September 11th

I haven't forgotten. September 11, 2001, will never be far from my thoughts. I pray for the loved ones of those lost. I pray for the governmental officials leading us. I pray for our soldiers fighting for freedom. I pray for our country. I give thanks for everyone working to make our country better. God bless America!

Pictures of the kids, for real!

At long last, here are "school pictures" of my kids, taken their first day of school. Both are enjoying school (well, all except the work, of course).

Our gorgeous Sweet Pea, smiling beautifully for the camera. Don't be fooled, though, there were lots of crazy-face shots interspersed with the good ones. I'm thrilled with this one, though. I tinkered with it in PhotoShop Elements, taking out a lot of the color as the shade of the tree she's in was putting a lot of green tint on her face.

Our handsome Junior Bug, practicing his girls-are-just-gonna-love-me looks. I didn't tinker too much with this one, though I tried to warm up the colors it was shot in the cool morning shade. "Bug", as I've taken to calling him as a nickname, is a better subject than his sister when I'm taking pictures, though I'm sure he'll get tired of his shutterbug mama some day.

What, no pictures???

Nope. No pictures right now. I've got other things on me mind. Other things, such as why in the world would I make my dog vomit today? Why would I take the turkey baster from my kitchen, fill it with hydrogen peroxide, and then force the hydrogen peroxide down my dog's throat? Why would I repeat the process three times and wait anxiously for said dog to vomit? Why, you ask? Because Jamie didn't eat the raisins. Nope, the dog's name is Jasper. Jamie is our 4-year-old son, as I'm sure you know. Jamie didn't eat the raisins. But, the raisins were gone. Now, recently I'd heard that raisins (and grapes) can be toxic to a dog. I thought I was being careful with the raisins, but today a couple of factors came together and equaled missing raisins.

After doing some research on the Internet, not wanting to spend a lot of time not taking action, I called my veterinarian brother-in-law Dave and mentioned what I supposed had happened. He said it was idiosyncratic, that some dogs get sick and some don't, but supposing that 30-40 raisins had been ingested, the wise thing to do was induce vomiting. As you've gathered from above, that's what I proceeded to do.

So, what did I find? Of course I had to search through the emesis to find out if I had done the right thing (even though it was a responsible action). Thankfully water from the hose helped clear things up. Yup. Lots of raisins gave testament to the necessity of my actions. Has the dog forgiven me yet? Not sure. He sure jumped fast when I scolded him for being in our kids' bedroom after dinner. (Heather had stashed some cat food in her tea cups for an apparent tea party. Jasper was just helping himself. I suppose his tummy's better.)

That said, I think I'll make an effort to get some new pix up soon. I'm sure those would be far more interesting to you than a post about making a dog vomit. Perhaps they'll help put a nicer image in your mind!