23 Feb 2014 ~ 7 Grateful Thoughts

Grateful this week for:

Patience
Recovery
Remembering
Rest
Help
My old van
Grandbaby smiles

I Had To Share This One---

I could not resist this one as one of my blogger friends winters in Florida!  What beautiful photos she posts and not a pile of snowy slush in any of them!

UFO McDonalds Roswell, NM

      I grew up in New Mexico, about 160 miles from Roswell.  7 years before I was born an airborne object crashed on a ranch near Roswell and Corona, NM.
      What it was, well, that has been up for discussion all of my life.  It could have been a top secret surveillance balloon ... the official government story, or it could have been aliens, as some people believe.   
     Heck if I know what it was.  I first heard stories about the 3 foot tall aliens that crashed, all deceased except for one, at school in the early 60's ... decades before books and the TV show.
        I just heard that Roswell has a UFO shaped McDonald's.  I don't know when it was built, but how cool is that!  I want to go!

Amarillo By Morning

     I love Amarillo!  Yesterday's sunrise was very pretty but look at this one!  We may have tornadoes, sandstorms and wildfires but those are just occasionally. We always, always wind but when I see the weather other places have, like the winter the NE has had this year, I am glad I live here.  Our weather is almost always sunny and when we have snow usually it melts in a day or so.  Today it is going to be 74 degrees.  My son moved to Seattle last August and I have to say I am pretty certain I would love it there too!  The photos he sends of all the beautiful things growing are just lovely and make me wish we could grow things like that.  But since I am here, and I imagine i will never live anywhere else, I will just enjoy the color in the sky.  What is beautiful where you live?

NewsChannel10

An amazing sunrise for the golden spread! Good morning everyone! Allan Gwyn

Gold

I  have really enjoyed watching the Olympic figure skating and ice dancing this year.  I just love the gracefulness, the flutterly costumes, and the music. The skating is just like poetry personified to me.  I am amazed at what they can do.  What has been your favorite thing about the Olympics?

Good Morning, Amarillo!

Not only do we have beautiful sunsets, we have awesome sunrises too!

NewsChannel10  photo by
Meteorologist Alan Gwyn

How about a colorful start to your day? Allan Gwyn

16 Feb 2014 ~ 7 Grateful Thoughts

7 Things That I Am Grateful For This Week

• Chili Rellenos
• Dr. Wise & Dr. Sheperd, our veterinarians
• Shoulders to cry on
• Sandwiches made with soft, fresh bread
• Avon's Overnight Renewing Foot Cream 
• Coca-Cola fountain drinks
• A high of 70 degrees today

And That Just Sums It All Up!

      Remember back on February 3rd I posted that I wanted all my February posts to be either funny or uplifting?? Well, I didn't plan on my little Gracie passing away ten days later.  Not too much laughing going on at my house today but I am going to try to think happy thoughts. 
      As one of my blogger friends posted, I am going to try to pick myself up, put my tutu on, and turn myself around.  Here is a funny photo of Andy.  He has to wear an inflatable "cone" so he can't lick....  This is what he thinks about the whole situation!  Me too, Andy, me too.

Gracie Didn't Make It

   

2009 ~ 2014

Gracie did not make it through the day.  She had lost too much blood and fluids.  I know the vet did everything she could to save her.

     She was a sweetheart.  I didn't know I was going to be getting a dog the day I met her.  I had gone to the city pound to get a discount coupon to have Zoe spayed.   When I went in the office there was this beautiful, but skinny, black miniature schnauzer that someone else had just considered taking home.  A volunteer had groomed her and she was just precious.  I had never seen such a starved dog in my life though.  Her skin actually hung down between her hip bones.  I suspect the other people did not take her because she looked so unhealthy.  The staff at the pound told me she had one more day before her time would be up.

      It was late November, in the middle of a horrible, frigid, snowy spell and the dog pound runs are cold concrete. When I saw how gosh darn thin that little girl was I just could not leave her there to freeze.  I have had schnauzers for about 30 years.  I love them because they have personality, they don't shed, they are intelligent, loyal, protective.  I would be happy to have another one.

