Photo posted by Jeff Jett on LinkedIn
Brightside
We are enjoying a nice, quiet Saturday. Our most stressful thing today has been trying to program our thermostats upstairs and downstairs. :0) We THINK we have it done now.
We don’t have anywhere we have to be, so we can do a clean-up of details. I’m going to try to do a quick session or two of weeding flower planters and pruning roses, plus checking on the garden. I’ll keep the sessions short and drink lots of water in-between.
It’s good to be able to enjoy the calm today. Our son is with us. All is good.
Filed under Cherishing the Quiet Day, Family, taking care of yourself
About Signs
Having a health scare is just that -scary. Trying to get help for it is a character-building exercise at a time you’re under great stress. Once the initial hurdles have been jumped over, another of life’s realities rears its ugly head – you have to take charge, doing whatever is necessary to get the help needed.
Yesterday was a case in point. I have almost no tongue left because of biting it so many times while I was on the phone making my way through the bureaucratic maze, trying to get tests scheduled and appointments made.
I had been told we would receive calls regarding where and when we should show up for tests and referrals to various specialists. I was given a card with a phone number to call in case that didn’t happen. I was to use it if I didn’t hear anything in a week.
When I called the number on the card, I found that the ‘referral department’ doesn’t actually handle referrals – they give you phone numbers to call – one of which was the ‘scheduling department.’ It turned out that the scheduling department didn’t actually schedule the tests, they ‘authorized’ them. I received another number to call to actually schedule the tests. The finally scheduled group of added tests will help the specialists figure out what is needed and who should do it.
You get the picture.
It’s bad enough to go through the health scare. The problem is compounded when you finally realize that even though you HAVE TO go through the maze – endure the system – in order to get help, you are your own best advocate. You have to steadily, persistently, keep pushing until you actually get the needed tests scheduled, the actual appointments scheduled to see the specialists, get the results of those, the plan of attack to fix the original problem, the guidance on how to best care for the person who is sick and isn’t in a position to deal with this.
We are thankful. Our son – who lives and works in Thailand – wanted to come to help. He did and is here. He is keeping us calmer, more able to slog through the mazes, phone trees, delays, frustration, attitudes, and emotions, actually injecting some much-needed humor, as well as calm strength.
Filed under Challenges, Changes, character-building exercises, Family, taking care of yourself
Our son is giving me some lessons on how to get the most out of my iPhone. I have access to a tutorial, but I never seem to give it first priority. Last night we sat down together and he showed me about six different things I didn’t know I COULD do –
We’re going to continue my lessons, and I have to say I am feeling empowered!
Besides my phone lessons, I’m getting my hugs bucket filled. I’m laughing so much my stomach hurts at times. He makes me feel calm and better able to deal with a health issue our family is facing. My husband and I are SO lucky to have a wonderful, caring son. We treasure every minute with him.
Filed under empowerment, Family, kindness, taking care of yourself
Sometimes we aren’t sure which way to jump, which path to take, what is in our future.
One of the many things my dad taught me was to stand back and try to see the humor in any situation. He had a bad accident, falling off a horse when he was three, leaving him with a shortened left arm with an almost useless hand. He learned to use humor to keep kids from bullying him. He would make them laugh so hard they forgot his ‘disability’ and took him into their group. He used jokes and sarcasm to make his views known. An example of this was he would say, “Nice skirt” to me – when he actually thought it was too short and I needed to change my clothes. Whenever he was in a group, you would soon hear laughing. He passed his ability to see humor in most situations on to me. Just before he died, he scrawled on a napkin, “Remember me laughing.” Though it took me awhile, I do. What a strong, smart man he was!
I have used his lessons many times over the years. I can never win an argument, for example, because I can either easily see the other person’s point of view, or I ‘see’ us having a ‘discussion,’ see the humor in the situation – or the fact that what we are ‘discussing’ has little priority in what is important in life, and the tension dissolves.
Many times life throws us curves that challenge us on seeing the humor.
We’re in the middle of one right now, and things have been difficult. Our son is now home with us, helping with the situation. He brings CALM, caring, good sense, a healthy sense of the ridiculous, love, and lots of hugs. He has had us laughing several times already and he’s only been home a day.
