Copper Update!

He has gotten over his shyness, and loves to grab the hem of my dress or gown and pull it.   I even got a belly rub in, last night.
He has a big personality, and now will even follow Buddyboo outside, and can go up and down the steps.  He is doing his jobs outside for the most part,  so he is learning quickly.

Here all 3 are in the middle of the floor.  Buddyboo is 14 so getting a bit cranky at times, with Copper.  The cat says as long as he doesn't pull his tail and eat his food, he is fine with him.

COPPER

Our new baby has a name.  Copper, because of his coloring.  He has had his first shots, and is a lot happier than he was on Monday when we got him.  He'd never been away from mom or his 5 siblings, and then the mean old woman who took him, got him jabbed with a needle first thing.  But he likes being in the house, and we are working on getting him potty trained.

He met 2 of our grandchildren yesterday.  Skylar just couldn't stand it that she hadn't seen him, so I drove over and picked her up, and we stopped at the store and got some toys and puppy food.  She insisted he needed a bath, so I let her bathe both him and Buddyboo. (Never turn down free help)  Then Stephen called, he was getting off work early, and wanted to come over and see our new family member.  Stephen started playing with him, and he flipped over on his back for a belly rub, when he will barely let me hold him. lol, but he will learn who butters his bread soon enough.   He has finally gotten to where he doesn't have to hide to sleep, he and Buddyboo

are stretched out facing each other, snoozing away.  Prettyboy, the cat, has finally quit hissing, and helps him eat his food.

New Baby

In early January, we lost our 12 year old lab mix, Flash, his story is on here. We missed having a larger dog, and Buddyboo the Weenie dog doesn't bark when people come in yard. I'd been looking for the right one to come along, and today, hubby heard an ad on the local trading time show, lady had 6 puppies that needed homes. I called and we drove out to look at them. Mother is a Husky or Husky mix, she was beautiful. There were 3 black, and 3 golds, their dad is a neighbor's dog. Anyway, I got the darker of the 3 golds, a male. He rode home without a whimper, but when we put him on the ground, he hid. Finally got him out from under the truck, and brought him in, and fed him. He had never been in a house, so he isn't sure what it is all about. He liked in the fenced yard. We haven't named him yet, will wait and see what his personality is, before doing that.

5th surgery

ON February 23, I went in and had surgery to find the cause of the fluid drainage. Turns out a hematoma had developed in the incision, and that was the issue. They cultured everything, and found no infection, but as a precaution kept me until Monday afternoon, and gave me antibiotics. I have stitches this time, because of my allergies to so many adhesives, and they used gauze and paper tape on me. Physical therapy came and walked me a couple of times, then kicked me out when I showed them that I could do the whole 'circle' of the floor with no issues at all and without help. Occupational therapy came and visited, but found I had all the bells and whistles already, after all my surgeries, and went on to pester someone else. I've been on that floor so much in the last 4 years, that the nurses spot my name, and come by to say hello even if I am not in their charge. And this time I was in the same room that I was in, in January, when I had surgery. I came home on Monday afternoon to some happy friends, Prettyboy had been missing his laptime, and Buddyboo, is always happy to see anyone. He even got in my lap for some cuddling and a doggie nap. He prefers sleeping in dad's chair so before long he was down and waiting for dad to sit down. Today is one week post surgery, I am doing well, and hopefully in a few days, the walker will be retired, and I can use the cane until hopefully it is no longer needed. No post surgery issues at all, except dealing with getting badc to eating the way I do, after all those big meals at the hospital. It takes awhile to get my system back to what it is supposed to have.

On January 24th, I had my 4th surgery in 4 years, and figured that was the end of it. turns out I am allergic to the bandages that they used and I had a terrible reaction. at some point, I ended up with a drainage issue, which has not gone away, dispite antibiotics. so tomorrow, I have my 5th surgery, to find what is causing the drainage, and hopefully take care of it. Other than this, I am healing in the hip well, and a lot less pain that I had before surgery, so this is a setback. I am sure after this, my healing will improve.

