Another trip up North to Check in

Tomorrow, Wednesday the 18th we travel up north to Darthmouth Hitchcock Hospital to check in with the Transplant doctor.

One of the issues with living with cancer, is the fact that I have to check in with doctors every so often to find out how I'm doing.  I see a lot of doctors and they all want blood, I just show up and roll up my sleeve and give them blood.   Wednesday, we have to be there for 9 am.  In good weather, it's an hour and a half drive.  In bad, a good 2 1/2 hours. So we leave early, get there for a bunch of blood work then wait a while to get the results, then talk and talk to the doctor's and parts of his team to see where I am and how I'm doing.

At the moment, we go up 4 times a year, I'm hopping I'm doing so well that he tells us we can drop that to 3 times a year.  That would be nice.  

In the meantime, we reflect on what the past year has given us.  A lot of laughter, a lot of love, a lot of dotors, good friends, good food, good prayers and a lot of leaning on God to keep us going.

If you would, please, pray for us to have a good drive up, good results and a good drive back home after a long, emotional day up north.

Thank you

 

Freezing Rain Weekend!

So how was your weekend?  Here in the upper right hand corner of the Nation it was very cold but very nice on Saturday because at least the sun was out.  It was too cold to enjoy the outside but it was nice to see the sun streaming in the windows.

Sunday it was freezing rain.  The Patriot's played in the freezing rain and that is the kind of game where those of us at home watching the game are very glad that we are not AT the game in the freezing rain but rather we are home with hot cocoa and a fire going.  WAY TO GO PATS!!

Since I'm not a football fan (can I say that and still live in the North East?) I decided to craft.

I've been really admiring the place settings I've seen on Pinterest lately and really wanting napkins.  Not the paper ones that we buy for the holidays or birthdays but real cotton, cloth napkins.  But Oh My! the prices I saw on Amazon made my Scottish  blood boil over.  So into the fabric bins I went.

I think that a really good size napkin is at least 16 x 16 inches so all I needed was material that was at least that size.  I started cutting  my material and matching it up.  I cut the material 17 x 17 inches.  I figure as long as I'm making one why not back it with a matching fabric and then have have 2.

If you're using new material, make sure to wash, dry and iron it before you cut it up but I was using what I had on hand.  So it was already washed, dried and ironed.

With right sides together, sew all the way around the material, leaving  an opening in order to turn the material right side out.  

Clip corners, cut close to the edges and turn.  

 Then you can top stitch to give it a nice finished look.  Use either a matching or contrasting thread.  Once it's all sewed, fold into thirds and fold in half and you have a great napkin.

August decided to hold down the ones that were done.  He's good like that!

In all I got 8 two sided napkins which really means I have 16 napkins.  Make them to match your kitchen, match the season or holiday.  Use the material you love.  I made some Frozen ones for the grand girls.  They are never too young to learn about napkins. If you don't have material large enough for napkins, how about using Fat Quarters?  Since they come already matched up, according to color schemes, it would be easy to get several napkins out of them.  Think I have a reason to go to the fabric store now.

Did you craft this weekend, what did you do?

A Play Date Birthday.

This is August Rush sleeping on the couch on top of an electric throw.  He loves to sleep there especially if I'm under the blanket!  He knows his job is to hold me down and he takes his job very seriously!!

Those who know August also know that he is not very confident and so every thing new has to happen slowly for him.  He will make me a better dog trainer and a better dog owner because I constantly have to break down behaviors for him to tackle in small segments.  So imagine my surprise when I opened my mouth and offered for August and I to go over to help a friend who has a small dog that is not very confident.

My friend has had the new-to-her dog for 3 weeks and Sunday was the dogs 4th birthday.  She wanted a friend for her baby girl so August and I went over for a play date.  The dog is a 4 year old long hair Chihuahua called "Sunshine".

I was stunned to see how quickly August settled down and got to work making Sunshine feel comfortable.  He walked up and smelled her quickly, then walked away. He went back to smell her again, then after 3 seconds, he walked away again.  After a few more times of short meetings, he was ready to go for a walk with her.

Sunshine's mom, learned fast not to lean over him as he yelled at her and clearly was not happy about it.  He backed away from her as soon as she bent down towards him. I quickly called him away and told her to not bend over him and to just look his way but not to look at him.  She learns fast!