I found this on the net this morning, and it made me smirk. A good reminder to keep my head on straight and be extremely glad my two guys are together. Together we will figure out in which direction we should go.
I Need Real Help
Filed under Challenges, Changes, Family, taking care of yourself
Bookish Buzz via Cathy Ruggiero
We got an email that the newest Nora Roberts’ In Death series paperback will be delivered tomorrow.
I decided to celebrate its coming by re-reading all the books in the series – 48 to be exact – before I allow myself to read the latest. I’m on book 7 right now, deep in Eve Dallas’ and Roarke’s world in New York City in the future.
Due to a health issue in our family, our son came home last night from Thailand. We picked him up at the airport about midnight, getting home about 1am this morning.
Two huge reasons to celebrate!
Filed under Family, Reading is FUNdamental
Beautiful World via Marianna Bellantoni
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography, Family
via Jackie Lyons
I have to tell you I’m patting myself on the head right now. Why?
Usually technology does a great job of kicking me in the rear – to the point it’s difficult to sit at times. Today I received an email from the 16-year-old boy for whom we will serve as host parents for the next school year starting in August. He’s from Italy and he plays soccer. :0)
The email said he wanted to chat via Whatsapp and gave his number.
After panicking, I managed to find Whatsapp in the Apps Store on my phone and installed it. Then I tried to add Alessandro to my contacts there. No way, Jose’ over and over again. Finally, I emailed him asking if he could send me an invitation, since I wasn’t having any luck on this end. We juggled quite awhile and finally connected! We chatted awhile for the very first time. He sounds like a really nice guy and I’m looking forward to meeting him in person.
Meanwhile, I was able to assure him that Greenwood High School does, in fact, have a soccer team and that they would be happy to give him a chance to be on it. I think that was his most important concern.
I finally managed, after messing around with my regular contacts list on my computer, to edit his information correctly, so now we are truly connected. I made sure he knows that he can contact us any time with questions or concerns – and so – our adventure begins!
It’s good to know that I met the challenge and prevailed. I ain’t dead yet!
Filed under Challenges, Family
trendsandlife.com
On the way back from the grocery store this morning, I asked my husband, “Will you love me forever?”
He said, “Maybe not forever, but I’ll go for the next 1,000 years.”
I’ll take it. :0)
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Family
Amber was slow coming back from her morning outing this morning. When I went to look for her, she was at the door in the garage – HURT.
We bathed her VERY carefully and checked her over. Besides the deep scrape on her head, she has scrapes on all four legs. She is limping a bit, but is getting around okay. She wanted to eat and drink and has kept everything down. I put antibiotic ointment on all the scrapes and gave her a doggie pain pill to help her calm down and rest.
So far, she’s resting well. We are watching her like hawks in case we need to take her to the vet. I honestly think we have done most of what the vet would have done and that she’ll be okay.
We have no clue what happened. I wish dogs could TALK! Poor Amber.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
This is Amber, our 2-year-old, 94-pound yellow lab. I just let her in a few minutes ago. She was panting. She plopped down, legs splayed, chin on the floor. Suddenly, she lifted her head and panted a few seconds, then plopped her chin back down on the floor. She did this over and over.
LESSON: You can’t pant with your chin on the floor. :0)
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
A good online friend of mine, very talented Paul Miitaru of Romania, lost his sweet pet, Mona. I wanted to share a couple of his photographs of her to pay tribute to her memory.
“My Mona” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Mona” – Paul Militaru Photography
SO sorry for your loss, Paul. Mona definitely won the lottery when it came to finding you.
If you haven’t already, meet Amber, our 94-pound, two year old yellow lab “puppy.”
Sweet, huh? Loveable, yes. But FULL of vinegar.
We were sitting in the office, each at our own computer, enjoying a rare day of having the front and back doors open to receive a nice breeze, when a truly awful smell permeated the room. It was SO bad I almost got physically sick.
I got up to find that Amber had found ‘something’ that had been dead for several days and brought it to the front door. Isn’t that SWEET.
I yelled, help – asking for my husband to get rid of the ‘something’ while I started handling Amber.
