Jockey is a little better today, still would not qualify to attend school if today was a school day... but better none the less. He slept last night on the floor in front of the bathroom at his own choosing. But he only got up twice in the night. He did still have a fever last night, but it's not soaring. And this morning he asked for his pear, although it is unconfirmed as to whether he actually ate any of it. But he asked. And he got his own pants and boots on and wandered outside to meet us and to see the baby rabbits. He really likes them but only wants to hold the ones that won't pee on him. He really has a thing about having his hands clean and washed all the time (hard when you're and artist too and the paint gets everywhere.)

So he came out to see the baby rabbits and this is what we found on...

Day Seven of Babies rabbits:

It's a beautiful sunny day, and WARM as far as spring goes. So we could actually bring the babies into the sunlight rather than just hover over the nesting box. They have more fur/thicker coats. The three solid darker ones... well, one has a white tummy and is lighter than the other two... kind of has coloring like mama. (So for now, "rosie jr.") The other two (Darko and peewee) have dark tummies and I'm eager to see their full coats since they are not like either parent. The skin over the eyes is showing the line of indentation where the two lids are starting to form from solid skin. They actually look like "sleeping" eyes shut bunnies rather than deformed blind things. With the boys, we actually saw a baby move it's mouth like it wanted to eat. I was able to explain that motion to the boys, and what they are eating, and also show them the little teeth, feet, and their back legs (which are often all covered with fur on an adult and it's hard to get an idea of how big the back feet are in proportion). They got to hold quite a few of them. At this point, the boys need coaching on how to hold a baby rabbit over anything else. They think it is cute when the babies crawl up their arms while outstretched, but when the baby reached the elbows there is a great chance that it could fall and you won't have a free arm to catch. Jockey does good with the "baby chick" type of two hand hold, but the babies can still climb and stretch out of that one (and a high chance of getting a few wet fingers.) Basically, NO unsupervised baby visits! Especially when they have to stand on a bucket to even reach! Too far for anybody/thing to fall. Rosie was let loose in the yard today for a little leg stretch. I saw her nibble a bit and at least 3 "happy hops" and good runs. She does not want to be picked up right now (too sensitive a tummy) but it was worth it to get her out for 20-30 minutes. She is ever patient and will even lay in her relaxed on her side position when I reach in to pet her. She's a good mama and an even better rabbit. But F-A-T, full of food and milk. Rolie polie for sure. Overall, the babies look more like tiny bunnies than rats finally. 4 more days or so and we'll see eyes!

Pictures of today:

Jockey with a speckled one

Caleb with a speckled one.

Jockey with a speckled one

Caleb with a speckled one... see eye slits developing.

Caleb with PeeWee

Jockey with Darko

Mommy holding Shooter Jr.

Day Six (posted late) of baby rabbits.

Not much has changed, just bigger, more fur, less fragile, more sure in their movements and a couple seem to be determined to be active while others sit calmly in my hand. The littlest baby is still smaller than the rest, but the little pee-wee is holding his own in still growing and getting his belly full. Surprisingly he is one of the more active ones. Rosie is becoming a new "Normal" of more calm and less afraid of us. She approaches us, she will sit and wait for our hand to pet her (rather than run from us until cornered). I try to bring her treats or something to "make friends" each time I go out to see the babies.

For now, names have been developed for a couple so that we can talk about them. We have Darko (curtesy of Caleb), Pee Wee the runt, and Shooter Jr because of the same coloring as daddy. And there was one that Caleb wanted to call dribbles (for obvious reasons) but I forget which one that was.

So pictures:

Shooter Jr.

Darko & Pee Wee just next to him. See the size difference.

Good shot of the teeth and foot with little toenails. Shooter jr is the one on top.

Day Five of Baby rabbits and other.

First the other. Jockey has finally caught the stomache bug that has been going around. He was up every 45 minutes since 2AM and on through the morning. And perhaps TMI he's got it coming out both ends. The little guy has nothing left in him, and he's not really hungry. We are making water, broth and crackers available to him, but he's just not eating. Rather he is sleeping. We are on a second load of laundry today. I've told the boys to NOT share food or drinks etc in the hopes of preventing the spread, tried to keep washing my hands, and spray disinfecting the bathrooms and the air. I don't want a second boy tossing his cookies. And I can't afford to be sick until the 14th and even then only for 2 days. So it just doesn't work into my schedule. So we are doing all we can to prevent it. I'm pretty proud that my kids have taken this long to get it and that they haven't had anything else for quite a while. Keep Jockey in your prayers. He will be missing Awana and pretty sure he'll be missing school tomorrow too.