Sunshine's mom could lean over Sunshine and August would walk up to her for a treat.  But she did not lean over August again.  He liked that.

 They walked nicely by our sides and shared a bowl of water as it got hot out there!  When the traffic became heavy, and the black top became too hot for their little feet, both dogs went into their separate strollers.  Then my friend and I continued walking and talking.  Yes, we have strollers for our little dogs, don't laugh.  It allows us to continue to walk for exercise and not worry about our little ones being over tired or over heated.  

Back at her house, August drank some of her water and checked out the toys in her toy box and cooled down while Sunshine watched from Mommy's lap.  

What surprised me was how quickly August relaxed and just enjoyed her company, enjoyed the walk, enjoyed the toys, enjoyed the water and the cool hard wood floor.  In all, he just did what I had hoped he would.  He helped make a new friend.  

 

What a cute little girl, Happy 4th Birthday Sunshine! It was a fun day!!

Have you ever had a play date for your dog?  Tell me the story. I love those stories.

A long weekend!

It did feel like a long weekend too but that was because I was busy, not sick.  Last Thursday I went to my doctor's for a 1 month check up (I called it my Well Baby Check Up). My immune system is growing and it has memory so I may not need any baby shots!  Yeah!  I can work more at the office and work on loosing the 20 plus pounds I gained.  My hair will grow back but not for a few more months.  It will grow slowly but it may be closer to summer before that happens.  Oh well, everyone is very kind and likes my hot red hair right now.  Wigs are not very comfortable to wear.  I take it off when I'm home and wear one of my hats to keep my head warm. My knee is still swollen but it is really getting better, I can walk on any flat service without limping but stairs are still painful and getting up from chairs or the floor is tough but it's all getting better and after all, it's NOT CANCER!!

So I worked 4 1/2 hours Friday, then came home and rode the exercise bike for 15 minutes and cooked dinner.  Then I was done for the rest of the day.

Saturday, I went food shopping, did laundry, picked up the house and watched the great melting!  Yes, we had temps in the 40's and the icicles on our house decided to melt.  We were getting trapped in the house with the icicles hanging down. It felt like prison bars and I hated it but with a day of sun and higher temps, they melted!!  The snow piles are still here but I see ground in our driveway and even a corner of the roof!! The sun shining through the window feels great.  I know that it is a short lived treat as we have more Artic air coming our way for this week.  Winter will just not DIE up here!!! What does a person have to do to get rid of winter up here!!

I took all the Snowman decorations down and put up all the Summer ones!  I'm hoping that the sun will see all the summer decorations and decide that we deserve Spring at least.  It may not work, but at least it looks like summer inside.

The snow is still here but the iceciles are all gone!!!

Sunday we had more nice weather and I puttered around the house, taking care of Hubby!  YUP he is now sick.  He has a cold but with all the stress around here for the past 17 months as soon as I got better, he crashed!  It has been my honor to take care of him. Cooking for him nice meals, taking his temperature, and caring for him.  He has taken care of me for so long, it feels nice to return the love.  We got another day of nice temperatures and had more  melting.

So it's now the work week again. I'm up to between 4 1/2 and 5 hours in the office each day.  It will feel good to put in more hours at work and I bet the girl who has been doing my job in the office will be glad to not have to do it anymore.

So I hope you have a great week everyone!  Hug someone!  Kiss someone! Care for those you love and even help those you DON'T love, they need it more than you know.

Photo Challenge and Weekend Review

Good Morning one and all, did you notice the Spring Widget in the upper left corner of the blog?  28 days till spring!! That's right, just 28 days to go and it already feels like spring around here. I believe I heard the weather man saying that all total, we have had 10 inches of snow ALL WINTER!!! and none of that so far in February. I'm OK with that.

Weekend was probably pretty much like yours, shopping, cleaning, putting up the spring decorations, watching grand children play together and with us (Pepere and Grannie). What joy they are! I so love being a grand mother. It is truly a gift from God!! Raising kids is for younger folk however, we are both sore and tired when they head home with there mom. It's a good tired, even the dogs sleep well at night.

The photo challenge for today is "Handwriting" I learned to write longhand (cursive) in grammar school. Yes it was called grammar school back then and the method I learned was called the Palmer Method, you can read about it here.