We chained her up to the deck, hosed her down, poured doggie shampoo all over her and I scrubbed, and scrubbed. We hosed her off, soaped her again… several times before we thought maybe we had done enough. We changed the chain so she was on the deck and couldn’t get off and left her to dry.
I went inside and was STILL smelling the awful smell from just walking her through the house from the front to the back door, so I sent around with Febreze – probably one of the biggest tests of its life, spraying everywhere as I walked through the foyer, the office, the living room, the back porch, the kitchen, the pantry, the two half baths, the dining area, several times.
Then I went to the sink and used the metal soap bar thingie that you’re supposed to use when you’ve been cutting up garlic or onions and can’t get the smell off your hands, then soap, then the metal bar again….
I then went out and toweled Amber off to the point that she could come in. I couldn’t smell it anymore, but maybe my nose died!
My husband didn’t say anything when I let her in, so maybe we’ve met the challenge.
I will never understand why doggies love to find something truly awful and roll in it.
Sweet doggie – BAH! HUMBUG!
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
Doug Powell via email from Marsha Koenig
I went outside to clear my overloaded brain and check on the veggie garden. I heard Amber (our 94-pound lab PUPPY) barking behind me, somewhere over by the greenhouse. I continued on toward the garden and all of a sudden, she bounded out of the shop and was running toward me a breakneck speed!
I averted getting knocked down flat on my back by making a quick turn and running toward a tree. She skimmed past me, then turned on a dime and tried to jump up on me, tongue lolling as she laughed.
I yelled, “DOWN!” To my amazement, she did it! This is probably a fluke that will never happen again, but I feel empowered right now. :0)
(By the way, the veggies are doing fine.)
Filed under Amazing Animals, Challenges, Family, Funny Signs - Humor
Alina Ciuciu – “Now I Need to Sleep” – LinkedIn
Vintage Dragonfly Mosaics via Cathy Ruggiero
Tetiana Shevchuk – LinkedIn
TheCatHouseontheKings.com via Cathy Ruggiero
Animal Wallpapers – Desktop Nexus
Our Abby
Our Smoke
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, quality of life
Our son sent this picture of the sunset in Koh Lanta, Thailand this morning. He can work anywhere, so he’s enjoying this beautiful island for a bit. We are so delighted that he can arrange to enjoy life while working!
He took this picture behind the workspace he’s using. This is a community workspace where you can go, spend the day, work by yourself on a computer or electronics, or whatever, or collaborate with others. The people there will bring you food and drink, and then you can take a break and run on the beach!
Filed under Family, quality of life
We are celebrating today that WE ARE –
I –
I hope that YOU can enjoy a “celebration of NOT” today, too!
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Family, holidays
I just enjoyed walking around the yard, taking stock of what’s what while marveling that it wasn’t raining! Right now it’s 70 degrees F.! Just gorgeous. I wanted to show you the results of my trying to create a bit of order from the chaos created by Mother Nature recently. Here is one of our Rio Samba rosebushes. I pruned the three we have so they’ll bloom again in a couple of weeks. You can also see the tarp that is hopefully preserving the potting soil we removed from one of the two planters that collapsed. We are trying to gear up for rebuilding these ourselves, since the only estimate we’ve been able to get from an actual bricklayer was WAAAAAY too high.
Here you see one of the planters I weeded, cleaned out, and pruned. You can see I need to weed whack next….
The second of the trio planters between our front yard and the driveway.
And this is the third planter. These are end-to-end .
Another.
And another. We have 14 planters we built 30 years ago. We live on top of a ridge line, so what soil there is was trucked in when we had the house built. With the potting soil and an irrigation system, we are able to grow the flowers we love.
This is one view off the deck. We have lots of wave petunias and periwinkles on the deck this year. You can see our view in one direction. We love to pretend we own all this.
Here’s a view the other direction.
Some Impatiens on the front porch.
and more. You can see this planter needs some work.
And finally, I my travels around the yard I found –
Amber
Molly
Smoke
and Abby, all enjoying the screened porch on this lovely day.
I hope it’s really nice where you are, too!
Filed under Gardening, Mother Nature
shutterstock.com
I let our sweet dog, Molly, in this morning after her morning run. When I came back to our office, our son’s face was on my husband’s computer!