     When you adopt a dog at our pound the fee includes spaying/neutering and you can not take the dog home until the contracted vet does the surgery.  Actually, I didn't think this emaciated  dog could survive the surgery but by golly by paying her adoption fee I could guarantee a crate in a warm vet's office, possibly with a blanket, for the night instead of a dog run open to the frigid winter air.  If she made it through the surgery then I would have myself another little girl to love.

      Well, she survived the surgery and I got to bring her home.  She attached herself to me and would not leave my side for the next 4 years.  If I sat down on the couch or in my big chair Gracie would be snuggled against my left hip.  She slept in my bed under the covers curled up in the bend of my knees.  I haven't been to the bathroom without her since the day I brought her home.  She did not approve of me leaving home without her.  Whenever I came back she had a specific wro-wro-wro bark, obviously telling me how much trouble I was in for leaving her home.  After she ate her dog food she always got in my lap, gave me kisses, looked me in the eye and I knew she was saying thank you for feeding me.

     Since I adopted her the day before she would be put down you might think I saved her.  The truth is she saved me.  I adopted her just a few months before my horrible, no good, very bad, mental breakdown and trip to that hospital.  When I came home from my 5 days in the hospital I was pretty much a couple of steps up from a vegetable.  I couldn't comprehend to read, I couldn't fix a meal, I couldn't function.  I couldn't make a decision to save my soul.  I couldn't drive.  All I did was sit and love Gracie.  For a long, long time. 

     Gracie refused to get out of my lap.  She insisted I pet her and if I didn't she would take one little paw and tap me until I did.  She cuddled with me, gave me kisses, snuggled with me and she loved me through the hell of a total mental breakdown.  She let me cry into her fur and when I would speak to her she kept her eyes locked on mine, listening to every word I said. 

      She loved my white schnauzer, Max.  Gracie was feisty and strong willed.  She was going to do anything Max did.  She even taught herself to lift her leg while peeing just like Max did.  :)  Max passed away a couple of years ago.  I know Gracie is with Max now, doing everything he is doing and they are having a ball.
-------------------------------
Sandie asked about HGE... this is what I found ... Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE) is a disease of dogs characterized by sudden vomiting and bloody diarrhea. The symptoms are usually severe, and HGE can be fatal if not treated. HGE is most common in young adult dogs of any breed, but especially small dogs such as the Toy Poodle and Miniature Schnauzer.^[1] It is not contagious.  The cause is uncertain. "Stress, anxiety, and hyperactivity are thought to be possible contributing factors in many cases of canine hemorrhagic gastroenteritis."   
---------------------------
I was so stressed over Andy and his surgery and I think Gracie just picked up on my stress because she was so attached to me.  Andy's surgery was suppose to take about 30 minutes but because of complications it took 2 and 1/2 hours.  The vet was very worried that his internal stitches would not hold when he had a BM and that he would need to go back in and redo them if that happened.  Andy came home this morning but had to go back this afternoon for them to check because he started bleeding.  He goes back Sat. morning and Monday morning.  He can only have chicken broth .  He is going to be a hungry dog.   

     

Andy Is Going To Be Just Fine!

      Andy was able to come home today after a few days in the doggie hospital.  He is going to be just fine.  However, my little black schnauzer, Gracie, is now in the doggie hospital! 

       Bless her heart, I just about lost her this morning.  She developed HGE and lost a lot of blood between 3 a.m. and 9 a.m. when our vet's office opened.  I was up at 3 a.m. and didn't notice anything wrong, but when I woke up at 8 a.m. there was blood all over the house and she was as still as could be.  Scared me to death.  
        She is on IV treatment and most likely will recover just fine as well.  Had I not gotten her to the vet as quickly as I did she probably would not have lived.  She will need IV treatment for at least 24 hours.      
      When I got her to the vet she was so limp I really thought she was all but gone.  She couldn't lift her head, much less sit or stand.   My third dog, Zoe, was hiding in the bathroom, looking as scared as I felt. I don't know how much more I can handle this week.  I am hoping for a dull, uneventful few days. 
     I do not handle stress well.  When i asked our vet what caused this condition in Gracie she said well, stress can bring it on.  I told her that Gracie had obviously been  looking for Andy, getting in his bed, smelling his "baby" and Andy's special blanket the day before, acing like she was trying to figure out what we had done with Andy.  She would smell his bed and toys then run in and out of the doggy door all day like maybe he would show up in the yard.  I think she was stressed over Andy being gone and obviously picked up on my stress as well.  That figures that I would have a stressed out dog!

