…sometimes i have something to say…
Just kidding, it’s not 2013 yet. I just published my requisite “Is it 2012 already?” mere minutes ago. I just wanted to mention that Maggie’s lead levels, which were 16.7 when she was first tested this summer, are now down to 6.7. Her doctor wants them below 2, but we are definitely well on our way to putting this lead thing behind us.
Enjoy 2012 and don’t let your child eat paint chips!
Anna
Gee whiz. It’s 2012 already.
Twelve years since the Y2K scare and we moved to Uzbekistan and I graduated from high school.
Eleven years since I met my Rosedale girls.
Ten years since I struck out on my own in Columbus.
Nine years since I worked at Papyrus.
Eight years since I’ve been to Uzbekistan and started at OSU.
Seven years since I lived with the Nathans.
Six years since I met Deryck.
Five years since I moved back to Cincinnati.
Four (almost) years since I got married.
Three years since we moved to *this* side of Glenway Ave.
Two years since I found out I was pregnant.
One year since Maggie was born.
And BAM! Suddenly it’s 2012!
I never really make official resolutions, but like everyone else I always try to “do better” when the old year rolls over into the new one. I’m going to read more (thank you, Kindle). I’m going to finish reading through the Bible Genesis to Revelation (currently in Psalms). I’m going to eat healthier. I’m going to focus on making art again. I’m going to brush up on my Russian and Uzbek (even as I write that, I’m kind of laughing incredulously at my own blind optimism). I’m going to plan, plant, and harvest a glorious garden. I’m going to make Maggie’s flower girl dress for Sus and Zach’s wedding in August. I’m going to finish writing another book. I’m going to go on a vacation with my family (we’re hoping for Charleston and Savannah). I’m going to potty train Maggie, if she so desires. I’m going to graduate at last!!
That’s enough for now. Maybe next January I’ll look back at this hopeful little post and let you know which of the above I’ve accomplished.
Until next time!
Sorry I haven’t been seen nor heard from on this blog lately. I’m taking an online class and it’s eating up most of my time. The remaining time is eaten up by my child. She has a voracious appetite for my time.
Speaking of my child, she’s one now! Her birthday was this past Saturday and let me tell you, I couldn’t imagine a more radiant or lovable little girl than mine.
Here are some of her many traits and talents:
1. She says “What is that?” in a whisper. Constantly. I have no idea why she always whispers it, but it’s very cute.
2. She dances the standard baby dance (head bobbing, knees bending. If an adult danced like a baby does, that adult would look like an idiot, but it works for small children).
3. She nurtures her children, which include Zebo the Zebra and the water baby. She rocks them, sings to them, gives them baths, etc.
4. She claps her hands and says, “Yayyyy…”
5. She pretends. She pretends to drink tea out of her tea set or eat out of her play spoons. She even feeds Zebo and the water baby sometimes.
6. She likes to bend over so her head touches the ground and her butt is sticking up in the air. I don’t know why she does this, but it’s endearingly goofy.
7. She has 11 (ELEVEN) teeth in various stages of growth.
9. She can do a few animal sounds: doggy, kitty, horsey, piggy.
10. She communicates hunger as follows: she makes the sign for more and then when asked if she is hungry, nods her head exaggeratedly and points to her mouth.
11. I was only going to do ten of these, but I remembered a really important one. She is a GREAT sleeper. Currently, she takes three naps AND sleeps through the night.
There are many more wonderful things about her, but she is napping and I have homework to get done before she wakes up.
Happy birthday, Maggie!
Unlike Fraulein Maria, whiskers on kittens (ah-choo!) and wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings (geese are super mean) are not a few of my favorite things. But here, listed as I come up with each category, are a few things that are:
1. Favorite lip balm: Burt’s Bees
2. Favorite fruit: Blueberries
3. Favorite month: October
4. Favorite pie crust recipe: listed below
5. Favorite Harry Potter book: The Order of the Phoenix
6. Favorite flower: Black-eyed-susan
7. Favorite word: Gemini
8. Favorite coffee cake: recipe listed below
9. Favorite auto insurance commercials: Geico
10. Favorite TV character: Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock
11. Favorite poet: Gerard Manley Hopkins
12. Favorite punctuation: semi-colon
13. Favorite non-fiction author: Bill Bryson
14. Favorite fiction author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
15. Favorite pizza topping: banana peppers
Pie Crust recipe (from 1983 Martins Mennonite Church cookbook)
(this makes 2 crusts)
2 cups flour*
2 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup oil
2 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp white vinegar
Using a fork, mix all ingredients in a pie pan. Set aside half of the dough for second pie crust. By hand, press dough in and around sides of pie pan. Add filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or according to pie filling directions.
