Welcome to Life Through Bifocals

Life is not always clear and easy to figure out. So grab a cup of coffee and your bifocals and let's see what we can see.

Friday, June 13, 2014

The Rest of the Story


They look like best buds dont' they!  And for the most part, they are.  They look for each other outside. They go out together and come back together. They both nap on Becke's bed in the living room.  When August is coming out of day care, Becke walks up the hall to meet him.  But every once in a while......

A few weeks back we were traveling back home from a doctor's visit up north in Lebanon.  After letting out the dogs for a walk, dinner and potty time, we decided it was our turn to eat.

We stopped at a local Friendly's for some dinner.  We wanted to sit by a window so that we could see the car and of course the dogs.  The meal was good, the server was very nice and the entertainment was hysterical.

August had figured out how to get the harness off and decided to tour the car.  We have a SUV so he would go from the middle seat to the back, looking out the windows and then back to the middle seat.  Then he would jump into the front seat to look out the front window. Back to the middle seat and back into his car seat.  Then he would do this routine all over again.  At one time he would stand on Becke's head looking out her side of the car as she was laying down. Apparently he was using Becke as both a landing pad and launching pad.

After a few minutes, Becke sat up, looked out the window, found us in the restaurant looking at them, locked eyes with what a friend calls "The Hairy Eyeball Look". The look that says, "You had better be eating dessert, paying the bill and getting yourselves back here!! There will be words here!!"  She then looked down.  August immediately got into his car seat, curled up and laid down.

We had a good laugh, paid the bill, and left the restaurant to go back to the car.  August pretended he was sound asleep, eyes closed and all.  I got his harness back on, shortened the tether and kissed Becke.  Not sure what Becke said, but whatever it was, August understood.  As long as Becke is in the car, August stays in his seat!! Message given, message received.  Too bad I was so busy laughing that I didn't take any photos.  You will just have to use your imagination.

Gotta love dogs!!  What a blessing they are!!

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Time for an upgrade



This was the car seat for August.  It may hold up to 15 pounds, but he became too long for it.  I really love this car seat and am holding on to it but for August, we needed something that was larger for him.  We decided on a car seat where he could look out the window.

We got the 3-in-1 Snoozer.  Here are the photos from the box.

When all 3 pieces are put together, August sits 10 inches up from the car seat itself.  He really likes that.   The photo shows a Chihuahua, but it does fit August really well.  It has 3 parts.

The top part is the seat itself.

The seat unfolds and the front panel comes off to make a dog bed. Great for those dogs who sleep on a bed in hotels, or while visiting family and friends.  

The bottom part is 2 way suit case.  When separated from the top two sections, it has a top zipper that, when unzipped, has huge storage for all of August's needs.  It can be divided into 3 sections if your a real neat freak and want to put food in one section, dishes in the other section, and clothes in the middle.  When the suit case is connected to the top 2 sections, there is a flap in the front so that I can open it, reach in and take out whatever I want/need.


Here is the bottom again, with a zoom in to the suitcase.  See the flap on the front?  It's on the right side of the photo. I can easily reach in and get whatever is in there.

When it's all put together, it has loops that the adult seat belt goes through to lock it into place and there is tether in the back of the seat that attaches to a harness that August wears while in his seat.  All 3 pieces lock together and it can be removed as one unit if need be. 

August in his car seat.

He gets a great view from there and yes, his hair is a mess.  This was early in the morning and he still had "Bed Hair"


So August got an upgrade.  Not sure that Becke is thrilled by it but on the upside, she does have a little bit more room back there.  The down side...Well that's another story.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Playing in the Yard


Because I have no need to shave, or use a lot of shampoo/cream rinse,  I've been saving that money and decided to update the front yard.  The doctor wants me to rest, so we can rest in the front yard, right?
We added some free pallets right up against the house and filled the ground under them with decorative stones, lots and lots of stones.  Then I started to add plants on top of the pallets. Don't you love FREE?


Different size planters and some up on upturned crates for different heights made the pallets look colorful.

In front of the pallets, we dug up the grass, made it pretty straight, laid down weed block fabric and rubber patio tiles made from old tires.  Then we got 2 red Adirondack chairs.  We also added some folding chairs that we had for others to sit and enjoy with us.  From here, we watch those walking their dogs, riding their bikes and of course those driving up and down the street.  


Both dogs like being out there as well, there is shade, sun, a water dish and of course a lap to sit on and hands to hug them.  

