Week in Review

 

We attended our last Open House at Violet's junior high, and went around seeing the TWO teacher she has there, along with old friends who taught Cora and Violet in past years. This is Ms. Mathis, Vi's science teacher.

Several cool experiments were set up in the science lab, so Vi and Stace gave them a go.

We also visited Mrs. Davidson, Vi's favorite teacher, who teaches yearbook. Violet will miss this class and teacher! Cora loved her too, and had her for history.

The big question we got all evening was, which high school will Violet attend? And she's come to a decision - she'll go to the school she's zoned for, where her friends will go, where Cora went last year. 

Cora was pretty disappointed, and my mama heart was touched to see it. I love the bond my girls have, and we all do wish it would have worked out for them to have that single year of high school together. But, it just was not to be. 

I could see pros and cons for both schools for Violet, but in the end, she would have only had one year with Cora there, had she chosen Cora's current school, while she'll likely have four years with her girlfriends.

Here's a photo of our back stone fruit trees. Fingers crossed for a good crop!

Earlier this week, Stace and I saw a comedic murder mystery in Newhall, and we all had a family dinner at Stone Fire for our March birthdays. 

Our front nectarine trees are also covered in blossoms. 

Earlier this week, my right shoulder started hurting badly, in a spot that I'd noticed some funny twinges over the past two months. I made an appointment with the local orthopedic specialists, and an X-ray showed this little calcium deposit. They gave me a medication, which has helped a lot. I'll do physical therapy as well.

Also this week, Violet and I went to another art show opening at the local gallery. They seem to change shows every six weeks, with a celebration each time. Violet went to Teacision with her school friends, and then to one of their houses. 

Seb's Big Week

Our poor sweet Seb... a few weeks ago, he came in from his morning wanders, limping terribly. It was obvious he'd done something serious, and sure enough, the vet said the next day he'd torn his ACL.

This pretty much meant surgery, and a severe limitation on how much he was able to get around. 

We were actually told to keep him in a crate, but that was just not going to work out. But we did accommodate him with a ramp up to the couch, so he wouldn't jump. the rug on the ramp was to make it less slippery, and we put bricks on the end to hold it in place. Really classy looking!

Seb had his surgery Tuesday, and it went well, other than learning that his OTHER ACL is also messed up and arthritic. 

We were under the impression he'd be drugged and sleepy when he came home. Um, no. He was ANGRY. Mad every time he tried to move and found that he couldn't. He was hissing and making cat-fight sounds in his rage, scaring the girls and making them cry. We aren't used to our big lovebug acting like this!

I finally gave him extra medicine that night, even though he was supposed to be good until the morning. We had him the little orange tent the girls use, with his litter box, food, water, and a big comforter for him to sleep on.

Our first two nights were rough. 
 
But by the third day, he was acting much more like himself, and I was able to sleep in my own bed the whole night.

His incision was healing beautifully, and the vet took off the bandaging on Friday. 

Seb decided he really didn't like staying in the tent all the time, and made a new window. The next day, Stace duck taped it, but our resourceful cat created a new exit through the side of the tent. We then gave up and let him come out permanently. Don't tell the vet.

After leaving his incision alone for a full week, Stace and I heard him meowing plaintively Tuesday night, and found that he had a tooth stuck in a staple! Stace unhooked the tooth, and on Wednesday, I took him back in to remove the half-out staple. He'll get them all removed next week. Now, he wears the Cone of Shame and looks very pathetic.

Week in Review

We had Jeff, Jenn and the boys over for dinner Saturday, which gave us a great opportunity to thoroughly tidy the house. Woohoo! 

We ended our night introducing them to Jackbox, which is always fun with a crowd.

The next morning, I took Cora, Zach and Trevor to airsoft. I love it when Cora gets a full day of fresh air and running around!  Violet, no surprise, has no interest in trying it out. Getting shot with pellets doesn't sound good to her (or me).

Violet needed her labwork this week for her appointment with her endocrinologist next week. As usual, I rewarded her for the extra poke with a boba drink. I noticed a Tuesday special price on the Thai tea, so I tried it out. Very colorful! I prefer coffee, obviously, but Cora was happy to finish it for me.

Oh, Seb. We love you so. All 20 pounds of you. I'm nervous to take him in for his checkup because I don't want to be lectured about his weight... 

 As part of my big cleanup, we went through the old kiddy toy bins, and took it out of the house, and then went through the toy box Stace made for Cora's first birthday. In that process, we rediscovered this labyrinth marble game and found most of the marbles. Violet's been playing it daily, and now she can beat it regularly.

Tidbits

 On Saturday, we should have been in Ojai, camping at Wheeler Gorge with Colleen and Rigo for our girls' birthdays. But, the campground was closed. So, after taking part in a Zoom group birthday call with Liana, we stopped by their house with a gift and card.

