The Long Weekend

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Gianfrancesco side of the family this year. It's always good to catch up and reconnect, eat good food, drink some wine and spirits, and get excited about the next day turning to full blown Christmas. 

We usually head to Michigan on Friday but on Friday morning, I got Sadie up from under the table  (her new dog house) to find her in a pool of what looked like rusty water. I immediately called Austen to take her outside while I cleaned up and then joined them in the yard. What we saw was her consistently peeing bright red blood all over the yard. Weird. Called the vet but she couldn't get to us until 6pm so we waited it out taking turns checking on her and taking her out every so often. Finally, the vet arrived. She suspected some type of bacterial infection or bad UTI so after some laser therapy (check out Sadie wearing her laser goggles), fluids and amoxicillin, Sadie stopped peeing blood and started acting more like herself. But by this time it was too late to head to Michigan.

So instead we headed to a drive through light parade and then the next morning, we got an early jump on heading out for our annual Christmas tree cutting with friends. Armed with hot chocolate and donuts, we headed just over the Michigan border into Indiana to Dudeck's Pine Country. We tailgated while waiting for everyone to arrive then we boarded the wagon that took us deep into the tree farm.  There weren't many trees to be found so finding the perfect one was even more challenging. (There is a tree shortage due to the droughts we've had over the last several years so the trees haven't grown at the same pace.) But still we managed to find a really nice tree, preferring for the second year the Canaan Fir. Still my new favorite. 

The kids sitting on Santa's lap dwindled this year with only Hailey partaking at our urging. She did ask for a cat (which Santa said he'd see what he could do). I remember being her age and wanting a cat. I'm not opposed to cats it's just one more thing that I have to coordinate when we leave to go out of town or head to Michigan. And, God forbid it gets out and runs away like my Bailey did! A coyote would surely eat it or even a fox - too much wildlife where we live now. I don't need that kind of heartache.  

After tree cutting, we enjoyed an early dinner together with our friends at the Ghost Isle Brewery (a new restaurant choice in New Buffalo, Mich.). Saturday evening and Sunday had us decorating the house but Sunday morning we also decorated some Gingerbread houses. Austen had drivers ed so he didn't go but we enjoyed lunch at our club and the variety of candy to decorate our houses this year. Last year, it was whatever leftover candy and other things we had in the pantry. Not sure who won the gingerbread house contest this year but we sure had fun making them! 

Bright red blood

Sadie and her goggles

Sadie on the wagon

The Szurgot Christmas Tree

Tree Cutting 2021

Hailey asking Santa for a cat

House #1 - "Joy"ful

House #2 - Gingerbread Lane

Hailey and Tom hard at work

Thanksgiving Mode

This past week, we were lucky enough to have almost two days up in Michigan due to Austen's school giving them an unexpected break this week to relax and recoup. Too many suicides in the last couple of months around the area as we are seeing some of the effects on our youth of this COVID pandemic. They also went to no harm finals for first semester so you can take the final but it won't hurt your grade if you do poorly but it will help you if you do well. I didn't think the kids were that bad but surely all of these deaths I'm hearing about was a wake up call to our district to try to help these kids as much as possible. I'm grateful for that. 

So up to Michigan we went. Not for a long period of time or to do much more than clean out some closets and put up some festive decorations but we do did manage to find a nature walk that had us hunting for nine hidden turkeys. It was a beautiful fall day and we were happy to get some exercise and enjoy the fresh air and Michigan woods with Sadie too. Hailey especially really enjoyed finding the turkeys and recently asked me if we could do it again. Hoping to find something close to home that's similar maybe for Xmas. 

We topped off the day with hot chocolates from Starbucks and a little shopping at a new outdoor mall we found which was all decked out for the holidays. We needed to get the kids some new clothes for up in Michigan as they've outgrown a lot of items. I swear I feel like I'm constantly cleaning out closets! We ended the evening with dinner at a new Mexican restaurant in Fennville which we all enjoyed. 

Looking forward to Thanksgiving day and reflecting on all we have to be grateful for - home(s), food, vacations, family, friends and most importantly our health (especially this year)! 

Getting Stronger!

I'm not talking about Austen (although he's been lifting weights on his days off from soccer), I'm talking about Sadie. She has been pretty much medication free for almost a whole year now. Her knees are completely healed from her stem cell therapy and we've been working on building the muscle in her back legs that she didn't use for almost two whole years. 

