By Lisa, Sunday August 12, 2018

What an incredible week this has been. One of those weeks where you not only have something going on everyday but several things going on everyday.  My head is spinning.

I have told you about our little kitten we took in a few months ago. Kitty Kitty. Right from the beginning she was plagued with upper respiratory problems. We took her to the vet numerous times because her breathing was so labored. We even had a middle of the night visit to the emergency vet 40 miles away.  Anyway, she has been on antibiotics four different times and though her nasal discharge cleared up each time the terrible ragged labored breathing continued.  We finally took her to a Veterinary Hospital at the University of Tennessee,  the same one where Scruffy had his cataracts done a couple of months ago.

Our local vet thought she had an unusual upper respiratory infection and that UT Medical Center could test her by growing a culture to determine what kind of infection. So that is what I was prepared for when I took her on Monday morning.  They were very concerned with the noise that she was making with every breath,  they were also concerned there might be an obstruction in her nasal cavity. After several tests they discovered she had a rather large nasal polyp causing the problem.  I wound up leaving her so they could do a CT scan to determine if they could take a tool in and hook the polyp to get it out, or if they would have to schedule a separate surgery to get it out. The best case scenario of course was hooking the polyp to get it out.

I went on to work not having expected to have to leave Kitty Kitty and feeling very  anxious and jumping every time my phone rang.  They finally called that evening and told me the CT scan would be done the following day and if possible the removal of the polyp.

Needless to say our house was very quiet that night.

The next day around 4:00 pm the Medical Center called with great news.  They were able to remove the polyp by hooking it and no additional surgery was needed.  I could pick her up in an hour.  I literally ran out of work. I didn’t want her to have to stay another night there if she didn’t have to.

It took me an hour to get to Knoxville even with the bad afternoon traffic. I couldn’t believe the difference in Kitty Kitty. She no longer made the terrible rattly noise with every breath she took.  It was so weird I had always been able to hear her before she entered the room and now she is so quiet.

I took her home and she was still a little loopy from the anesthesia but overall her usual Kitty Kitty self.  She was exhausted from everything.  I am so happy to have her back home and what a relief not to hear that terrible noise she had been making.

Oh yes back to the crazy week. Add to all of this excitement, work, several extra meetings at work, cooking spaghetti for 12 people at my sister’s house for her birthday, two return trips to Knoxville, one for me to get blood work for an upcoming physical and one to get Scruffy’s eyes checked again and working on Saturday which is a bit unusual for me.

All of this running around and whining about it kind of bit me in the ass yesterday evening  though when I along with several of my co-workers attended the funeral of one of our own beloved workers, Jessica. A beautiful 22-year-old woman with so much life and love within her it is unbelievable that she is gone.

Sitting at the funeral listening to Jessica’s family and friends give their testimonies about Jessica and laughing and crying with them really brought things into perspective for me.

I would like to say I will take things easier and not whine and complain when times get stressful but I know that won’t happen.  I will.  I am me and I know I will still complain and probably stomp and cry when things get rough. However I did learn  something today from this beautiful young free-spirited woman. Live life to the fullest be all you can be. Tomorrow or even the next minute is not promised.

Love your day your way

 

By Lisa, Monday July 31, 2018

 

What a weekend.  I went back to the Amish Farmer’s Market with my nephew Chris and his wife Amy.  They loved it!!!  They bought so many things I can’t wait to hear about all the awesome meals they made.

 

                   I still can’t get over this view

We also decided to visit some of the other shops in Tellico Plains.  We went to Tellico Grains. This is a bakery that serves pastries of all kinds, breakfast sandwiches and then for lunch specialty made pizzas in a brick oven.  They are so yummy.  You have to get there early because there is limited seating.  The pizzas are made to order and the sky is the limit to what you can put on them.  You can also call your pizza in ahead of time.

 

We went to Mud Slinger’s Pottery.  What an awesome little shop.  The potter here is amazing. She actually has her shop for sale and she will be selling items commercially. She also has a lot of her work at the local Visitor’s Center and a couple of other shops in town.  She had an awesome sale table and I had to have a few pieces.