As for rabbit news. Ok, either both mike and I are awful counters, or the mass of wiggly things is just troublesome and a count shouldn't be attempted,... or mama canabalized one and we can't find the parts (I know, gruesome but it happens.) But I counted 7. That's it, 7. I'll check the rest of the box for whatever a bit later, but 7. 4 speckles/brokens and 3 darks. (**edited, we have 7, there were 8, don't know where/what happened but it's no longer present.) Still one of the darks is a small fella/gal, but oh boy was there a full round little pot belly on it this morning! It has chowed down. They look to be a little bit more at peace and even more so less fragile. A couple of them settle down and just rest in your hand, others fidget and pee (yes already.) They have more fur and are warm and fuzzy. It's amazing the "heat seeking" quality of them. They could be set down anywhere and they have an innate sense to burrow down and find their siblings for warmth. A good example of God's perfect programming.

Here's the family:

This is the littlest guy/gal:

This is the big brother/sister (this one loves to just sit calmly in the palm of my hand):

More later if anything's pertinent.

Day four of baby rabbits.

Much like yesterday actually.

We have 3 dark ones and the rest are white/speckly mix (best observation). One of the dark ones truly is a runt and about a third to half in size than the others; at this point I don't know if that one will survive, but so far so good. They seem to be less fragile with each day passing. And of course eventually they will be used to being handled. I'm surprised that the boys haven't asked to hold them yet today, but that is a good thing today. Each passing day the babies are more resillient than the day before.

Pictures of today:

Day three of baby rabbits.

We haven't lost any to exposure/lack of feeding etc. Rosie is still doing great and will even approach us while holding her babies. The babies are a little bigger, more sure in their movements though still jerky (especially when you uncover them in the nest so that they think food is coming and they are going for it), they are covered in peach fuzz now and you can start to see what their colorings will be. I think we have a couple like papa who are "broken tortise"(white and mottled/marbled brown) and a couple like mama (I think), but we'll have to wait another week and a half to be sure. They have bright nubs of TEETH, already! Well, they are rodents I suppose.

The boys are thrilled with the bunnies, but are doing really good at only going out once in a day to look and bother them. I'm sure when they are a bit bigger with their eyes open the boys will be out there all the time (another great reason for a gentle winter/early spring).

Caleb thinks we should keep at least four (my eyes roll), but I think I might have found 2 more homes... that's a total of 3 maybes. Not bad for 3 days of searching for homes.

So here are today's pictures:

(see the speckles mid-back, those will be brown... anything pink will be white.)

This will be dark/tortise (rosie colored).

Another dark one whom the boys call Darko for now.

This one is just a little mostly white some speckles precious. (held by Jockey)

Day two of baby rabbits...

There are definately some larger and some bigger, although exact count is not possible because they would get too cold while we figure it out. Some have darker skin indicating a coming darker coat, some of them are speckly maybe meaning "broken" fur patterns. No guess yet as to what genders.

Jockey yesterday said "here brother pet this one, it's the cutest"... how does he determine which is the cutest when they are all basically the same and a quivering, flopping pig pile of bunnies. Go figure.

Here is the picture of one of them today.

Moving into a new nexting box...

Yes these are jockey's fingers in comparison to their size. They are about 3" long.

All four of us has a part in building the nesting box, the boys even screwed in a few of the screws. Then we got it all ready and then transfered the babies to the new box. (They were at risk of wandering out of the old "nest" and getting too cold, getting hurt on the wire floor, or trampled into the wire mesh.)

So one by one we placed them into the nesting box. Yes, there are 8. So far to the untrained eye there aren't any obvious runts who won't survive, but time will tell. The boys are of course excited. Rosie seems to be doing just fine and is actually more mellow and friendly (nuzzling, greeting and eating out of our hands.)

Rabbit is as Rabbits does...... Surprise Babies. I thought Mike was joking today when he says to come outside I've got to see something. But sure enough... best count 6 rosie red curled up bald things.


