Hello Monday

Hello friends, how are you? There’s not a lot going on with me right now but I did want to catch up with you. I am quite okay with nothing going on. I have been working and taking care of all of the babies. Taking care of the babies is actually a lot. Four cats and a very large dog can take up a lot of your time. I have been to some thrift stores and a couple of estate sales and I will show you a few of my favorite finds. I have several knitting and crocheting WIP’s. That stands for Work In Progress. I am working on a new shawl, some socks, an afghan for a Christmas present, and a Halloween cross stitch. So I have a lot to do to finish all of those. I will keep you posted.

I had a visit to the dentist last week to get my Invisalign Braces checked and possibly to see if I was finished with this little season of torture I have been in, Just kidding it hasn’t been too bad and I have lost sixteen pounds since starting. so that is a very good thing. I knew two teeth were not quite together and touching the way they needed to be and sure enough more trays were ordered. I will be in these another two to three months. Boo, I am little sad but I want them to be the way they need to be. If you missed my post about getting my braces you can check it out here.

A couple of weeks ago my sister and two nieces and I went to Knoxville with my future niece in law. She had reserved a time at a bridal shop to try on wedding dresses. So fancy. My wedding dress actually came from JC Penney’s. I ordered it. That was a different time. I am overjoyed that she is experiencing everything possible on her wonderful day. I was so happy to be invited for her dress shopping. I had never been wedding dress shopping. The shop was beautiful and they served us champagne and took photos and it was just lovely.

***It was a family effort to help pick the dress.***

My sister and nieces and I took advantage of being in Knoxville and decided to check out Vintage Market Days. This is a fairly big show with antiques, crafts, lots of Christmas and Halloween decor and it happened to be going on the same weekend. It was a lot of fun but I didn’t really find a lot. I bought two small pictures and a small basket. I am collecting baskets to make a basket garland to hang on the side of my kitchen window. It’s not one of the huge garlands that some people are hanging around their mantels. Mine will be small compared to those. All of my baskets are fairly small. I saw a post on Instagram where someone had done this and I loved it.

***All of these baskets could fit in the palm of your hand. I like the small ones. It is so much fun looking for them and not as easy as you might think to find them.***

I have been working on a granny square blanket. I am using eleven different colors. Each square has four different colors. I put all of the colors into a bowl and randomly draw out four. Those are the four I use for that particular square. I am loving this. Some of the colors seem weird together but when I crochet them into a square they look very unique. I try to do at least one a day.

***Here are the colors and a few finished squares.***

***I put a piece of each color in this bowl and draw them randomly.***

***My big bag I use to keep everything together***

One of my favorite thrift finds so far, is this precious clock that I found at a garage sale for $1.00. It is about 8 inches tall. I told my friend I was with, that even if it didn’t work I could replace the clock movement. The woman selling it told me that it chimes every hour and drove her husband crazy. I took it home and put batteries in it and it works perfectly. It also keeps perfect time. It chimes a different tune every hour. I love it!!!

I wanted to mention a few books I have recently finished either by reading or audio book. I will do a much better review of more that I have read very soon.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I can’t believe I hadn’t read this book before. I love Ann Patchett. But it was not one of my favorites of Ann’s. But I did enjoy it. She is such an amazing writer. I would give it a 3 out of 5.

This is the story of Lara and her three daughters who return to the family orchard in Northern Michigan. Lara tells her daughters about her past when she worked for a theater company called Tom Lake. She also shared her romance, or most of it, with a famous actor Peter Duke. Delving into her past makes the daughters consider their own future. It is definitely worth a read especially if you are an Ann Patchett fan.

The Correspondent. This was an audio book for me and it was a little long in places. But the letters that Sybil Van Antwerp wrote to her brother, her best friend, to famous actors, etc. makes you want to consider writing a letter, not a text, to correspond with whomever you want to. Why not? I grew to love Sybil and felt totally in tune with her. I would give this a 4 out of 5.

