Back to school

Today was the first day of school for Justin and Kyle. Justin returned as a 5th grader and Kyle as a 2nd grader. I'm such a proud mom, but I can't get over how fast time has gone and how big they're getting!

Justin is already excited that at the end of the year the 5th graders get to go on a big field trip to Navy Pier. The elementary school that Justin attends is attached to a middle school. Because the elementary school is so full, Justin's classroom is IN the middle school. He thinks that's cool.




Kyle started at a different school this year just down the street from Justin's. Kyle was invited to begin the district's challenge program this year which is only available at certain schools. He's not nervous about the accelerated learning (I think he's happy about that), but was a little nervous that he wouldn't know anyone in his class. Fortunately, he already knows a few of his classmates.

Today was a short day for them, but it went well. Hopefully the whole year will go smoothly!

Henry update

Since a lot of people have shown concern for Henry (mostly on Facebook), I thought I'd share some good news...

He walked down the hallway a couple times today!!! I was freaking ecstatic! I'd been trying not to stress out about it too much the last couple days. Since Kyle hadn't been feeling well, that helped me focus on something else. Today, Henry seemed less stressed. He went a little further into the hall than normal so I decided to coax him a little. I almost fell over when he came towards me. The phermone diffuser may be helping already.

As a reward, Henry got to go out in the backyard with Justin and his friends tonight. He ran around like crazy! They were all having a lot of fun. Henry is exhausted and will be getting a terrific night's sleep!

Time flies...

I can't believe it's mid-August. The boys go back to school on August 24th. To me, that's the end of summer.

Jason was on vacation last week. He'd like to sit around and play video games the whole time, and fire up the grill, but we did get out to the Museum of Science and Industry mainly to see the temporary Harry Potter Exhibition. A lot of the museum is under construction (much like Brookfield Zoo when we were there), but they still charge full admission. I'm not a big Harry Potter fan, but the exhibit was enjoyable, maybe because Justin was so intrigued.


This past weekend, Jason and I had a wedding to attend ( a co-worker of mine) and on Sunday I took the boys to their first Kane County Cougars game. It was a work outing. The weather was HOT and it started to rain in the 7th inning, but Justin and Kyle seemed to enjoy it. I think Kyle enjoyed his funnel cake more than the game, but Justin was interested.

As for this week, I think I should've stayed in bed. On Monday morning I spent about two hours on the phone trying to get things straightened out with the hospital and insurance companies from an incident with Kyle back in March. He was pushed down on the playground on accident, but hit the back of his head on the pavement pretty hard. As a precaution, I took him to his doctor and a cat scan was performed. All was normal, but everyone at the hospital seems to be confused that the school's insurance is taking care of the charges, despite the fact that Jason has faxed the papers to them about three times and we've both made several phone calls in the last few months regarding the matter! Ridiculous. I'm pretty sure I was in the middle of a nervous breakdown when I finally talked to someone with a brain that had the answer.


Then there's my bigger and hairier problem named Henry. He's pushing me over the edge. For some unknown reason he will no longer walk down the short hallway on the first floor of our house. There is a wood laminate floor in the hallway that leads into the kitchen. This is the same floor we've had the entire time he has lived with us (four years!). He only wants to walk on carpeted areas. And yes, I tried putting throw rugs down for him. It's gradually gotten worse. We used to be able to call him a couple times and he'd get up enough nerve to walk on it, but now he'll just stand at the edge of the carpet and whine. This morning I actually picked him up and carried him down the hall to the back door so he could go outside. He weighs 85 pounds. He's calm unless he's trying to get up the nerve to walk on the floor. He's never had any behavior problems and part of the existing problem is that I don't know the cause.

I am a veterinary professional and constantly give advice to people about their pets. But here I am in the middle of this odd situation with my own pet and it's beyond frustrating!!! I just want to help him, but I think all I can do is be patient (which I suck at). Hopefully in time he'll regain his confidence. And in the meantime I should just be thankful that he hasn't become aggressive or destructive instead. I love my dog and want him to be normal again.

*I did purchase a plug-in device for Henry. It's called DAP, dog appeasing phermone. It's supposed to mimic the comforting phermone that his mother once secreted. However it can take four weeks to see improvement. I just bought it yesterday. I actually used a device similiar to this for cats a couple years ago and it seemed to help.

Backyard work

I've been wanting to get rid of these ugly bushes for years! (I'm talking about the ugly ones with the yellow flowers.) They were here when we moved in almost 7 years ago. I hated the alternating pattern around the deck (not my landscaping style). They grow like crazy and I trim them down every year. I decided to do that earlier this week, but found that I couldn't cut much off without showing dead branches underneath. I figured this was a good excuse to dig them out. Now they're gone and our yard looks bigger and better! It looks great without them, like they were never there.