done this year.  They would eat squid from our hands and we would attempt to "hold them" by lifting up their wings while staying under the water.  It was an experience I'll never forget.

More random pics from the week:

This is the BUS, it's a van.

There goes the bus!

Beautiful sunsets! 

Yummy food! 

During so much of the week I didn't have a way to bring a camera (all water stuff!) - here we go on a jet skiing adventure.

We did 4 dives during our stay as well with our good friend Todd.  Luckily - he has an underwater camera!  Here are a few pics from those dives:

On the wall - 100 feet down! 

Just hanging out on the ocean floor

A few kisses too...

Final banquet - Shayne getting his award

Enjoying some Pina Coladas... yummers.

Bye-Bye Grand Cayman!  It's hard to believe that paradise is just THERE all the time - I felt very lucky to go for that little moment in time!