A Halo of a Predicament

Chloe has managed to get herself into a bit of a predicament. It started on Monday night, we noticed that her eye was watering. By Tuesday morning, she had a "goopy" eye so off to the vet she went that afternoon. In case you ever need to know, a grass seed which decides to take residence in your dog's eye costs a little over $200. Yes, Chloe had the obnoxious intruder embedded in her eye which I'm sure was quite painful. She was much happier after her time with the vet -- probably for two reasons, she was going out of the vet's office instead of in, and her eye was numbed and therefore feeling great.

From Tuesday til today, she has had to endure one daily dose of Atropine to dialate the eye and 4 times a day of antibiotics. She went back to the vet today and her eye is responding well (albeit the huge divot the shape of a grass seed out of the center of it), but it appeared that she had been scratching it. We think it is only happening at night because during the day she doesn't bother it much. So, as if the torture of getting ointment put in her eye 5 times a day wasn't enough to cause her to hate us, we had to lovingly (I tried not to laugh!) put her in the halo contraption. This is a picture of her as frozen as a statue after donning the halo. A very sad specimen indeed.

She's a bit more content after getting some snuggles, but when put down on the floor and required to walk, she will have nothing to do with it. She goes right back to her statue performance. Hopefully, she will only have to endure this for a few nights. Poor baby!

Lacey's Favorite Subjects

Lacey was out taking more pictures of her favorite subjects. There are a bunch of them, but I picked out the best two. I love this picture of Chloe in the grass:

And, even though Lily has a gorgeous face, she does not always want to show it. She was playing and actually paused like this for a 30 second power nap. Don't know why we call her Silly Lily??

New Toy

I have finally moved into the digital world and have consolidated my paper calendar and paper address book into it. It has taken me many days! Who knew I had that much stuff that I needed to keep track of? Actually, I knew, because my brain hurts trying to keep track of it all!

Now, the only thing she is missing is a name -- any suggestions?

Rock On Progress

I'm a little late posting these pictures, I actually put the rocks on for the second grind on June 4th. There was a huge amount of progress made! In fact, some of the rocks actually disappeared in the process. There are a few in these batches that are going to be quite impressive after the polish step (2 steps away, you'll have to wait).

Here is the original picture of Batch #1 (the roughies)
And here, the roughies are not quite so rough.

Here is the original Batch #2

And here they are after 11 days of tumbling:

It's amazing how much they change with the first grind. The purple marbled one in the center bottom of this picture has some incredible patterns in it, can't wait to see it polished up!

Summer Games '09

We're back!!! Here is nine of our 20 athletes (the others came up on Saturday morning). From left to right, Brad, Richard, Noah, Kathy, Sarah, Marlys, Anne, Linda and Seth.

Summer Games were quite an experience and Seth did great through the whole thing. The heat was intense and we have the sunburns to prove it. Actually, I kept sunscreen on Seth pretty well, but I forgot about the backs of the knees on both of us. I let myself get a little color before putting on sunscreen, and I may have miscalculated just a tad. = ) I have a lot of pictures and I will try to chronicle our weekend here but there was so much that it may take a while to read if I write about everything. Check out the pics and videos on Picasa.

Getting in -- For whatever reason, I am terrified of military bases, so for me to navigate Fort Lewis was a huge step. There was a little excitement as I entered the North Fort gate, I heard a radio call from one of the guards announcing that two MP's were coming their way Code. The guards scrambled and quickly moved the two lanes of cars into one lane. No sooner was this accomplished and two MP's with lights and sirens went flying by. Nothing like a smooth transition to play on my phobia! After I was through, I (not surprisingly) got lost. Good thing I had arrived early to account for my lack of navigation skills. Finally I found registration and received directions to where the rest of the team resided.

Dinner and Opening Ceremonies -- Our group headed to dinner at the local mini-mart/food court that is not far from the barracks. Here Seth found an ad for a vampire movie (Rated R - won't be having it!) and this started a weekend-long teasing between he and Coach Steve about vampires and vampire movies.

Opening ceremonies were held at Hangar 1 at McChord Air Force Base. It is amazing how well orchestrated this event is and the encouragement for the athletes was overwhelming. Our group was welcomed by a volunteer who then escorted us into the hangar while a line of welcoming volunteers clapped, whooped and hollered for our athletes. Seth was a little surprised and I'm not sure he realized what it was all about but it was really cool. We were then escorted to a waiting area with other athletes from our area (swimming, soccer, etc.). This was the beginning of a rather long wait in the setting sun. Part of our boxed in area was in the shade so we all huddled there. Luckily, I had remembered my little fan - this was a big hit! When the time finally arrived to enter the opening ceremonies, the walkway was lined with about a 100 MP's and local law enforcement giving high fives, handshakes and pats on the back to every athlete. Our team was announced and the enthusiasm was as genuine for the first team through as it was for the last. The rest of the ceremony consisted of guest note speakers from McChord, Special Olympics and the coach of the Seattle Seahawks.

