I have been visiting family in Wisconsin since Saturday.  I am staying with my mom while I am here.  Yesterday I visited with an old friend and her family and then all of us went to my sister's on the lake.  We took a long boat ride, it was so beautifu out...80 degrees or warmer.  Very relaxing.

 

Today it is in the low 50's.  Crazy weather.  My mom and I went to the Olive Garden for lunch and then this evening I am going to see the opening of the movie Sex and the City .  My brother works for a local T.V. station and he has two free tickets.  Should be fun.

 

My husband stayed home to take care of our two puppies.  I miss them so much, I almost didn't make the trip.  I needed a break though.  I have been taking care of our female dog non-stop.  She has some serious health issues and needs a lot of attention.

 

That's about it for now.  More about my trip when I get back.

 

Damselfly Lady

 

 

Here is the question of the day.

 

Why is it, when one thing in my life is not going well, everything else seems to fall by the wayside?  I don’t want to do anything productive.  I have all these great goals but, I don’t have the energy or wherewithal to do them.

 

It isn’t just the current problem, this happens to me all the time.  I guess I am only able to focus on one thing…the problem, when a crisis comes up.  Everything else will just have to wait.  Is this the norm?  Do others handle crises differently?

 

I sometimes think I might be using the crisis to avoid doing the things that need getting done.  I am an average procrastinator by nature, but have improved over the course of my life.  I have found that if I do something right away, then it is more apt to get done than if I put it off and heap it on the ‘to do’ pile

 

Sometimes it truly is a matter of energy.  The current problem is our little Charlotte; she needs more attention with her new medical condition than she has needed in the past.  So I am worn out by the end of the day, with work and taking care of her and the house and my husband…you get the picture.

 

I think if I were to try to compartmentalize my life a little better maybe I could change this behavior.  Only allow so many hours of the day to be taken up by the crisis of the moment, then for the rest of the day, I need to go about my life as normally as possible.  Is that even doable?  Doesn’t sound like it to me, but I know some people have pulled it off.  I am going to try it for a week.  Notice I say try…I hear Yoda in the back of my brain saying…”there is no try, only do!”

 

Well that’s what has been rambling around my head the past week or so.  I am a thinker if you haven’t figured that out already.  Way too much thinking.  On the up-side a thinker is usually a problem solver and that is me too. 

 

Switching gears here…Thursday is usually my Sur*vivor night, but alas Sur*vivor is no more…at least until the fall.  Not happy with the outcome of this Sur*vivor.  So I am going out to dinner with some friends tonight.  Hubby is staying home.

 

EOM

 

 

 

 

Well, it has been a trying time for me and my family this past month.  Beginning in April around the 10th I think my female dog, Charlotte, came down with a rare, strange condition called Myositis.  If you are interested in the details the link below does a good job of describing the condition. http://www.vetspecialists.co.uk/06_Animal_Welfare/Neurology_Facts/Myositis.html

 

Charlotte is on steroids, which has several very unpleasant side effects of its own.  Poor thing has her muscles wasting and drinks and pees a lot more than normal.  She is tired all the time and I am sure wonders what happened to her.  For the umpteenth time I wish dogs could understand humans and vice versa.  We are finished with one month of steroids at full-strength and are into our 2nd week of a reduced dose of the steroids.  She also has developed a urinary track infection.  More peeing. 

 

In addition to all that has happened with Charlotte my mom is in the hospital.  She went in for a procedure on her heart a month ago and has had continuing problems since.  She has a pace maker, which they have had to replace and she has fluid in her lungs and a staff infection.  They can't seem to tell us why exactly she has the fluid, they drained it once and it came back.  If her body doesn't take care of it on its own they will need to put in a chest tube to drain the fluid.  My mom is 76 years old.  She is in relatively good health otherwise. 

 

I have a planned trip to see her at the end of the month, but now I am debating whether or not to move that up.  It is such a difficult decision given that my little Charlotte is also sick.  If anything would happen to her while I was gone, I don't know what I would do.  On the other hand I worry about something worse happening to my mom and that would also put me over the edge. 

 

It has been a very difficult time, trying to take care of Charlotte, the house, working AND worrying about my mom.  I keep waiting for life to get easier...I don't see that happening.

 

We lost our first dog and my father five years ago around this time.  I am seeing some scary, strange parallels to that situation now.  It was a very dark time in my life...please Lord don't make me go through that again.

 

 

I recently navigated to a blog I had never seen before.  Very informative.  It looks like he makes money blogging.  He is giving away a free USB pen, so go over and take a look.

 

 

 

I think I was eight years old that Christmas.  What I wanted more than anything else was a wrist watch.  I did not have one, so this would be my first.  Hopefully Santa would bring me the watch.  I hinted to my parents many times that Christmas.  I thought it was a lock. 

 

We always spend Christmas Eve with my mother’s mother.  We had a nice dinner and then all the children would go into the stairwell and wait for Santa to arrive.  I was there with my siblings and all my cousins.  It was so exciting, everyone whispering and trying to listen for Santa Claus. 

 

Eventually we heard the rustling and bustling of packages and then we heard the ever popular…HO HO HO!.  How exciting.  Soon our parents opened the stairwell door and out we ran.  Each child found a spot on the living room floor the oldest cousins began handing out the presents. 

 

A little aside here.  I have an older sister and we are a year apart in age.  We usually received very similar gifts each year for Christmas.

 

I was so excited I could hardly stand it.  I began opening each package anticipating my coveted watch.  Each present was very nice, but still no watch.  All of a sudden I heard my sister squeal with delight, I looked over and she had opened her present and there it was…her watch.  It was in a square Tim*ex box.

 

I was now doubly excited…I thought, OOOH, I was going to get my watch.  We always get the same things for Christmas.  I continued opening my presents and I still no watch.  I had one present left and it was in the shape of a flat large envelope.  I was crest-fallen; I knew it couldn’t be my watch because it wasn’t shaped right.  My sister’s watch came in the square box.  At that moment I looked up and saw my Mom watching me intently with a Cheshire cat grin on her face.  I was so mad, I thought what are you smiling about…I didn’t get my watch, how unfair.  She just kept smiling as I began to slowly open my last present.

 

I ripped off the wrapping paper and sure enough it was one of those padded envelopes.  I opened the end of the envelope and reached inside and pulled out the gift…you guessed it, there was my WATCH!.  I was beyond excited.  I looked at my Mom again and she was so happy.  I said to her “you took it out of the box”.  She just kept smiling.

 

The best Christmas present, to date, I have ever received…bar none.  Ahhh…daughter of little faith.  Thank you Mom and Happy Mother’s Day!