Do I Look THAT Old???

My sister eats lunch at her Senior Citizens Center and today they passed this story around.  I thought it was too funny!

My name is Alice, and I was sitting in the waiting room for my first appointment with a new dentist.

I noticed his DDS diploma on the wall, which bore his full name. Suddenly, I remembered a tall, handsome, dark-haired boy with the same name had been in my high school class some 40-odd years ago. Could he be the same guy that I had a secret crush on, way back then?

Upon seeing him however, I quickly discarded any such thought. This balding, gray-haired man with the deeply lined face was way too old to have been my classmate.

After he examined my teeth, I asked him if he had attended Melbourne High School. Yes. Yes, I did. I'm a bulldog, he gleamed with pride. When did you graduate? I asked.

He answered, in 1975...Why do you ask?

You were in my class, I exclaimed.

He looked at me closely. Then, that ugly, old, bald, wrinkled faced, fat-bottomed, gray-haired, decrepit son-of-a gun asked, WHAT DID YOU TEACH???

Prayers Requested For Andy

     Remember Andy, my granddog?  He belongs to my daughter but he has lived with me for about 2 years because he has such separation anxiety my daughter could not leave him alone in her apartment.  He has wonderful lungs and vocal cords.  When she would have to leave him in the apartment everyone in the complex knew it.  People across the street knew it.  He made such a ruckus it sounded like he was being tortured.  He is fine with me and my dogs, even when I have to leave them alone for awhile, so Andy came to live with me. 
      Andy has a momma and a grandma that love him to pieces.  Our dogs are not animals - they are children who happen to have more hair and more legs than some of the other children.

       Andy developed an ailment that required treatment on a monthly basis, then more frequently.  The vet wanted surgery to be the last option after we tried everything else.  Well, after 14 months we had exhausted all means of help for him so Andy had surgery today.  
       It was suppose to be a very routine and easy surgery.  My daughter took him at 9 a.m. and he was suppose to be home by 3 p.m.   His surgery did not go well.  There were complications.  It turned into something more extensive than planned.  Andy had to stay the night.  Probably will have to stay at the vet's tomorrow night.  The vet would not let him come home because if he starts to bleed out he needs to be there where he can get the medical help he needs as soon as possible.  
      If Andy does not "make it" my daughter and I both will be just devastated.  We are worried. We are scared.   And it reminds us too much of when Max, my white schnauzer, had to have surgery at the same vet's office a couple of years ago and didn't make it.  It wasn't the vet's fault. Max had extensive cancer.  
      We knew how serious it was re: Andy's surgery when the Dr. said he had to stay overnight, maybe longer.  One of the treatments Andy had last summer involved anesthesia and when Andy woke up and realized he was there without his people he started his vocal separation anxiety protest to the extent that they had to call my daughter to come get him RIGHT NOW.  Evidently he was ok when they left for lunch but when the staff returned at 1:30 they could hear him from the street.  By the time they got the building unlocked he had all the other dogs barking and crying as well.  After that, they made sure my daughter was with Andy 100% of the time when he is in their office for any treatment.  

      When the Dr called my daughter after Andy's surgery and to tell her he couldn't come home today my daughter asked about the separation anxiety problem.  The vet said Andy would be on pain meds and would sleep.  It would be too dangerous to let him come home before tomorrow at the earliest. 
     We trust this vet and have used him with all our dogs for decades.  Even though his office visits have often been unpleasant, Andy loves to go to the vet's office and loves the entire staff.  He wags his tail and gives them kisses.  I know they will give him the best care they can.  But prayers are requested for Andy and for Momma and Grandma.  

