ONE YEAR AGO TODAY ....

We lost our girl Skye a year ago today. I miss her so much. I am trying hard to move forward and push myself to do things but I have to say that losing my Dad in April 2020, Skye in September 2020 and my brother this past July I'm just hurting. They were each a part of my daily life. 

Raymond's 75th birthday is on September 27th. 

Happy Heavenly Birthday!

Love you and miss you....

I talked on the phone with my dad everyday. 

I do hope that we will get another dog sometimes soon. There have been several reason since she passed where it just wasn't the right time. We have gone to Arizona twice, Montana and to Wisconsin. We also have another road trip coming up soon to visit Mark's mom in Texas. 

I just didn't want to travel with a new dog and after Texas we should hopefully be home for awhile. Covid is just getting the best of me. I pray we get some freedom soon and can get back to living our lives. 

TUESDAY 4

The Language of Flowers

Do you have a favorite flower? 

I love sunflowers. This photo is from our trip to Europe when we drove from London to Italy. 

Do you know your birth flower? How about your state flower?

It's Marigold or Calendula for October. I'm not familiar with the Calendula. Mark's father always had Marigolds in his backyard. I never cared for them and I didn't know then that they were my birth flower. Funny thing is that this year we planted Marigolds in our vegetable gardens. 

Is there a plant you love having in the house or garden? 

Years ago, back in Chicago, I worked in a flower shop. I had about 60 houseplants throughout the house. I can't really say I have a favorite. Right now I have these three plants on the kitchen table. My poinsettia from last Christmas, a variegated English Ivy and a Norfolk Pine from two Christmases ago. 

If you could plant a dream garden, what would you plant in it?

Honestly I would love to have a garden of wildflowers and of course some sunflowers too! 

Not my photo.....

Extra side note, today is 2 months since we lost our girl Skye. I miss her so much. I got some sweet gifts and cards in the mail. The pillow and mug I purchased for myself. 

To play along click HERE

SHE WILL BE MISSED

MISS SKYE B

1-7-2009 to 9-24-2020

Cairn Terrier

My two favorite photos. Above and below.

We were told that she would most likely

change colors before she turned 4!

Sadly we lost Skye suddenly on Thursday afternoon. If you follow me on Facebook you already know this. I must say that I don't know what I would do without all the kind sympathy messages I have received there. It has helped me so much. 

We left for Montana on Tuesday. Skye does not like driving in the car. We normally have to give her an anxiety pill and she eventually settles in. The second day is usually better since she is kind of use to the routine. 

She struggled more this time because she has been having hip issues for at least 5 months now, maybe even longer. Being that the car seats are angled back a little bit she didn't have the ability to push herself up and move around to get comfortable. So she ended panting a lot more than usual. 

I can't say that killed her but I'm sure it may have played a roll in her passing. Normally when she gets to Amber and Dylan's house she settles in but was having a hard time doing that. They have their new puppy Finley who naturally wanted to play with Skye and jumped all over her. She seemed a little pissed off, however she ate, drank water, took treats and even went for her walk with Mark on Thursday morning. 

She just didn't seem to be relaxing on the sofa like she did the day before. She was panting a lot. I decided to take her outside and get her some fresh air. I carried her outside and put her within their fenced front yard. She started lifting her paws funny and stepping unevenly falling onto her side. I called everyone outside. 

Within 10 minutes she was gone. Mark, Amber and Dylan were next to her, talking to her, trying to get her to respond. I was outside the gate bawling my eyes out. I just couldn't bear what I was seeing. When I saw her move her bowels I knew that was the end. She had a few muscle spasms after that but she was already gone. We can only assume she had a heart attack. 

She was put on a blanket and the three of them took her to the vet. I said my goodbyes to her in the car. She was at peace. They made arrangements for her to be cremated and Amber/Dylan will bring her home at Christmas. We have two other precious dogs at home waiting to have their ashes spread with ours someday. 

I dread going back home next week and facing all of her belonging. I am thankful right now for the diversion being here with Amber, Dylan and Finley. I am also thankful that it was quick and that we didn't have to make the decision of having to put her down. 