Our son lives and works in Thailand. We chat almost every day on a secure chat program he set up for us, but today we also had a conference call with him! This is similar to Skype, but a LOT better, with good quality video, good quality audio, and very few interruptions.
I’m prejudiced, I know, but there is little that makes me happier than seeing our son’s face, watching him smile, trying to make him laugh, catching up on what’s new. We can almost forget he’s across the planet from us.
We won the lottery on sons. He’s a wonderful communicator and we’re very close. The only thing we don’t get is his world-class hugs. I’m lucky because when we saw him in December, he very generously filled up my hugs bucket to overflowing.
He has just moved to a new place and is getting settled, making the workplaces he wants, moving things around so he’s comfortable.
So – I’m still grinning from ear to ear, feeling extremely happy with my world this morning. I hope you’re happy with YOURS, too. :0)
Filed under Family
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Terrance E Stock – LinkedIn
Filed under Attitude, Encouragement, Family, Friendship, quality of life
Poor Amber was bitten/stung by ‘something’ yesterday. The whole side of her mouth was swollen, but she didn’t seem to be in any pain. I have no clue what we’re dealing with.
She is better this morning, with much less swelling. She had a good appetite this morning and drank some water. I’m monitoring her. She’s in Molly’s small bed, seemingly comfortable, sleeping off and on.
Since she’s somber (but still wagging her tail) I’m hoping she learned to stay away from whatever it was in the future that stung or bit her.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
Let me preface this tale with the fact that my husband and I agree on very little. We didn’t even use the same salt, when we still used it. So it was no surprise that while on errands today, we disagreed on the idea of bringing Amber out of the car on her no-pull collar and leash in public.
Amber weighs 94 lbs. To say she is exuberant about meeting others is a vast understatement. She loves to go anywhere at any time in the car with us. Her domain is the back seat. We put the windows down halfway so that she can run from one side of the car seat to the other sticking her head out, absorbing all the wonderful smells and sights to be had.
Today we stopped at a small craft type show that was being held on the square. I didn’t realize that my husband was planning to bring Amber out. The shock collar did its job, giving Amber a jolt when she tried to get to a little girl to say “hi.” Amber cried out and everyone stopped as if someone had dropped a whole tray of something in a restaurant. Amber was in control for a second, then found someone else she thought was wonderful. She was shocked again, cried out again, and I had had enough. I finally got my husband to put Amber back into the car. I answered some questions about the collar. People were upset at us because Amber cried out. I tried to explain that usually Amber is trained to stay in step with us and hardly EVER gets shocked anymore – but this was a new situation with far too many stimulants for a partially-trained puppy to handle.
We turned into the street that goes to our home. My husband saw a sign about a yard sale that was being held down the road from our home. I thought we would leave Amber in the car and just be there a very short time. I turned to see my husband with Amber out, on the collar again. I told him I thought there were too many people, little children, plus a little dog, and that Amber might knock something off a table. My husband said I didn’t want him to do anything.
I got angry and went back to the truck. The next thing I knew my husband was on the ground face first, and others were trying to control Amber. I leaped out of the car, grabbed Amber’s leash, which wasn’t working for some reason. A man helped me get her back into the car while someone else brought a rag to wipe my husband’s face. I drove everyone home.
My husband is okay. He looks as if he were in a bar fight and lost. The whole side of his face is scraped and quite red. Amber is fine, too. We figured out why the collar didn’t work at the yard sale. I have promised to practice with Amber, the special collar, and leash in the yard. Then I have proposed we go to the square or one of the walking trails to see how Amber handles that. My husband says I’m wrong and that I don’t want Amber out in public at all.
And so it goes. Part of the reason we are still married is that, though we drive each other nuts at times, we are totally addicted to each other – flaws and all. We will finally come to a bit of compromise on this, as we always do, but the process always seems to be a painful one, with each of us thinking we are right.
Filed under Family, life lessons
Our son has been in Nepal for the past two months at a meditation center. We had a good video chat with his this morning, actually getting to see his FACE, talking as if we were in the same room. (I placed quotes around ‘home’ in the title above because he is at ‘home’ and works in Thailand.)
