Wally and Eve

Maisie had her puppies this week! Justin and I were at Phillip’s band concert Tuesday evening. When we got home Evelyn excitedly told us that Sara came over and confirmed Maisie would have her puppies in 4-5 hours. Indeed, she was panting and shivering all over. No one wanted to stay up with her, so guess who got the short stick? We all had work and school the next day. Maisie had her first pup at 10:15 pm. I believe it was Eve born first. Maisie knew exactly what to do, she was no spring chicken when it came to caring for her pups. Evelyn was so excited I could hear her roaming around so let her know the good news, she quickly came down and got to see the first puppy. I stayed up until midnight, with one more puppy born. I went to bed and set alarms each hour to get up and check on Maisie. At 2 am I went downstairs to check on Maisie and found another puppy. The poor little one was not alive and it was missing a back paw and half of one leg. Maisie had already rejected it. I tried warming it up more, rubbing it, doing CPR, and such but it was already gone, probably for the best. Evelyn named it “potato” the next day. I took care of the puppy before morning came. No more puppies came after Potato. After a few days we are sure the larger puppy is a girl. She is quite loud and demanding! The boy is smaller and eats quite a bit to catch up with his sister. Amelia suggested we name them Wall-e and Eve. Wally is short for Wallace. Maisie shakes each time she is separated from her pups. We try very hard not to hold the puppies TOO often. It’s quite funny to watch the little ones swim about on their bellies like land seals trying to find milk. 

This week was also Dr Seuss week at school. We had some fun dress up days like silly hats, socks, crazy hair, and spirit day. I busted out my hat from Cat in the Hat, I was Mrs Call in a Hat. I miss seeing Amelia each morning at school. Her internship with Mr McGrath is over now that the trimester is finished. We had some drama with Everett and his Social Studies grade. I noticed he had a D in SS on Tuesday. He was basically wasting time in class watching YouTube instead of doing his work. Justin and I were very disappointed to hear that. Everett turned in the missing assignments but only raised his grade to a C. He is banned from YouTube at school now. It’s hard when we all know that Everett has the ability to earn A’s but is choosing to slough off. 

Amelia had a choir concert on Monday, the students performed their Festival songs for everyone. Phillip accompanied Treble and Con Brio choirs on the Djembe. He was so nervous! He did a great job keeping the rhythms in spite of his nerves. Everett loved the duct tape song the Bass choir performed. That was very funny! CHS band performed the next day along with the other two high school bands in our district. Each band did an amazing job! It’s quite unnerving to watch Phillip all serious in the back doing his percussion duties. The choir girls told Amelia how quiet her brother is…so strange! He is obnoxious, loud, and very silly at home. During the last song he was playing the triangle, when his big moment came he played the triangle with gusto! 

The YW activity this week was to make and present a PowerPoint. Evelyn was very stressed about it, almost to the point of tears. She pulled off her topic with flair and gusto. Her presentation was “Baldness is Beautiful!” She found bald Disney princess pics along with some bald guy photos of Justin. Each slide was a different Disney song with bald lyrics replacing the original ones. Hilarious. Amelia’s slide show was totally amazing too, it was about Miraculous Ladybug and Cat Noir. Josie has two adopted Grandmas for Activity Days. This week the girls were to come with a written letter and a gift for their secret Grandma. Josie was very excited about the gifts she made: two framed pieces of art she made. She came home with caramel corn from one of her secret Grandmas. 

Thursday I went to MCO to help distribute the last of the fabric packets. By the end of the evening we only had 6 packets left! Hooray! A text went out saying Thursday was the last day to pick up or else you would not perform. Yes. I had several parents email me complaining about the fabric pick-up chaos last week. I had to hold back my response to be civil…if she only knew what we were up against. I’m trying my best to see through the complaining to what the real question is. It is honestly the same with my students, spouse, children, etc. When someone complains it is just negative fluff surrounding a core issue coming at you. Just drop the complaints and ask the dang question or express the main concern. Maybe that is what growing up is all about.  

Friday I had to work in the morning. Our school was required to attend a training about Raising Resilient Learners by Kristen Souers. The gist of the presentation was to help teachers identify when a student or even themselves are not ready to learn (teach). To separate behaviors from the source and help students to a level of learning. I liked how she spoke about the need to staff to be properly supported so we can support the student. It was very interesting. Right after work the little girls had violin and ukulele lessons. Emma asked if going to Guatemala would be better over Spring Break next year instead of September. Sigh…Yes please. That will give us more time to fund raise and it works better with school schedules.  Phillip spent most of the day scraping and sanding a stick. He cracks me up. Everett was at EVMS all day for the State VEX robotics competition. His team had some amazing runs and a couple duds. I was able to watch the events via live-stream while at work and music lessons. I am so proud his team leveled up and had some intense spars with other HS teams. They worked very diligently this trimester! Way to go Everett. 

Justin rallied the troops to clean the garage after the winterplooza party in the garage. They worked for a few hours on Saturday to tidy it up. I had photo editing to get done so I holed up in the office for once. I heard all the complaints filtering through the walls. Evelyn is feeling very sad. She feels that her siblings don’t love or appreciate her. They prefer to play with Josie over her. I see that too, it is very hard.