Dotzour Family.com

I am a little addicted to listening to podcasts.  Something to do with my compulsive personality.   First, I fell in love with This American Life and This I Believe (see my Oct. ’09 post here). Then in the last year, I’ve added Planet Money, Savage Love, and RadioLab to that list of podcast.

You’ve got to check them out. I know I do whenever I have a moment in the car or in the kitchen by myself!

I get ridiculously excited when I get to listen to Planet Money.  Yay for engaging, funny, intelligent news that helps me better understand the world!

RadioLab is a little like This American Life in that they pick a theme and explore that theme through a variety of stories.  I’m going backwards in time, and am now listening to podcasts from 2009.

They did an hour-long show on “death,” and then they did a set of short shows to follow-up on that theme.  In one of them, Robert Krulwich reads an excerpt from poet and writer, Mark Doty’s 1996 memoir Heaven’s Coast (listen here).  I liked this one so much that I listened to it a few times.  And then I felt like I should share it with someone, but I wasn’t sure who.  So my solution was to write a post about it.  If you don’t listen to the whole 3 minute story, here’s an excerpt of my favorite part that I wanted to share.  In this story, Mark is witnessing his partner, Wally, during the last moments of Wally’s life.  I think I’ll have to check out more of Mark Doty’s writing.

Thanks for reading.  I found that like poetry it is best savored when read aloud.

The afternoon is so quiet and deep, it seems almost to ring and chime, a cold, struck bell. There is an inaudible roaring, a rush, beneath the surface of things, beneath the surface of Wally, who is now almost no surface, as if I could see into him, into that great hurrying current, that energy, that forward motion which is life going on. I was never this close to anyone in my life. His living so deep, and absolute, that it pulls me close to that interior current, so far inside his life, and my own. I know I am going to be more afraid than I have ever been, but right now I am not afraid. I am face to face with the deepest movement in the world, the point of my love’s deepest reality, where he is most himself, even if that self empties out, into no one, swift river hurrying into the tumble of rivers, out of individuality, into the great rushing whirlwind of currents. God, moving on the face of the waters….

On our last day of winter vacation (Sunday the 2nd), Bryan and I took the kids swimming at Swim West.  We’ve been cooped up inside because of first wet and then cold weather, so the kids haven’t had a lot of large motor exercise but have still been eating all the Christmas and New Year’s cookies as well as Lisa’s delicious birthday cake.  It was soooo great to get to spend some time in a warm pool.  The kids swam for a couple hours, we went to Culver’s for a special treat lunch, and then they both fell asleep.

For those of you in Madison, I recommend Swim West’s open swim.  I took Andrew and Sylvia last spring every Friday from 9-12 – it was only $5 for the three of us.  It’s the time of year when getting into a warm pool can make us feel like warmth and summer will one day return.  A good reminder as we head into the long winter months!

While I enjoy having the house all fresh and open post-Christmas, I found myself really missing the Christmas tree.  Plus, our living room has been feeling really dark.  So on January 2, I made a run to Ace where I picked up some white lights, a 5-gallon paint bucket, and a couple bags of sand.  Then I went in the back yard and cut a couple branches out of April’s dogwood bush.  I brought it inside, spent an hour winding lights, and voilà!

I’ve been thinking about bringing branches in the house for quite some time, and this seems like the perfect time and way to do it.  Our Christmas tree skirt is doubling as a winter tree skirt.  Maybe I’ll have the kids make some birds to hang from the branches:)

Merry January to you!  I’ll close with a couple pics of the kids watching The Princess Bride.  It’s an instant favorite.

Our home is de-Christmas-ized, and we’re on to winter.  I wandered around the house snapping some pictures of the winter decorations and just of our somewhat disheveled home at the start of 2011.

This candle is a little Christmas gift I got for myself:)  The white fairy was Sylvia’s until she had a fit and knocked it’s head repeatedly until it fell off.  Now its mine:)

This little chickadee decoration is from my grandma.  I like it:)

Here’s our de-Christmas-tree’d living room.

I’ve been thinking that I’d like to have lights up somehow again.  Maybe hanging them around the ceiling like in college.  I just miss the sweet glow of our Christmas tree!