It involved using the entire arm, not just you hand. Any how here is a sample of my handwriting these days.

Do they even teach hand writing these days?

Weekend Review and Photo Challenge #13

It's been cold here! I mean like 12 degrees cold! We never got any snow from the last storm that was so well predicted up here. We were to get only between 1-3 inches and so many people were so excited about it, I was not. So I was glad that we didn't get any snow but by Sunday it was down right ARTIC cold here and so I was hugging our pellet stove that was keeping the home 86 degrees!!!! I know, that is hot for a lot of people, but when you have Rayonld's, it's just about right.

Saturday we had the 1st birthday party for our youngest granddaughter.  Her nick name is Cadie Bear and since it is so close to Valentine's Day, Valentine was the theme. Each person had a cupcake instead of a slice of birthday cake and our little Cadie Bear had her own cupcake just for her.

You can image what a 1 year old can do to a cup cake right.  Well I don't want to put pictures of our grand children here (that is the job of their parents, after all), I can show you this - 

Sunday, we were not having the grand girls so I hugged the pellet stove and then I cleaned my closet. Sundays photo challenge was "my closet" and I was very dissatisfied with how it look.  Here is the before photo that I posted yesterday.

It took 1 1/2 hours and then it looked like this:

I'll post about it later this week because this is getting long.....

However today's Photo challenge is Blue.  Since I don't feel Blue very often, I decided to show you something else that is Blue.

Our oldest grand daughter rides this often and plays with the controls that make the bells, sirens, horns and such work. We have a lot of police toys here. After all Hubby is a retired police officer.  Blue is part of our lives.

How was your weekend?

Weekend Review: Super Bowl & Photo Challenge #6

The weekend was all about the Super Bowl. We live in New England Patriots Country so everyplace we went, people were wearing Patriots clothes. Homes were decorated in Patriots colors. Babies were dressed in Patriot colors, children were dressed in Patriot colors.  Pets were dressed in Patriots colors. Every one's lives revolved around it and it was all anyone talked about When we went shopping, everyone was shopping for the big game, they had their carts full of food for the game.  

Of course we got into it as well.  We didn't decorate but August got dressed up and we had food - glorious food.

Of course chips and salsa were a must.

Mini meat balls were a big hit.

This I got off of Pinterest here. They were really good! I will make these again.

Buffalo chicken tenders were the other big hit.

I also made this from Pinterest but I didn't have time to take the photo because they disappeared so this is the photo from Pinterest. The link is here. Another big hit and will be made again.

So since we have leftovers, these are also my photo prompts for today as the topic is: Dinner.

Oh and in case you didn't know the winner of the 46th Super Bowl is of course:

The Giants. 

They played a good game. Well done.

Weekend Review: The last of January

Today, the 30th of January is the 12th Birthday of our baby, Integrity Star Beck, Becke, Beck the Wonder Dog, Becke Boo Boo, Baby Boo.  We use many names for her and she wags for them all.  We were blessed to get her when she was 4 years old after she had a very small litter. The breeders decided that it was not fair to her to breed her again and wanted a better life for her. Becke ended up having a    c-section because there were so few puppies. We were looking for an adult dog - we were meant to find each other and she was perfect for our home. So she moved in and began her life with us. She has taught us to stay close to love ones in your life. She has taught us to laugh, take a nap in the middle of the day, trust someone, try again, rest when tired, go again, have fun, and always kiss the ones you love good night.  She is the wonder dog that is perfect for us.

Saturday, while August was helping with a project, and it was so nice outside, I took Becke for a nice walk. She is a pleasure to walk with. She doesn't pull, doesn't chase the squirrels, or stop moving refusing to go forward. She enjoys walking and stops every so often just to smell the grass (or snow). It was in the high 30's and so we were out there for a while.

We stopped to take a few pictures and to enjoy the fact that I can drop her leash and she will not go anyplace.  She is a love.

Hubby's brother turns 60 in a few days so his wife gave him a surprise Birthday Party. It was fun to get together and make fun of the sweet old guy. Great surprise, he never knew the party was for him!!!

Sunday we didn't have the grand girls so we took the time to make her a special supper - tilapia and crab with brown rice for dinner! Birthdays are fun around here. We watched a few movies on TV and relaxed.  Breakfast on Monday is an egg mixed in her oatmeal with more fish for dinner.  