Want one???


edited to add: Yes, I know HOW these things happen, but I didn't know that it took less than a minute for rabbits. Seriously, less than a minute.

And added pictures:

Eyes open in 10 days. And the last count, although they move around alot and don't like up like hot dogs, is 8 babies.

Caleb's birthday came early this year. Rather than a gift that we have to store... Grammy and Papa Dahl got Caleb a really awesome zoo membership (for the family& bring guests) that can be used unlimitedly for the next 10 months. We broke it in with a trip to the zoo today joined by Tessa, Grammy and Papa.

The rain broke about an hour into our excursion into the park. Which worked out fine since the first thing we did was visit the new penguin exhibit and then duck into the indoor Day/Night exhibit. The Day/Night exhibit is closed forever starting Monday, so it was a real blessing to visit it one last time before it's closed and the animals scattered. We also got to view the 9 month old snow leopard cubs. Caleb made Bug World a must see, and Jockey signed up for the kangaroos. (Caleb made the astute comparison today that Kangaroos are like T-rexes with little arms and big back legs.) We were at the zoo for about 4 hours and walked ourselves tired. Then it was bad to the club for a swim with Tessa. We are finally home and ready for a calm down.

That's all for now. I'm beat.

So how's your week going?

We got into the swing of things here with school, school work, bible study. A call from the principal about "no toys at school" (yes, caleb's been sneeking toys to school). More school, work for me, Awana, more school and work. Caleb got additional stages today and Wednesday. We are just not figuring this out... oh, that would be until we talked through his entire day. 5 words.... M&M's, Jelly Beans, Popcorn (commercial type), Frosting cookies, and juice. Can we say Food Coloring? Not to mention the sugar. So I had to be the confrontive parent and shoot off and email (afternoon session is still going) to the teacher to get her back on our side of this issue.

We were blessed to get Caleb's Birthday present early this year. A zoo pass for the family. (Thank you Grammy and Grandpa Dahl.) So we are thinking of going there on Sunday if the weather remotely cooperates with us.

Unfortunately, I got the call today that my grandfather died today. It appears Great Grandpa Severson, 97, got up in the middle of the night and had an instantly fatal heart attack and was found this morning. Curiously, upon talking with my dad, we discovered that we were both awaken last night (he at 2:24 and myself at 2:22) for unknown reasons and unable to go back to sleep for quite a while. Maybe we were on the same 'wave length'. Grandpa lived a long life FULL of memories and leaves only one issue unresolved.... Dusty the cat will have to learn to like a dog to live at my Aunt Sandy's or go hungry because that is where the food bowl will be soon.

These were taken 2/6/2010. The 4 days before we went to California. Great Grandpa Severson was in good spirits, full of memories and things to say despite the increasing ailments. I'm glad the kids got to see him as near as possible to the end.

TTFN

Again very brief:

We are home safe. Relatively unremarkable on time flight.
More park visiting, did go bowling (BTW, real bowling way different than Wii bowling.), did go to Chuck E. Cheese for a good time, watched a couple neat movies in the evenings, took Skeeter (Grandma's Basenji) for walks in the evenings. More hot tubbing, pizza night, another visit with Mr. Phineas who brought the boys cool RC cars which Grandma was happy to let them run in the garage after backing out her car (they were quite noisy in the family room). Picked fresh oranges in the backyard and boxed them up to be UPS'd home....hmmm. Painted tiles for fun and posterity.

So that's the rest of the trip in a nut shell. I will post pictures as soon as I have 1) time and 2) have reinstalled the camera picture software after getting my computer wiped clean and back from Staples....

We are all hitting the ground running. I have to work tomorrow for a brand new company (doing the same old tasks) and have to learn a new software application to report my work. Awana for the boys tomorrow and 2 verses to learn to catch up. MOPS craft and meeting on Friday to get ready for and etc etc etc for the weekend. Sigh.

Good Night. We are home safe.

Ok, a mid-trip update.

Hot tubbed, check.
3 park visits (each over 2 hours), check.
2 walks with Skeeter, check.
new booster seat for Caleb, check.
1 visit for myself to dentist, check.
2 visits to McDonalds for playtime, check.
1 Caleb & Grandpa only outing for ice cream, check.
watched 2 movies (g-Force and Race to witch mountian), check.
Cartoons, check.
Playing individually and together on computer, check.
Renewed lice treatment, check. (Again, so soon, and totally unrelated to the last time? What are the chances?)
And my uncle has passed away.