      Remember Andy's "baby" that he has to put to bed every night? (Oct 25, 2013 post)   It sure was hard tonight at bedtime to see his baby in the floor, and no Andy to put it to bed.  My daughter and I both had a good cry.

    

7 Word Sunday ~ 9 Feb 2014

Life Was Made Better By & Grateful this week for ~

Grandchildren's hugs
gloves
Dove bath soap
Pipes that are not frozen
Email
Country music videos
Ice scraper

Walking A Cat

 

       I wish my son could have taken a video of his girlfriend's cat.  Living in an apartment, the girlfriend decided the cat needed some fresh air and outside time so she bought a leash and a halter.  The cat, who was quite a character, did not appreciate the gifts at all.
       She put the halter and leash on the cat and was going to walk him around the apartment to get use to it before taking him outside.  The second the girl put the halter & leash on the cat he fell over like the halter weighed so much he could no longer stand up. It wasn't too heavy - he was an adult cat who had never missed a meal.  She would pick him up, stand him on his feet, and he would fall over, quite dramatically.
      When she picked up the leash and gently tried to get him to walk he would remain on his side, slowly extending his legs, clawing the carpet, dragging himself along on his side, meowing pitifully, even though his human was not pulling on the leash. 
       The girl would talk to the cat in a soothing voice, trying to encourage him to get up and walk but no, the cat "couldn't" stand up. When the girl dropped the leash and thought she would just let him get used to it before trying to walk him the cat just laid there.  But wait! Hold on! A Miracle happens!
       When the girl headed to the kitchen I guess the cat thought he was missing an opportunity for a treat so he jumped up and trotted right behind her, halter, leash and all.  When the girl turned around and looked at the cat he suddenly remembered and fell on his side.  When the girl looked way and ignored him the cat could walk just fine.  Every time she looked back at the cat he would fall on his side!  What a ham! 

Picky, Picky, Picky

Re-Run Of Something That Made Me Chuckle

Picky, Picky, Picky

My daughter came home from her first day of one of her college classes today and told me the instructor told the class "I will give you my cell phone number in case you need to get in touch with me but please, do not call me at 3 in the morning, drunk, and ask me to help you balance your checkbook.  That happened last semester." 

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Where I live it is noon and a cold 2 degrees outside and I have probably 3 inches of snow in my yard.  I'm not going out to make a snowman -- don't have enough snow for that, nor do I have any desire to go outside but here are some winter cartoons. Stay warm!  :)

