October 2024

 October began with a much needed getaway trip to visit Annalisa and Mary.  Matt, who had never been further east than Atlanta, was invited to come too to check out a new part of the country.  We left on October 4, right after Evie had a setback with her ankle (hence the boot).  Getting her through security while wearing the boot wasn't as much of a headache as I'd been afraid it would be.

We stayed at Annalisa and Mary's new home (their first house!).  Evie and I enjoyed the guest bed in Mary's office, and Matt got to sleep on the couch with Wasabi (the border collie) in the living room.  He reported that Wasabi was a good roomie.  Evie enjoyed getting to play with Wasabi, as well as Parker, the old white bichon-mix, and Maggie, the new pup.  We went to Evie's favorite breakfast place, the local park, and the science museum, and we did a fair bit of just hanging out and enjoying each other.

Evie buying "rare" coins at the vending machine at her favorite breakfast place in Greensboro

Paddling the swan boats at the lake by Annalisa and Mary's house

Annalisa and I were very determined to keep paddling even though it was killing my hip flexors.  This inspired one of my favorite things she's ever said.  Mary said she would be glad to take over for one of us if we got tired.  I said, "You're talking to two stubborn German women."  Annalisa said, "That's right.  Ve vill paddle til our legs fall off, und zen ve vill use our hands!"

                                

                                        Matt didn't join us, but took pictures from the pier

                                

                                        Evie decided to go ziplining, which made my heart race

                                            But she was so proud of herself when she finished!

And we rode the merry go round

At the science museum, they had a little nature walk section that we went on, which Evie loved.  She's an outdoorsy person.  I am not.

Experiencing how birds fly

Touching sting rays

On our last night, Mary made a fire and let Evie help her, which is always good fun when you're a kid.  We had such a lovely trip, so many good memories, and a much needed respite during fall break.

Evie and Parker, cozying up by the fire

When we got back home, Evie still had a few days of fall break left.  I took her to get her blond streak re-done professionally (I'm the one who did it at first and it turned out much better with Jo doing it.)

Evie is having some trouble wanting to attend church, and I understand where she's coming from.  Our church is small and we all know each other, and people are friendly, which, when you're in an emotionally stable place, is great.  But when you're going through such a change as we are, it's hard to deal with answering the questions of "how are you" and all the small talk, even though people don't know what's going on with us.  I haven't told anyone at church, so as far as everyone knows, our lives are the same as they've always been.  And that's hard in its own way, because there is some pressure to pretend like everything is fine.  But, I keep encouraging her, telling her we are going to church, and we can show up just before it starts and leave right when it ends to avoid any conversations, but we are going. to. church.  So when we are at church, she likes to sit with Lydia and plays the big sister role.  That is very sweet to watch.

I had to go to a company meeting the 2nd week of October, which was nice in a way because I got to be focused on something else, but it was incredibly hard being away from Evie.  Annalisa now works for with me and she was there too which helped a lot, having someone who understood how hard it was to be away for work.  Evie seemed to do well, though, with Granna staying with her at my house.  I had thought Evie would go stay at my parents' house, but she when I told her that, she said, "But we just got the house back."  So Granna kindly agreed to stay at our house.  I thought this showed a lot of growth on Evie's part, since she has had fears in the past about people breaking into our house (fair. it's happened twice).  We talked every night while I was gone and Evie seemed pretty settled and content.  Matt picked her up on the Thursday I was gone for her usual visit with Seth, and that seemed to go well.  

On the morning of October 20th, the weekend I got back from work, I went to let Siouxsie out of her crate and saw she was incredibly bloated - I mean, her abdomen was three times the size it normally is.  I knew poodles were prone to bloat, which is almost always fatal if not caught right away, and I was certain she was past hope.  I woke Evie up and told her we had to take Siouxsie to the vet right away.  Evie was confused, and then when she saw Siouxsie she broke down in tears.  I explained to Evie that this was very serious and in all likelihood, Siouxsie would have to be put down.  We got Sioux into the car and on the way Evie was talking calmly to her, telling her she had been such a good dog, that we would bury her with her favorite toy.  It broke my heart.  We got Siouxsie into the emergency vet and they took her back immediately.  After about 20 minutes, they confirmed it was bloat, but that they could operate to try to flip the stomach back over and remove any dead intestine, to try to save her.  I agreed because I just couldn't live with myself if I decided to end her life when there was a chance she could carry on.  They took her for surgery and we went home.  They called a couple hours later to report that surgery had been successful and they expected her to make a full recovery, and they had tacked her stomach to her abdomen wall to reduce the likelihood of a repeat occurrence.  This dog...  Between her mycoplasma in 2020, surgeries for eating socks and towels, and now bloat...  She is, as Evie has said, "living on borrowed time."

Out of recovery and on her way to our vet for follow up

I was so glad that was how it turned out, not only for Siouxsie, but for Evie.  She'd been through enough trauma and change this year, and losing Sioux would have been really rough.

One of the things that's still a struggle for Evie is finding friends at school.  This private school is all girls, most of whom have known each other for years.  So since finding friends has been challenging, I am trying to make sure she stays connected to her old friends.  She and Sasha had a playdate at Sasha's house which lifted Evie's mood tremendously.

 

Of course, the big event in October is Halloween.  Evie had already made plans with Desmond to go trick or treating in his neighborhood, so that was all scheduled, and she'd asked if Matt could come too.  So Matt met up with me to go pick Evie up from school and on the way home we stopped by a pumpkin patch across the street from her school where they practically gave us as many pumpkins as we could carry.  We sat out on the deck and carved/painted them while listening to "The Nightmare Before Christmas" soundtrack.  I love that she still enjoys these traditions.

Evie decided to be a pirate again this year because Desmond was going to be a pirate fox and she already has the costume.

We headed to Desmond's house with a stop to trick-or-treat at Granna and Grannadaddy's house on the way

When we got to Desmond's house we discussed whether to have dinner first or trick-or-treat, and the kids opted for trick-or-treating first.  Steve (Desmond's dad), Matt, and I took the kids around the (fairly posh) neighborhood for about an hour and a half, and then came back to a lovely dinner Savi (Desmond's mom) had made while we were gone.  She is one of the most creative people I know and she had made skull paninis and witch finger sandwiches and all kinds of on-theme goodies.  We went to the dining room and Desmond turned to Evie and said, "Can I fix you a drink?"  He is the most adorable kid.  I've said a few times, I don't know that I expect their relationship to end in marriage or anything, but if nothing else, he is showing her how she should be treated.

We had a lovely dinner.  The kids, maturing as kids do, chose to spend some time with us, chatting about their interests, their favorite movies, etc., before disappearing into the other room to sort their candy.  They exchanged their preferred candies and then auctioned off the stuff they didn't want to us grown ups.  We had to guess what kind of candy they had in their hands and then bid imaginary dollars for it.  It was a very entertaining evening.