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 :)