Liana's neighbors have alpacas and baby goats now! So fun!

 See that tiny baby skunk? We've been making time each evening to watch these adorable creatures - there have been at least five from the same litter that dig around for whatever they eat.

 Violet had her 10-year well-check on Tuesday, and we met up with Stace afterwards for a picnic lunch.

Violet was very well! She's growing amazingly, and is 4 inches taller than a year ago. She has reached the 49th percentile, at 54 1/4 inches. She's 75 pounds, or 56th percentile.

The visit was interesting, given the coronavirus situation. We stayed in our car until our room was ready, and everyone wore a mask.

 After lunch, we went grocery shopping, and then we got doughnuts and went to Bridgeport to check out the turtles. Violet is so into these simple pleasures. I need to do more such fun and easy things with her!

 Violet was feeling pretty bummed about missing out on camping, and so much of her normal life. So on Thursday, we took off to the beach.

Los Angeles County beaches have just reopened after being closed for a couple of months, but they have ridiculous rules about not sitting or lying on the beach. As if sitting on a beach will give you a virus.

Thankfully, Carpinteria beaches are in Santa Barbara County, where they have more sense.

Violet took with us her Flat Mrs. Zamperin, a fun little project for the last few weeks of school. The kids write each week about some adventure they take their teacher character on.

 You can see, keeping away from people was easy on a Thursday afternoon.

 Violet boogie-boarded for well over an hour. She had so much fun! It was great to see her enjoying herself and the sea.

Cora enjoyed having a few hours to herself! She also couldn't go because she hurt her foot with a scooter mishap, and the salt water and sand would NOT have been helpful.

Arboretum and Folk Dancing

Look at this amazing tree! I met up with my college friend Melanie on Tuesday at the Arboretum, with her son Andrew. My mom, my sister and Eloise also came along for the beautiful setting, weather and company. Andrew loves climbing around in here.

Spring was springing!

 Peacocks owned the arboretum.

On Wednesday, I picked Cora up from school in the morning to take her to her 13-year well-check. She is well, and now 4'11". We'll hope she makes 5'1" or 5'2". And with her growing maturity, she treated Dr. Brockett much better than in years past.

 On Thursday morning, Violet's class had a showcase of the folk-dancing they've been learning for the last couple of months.

Week in Review

Our church is opening a long-awaited addition, a student building where the junior and senior high students can get together for worship and small groups. 

We went to the Open House to check it out Sunday afternoon. I'm standing on the stage, and in the background, you can see cubbies, dividers and couches where the small groups will meet. Praying Cora will enjoy it here, and learn and grow into the young woman God wants her to be.

Later Sunday, we went to the Canyon Theater Guild to see a Sherlock Holmes play. It was a comedy, with several actors playing many parts. It was great!

 Cora developed a sinus infection later in the week, and ended up missing nearly three whole days of school. When I took her to the doctor, they gave her a breathing treatment and antibiotics.

Violet cracked me up the other day. She said, "Mom! Look at that cool car!"
I answered, "Oh, that old 'Vette? Yes! Beautiful!"
"No, Mom! That Vibe!"
We have a running joke about how awesome Stace's 2005 Pontiac Vibe is. It's going strong at 14 years old.

We had some nature excitement in the yard later in the week, when the cats were after a mouse. It went up the tree, and Spencer (not shown here) went up after it.

We'd found two dead mice in the mulch in recent weeks already.

When we determined that this one was indeed an adorable mouse and not a horrible rat, we decided to save it. Cora and I got it into the bucket and we took it up the hill to set it free.

Silly Violet. I don't think this is what your dad meant when he told you to go get your jammies on!

Working Weekend

Violet got a little snuggle time with her sister and the big guy Friday morning, before she flew to Seattle to visit Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty. More on that later! This post will be about our weekend while she was away...

With Violet away, and our internet and phone service down for a week - long annoying story that I don't feel like blogging about - it was the perfect opportunity to tackle Cora's closet project. Here's the before shot - wish I had one with the books and stuffed animals still in place, but oh well.

Stace and Cora made quick work of dismantling the old unit, which was very well constructed, with good wood. Kind of a shame to take it apart, but our growing girl needs a real closet now.

Their progress ground to a swift halt when Stace, bent over to investigate this hole in the dry wall, stepped up into the nail you see here and got a gash in the head.

He washed the deep cut in the bathroom sink, and then off to urgent care we went. It was immediately clear he needed medical treatment.

Stace bravely accepted his staples without any anesthesia, because he knew from past experience that the numbing shot also hurts like heck.

Poor guy!

Later that evening, we went out for ramen.

And on Sunday, we went to Home Depot after church for supplies. Cora is taking a very active role in this project.

But she's not too old to play in the door displays.

Not a bad weekend's work!