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?

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?

We made it to Turbo’s baseball game! And we had fun, Turbo got a hit, caught a grounder and brought in a run.  After the game was over, he still wanted to practice, which cracked me up. I don’t know who I enjoyed more — Turbo or Wizard, whom Turbo wanted to impress.  I loved it all. Here’s a blurry pick through the fence of Turbo playing first base.

We had a great time partly because the other team, parents and coach were all there for the same reason we were — to support, encourage and teach all the kids. We clapped and encouraged all the kids from both teams, and the game ended up with a tied score.  Afterwards, the other team’s parents made a human bridge with their arms for the kids to run under and called our team over too. I thought that was so cool. These kids all had a great day learning the game and best of all, sportsmanship.

Sunday I had lunch with my friend. She’s doing great despite a few medical challenges this year. We had a nice lunch, caught up and shopped a little. We have been trying to get together more often, but can’t seem to manage more than three times a year. Life for both of us has been keep us busy.

How was your weekend?

TGIF!! This week has been warp speed and somehow we landed on Friday again. Now it’s time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. So last week I went shopping for tops. I found some at Macy, then went to pay and discovered they were having a “presale,” which meant that in order to get the 30% off, I had to pick up the clothes at a later date. I agreed, and save $40.00! I also had to drive back out yesterday to pick them up. But Wizard came with me and we went to lunch so it turned out to be a nice time.
2. This week has been a bit of juggling with medical stuff (it’s boring to talk about) and changing pharmacies because our old pharmacy closed. But both Wizard and I got it all organized by the end of the week! This is a big win. My frustration is trying to get through to my ENT’s office, but once I do, they are super helpful, so I’m not complaining. I understand they are juggling a lot more than I am!
3. I listened to the book IT’S ONE OF US by J.T. Ellison. I really loved the book, but didn’t love very end. Still it was a good book and I’m looking to read more of her work!
4. I worked my first volunteer shift at the animal shelter. I have a lot to learn, and definitely need more experience getting the martingale collars on. I had one mishap (not the dogs fault!) that left me with a scratch on my arm. I don’t consider that a big deal, but my arm had to go the drama queen route and bleed a lot. I cleaned it up, it’s fine. I had a more experienced dog walker collar the dog (she even struggled!), and then I walked him and returned him safely to his kennel. He was a good boy once we got going and I didn’t have any more problems. I’m going to order the arm guards the other dog walker suggested. By the way, she wanted to give me her arm guards to use right then — these are really nice people who were so very patient with me. I will get better! Last comment — Wizard had a moment when he saw the scratch, but quickly recovered and realized I was fine. It’s going to happen and Wizard knows that, he’s just been a little protective of me lately.
5. This weekend we are going to see Turbo play baseball on Saturday and Sunday, I’m having lunch with a friend while Wizard goes racing. It’ll be a fun and busy weekend.

That’s my five, and now I’d really love to hear yours! Happy Friday and I hope everyone has a great weekend!