This is the entrance to the center he attended in Nepal. He said he had chosen well. It is very well run. He felt very safe there. They were served breakfast and lunch daily, meditating for some 14 hours per day.
It would drive me up the wall, but our son found it a great learning experience, with a totally different emphasis than his meditation at home. He says he would like to practice now, internalizing as much of what he learned as possible, and might go back for another session sometime in the future.
His meditation practice was a character-building exercise for his PARENTS, as well. He has us thoroughly spoiled, having set up a secure chat program, where we send pictures and messages whenever we want, sometimes chatting several times a day. He also set up a conference call program, also very secure, called appear.in where we can see each other and talk as long as we would like. Since Feb. 1st, we hadn’t heard from him at all, in deference to what he was trying to accomplish. We weren’t worried, as such, but it’s a great comfort to again be able to communicate.
Meditation is helping calm his mind, which used to race, he said. He is feeling much more able to deal with whatever is happening around him. He is learning to be much better at ‘living in the moment,’ rather than thinking about things in the past or getting anxious about what might happen in the future. He is more confident and content.
I’m so happy he is able to do things like this. He really has control over his life, his needs, his emotions, his priorities.
Today I finally got off my duff and cleaned the aquarium. All told it takes about 45 minutes from start to finish, so it isn’t that much to ask. The only thing my fish actually get excited about, though, is eating time, twice a day, when they bunch up in the right front corner of the aquarium and wriggle their little bodies, opening and closing their mouths rapidly. So it’s easy to walk by and ignore the fact that I should be cleaning out their digs and providing some different decorations to stimulate their imaginations.
Things look much better now. They’re exploring a bit, but no wriggles, gaping mouths, or other signs of real interest yet.
This doesn’t happen at our house, although we have two cats who would probably eat our fish given the chance. They seem to prefer birds.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob
I felt I was ‘alone,’ – the last of my original family when my brother died this week. I have since learned that I am NOT alone due to wonderful friends who have reached out to me in various ways. “Thank you” is simply not enough, and I’m grateful to each of you.
Filed under Family, Friendship
This is Fuzzy Molly. She’s a Cocker Spaniel/Schnauzer cross. She’s getting old now, but holds her own with rambunctious Amber. (94-pound yellow lab ‘puppy’, plus our two cats, Smoke and Abby.) She doesn’t communicate much with our four fish in the aquarium.
In the winter we let her hair grow. It’s kind of a mess, particularly when the weather is wet, because Molly comes in covered in mud, having stuck her nose way down deep into some hole or other she’s found in the yard. We got her some 13 years ago now, to be a sweet little lap dog for me. What we actually GOT was a fun-loving 25 pound dog who thinks she’s a mastiff. I put her in the kitchen sink to get her clean and fluffy, at least until she goes out again…
I’ve told you that we live on top of a ridge line outside of the town of Greenwood, Arkansas. We have about 8 acres of scrubby woods where we live close enough to town to go every day, but enjoy our privacy, pretending we own all we can see. :0) With this comes the ‘perks’ of lots of burrs, fleas and ticks – as well as other critters like raccoons, possums, deer, skunks, rabbits, and more.
Wednesday we took Molly to our vet’s office to be sheared like a sheep and get her annual shots.
The groomer would like to give her a mustache, beard, long eyebrows, and other stuff, but we ask for ‘short all over.’ SHE isn’t the one who has to deal with Molly after she’s gone out for a run with a face full of little bitty burrs tangled in all the cutesy-pie long hair on her face. Poor Molly HATES having me comb them out. I know it hurts her, so ‘short all over’ allows her to run through the brush as she likes without bringing it all home with her. It also makes it easy to see any ticks walking on her, and treat her for any fleas easily and quickly.
I look at it this way – we get TWO Mollys for the price of one – Fuzzy Molly and Sleek Molly. I love them both to pieces.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family
My brother on left – his oldest son on right
My older brother died of complications from Parkinson’s Disease last night. He was 74. We were not close. He said that I ‘wasn’t worth knowing.’ I’m still very sad that he’s gone. I am the last of my original family. It’s amazing how complicated emotions and relationships are.
Filed under Family
creativeartworksblog 