Even in the hardest of times God is good. 

WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON YOU ASK???

Remembering all who gave their lives for us and 

those who are out there protecting us now.

This got really long because other things happened since I stared writing this so there is some babbling going on here.....

My beautiful daughter Amber turned 39 on Monday the 18th of May. It's so hard to be living apart on days like this. Of course I texted with her and then we did a Google Hangout with her, Dylan, Adam, Gabby and James. James participated really well so that was really nice for Amber to see!! 

Skye had a vets appointment last week. Mark took her and they took her from the door and communicated to Mark through phone calls. I had sent a list of my concerns which the doctor answered for us. 

We thought she may have pulled a muscle a few months back. With Covid-19 we put off taking her as she didn't seem to have any pain. She doesn't put a lot of pressure on her back left leg. However she still ran after bunnies and took her walk with Mark showing no issues at all. I also got her a leg brace which seems to help.

Doctor believes that it is arthritis. Did want to do an x-ray at this time. Gave her glucosamine and some pain medication if needed. She didn't think that Skye was in any pain either. She seems to be wanting to play more. 

My brother in law Bob had a birthday on the 13th and my sister Darcy's birthday was on the 22nd.

I went for my recheck on my right breast. Had another mammogram and an ultrasound. I didn't want to go with the virus out there but I also could I not go. They were wonderful and crossed off everything on my check list of precautions. 

So I was a wreck waiting for the results. Praying all day and night to God. I saw that the letters were in the mail on Monday but didn't get them. (I get updates daily from the post office) I didn't want to find out bad news on Amber's birthday.  As it turns out it was good news. No abnormalities at this time. 

(Since I started writing this post the next subject gave me a scare because I had been deciding between going to find out if I'm going to die from breast cancer or going and die from Covid-19.)

Got a spider bite on Sunday evening. Thought it was just a mosquito bite as I started to scratch it at Adam and Gabby's house that evening. For some reason Orange County has a mosquito issue, we don't have any by us. Looked at it on Monday morning and it was definitely a circle with the target in the middle. It's like nothing else I've ever felt or seen before. Unbelievable itching.

Ended up calling my doctor on Tuesday the 19th sending him a photo of the bite. He prescribed an antibiotic but I shouldn't take it unless I start seeing pus. Well as it turns out I believe I had an allergic reaction to the bite. The area has cleared up but you can get a bacterial infection from the bite into your bloodstream. 

With two full days of research I found out that you can have a reaction to the bite up to 72 hours later. On Thursday morning I had trouble breathing. Nothing new to me but it was bad. Honestly now I think I could have used an epipen but I've never had to before and didn't think of it as an allergic reaction. I was doing breathing treatments which were not much help. 

If I have a runny nose the next day it's in my lungs, if I have a sore throat the next day it's in my lungs. I think the bacteria went to my lungs. Reading further the best plan of action is steroids and Keflex which I had. The doctor always has me keep steroids in the house and he had ordered Keflex because of the spider bite. 

So how could I not be concerned that maybe I got Covid-19 at my testing because it's not two weeks until May 28th since we went. I was a wreak. We were supposed to go to a party with social distancing yesterday and we didn't go. I felt a whole lot better yesterday once the steroids and antibiotic kicked in. I'm feeling pretty good today too. However, what if it was Covid-19 and I passed it on. 

I haven't had a fever, cough, sore throat, myalgia or any other indication beside shortness of breath and wheezing. That can be a normal day for me however this time was different. You can get a bacterial pneumonia from a spider bite and this definitely felt like that to me since the pneumonia I had a few years ago felt similar and it took me 2 weeks before deciding to go to the hospital. Basically these are same exact medications I was sent home with. 

Some photos from our social distancing Sunday the 17th of May. When we were driving down their street I got a glimpse of someone walking with a little boy. Turns out it was Gabby and James. The week before I brought James these pj's. He's into Mickey Mouse right now. 

Gabby said that on their walk, every five minutes he stopped, bent over and pointed to Mickey on the pants legs. Too cute! 