Planning: Bowling tomorrow, maybe Chuck E. Cheese Tuesday. and who knows what else because the weather is great!

We are working together to turn the tide of Caleb's defiance, and Jockey trying to copy the model of definance. Some days are decent, others are rough. Jockey punched me in the rear and bit my finger yesterday, which resulted in staying home and thinking about this actions and napping while Caleb got to go out. Caleb had some defiant times and is the bad habit of talking back. We are trying to nip that all in the bud. Improvements, yes, even if slow.

And I feel good that even while on "vacation" and being out of our element, we have still been careful to stay away from food coloring, sodium benzoate and excessive sugars. Staying away from these help the boys not to have reasons (outside of childish immaturity) for poor behaviours. So the general wound up craziness is being kept to a minimum. And hours upon hours at the park are a good way to keep the worn out. They play while the adults talk and soak up the sun. Works out great.

One down side, I've been struggling with a tooth ache... so that's been my own challenge, and often it makes my patience short etc. I'll have to come home and see the dentist promptly it looks like. Could I please be hit on the head and left for the vultures instead????

Overall, a good trip, good talks, good cuddle times, good weather, lots of exercise. (even the dog is getting leaner, I've been calling her mini-keg.) More on the next update, have a great week.

Just a brief, and I mean bried update.

We've attended Tessa's family birthday party at the pool. Good times.
We visited Great Grandpa Severson (age 96/97) on Sunday. He's old yet cheerful. And we learned he likes watching sting operations where they catch internet predators...and Msnbc News. Ok Grandpa.
Caleb likes his literacy lab, and I think he's actually learning more in that 25 minutes than in regular class.
We've spent a few days at the park using the unpredictable sunshine to the max.
I have started work at an additional company, that makes 3 employers for myself... tricky keeping which tasks report to which companies! Whew!
My desktop computer has been out of commission with viruses/worms/trojans etc since last Monday, so that's the reason for few postings. Crossing my fingers that Staples can have it ready to pick up tomorrow AM....

The boys are all excited:
We will be in California from late tomorrow afternoon 2/10 through WEDNESDAY night of next week 2/17. We'll hit the ground running with school, lit lab, Awana and work and MOPS with craft that week. Pray for a safe, on time flight and our luggage lands when and where we do!

In the meantime, the boys have "packed" their back packs to include far too many beanie babies. We have an abundance of them thanks to Grandma Judy paring down her collection. And the boys have been inseparable from them. Caleb sleeps in a small pool of them on his bed each night. Jockey takes them in the car EVERYWHERE, to show and tell, etc. The one great thing is that there are so many, there are few fights and never have we not been able to find one to go with us in the car!

So that's the quick low down, good night.

What's the latest?

Caleb and I had a careful discussion when an opportunity came up. Bottom line: He has made the choice to attend a "literacy lab" program after school for 6 weeks. It is just an extra 25 minutes, so he will get out at noon. It has the purpose to expose him more to reading, phonics, sight words, word blends etc. It will probably have a different approach that I would use, and that is a good thing. No reminder needed that I did not go to college for elementary education (or patience training for that matter.) I am hopeful that he will make another leap in his abilities, provide a chance for focus. Right now he will just see the first letter or first number in the addition problem and guess. Guessing isn't knowing... and guessing isn't actually looking. I'm hoping he will improve.

Both the boys are in Tennis on Tuesdays. They love it. They also get a chance to swim and visit with Grammy and Grandpa, and GG Dahl too. And the come home tired.

Awana tomorrow night. I help. Again.

No big plans for the rest of the week. Might catch a day at the park if I can bundle up warm enough... we'll see.

More as it comes.

A Rite of Passage for kids, though not one I'd sign up to celebrate, it could be worse...


Second only in communicablity to the common cold is... lice. Apparently, we were the only guests at the hotel this weekend.

