Spacely gets neutered

Spacely went in yesterday for neutering. It was a long day since there were concerns about his liver. One of his numbers was over 200, the normal range is 10-100. Our vet did a bile acid test on him and his number showed normal on that meaning he just has a liver infection, nothing more serious. Whew! This meant that she was able to go ahead and neuter the boy.

While he was under, the vet was able to get a better look in his mouth. She pulled two baby teeth that were loose and still there even though the adult teeth were also in. She can feel teeth in his gum but without an x-ray, can't tell if they are impacted or just need some encouragement to descend. Since he has no problems at the moment, we can wait a bit to decide what our next step is. She also thinks he is a very young dog, maybe 18 months old.

I picked him up after Kaitlyn's riding lesson. He looked very apprehensive when he was brought out but brightened up and wagged when he saw me. He was still woozy from the meds and wearing the cone of shame.

He was able to eat some dinner but spent most of the rest of the evening snoozing. I took him out and he was able to potty with no problems.

He is moving around very well today, snarfed his breakfast and dinner easily. He took his meds this morning in his breakfast. For the most part, he is leaving his stitches alone so now only wears the cone when we can't watch him. This means that he wears it at night, when he is snoozing in his crate.

He got a crate and seems to like sleeping in it. He has a fleece blanket in there and snuggles down into it. When I get up to take the kids to seminary, he blinks at me and goes back to sleep. Tinsel doesn't even bother to look at me...she is not a morning dog.

Lunches October 17-21

Monday October 17

This was a very skimpy lunch, there were some yogurt covered craisins under the smiling cookie. Mondays are half days so I am not worried that they will go hours with no food.

Tuesday October 18

The kids always consider it a good lunch day if there is Pocky in it. The face on the clementine was done with food safe marker. Kierynn loved opening her lunch to see it.

Wednesday October 19

Honey sticks have proven to be popular by all. They like the flavored ones, I like ones that are natural colored rather than dyed neon pink. It is a win win situation


Thursday October 20

Iain decided he wanted to make his own lunch today and he did! I was so pleased when I saw he made a smiley face on his lunch. I did suggest that next time he put the apples in some salt water to prevent them from getting brown but he didn't care. The veggie straws are something they all like. I find them in a huge bag at Sam's. I can find smaller veggie chips at Giant but I prefer to get the huge bag of straws at Sam's.

Friday October 21

Today was a first of the year...a field trip. It was specifically requested that nothing be sent in that needed to come home. I have no way of knowing if Rhys actually ate his carrots or if he just tossed them since there was no ranch to dip them into. The Teddy Grahams in the lunchboxes are the same amount as what is in the little bag. I don't normally buy them in individual servings because they are so much more. It is more economical to buy the large bag and dole them out.

Spacely

This is Spacely. He is a long haired Chihuahua that Nicholas found in the middle of a creek, shivering and crying. He obviously has been taken care of, he is not matted although he has really long nails. He walks on a leash nicely, rides in a car, is not upset at being in a crate so I would say someone has taken some time for him. He is not neutered and is not microchipped. Our neighbor, who is also a vet, thinks he is fairly young, maybe 2-4 years old.

As of right now, we have not gotten any responses to our ad listing him as found (minus some details so we can make sure it is not just someone trying to score a free dog). He is very skittish about noises and is not sure at all about Tinsel.

Since we don't know his history, we don't know what he was fed but I do know that I am switching him to raw. We got him some refridgerated food at Petsmart but this evening, I took some of Tinsel's pork neck bones and gave it to him.

He did eat it...all 1.5 ounces of it LOL

Right now, we are not sure what is going to happen with him. I am hoping we find his owners but if not...then we will have to figure out what the next step is. (shots, neutering, bath, nail trimming, basic manners - no marking in the house!)

Lunches October 11-14

This week was a short lunch week and an easy one. We had a day off, one stayed home, one got lunch at work and one didn't bring her lunch box into the kitchen all week so I made lunches in the morning rather than the evening.

Tuesday October 11

I used the pain de mie bread for this and thought it would be a hit since they all like it as toast. I was wrong. Kierynn complained about the crust (even though she eats it on toast) and Iain just asked me to not use it for sandwiches again. The kettle corn came from a local corn maze that we visited over the weekend. Rhys brought back his carrots, which I recycled to Wednesday for him.

