The Hunt

J participated in an Easter hunt in my town this year.  It was very well organized, and with a large amount of children hunting, I suppose it all had to be done this way.  But I kinda hate how egg hunts have changed from when I was a kid.  Back then they, you know, HID them.  To be fair, I never went to a large city-sponsored hunt, just ones given by my church and others by my extended family on a large piece of vacant land with trees and other places to hide the eggs.  Maybe they were doing egg hunts in cities this way even way back 35 years ago.  

I suppose you could look at it as a hunt for the prize eggs amongst the regular eggs.  

The hunting area for the 4-6 year olds.  

The prizes for his age group.

The waiting area.  It was a bit like being caged up.....

The frenzy of hunting.  There were plenty of eggs and candy for all the children, and thankfully they had a rule that parents could not help (except for a few children who had disabilities.)  J is in his mom's blue jacket in the center of the picture. 

The loot!  Oh, it was hilarious.  J got a few eggs but concentrated on picking up all the loose candy he could find, specifically 35 packs of Smarties.  Smart kid that knows what he wants!  

J and K looking through his basket for a possible prize egg.

He got a glitter star inside an egg, which meant he won a prize!  

J's prize basket.  A lot of fun stuff, including several things to be used in the pool this summer. 

Afterward, J had a few minutes to play at the playground. 

Calling out to the other kids....

And for good measure, a picture of my 11 year old Macy, who has stood guard over J since he was just a few weeks old.  She is a bit grumpy in her old age at times, but we still watched her guard her boy this past weekend.  

New Year's Eve 2011

New Year's Eve we had our second annual game night with Mr. GV's brother and his family. 

Casper and Macy, as you can see, were really into it. 

The cats were similarly enthused.  This makes me think of the Princess...er....the Prince and the Pea. 

Nephew and my mom giving clues with Pictionary.

Nephew and ESIL (Essentially Sister-in-Law) preparing to battle it out.

 The men, going up against the women in "Battle of the Sexes." 

 Mom is just a tad bit competative....this is her "SCORE!" move. 

One Day

Sitting outside, watching the sun set through the trees,

 watching the world go by,

 sewing up Mr. GV's bike clothes

 and watching the moon rise.

"How I spent my summer....and spring" by Macy

This is where we've been spending our time lately:


Our vet's office. In the spring, Mr GV and I took Macy on a field trip to the emergency vet a few counties over because of a sudden case of blindness. Long story short, the blindness was a result of a very low platelet count caused by ehrlichiosis, a tick-born disease. We got that cleared up with meds, and thankfully the vision problem went away and her platelets are normal. For a while we were told "Don't let her jump/run/get hurt because she might bleed to death." The platelets were pretty much unmeasurable. I promise I'm not just being dramatic! It took a few repeat blood draws to determine that she was in the clear. When she had her vaccinations we had it checked again, and it was normal.

A couple weeks ago Macy started feeling poorly. It's pretty obvious when she's feeling badly--mainly there's a lot of panting and she separates herself from us. In the past it's been an anal gland problem. We visited the vet, where we found Macy had a low-grade fever and had lost a couple pounds and got her gland cleaned out, just in case that was the problem. Her bloodwork was again normal.

Fast-forward a couple weeks and Macy was still not well, and actually seemed worse. Added to her symptoms were trembling, lethargy, and lack of appetite. I took her into the vet this past Saturday and she had a fever of 105 and had lost an additional 2 pounds. A loss of over 4 pounds in about a month is significant when you only weigh 62 pounds to start with. Her bloodwork showed infection, although we have no clue where it's located, and she started on Bactrim, a powerful antibiotic. She was tested again for ehrlichiosis, and that was thankfully negative.

Monday night we noticed a bit of blood here and there. And then more blood--on the couch, the bed, the carpet. And it was coming from Macy's nose. There was no gush, mind you, just enough blood to freak me the heck out. We put a call into the vet and she said she thought it was probably a dry nose from all the panting, and to bring her to the office in the morning. (By the way, our vet rocks! We have been to at least 8 vets since we adopted our Sophie cat back in 1995, and Dr. W is the best EVER! I could do an entire post just on her, but I won't. lol)

Here's Macy, trying to shrink as much as possible so she can disappear into the wall and maybe the vet won't see her. Ha! Poor thing has always been so nervous at the vet. She's still bleeding from her nose at times, but there was no bacteria or fungus growing in there, so that's good. Her temperature was also back to normal, so it looks as though the antibiotic is working. And she started eating again and has started gaining weight back.

So hopefully she is on the mend. She is my baby, I've no qualms about saying that!