Caleb called to me this morning and said his head itched and he saw white things. Not taking him at his word precisely, I performed my own examination fully expecting dandruff and a need for extra water or conditioner. I was a bit disturbed to find...lice. Being a born "nit-picker", I looked his entire head over and killed all live ones. Then I examined Jockey, and found a few more and killed those too. This determined the rest of my day. Despite the beautiful sunshine and park playing possibities... We had a new priority.

I now know at least 5 more facts about lice now, than I did yesterday.

1- The lice do not have wings... no flying.
2- The lice do not have back legs (like grasshoppers).... no jumping. (Thus takes direct contact with head or items that have touched the head)
3- The lice will die in 24 hours without human blood.
4- Lice do not live/feed on pets because the pets are not humans.
5- Lice lay 3-4 eggs a day.
6-Hot water and a Hot Dryer are good enough for washables.
7- A good vaccumming is good for non-washables.
8- Lastly and surprisingly, there is a debate on the effectiveness of all products, shampoos and sprays, other than the comb.

As for me and my house, pesticide shampoo is the way we went, because the little bugs can transfer or fall while being combed out and I'd rather them be dead if my older eyes miss one that falls prey to gravity.

So I have discovered, diagnosed, treated and combed each boy. Phew, the hardest part was making them hold still for 45-50 minutes for the meticulous combing process. And Thank GOD they are boys and have short hair!!!
Mike and I both check out as clear, but the washing, sterilizing, vaccuming ensues to make sure there are none to transfer to us or back to the boys.

The Lice War is not a difficult war (as yet), but a great many loads of laundry.

So onward... (and I'll be calling the hotel.)

Just a little catch up.

We made it thorugh the busy-ness of last week. Leadership meetings, Awana, School, Mops, etc.

Then it was off for a 5+ hour drive Friday to Hayden, ID for a visit to an indoor water park at the Holiday Inn Express. They have an arcade with tokens and prizes, indoor play structure for the kids, mini golf and bowling (which we didn't do) and a "Raptor Reef" dino-themed indoor water park. Three slides, a wave pool with zero depth shore, and a kids play structure set in nearly a foot of water that has it's own slides, sprinklers, sprayers etc.

The kids were a little car weary, but they are quickly learning use every rest area we offer them. (Which I used nearly every one in the Eastern part of the state for my own reasons.) Every kid needs to learn to use the facilities when it's offered; I learned at the age of about 7 going through Arizona... long story. So we got there with time to eat dinner and hit the slides. Caleb was tall enough for one solo, and the other two with an adult, so both Mike and I got our sliding quota in... and Grandpa Dahl too. Jockey was a little left out of the slides... but you couldn't tell from the way he zipped around the kids area and dove through the waves.

Saturday was rainy, and although a beautiful walk and a really cool children's park were tempting in Couer D'alene, we were nevertheless rained out. We did hit a few thrift stores and found treasures in cheap books (me) and a couple stuffed animals for the boys. Then it was back into the pools for fun. Then dinner and back into the pools again. I treated the boys to a little $5 of arcade fun somewhere in there too.
Sunday was a wake up, breakfast, clean up the room and back into the pools type of day. We made a couple stops on the way home, most noteably at "guy mecca" aka CABELA's. Then onward home arriving late about 8:30pm.

Monday we did not have school, but finally having a break from the rain we spent a long, bundled up 4.5 hours at the park meeting friends from school... both by arrangement and by coincidence.

It's been a busy few days. But it's beautiful outside, almost like spring, especially when I saw the hydreangea starting it's new sprouts. Hmmmm. Did we skim through this winter without a trace of snow accumulation?

The first week of the new year...

Caleb was VIP this week at school. What does this mean? He got to be line leader, choose helpers, make the runs to the office and library as needed. He had show and tell, he got to bring snacks. Lastly, he got to invite special guests and introduce them and talk about them and field questions from his classmates. Grammy Dahl and Papa Bill (the non-working local grandparents) were gracious enough to share time with 28 little kindergarteners. They were asked stuff like "what's your favorite cookie/lunch/animal" "what do you do with your grandparent" etc. I learned that Papa Bill and I both like Oatmeal raisin cookies. Grammy shared a very interesting bit of information about when she was in Kindergarten.... in her school the boys and girls did not play together, or even walk down the same hall way/ stairs. That was a bit of a brain warp for the kids. Hard to imagine, especially during their friendship week when they are assigned rotating people to befriend, play with and talk to during recess. MOST boys are asking to be with other boys by the way, but have come to terms that there is a majority (70-80%) of girls in the class and there just might be a time they are teamed up with a girl. ewww yuck.