Another one...

3 weeks ago on Saturday, we lost our nephew today we lost his mother. Evelyn was known by most as Mutt, some childhood nickname that stuck for some reason. I couldn't bring myself to call her Mutt, she was a special and Beautiful person. I knew her almost 49 years, and in that time, I cannot remember 1 cross word ever spoken between us. She was a friend, confidant, and a baby sitter on occasion, when I was in need. I tried not to ask often, and she never said no. Dear Friend, Hug David for us, when you see him, I'm sure he is asking questions, and you and Kenny will get to answer a few. Love you and miss you, but I'm hoping to see you one of these days soon.

The Story of Flash the Wonderdog....

July 2006, we had gone to the store and bought frozen items, and our 3 year old grandson was with us. I had him in the back yard, while I was inside the shop putting items in the freezer. He started talking about a puppy, I thought he meant BuddybooWhodini our long haired Dachshund who is an escape artist. I said he better not have gotten out, where is he? JD said no Mimi, this puppy, and brought a little white and red around the side where I could see him. We went to every house in the area and no one was missing a puppy, which here, isn't too unusual, people drop them off, or did back then. Anyway he was hungry, and of course we fed him, and he stayed. He house trained in 10 days, no lie. There was only one problem, as he got older he and my smooth haired Jack Russell had a love hate relationship, Huckleberry Hound could not stand the dog that came to be known as Flash, the wonderdog part came later. You see, Huckleberry had been attacked by a Rottwieler and was deathly afraid of big dogs, and Flash grew fast and got to be pretty big. He was a mix of Lab, Pittie, and we think some Boxer mixed in somewhere. JD told me, Mimi, Flash is my dog, but he has to live with you. So for almost 12 years, he lived here. He was the most protective dog that I've ever seen. He hated the UPS and FedEx guys, they got on our property with those old trucks and came to the door. The mail carrier gave him dog biscuits, and he kind of liked her. The last carrier said he was no problem, so it was just some people he didn't care for at all. He loved food from the table, and was known to steal a biscuit or something off a plate, if you turned away. He kept us in stitches, at times, laughing at his antics. We tried to keep him up and out of the neighbors yards, but if he escaped, there wasn't a steak big enough to draw his attention from taking off down the road. Usually a couple of hours later, he would come back or I would go get him and drag him home. He was an escape artist, he would figure out how to dig under, go through, or over a fence. And of course BuddybooWhodini was right behind him, following in his footsteps, and usually he headed to the cow-lot nexd door, and came back smelling so pretty, he thought. There was no using a leash on Flash, you put it on, and he would promptly sit down, and would not move as long as that leash was attached. And collars, that was another thing he hated. We finally found an old leathr belt, and made him wear that until he managed to get it off and lose it. Nothing stayed on very long. He was a good house dog, except for stealing food, he didn't bother much. He did hate cats, and there is where he and I butted heads. I ended up raising 4 kittens on a bottle after their mother couldn't feed them. I brought the first one in at 6 days old, cold wet and hungry. The other 3 followed shortly, and they lived in my bathtub, until they were 5 or 6 weeks, then we kept 2 and I had no clue how I was going to keep Flash from killing them. But we did, he got scolded a few times, and I guess he figured out that they were staying whether they were wanted or not. He only chased them one time, and he got pitched out the front door, and never to my knowledge, did he ever bother them again. Prettyboy is a white mix between Siamese and Maine Coon, and weighs in at about 20 pounds, Flash would walk up to him, and Prettyboy would slap his nose, Flash would just whine, but he would steal the catfood every chance he got. Oh and he also stole a chocolate cake (yes I know chocolate is poison to dogs, but he did it anyway) he actually didn't eat a lot of it, it didn't have icing on it. These are just some of the antics he pulled, multiply that by almost 12 years, and it was always fun. the wonder dog part came as wonder what he is doing now. He could tell time, at about 10"00pm in the evening, he would go get BuddybooWhodini and tell him it was time to go outside and make their rounds before bedtime. We knew his time was limited, he was showing his age and just not looking like the boy he had been for so many years. He still wanted outside to make his rounds around the property, and would come back and lay in the garage until he was ready to come in for a nap. This morning when we got up, we found him in the floor beside the living room door, There ends the story of Flash, but it will never take away the memories of that goofy boy. RIP Flash, you crossed the bridge.