What that means is a lot of walks, some therapy (in our backyard with cones and poles), running hills, and a whole lot more. She's come a long way and she looks so happy now that she can actually walk (or run/waddle) in our yard. Her run is still hilarious as she'll likely never be able to run like a young dog again either because of her Wobbler's Disease or maybe just because she's huge (105 lbs)! 

A few times now she has gone up our front steps on her own. She can get up from a sit in the yard easily and most of the time she can get up from a lying down position when she's outside. When she's inside, she has a little less traction so getting up is a bit more difficult but we're working on that and hoping she gains the strength and confidence to be able to do that in just a few short months. 

Overall she's doing really well though. I wasn't sure if she'd make it past 5 years old but this is the best I've actually seen her look in years. Judge for yourself. Here she is checking out a squirrel on the telephone pole adjacent to our yard but then she gets distracted because she finds a stick and wants to play. 

Oh to be a young Berner again!

Cheer Competitions x 2!

We've spent the last couple of weekends at Cheerleading competitions. It was Hailey's first competition and I've been surprised at how much she has really liked cheerleading. She wanted to sign up even though none of her friends were doing it and she has really improved from the beginning of the season. At competition they had to learn a whole dance routine and she did great. In fact, her whole team did great and qualified for the State Competition which means more practice and reworking of the routine. We left it up to her if she wanted to continue. You didn't have to and I'm in Florida that weekend (soccer) with Austen so it's up to Tom to do "cheer" hair! She definitely was all in even with the more practices. 

Hailey's Cheer Team (back row, 4th from left)

Peyton's competition was just last weekend. Two years ago when they competed they were so bad that they got 3rd out of only two teams! You ask how that's even possible but it's true. They were terrible and the judges penalized them for it even though they were just in 4th grade. Two years later, we got rid of all the girls who didn't care and the squad actually has some potential. (Remember this is rec cheerleading.) The girls astounded us all with their performance and missed qualifying for the State Competition by 1.6 points. They all did so well though that making it to State would have just been a bonus. The amount that they've improved is enough of a win. Peyton too has improved so much. Her jumps and kicks are amazing and she really loved the dance routine portion of it. 

It was great to see them back cheering this year. It was touch and go as the practices were inside and when you stunt, you can't wear masks so the girls were often practicing maskless and unvaccinated (because they weren't old enough). Some girls opted to sit out this year but we decided that the kids already had missed so much and we didn't want to make them sit out so we took our chances and I'm glad we did. We have two very happy cheerleaders!

Peyton getting ready to compete and competition below

Hailey with her medal qualifying for State

Halloween 2021

Halloween looked a bit different for our family this year. We had one child (Austen) age out of trick or treating so he handed out candy to the kids for most of the evening. (It was the first time we didn't have to leave a bowl out front since we moved in 7 Halloweens ago.) He did have a party to go to though so he quickly handed over his responsibilities to Hailey who wasn't thrilled at first about doing his job but soon got into it and loved it. Of course this was after she returned home (and was tired of trick or treating). 

Hailey decided to be a fox this year as it's her favorite animal. We were only too happy to accommodate her choice since Peyton already had this costume so we didn't even need to order something new for her. Anyway, she started out with a party with a lot of her 2nd grade friends in a different neighborhood. They had firetrucks leading a whole bunch of kids in costume around the neighborhood. Somewhere in all of this chaos, we lost sight of Hailey who felt very comfortable in this new neighborhood taking off and trick or treating with her friends without so much as a thought about where her parents were (drinking and walking slow with a bunch of other parents). Um, yeah, she's 8. Not until 5th grade is she going to be able to trick or treat without us. Of course since she was our third born we didn't panic too much like another mom of a first born whose daughter was with her. We eventually located her and went back to our street where she was able to trick or treat with another friend and see many more of her friends up and down the street. She did want to call it quits at the end of our long block but we made her suck it up and trick or treat home so she wouldn't leave her friend hanging. 

On the other hand, Peyton would be gone for hours trick or treating. She left at 3pm and came home at 8:30pm. Not all trick or treating time but hanging out and eating time too. Peyton has been planning Halloween for several months now. Her plan and costume changed weekly. Finally, she settled on going with a set group of friends (the dilemma of which friends to go with was real) and them all dressing the same (M&Ms). She was out early and came back to her friend's house for a break and pizza and then back out again. I think she raked in about 20 pounds of candy (and I'm not kidding as one of her friend's weighed their bag and it was 20 pounds!). 

Tom and I enjoyed the rather low key night as we were out at 2:45pm and home by 5:15pm. Only two more years and we can enjoy Halloween from our driveway just handing out the candy and not trailing a little kid!