So after visiting the Caleb's class, there was time to go and visit Jockey's class before it was time to actually take Caleb away from school. So we had nearly 30 minutes to see Jockey in action tearing up the playground and being a little leader. Everyone chased him or did what he did, even if that meant breaking the rules and throwing rocks... we're working on that. Good leaders have to set an example. Then it was off to chapel and a lengthy discussion about what color the robes of the angels might have been wearing when they visited the shepards in the fields the night Christ was born. There were many votes for light blue and light green, several other colors, and a surprisingly decided vote for Black... huh? We we ended with a quick prayer of repeating after the pastor, true to Lutheran form, and we were off to get Caleb. Papa Bill went to get burgers while we returned to the house. After a surprisingly in-our-seats lunch, the boys introduced Papa Bill to the Wii and got him to play bowling with him.

It was a great day of crisp sunny weather where we all enjoyed the outdoors. The boys lucked out with outside recess, we took Papa Bill to see the house we are thinking about if we actually sold this one, and then I took the boys to the park... I mean it was sunny after all. A non-rainy day should be used for maximum enjoyment. And we did just that.

No idea what our weekend plans are, but there is Sparks tonight. Cubbies has been cancelled for the night and might have to be for the rest of the year due to lack of leaders... I pray not. So that's the scoop.

Have a great rest of the week.

Happy New Year!


We rang in the new year in a quiet sort of way. Sleeping or working on projects. Might as well start the new year true to personality.

We have taken down our tree now. It really was a great tree this year. I hope we have success next year at picking out another nice one. Everyone helped take it down. The boys especially found joy in helping, just as much as putting it up really.

The boys are now healthy (at least mostly). Jockey attended a birthday party today. It was at the fire station. It was actually a really great birthday party. They gave us a tour, let us ride in a fire truck, let the kids spray a hose that they had taken off the truck and hooked up, gave them goody bags and hats... it was really neat. Jockey has already asked if he could do this for his birthday; so don't be surprised if it happens.

School is just around the corner. I'm not sure I'm ready for it all to start back up again. But there's no choice for any of us. But it helps to have something to look forward to and that is a vacation to California in mid-February. Sun, warm... nice.

So that's our update. A slow and steady week and new year with the knowledge that life's going to kick into high gear any moment.
Hope you're having a great start to a new year too.

We got an unexpected visit of a fever upon Jockey last night. About 12:45 AM he was using the restroom and coughed and sounded like he threw up. I went to check on him and he was burning up. The highest last night was 103.6. I iced him, cold washclothed him, Tylenol, Ibrophened and prayed. He was down to 101.9 at 6 Am when we finally went to sleep. He's spiked back up to 103 mid-morning before more medication was put into him. But he's handling it well. I was wondering for a moment if I was going to have to hold him down in a cold bath, but we made it through the night. He has a very very bad cough, but thanks to our Rite Aid deals in August, I have all the sore throat meds he could need. So despite the beautiful sunny crisp day, we are going to stick close to home. Where did he pick this up... probably the Children's Museum one week ago. He'll make it through. I just pray the rest of the family doesn't follow in his footsteps on this.
Thanks to every one for their generosity to our family this Christmas and your prayers for Jockey getting well.

Our Christmas...

In SHORT, because We are all tired, and I'm beyond exhausted...So more pictures than words. The boys were blessed almost into the area of indulgence. But they are grateful and playing with everything in turn with sheer joy. The family was blessed with working/matching phones! Several great scrapbooking items/tool came my way, and Mike is enjoying his coffeemaker even as I type. And it appears that the handmade gifts were received with pleasure over... reluctance.

Crisp sunny day, very different than last year's foot of snow, but just as enjoyable. Casual and family, nothing better.

On to pictures. In reverse order of the day:

Dinner at Kristina, Ryan, and Cousin Tessa's.

Hugs after a fun morning.

Hugs and presents in the morning:

Stockings before breakfast:

That's our Christmas in a Photo-nutshell. On to sleeping and maybe a bit of compulsory tidying.

Merry Christmas.