Happy Birthday to my dearest husband. You have made my life full and happy, and you have always been there for me! You truly are, my lover and my best friend!!!
I hope today is special for you and the year ahead full of happiness and joy! I love you!!!
On Thursday my Internet Connection was mostly down. We’ve been having problems with the connection for a few weeks. We’ve had two house calls now and hopefully this time they have it. If not, they will have to dig up the line and replace it. A really big deal!
Today I decided it was time for me to go out alone. Just a quick trip to the town hall to register cars, and the grocery. Two things became abundantly clear to me during my trip.
Fritz is doing better and we will bring him in for his doctor’s appointment in a few days. I didn’t feel the need to rush after he literally woke up and was back to normal. I’m still watching him like a hawk, but he does seem to have recovered.
The news, my dear friends, is very good. I will not need radiation on my nose! It is something I’d worried about since this all started, but today I learned that all is well.
I also had my head to toe check, and there are no other lesions at this time. Good, good, news!
Then I went to get my stitches out, and that was when I got the bad news.
I suppose it is not completely bad news, I mean the stitches are out, and the cancer is gone.
The bad news is that they want to wait several months before they finish my face. It means I will walk around looking like this:
for quite a while. I have never thought much about my face, but today, when a four year old little girl was frightened by my face, I admit, to dissolving into tears.
I got no good answers from the plastic surgeons, nurse practitioner. She was the one who took out my stitches. She was rather curt with me, which only made it all worse.
I wonder how long it will be, or if I will ever be able to look in the mirror and see my familiar face.
I am trying hard not to be too worried, but I am. This time I am worried for the one part of this whole process that I hadn’t considered.
My self esteem.
Right now it is in the basement!
1. This week’s Hodgepodge is Volume 123. What’s something you’ve done recently that was as easy as 1-2-3?
It seems that lately, nothing has been as easy as 1,2,3. Maybe it’s the ability to look at my daughter and granddaughter and feel such incredible love. That is so easy that I don’t think about it, it just is.
2. The Wednesday Hodgepodge also happens to fall on the first day of May …what is something you may do this month?
The first day of May is my busy day. I have three doctor’s appointments that day, and get my stitches out. This requires a 45 mile drive each way. I’m glad Hubby will be with me.
3. The Englishman Horace Walpole is credited as saying, “The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think” How do you see it?
If I didn’t laugh at most of what happens in my life, I would be crying! Mostly, I try to laugh and not let thin gs get me down too much.
4. May is National Hamburger Month…how often do you eat a burger? What are your must-haves when it comes to burgers? I assume you vegetarians won’t be celebrating so tell us what you’d like instead?
I love hamburgers. I’d say I have one every couple of weeks. I love hamburgers with tomato, lettuce, ketchup, and cheese. Occasionally bacon slips in there too.
5. Pansies, petunias, geraniums, impatiens…of the four mentioned, which is your favorite in a patio pot? Will there be pots on your patio this spring? (Or whenever spring comes to your part of the globe?) Who does the gardening at your house?
I’m the gardener. Although, I am not much into flowers. I suppose impatiens.
6. When did you last (literally or figuratively) shout “Mayday, Mayday!”
My ex-husband’s birthday is on May 1st and I used to joke with his mother that I was just sure that she cried “Mayday” when in labor with him.
7. Say farewell to your April in ten words or less.
Good bye surgery. Let’s hope there is no more!
8. Insert your own random thought here.
The seeds are planted and the sun is shining. Soon I will have little baby plants. I feel such excitement that it’s another year and another garden!
We’re worried. Fritz is not himself. It started a few weeks back, but it was not too bad. Then over the weekend Fritz began hiding and pacing and nervously trying to get into the smallest place possible in the house.
At lunchtime we let him out for his wee=wee, and usually he goes and comes right back in. But he didn’t. I jumped in my jeep and drove out calling his name. I found him, but away from his safety zone.
On Monday night when I went to get him in, he back away from me. I stopped and gently called to him and eventually got him in. But he seemed afraid of me.
I’m so afraid for our boy. Fritz will be 10 years old in July. He is definitely a senior citizen. He sleeps more than he did, and isn’t hungry like he used to be, but he has always been in good shape.
Now, not so much. We’ll get him into the Vet’s in the next few days. We’ll see what they say, but we are both afraid for our boy.
Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend! After all, you never know when you will need an alibi!
***************
In the last few months I have faced uncharted territory. I figured I had a small and insubstantial cancer, when in fact I have had to switch gears and recognize that in many cases, cancer is cancer and must be fought with every fiber of ones being.
