February 26, 2006

Hello everyone,

So sorry I haven't done a blog in a while. I broke my little finger last Tuesday and have had it taped to the next finger for stability. Anyway, It is getting better, it just is a little sore.

My husband had parent-teacher conferences last Tuesday, and I let all the dogs loose to run and play for the evening exercise. When I proceeded to tie up Mandy, one of my husband's beagles, she started acting like a wild woman, and her chain was getting wrapped around my legs, so I reached down and grabbed the chain, then she was jumping around and the chain wrapped around my little finger and it jerked and pulled it. Ouch! I should have grabbed her instead, but alas, it was done and over with in a matter of seconds. (I almost had to take her to the vet to get my foot out of her....) Anyway, I had it x-rayed the next day here in town, and it is broken and chipped, just beyond the middle knuckle. Of course the doctor in at the emergency stat-care place suggested I see an ortho doctor, just in case I tore something in the finger. Soooo, I had to call my ortho doctor, again, and go up on Thursday. Believe me, I did not want to see HIM again, as I have seen him more this past year than my own family!

When he walked into the cast room, he sat down across from me, shook his head, and said, "I believe you are the most accident prone woman I have ever met!" Well, I told him, "I really did not want to come, but here I am. Now what?" He had the girl wrap my two fingers together, and said to leave it that way for three weeks. Bummer. Typing is a little difficult, but I am getting by. I have endured worse things. (Thank goodness for "delete" and "backspace!")

I have considered this, Should I start wearing bubble wrap? Hmmm.

The weather has been really nice this past week, although a little windy. This morning we have snow on the ground. The sun is shining brightly. Maybe hubby can plow and disk the garden by March 17th?

One year we were able to do that, and I planted two rows of peas. Well, then we got a major snowstorm, around twelve inches, and when the snow melted the peas were at least four inches high! I was amazed at that! As they grew, I had to put stakes in the ground, and use baler twine to lift the plants up. They grew so tall. I took a picture of my Mother standing near the rows, and they were almost as tall as her!

When my Mother came down one weekend, when the peas were ready to harvest, we picked peas for hours, then we shelled them all and I froze them. At that time we had big dogs, and they laid around and drooled over the prospect of getting the pea pods to munch on.

My next book, is complete, but is being proofed at this time. Hopefully within the next few weeks, after another person goes through it, it will be ready to send to the publisher. I am so excited!

I am also having the first book reviewed and proofed. I went through it twice, and cut out a lot of exclamation points, (my life then WAS an exclamation point), did restructing of sentences, and made some changes for more clarity. The author seminars I went to last summer were extremely helpful. I want to attend more this summer too. You know, critizism is a good thing. It keeps you focused and is very helpful.

Remember Kate, in the first book, wife #2? I got an email from her a couple weeks ago. I called her and we talked for over two hours! We plan on getting together at some time in the near future. What a conversation we had. Very interesting!

I made chili this past week, and yesterday I made split-pea with ham soup. Yum, Yum!
Today I am making lasagna. Father-in-law is coming down for his usual Sunday visit.

Oh, I did get a call from my family doctor. My liver levels are back to normal! Yeah!
Finally! What a blessing that is! Now the cholesterol thing is another matter to deal with.

Hey, hubby spotted a LIVE frog the other day in the pond. So far, 14 -dead, 1 - live!
With all the rain we have had, I can see clear to the bottom of the pond. I just love it. I am seriously thinking of digging out another pond over by the maple tree. Hubby said he would help.

I walked around outside the other day and saw some tulips and daffodils starting to poke through. Then, I saw some little crocus near the driveway in bloom. Yeah! Spring is on its' way folks!

Till next time, "Think Spring!"
Be blessed and count them all! You deserve the best there is!
Becky

Thursday morning, February 9, 2006

Good morning everyone!

We are back to winter. It is very cold outside and the snow is falling. I love to watch it snow. There is something about watching it that makes me stop and admire the beauty of it. So serene.

When I go out this morning to feed and water the dogs, I will fill the bird feeders. We have had some deer come in the evenings, but not as many as we had last winter. One time I counted 14 deer in our garden. I took a picture. They are neat to watch. They have their pecking order, and it is comical to see them rear up at one another, shove each other away with their heads, and strick each other gently with their hoofs to gain access to the barrel of cracked corn.

Well, I got my stiches out on Monday. (Although I took three of the five out myself on Sunday morning!) The tumor/mass turned out to be a squamous cell carcinoma. Bummer. (I had a feeling that was what it was.) Dr. L. said that it could come back anytime, even in the same area. He believes he got all of it, but as he said, "Once you get them, they usually come back at some time, somewhere." I will deal with it when it happens. I'm just glad I got it removed when it was small. They do have a tendency to spread to other areas of the body if not removed early, hopefully. I have to go back in another month and have the area checked. It still itches, but that could possibly be the healing factor. (My liver levels are coming down. I am so glad and thankful about this also! I'm not on Lipitor, not anything for four months-Doctor's orders.)

I went to a Bible study on Monday night. I really enjoyed it. The subject was about self-esteem. I took a lot of information from my work regarding, abuse, domestic violence, statistics, why does she stay?, info on self-esteem, etc. to hand out to the other ladies present. The study meets once a month at a small church near me. Since that night, I have talked to some women and invited and encouraged them to come. I think it will be helpful to them. Education is the key word here. The more people know about domestic violence and abuse and the more they get the information in dealing with it, hopefully, the more they understand it and they can be supportive in some way, instead of sweeping it under the rug o ignoring the fact that it exists.

So many times, families just do not want to deal with it. They may not always understand the "why of it" but if they have the facts and the information, they can at least try to be supportive if a family member or friend is going through it.