January 2018 started out

The same way that last year ended. Our nephew died on Saturday. Kenny was my age, and had a massive heart attack, his grandson got him out of his log truck, sitting on the scales ready to unload, but they couldn't revive him. So we start this year going to visitations and funerals. Seems as if that is where we spent most of our time last year, so I guess it is going to continue. Our weather has warmed up, and is above freezing for a few days. January and February are usually our months to dread. Arkansans are not used to cold temps. I will be having surgery, again, at the end of the month. I had hip replacement in January 2014, and the cup that the ball works in, has come loose. I told my doctor that my son in law said he had some glue that would hold it. And as a joke, I'm taking some 3 inch stainless steel screws to the hospital and tell him if he needs to, he can use those to hold it in place. Can you tell I really like my doctor. He hs replaced both my knees and this hip, but the failure is not something he did so we will meet again in the operating room in a few days.

An end of the year update....2017

We had our christmas, it was nice, the grandkids all enjoyed their gifts. One got a gun, one wanted a monitor holder for 3 monitors, and the other wanted a ukulele. Our Dirty Santa had not dirty gifts this year, all were good ones, and we had a great time stealing others gifts. We had decided with all that we had been doing, with dinners and whatever, that we would do something simple, so we had ham and cheese sliders, chip and dip and of course Mac and Cheese, homemade, because we can't have a get together without the kids ordering that. The one who got the gun came by and had grandpa put him up a target to try it out, since he lives in town, had to come out to the country. The other two, one spent 3 hrs putting the monitor holder together, and the other one held her ukulele and grinned from ear to ear. I hear she has been practicing every day and is learning. Now for us, the old couple in this story. We have been needing new floors in the kitchen and hallway for several years. Before Thanksgiving he ripped out the old floors, down to the subfloor, and started laying plywood and cement board getting ready to lay down tile. He and older grandson have most of the tile down in the kitchen, and it is going to look nice and clean when it is finished. The old floor was at least 23 years old and was really showing it's age. Me, I've been having what I thought was a pinched nerve in my back for about 8 months, and it just kept getting worse. I was sent to a back surgeon on Dec 19th, and it turns out that it wasn't my back after all, it was my left hip. I have had an artificial hip for 4 years, and a part of it had rotated, no one has a clue how it happened. They called in a specialist, and he said it was dangerous to walk on it, without support, and a wheelchair was even better. He scheduled my surgery for Jan 2nd...there is where things started going wrong. Between Dec 19th and Jan 2nd, there are not a lot of days to get the things done they wanted done. I needed to see a dentist, and there is the 2nd mistake that I made. I figured one of these chain ones would be able to get me in faster, so I made an appointment for Thursday the 21st. Just say that I won't ever go back there, and the name of it starts with a mon and the end of it is ark. No that isn't how it is spelled, but you get my drift. The dentist wanted a bribe to fill out the paperwork, I needed over $1800 in work by her estimation before she will fill out the papers. I didn't agree, so she sabatoged my surgery. I was told it was cancelled by the nurse, so I called back and made sure, before I went to another doctor. I saw him on Wednesday, Dec 27th, he agreed with the first surgeon, they did my bloodwork, and as soon as it is cleared, I'll get a call to schedule my surgery. I doubt it will be as soon as the other one, but that is ok... Now here comes the Kicker, today my cell phone rang. It was the other surgeon's nurse, not the one who had been so snotty, his real nurse, saying he wanted to continue with the surgery. I told her too late, that I'd already seen the original surgeon, and he was doing the surgery. Hung up, phone rang again, it was the surgeon himself wanting to do the surgery, I told him what had happened with his nurse, turns out she was a sub, and didn't have authority to say what she said to me. I told him that I had already seen anothe doctor, and was no longer interested. I have a feeling whoever that nurse is, isn't happy. I'd like to have been a fly on the wall. Anyway this is the end of the year update. I'll post developments as they happen, along the way. Happy 2018 to everyone, sure hope it is an improvement over 2017.

