Christmas Journal – Day 1

\"\"

‘,’I joined an online Christmas Art Journal class. I read about it on Ali Edwards\’ blog.

The class is run by Shimelle. She is a regular contributor to Scrapbook Inspirations, a UK scrapping magazine I pick up on occasion at the bookstore. Yes, I read UK scrapping mags. They are COOL. So are the Australian mags.

I digress. Back to the journal…

Each day, Shimelle gives us an assignment. Here\’s what I did on Day 1, when we were to write about what we hoped out book would accomplish.


On to the next assignment!’,’

Unexpected Good News

We have a new Scottie puppy, since Thanksgiving night.

The puppy is one of Macalester’s brothers. The breeder was never able to sell the last boy puppy. They concluded there was some mysterious reason why this puppy needed to stay with them. The puppy, who they named Laddie, turned out to be a snuggler, clown, and very affectionate.

When Macalester died, I wrote a letter to the breeder to let her know what happened. In the letter, I included a description of Macalester and her antics. When the breeder and her husband read the letter, they were surprised at how similar Macalester and Laddie were in personality. They both concluded that we should get Laddie, that God had decided Laddie needed to stay with them because eventually there would be someone who would need Laddie in their life.

I picked him up on Thanksgiving night, for a trial run, according to the breeder. But the minute that pup snuggled into my arms, I knew I’d never let him go. Our name for him is Laddie Macalester. The kids call him Macalester, John calls him Laddie. I make sure I don’t call him late for supper.

Laddie is HUGE!! True, he was the alpha pup. But at 4 months, his paws are 1/2 again as big as Sydney’s. We think he could be bigger than our big girl, the first Macalester, who was trim at 23 lbs. Sarah thinks he could be The World’s Biggest Scottie. I don’t think so, but wouldn’t that be interesting!

Sydney is jealous. I don’t think she was expecting a pup bigger than Little Macalester AND a boy to boot. She usually lays close to me like this:

And then she growls at Laddie Mac. Sydney is going to stroke out, if she doesn’t calm down. Having gone through this recently with the addition of Little Macalester, I know Sydney will settle down soon.

Laddie Mac is a wonderful addition. He loves the kids, and is so good with them. We are waiting for him to settle in, feel comfortable, and look forward to seeing him as he truly is. He’s already loving sleeping in the bed. He hasn’t discovered the joys of sleeping under the covers, but it hasn’t been cold enough in the house lately to make him want to do that.

We still miss Little Macalester all the time. However, we are so happy to have another puppy in the house, especially one that is from the same litter. It feels as if some of Little Macalester’s spirit is still here.

Sad News

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. We got busy with Halloween, and I meant to post pictures of the girls in their costumes. Then November came, and I got sick with the bug that has been going around here.

And today … tonight … little Macalester has died.

She vomited her supper while I was out scrapbooking Friday night. I heard about it later when I came home at 1pm. She continued to vomit through the night, and I got her to the vet right away in the morning.

She had emergency surgery late this afternoon. Her intestine had telescoped on itself. This telescoping is what happens when some large breed dogs have a “twisted bowel”. When the gunk was removed, the intestine relaxed. And as sometimes happens with twisted bowel, the twisted portion develops blood clots, which then sometimes dislodge rather than be reabsorbed when the twist is relaxed.

Macalester died at the clinic just after 11 pm. The vet who did the surgery came back to the clinic late to check on her. While he was there, she died. She was four days shy of being 4 months old.

I am just devastated. That little puppy stole my heart with her big kisses and perpetually wagging tail. She really was so very sweet and so attached me. And she was such a pretty puppy, and looked like she would grow into a very handsome Scottie.

The vets are really upset, too. The whole surgery went really well, and since she was so young and so strong, they were hopeful for a full recovery. They also assured us that we got her in as promptly as possible. If we had called Friday night, they would have told us to bring her in Saturday morning — a vomiting dog that is still responsive and alert, like she was, isn’t something that would call immediately for emergency surgery. Plus, the telescoping was taking place already, so the outcome probably would have been the same.

I was really enjoying Macalester’s puppyhood — even the peeing and pooping all over. I was feeling like I was getting over Macalester #1’s death, and I was letting Macalester #2 be herself, not trying to make her be a duplicate of Macalester #1. Now I feel like I’m starting all over again.

If you see a new star in the sky — it will be little Macalester. My cute little Scottie baby.

Now I Know…

‘,’… why I never win contests or get published. Saw this lamentation of a frustrated scrapper on one of my many scrapping lists:

\”it seems that if you want to get published in CK (and be considered top notch) you stand a better chance if you: heat an image with UTEE, drive over it in you car, tape it to the leading edge of a Thunderbirds jet, where it will be dropped into a stream (fresh water only) nibbled on the edge by a 6\” bass (1/2 to 3/4 inches on each corner), then dry it by brushing it with organic corn husks. After that – scan it, alter it with Photoshop, and print onto vellum using professionally processed heat printing techniques. It\’s crazy. I am all for the leading edge, top-notch work, etc. but I feel like the publishers have lost touch with reality (I use the gallery as my reality). \”

Amen, sister!’,’

October 20, 1998

10/20/1998 – I was flying with my mom and sister from Frankfurt back to the Twin Cities. We had spent almost a week visiting my brother, sister-in-law, and brand new nephew in a small town outside of Frankfurt. I had really enjoyed seeing the German countryside, getting to know my sister-in-law’s family (who ROCK!!) and catching up with my brother and sister-in-law. Of course, my nephew was just cute as the dickens!