Option: roll our crust between two sheets of wax paper.
*I usually do about 1 1/2 cups white flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour.
Grandma’s Coffee Cake recipe (also from 1983 Martins Mennonite Church cookbook)
1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups brown sugar
4 cups flour*
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups sour milk
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup frozen blueberries**
cinnamon
Combine butter, sugar and flour in mixing bowl. Reserve 1 1/2 cups crumbs for topping. Dissolve baking soda in sour milk and add to remaining crumbs. Add blueberries and mix well. Add eggs and vanilla; stir only until blended. Pour into 9 x 13 baking pan; sprinkle with cinnamon and reserved crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-50 minutes.
*I sometimes substitute a little whole wheat flour for some of the white, so that I can convince myself that this is a health food. 
**Can use other frozen fruits as well.
A while ago I became determined to one day make homemade croissants. I even blogged about it, indirectly, in January of this year. The post was actually about cooking turkey, but I mentioned croissants as my next culinary milestone.
Well, I am proud to announce that on Wednesday, August 31, that milestone was reached.
Making croissants is not difficult, merely time-consuming. My hands also smelled of butter afterward (insert Paula Deen joke here). There is a lot of folding of chilled dough and then waiting.
But the finished result was, well, croissants! They looked and tasted satisfyingly croissanty! I was not able to take a photo because we seem to have misplaced our camera. You’ll just have to trust that this event actually occurred.
Now I have to come up with my next culinary milestone. I’m kind of at a loss, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
Here’s a quick Maggie update:
–7 teeth
–She’s started doing that cheesy fake smile that kids like to do for cameras
–Can briefly stand on her own
–lead poisoning
–Wait, what?
Yeah, she has lead poisoning. She has pretty high levels for a youngster of her tender age, so she is now on an iron vitamin that makes her breath smell like blood. The health department came out to find out where the lead is coming from, and it turns out: everywhere. Our house is riddled with lead paint, but not in such a way as to be a danger to anyone who does not crawl around and then stick their hands in their mouth or eat crumbs/morsels off the floor.
We are going to have to have a lead abatement contractor come in this fall and take care of the problem.
But man, those croissants sure were tasty!
Margaret Umida is eight months old today!
My baby girl is growing up too fast. Here are a few things I love about her at this age:
.:In spite of the fact she still has very little hair, she’s starting to look less and less like a baby. She’s growing so tall and losing some of that baby chub.
.:She is beginning to try to talk a little bit. Not that she actually says any words other than “Mama” and sometimes “Dada,” but her babbling is starting to sound more like conversation. She’s controlling her sounds and making them into “questions” or “statements.”
.:She is getting into everything. I am constantly pulling stuff out of her mouth that she’s found under furniture, behind furniture, etc.
.:She is pulling up on things. I’ll be sitting on the sofa and all of a sudden a little face will appear above the coffee table.
.:She wants to walk! She can walk if someone holds her hands, taking little awkward steps. Warms my heart.
.:She loves any and all baby food. Definitely not picky (at least for now)!
.:She’s a mama’s girl. <3 <3
.:She’s got the cutest giggle I’ve ever heard.
.:She’s wearing 9 and 12 month clothes.
.:She’s got 6 teeth already!
.:She’s the cutest baby in the world.
That’s my Maggie! She’s got a great personality and is, of course, incredibly intelligent. Happy 8 months, Maggie Moose!
Artworks is an organization in Cincinnati that strives ” to be the leader in employing student and emerging artists to create art that enlivens the Greater Cincinnati community” (Quoted from their website). They’ve been putting up a lot of amazing murals around Cincinnati, some of them by (and I find this pretty cool) one of the pastors at Lifespring, Tim Parsley. Here are some of my favorites:
This one is located in the neighborhood of Camp Washington.
In Clifton Heights, where I grew up. There's a German language school located nearby.
Located in the neighborhood of Northside.
Our own Tim Parsley supervised this one!
Another one by Tim Parsley, located downtown. I think this is my favorite.
Love this!
I believe my last post sounded hopeful about Clementine’s condition.
Unfortunately, she got worse. After many more blood tests and medications, Clementine continued to have severe diarrhea, she wasn’t eating well, she was vomiting up her medicines, she was lethargic, and her blood tests showed that her red blood cell and platelet counts were alarmingly low. We saw the vet last week and were given a “last resort” medicine, Doxycycline, but we could not get her to keep it down. She was deteriorating rapidly and it hurt so bad to see that.
So, a friend of Deryck’s volunteers at the SPCA and he suggested surrendering her to them and they could give her the medications through an IV, keep her hydrated and fed, and perform a few more tests. And if they don’t think they can save her, they will euthanize her. We decided that was the best option and surrendered her yesterday afternoon. It seems cruel that we “abandoned” her when she needed us the most, but we knew we that if we couldn’t get her to eat or take medicine she wouldn’t last long.