We then ventured over to the used book store called The Book Shelf.  I had never really had a chance to look in the store for one reason or another but whoa was I surprised.  The shop is laid out so well and there are a bazillion books.  Everything is reasonably priced and it is laid out in sections so finding what you are interested in is really easy. I found a couple of books I liked but then I discovered a shelf with old Nancy Drew books. When I was a pre-teen I read all of the Nancy Drew mystery stories.  I think I kind of wanted to be Nancy Drew but I was neither good at solving crimes or figuring out mysteries. Nor did I have the Nancy Drew hair going on.  But I really loved those books.

 

The Nancy Drew books in the shop must have been taken from an estate sale because there were about 15 of them.  I recognized some of the names but for the life of me I can’t remember the stories.  The books had one name, I assume the owner at one time,  in all of them and they were dated from 1956-1959.   I bought about 10 of them and can’t wait to start reading them.  $3.00 each.  Score!!!!!

The really neat thing about wandering through a small town like this is you get a feel of simpler times.  We were talking about that as we were driving through the countryside.  I think I am ready for things to not be so complicated, if that’s possible. How do you simplify things in your life. Tell me in the comments.  See you soon.

Oh I almost forgot remember the app from this post it is called 1SE for one second everyday. It allows you to record a photo or a video for each day of the month and then puts it into a small video for you.  It is the end of July (well just a few hours left) and I finished it.   Here it is.

 

Love your day your way.

 

By Lisa, Saturday, July 28, 2018

Well I bought a new car last weekend.  I have been thinking about a new car for about a year now.  I HATE buying a car. I love the part where I bring the car home but the actual process of sitting down and going back and forth with the salesman trying to get a good deal makes me nauseous.  There is so much involved with the incentives and rebates etc. I am always thinking I probably didn’t get the best deal I could have.

I decided this time was going to be different. For one thing I don’t have a day or two to go to a dealership and test drive different cars and then sit in an office trying to make a deal. So here are five things I did to make it less painful:

1. I started researching the kind of car I wanted.  I did this a few months ago. I know that not everyone will have the luxury of taking this much  time to look but I have discovered in my older age when you rush in with such a big decision there is more room for errors.

2.  Once I narrowed my decision to two different models I decided to do some research on those.  I was interested in the INFINITY QX 50 and the Nissan Rogue or Murano.  I checked out these cars to get a price range and think about the different features.

The QX 50

 

 

The Murano

3. If you are a woman and  you want to look at cars without any pressure take another woman with you.  This is a sad truth, maybe it’s a southern thing, but without your husband, or boyfriend a lot of salesman don’t take you seriously. I guess they think you won’t make a decision without your spouse or significant other.  I found this true especially with the older salesmen.

 

4. Try to make it fun. My sister and I would visit car lots while we were out shopping to kind of break it up. We did this over a few different days. This way it didn’t really seem like there was a lot of pressure.  Also I am not beyond going up to a stranger, driving a car I might be interested in, and asking them how they like it.  This can be very helpful.

5. When you decide on the dealership you want to use, pick a salesman and exchange numbers so that you can text information to them along with questions you might have. The salesman, Warren, and I had many texts while he gathered information about my trade-in and just how much I was willing to spend.

After driving several cars I decided on the Nissan.  The fact that the Infinity was out of my price range, unless I wanted to lease, helped determine that.  I picked the Nissan Rogue SL AWD

 

I liked the size of the  Rogue Sport but it rode a little rough.

 

I also liked the Murano but it was a little larger than the Rogue and I was wanting to go down a little in size.

 

My husband wanted to drive the car so we went up on Saturday.  Since I had already picked the car I wanted Warren had it ready for us when we arrived.  We drove the car and Mark liked it very much. This is probably what makes them not take you seriously unless you have your husband with you Ha Ha.   We went back to the dealership and had the paperwork, extended warranty, getting us familiar with the car etc. all done in less than two hours and we were free to go about our day.

I know it may seem like this took even more time than ever but it really did take the stress out of my car buying experience.  If possible I will always approach buying a car the same way.

Happy Hunting.

Love your day your way