James' 1st Day of Preschool

James is loving preschool. Here are some pics from his first day:


We rode bikes to school on the first day. He loved it!




James in his element: dirt. Or at least sand, in this instance.



He called this a painting of a waterfall...hmm...




Wow. All our kids are in school. Cool.

We'll miss you, Dottie...

Last Thursday evening, Dottie threw up right around bedtime. She threw up a bunch of grapes. Apparently while she was over at our neighbor's house (where her little brother Pixel lives), she helped herself to some of the grapes growing in the back yard.

We didn't know grapes could be toxic to dogs.

Over the course of the last few days, she stopped eating. She was lethargic and losing weight. She mostly slept. We took her to a vet who gave us some hope. So, we tried feeding her chicken broth with one of those syringe-like medicine droppers, which worked for a while but she wasn't getting enough and then yesterday she just stopped swallowing. We gave her Pepto Bismol (that vet's suggestion) a couple of times, but that just seemed like animal cruelty. She would drink some water, but by Monday her urine would come out pretty clear, a sign of kidney failure.

This morning the vet ran some tests, and sure enough she had super-elevated levels of things a little puppy like her shouldn't have.

We decided to euthanize.

We decided to be present, to be able to give her one last hug before we released her. Rebecca and the two older kids had a tough time. I stayed stoic (I know, typical guy), though I did get sniffly. Angela was very positive, reminding us that Dottie was going to be happy now, no more pain. And James was...well, James.

The vet was awesome (thanks for referring us, Jen). Very personable but very professional. They gave us a nice little cardboard coffin for her.

We took her to Grandma and Grandpa O'Neal's house in Payson. They've got a big backyard. We had a little funeral for Dottie, just our family. The three older kids wrote letters that we buried with her. Here are some excerpts:

From Isaac:

I'm so sorry for letting you get grapes will you forgive me?

From Maile:

I hope to see you in heaven someday Dottie, you deserve the best place a dog could ever have.

From Angela:

I hop that you will hav a grat time up in Hevin. I hope you will make noo frends.

Some of the positives we were able to identify from this experience:

- The kids learned about being responsible (they actually all helped a lot with feeding, cleaning up, etc.)

- ALL our friends who knew about Dottie who have dogs of their own now know about grapes

- The kids get to learn about dealing with loss

- We have great memories of a fun, cute dog that surely brought happiness into our home.

We'll miss you Dottie!

Agwe, god of water (and other sundry parts)

So a few weeks ago, our good friends Charles and Julee Hamilton came by to drop off our new puppy, Dottie. Rebecca had just gotten home from Girls' Camp, preceeded by a full 2 weeks of Kodaly certification.

Ah, I just realized I can blame this whole thing on the Kodaly certification course.

Anyhow, Rebecca got home from girls' camp and was excited about getting our puppy from Charles and Julee, who had called me earlier that day offering to drive down to Provo to drop off the puppy. We invited them to have dinner with us and the Powells, who were also recovering from girls' camp.

After dinner, we were hanging out, and out of the blue Charles says, "Hey, you could play Agwe!"

Me: huh?

Julee obviously knew what he was talking about and got kinda excited about the idea, sending Charles out to the car to get a CD with music.

Okayyyy...

Charles then tells me how the musical he's in has been rehearsing for a month or so and somebody had to drop out due to work schedule changes or something. He and Julee figured I could handle the part easy. "There's just this one solo, and maybe a couple of dance numbers, but you'd be great!"

Hmph.

I agree to go sing for the director and the musical director at the next rehearsal.

Thumbs up.

Cool.

So now I'm Agwe, god of water, in the musical "Once on This Island."

And I'm a rich snob that waltzes (grumble grumble) and then jungle dances.

And I'm a rubbernecker at a car accident scene who happens to help carry the hurt guy to a hut.

And I'm a frog.

And then I'm a rock.

Oh, and I'm part of a tree, too.

Come see the play. Here's the Facebook page for it.

introducing Dottie

So, the car we had when we first got married was an old brown Datsun 210. Rebecca bought it for $300, and it got us through the first bit of our marriage (snow in that car was pretty nuts; I-15 to Jen & Mar's in Canada was crazy I heard). We affectionately named her "Dottie" and we still kick ourselves for not following through with our idea to take her engine out and make a dune buggy or something.