Saturday -- Seth's first event was the softball throw. They have volunteers that escort the athletes from marshalling to the event - since this was his first experience with marshalling, he was a little apprehensive. There was a teenage boy as the next escort in line and the person taking him in at marshalling asked Seth if he would prefer to walk with a girl. Of course, that brought a big smile for Seth, as well as the teenage girl escort. They had a great time getting out to the waiting tent and it was a good ice-breaker for Seth. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to get her picture. You will have to check out the pictures (and videos) on Picasa to see Seth's softball throws, but he ended up with the gold medal in this event.

The relay that was supposed to start at 3:30, did not get started until after 6:00 so it made for a very long day. Seth participated in the 4x100 relay with Linda, Aibra and Sarah. They ran a good race and came in 4th. Seth ran better than his average on his leg and we were pleased that they came in 4th because the competition was really good. Everybody did great!

Since the relay ended so late, we did not get out of Cowan Stadium until 6:45, the dance started at 7:00 at McChord. Nobody had eaten anything since about noon so we were all starving, hot and tired. Seth first said that he didn't want to go to the dance or do anything that night, but I knew that a little air conditioning and food and he would change his mind. Sure enough, after a Quiznos sandwich, a soda and a lot of air conditioning, he was ready to go. At the dance, he didn't want anything to do with dancing, but he did find the dunk tank which was staffed with teenage volunteers from a youth conference and he had great fun dunking the pretty girls. You will have to check out the videos on Picasa to see how much fun he was having.

Sunday, we did not have to get up as early because Seth's events were not until 11:15 and 11:45. He did the 50m dash and immediately afterwards did the 200m walk. I was so intent on getting him pulled from the awards waiting area and getting him down to the marshalling for his next event, that I forgot to take a picture of him going across the finish line in the 50m dash. It was a close one too and he did great!

Here's a breakdown of his awards:

Softball Throw - Gold

4x100 relay - 4th Place

50m Dash - Silver

200m Walk - Silver

I cannot begin to describe how well planned this event is. I guess they have been doing this for 30+ years and certainly have it down by now but it was very impressive. There are literally 2,500+ volunteers of all ages and I commented to Coach Steve on Sunday how I never saw a single one get ruffled or snippy -- not one. In fact, they were all so encouraging and thoughtful and downright happy, it was just incredible! I have the utmost respect for all of the volunteers, officers, Special Olympics and Army/Air Force personnel who pulled off this event! Thank You!

Rock On!

Kind of like "Fish On", but with rocks instead! I have been a bad blogger and realized after I had done the first and second grind of a batch of rocks that I had failed to take a picture before starting the whole process -- imagine that! So, I am left with showing you a lovely collection of polished rocks without being able to prove the transformation that they have gone through. Here is the first finished batch: But, alas, I will not make that horrible mistake again. I had two different sets of rocks ready to tumble, one is fairly rough and the other is starting out somewhat smoothed. This is the rough batch, better known as Batch #1:And, this is the smoother, slightly more refined batch (oh my, don't tell the roughies), better known as Batch #2:

Check back in about 10 days for a progress report to see what magic the first grind will accomplish.

Lacey's Pics

Lacey has been experimenting with her camera. She has an interesting eye for pictures. Here are a few of the latest.

Lily's New Look

Lily has decided that she likes a frisbee and a tennis ball together. She has to walk with her head down though or she can't see where she is going. Silly girl. She will not chase after a frisbee as I would like her to, but she has decided it is a fun toy to just carry around.

Food Dreams

Seth's latest art. I love how much detail is included in Seth's drawings even though they appear quite simplistic. You will have to click on the picture to see the detail close up, but Seth informed me there are two rowboats, one with Mom and Dad, the other with he and Lacey. Each person is thinking about food. From left to right, it is Lacey having eggs, Seth having pizza and rootbeer, Mom having pizza, and Dad having a hot dog. Leave it to a 12 year old boy to draw a picture including food dreams!

On Saturday, Seth participated in the 2009 Track Regionals. It was a very long day, VERY cold, but exciting at the same time. Seth participated in four events and received a gold medal, two silvers and a sixth place.

The gold medal was for softball throw which he threw 13 meters!

The silvers were for the 200 meter walk and the 1x400 meter relay. The sixth place was for the 50 meter dash. Seth was not quite sure what the dash was all about so he was too busy looking at me taking a picture of him. = )

He was excited about the medals at the time, but doesn't want anything to do with any attention from them now, the little stinker. It was a great experience and we are now looking forward to State!