Of course, the part of the trip that I enjoyed the least was the flight. I have an almost crippling fear of flying. I am the white knucklest of white knuckle flyers. I hate the window seat — it reminds me that I’m up in the air and NOT driving the airplane.

But since the airplane was 2/3 empty, my mom insisted that I sit by one of the open window seats. After a long while, I gave in to her nagging. This was about the time we were approaching Greenland.

I suddenly had a very deep, very strong desire to take a lot of pictures of Greenland as we flew over. I had this feeling that some child would be very interested in my aerial pictures of glaciers, snow covered mountains, rivers, and dark brown land. I just assumed that the child who would be interested was one of my Sunday School kids, Peter — my favorite student.

So I whipped out my 35 mm and took a number of pictures from the window seat. When I got the film developed, the photos were very nice. Much better than you would imagine photos taken from a DC-10 window to be.

I very excitedly took the photos to church the next Sunday to show Peter and the rest of my class. They were not impressed. Boy, was that feeling I had flying over Greenland off base. I put my photos into my scrapbook and didn’t think much of them again.

We were in the middle of the adoption paper chase at this point. Our papers were sent to China in at the end of February 1999. On September 21st, 1999, we received word that Mao Xiao Ge would be ours.

Her birthdate, according to her papers from the orphanage, was October 20, 1998.

Some China adoptive parents talk about the red thread legend — Chinese folklore that the great love(s) of your life is tied to you with an invisible red thread. I don’t know if Sarah is tied to me with an invisible red thread. But I have to wonder if she was the child that was supposed to see those photos of Greenland.

Sarah thinks it’s cool that her family was scattered all across the world on the day she was born. Dada, Grandpa, Macalester, and Sydney were in Minnesota. Mama, Grandma, and Aunt Kay were in the air, traveling between Germany and Minnesota. Aunt Caroline, Uncle David, and Cousin Corey were in Germany. And she was in China.

She’s right. It is pretty cool.

Happy 7th birthday, Sarah!!!

Scrapping Teacher No More

For my students: I will no longer be teaching at The Scrapbook Shop. They decided that the new design team would only teach classes. Although I applied for the design team, I did not make the cut.

I’ve investigated other teaching avenues. I’ve concluded I would have to charge much more than I would be comfortable charging for classes, just to make up rental costs. And there are no other stores close by.

I am doing private lessons for a few people. But given the circumstances, it appears I am finished as a scrapbooking teacher.

However, a new teaching avenue has landed in my lap — I am teaching at Metro State University starting January! I will be teaching an online Technical Writing class. It\’s been my dream to be a classroom teacher. While this isn’t a classroom, per se, it\’s a start with possibilities of moving into classroom teaching.

I still pinch myself on occasion — I can\’t believe I am teaching a university class — in my field of study. It makes up for the disappointment of losing the scrapping teaching position.

I do love to teach, and I have loved teaching all of you in class. We’ve had a blast!! I hope you’ve all taken my “one thing at a time” and “keep it simple to start” approach to heart. It will keep you grounded in the most important part of scrapbooking — documenting in words and pictures your life and the lives of your loved ones.

I\’ll keep this blog going, because I always have some project cooking somewhere. Please drop in and see what I\’m up to. And let me know what you\’re working on, too.

Take care, and keep scrappin’!!

Now They Tell Me …

My cyberfriend, Miss Cellania, celebrated her birthday yesterday by writing about her various horiscopes on her blog. Curious, I decided to check out MY horiscopes, courtesy of her links.

The first I looked at was my Southern Horiscope:

BUTTER BEAN (October 24 – Nov 22)
Always invite a Butter Bean because Butter Beans get along well with everybody. You, as a Butter Bean, should be proud. You’ve grown on the vine of life and you feel at home no matter what the setting. You can sit next to anybody. However, you, too, shouldn’t have anything to do with Moon Pies.

What? Have nothing to do with Moon Pies? Given our recent family celebration, I have two boxes of leftover Moon Pies sitting in my freezer!

Puppy Time Out

Last week, John was looking for Macalester and couldn’t find her anywhere. As he freaked out, she suddenly made an appearance from her hiding place.

You can understand why he didn’t see her — she does sort of look like one of the kids’ Scottie slippers from Gymboree.

Of course, he thought this hiding spot was so cute, he insisted that I take pictures of her in it. Once again, being the good wife, I took pictures.

Just in case you have any doubt, John is madly in love with this puppy. So am I. So is Sarah. Rachel & Sydney…eh, not so much. Maybe when Macalester’s claws and teeth aren’t so sharp.

In the past week, I’ve also noticed when I scold Macalester, she runs for her shelf. Each of our dogs has had their puppy time out spot, and this one is Macalester’s.

OK. Last cute picture of Macalester —