3 weeks or so ago, Rebecca was doing a Kodaly certification class and lo and behold, there was Holly, friend from Ricks! We got in touch with Charles and Julee Hamilton to have a mini-reunion.

The Hamiltons had just had a litter of puppies. Chi-weenies (sp?). Rebecca fell in love with one in particular, a female with a little black spot on her right haunch.

Thus the name Dottie.

Now we have a dog.

Facebook album here.

Here's a cute pic of her with James napping:

Catching up (with some pics)

Sigh...

End of school year gets pretty crazy.

Rebecca is taking a Kodaly certification class right now, so we've only really had barely a week of "summer vacation."

Isaac and Maile are going to Hawaii this Thursday. For a month. Yes, we're not going with them. Just those two. Grampa Chock is footing the bill. Sigh.

Isaac's going for Explorations this summer. Maile's going to keep him company on the plane rides to and from. Thanks to Uncle Mark for being willing to put up with them during the month stay. Grampa stays up late and sleeps in late, so it'll probably be a lot of hanging out with Uncle Mark.

Posted pics of some recent events in the Chock family on Facebook.

Angela's Kindergarten Graduation

Skate/scooter night at Freedom Academy

James' 4th Birthday

April Fool (continued)

Rebecca sent me an email yesterday after I posted the first part of the story, asking to see the PSS on the back. Here it is:





Please notice the handwriting on the actual "April Fool's" note:



That's right. NOT Maile's handwriting.

OK, so back to Maile's solar system paper. Pluto. Yeah.

Here's the first page of what I had Maile take to school to turn in. I started the paper by quoting the dialogue from the movie "Stand By Me," the part where the boys are discussing Pluto and Goofy:



To turn the paper in, Maile had to stand in front of the class and read her report.

PERFECT.

Here's part of the text of what Maile read:

PLUTO DESERVES MORE AIR TIME

As one of Disney’s classic characters, Pluto’s appearances nowadays are mostly made by someone in a Pluto costume at Disneyland. This is unfortunate because one of the primary purposes served by cartoon canines has been the creation of an American culture that is very dog friendly. Examples abound, but all we need to do is look back to the derailed professional football career of one Michael Vick and we can see how the lack of Pluto cartoons very likely created a lack of perspective on the ultimate goodness of dogs in general. If Pluto would be returned to his rightful place, that is, on the screen in front of children paying rapt attention, it is doubtful that such atrocities committed against dogs would ever be perpetrated again.

CONCLUSION

Pluto is truly one of Disney’s best characters. His loyalty, courage, and particularly his HONESTY make him worthy of the title “man’s best friend.”
It goes without saying (so why are we saying it?) then, that notes sent home to a parent on April Fool’s Day signed by a child’s 3rd grade teacher are examples of what this great dog would NOT do, and thusly require a measure of getting back at said teacher. Pluto’s character would never allow him to stoop so low as to cause anger and suspicion “just for the fun of it.”
Bad teacher, baaaaaad teacher…

From what I gather, it had the desired effect of getting giggles out of the classroom.

And yes, Maile turned in a LEGIT Pluto report.

I'm really glad Maile's teacher has a great sense of humor. It may be the only time in my life I enjoyed writing a research paper so much.

April Fool

So, back on April 1st (was I paying attention to what day it was? No. I did however remember to call my mom, it's her birthday...), Maile came home from school and handed me the following note:



First of all, I realize I really SHOULD have been paying closer attention. It was April Fool's Day, after all. But I think I was doing some work stuff, maybe editing video or something when Maile brought me the note.

I was pretty angry at Maile. And impressed that she pulled it off without her typical giggle fit, not even a smile. Maybe I shouldn't be impressed with her acting ability...

Anyhow, the thing that I'd like to point out is this:



Yes. She had HELP. AND encouragement.

So, fast forward a coupla weeks. Maile comes home with news that she has to write a report on a planet in the solar system. She was chosen to do Pluto.

Light bulb.

"Of COURSE I'll help you, Maile. And you're gonna help me, too..."