Kittens and Jamboree swaps

Monday 11th: Kittens doing some more exploring.
At midday Asher had a 1 minute Tonic Clonic seizure. Thankfully she was lying down when it started, so she didn't fall. I was also thankful that she had already had some of her lunch (earlier than normal) and so could just have her afternoon nap a bit earlier.
In the afternoon I headed into town with Rachel for an orthopaedic check up. It was good to know that enough movement has happened over the last 8 weeks, and they will not need to take teeth out. Today just involved changing the elastics that hold the wire on. The wire stayed the same. This wire pulls the teeth into the correct position. Future wires will work at helping the teeth to learn to stay put.

Here are photos comparing the day they were put on, to now, 8 weeks later. Just look at the shape of that wire and how much it has changed.
The wire has incredible technology. It was developed for space. They made their space vessel out of this metal and then almost froze it. At these cold temperatures, it is totally flexible, so they could pack it into a tiny little package and blast it up into space. Once in space, it was taken out it's "box" and with the warmer temperature, it would just move back into it's created form.
So you can see how this helps with braces. The wire will constantly work towards getting back to it's created shape. The orthodontist said that if she ever feels like just having a "break" from the pulling, she must eat cold things. The wire will "relax" at cold temperatures.

Tuesday 12th. Asher had the runs this morning, poor girl. She was really good at getting to the toilet in time, at least 5 times through the morning. She was clearly more tired than normal and brought her blanket and teddy from bed to rest in the lounge.

Still enough energy to smile for the camera. :-)
I saw the doc later this afternoon for the yearly paperwork for her Disability Allowance. I mentioned her diarrhoea and he was not overly concerned. He said that there are a few people in the area that have some bug (I can't remember the name) and that it can carry on for up to 3 weeks (with 1 to 3 motions a day). So as long as she is not lethargic and dehydrating, we don't need to be concerned. There is nothing they can do to help.
I got her onto our homoeopathic remedy for diarrhoea and thankfully she was fine by the next morning.

Brendon took the afternoon off so that I could head away at lunch time to fetch Ruth. They could only be collected from 1pm, and I made it there by around 1:30. I was glad she didn't have to wait too long for me.
She had an amazing time at Jamboree. She is very tired from not much sleep. Getting to bed at 10pm and up at 6. She did really well through the afternoon though and was much better than she has been after previous camps (even though this one was so much longer).
And just look at how many swaps she got for her hat. It looks great.
I was specifically wondering how she would do after a week of food that was not FAILSAFE. We have been working on healing over the last month with a very detailed supplemental programme. And it seems it has already been a huge help to her.
I had sent a bag full of FAILSAFE food as options for her if she wasn't feel good (or wasn't sleeping well), but she didn't eat any of it.
I knew she was doing really well when she told me that on the last night they had a little final ceremony with their Purple Panda unit (with 30 girls) before heading to the big final ceremony with the whole camp (1,400 girls). She had the courage to ask the leader if she could hand out the little Purple Panda badges that she had made.
Ruth was pleased to see how much the kittens have grown and how much they are enjoying exploring.

Ruth enjoyed taking some photos of them.
Just look how big they have gotten. Almost 4 weeks old now.

How cute is that little black and white face!

Wednesday 13th: Ruth enjoying some more close ups of the cats.
On may way into town yesterday I dropped Rachel off to spend the night with a ballet friend. They keep in contact regularly via text, so it was nice for them to get some time together.
My back has been hurting me quite a bit over the last couple of weeks, so I made an appointment this afternoon with our osteopath who has now moved to Kaipoi. Ruth travelled with me to the appointment and we picked Rachel up on the way home. The treatment was immediately helpful and even driving home was so much more comfortable. No more mornings waking up and feeling like I can't even stand up straight.
Thursday 14th: With Ruth back they got to enjoy play dough time. Ruth takes responsibility for supervising Asher as she is so good with her.

Friday 15th: Last night Puss was making a lot of noise in the passage with the kittens. The previous two nights she ended up taking them under Ruth's bed. On Wednesday night she had done that and her meowing at the kittens kept Ruth up for a while. So last night I decided to rather move them to the fire place area. This way they still have a protected area (that Shadow can't get to) and I get my passage cupboard back. :-) Thankfully Puss seems happy with it and stayed here the whole night.

It's gives the kittens a lovely play area.

And Shadow gets to sit and enjoy watching them without blocking the passage.

Once Asher was in bed I suggested Ruth get all her blanket patches out and decide where she is going to put them on her camp fire blanket.
She ended up getting 55 extra badges for her blanket. It looks great. Now just all the work of sewing them on.
She only ended up with 2 doubles. I asked Rachel if she still had some extra badges to swap (doubles that she had from her guiding days) and she did. So Ruth got a couple more swapped with Rachel. :-)
Her hat looks great too.


From the other side.

At 5:45 Asher had a 1 minute vacant seizure. She didn't breath through it again, so we were very thankful that it was so short. That big breath when it stops is such a relief for us all.
After a great 16 day break in December, she has now had 4 seizures in the last 16 days. So not a nice start to the year for her.
She didn't have a full hour nap which was good because it allowed her to have some time to play before bed (and still get to bed at the normal time). I was really impressed that she let Hezekiah join in with her new game. She has been playing with these bottles for a while, but yesterday I gave her some beads to add to the game. Hezekiah told me that he had sorted them so that Asher had all the green ones and he had the rest. :-)

Jamboree visit and puppies

Saturday 9th saw Rachel, Hannah and I head off to visit Ruth at Jamboree. It was great to just get to see the size of the campsite. Over 1,400 girls and 400 tents, it is quite something to see.
LEFT: This was the tent that Ruth was in with 3 other girls. 2 of the girls from Malasia.
RIGHT: A fun photo for CBee16.
BELOW: I had been having fun watching the webcam to see what the weather was like (and try and spot Ruth). So I suggested we hang around by the camera over the hour, as each hour a photo is saved. Brendon sent a message saying "I can see you". :-)
Ruth also showed us the catering tents and it was nice to get to spend some time with her.