The house seems so empty. I know she was “just” a dog, but she was our first daughter, sort of. She was a good little companion to have around. She followed me everywhere in the house, even when she was so sick that it was hard for her to walk, she would get up and slowly follow me to whichever room I was in.
In honor of our dear little puppy, here’s a list of things about her, some of which we loved and some of which were irksome:
::Her underbite.
::Her crooked teeth.
::Her habit of barking at men and children.
::Her silky ears.
::Her crooked front legs.
::Her habit of having accidents under the end table where all of our electrical cords were plugged into a power strip.
::Her “puppy sounds.”
::How she would perk up and bark when she heard the word “daddy.”
::Her favorite toys: the purple monkey, the horsey, the poop tart.
::How she would stand with her front paws on the radiator and look out the window.
::How she liked to sit on the windowsill on the front porch.
::How much she loved other dogs.
::How she tilted her head back and forth whenever we talked to her.
::How she was unable to completely cover her teeth with her lips.
::How she would bring her food bowl to us when it was empty.
::The “puppy two-step,” the little dance she would do when she was excited, moving sideways and twisting her head back and forth.
::How much she loved sweet potatoes.
::How people were always asking us what kind of dog she was.
::How she never smelled bad.
::How she loved to sit in front of the a/c vents in the car.
::Her habit of sniffing into the wind outside.
::How she would go potty when we said “find a spot, Clemmie.”
::Cinnamon puppy (when she curled up into a tiny little ball to sleep).
::How she used to carry her bed from room to room in order to be comfy.
::How much she loved playing with Sailor, Annie, and Sophie at Custom Cast when I worked there.
::How much she loved Becky.
I’ve got to stop. This is making me cry.
I miss you so much, puppy girl.
Love, Mommy
No. 1
The vet called this morning to tell us that Clementine’s bile acid test showed that she does not have a portosystemic shunt. Hurray! The bad news is that she still is not eating and they are keeping her all weekend to see if they can determine what the problem is. The good news is, besides the fact that they’ve ruled out PSS (and are back to thinking it’s just a severe GI problem), I have become an overnight expert on canine liver problems. We went to see Clementine this morning. It was so sad to see her in a cage with an IV in her little paw, but she was so happy to see me and really wanted to cuddle.
No. 2
I’ve noticed that, ever since I had Maggie, I find myself (often) in groups of women telling their birthing stories. I’m assuming this is normal. I’m not complaining. It’s very interesting.
No. 3 (Or, the List)
Things I Accomplished Today
:::I finally put away the accumulation of food storage containers and empty jars that had been building up beside the dish drainer for some time.
:::I tried beef bacon for the first time.
:::I weeded the garden and flower beds.
:::I made coban salatasi (Turkish shepherd’s salad) for the Millhoans’ cookout.
:::I ate delicious strawberry-rhubarb pie made by Melody.
:::I started a new board on Pinterest.
:::I’m sure there’s more but that’s all I got for now.
Love, Anna
No. 1
Clementine, our darling and sweet shih tzu-chihuahua mix, has been in the hospital for two nights. She’s been sick with the runs and some vomiting for almost three months and the vets first thought it was worms, then a bacterial imbalance, then inflamed bowel disease, so the poor little pup’s been on lots and lots of different meds. They finally did bloodwork on her Thursday and her liver counts are really, really high so the newest possible prognosis is a portosystemic shunt. Basically that means she has a vein bypassing her liver preventing the toxins from being removed from her blood. If that is indeed what she has, they will probably want to do surgery. Not sure how we’re going to pay for that, so not sure if she will be able to have it. I’m sad and scared for her, especially since she’s in a cage by herself at the animal hospital with an IV in her little leg and doesn’t understand what’s going on. I’m pretty blue.
No. 2
This is to lighten up this somber post a bit. I’m obsessed with Pinterest because, let’s face it, it’s absolutely genius and actually useful. But certain trends are so prevalent that I find them comical.
Namely,
:::Fancy fingernail designs.
:::Yellow and gray interior design.
:::How to braid your hair.
:::”Yes please.”
:::Cupcakes.
:::Cake balls.
:::Rainbows.
:::Mason jars. (Added 6/11/11)
That is not an exhaustive list. And I realize that “Yes, please” is an appealingly succinct way to “Describe Your Pin” when you don’t want to describe it because for pete’s sake there’s a picture of it right there for all to see. Venting about Pinterest is just a way to divert my attention away from the thought of my poor little puppy in that cold cage with a broken liver.
Love, Anna
Get well soon, puppy girl
January 4, 2012
ladymullady