Christmas Day 2017

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS, though I know that your real birthday is probably sometime in September, this is the day chosen to celebrate your perfect birth. Christmas here is a bit sad for us this year, even though we know that he is with you, we miss David a lot. Sometimes when the phone rings, my first thought is that's David and when our dinner time rolls around, we'll miss him more, because he always enjoyed getting together and having a meal. And when time for our Dirty Santa gift sharing, he was always funny. I know there are a lot of other families missing a member this year, in fact, many that I know personally. To all those families that are 'celebrating' this first, our prayers are with you. Merry Christmas.

With a Sad Heart

A little over a year ago, I posted about our son, well actually he is my stepson, but I've been his stepmother for almost 49 years, had to have his leg amputated.   2 weeks ago, he went to the doctor, and they found that his big toe on the other foot was infected, he was in the hospital with 1 1/2 hrs.  On Thursday, they operated, found that the toe had been broken, the bone was dead, and had to remove it.  Friday morning, they got him up, and he walked around the room, which made him happy.   They were talking about him getting to go home on Monday, and he was thrilled.  At 3:45pm we got a call that he had crashed, and was gone, not sure if it was a blood clot, stroke, or his heart.  His wife had to 'celebrate' their 23rd Wedding Anniversary without him, 9 days after his death.  Pray for all of us, as we go through the process of grieving his loss. 

What a summer we've had, and it isn't over yet.

We thought that when school was out, we would take the grandkids places, and do some things.
We did, in a way, but not nearly what we had in mind.

On May 12th, we got a call, Jerry's son, David, was in the hospital and they were looking at having to amputate his toes.  He has diabetes, and had gotten an infection in his foot.  The did first amputate his toes, but found that it was worse than thought, so they ended up taking his leg up to about 4 inches of his knee. He was in the hospital 18 days then in physical therapy for about another 3 weeks.

While this was going on, Jerry's brother was in a nursing home about 40 miles west dealing with cancer of the throat.  So there were days we'd leave the hospital, head  west and spend time with his brother.

Also during this time, I was getting scheduled to have total knee replacement.

David got out of the rehab and got to come home, he is now waiting to be fitted with a new leg.
Jerry's brother passed away and was buried just before the first of July.  Then I had a schedule to get my my surgery done on July 19th.

This is all behind us, I'm 2 1/2 weeks past replacement, but Summer is almost gone, School is about to start, and none of the things we had planned have happened.  But we made it through, and we are looking forward to a fall that will be much better.

Iris and other shots around the yard.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO RUTH by Kevin Foster

This book is very well written, and you can tell that the author put his heart into it. My favorite thing about it is the PICK OF THE CROP at the end of each Devotional chapter. They give a vivid description of what the chapter is about. I really enjoyed reading this, and I feel rereading it will give me a lot beetter insight into the book of Ruth in the Bible.

You can find this book on Amazon, either in Kindle or paper version.  This is one book that I preferred the paper version, just the right weight and size to hold in my hand.

You can go to the website: www.ruthgospel.com  for more information about the author.

I was given this book by the publisher, in return for an honest review. No other compensation was recieved.  I am not required to give a favorable review.  All opinions expressed here are my own.

