Craft #2 - Dough Ornaments

This year I helped the girls make gifts for their grandparents. I made a simple dough recipe and had the girls use Christmas cookie cutters to create some ornaments. I poked holes with a toothpick in each one and we baked them at 225 degrees for a few hours. Later, C and I painted our ornaments with acrylic paint. (E had to use the washable/child-safe kind, which didn't work as well.) Doug sprayed the dry ornaments with a couple coat of high gloss sealer, and tied some hangers on each one.

Craft #1 - Booty Bags

I made these for my sisters. They are made from cords I found at Goodwill and some fabric liner. I bought the handles and magnetic closures from Hobby Lobby. Cute! (even if I do say so myself...)

Where've You Been?

With Christmas approaching, I've spent most of the past couple weeks working on many different crafts. I've had fun and am very pleased with how they each turned out. Like to see what I've been up to??? Well you can't! They're all destined to be gifts, so you'll have to wait until after Christmas.

Sorry!

Surgery Update: Week 10

Last week Sadie had to stay in the dog kennel while we were in Florida. I felt nervous about it, but had to trust that she would be ok. The kennel was great about allowing some special provisions for her. She was able to have her dog bed from home, her own food/treats, and two 15 minute leash walks each day.

She VERY excited to see us yesterday, and immediately got a bath and went to sleep on her pillow in the family room. Unfortunately, she got sick on Saturday, and rubbed her nose raw. It's pretty bad, poor baby. She has also lost some weight and was 66 lbs today. :-(

We went for her physical therapy today and she did very well. Holly said she wasn't favoring her leg in the cavaletti and she did 1.5 minutes on a balancing board. That was interesting. A large round board with a little ball underneath. We positioned her four feet on the board and Holly used her foot to help balance and cause Sadie to shift her weight onto different legs. I just held her head to keep her from jumping off it.

Then we finished with the water treadmill for about 18 minutes? She did SO GREAT! I was immensely proud. She took treats the whole time, and even stopped panting so hard toward the end. I never would have believed how well she'd adapt to that.

Thursday is our last therapy appointment. Then it will be up to us to keep up with the exercise program at home. Go Sadie!

Surgery Update: Week 8

Sadie's had three physical therapy appointments now. Halfway done! Today I had the girls with me, so she went back with Holly alone. Holly said she did great. Last time, Sadie was very nervous about going over the cavaletti. She kept trying to duck out of them, or else drag me through them at a racing speed. But, I guess she did just fine today. She was on the water treadmill for a while, too, and all by herself! I'm amazed and thrilled at how well that's been going.

We are doing our best to keep up with the exercises and stretching that she needs at home. To be honest, it's a lot, and we're not getting it all done, but are doing the best we can.

I bought her a sweater from Old Navy that will help with our increasingly long walks in the increasingly cold weather.

Surgery Update: 7 Weeks

Today was a huge milestone for Sadie - her first day of physical therapy! My awesome friend Julie came over to watch the girls, as the first appointment was supposed to be 2 hours long. And it pretty much was.

The therapist, Holly, was very, very, very nice and great with Sadie. I loved her. We spent a while going over Sadie's case history and she did an exam of Sadie - basically getting a baseline of heart rate and temp, but focusing on all of her joints and the range of motion on all her legs. She thought that Sadie's "bad" knee joint felt "really good." However, there's not much muscle mass there and Sadie has about 20 degrees less than normal range of motion in that leg.

Holly said that she is probably not likely to regain 100% range of motion, due to the heavy amount of scar tissue that has been built up in there. She recommended we stay on pain meds throughout her therapy, or at least just give her a pain pill on the days she has therapy. We will do six sessions, and about two a week (ideally).

Holly sent us home with a list of exercises and stretches to do with Sadie. She's not a vet herself, but she was very knowledgeable and I almost wish we had seen her sooner. She mentioned that it may have been better for Sadie to have been walking around a bit on the leg, even while it was still draining and open. She also suggested maybe heating it a bit during that time might have stimulated blood flow to the area and helped flush out the "bad stuff." But, she said that different folks have different opinions on that. It doesn't do us any good to play the "what if" game at this point.

Now what you're all curious about: the infamous WATER TREADMILL (aka water DREADmill...). Sadie did great! I was shocked! We only did about 3 minutes of it, and will gradually build up. There was one moment at the beginning where she briefly freaked out, but after that she walked steadily on. You can tell she was very nervous about it, though, since she was panting heavily and would not take a treat during or right after the experience.

I took a video, true to word, but was so caught up in the moment that most of it is sideways... Oops! I found some software to edit it back to normal, so enjoy. Future sessions will be around an hour long. I may bring the girls with me to some of them, especially when Sadie is more comfortable with the treadmill. I trust Holly, she greatly impressed me.

Rainbow Fish

It's been a while since I've posted any crafts we've done. This one was really fun, however, and deserves a post.

I drew lines for a bowl, which C cut out. Then I traced her hand and had to cut most of that out for her. Finally - decorate! A cute google eye, some Cheerios made our "bubbles," sequins for scales, and we added some seaweed yarn as well.


You could really be imaginative with this one!