Category Archives: maggie

bah ram ewe

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Yesterday was AWESOME!! I finally got out to the sheep barn! Needless to say, it was pouring down rain (yes, I was riding my bike) by the time I got there. Ah well. It was worth it. My sheep is a Suffolk ewe and she's pretty small (which is good, because realistically, I'm kind of a small person. aka not a tough strong man or anything!). Honestly, I never realized how badly behaved Bubbles (my sheep from 2 years ago) really was until I met this girl! She already walks with me without too much resistance, and we even went outside! It took Bubbles weeks to do that. The one funny thing about her though, is that sometimes, when she doesn't want to walk, she tucks up her front legs and jumps! So that's why I'm calling her Frog. You've heard of a pig that thinks it's a dog, well, here's a sheep that thinks it's a frog!

Michael picked me up from the barn and we went to Subway for dinner! A nice end to a rainy day! =)

Today, I took the divider out of the guinea pig cage. Yep, after about a month, Maggie and Juni are back together! They are thrilled to have their big cage again and have been running and popcorning like crazy! Maggie is pretty glad to be in charge again… which means Juni has retaliated by spraying pee in her face. Oh, sisterly love!

date!

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It's Sunday! Today we had our ward Easter program, and it was amazing! The choir sang three songs (Michael played the piano for each of them, and of course he was amazing). The Spirit was definitely there as we sang, and I hoped the congregation could feel it too. I am really grateful that our Savior came here and was willing to sacrifice His earthly life to be able to save the rest of us. How amazing is that?

Yesterday we tried to go on a date, but basically, we realized that I am probably the most indecisive person ever. In the entire world. So Michael just got me in the car and we went out! We ended up going to Cici's Pizza for dinner- I haven't been there in forever but it was fun! My family and I used to go there sometimes and Karl would always try to take full advantage of the buffet!

We also had a Coldstone gift card and someone (aka Michael) was anxious to use it so we went there too. Yummy! I do miss real Italian ice cream though.

At the end of the night, we also ended up getting "Toy Story", which includes a free movie ticket for the third movie. Pretty good, huh?

Earlier in the week, I asked my mom to send me some of Maggie's "baby pictures". Look how sweet my girl was (and still is!):

sheep, pigs, and a test, oh my!

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Ever ride a bike down a huge hill, knowing you really need to use the brakes, but it feels so good to go fast that you just… don't? The weather today was beautiful, and yes, I was riding my bike, full speed down a hill. Spring is in the air, and I know that despite all my "grown up" worries (school, jobs, etc) there's still some kid left in there. OK, probably a lot of kid. It's just fun to let go once in awhile.

Today I had a huge exam. It was so hard, and I studied so many hours for it. I might not have done well, but at least I did my very best. That's all anyone can ask.

Last night, I got "my" sheep for the Livestock show that happens next month! Basically, I get to train it, bathe it and sheer it, then parade it around a ring and hopefully win a ribbon. I am so excited. I did this 2 years ago (missed it last year since I was in Switzerland) and had a blast. My sheep was "Bubbles", and we ended up 4th in our class. Not the best, but now I am more experienced so we'll see how that goes.

Here's a picture of sweet little Bubbles just for you to enjoy:

In other news, Maggie went back to the vet today. This could be the last time, unless I want her checked up on next week. Her staples are out and the incision healed, but it has to stay open to be flushed, so the vet cut it back open. Now I'm in charge of flushing it and filling it with this white goop, until she looks like a "jelly doughnut" (vet's words, no lie!). Anyway, I'm glad my little buddy is OK and still here with me.  If we didn't do the surgery, she would be gone and I would be very lost.

yumyums and more time at the vet

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I've had a lot of "firsts" in the kitchen this week! Okay, well, just two:

Yesterday I made pizza from scratch! My dough turned out great, but sadly, I tactlessly dumped too much tomato sauce onto my creation. This, in turn, caused some of the cheese to come sliding off before I could even get a good photo. Oh well.

