If all goes well, we’ll be in Hawaii Thursday evening. If not — we bought travel insurance, LOL! This is the first time we’ve bought it, but this has been a very weird year, on top of an extremely hard year last year. So we take nothing for granted right now.

I won’t be posting for at least a week and maybe a tad longer. And then I need to evaluate if I should keep this blog. I enjoy just chatting, but it’s understandably not really interesting now that I’m not writing (although I still miss it and sometimes thing about writing again.).

But for now, I’ll tell you about my good news for the week:

I finally saw the biopsy report on my throat — benign! I have a phone consult with the doc after we return, but I’m extremely happy to see the report. And trust me, I know I’m lucky so far. I also don’t take that for granted either. It’s been a long road, but now at least have some answers on two masses that were removed in my throat. I’ll take this moment to remind anyone who needs to hear this: You care the most about your health, so if you think something isn’t right, keep pursing answers until you get them. Don’t worry about upsetting medical professionals, just keep pushing. And if it turns out to be nothing, that’s cause for celebration!

This one will sound silly — but I have two books on my Kindle I actually want to read. Since I have a harder time staying focused on reading these days, it’s awesome to find books I look forward to reading.

Maggie gets a spa vacation! I’m choosing to believe this is good news for her Of course we worry, but she knows the boarding routine, she’ll get to see people and dogs all day, and has a nice comfy stall to sleep in at night (rather than a kennel). The boarding staff will call youngest or his wife if anything happens, they know what to do and we trust any decisions they make for Maggie when we aren’t around. The best things we can do for Maggie now is to be calm and positive about her spa vacation, and she will do fine.

What’s going on in your life? And are you reading any good books?

I hope all the Moms out there had a great Mother’s Day!

Saturday, we went to the Celebration of Life for my former brother-in-law. It was lovely to see everyone and remember our loved one. He passed away about two or three months ago, I think, then his wife suddenly passed away two weeks ago. It’s been a lot of their families. I was most concerned about my niece and two nephews, but they are coping as well as possible. They did a great job of setting up a BBQ exactly as he would have done it himself — he would be so pleased. I’m very proud of them for honoring their dad’s memory in a very authentic and loving way. I saw people I haven’t seen in decades and talked way too much! I felt it Sunday, but it was worth it

Sunday, we went to breakfast with youngest and his wife. I can eat pretty well now and enjoyed every bite of my Belgium waffle and scrambled eggs! The four of us began planning an idea for our next trip together. It’ll be a while before we do it, but half the fun is planning together. After that we took the Mustang out to Middle Son’s house — and getting there was a traffic battle. My pregnant daughter-in-law looks amazing! She’s tall and slim, so she’s rocking her baby bump. I’m so happy that she’s taking excellent care of herself so she’ll feel as good as possible when the baby comes. I was lucky to recover pretty quickly from having my kids, and want that for my daughters-in-law as well, I also got to pet and love my two granddogs (under close supervision because I honestly forget my surgery limitations with dogs, LOL) We had a nice time just hanging out.

As a Mother’s Day comment: I love that both my grandkids, Turbo and this new baby, have such wonderful Moms.

Oldest wished me a Happy Mother’s Day and we’ll see each other at the airport this week. They had a super busy weekend, and we’re all getting ready for the trip. I will get to hang with Turbo all I want in Hawaii.

Once we finally got home, I took Maggie for a quick second walk then did nothing but write this blog and cook dinner with Wizard. This weekend wiped me out, but overall, I think I’m recovering fine.

Today I may run some errands, but if I need a day of rest, I’ll do it. Maybe…

How was your weekend and Mother’s Day?

TGIF!! It’s time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1) It’s been a week since my throat surgery that turned out a little bigger than expected. I’m healing normally, although my doctor winced yesterday when he looked in my throat. I wanted to laugh — I suspect he thought I was 10 to 14 days out of surgery, not 6. He’s youngish (compared to me), and one of my favorite things about him is that both his face and communication style is pretty blunt (and very nice!).  So when he assured me I was healing fine, I believe him. And I am feeling better each day, so it’s all good. The best news is he cleared me to fly late next week to go to Hawaii!

2) In frustrating things, they didn’t have my pathology report on the throat biopsy yet, or my referral for another (and the most important) test that I need. That’s not their fault though, the system is dangerously slow here in CA.  I’m not worried about the throat biopsy as the doctor didn’t see any suspicious areas. Since I slept through it all and didn’t see it, I’ll take his word for it. He’ll call me if something unexpected turns up in the pathology report.