Bryan got me this collage for Christmas a few years ago.  Last month I filled it with pictures from Christmases past.

Kirstin, my American Girl, is dressed in her nightgown for winter.

My mom made this cross-stitch, and it was hanging at my grandma’s house.  Last fall, my uncle Kirk and I found it in Mum’s storage locker.  So happy to have it in my house.  It makes me happy.

Here’s Sylvia’s room.

And our room.

And Andrew’s room.

Our kitchen.

And sunroom.

The kitchen sink with snowflakes in the window.

Hope you enjoyed the tour:)

Our sweet cat Bowser has gotten to be skinny recently.  I’ve been able to feel his spine really distinctly recently, and when I took him in to the vet last week, I was sad to hear that he is down to 8lbs (he’s been up around 14 lbs in the past…that’s 40% down).

So $350 of vet tests later, we know the following.  Bowser is not:

• hypertensive
• diabetic
• in kidney failure

Also, he does not:

• have glomerular disease (something to do with protein in the urine)
• have a thyroid abnormality

And they found that his blood counts are normal.

Possible Diagnosis:

During his physical exam, Dr. Heidi found that Bowser’s intestines felt thickened, and based on the fact that all other the other tests came back normal, she thinks he has some kind of a small intestinal disease.  She says that the most likely candidates are inflammatory bowel disease, eosinophilic enteritis, lymphangectasia, diffuse small cell lymphoma, or another type for cancer.

Prognosis:

From Dr. Heidi’s email:

Inflammatory bowel disease has a good prognosis.  Treatment involves feeding a hypoallergenic diet and oral medications to decrease the inflammation.  Most cats are treated with weekly injections of vitamin B12 also.  Eosinophilic enteritis is a subset of inflammatory bowel disease and treated similarly.  Lymphangectasia is not common in cats and can be more challenging to treat.

Diffuse small cell lymphoma is common.  In a recent study performed at the UW, there was a 96 % response rate to oral medications (prednisolone and chlorambucil) and a median remission of 2 ¼ years.

Doing a blood test of his GI system in order to move toward confirming the diagnosis is over $200.

I think I might try switching B to a hypoallergenic diet for a month to see if that helps before moving forward with more testing.  It’s always kinda hard to know how to proceed with these kind of situations.

A couple years ago, Bowser’s brother Spooky had lost a significant amount of weight.  I took him in, and we did a whole slew of tests and an ultrasound.  They showed that he had probable bladder cancer, but we didn’t do the tests to confirm.  Now, two years later, Spook is still fine, and he’s back to a healthy weight.  So maybe he did/does have bladder cancer, or maybe he had something else that cleared up on its own.  Sometimes, I think the answer is: who knows!

I am happy that my affectionate black kitty is in good health two years from his very worrisome diagnosis.

Please wish my Bowser-kitty good health!  He’s my sleeping buddy, and most every night for the last 10 years, I’ve fallen asleep while he kneads my scalp, drapes his body across my head, and/or rests his little wubbily chin on my cheek or ear and purrs away.

On Christmas Day, we headed over to Dad’s house early afternoon and met up with Michael & Lisa, Joe, Tom, and at supper time, Heather, Michael & Evelyn.  We watched movies, played games, and generally enjoyed spending some time together.

Here are the boys playing a game of Quirkle, a really fun pattern game that Melanie gave us for Christmas.

It’s a little like Scrabble but (thank heavens) without the word part.  The lines have to have either all the same colors but different shapes or all the same shape but different colors.  Six in a row is a Quirkle and gets you big points.

While others played or talked or interacted with each other, Andrew played the iPad.  I think he stared at Angry Birds for about six hours.  And it was like his best day EVER.

I love the cute fuzzy polar bear shirt he’s wearing.  It’s a gift from Granny & Grandad.

We enjoyed a fondue feast.  First course was a broth fondue for cooking meats.  Then we had a cheese course with veggies and breads for dipping.  Rounding it off, we had a chocolate fondue (Nutella and cream) with cake, fruit, and (oh the incredible amazing goodness) mini-cream puffs.  I think I had a transcendental experience while eating a cold mini-cream puff that had just been dipped in Nutella fondue.