Tonight, while hubby was out playing basketball, I decided to surprise him with one of his favorite desserts: cinnamon rolls. His mom makes the best ones ever, and I've never done it before, but I figured I'd try. Can't get better if you don't try, right? Michael ate 2, so either they're really good, or he has no taste buds… haha.

(the finished product!)

Maggie went back to the vet tonight. I was really hoping he would take the staples out, say she was back to normal, and send us home forever and ever. He did say she looks great, and for that I am so thankful. But, she does still have a little bit of infection, so he replaced the antiseptic gauze that was in her wound, and stapled her back up (I must add… she was AWAKE). My little girl is so tough.

Oh… and Juni feels kind of left out. So she asked me to post her picture:

vacation, shopping, and pigs

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This weekend has been so good! But it's the first weekend of Spring Break, so how could it not be? haha.

On Friday night we went to a really awesome Greek restaurant (I've looooved Greek food ever since I went to Greece last year). The food was pretty authentic, and reasonably priced, so it was a big hit. I'd definitely go back. It was also a great relief to do something fun and relaxing after one of the most stressful weeks I've had in awhile. I love date nights, and my hubby!

Saturday came and we slept in until about 10am! Ah, vacation. We started some spring cleaning. It feels pretty good to get rid of some stuff. Afterward, we went out to get a few things we needed (aka a hole puncher for my 1,000,000 pages of nutrition notes!), but we also went to the dollar store and I got some new placemats… spring colors, as opposed to the snowmen I had. blah). And I even got some pink fleece for half price at the fabric store to make some new beds for my piggies. You might be really bored reading this, but well, I find placemats and fabric oh so exciting!

(my new mats)

 

As for a "Maggie" update… she is doing fabulous. Today is the first day since her surgery that she has truly been her crazy self, and I'm glad. She's now somewhat tolerant of me syringing food and medication into her mouth, and she even rests her little head on her warm compress. On Friday night we temporarily divided the big cage in half so that Maggie and Juni could be "together" without Juni ripping out Maggie's staples or anything. Maggie immediately seemed more active and they have been giving little kisses through their divider. It's amazing what a friend can do for your attitude!

Maggie

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On Tuesday morning, I discovered a very large lump on poor little Maggie's neck. It seemed to have appeared overnight. Comparatively, it would be as though you or I had a basketball hanging from our necks (assuming you are human, of course…)

I panicked the entire day, and my worried mom searched for a nearby vet. I was afraid to have her examined, because I feared she had cancer. Lucky for us, mom found an exotic vet and we made the earliest appointment possible- Wednesday at 6pm.

I did my research beforehand and guessed it was an abscess- basically, a big pocket of infected pus. (you can see her lump in the photo below, taken right before we went to the vet).

I wrapped my girl up in her blanket and off to the vet we went. Of course, all the receptionists and technicians fussed over how adorable and fun she is. Oh yeah, there also might have been a comment of how incredibly furry she is =)

The vet examined her, and sure enough, my "guessed diagnosis" was correct. The only surprise to me was that we really didn't have too much time to act: the vet recommended doing surgery within the next two days. I've always said that I won't put my pigs under anesthesia, for fear of them not coming out of it (I've heard a lot of horror stories… and pigs are just so little!). He assured me that he hadn't yet lost a pig while operating, and he'd done much more serious surgery on older pigs.

Without surgery, there would be no way for her to heal. So, I bit the bullet, signed the forms, and prayed for the best.

Maggie had to fast for about 4 hours before the surgery, since guinea pigs have the tendency to regurgitate food, and during surgery, this would be very bad.  We went home and waited… and waited. We got a call at 1:45 am to tell us that the surgery was successful, and that the abscess was indeed "very large and very disgusting". Her skin was stapled back together, and she was awake. I was glad and could finally sleep.

(Maggie post-surgery)

At 7:30 the next morning (Thursday), we drove back to the vet to pick up my little sweetheart.  A technician brought her out to me, wrapped in her little blanket. As soon as she saw me, she started making her little happy noises (wheek wheek wheek).  I was given some pain killers, antibiotic, and  "Critical Care" (special food), all of which are injected orally. It's not an easy task! She also gets a warm compress on her wound 3-4 times a day.  I'm really glad it's spring break now, so I can actually take good care of her.

