Winston
aka Winstonian, the Winstonater, and “WintNon.”

May 1993 - June 10, 2009.

When Doug brought Winston home, he was just a puppy. He had so much energy, all he wanted was kisses and hugs and games. We lived in a little apartment behind a courthouse in Florida. It was a second floor apartment, and he was so little that he couldn’t negotiate the stairs by himself; I had to carry him. He was always cheerful, always ready to play and give kisses.

We moved several places over the years, and he was always friendly to everyone he met. He even liked cats. That was, of course, until his unfortunate incident in our backyard. A cat had sat on the fence, and then chased Winston and scratched him in the butt. He actually had to go to the E.R. for that, and ever after, if anyone said the word “cat”- he’d bark like crazy.

He had his own particular tastes- especially for cows. I used to have a big cow-shaped pillow to lay on while watching t.v….Well, she became Winston’s “girlfriend.” Even if there were other stuffed animals out, he always liked the ones that looked like cows.

He had friends of many different species. He would come over, tail wagging, to check on our parakeet, Margie-bird, when she would chirp in her cage. He also would come over when Simba, Aunt Autumn’s African grey parrot, would call him. Simba would call, “WintNon! Come HEeere!” and drop food for him. When he would come over and eat the food, she’s poo on his head and then laugh. I think he was just happy that he got extra food.

Sometimes other dogs would try to push him around, but he never was mean or vicious, even when he didn’t feel well. He was always sweet, no matter how he felt.

When I brought my son, Christopher, home from the hospital for the first time, he was very protective of him. Whenever the baby would cry or even make a small noise, Winston would run and check on him. Whereever the baby was, Winston was always close by. As my son got older, if Christopher was punished, Winston would get mad. Until my son was almost 7 years old, Winston always thought of Christopher as “his baby.” If I mentioned Christopher, he wouldn’t react much, but if I talked about “the baby” or “his baby” he’d run and check on Christopher. We used to talk about how Winston thought that my son was his “puppy.” He was very loving.

He was terrified of baths, but he loved the groomer. He would shake and shake in the car on the way, but (the groomer told me) as soon as I left he would wag his tail like crazy. The groomer always talked about how Winston was one of her very favorite “clients.”

For the past couple years, Winston’s been very ill. He was diagnosed with a heart murmur, as well as arthritis and vestibular syndrome. After his kidney disease was diagnosed, he was no longer allowed to have any treats other than the prescription dog food. He took it in good grace, and he continued to get just a spoonful of peanut butter every day (with his medication hidden inside). Whenever he got to have his “peanut butter treat,” he would just light up, and his butt would wag with happiness. Whenever his arthritis would bother him, he couldn’t help being a little “nippy,” but it was never mean. He would show his teeth, reflexively, because when you picked him up he was sore. He couldn’t help that, so he licked through his teeth. For the longest time, we couldn’t figure out what he was doing. He was trying to kiss us, to show us he couldn’t help it. He was always sweet.

He’s gotten sore, half blind, and hard of hearing over time, but recently he stopped eating and drinking. I took him to the vet, and she did bloodtests. His kidneys had finally failed. Even then, he was cheerful. He was scared of the vet, yet he always came quietly and behaved like an angel, even when he had to get a shot to hyrdrate him daily.

He always came to me when I called to give him his medicine, even though he hated it. I got a different food for him, and eventually any kind of food he’d like, in order to get him to eat and drink. Whenever he wasn’t nauseous, he’d wag his stub, pleased to have something new to eat. A couple days ago, he even started play barking. Up until the very end, he was affectionate, always ready to give and receive hugs and kisses.

For about a week, he visited the vet daily for I.V. fluids (to prevent dehydration). Except for the last day and a half, he seemed like he was still feeling happy. Then, the final morning, after he’d gotten his fluids, he still didn’t want to eat. He started having symptoms for his vestibular disease, combined with his heart and kidney conditions, and he finally started to cry. I took him to the vet, and I told him I loved him while he died in my arms. Up until the very end, he never let anything get him down. He always loved everyone, and I don’t think I ever met a soul that didn’t love him back. He was a sweety-pie. We all loved him, and he’ll be sorely missed.

Rest in Peace, Winston.

2009-06-10.

Hubby informs me that over a week is much too long between blog posts, so here I am, typing away. 

Christopher finished school, and is now officially a 3rd grader!  His last day was on a Wednesday, so the Friday before they had “Spirit Day” where they got to play games.  I didn’t get to volunteer for that day, but then Monday I helped with his class party.  They had a luau theme, which was really cute.  There was fresh fruit in a hallowed out pineapple, candy, and juice.  All the kids got (paper) “grass” skirts, played limbo and waterballoons.  It was fun!