Maxine

Snow globe fish bowl

Blessed Are We Who Can Laugh At Ourselves

      Because this cold came right on the heels of the last bug I had -- which I am calling Cruise Line Crud even though I have never been on a cruise, which came on the heels of the honest to goodness flu, which came on the heels of my first go round of Cruise Line Crud, I am just drained.  6 weeks of being sick does that to me.  I am re-posting some old things. 
     Anyway, now that I have finished the last of the Dearest Dorothy books I need some humor so I am digging back looking for things from the past that made me laugh.  My goal in February is no depressing posts (or posts about depression).  This life experience made me laugh ... well, it made me laugh years after I got over the embarrassment...
 (written some time in 2012) 
      Since the last Morton's Neuroma flare-up I haven't taken anything for pain, like Tylenol.  After my major panic attack, mini-mental-crash the other day I have had a headache though, and have thought about taking something.  Anytime my brain thinks "Tylenol" I think of the old days at the placed I worked. 
      There was a time when the administration secretary kept "single serving" packets of pain medication in the office supply closet.  After I typed that I thought "dosage" would be more appropriate but I like single serving better.  
     Anyway (and any time I type "anyway" in my brain I hear Ellen's voice as she says that at the end of her show's credits ... if you don't watch Ellen then catch her show at least once to hear her say that at the end) ... have I lost you yet???
     Anyway,  employees used to be able to go to the admin secretary and get some kind of pain medication (and anyone working with the public on a regular basis has need for pain meds).  She stocked three kinds, Excedrin, Tylenol, and a combo pain reliever called Pain-Ease. 
      If you had a major big headache, or cramps of some sort "go for the big guns and start with Pain-Ease" we used to say.  Well, I worked with a young woman, probably 18 years my junior, at one point.  I was about 38 at the time, making her most likely 20.  Mothering is what I do so I often "mothered" her. 
       This one day she had a headache, cramps, Aunt Flo was visiting, and she just felt crummy so I said you need some Tylenol ... you sit down and I will go over to the office and get some for you.  She said no, get Pain-Ease instead.  OK.  I trot off to the office. 
      Before I get there let me tell you a bit about me .... I am clueless in many ways, I am naive, I speak with a funny combination ---- I sometimes talk really fast but people tell me I have a definite southern drawl, as in I really pronounce my vowels.  I'm guessing when I say Pain-Ease it sounded something more like Payyyne-Eeese, except sorta fast too. 
     Well, I get to the admin office and the supply closet door is locked.  It was lunch time and the secretary always locked up when she left her office for lunch.  OK, fine, the receptionist or a couple of women in the adjoining offices also had a key and so I looked in their offices for them.  No other woman was around. 
     Men used to terrify me.  I prefer to deal with women.  Oh, I should also insert that at that time of my life male authority figures really intimidated me.  Ok, back to my story. 
     I couldn't find a woman to ask but the assistant director (a man, who sat in on my evaluations, who was my boss's boss) was watching the office reception area from the open door of his office.  He asked if he could help me and I said "no, I will just come back when the secretary is here."  Nice man that he was, he said something like "well, I would be happy to help you, what did you need from the supply closet?"
       Obviously he heard me try to open the door. (Picture me sort of stuttering and intimidated by this -just-under-the-big-boss-in-authority male)   "Ohhkay, well, I was looking for some Pain-Ease."  He looks at me with a really weird look on his face, followed by a long moment of silence, and then he says "Uh, uumm, I don't think we have any in the supply closet." 
      Hhmmm.  Strange.  Not knowing what else to say  ("OK, thank you anyway" would have been a good choice but it didn't enter my mind at the time)  so I said "Oh... I've always been able to get some...." (him, looking embarrassed) ... uncomfortable silence .... slowly says "well, I don't know where they would be" (me --- thinking what is wrong with him, duh, they have always been right there on the shelf at eye level) so I say "you know, right next to the Tylenol." 
      He says "ohkayyy", and gets up, goes to the supply closet, sort of not looking at me, and unlocks the door.  He steps in the big walk in closet, hesitantly looks at the shelves and I point and say "see, Pain-Ease, right there."  He picks up a packet, sighs a BIG light-bulb-going-off sigh, gets beet red in the face and says "OOHHH, okay. Here you go." 
        I thanked him and got the heck outta Dodge!  As I walked back to my department I was going over that scene in my mind wondering why in the heck he was acting so weird when I just asked for some Pain-Ease, and why would that make him get beet red???  And then it dawned on me ..... he must have been hearing me say I need some "panties." 
      20 years later and any time I think of any kind of pain reliever, or think of panties, I relive that sensation of wishing the floor would open up and swallow me.  Whenever I am think about that day I often laugh at myself til tears run down ... my face, silly.   :)

"Blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves, for we shall never cease to be amused."
Author: Unknown

 

Re-Run Week, Or At Least A Few Days

     I want my February posts to be funny or uplifting --- because a majority of my blogger readers are either sick of winter, ill, on the mend, or facing some trials --- so I am going to recycle some things I wrote on a previous blog.  I'm recycling this week because I too am on the mend and can't think of anything funny at the moment so I looked through some old things I kept because they made me laugh or inspired me.  I would rather laugh than anything else, and I especially like laughing at myself (that would have been yesterday's post about the potential driver license photo)  LOL! This quote tickled my funnybone!

 

Quote of the Day!  :)

Regarding their marriage of 54 years Sherry quipped "I married Bob for money so I am going to stay with him until we get some!"

