10 States, 1720 Miles, 18 Hours, 19 Public Toilets…

…all of the fights and frustrations of the Amazing Race without the million-dollar prize at the end!

We had a great Thanksgiving at Grandma Ginny & Grampa B’s new house in Myrtle Beach. Thanks guys!

Finally, an Update!

Forgive me Loyal Blog Readers…it has been 10 days since my last blog entry. Right after Zoe died, Norah got sick with a really high fever. It freaked me out since her symptoms were similar to Zoe’s. I know dog-to-human transfer is extremely rare, but toward the end of Zoe’s illness the vet told me that they were wearing gloves to treat her since they didn’t know what was wrong and needed to protect themselves. That was a little scary. BTW…thank you so much to everyone for your sympathy and concern for Zoe and our family. I am so thankful to have such great friends and family who care so much.

Anyway, I took Norah to Framingham Pediatrics on Saturday morning expecting that her fever was due to an ear infection, but her ears were clear. Dr. Garber decided to catheterize her to check for a UTI. That test came back negative too. The doctor said to alternate Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours and if her demeanor hadn’t changed in a few hours to call back. I called in the afternoon because she was still either lethargic or screaming and Dr. Baumel (after lecturing me about the block on my phone which I didn’t even know about – I really can’t stand that guy) sent me to the ER. Norah and I spent 2 1/2 hours there and she had blood tests which all came back clear. The ER doctor said it was a virus. She gradually recovered and then Adlani got it…more confirmation that it was a virus. So I was home with sick kids Saturday – Tuesday. Ugh. Everyone is finally healthy now.

So…let’s see what else happened in the last week.

Friday night Aliya and I went to a little after-work celebration for my coworker Jeremy and his lovely bride-to-be, Marla, who were leaving town to get married. I have them to thank for the fact that my kids are now calling each other “diarrhea face with corn”. They’ll get their payback someday when they have kids and I volunteer to babysit. In other coworker news, “Uncle Greg” and his wife Nancy are the proud parents of baby girl Eva (and big boy Brock). Greg will be returning to IR on December 1st working for me in the Spec Department. Yay!!

I had parent/teacher conferences for both Aliya and Adlani last week. I absolutely love both sets of teachers. Aliya’s teacher actually got a little misty when she was talking about Aliya. She said that Aliya is the poster-child for the Two-Way program and they’re so excited about her progress. We are too. It’s unbelievable how well she is speaking Spanish. Aliya’s teacher told me that she had planned to start teaching reading in Spanish after Christmas break but that she would be starting with Aliya and 2 other kids the week after Thanksgiving. The thing I was most concerned about with Aliya was whether the other kids would call her “know-it-all”, etc. I’m still emotionally scarred from the kids in elementary school teasing me because I always knew the answer. The teacher said that the other kids know she’s smart (one of the kids told me that “Aliya knows EVERYTHING about words”) but they love her because she’s so kind and gets along with everyone. She said that she had not seen or heard any of the kids teasing her. She also told me that Aliya was going to be the “Star of the Week” which would be announced over the P.A. system the next day (Rumor has it that Maren got detention for screaming when she heard Aliya’s name. Do they really get detention in first grade?). I kept the secret all night and was ready with the camera at the bus stop when Aliya got off the bus. She was pissed that I already knew. Oh well. I guess I can crop the pissy-face out of the video.

Adlani’s conference wasn’t quite as glowing as Aliya’s but he’s doing well and settling into the routine and learning the rules. I didn’t think he’d have a problem going to preschool since he had been in day care all along, but his school is a real school – definitely not like day care. It took him a little while to get used to it, but we’re really happy with the new school. We’re planning to put him in the Spanish immersion preschool class next year to give him a little head start on kindergarten.

Aliya’s soccer team had a pizza party to celebrate the end of the season. It was held at Pepperoncini’s in Framingham, which was great! The coach’s wife had taken pictures all season long and gave each of the kids a CD with 130 pictures on it. So cool! The kids each got a trophy with their name on it. Aliya looked at hers and commented that they spelled her name right. We have already signed up for U7 soccer next year and hopefully we’ll have the same coach again. He’s so great with the kids (that’s him in the picture).

Victoria invited me to attend Grandparents’ / Special Peoples’ day at her school. Some of the classes sang songs or read poems in the cafeteria, and then I spent some time in Vic’s classroom while she showed me around, made a paper turkey, played a game and played with Lincoln Logs. I was very proud to be Vic’s special person.

On Friday we left for our trip to Myrtle Beach, so more on that later.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Update: When I picked Aliya up at school to head for Myrtle Beach, her teacher said, “Aliya is the sunshine in the classroom…next week will be partly-cloudy.” I was so touched!