No Return by Stacy Claflin

I have a new favorite author.  In the past two weeks I've read 4 of her books.

You are introduced to Rusty Caldwell in the Gone series.  He's lost his wife and 2 sons in a terrible drunk driving accident, so he goes out at night in his tow truck, and tows people who have had too much to drink home from bars to prevent other families from going through what he's had to deal with in life.

He sees a blurb in the newspaper about a suicide, and when he reads it, it is his sister, who he hasn't seen in many years.  He decides to fly to Florida to meet her husband and children, and find the real story.  Almost immediately, his brother in law is taken in for questioning, and he gets acquainted with her children.
The next door neighbor was his sister's best friend, and after talking to her, they start wondering if the story they hear is really what has happened.

This is the kind of book you don't want to put down, until you know the ending, and you may think you have it figured out, but don't count on being right, I wasn't.

Gone by Stacy Caflin

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Gone by Stacy Claflin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, it has lots of twists and turns, and every time you think you have it figured out, you find you are most likely wrong. Stacy Claflin has done a wonderful job of keeping the suspense alive and the book never gets boring at all. I actually went to Amazon and purchased the rest of te series, because I had to know the rest of the story. That doesn't happen often, in my reading. Thank you Ms Claflin for a wonderful reading experience.


View all my reviews

Lolli and Pop by Carolyn Snelling

Lolli lives on Happy Street with her family.  Her father brought a puppy home, because the little boy who it belonged to, was allergic to it, they named it Pop.
This is a cute story and has a few more words in it than most childrens books.  I think most young children will love it, and the artwork is just adorable, it is by Izzy Bean
Well worth the price.

I was given a copy of this book to read and review.  No other compensation was given, all opinions expressed here are my own.

In Thistle's Memory

At 10:25 this morning, her heart stopped beating, her wings spread, and she was Heaven Bound.
At 10:25 this morning, my heart was breaking, though I didn't know it yet.  In fact, it was almost exactly 4 hours later when the email came in from her husband, letting me know.

I 'met' Thistle about 13 years ago, online. We had both joined an 'older women's group called MiniSkirts and BellBottoms on MSN.  We found that we had relatives in common, both of us were into genealogy.  Before long, we were exchanging emails, and found we had a lot more in common, including husbands who were 'collectors'.  We would see which one had the most 'stuff'.  Our other friends on MSBB (mini skirts and bell bottoms) got lots of laughs out of us comparing their treasures.

When MSN closed their groups, we moved to another site and continued our group.  And then Facebook became popular, and a lot of the members went there, and didn't visit the group anymore.  Thistle never got on Facebook, but we continued to stay in touch, mostly by email, and irregular phone calls,and made plans to meet in person.

Then I got the email no one wants to get.  My sister in Christ had cancer, she went through chemo, and they thought she had it beat, and we cheered.  Her doctor told her to go out and work on her bucket list.  We put the meeting in that bucket list, and continued to plan.  Then she got pneumonia, and her cancer was back.  She never fully bounced back from the pneumonia, and had many problems, but she still had hope,   She sent me her husband's email, in case she ended up in the hospital, so he and I could connect.  He's kept me updated over the past few  weeks, and when she ended up in the hospital about 3 weeks ago he has made sure to stay in contact.
This afternoon, he sent me a message that she was gone.  I told him I had suspected that, when in the night, I smelled her perfume. she always wore Shalimar,  I even made her soap and body lotion in that fragrance.  Her postman told her he thought something was broken in the box when he delivered it, because his truck smelled of that box.

So Spread those Wings dear Thistle, and explore HEAVEN in all it's glory.
I know you'll be waiting just across Jordan for me, or maybe you'll be the one to come and lead me home.  We'll sit on the banks of Jordan, swing our feet, and enjoy some good silly giggles and lots of hugs.
This isn't goodbye to my special sister, this is SEE YOU LATER