Theo, oh Theo how I want to be you when I grow up. I was a little late to the game of reading Theo of Golden, but it is a book I will treasure. Theo arrives in a small southern town and visits a local coffee shop. He notices pencil portraits of people of Golden hanging on the walls of the shop. Theo begins purchasing these photos and gives them to each person in the photo. There is a reason Theo picks this town and you will discover that when you read the book. Theo made me want to be a better person, a more loving and forgiving and kind person. How many authors can do that? I give this a 5 out of 5. I will always have this book in my library. Read it!!!!!!!

So that is what has been going on with me. How about you?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Goodbye Shady Sadie

Hello friends,

Last week was a very sad week. I had to say goodbye to one of my sweet kitties, Sadie. We always called her Shady Sadie because she was so elusive. She would stay out all night and wander in at all hours. We would stay up half the night trying to get her to come into the garage and out of the path of coyotes.

Little Sadie was close to four years old. Back in 2022 her mom, Allie cat, came to us and within a week had brought back her four kittens. Milo and Buster, the two males lived with us for about nine months before Milo was taken by a coyote and then Buster disappeared. We fear that a coyote also got Buster. That left Allie cat and her two girl babies, Sadie and Izzy. We started corralling them and putting them in the garage every night where they would be safe. Sadie always gave us a rough time. Some nights she would come in easily and others we would be up half the night trying to get her in.

A strange thing is that all of these kitties have remained fairly feral. They would never let us pet and love on them. When it came time to taking them to the vet it was a Herculean effort. They are so different than our inside babies, Gus and Kitty Kitty.

The weekend before last I noticed that Sadie was very lethargic. This was so unlike her. She would lay on the driveway for hours. When it got hot she would move to the shade and finally into the garage. I also noticed she would not sleep next to her mom and sister. Also unlike her. On Sunday afternoon I walked up to her and actually picked her up and she didn’t try to claw me. I knew something was up. I noticed then how thin she had become.

On Monday morning I called the vet and they got us in pretty quick. They did a series of tests and came back with bad news about her blood being very low. They said she needed a blood transfusion before they could really do any other testing. They called University of Tennessee Vet Clinic and they had cat blood, so we took off for Knoxville. It is about an hour from me.

***Always on the prowl and always protecting us.***

We went through the emergency entrance and they took her right in. They needed to do a lot of blood work to find out why her body was not making blood. Of course the word cancer was put out there as a high probability. I had to leave my sweet girl there for the night. I knew how scared she was and it killed me to leave her.

For the next day and a half they ran tests on Sadie. Sometimes the updates were hopeful and sometimes not. Finally late on Tuesday they called and told me they had the oncology results and she had a very rare form of cancer. I had a couple of options. Bring her home and give her meds that “might” keep her alive another two weeks or do nothing and she would live a few days. They also told me I could just let them put her down there while she was at the hospital.

I can’t begin to tell you how hard this has been to go through without Mark. Not having him to share ideas and thoughts and ideas what should we dos. I called my sister and my niece and got their thoughts. I decided to go ahead and let Sadie go. If I had brought her home she would have had to be kept in the bathroom so I could give her meds. She would have hated that. She was truly a free spirit. Fortunately this type of cancer is not hereditary.

My sister and I drove to Knoxville the next morning. We got to see Sadie and pet and love on her. I had never been able to do that. I told her to go and be with dad and Milo and Buster and Scruffy and Molly, and she did. I told her we would all join her soon. It was quick as she crossed the Rainbow Bridge. I can only imagine how happy Mark was to see her.

So I have shed a million tears this past week. I know I had to do what was right for her but it hurt so unbelievably bad.

Sweet Sadie, Fly high sweet wild girl until we see you again.

***This is a pic of Sadie and Allie and Izzy. Since Sadie has been gone Allie and Izzy seem to be looking for her. I tried explaining it to them but I’m not sure they understood.***

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday

Hello friends and happy Monday. I want to get back to a regular posting schedule. I think it will be good for me. Also, my Word Press subscription renewed and I hate wasting money. And I miss all of my blogging buddies so much. I still read many of your posts but I am a bit behind.

