TGIF!! It’s the last day of May and time to share five random things about our week. Truthfully, I’m hard pressed to find anything to share, but here goes my attempt.

1. I’ve been quiet this week. Nothing wrong, just not much to say. Something I have way too much to say, so the Internet should definitely enjoy the moment!
2. It’s warming up so I guess summer will come This is when I think of our old pool, but it’s sure nice that Youngest has a pool!
3. Hilariously, I bought a (somewhat modest) bikini AFTER coming home from Hawaii. And really, Hawaii is where I would have used it. I don’t look great it in, but I’m okay with that.
4. We are trying to figure out a way to celebrate Middle’s birthday (two days ago!) but schedules are challenging us. However we will do it, as Middle is very important to all of us! He’s also going to be a dad in roughly 3 months
5. Today I’m seeing Biker Witch and happy about that. Before Hawaii she had a lot going on, plus I had stuff — so this will be nice! This weekend plans are exciting things like cleaning the carpets in the bedroom. Hope no one is jealous of my amazing life, LOL!!!

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! Have a great weekend!

Just popping in to thank all who served in the U.S. and remember all the service members who were injured or made the ultimate sacrifice. It’s important to actually remember the cost to those who earned our freedoms.  It hit me hard when I visited the Arizona Memorial in Hawaii. All those souls below us as we stood to view the wall of names of those who died was sobering and left a lasting impact. I consider it an honor to have had the opportunity to silently thank them as I stood on the memorial. While the rest of our trip was fun and family time, those moments were spent in quiet refection, prayer and gratitude. It also gave me a chance to thank my dad for his service as a fighter pilot in WWII — although he was fortunate to come home physically unharmed, he carried the emotional scars of war and, I believe, that heavy weight took him decades earlier than his two sisters who lived well into their 80’s. The cost of combat is great and long lasting.

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?