For January, it's been pretty warm, not a lot of snow and some days the temps got up to the mid 40's. The problem is that some days it's in the 40's and then we get a few days of Artic cold and I get a "Raynaud's Spasm". A Raynaud's Spasm is when you get so cold, that you hurt. My hands and feet will tingle and no matter how many layers I put on, I cannot get warm. Sunday morning my knees started to ache while we were in church and it hurt to stand up or walk. I should have moved away from where I was sitting in ladies class, but I didn't. My hands began to tingle and by afternoon I was wearing woolen socks, jeans, turtle neck, fleece vest, flannel bathrobe under an electric blanket with Becke laying on my feet. The house temperature was 72 degrees!  My hands tingled and it hurt to stand on my feet because they were so cold.  It took me hours to warm up and I missed our small group because even though the host family will have a fire going in their fireplace, it will not be enough to keep me warm. Having this  disease is not fun and it's not easy to live with. Thankfully, I don't get many spasms but when I do, they control my day and keep me praying. I am reminded how weak I am and that I can do nothing on my own, even maintain my own body temperature.

How about you? What did you do? Welcome February!

Weekend Review: Love the Relaxing Ones!

 

After a week of recovering from the stomach bug and working hard but not feeling great, (why is it taking longer and longer to get well from these bugs the older I get?) it was wonderful to have such a slow relaxing weekend. I love the hum of quiet days, don't you?

Saturday, we got about 2 inches of snow, just enough to make the roads slippery but still looked very pretty.  I never left the house until the afternoon then went to a few stores. One of the stores was the fabric store to look at their fabrics on sale.  I was able to get a few and made August a few harness/winter coat combos.  He sure is one styling dude!!! In honor of the New England Patriots going to the Super Bowl I just had to make him a  outfit.  Go Pats!!

        

Cleaning the house and sewing took up the rest of Saturday.  Sunday began with a great worship service, then playing with the grand girls and then small group singing. All in all it was a quiet weekend, nothing special and yet filled with blessing. Blessed to have the pellet stove keeping me warm. Blessed to have a hubby to drive me around and share my day with. Blessed to have 2 grand children so close. Blessed to have 2 grand children to look after for a bit while their parents work. Blessed to have a wonderful church where Jesus is preached and worshiped. Blessed to have a small group where we share our lives and our love of God.  So many blessing....How about you, what were your blessings this weekend?

Weekend Review: 1st for 2012

How was your first week on 2012?  It's been interesting up here.  We live in New Hampshire and so we get to vote in the Primary tomorrow, Tuesday. I like that we have the primary early because we have more to pick from. By time some states get to vote, they are down to just 2 people left in the running.  We have several.  The down side to that is that they are all CALLING US TO VOTE FOR THEM. The phone rings all day long asking to be part of a political survey or asking us to vote for them. Some of the calls have real people calling and others are machines.  We are tired of the calls and so we have stopped answering the phone.  Sorry for those of you who were really tyring to get in touch with us, call our cell.
We also have political adds all day on the TV or on the radio.  I will be glad when it's over.  I do feel that it is important to vote and I will be at the polls early on Tuesday. I will be turning in to see how the vote is going and will watch the returns.  It is interesting to watch the process. Still, I will be glad when it's over and everyone leaves our little state.

We have also had some wonderful weather! It was in the 40's this weekend!  A January Thaw for sure but the problem is we have a January Thaw in the middle of a nasty winter and so far this winter has been wonderful. I wear a sweat shirt and light jacket, and the jacket it open. No hat, no gloves, no boots!  It has been wonderful!! Every week on the news however is a story of some animal that has fallen into through thin ice and shows citizens and fire men working hard to save the animals. Some were dogs that fell through the ice and some were deer and moose that have fallen into thin ice.  They keep telling everyone not to put up the ice houses and not to venture out on the ice. I love it but others not much. It makes for interesting face book conversations.  How is the weather you way?

New coat for August this week.

With matching Harness

Sunday started with a meaningful worship service followed by playing with the grand girls which is always fun and it helps to wear out August.  And ended with a fun evening at small group where we continue to study the book of Hebrews.  Got to sew another harness and coat for August. He does wear the coat to work in the morning but I carry it home at night.

How about you, what did you do and how is the weather out your way?  When do you get to vote?