On Tuesday morning, I left at 5:45 a.m. to go and work the special election we were having in our area for a school levy. The polls opened at 6:30 a.m. and remained open until 7:30 p.m. What a long, tiring day. We only had 11 people come in to vote the whole day. Whew! I spent the day with the other girls sharing stories. We had a good time. Of course all the food everyone brought helped pass the time too! I ate all day. Then around 5 p.m., one of the worker's husband brought pizza. Yum. Yum. Very good.

The next day, yesterday, I took my father-in-law to the doctor for a colonoscopy. He had one done about six years ago and it was time to do it again. He had good results of this one. He sure was hungry and thirsty by the time I got him back home!

Hubby and I are going to go and cut up more wood this Saturday. We are about out. Hubby has a fire in the fireplace every night. That is our time to share with one another, discuss things that need discussed, or just be quiet and enjoy the fire until supper is ready. One cat, Sissy-Spastic, always comes down and gets on my lap and relaxes by the fire. She just loves it.

I usually retreat to my chair in the family room after supper. That is when one of the other cats, B-Bob, has to get on my lap to take a nap. Usually I read or watch Law and Order, or both.

Today I am meeting a friend for an early lunch before she goes to work at noon. We have not seen each other since Christmas. Lots to share.

Next week, I am going to go to my father-in-law's house and do some cleaning for him. Curtains, windows, kitchen, carpet, etc.

My next book, is still being proofed. I have spent the last three weeks going back through my first book. I have corrected many more errors I found, removed MANY exclamation points, etc., etc. If I had known then, what I know now, it would not have been necessary to do this now. But, as I have told others, "The meat, potatoes, and gravy is there...but some of the gravy slipped off the plate!" Oh well, again, new author experience. I rushed to get it published, and did not realize at the time how important it was to have someone else proof your work. A very good lesson to learn. I apologize to you if you have a book that is full of errors. But, hopefully regardless of that fact, the story in it's entirety is there to grasp it's meaning for anyone who reads it.

When I get the corrected copy done, I will send it back to Infinity Publishing and that should be that.

Until next time,
Peace, Love, and Laughter, and think Spring!
Becky :)

Happy Groundhog day!

Hello folks,

Well, it certainly has been an interesting turn of events for me lately.
I did have my hand surgery, five stitches in all, but I still do not have the results of the biopsy. I will get it this coming Monday when I go and have the stitches removed. Dr. L. told my husband while I was in recovery, he had no idea what the "mass/tumor" was. (One of the side effects of Lipitor is "hand lesions. Hmmm.)

We lost some more frogs in the pond. Total count is up to 14. I had no idea we had that many of them in there! I just hope little "Herman" is still surviving.

The weather has been just crazy. Sixty degrees, then eighteen, then rain, then snow, windy, and just plain strange.

Today is groundhog day. It is also my great-nephew's birthday. He is twelve years old today. He is really a sweet boy, and I love him so much. I will call him later today after he gets home from school. He loves scouts, baseball, mowing yards, and he keeps quite busy. He gets good grades, and likes school. He just recently got a new puppy! A little female Dauschund named, Taz. She is about 9 weeks old, black and tan. I bet they are really having fun together.

Years ago, when I was a little girl, my aunt and uncle lived with my grandparents for a long while. Aunt and Uncle had a large, silver and black, German Shepherd, named Taz (Tazenda). He/she (?) was a beautiful dog. He was tied to a large dog box out back in the yard under a gigantic tree. I used too crawl in the dog box and sit in it. My sister and I were talking about this the other day. She remembers me doing this.

When I had a dog grooming shop years ago, there was an apartment upstairs. Still is. The last renter that moved in on the 12th of Jan. called the other night. She was a little frantic because she told us she did not have any electricity. Hubby and I went up there and checked. Sure enough, there wasn't any power. I called the power company, and they said they sent a shut-off notice to her because the deposit wasn't paid. I was just a little upset about all of this as it is the "dead of winter" and I sure didn't want or need pipes to freeze! As it turned out, the electric company sent her shut off notice to the wrong address! Hopefully it will be restored today, and I can go up and flip the breaker on and get heat going again. Even though the renter has moved a lot of her stuff in, thank goodness she is not living there at present with her two little children. She has been doing a lot of painting of the rooms in the apartment.

I talked to a person yesterday that I had not spoken to in over thirty years. She emailed me and gave me her phone number. It was Kate, in the book. Very interesting conversation, which lasted about two hours. I will say this, she also suffered much violence and abuse from Bob. Somehow I knew this. She was wife number 2. Abusers have a distinct pattern. No one is exempt from it.

Oh, my liver levels are still high, but coming down. Hmmm. I'm off the Lipitor for good now. Dr. B. will probably put me on something else eventually, but wants me off any medication for cholesterol for four months. Hopefully this will give my liver a chance to repair itself. I have another blood test in February to check levels again.

We are supposed to get a lot of snow over the weekend. I love to watch it snow. It is so pretty and surene. I love the gentle quietness of falling snow. I'm sure while it is snowing and hubby and I have the dogs loose for their exercise, Clara, the lab, will have a good time fetching her ball in the snow. She has several to play with. Her yellow football, the hard red ball, and the green/white one with red boots all over it. Her Christmas ball. Then there is the white one, but it doesn't do well in the snow. It gets lost rather easily. She loves them all, though. Every evening it is an olypic marathon with her to see how many times she can fetch it, bring it back, to repeat the procedure over and over. I taught her to sit up a few months ago. She is getting really good at it. Come spring, I am going to try and teach her to roll over. That should be interesting!

Gotta go for now, folks, until next time,thanks so much for visiting!
Check out the new websites listed for self-esteem! Very helpful and informative!
Have a Blessed Day!
Becky :)