Wednesday October 12

The kids have a difficult time opening the cream cheese so I usually clip an end open so it is easier. For some reason, I cut the entire end off and Kierynn reported her main container had cream cheese in it and it got on her bagel, making it unfit to eat. So....she can put cream cheese on the bagel and eat but if the cream cheese gets on the bagel in transit, it can't be eaten. :::::sigh::::: Rhys did eat his carrots this time around.

Thursday October 13

I had fun with this lunch. I found the eyeballs and was just going to toss them in but then decided to put them on the sandwiches. The puzzle pieces really added some character to the face. I had initially put the honey stick diagonally across the compartment but when I was about to take a picture, Iain suggested that I use it as the mouth. I also like the apple lips with the pistachio teeth...which looks green and rotten.

The kids find it amusing that I take pictures of their lunches and want to know who looks at them. I showed them several different sites that I look at that shows lunches that other kids take to school.

Friday October 14

I don't give bananas very often in lunch since the kids don't like them cut but I decided to give it a go today. I use the press and seal wrap on the ends in an attempt to keep it from browning up. Iain said he didn't want a banana. I suggested apple. He said he wanted grapes. I asked him to get the grapes out while I made sandwiches. He said he would take a banana. What a goof!

Since the bananas are in the main compartment, I let him know he had to have his sandwich cut. He was okay with it. Both Kierynn and Rhys has two of their sections made with pain de mie despite Kierynn lodging a complaint earlier in the week. Why? Because it was already in the house and defrosted and I didn't feel like going to the freezer for a new loaf of "regular" bread. I think she will be okay with it since I made sure her pieces were crust free.

Kaitlyn's lunch box saga is over. Last night I told her I wanted it in the kitchen before it walked in there itself. She told me where it was. I told her to get up and go to that location and bring the box to the kitchen. It finally made it those 10 feet to the kitchen. The Easylunchboxes are made well enough that despite it sitting for more than a week, after a good scrubbing, there are no lingering odors (and there was nothing but crumbs in it for that week)

Lunches October 3-7

Monday October 3

The weeks started out with a repeat of sorts from last week since it went over well... the turkey cheddar wrap. They look skimpy because they won't eat it if I put in lettuce or anything other than turkey and cheese. I could not find the camera so this is a cell phone picture and rather dark. The dark blobs in the main container are brownie bites. I did jello jigglers again and this time, being thicker, they worked out much better.

Tuesday October 4

We have a long standing family ritual of having pizza on Monday nights so I thought I would send in left over pizza. All the kids eat pizza. They like it cold, not reheated. All of them like when I send in ingredients so they can make their own cold pizza at school Why then did I get complaints about sending in cold pizza?? They eat it at home! The white things in the small container are similar to crunchy cheetos without the dayglo orange color. There are some yogurt covered cranberries in the small container. You will notice there is no lunch for Kaitlyn. She was mad at me and I guess this was her punishment to me...not allowing me to make her lunch. She is the one who will go hungry (since I type this all up after the fact, I can tell you she did not pack her own lunch and came home ready to gnaw her own arm off)

Wednesday October 5

The cinnamon mini bagel with cream cheese was a hit with everyone. I added in some pepperoni since I felt they needed something a bit more in there. There is a cheese stick hiding under the cream cheese as well. See my comment above regarding Kaitlyn's (lack of) lunch.

Thursday October 6

Yes, she is still mad. Wow, what did I do that made her so mad ('cause, of course it is my fault) I refused to take her to the mall after she acted like a 14 year old snot and pulled a massive attitude on me. Gosh, how unreasonable of me!

I liked the lunches today mainly because I love using these bento boxes. When I make lunches, I have an idea of what I am going to put in there but sometimes, I am off. I pulled out a few more things to put in there since I was thinking I would have more room. As it turned out, I didn't need them. Hiding under the fish sandwiches (which are actually PBJ) is a mini granola bar. The popcorn looking stuff is Pirate's Booty. Two of the kids have some nutella to dip their apples into, one has peanut butter since she doesn't like nutella (and for the record, neither do I. I don't like hazelnuts) No lunch for Greg since he has a company lunch thing he is going to.