Zoe

Zoe died tonight. After 2 days at Vescone, a week at home, and a week in the ICU at Tufts with tons of tests, 3 types of antibiotics, and finally steroids, they still didn’t know what was wrong and she couldn’t hold on. Her symptoms were painful and swollen joints, fever, abscesses, and some changes in her blood chemistry – high white cells, low platelets, and finally low blood protein. They treated her for a tick-borne illness until those tests came back negative, and then treated for a bacterial infection. The other thought was an immune-mediated disease but they couldn’t treat for that without ruling out a bacterial problem because by suppressing her immune system they would take away her defense against the bacteria. They started her on steroids yesterday feeling pretty comfortable that it wasn’t bacterial and hoping there was still time. Hopefully the necropsy will give us some answers, although the joint taps, x-rays, ultrasounds, biopsy, and multiple blood tests didn’t tell us much. One positive is that our experience with Tufts was terrific. Zoe’s doctor (Dr. Cornejo) called me at least once a day with a very detailed explanation of what was going on and what everything meant. I sensed in our conversations today that she felt like they were losing the battle. She said that the whole hospital was upset that they hadn’t been able to help Zoe.

We brought Zoe into our family when Adlani turned 1, because I felt like I could handle a puppy at that time. I purposely waited after Rosie died because I knew that we were planning to have another baby and it was tough to give Rosie any attention while I had an infant, let alone take care of a puppy. When Zoe was about 6 months old we found out that we were going to have Norah. The combination of another pregnancy/infant, added to the fact that Zoe was a very hyper dog, meant that Zoe could not be as integral a part of our family as Rosie had been. I feel guilty. Zoe was with me when I was home alone or the kids were in bed, but was like a bull in a china shop when the kids were home and awake. I did the best I could…we just completed our 3rd round of obedience training, private lessons this time. She had turned a corner and was nearing the end of her naughty teenage years. The kids are bigger now and I wasn’t as concerned about her accidentally hurting them. She had actually become a pleasure to be around and I know she loved us very much. We love you too Zoe.

Thank you to everyone who has been checking in with me on her progress.

We Survived Hurricane Noel!!!

Last Friday, Helga, Lana, Jenny, Karen, Liz, Mary, Pam, and I headed to Martha’s Vineyard for a long-awaited Mommies’ Weekend at Longpoint Escape in West Tisbury (Thanks Helga!!). Since I avoid watching the “Bad News” at all costs, I had no idea we’d be facing down Hurricane Noel during our visit until we arrived. I think most of us would have been willing to take on a tsunami to be there. The ride down was quick and painless, and we enjoyed the sunset on the ferry crossing with a little sangria. We had Lana’s stuffed shells for dinner and my rum cake for dessert, followed by some educational TV, shiatsu sessions with Ping, and the 1991 edition of Celebrity Taboo. Then I got my first full night’s sleep since March of 2006, and finally got up around 10 a.m.

Noel was just arriving as we woke up on Saturday and we lost power mid-day, luckily after Helga had treated all interested parties to a blow-out. After lots of eating, drinking, talking, talking, talking, reading, and dozing, some of us braved the storm to go buy candles and flashlights. Helga took us on a little tour and we did some shopping (during which Aliya called to tell me that the news said to STAY INSIDE…she was very upset that I hadn’t heeded the warning). There wasn’t much damage but there were some really deep puddles and waves spraying onto the road in a few places. The power was on when we got back to the house so we joined the Melrose Place marathon just as Amanda’s illegitimate pregnancy was revealed. And then we shat.

Craving an adrenaline rush in the absence of the normal level of excitement we live with each day, most of us headed back out into the storm for dinner at Sharky’s. Pam and Mary stayed behind to cheer on the BC Eagles. Dinner was good and it was reassuring to see that we weren’t the only crazy people out and about. After we went home and changed into our elastic-waist pants, we played Karen’s trivia game, where we learned some VERY interesting facts about each other (especially Jenny!). I will never look at a check stub, a church basement, the Pope, Tom Jones, or a gas station on a lonely stretch of highway the same way again. I will also forbid my high-school-aged kids to spend time alone in the house with their boyfriends/girlfriends. After the who-can-stay-up-latest contest ended up in a 4-way draw, I got ANOTHER full night’s sleep including an extra hour for DLST!!

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day, and Pam, Lana, and I did a little shopping and went to the lighthouse which was so deserted it was like we were the only survivors of a nuclear disaster. We sat outside on the ferry and caught a glimpse of ourselves in 20 years. We were sad that the weekend was over, but we’re already looking forward to the midwinter scrapbooking extravaganza in Rhode Island.

Happy Halloween!!!

This year’s Halloween activities included the YMCA party where Norah was a dancing fool, then Erin Gallagher’s birthday party with a trip through the neighbor’s garage/haunted house. It was pretty scary and featured a monster puking a flourescent green stream into a trash can and a full scale headless guy in a guillotine. His still-moving head was in a basket. Ick. Adlani had a costume parade at school and a Halloween party on another day. The grand finale was trick-or-treating with “the mob” in the Fahy’s neighborhood.

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