This took a few weekends to do as before we could do any of this, there were 2 bushes up there that I hated from the day we moved in.  We had cut them down but we couldn't dig them out of the ground so we waited until they rotted in the ground and then Hubby dug them up.  One came out easily, the other.....not so much.

We really love to sit out there and listen to music, watch the world go by, talk, and most of all enjoy each others company.  

As my stamina improves, we are working on the hill by the driveway.  Laying mulch is hard work when you have to first weed out a years worth of weeds.  We didn't do anything in the front last year as I just didn't have any strength or stamina or desire.  This year I have some so it's time to pull the weeds and get that mulch down!!  

How's your Spring going?  What projects are you doing?


Monday, June 9, 2014

Laughter and Friends, Friends and Laughter


Have you ever heard of Cairing Bridge?  It's a free website where people with illness can write about what is going on in their lives and share it with those who want to know what is happening.  It's a great site for those who live far away and those who life close by but you still don't see them every often.  This was my Cairing Bridge Journal update yesterday.  I thought I would share it with you as well.  
Any day is a good when you have friends and laughter.  Recently I was blessed with  a wonderful day of both.  A friend and I had been trying to get together for some time for lunch.  However,  she would be ill, or I was, or there were 4 more inches of snow of the ground, or it  was raining so hard you just couldn’t see.  So the lunch date was postponed over  and over again.  

Finally, we decided to just do it!  We picked another date and  unless the Lord came to take us all home, we were going out to eat lunch!! She  picked me up at my house and off we went.   I remember thinking that she was one very slow driver but since I love her I would  keep that to myself. I did tell her that in NH a person could take a right on a red light and that she had the right of way (I’m helpful that way you know).

We arrived at the Longhorns Steakhouse Restaurant and got a parking space right by the door.   It was a sunny afternoon and I was waiting to play catch up with her and all that has been going on in her life.   Instead there were 24 other ladies waiting at our table!!! They all wanted to  celebrate with me that the stem cell transplant my Oncologist down here wanted was  postponed by the transplant doctor up in Lebanon.  We will change meds. We're going to up the strength of one and add a steroid and see if that works.  If it works, then the transplant will continue to be on hold. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll talk…

 So for the next 2+ hours, we laughed, took pictures, talked, got caught up with each other’s lives, sang and cried tears of joy.  We ended up having 3 waitresses caring  for us.  The table was set in pretty girly pink with glow-in-the-dark light up rings, a Tiara and a Feather Boa for me to wear and of course a magic wand to wave.  There were  pink “Jewels” and small paper purses all over the table and HUGE pink balls hanging from the Antler lamps and on the table.  OH And there were cards and gifts.

The  cards were so funny and made me laugh (you know those are keepers) and gifts  were so sweet. Among the gifts was a coffee cup with “You are a Courageous Woman” on the outside and a  scripture verse around the rim (Joshua 1:9); a happy thought for each day flip book; and  beautiful note paper with a matching pen for the fridge (these ladies know me!).

The  cards were passed around so that each one could read and laugh at the crazy friends I have. These ladies have been praying us through cancer for 2 years now.  They haven’t let down once to check in with me and talk to me and even told me that my hair looked great and – which is only about 1 inch long so not much to look at.

Now I understand why my friend Linda drove so slow, she was giving the ladies more time to get to Longhorns and get set up at the table before her and I got there.  Sneaky lady - I love her.  That's her behind me in the photo.  

Besides all the fun the ladies and I had, it was also a day that some of the men were caring for Gerry, laughts, BBQ burgers, stories and friendship for him as the caregiver.  That made the day extra special!

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

"IS IT JUNE ALREADY?" HODGEPODGE!


1. I've read several posts and status updates recently describing end of year school field trips. Do you remember taking school field trips as a kid? Where did you go and do you recall a favorite? For any parents responding today, have you ever chaperoned a school field trip, and if so where?
I went to a Catholic elementrary school, back in the stone age.  We didn't do field trips.  EVER!

2. What's something you're tired of seeing online?
I'm tired of those adds for the newest "Skinny Pill" with before and after photos of people who lost 60 pounds in 6 weeks.  Can't be true and those people didn't take the pills and didn't give permission for the photos to be used.  Many did lose weight, the hard way, over a year, and blogged about it.