It’s been a real roller coaster ride for me since the day in February when Dr. A called me and told me that the biopsy came back positive.
I thought it meant a quickie surgery, a couple of stitches, and then it would be done.
But then, cancer is cancer, right? Nothing is that simple.
Before I knew it, I had surgery, lost a large portion of my nose and I looked like the elephant man. I went into shock.
And I became depressed.
How can one not get depressed when they are really counting on the happily ever after and suddenly have to face the fact that it will be a long road.
For a while I couldn’t even think of my summer garden. I’ve had one for years and enjoyed it so much. But this year, it seemed like more than I could think of.
Then a few days before my latest surgery we were shopping in Walmart and I was in the garden center when I saw a seed section. My mind began to think about the joy, the love I have with growing our vegetables.
So, I went over and started grabbing packets of seeds. Hubby got me some wonderful soil and we came home.
I knew all my supplies were there, I just needed to sit down and do it.
So, on Sunday, I went out and while listening to my MP3 player, and with the company of my dogs, I started all my seeds (except my peas and beans, which I plant right in the ground).
You see, a garden is life’s way of giving me hope. Hope for a complete recovery, hope for a future of health and happiness.
As I potted the soil and put in the seeds I laughed, smiled and a tear fell from my eyes. One day I want to teach Savannah all about planting a garden. I want her to see how wonderful it is to plant a seed and watch it grow into something you can eat!
I was lying down in my recliner, taking a rest and watching movies that I have seen a gazillion times before, when my cell phone rang. It was my daughter, Mandy!
She asked me what I was up to and I admitted that I was not doing a darn thing.
In fact, watching the bad TV and sort of drowsing in a semi-state of sleep, was just wasting time.
She asked if I might like a visit? A visit with her and my favorite little grand-baby!
She did not have to twist my arm or ask twice! And a mere hour and a half later, they arrived!
Now just look at this little girl? How can I stay depressed and feeling sorry for myself when I have Savannah playing with me?
She is crawling and climbing and taking steps. She handled herself pretty well with the dogs, and flirted with Hubby!
Savannah and Mandy were simply the best medicine that I could have had today.
Thank you so much, girls!
Today I will have Hubby set me up at a table with a spade, my seeds, and the cups for planting the seeds.
Yes, today will be seed starting day!
I am determined to get these seeds started now, so that around June the first I can plant the plants in the garden.
This year I got disease resistant seeds for the zucchini and summer squash and cucumbers. The last couple of years I have had a little problem with powdery mildew and then leaf curl.
I’ll be buying my tomato plants and my eggplant plants. Now doesn’t that sound funny?
I was peaking outside today and noticed that the lilacs and forsythia are starting to open their buds.
The next week we will have temperatures in the 60’s, so I am thinking that the shrubs will start to really blossom out!
Oh, I just love spring in New England!
A young friend of mine was out shopping recently and saw “the cutest puppy ever” in a pet store window. I know how that is. I’ve seen the dogs too, and so wanted to throw caution to the wind and buy the dog on the spot and become a pet owner.
In the past, what stopped me was the crazy prices that these stores charged and the fact that I was very poor,
But as I grew older and learned more, I learned all about puppy mills, sick animals and broken hearts.
So back to my friend, who fell in love with a puppy, bought him on the spot and two days later was dealing with a very sick puppy, whose chances of survival are not good.
My friend went back to the store and naturally they do not want to refund the money for the dog, or for the money spent on the Veterinary. The best bet in this case is Legal Aid and the Attorney General’s Office for Consumer Affairs.
I’m taking this time to remind you all to stay away from Pet Stores. They primarily deal with puppy mills and the animals are rarely in good condition.
There are actually a few ways to go when you make up your mind to adopt a doggy into your home.
First, the local Humane Society have dogs all the time. Puppies even, desperately needing homes. They are mixed up jumbles of DNA, who more than likely will have fewer genetic problems than that Pet Store Puppy will.
The other good thing about shelters is that they have Vet’s that come in and make sure that these animals are in good health, and they spay and neuter them.
If you are really set about having a certain breed of dog in your life, then let Mr. Google help you out. Type in the search box say, “Dachshund Rescue and your state” and you will find that almost every state in the country have rescue groups with pups ready for a place to call home and people to love.
Pet ownership is expensive enough these days without falling in love with a pup that will drain your pocketbook in the first few days you have them, just because of the horrible puppy mill people who breed them.
4 years old!
Today Anneliese’s puppies are four years old. He is a short montage looking back as well as a few new ones,