After that, there were only 2 more days of school, so Tuesday was “Game day.” Everyone was allowed to bring in their favorite game to play.  Christopher brought in “Monopoly Jr.”  Then Wednesday, the last day of school, was “Awards Day.”  Christopher received an award for being a “Top Reader!” He also brought home a really great report card; We bought him a “Spy watch” as a reward for such great grades!

Friday (2009-06-05), we had a playdate at the park that we’d been planning for a few weeks.  Beth came with her son, Caleb, and gave us a ride.  Michelle brought Emma and Andy, and all the kids had a great time at the playground.  We had packed our lunch, and the others got some fast food, and we all picnicked in the pavilion before we left.

Unfortunately, we have some very sad news.  I had taken Winston to the vet because he’d stopped eating and drinking, and she called during the playdate on Friday.  Winston’s kidneys failed, and he doesn’t have much time left.  We all cried, but we’re taking him to be hydrated by the vet every day.  He’s off his prescription food and can eat whatever he wants now.  He seems like he’s relatively happy; wagging his tail if he gets treats or hugs, playbarking at us when we eat, begging for food.  Some days he’s pretty good, and some days you can tell he’s under the weather.  The vet said he has anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months, so we’ll see.  He seems like he’s not too bad right now though, so we’re happy about that.

That’s about all for now.  I’d post more photos, but hubby hasn’t had an opportunity to set that up yet on the updated blog.  He’s been working very hard at his job. Bye for now!

2009-05-29

Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to writing here, but we’ve been keeping busy. Mother’s day was nice. Christopher made me a lovely gift (Click *here* to see). My mom called afterwards and said she really liked the necklace, and I think Bonnie liked her gift also. Mother’s day Sunday we went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Sahara (*LINK*), we relaxed at home, and then we visited Bonnie and Autumn before going back to church (click *here* for photo). It was a nice day.

This year our Anniversary fell on a Wednesday, so we made plans to celebrate on that coming Friday (5/15/09) since Doug would have that day off. He was going to go to church with Christopher that Wednesday, and I was going to go to my bookclub (to discuss 1984). But hubby wasn’t feeling well, so we all stayed home and watched tv and talked. It was a much nicer evening than I had even planned.

So, that Friday (5/15)  we celebrated our 21st Wedding Anniversary! We hung out around the house until lunchtime and then ate at Alladin’s (LINK) restaurant in Akron.

For Memorial Day, Christopher and Doug both had Monday off.  So we had a nice holiday weekend.  We went out to Aladdin’s again, drove to Mansfield so Christopher could ride the Carousel and I could have tea, and even cleaned out our garage on Monday!  Doug did a great job working on the yard, and today I’m going to try to pot some more plants.  That’s about all for now.  Hope everyone had a great holiday!

**My apologies for not posting photos.  I couldn’t get it to work.  Please click the links in the text to see photos.  Thanks!

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009.

Saturday, April 25th, I took Christopher to the Rainy Day Tea party at the Massillon Library. They had everything set up really nice with decorations and fancy teapots. There were two other little boys there besides Christopher, plus the girls. Everyone colored their placemats and then played “Pin the handle on the teapot.” When they served the tea, one little boy exclaimed, “This is the best tea I’ve ever had!” Christopher heartily agreed, so now a box of the tea sits in our “tea cupboard.”

Saturday, May 2nd, was the Annual Dandelion Festival at Breightenbach Winery. (For photos click *here*) The weather was a bit overcast, but it never actually rained. Christopher and I had a really nice time. We walked around looking at all the vendors. Christopher got a balloon alien (a balloon that looked like an alien’s head) and a little bobble head turtle (2″) that he named “Wobbles.” I picked up some Dandelion jelly and a penguin bobble head (3″) for Doug. We picnicked (lunch box) in front of the bandstand, watched a bit of the Cooking demo, and Christopher participated in the Dandelion picking contest.

After that we went home for a bit.  I had looked online to see if Free Comic Book day was being hosted at Toys Time Forgot, but there was no listing.  We (Doug, Christopher and me) decided to go to the Used Bookstore in Akron.  On the way there, we passed the Toy store where they were having Free Comic Book Day!  Apparently they just missed getting the ad out.  So we stopped and Christopher (and I) each got 5 free comics, a “Free Comic Book Day” button, and a lego “man.”  Christopher also met Batman and Batgirl.  Batman drew a self portrait for him, which I plan on framing for Christopher.  The photos are on my cell phone.  Hopefully sometime soon I’ll figure out how to post them, but they remain there in the meantime.