3. June is the month for roses. Which of the following expressions would you say has most recently applied to your life-'everything's coming up roses', 'there's no rose without a thorn', 'came out smelling like a rose', or 'wearing rose-colored glasses'? 
I love playing with our grand girls and so every time I get to play with them I feel like everything's coming up roses.  Also, my health is pretty darn good so again, everything's coming up roses!!

4. When grilling outdoors do you prefer gas or charcoal? Who does the grilling at your house? What's the last thing you ate that was cooked on a grill?
When grilling outdoors I really don't care since I'm not grilling.  We use gas here but our son-in-law uses charcoal.  Again, I'm only eating, not cooking so I'm easy to please.

5. Are you afraid of the dark?
No, unless I've seen a really scary movie or a really big bug that didn't get killed.  Then I want a light on untill the bug is found and dead or I've watched something light on TV to take my mind off the really scary movie.

6. Share a favorite song with a number in it's title.
I looked up "Songs with a number in the title" and came up with a really long list of songs that I never heard of sung by groups I had no idea of who they were, so I guess my favorite songs don't have numbers in them. Sorry.

7. "Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."(C.G. Jung). Do you agree? Why or why not?
Agree, even if all we learn is that some things really iritates us about others, we know what iritates us and so we have a better understanding of ourselves.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.
We have had 2 days of lovely warm weather and plenty of sun.  That must have been our Spring because it's about to get cooler (50's) again and rain - again for the next 3-4 days.  I hope you all enjoyed your Spring. I know that Summer is right around the corner.  I hope it's better than our Spring has been.

Your turn.  Tag your it. 


Monday, June 2, 2014

What a Weekend! Love and more love


Well, it was a weekend to beat all weekends.  Busy enough to keep us busy but not so busy that I couldn't get in a nap.

Friday night our oldest Granddaughter was in her very first "End of School Celebration".  At 5 years old her school had a great and short celebration of songs, jokes and ice cream.  We went to see this and was really proud of our granddaughter and how brave she (and all the kids) was to stand up on a stage and sing and tell jokes.

Saturday my firend Linda and I had planned lunch.  We had been trying to do this since the end of March but one time she was sick. Another time I was sick. Then she or I had something else to do so it took a while to get our calendars in sync to go out and enjoy a nice lunch.

We went to a local place - Longhorns Steakhouse - where we could sit and enjoy our meal.  What I didn't know was we were going to be joined by 25 others who all wanted to eat and celebrate with me.

We took up several tables and it took a lot of pictures to get everyone in but what fun we had.  


We laughed, sang, ate a gret meal and dessert and I got wonderful funny cards, sweet gifts and lots and lots of hugs.  


We were celebrating my remission and the fact that I don't need a transplant - yet!!


My transplant doctor is going to change up some meds and increase some meds and hold off on the transplant for a while.  We will reevaluate around the end of August. 

So I get to enjoy my nice warm summer with ladies who make me laugh, sing, pray, and make me feel like a princess. 

In all it took us a little over 2 hours to eat, and 3 waitresses to get us our food and drinks.  The staff was absolutely wonderful and joined in on the hugging.  


We took pictures. Lots of pictures!  At one point I think all the cell phones were going at once and then we shared the photos between the phones.  Those who didn't know how to do that, got instructions on how to do it while others took photos of that too.

                  

       

 I even got a tiara and Feather Boa to wear for the day.

I had just started going without my hat indoors so for some it was the first time they saw my new baby hair which is really light and blond so from a distance, I look bald, but I'm not. I have really, really blond hair that is very short still, but you should see how fast I can get ready in the morning now.  Really, I get up, brush my teeth, shower, put on some make up and I'm out the door without even running a comb through my hair.  It never moves and doesn't need any hair spray.  You should see all the money I'm saving on hair products.  Oh wait, you can see all the money I'm saving by not needing to use hair shampoo, cream rinse, hair spray or razors at all.  I'll show you tomorrow what I'm spending it on..

The best part of the day was all those smiling faces, all talking at once, playing catch up with kids, grand kids, moving, end of school projects, eating, laughing, talking all at once.  The fellowship was amazing. The love was overwhelming.

Another great event was that while I was enjoying all these ladies. Hubby was getting spoiled as well by some wonderful men who were caring for him as my caregiver.  He had a blast as well.  We really felt the love. 

Sunday night was small group with part of our "Prayer Warriors". Sitting in the country, singing songs of praise and discussing a portion of the 16th chapter of the book of Acts. We shared a few laughs as well. All in all it was a wonderful weekend.