I shared with you on my last post about losing my sweet husband. If you missed it you can read it here. I am trying to navigate this life without him and I will be honest, at times it is unbearable. It is such a new world for me and one that I did not want to be a part of. I will carry on. I know he would want me to. I just don’t know how to do it yet.

Unfortunately before the end of the year we had more loss. My oldest brother Donnie passed away three days before Christmas. In November he suffered from what we thought was a stroke but it turned out he had several lesions on his brain that were cancer. He did ten radiation treatments that we hoped would slow the progression of the cancer but it really didn’t. He came home with hospice about two weeks before Christmas and had all of us with him for his last days. We also lost my sister in law Pat, not my brother Donnie’s wife, the day after Christmas. She was diagnosed a few months ago with ALS which is just a terrible disease. She had actually had a lot of the symptoms for over a year. We had two funerals within a week. Sometimes it’s just too much.

The babies are so much comfort to me. Bunnie, our big Golden Retriever who came to us back in June, is getting as big as a house. She has also become even more needier than ever, if that’s even possible. She is still terrified of people and I am trying to work on socializing her more. We take short trips in the car and come right back to the house. I am hoping this helps.

All of the kitties are fine. I know that Gus and Kitty Kitty miss Mark. They still look for him at times. I don’t think the outside kitties really realize what is going on but they have been extra sweet.

I have been at home a lot. I am back at work pretty much full time and it helps to have the structure. Otherwise I am at home. I watch too much T.V. and scroll my phone but I think I just do what I can do to survive. I worked several jigsaw puzzles during the last few months and I have gotten back to knitting and crochet. I attended a twelve week grief share at a local church in town. It helped somewhat. I take lots of walks with Bunnie. She needs at least two walks a day for all of her energy. I also take a lot of pictures.

Something I have discovered about grief is that it truly has many many layers. I have unbelievable brain fog. I actually lost my drivers license, my phone and my glasses all in one day. I eventually found all of them and they were not all in the same place. I found my glasses in the silverware drawer. Usually I have a melt down every time this happens.

***A chilly morning out walking with Bunnie***

***Gus and Bunnie in a very serious conversation***.

***Allie (Mama Cat) and her daughter Izzy. They are inseparable.***

***My brother Donnie and I. He was about sixteen here and I was about 6 months old. He was just the best big brother in the world.***

***Kitty Kitty loves lying on the puzzles.***

So that is a bit about what I have been up to. How about you? How is your year starting out?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Hello Monday, Goodbye July

I always say how fast the days and months are flying by, but let me tell you it seems as though July lasted an entire year.

First of all the heat was crazy hot, the humidity felt like you were walking through water, my hubby and I had to do another overnight to Nashville at Vanderbilt hospital, I had blood work and a doctor appointment, also a trip for me to the dermatologist to have some places taken off of my face that were pre skin cancer, another vet appointment for Bunnie and then Izzy going missing for three days, and the worst is that hubby has been sick for two weeks. It started out as a sinus infection and seems to have gotten worse. He is on immunosuppressants, because of the kidney transplant, and everything hits his system harder and takes twice as long for him to recover. And work, July was the busiest month of the year for us. With all of that, you would think the month would have absolutely flown by, but it didn’t. I guess with my husband being sick and not himself it has been a long month. Hopefully he will soon be on the mend.

Now, with all of that said, I have to put a spin on this long month. I have also loved this month. I loved Celebrating America on the Fourth of July, the long sunny days, the beautiful blooming flowers, the lightning bugs or fireflies you might call them, the beautiful sunrises and sunsets, time spent with family and friends that I haven’t seen in a long time, Fresh fruits and vegetables at the farm market, green luscious fields, reading, knitting and enjoying some time at home with my husband and the fur babies, air conditioning.