After that it was off to the bookstore.  For virtually nothing, we loaded up on a lot of scifi and a riddle book for Christopher.  Then we spent the rest of the day/night at home picking up, playing Uno, and watching tv with our new digital whatchamacallits (you know, you get the $40 off coupon in the mail for when tv goes all digital)…  We actually get reception now.

That’s about all.  Ta ta for now!

Friday, April 24, 2009.

This week Christopher and Doug both went back to their daily routines, which meant I did too.  The week before last was Easter break (the week after Easter).  Christopher was off from school, and Doug took vacation days.

Easter was nice.  That weekend we painted plastic Easter Eggs with vegan jelly beans inside.  One egg had a clue telling him where to find his Easter basket.  But he didn’t get to open any eggs while he decorated them.  We had a lot of fun painting them.  Then Easter morning, he looked for his eggs around the house.  After he found them all, he used the Clue Egg to find his basket.

The Easter bunny was good to him!  He got some chocolate eggs (that I made), an Inventions science kit, a FIND-A-WORD book, and a couple other toys.  Then most of the rest of the day involved going to church.  After the last service, we went to Aunt Autumn’s house for a visit.

During the break, we did a few things locally like go out for dinner, go to movies, and walk in the park.  A couple times Christopher flew his kites!

Monday (4/20/09), Christopher’s first day back, he started an after school Science Program.  He really likes it!  He learned about insects and made a project.  For the next several Mondays, he’ll have extra science stuff to learn about!

There’s nothing else terribly exciting to say.  We don’t lead exceptionally exciting lives, despite our obvious flair for style and grace.  Hehe 

Ta ta for Now!

Monday, April 6, 2009.

The past few weeks have been nice. Doug is doing well physically, and Christopher has gotten an incredibly awesome report card! He also scored 100% on his last spelling test and a perfect score on his Quarterly math assessment. He’s also started taking his weekly Spanish class (30 minutes once a week) in addition to learning Esperanto at home.

We’ve really noticed in the past couple weeks how he’s been acting very mature. He’s been doing his chores without much (usually no) fuss and even volunteering to do things on his own. He’s been doing much more reading on his own too, without my even asking him. Right now he’s on the 3rd book (Mummies in the morning) in The Magic Treehouse series. It takes him about 40 minutes to finish each book. This morning, he wanted to read while waiting for the bus, so I took this photo.

We’ve also done some small local trips on the weekends - just driving around Amish country. On Friday, Doug and I went shopping for Easter stuff while Christopher was in school.

While we were out, I was able to get the glass teapot with display teas I’ve been coveting ever since I saw it a month ago! It was only $15 for the pot and the teas, and it’s so lovely! I’ve been making one a day since I bought it. You can tell Christopher is suitably impressed from the photo below.

Christopher will be taking an extra science type thing after school soon that we think he’ll really enjoy! He loves to make things, draw, build, and just generally be creative, so this should really spark his interest!

Tomorrow is my Dad’s birthday, so off I go to call him! Bye for now!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009.

Sorry I didn’t get back to writing this until today, but things have been hectic!  Friday night’s Hockey game (2009-03-13) was incredible!  I picked Christopher up from school, and we went directly to pick up Doug from work.  I stayed home and got some things done around the house.  My tooth was aching from the dental appointment that morning, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be. Plus I was really tired from all the errands I’d had to do that day. After they dropped me off, they went to the game.

The boys called me from a restaurant where they had dinner before the game.  They came home around 11:30 laden with a plastic blow up hand and a Phantom’s hockey puck.  I think they’ll be fans for life!  They just had so much fun and went on and on about the great game and how much fun they had.  The Phantom’s won 9 (or was it 11?) to 2.

Saturday, Doug took it easy while I helped Christopher with his Jupiter project.  He had done most of the work throughout the previous week, but I helped him finish painting the foam ball (Jupiter) and cut the back off to glue it on the posterboard.  He typed everything out himself, and then we went to the library to print everything.  We even went by Pat Catan’s for a few extra supplies, in case we made any mistakes (we didn’t).  So he had this board with Jupiter glued to it and “Fun Facts” that we’d printed out glued on.  It looked great!  We were so proud of him.  He did such a great job!

Here is what he typed:

Jupiter is a spectacular planet. It is mostly made of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and has a family of asteroids known as the Trojan asteroids. Sixty three moons orbit Jupiter.

The rings are gas that orbit Jupiter.

Christopher and I have also been keeping up with our daily Esperanto lessons.

Sunday, we stayed home from church so Doug could recooperate from his hard week, and I helped Christopher finish assembling his project.  Really, all that was left was to glue the things in place.

Monday, Christopher gave his presentation.  He said it went well.

And that’s about it.  Not much more exciting to report.  Friday and Monday, Doug has some doctor stuff scheduled.  We hope he feels better!