This was from an inspiring story in our local paper a couple of years ago about living with whatever hand gets dealt to you ...  http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2012-03-01/one-handed-adventure#.T1GTX3-qY3o.blogger

I Needed To Renew My Driver License....

      This is me on a fairly good day .... I never was a real beauty but Max sure was.  Max is my white schnauzer that passed away a few years ago.
      Since January was my birthday month and the year to renew my driver license (I always thought it was driver's license until I looked on the form) but anyway, being sick for 6 weeks with one virus or another I put it off until the end ... when I had a cold and fever blister.
     Yes, I know I can renew online but I wanted to get rid of the old driver license photo that I thought was the worst one ever.  Well, by the end of the month I looked like this ...

      Oh My GOSH!!!  Talk about feeling like you've been rode hard and put up wet!!!!  I was gonna have to keep that old driver license photo or have something that looked like this!  My cheeks are red with fever, there is that fever blister the size of a baseball (well, it felt like it) on my bottom lip which felt swollen like I had had those puffy injections,  and my eye swollen almost shut I guess from my sinuses or something. My sinuses hurt like heck anyway.
     I told my sister I should have a shotgun photoshopped in this picture, post it on my fence out side, put up one of those "we don't call 911" signs and I would keep away the riffraff forever!

7 Word Sunday 2 Feb 2014

Life was made better this week because of (and I am really grateful for):

• Zicam
• Puffs with Lotion
• Skyping with my son
• Clean, fresh smelling sheets
• Large print books
• Birthday greetings
• Socks -- soft, thick, new ones

( I KNOW, not just 7 words but "zicam puffs skyping clean large birthday socks" doesn't get the same thing across)

I Caught a Cold For My Birthday But I'm Not Complaining

       I am sitting here in my big chair, a dog on my feet, a dog in my lap, sipping on some lemon & honey, and smelling of Vicks VaporRub.  Considering it is cold outside I am just fine where I am.  I'm not complaining but I am getting pretty tired of being sick though.  

    It is going to get colder. No snow yet but the high on Thursday is suppose to be 13 degrees & snow all week so I am glad I have a warm home and don't have to get out in the cold if I don't want to. I hate driving in ice and snow. So far that is one of the best things about retirement.  This is what Amarillo looked like LAST February .... we don't expect anything like this for the coming week.  I hope.

     Since I don't feel like doing anything but napping and blowing my nose I have been delighted to have a series of books to read.  If you haven't read the Dearest Dorothy books by Charlene Baumbich, and you like humorous, clean stories then see if your library has them.  Better yet, purchase them online, enjoy them,  then donate them to your library.  (sorry, 20 years as a librarian causes me to push library use to keep them in business)  There are six titles in the series.  The title of book one is Dearest Dorothy, Are We There Yet? The bad news is there is not a book seven.  The main character is Dorothy and she has been real good company for me this week. I picture her as a combination of Fannie Flagg and Erma Bombeck's grandmothers.  I am reading book 6 and don't want it to end.  I care about these characters and that is a sign of a good author (that can make you care).

        I like to play Farkle and Words With Friends but this week I discovered a new way to exercise my brain (and that's my story) at http://www.craniumcrunches.com/

      My daughter made me the most delicious thing.  Our local grocery store had boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale recently so I bought a bunch and cooked them in the crockpot.  Once they were done I shredded the meat and frozen them in bags holding about 2 cups.  My daughter took a bag of frozen veggies, thawed (corn, peas, carrots, green beans), some canned chicken broth, a can of cream of chicken soup, a package of shredded chicken, some pepper, some sauteed celery and combined all that in a dutch oven with just enough water to the soup mixture and heated it up.  Then she took Pioneer Baking Mix and made dumplings to cook on top of the soup.  Oh my goodness, that was good!  It made a dutch oven full, and it was just to the two of us so even though we ate every one of the dumplings I still had a huge bowl of the soup left.  You know how the broth thickens up after you make dumplings?  Well, it was thick like that as you can sort of see in the photo, and even thicker after being in the fridge for 24 hours so the next night I ate the leftovers over biscuits.  Yum!