MONTANA

We are in Montana this week visiting Amber and Dylan. These are a few pictures from our drive up taken through the car window. That's not easy going 80 miles an hour!! As you can see I only got half of the bridge.

 I love seeing cattle out on the range. We saw herds of antelope too but I wasn't able to get any photos. 

 Beautiful rock formations along the way.

 Dylan's frogs.....

Skye in the snow. 

Thankfully we didn't have cold temperatures driving here. We had heavy rain going through Las Vegas and continuing for about 4 hours.  This snow arrived the next day after we arrived. 

A FEW PICTURES TO ENJOY

We didn't get any good pictures at Christmas but Adam and James came over on Sunday to watch football so I got a few cute ones then. James had a bit of a cough but otherwise he was in pretty good spirits. 

Gave him an old remote with the batteries out because he wants the remote control when he sees it. This made him happy.  Gabby was home sick with bronchitis. Looks like we might be heading over to their house this weekend to watch football.

If you follow me on Facebook you have seen these photos. James thinks it is rather funny to play with Skye's bell. She uses the bell to go outside, she pushes it with her nose. Trained her from a puppy and 11 years later she still rings the bell. 

Of course he thinks it is even funnier to put it in his mouth. (Trust me it is safe!)

   

Got a shot of the guys watching football. Since it was after James' nap he was willing to sit still for a little bit, otherwise him and I were all over the house all day long. I got some steps in for sure!  

Speaking of Skye, she turned 11 on Tuesday the 7th. She is a Cairn Terrier like Toto from the Wizard of Oz. We were told that she might change colors within the first 4 years and she definitely did! 

Enjoy your weekend! 

MISS SKYE B

Skye had her surgery last Friday. She got groomed on Thursday. The reason she didn't have her surgery sooner was because my groomer was booked up until October 3rd. I had called about six weeks before. 

So when she groomed Skye I told her I wanted to make an appointment for right before Christmas. She was already booked. 

However she decided to add a Saturday to her schedule because she had several people requesting grooming around the same time. I was so thankful that I gave her an early Christmas gift of some See's dark chocolate balls. 

Her surgery wasn't an emergency but I knew that she couldn't get cut afterword's because of the incision on her chest. So let's just say she was very shaggy when she got groomed because it was at least a month past a normal grooming. 

Here is Skye home after her surgery. Her eyes are very glassy as she was pretty stoned when we picked her up. She did great. The vet called saying that because of the amount of teeth that were being removed and the fatty tumor that she may not be able to remove all of her teeth. They only like to keep them under for a certain amount of time. 

I told her that I would appreciate it if they could do this in one trip. I would hate to put her through this again besides the extra expense of being put under again. She said she would try. Well thankfully the teeth didn't give her much trouble, they came out easily and everything was done within the time frame. 

I was very thankful and I brought our vet a bag of See's dark chocolate balls too! She was very excited about that. 

She had about 10 teeth removed, the other's were cleaned and she has done really well. ($1,533) She was a bit out of it the first two days but was back to herself quickly. She of course does not like the Elizabethan collar on her head which has to be on for another week.  

She went to the vet yesterday morning to have her mouth looked at. All is well and she will go next Monday or Tuesday to have the sutures removed from her chest. She wants to play so badly. She keeps picking up her ball for us to throw but she isn't supposed to have any activity for 14 days.

She has jumped up on the sofa's and also on our bed which she shouldn't be doing. She was miserable yesterday when she couldn't go outside to bark at the lawn guy. Thursday's are her favorite. She never barks at the doorbell but goes crazy when she hears the lawnmower! 

Here she is last night bringing me her squirrel to play with. She is such a sweetheart. She is feeling better than ever which is awesome. She turns 11 in January. 

Thankfully she will be up and running by the time Amber and Dylan get here next Tuesday night. She is going to be thrilled to see them!! 

This afternoon we are heading over to Adam and Gabby's to celebrate my birthday. They wanted to do this last Friday but because of Skye's surgery we changed it to today. 

We are going out to dinner and James is joining us. We often order in at their house or cook when we visit with them although they have taken him several times to restaurants on their own. 

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.