Oscar Stew

It’s been a tough day here at Oscar Stew. Oscar passed away yesterday…

We’re not really sure what happened. Everything appeared to be normal, and Oscar seemed to be happy & healthy. We’ll probably never know why, other than it was just Oscar’s time to move on. We will miss him, Drew especially. 

Drew had a hard time expressing his feelings. He grieved the only way he knows how: through art.

The best thing for us to do now is to remember all the great times and fun memories we have of Drew’s first pet… Merry Christmas 2006! A much younger Scoob and Osk are just getting to know each other. They were best buds right from the beginning.

At times I think Oscar was a little unsure of his new owner, who was a baby himself.

It was fun to watch their relationship bloom as they began to see eye to eye.

At the time we were living in a really small (and stinky) apartment. We needed a friendly rodent to warm up the place, make it more homey. 

Even Brinley loved the piggy. Look how small she is!

We enjoyed having Oscar share our little apartment with us, but space was pretty limited!

We still managed to find plenty of things to do where we could include him, like playing games…  

Playing dress up…

Reading books…

And watching the rain. (*no guinea pigs were harmed in the taking of this picture).

 

And let’s not forget that Drew was a very good Piggy Daddy, and maintained the first guinea garden all by himself!

Unfortunately, our limited gardening abilities gave us limited results.

Oscar appreciated his efforts all the same. Yum!

Oscar was included in anything and everything. He was loved.

It wasn’t much later that we scored the renter’s deal of the century and moved into our new palace. So much space! So much grass! munch, munch.

All new adventures to have!

Many new places to explore, although I can’t say that Oscar was thrilled with this one…

So much food to cook. Hey wait a minute!?

Even a new furry friend to show who’s boss.

Yes, Drew and Oscar were quite happy indeed.

When school started for Drew, Oscar was there to help him every step of the way… munch, scribble, munch.

If Drew didn’t get it all done there was the law to answer to. Stick ’em up! Oh sure shoot the tutor!

We even (accidentally) grew our own guinea pig food after his bowl of seeds spilled in the yard. feast!

It’s hard to believe Oscar’s gone until you go into Drew’s room and notice something’s missing. No more “weet weet” sounds every time the refrigerator opens. No more mad scramble into the purple hut when you enter the room. We had to throw away an apple core today. It was sad! (and so wasteful!)

I love you oscar. I really love you very much. I miss you a lot. You are my friend.

Drew’s doing OK. He understood that Oscar wasn’t going to live forever, and that he’s still alive & being taken care of. I think Drew was happy to find out where Oscar is, and who is in his company.  He is pretty sure that Oscar is watching him everyday. All guinea pigs go to heaven, right? We believe so…

Sick inside. Cold outside. Feeling icky during icky weather adds up to a double fever. I haven’t left the house in a week now, I’m starting to get that itch, or is it a twitch? twitch? twitch?

Brinley is finally on the mend. After some scary high temps she is back to her feisty self.  Remind me that’s a good thing, okay?

We discovered that “sick milk” comes in PINK. I didn’t have to beg her to drink it anymore. Because color is more important than flavor, right? mmmhmmmm. I was greatful for the pink sick milk and the peace of mind that even though she flat out refused to eat anything for two days, I knew she was getting some nutrition.

During our down time we took the opportunity to make the most of our abundant girl time.

Rowan made peace with being left on the floor. She’d much prefer to play with crinkly fruit snack bags over toys, so we did indulge her every once in a while.

Throw me a bone, will ya?!

Hey this bone tastes like apple! Thanks! How many licks does it take?

Last time we were at the library, Drew picked out THIS book. Ever since, he has been collecting any and all manner of junk that may or may not be craftable. Mad scientist Drew got busy building his robot while Brinley dozed and watched movie after movie. I’m proud to say that he mastered the glue gun with only the very minorest little burn on his finger.

That robot’s got some hairy eyebrows. Oh that’s right, those are optical lens cleaners. Sorry.

Observe! My creation is almost complete! That is a rare 16 cent pint of B&J’s folks! Hooray for coupons!

Uh oh, I’ve got extra parts. Did I miss any steps?

Behold: Junk*E! He’s already drawn up plans for Trash*E, if anyone wants to donate parts you know where to find us. ha!

It is wintertime, so rather than wish death to Hammy, he provides us daily entertainment. Opening the door this much is just enough to drive Cheddar and Hammy completely crazy.

Next time we have double the fever we will be triple-prepared: Grandma J sent us a sweet Play-Doh toy, a DQ gift card, and a designated “Feel Better Bear.” Thanks Grandma J!

We are very much enjoying our new church schedule. As hard as it is to get everyone up, ready and out the door by 9am, it sure is nice to come home and have the whole day ahead of us!

This last Sunday the kids had quickly burned through their daily ration of construction paper, so it was time to open up a whole new avenue of cheap creativity: marshmallow tinker toys!

Arrr! Here be One-Eyed-Cap’n Drew deep in the construction process.

 

 

As with any other craft, both kids were quite serious about their creations.

Cubes were the most favorite builds.

Or maybe the easiest and most versatile?

 

Even more favorite was eating the creations. Waaaaaaay tastier than tinker toys.

Drew got very technical in his Mater tribute, but found that marshmallows are not as dense as he had hoped. It’s OK Drew, Mater isn’t big on details…

Got ‘er done!

After the marshmallows had dried out they were tough as nails and D&B discovered that they could actually play with their new toys. Double the fun!