Monday, March 9, 2009.

Yes, you read that correctly.  We have started trying to learn lingvu internacia through the Lernu website.  I was invited on a social networking site to spend 10 minutes a day learning the world’s easiest language.  Well, it’s more like 30 minutes, but it’s enjoyable!  Christopher has decided to do it with me.  We’ve worked our way through leciono 4 of Mi estas Komencanto, and we’re chatting with each other.  We only know a few phrases, but we’re treating it like a secret code.  It’s awesome.

I’ve also downloaded some rock and metal songs in Esperanto from the Internet.  My favorites so far are Kore (a French rock group) and Krio de Morto (a Polish Hardcore/Alternative group).  I’ve also started listening to a Polish podcast done in Esperanto in order to get used to listening to the language.  I even have a correspondence in my own broken pigeon Esperanto with someone from Brazil.  As previously stated, it’s awesome.

By the way, awesome in Esperanto is imponega.

On other news front, Doug has multiple appointments coming up and work has been keeping him extremely busy.  I guess that’s the price he pays for being so imponega.  I tried to convince him to study with us, but he’s boycotting the entire language because Esperantists roll their “r”s. LOL  He also stated his preference for learning Klingon.  As cool as Klingon is, I think I’ll stick with Esperanto.  Maybe later, if I get good with this, I’ll try - though I confess my only reason for wanting to learn Klingon is curiosity over the Klingon translation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing.  And no, I’m NOT joking.

Friday, I have a dentist appointment, but more exciting is the Hockey game the boys are going to!  It’s sort of a Daddy-son thing.  I think they’re going to have a blast!  I’ll post an update after the game!  It’ll be Christopher’s first Hockey game!

Winston has been doing okay.  He’s still able to wag his tail and enjoy attention.  I got him a new toy this weekend, and he keeps it in his cut up box (below).  Isn’t he cute?

Gxis for now!

Sunday, March 1, 2009.

This week was a pretty normal week. Christopher did his chores and homework. He scored 100% on his spelling test on Friday, so his “educational reward” was the opportunity to go skating. The church had a skating event with a bunch of other churches on Friday night (2/27). We invited some of his other friends along, but due to scheduling conflicts or illness they couldn’t come.

Everyone met at the church around 4:30pm. Christopher rode in the church bus with the other children, and I rode separately with the Pastor’s wife. Once we started skating, Christopher was a bit apprehensive. We ended up falling once, but then after that he was fine. After a bit, my knee started hurting, so I sat down and he skated quite a bit on his own. He was GREAT!

The next day, however, I wasn’t so great. I was feeling a bit sore. Doug had this great idea, and we still managed to have a lovely family drive through Amish country. We stopped at Shearer’s potato chip factory and The Ashery. It was really nice. However, I started feeling more uncomfortable towards the end. By that evening, it was pretty safe to say I was in a lot of pain.

Due to the time delay, I didn’t immediately suspect what caused it, but I think it was from my fall skating. The pain was consistant with the way I fell, and I fell pretty hard. Last night and most of today I’ve been forced to rest, but thankfully I think the worst is over. I’m able to move without extreme pain in my back and I can turn my neck. By tomorrow night, I hope to be right as rain.

February 24, 2009.

The weekend before last, Doug was sick with a cold.  By Wednesday night, Christopher wasn’t feeling well.  I called him off from school on Thursday and Friday.  The doctor said he had a sinus infection from the cold, so he’s on medicine for a week or so.  He’s actually feeling much better.

We were going to work on the Science Fair, but Christopher’s illness cut into his time to work on the project.  We’ll do the project ourselves later (a fruit battery), but he won’t be participating in the Science Fair this year.

When I called him off from school on Friday, he was worried about missing Church.  I told him that Church was a couple days away, so then he was fine with it.  He’s been practicing saying all the books of the Bible in order.  Sunday was The Big Day.

Saturday he was feeling much better, and Sunday we said he could go.  He was so excited!  He’s been trying off and on to memorize the books of the Bible since Kindergarten.  We told him that if he ever memorized them all, EVERY SINGLE ONE, and we knew he REALLY knew them well - we’d pay him $25.  The Pastor has been working with him this year also, and he set this past Sunday as the date for him to finish.

Sunday (2/22/09), we missed Sunday school to let Christopher sleep in a little (since he had been sick).  We attended the regular service, and after some singing the Pastor announced that Christopher would say all the books of the Bible.  He went up in front of everyone, held the big red microphone, and said all the books very quickly without a single mistake!  The Pastor then presented him with a certificate, a monkey pin (for not Monkeying around with the Word of God) and a Heart shaped pin for saying all the books correctly.

We were very proud of Christopher.