Will Kaitlyn put out her lunch tomorrow? As she got dropped off at seminary this morning, she did ask me very nicely to bring her a sandwich when I picked her up for her riding lesson. I normally do bring her a snack and water but today I will be bringing her basically a lunch (since once again, she did not make her own)

Friday October 7
Nope, no lunch box out for Kaitlyn although she is speaking to me again after finally making it to the mall. She is almost 15, I have asked her to put her lunch box out (it is still in her bag from the last time I made her lunch) I am not going to sit on top of her until she gets it done.


A light day on the lunch front since I only had to make 3. One of the kids has an appointment today so no lunch. One had requested a nutella sandwich today and got it. After I made it and was looking at lunch, I realized I also put in a chocolate pudding. He will have a chocolate fueled day..bet his teacher will thank me later. Sorry!

I was wrong!

I wrote this yesterday: Despite Rhys turning his sweet little nose up at turkey earlier in the week, I am giving it another go. I read somewhere that kids need to be exposed to a new food item at least 4 times before they may try it. Turkey and cheddar roll ups are what is up for lunch today.

When he got off the bus, I lingered back to speak to Iain and Rhys ran on ahead. He dumped his book bag and shot out the door to go to play with a friend. I got out his lunch bag and commented to Greg, before I opened it.

"I bet you any amount that when I open this, his wrap is still in there, totally untouched."

I was so surprised when I opened his lunch bag and saw the container only had the picks I had used to hold the sandwich!

Now, this was the same exact turkey that he didn't even bother to try a few days ago but today he snarfed down an entire wrap (turkey and cheese wrapped in a tortilla)

I was going to try cutting turkey into shapes and see if he would eat it that way.

My next "big" experiment will be trying them out with homemade bread sandwiches. They like homemade bread but generally they think the crust is too thick. I am getting a pain de mie pan so hopefully that will ease the crust issue.

Lunches September 26-30

Monday September 26



The kids asked for bagels so they have PBJ on bagels today. The orange chips in Kaitlyn's main compartment are some dried mango. The crackers are some cheddar crackers I made using this recipe. It was super easy to do, I still have the dough left to bake.

Tuesday September 27



Nothing really earth shattering but I did put some M&M's in the little containers. I expected that at least one would not open it to see what was in there (and I didn't tell them in advance). I was right, Kaitlyn had her container full when she came home so I recycled it to her lunch for the next day.

Wednesday September 28



Greg had a work lunch so no box for him. As you can see, the frog and pig box came in so the younger set got a mom version of a lunchable. I knew I was taking a risk, putting some turkey slices in for Rhys. He will eat turkey, eats turkey lunchables but he brought back these 2 slices of turkey (rolled up with a pick) back untouched. Tinsel happily ate them. I quizzed him on why he didn't eat it. He said he likes it flat, not rolled up. You will also see Kaitlyn got the tub of M&M's again. I told her on the way to seminary that it had M&M's in there. "I know, I don't like M&M's." Whoops! That was news to me and not only did I give them again, I gave her a cookie with M&M's in them. When he got home, Iain's first sentence was "Can I have the exact same lunch again tomorrow?"

Thursday September 29



Yes, it is the same tub of M&Ms yet again! This time, they are in Iain's box and I know he will eat them. Today was another iffy lunch. I had asked Greg to get grapes and he brought back some green grapes and some purple grapes. Purple grapes are not very well liked but I thought I would give it a shot anyway. Mr. Indignant Rhys informed me when he got home that I KNEW he didn't like grapes. (He used to!) That was the only gripe about lunches.

Friday September 30

Happy Birthday to my big brother, Donnie!



Is it bad that I am glad this week is done? I really want to give the kids a variety but some days, the standard PBJ just works. Despite Rhys turning his sweet little nose up at turkey earlier in the week, I am giving it another go. I read somewhere that kids need to be exposed to a new food item at least 4 times before they may try it. Turkey and cheddar roll ups are what is up for lunch today. They each got a pudding as well. Rhys has a little tub of peanut butter to dip his apples in because he has gotten picky about his apples. You know, he has gotten picky about everything lately! Lucky for him that he is adorable and I love him to pieces.

There is no lunch for Kaitlyn since she didn't use her lunch from yesterday, we just recycled it to today.

I got in a new batch of SIGG water bottles after I found them for $5 each (!!) They have been working out really well and zero leaks.