3) Being bored, I’ve been online shopping. So far, Amazon has managed to lose the thing I wanted most — a pair of board shorts. It’s not a big deal as I have other swim suits. I just wanted these to replace the ones that came with a tankini set I bought. Because my shape is weird, I usually need a size smaller bottoms than top. And I really like being able to get in and out of water without wardrobe malfunctions, LOL! I also ordered or bought a few tops, and a skirt that I really hope fits. The skirt is very Hawaiian-Bold and I thing I will love it if it fits. Here’s the link if you want to see it for fun.

4) I’m searching for another hairstyle. My hair has grown to my shoulders at is flipping out at the ends. It’s also dragging my face down and constantly bugging me. It’s become clear I have zero skills in putting it up too I’m thinking more of a shoulder length shaggy butterfly cut or something else fun. I think I’ll see what my stylist says. I’m pretty confident every stylist expert in the world would strongly advise AGAINST getting a new style the day before leaving on a vacation, so I’m totally doing it!

5) This weekend we have a Celebration of Life party to attend. He was my brother-in-law once, and I literally grew up with him around. It’ll be nice to share memories and support my niece and nephews.  Otherwise I’ll be resting (so sick of that!) and doing small chores that are safe for me to do. There’s nothing like the Hawaiian trip to keep me from doing anything stupid! It’s an excellent incentive!

That’s my five, now it’s your time! I always enjoy hearing what everyone else has to share! I hope you have the best weekend!

I walked dogs at the animal shelter last week. I think I walked five. It’s hard to keep track, but they were all good and I didn’t have any trouble. I also wore my arm guards to prevent any accidental scratches Here’s a couple pics of the dogs I walked: This is Hope — I fell for this sweet girl. A few times I stopped on the walking trail to keep distance between us and other dogs, and Hope would turn and make eye contract with me to see what I wanted to do. She’s a smart girl! But I am not getting another dog, I just want to help these dogs find homes!

And this is Birdie, she was young (I think, I didn’t look at her age on the intake sheet), sweet and full of energy. She was good on the leash for me, and no trouble at all.

I definitely can’t walk dogs this week as I’m recovering. And late next week we go to Hawaii, so hopefully I can do it when I get back. It’s a ton of work, but it’s also equally rewarding. I’m also very careful when I come home to prevent spreading any illnesses that are at the shelter to Maggie. I take my shoes off in the garage, come right in and shower before I pet her. It’s too easy to spread things like kennel cough.

How’s your Wednesday going?

Sorry I missed Friday. Things got chaotic before I had my throat surgery Even though I had my bloodwork done for 15 days, everyone just noticed at the last minute that my sodium level was too low to be safe for surgery. Anyhow, we treated with way buckets of electrolyte drinks, retook the blood test, and I had the lesions removed on Friday morning as scheduled. Everything went fine, and I even came out of full anesthesia with no nausea, which is a miracle for me. The surgeon took a large chunk out in the vicinity of my where my tonsil would be if I hadn’t had them removed as a kid. In fact, the largest mass appears to be tonsil regrowth, which is a weird thing that does happen. Nothing looked suspicious, but it’ll be biopsied just to be sure.

I’m extremely relieved to get this done. Progress after months of waiting and waiting feels pretty good. My throat is very sore as expected but it should heal. What I didn’t expect was a three week restriction on lifting anything more than five pounds. That should make going to Hawaii interesting But as long as I heal as expected, we’re going! I’ll pack light and all will be well.

So this weekend has mostly been rest, trying to eat and I’m allowed to do some light walking. Oh and watching videos of Turbo! He got four hits in his baseball game on Saturday

How was your weekend?

I finished THE SERPANT AND THE WINGS OF THE NIGHT, which is the first in a series. I liked it, but I can’t decide if I want book two or not.  I really liked the first book right up until the end — which made me feel like the heroine was back where she started. So…I’m debating.

In audio, I randomly chose a mystery LISTEN FOR THE LIE by Amy Tintera. I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s a fun mystery if you like sarcastic heroes with murder on their minds. I mean…this heroine should irritate me, but I’m actually amused. But I can see why some readers would not be as entertained since she has a voice in her heard urging her to murder most people she sees However, I’ve had voices in my head telling me to write their story, so I can’t really be too judgmental.

What are you reading or listening to?