School Days, School Days

Ahhhhhh, Back to School.....

We've known it was coming, but still in the back of our mind we have thought "we still have time"

Times Up!

Today was Teacher's Institute day. :(

We met as an entire district for about 2 hours and then dispersed into our individual buildings.

I was lucky enough to have Travis' mom, Kay, come and help me with some mind numbingly boring tasks (thanks again Kay!)

While I was trying to fight for a spot in the copy machine line to get the copies for next weeks lessons, Travis was at Nielson working on putting names on every one's things, in between building meetings.

After a short break for football practice (Trav) and a follow up Doctor appt. (Misty) we went back to school to work, work, work. We finally called it a night at 9:45PM......

We will probably go back tomorrow afternoon to put the finishing touches on things.

Travis' 2nd Grade classroom, Nielson Elementary B~1

Now that's talent...he drew these Disney character's free hand (not even looking at a picture!)

This is his hallway bulletin boards. He chose a North Woods theme. The Picture on the left has a sign that says Mr. Stecher's room. The middle picture says "Have a 'Woody' Great Time in B1. The far right board says "Stinkin Good Work" with a skunk!

These are too cute.....what a great choice, the kids are sure to love them!

Misty's First Grade Classroom, King Elementary B~3

I didn't get any pictures of my actual classroom yet, I need more batteries in my camera. I'll try to get some soon though! :)

Here are some bulletin boards to tide you over! :)

Misty's hallway bulletin board, "First Grade is 'SCOOPS' of Fun!

B-3 is Out of This WORLD!

No, Travis didn't draw this. He could have....but he didn't' have time, so I used an overhead projector and traced it. :(

Cone Head

Buddy was forced to get a cone :(

He wouldn't stop licking his wounds and the vet was afraid they may not heal in a timely manner. So I drove to Monmouth to pick up the cone. The vet assured me I would be able to put the cone on Buddy. He's had one before so I figured no biggie.....

That was the first mistake.

1)Last time Buddy had a cone, the vet put it on after a surgery so he was still drugged. When he work up it was just there and by the time we got him he had adjusted to it.

2)Last time Buddy had a cone, the vet put a SMALL on him. This time all they had was a MEDIUM. Let me tell you, there is a BIG difference between small and medium.

3)Last time Buddy had a cone, he didn't run into much, he could still eat, drink, get up the stairs to bed, walk around corners without being heard.

This time, Travis and I had to wrestle the dog to put a Medium cone on when he was fully awake and in pain from a surgery. The cone is so big he's scrapping our walls, leading Travis to believe we'll need to repaint the house by the time it's all said and done. He can't get up the stairs from outside, or to the bed with out someone holding the cone up so it doesn't catch on the stairs and he can no longer drink without spilling the majority of the bowl on the floor.

And Eating? Well see for yourself......










This is Travis hand feeding the dog his food so he can eat. It was a real bonding moment.

We can't wait for the cone to come off.....in 5-7 days.....if the wounds are healing.....and he'll leave them alone.....and, and, and and!

Swiss Cheese....no that's just Buddy

Buddy had surgery today to eliminate some of those pesky warts. These warts are hereditary and grow from what looks like pimples to something big and ugly that breaks open when he scratches them or gets a haircut....YUCK!

He had several on his feet that he licks relentlessly during the night and it DRIVES ME NUTS!!! It keeps me up or wakes me up several times a night. So we decided it was time to get them fixed before school started. I dropped him off at 8AM and we just got back from picking him up.

Buddy was in surgery for over an hour! They stopped counting the warts they removed at 40! The vet said somewhere between 40 and 50 warts have been removed. They marked all the spots that needed laser treatment with purple marker so now we have a holey purple dog!
You can kind of see the big holes in Buddy's side here. This is where the laser took away the warts...in it's place is a divot.
Since getting home he's drank 2 bowls of water. I think the anesthetic they gave him has dried him out!

Thirsty, thirsty dog!


This looks worse thank it is. The discoloration is mostly the purple marker, but you can kind of see how deep they had to go to get rid of the warts. Usually they give a topical antibiotic to spread over the wounds. However, since so many of them have been removed and it would take literally all night and morning to do, the vet said it would be OK to give a oral antibiotic instead.



While at the vet we had him check Buddy's urine for infection because he has begun peeing in the house and what do ya know they have a pill to keep dogs from peeing inside! Technology I tell you!


The bad thing is with these hereditary warts, they will come back. Not the ones that they just removed, but new ones will grow. So the vet is going to talk to a dermatologist tonight to see if buddy can take yet another drug to keep the warts from coming back. He assures us this will be more cost effective than having buddy get cosmetic surgery once a year. While there they also found he has a staff skin infection so he has antibiotics for the staff infection (non transferable to humans thank heavens!)

So Buddy is back at home, looking like Swiss cheese or a driving range for you golf enthusiasts. He has antibiotics so the 40-50 holes covering his body don't get infected. He has pain medication. He has pee medication. He has staff infection antibiotics. He has Benadryl medication. He has ulcer medication. Man, I didn't know I was going to get to be a pharmacist before school started!