They had a lot of activities set up for the day with all the visitors attending. The girls were each given 2 free tickets and Ruth gave hers to Hannah to enjoy this racing jumping castle.
One of the girls from Ruth's unit spent most of the time walking around with us. Ruth had a sore ankle, so it was nice that Hannah had someone else to "race" with.

It's huge.

And the final big climb and slide.
We went to the shop and had a look at a few of the other things that were running on the day. Ruth was getting more and more sore though, so we headed back to camp. I asked if she wanted me to give her a piggy back ride. She said yes, and Rachel offered to carry her.

I had gotten a bandage for her earlier, but once we were back at camp I organized some ice. Thankfully after resting for a while the pain eased. I was glad to hear afterwards that she left the bandage overnight and by the morning she didn't have any more pain.
Ruth had put big braids in her hair with the plan to take them out and have nice curls on the first day at Jamboree. It's rather tiring on her arms to do it herself though, so most of the braids were still in. Rachel and I offered to take them out for her. I'm glad we did as her hair looks so pretty when it's loose. And when they went swimming on Monday the girls all commented on how nice it looked. It looks even longer when it's wet.

On our way into town we had dropped Shadow off at Jess (her previous owner) as she had organized a Puppy Catch up for the afternoon. I wasn't sure if we would make it, but thought it would be nice for Shadow to be there.
Jess took this photo at home before they left. These are three of Shadow's kids. From left to right: Fitz, Promise, Corban and then Shadow.
BELOW: The dogs that attended the catch up. Numbered 1-8 from left to right: 7 - Shadow, 1,4,6 - some of Shadow's 5 1/2 month old puppies, 2,3,5,8 - some of Shadow's "grand puppies" who are 7 months old.

With Ruth's sore ankle, we stayed a bit longer at Jamboree and only managed to get to the park 10 minute before the final of the group left. Sow we only got to see 3 of the other dogs. What was really special for me though, was that Jess said she knew that I had arrived and was behind her because of the way Shadow had reacted.
And when we left their home a bit later, it was encouraging to see how happy Shadow was to walk out and jump into our van. I only realized afterwards how nervous I was about Shadow going back to her previous home. One that she had loved for over 4 1/2 years. I'm glad we are making her feel loved and accepted.
Sunday 10th: Asher has discovered these photos that I made many months ago. She loves placing them all out and then packing them away (repeated a couple of times).

In the afternoon Brendon and Hannah headed to the tea rooms for their outing. I had treated Hannah and Rachel to vanilla ice creams on the way home yesterday, so thought we would just continue with the vanilla ice cream challenge for Hannah. The idea is to have a new food (one that is not part of the FAILSAFE elimination diet) and see what the reaction is. Earlier in the week Hannah had tried just 1/2 an apple and unfortunately had a bad reaction. So we are trying to find nice treats that she doesn't react to.
I do still need to work on a post explaining it all in more detail. Sorry for the delay in that for those who are interested in more info. It's on my to do list. :-)

Jamboree starts and 3 week old kittens

Monday 4th. Ruth and I made the most of having Dad home today and we got some Purple Panda's made for Ruth to take on Jamboree.
Ruth taught me how to do it and I made a pattern for myself. I needed more than just to be shown once. :-)

These are the cute little pandas that we made.



BELOW: Ruth ended up with 100 swaps. 90 that she had made and 10 badges her brownie leader had given her. The 30 extra purple panda badges just to give away to her unit.

Asher saw me with the camera and kept saying "cheese". So I took a photo of her enjoying her milk kefir ice lolly.
Tuesday 5th: Asher patiently sat today and put all the dominoes back into their correct places. I knew it wouldn't take her too long to get this side of the "game" mastered.







At midday she had a 1 1/2 minute vacant seizure. She went very blue, very quickly, so I was so thankful that it stopped so quickly.

Wednesday 6th: Ruth enjoying a last cuddle before heading off to Jamboree for a week.

She got a lift with another guide from her unit. I had offered to take her to camp myself, but she said she would rather have me pick her up. She felt it would be more emotional to say goodbye at camp. And I think she was very wise in that decision. The other girl had a hospital appointment, so they left before 9:30am. They could only arrive at camp from 1pm, but Ruth was pleased with this arrangement as she said it would help the morning go more quickly. She was so excited about going to Jamboree, and to have to sit around the whole morning waiting to go, would be hard.
BELOW: They have a webcam set up at camp and I happened to spot Ruth this evening. There are 1,400 girls attending, so this was a real treat.

Thursday 7th: We had the kittens out for a bit again today and I put them on Hezekiah to have a little climb.

Friday 8th: I was glad to get this photo of them with Puss so that you can see how much they have grown in 3 weeks.

Asher has started playing "catch" with Hezekiah. I don't think she knows who is chasing who, but has fun running around and screaming in fun. Shadow joins in the fun too.

So sweet. Finally spending more time awake and starting to look at what is going on around them.
We had to smile at this photo. Shadow and Puss lying in the passage, watching the one kitten explore. Shadow so desperately wants to mother the kittens.