She is eating on her own, which makes me very very happy. Sadly, she has to live separate from Juni for the next couple weeks. Their cages are side-by-side, and this morning they touched noses through the bars and even gave some kisses. They miss each other. Well, Juni misses Maggie. Maggie might just miss being the boss of someone.

horse judging contest

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So, yesterday I had my first ever *real* attempt at horse judging.  This was practice for the team (which I'm still a little unsure about doing, since my semester is already so busy!).  I had a very good time, even better than I expected, although there were a couple classes that completely confounded me. I even managed to recite all my reasons!

Last night we went to an Institute bowling activity! It was so fun to see all our old friends and I didn't even care that my bowling was probably the worst it's ever been.

Not much else is new around here… the pigs have taken to tunneling under their blankets now. Every day. It's their new pastime!

Juni's trying out for the Olympics: the "Guinea Pig Mountain Climbing" division.

And Maggie is still a hay diva!

birthday! more snow… etc.

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Well, I am officially a year older! ….well, I guess I'm only a couple weeks older than the last time I wrote. Anyway, my birthday was a couple days ago. It was pretty fun! I gave blood, and nearly passed out. That's the first time that's ever happened to me (and I've given blood quite a few times). It was a little scary, since I started seeing a few white spots, and then almost everything was covered in white spots.  Suddenly, they had my feet up, a wet cloth on my head, and an icepack on my neck. Whoa! I got better within a few minutes, so no big deal.

After all that, we went to dinner at Olive Garden! (mmmmmm). They have good food, even though it's not really "authentic" Italian (after you've been to Italy, well, you're spoiled rotten).  The best part was when the waitors brought out a small cake with a candle in the middle and started singing "Buona Festa…". Fantastic!

Let's see now, this wouldn't be a REAL entry if it didn't include SNOW now would it? Last weekend we had about 8 more inches, which pales in comparison to the 30 that other areas got… nevertheless, school never cancels so 8 inches is pretty annoying.  I'm ready for June! We are due for more snow tomorrow night. Blah.

Oh yeah- we won a free iPOD! There's energy-saving program that Michael downloaded, and if you get enough people to install it, you get an iPOD. So… it's our first Apple product! I'm pretty excited! And it takes pretty good videos (better than my poor old digital camera)… so, there might be some guinea pig videos soon, which I'm sure you expected!)

School has been very busy… I have a lot more on my plate than I expected. Ah well. Sometimes it's tough but you just have to stick it out and get through it.

In recent guinea pig news… Maggie and Juni have a new toy! "Fiddlesticks"! Basically, it's this section of log-shaped wood pieces all connected together, and you can bend it however you want. They LOVE it!!

snowstorm and happy birthday maggie!

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On Friday afternoon, a record-setting snowstorm began right outside our very own windows! Both of us were at work, but Michael left early. He was supposed to pick me up from work at 6pm, but when he walked into the store bundled up and covered in snow, I knew the car hadn't been able to make it. So, we walked. Luckily, we didn't have to go very far.  Walking down a snow-covered street for about 25 minutes, the situation seemed quite surreal.  No one was to be seen, save two cars.

The next morning we woke up to about TWO FEET of snow! Naturally, we went out to play in it. The snow was so compact that Michael failed to make a snow angel… however, we did make the most handsome snowman there ever has been! After prancing in the snow for about an hour, we came in for some hot chocolate. Just like when I was a kid and we had big storms in NJ =)

Basically, everything this weekend was cancelled (work, Christmas party, even church!) so we just stayed in and relaxed.

Today is Maggie's 4th birthday! Happy Birthday Maggie!!! If you've never had a guinea pig, they are full of personality, spunk, and well… veggies. Basically, Maggie is the epitome of "guinea pig" and I am so very grateful to have her as my little buddy =)