There you have it!  As we drove home from Dad’s at 9pm, I felt waves of exhaustion wash over me.  I spent so much time and energy anticipating Christmas this year.  And it was wonderful.  And as it came to a close, I felt spent and very full and a little raw.  Like “put me to bed for the next five days.”  However, Maretta and Kyle were in town through Sunday, so after a quiet morning on the 26th, I rallied to go shopping with my sweet sister.  A new purse for her and a new dress for me was rejuvenating:)  That evening, I enjoyed meeting Maretta & Kyle, Joe, and some of Michael & Lisa’s friends at the Great Dane for dinner.  So much celebrating!!

Joe was in town through Dec 31, so I really enjoyed seeing him a couple days last week.  And Heather, Michael, & Evelyn were also in town, and it was great to get to hang out with them two different days.  Evie is about the cutest kid ever.  Her eyes are so big and thoughtful and inquisitive.  She and Sylvie did a pretty good job together…playing with all the new toys.  And I enjoying getting to catch up with my dear friends.  I can’t believe I didn’t take any pictures of them together.  I guess I was more concerned with playing interference (diving to stop Sylvie from throwing a toy) or with not interfering when things were magically working well.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Andrew and Sylvia have been excited in the past.  They get really happy about taking trips to Texas or going to a swimming pool or getting to go out for ice cream.  But until now, I don’t think I’ve seen the two of them as worked up as they were about Christmas.  Sylvia understood what was happening a lot more than she did last year (when she was still just one), and she rode on the coat tails of Andrew’s anticipation.  We were at fever pitch here in the Dotzour house:)

So I was quite surprised when I woke up at 6:45am on Christmas morning and the kids were both still sleeping.  A half hour later, and I got tired of lying in bed and went to get my phone so I could have something to do while I waited for the chillens to stir.  It wasn’t until about 7:40 that they woke up, and then, oh joy!  Santa filled their stockings!

The kids had different approaches to opening their gifts this year.  Andrew was on a mission to find and open his, and he did so in relatively rapid fashion.  Sylvia, on the other hand, would open a gift, un-package it, and play with it for quite some time before showing any interest in what else was in store.

Here, she’s playing with the wooden cupcakes that Bryan got for her.  They’re a big hit, and we’ve been doing lots of singing and blowing out of candles these last days.

Thanks to technology, we were able to share our Christmas morning with Bryan’s parents and sister via Skype.  We all so enjoy spending Christmas with our wonderful family-in-Texas, and it felt really nice to get to share some time online.  That way, too, they could see the kids open their gifts.  Wish we could step through the screen and just join each other for a few hours!

Joe, whose head I cut off in this picture, spent the night with us and got to watch the kids enjoy Christmas morning.

There’s Bryan laughing with his fam.

Andrew set right to work on a currency workbook I got him.  He’s fascinated by money money money these days.

I made a pulla wreath for our breakfast.  Boy, was it yummy!  I think we ate around 9:30, so the kids did well to work on their gift opening for a couple hours:)

Sweet, egg-y bread with an almond and raspberry filling.

Here’s my favorite gift – Bryan’s mom cut out silhouettes of Andrew and Sylvia.  They’re now hanging on my wall, where they will probably be displayed all my life.  So beautiful and special.  Thank you!!!

Sylvia’s gifts – the tea sets have been a huge hit.  I’ve been served so much coffee and tea and hot chocolate, it’s amazing.

I am in love with this fairy doll house.  Seriously!  It’s so cute.  More photos to come in a future post.

Little red chairs from Maretta and Kyle.  And the rocking horse was Maretta and Joe’s and has now moved into our house.  When asked what she wanted for Christmas (only starting a few days before Christmas, of course), Sylvia said “I want a horsie who rocks and who I can sit on.”  Good thing we had one waiting in the wings!

Andrew got a cool, wooden marble run.  Adult assistance is required.  It’s going to be a really fun toy!

Setting it up.

The boys spent a couple hours playing with marbles!

After lunchtime, it was time to head over to my dad’s for our Christmas Day festivities there.  The party continues:)