Our Pets are Special.......

 I was in the kitchen Tuesday morning making breakfast when Louis Dean called to me to come quick and bring the camera!

Tabitha was sitting like a queen on her throne - way up on the shelf under the TV.

She posed and preened for us as well as any feline model ever!

I told Louis Dean it might be funny to turn the TV on - and put the sound up high!

That didn't seem to faze her.

Then she started looking around.....

seems while Tabitha was in front of the TV, Samantha was behind it!

They managed to get up there and back down without knocking anything over.

I hope they can keep that track record up!

We found Tabitha up there several days that day and the next.

We are in the 'elderly' stage of eating - at least most of the time.

Lots of fruits and veggies and fiber.

Very little red meat and heavier on the poultry and fish.

We ate breakfast for lunch on Tuesday and I went to Aldi's later to pick up a few things for dinner.

Pam posted about this Aldi find on Facebook so I bought two bags!

They are seriously GOOD!!!

I came home and proceeded to make a huge tuna salad......except I forgot to get mayo!

So  it was a PBJ kind of supper!

This afternoon (Wednesday) I had my pre op blood work appointment in Arlington and I miscalculated how long it would take to get there. I meant to leave at 2:00 for a 2:30 appointment. Instead it was 2:08 and I arrived at 2:39! Then I stood in line for a few minutes before getting checked in.

The lady said, "Good! I can put you in at 2:44....a minute shy of 15!"

Turns out, if you are 15 minutes later, they can cancel your appointment and you must reschedule. 

However, when the PA visited with me to give me all the pre op info, she said they seldom do that unless they are super busy.

I'll have bladder reconstruction surgery next Thursday and I am looking forward to getting this done.

It's a simple surgery, really, but I will have to stay in the hospital overnight. Next week Louis Dean and I will make a couple of practice drives so he will know how to get back home and then how to get back to the hospital to pick me up the next day. This will be in Arlington so it's not as easy as if I were having it done here in Irving.

I mentioned I was a few minutes late.......

I met with the PA and she sent me to the lab waiting room.....and I sat and I sat and I sat.

People who came in when I did - came and went. Guess there were a lot of us doing labs today.

Finally, I thought perhaps I should ask someone if I was on the 'list' for labs. Aout that time, this lovely lady peeked around the corner to see if anyone was in the waiting room and asked if I was waiting for lab work. I said, "Yes!" Apparently, the PA did not leave my paperwork where it should have been.

BUT I did get my blood work done and I was out the door some hour and a half later!

I thought it was a fasting appointment and it was close to 4:00.....so it was a good thing I had baked pumpkin muffins this morning to take to my son, Jesse. I gobbled one up on my way to his house!

I didn't get a pic of him today but he is doing well with his physical therapy and recovery. Still in pain, of course, but he LOOKS good and it did my mother's heart to SEE him.

We had a nice visit and I was able to see all three of my older grands and left them with a bag of pumpkin muffins. Next week I have a pre op at the hospital in Arlington and, since that's where my son lives, I will visit him again. I would be visiting anyway - doctor visits or not - but this has made it absolutely perfect! Once I am through with my surgery and Jesse has recovered some more from his injury - perhaps then we can meet for lunch or a trip to one of his favored coffee houses.

I came home this evening and got right on the den - and finished it!!

That's the last room in the house to be cleaned and decorated.

 It was too dark in there to take pictures so I will do that tomorrow.

I plan on going to Fort Worth to visit Lillian in the morning....but I have not been able to reach her by phone for going on three weeks! Her voice mailbox is empty and I have called repeatedly. I'll call the office in the morning to check on her before I go over. I need to see her and take her some goodies before I go to the hospital. It's SO wonderful that she has some friends there at Trail Lake Nursing Home now!

I did make that tuna salad tonight but Louis Dean had cooked a huge breakfast before I got home -

3 eggs, bacon, toast and jelly. I'm pretty sure he will be making himself a sandwich before he goes to bed, though.

We went outside to sit on the driveway at our recently gifted to us lawn furniture.

The weather was perfect and when our neighbors, Mark and Susie, walked by, we invited them to come up and sit with us a spell.  That's an old folks kind of saying ....sit for a spell.

We had a glass of wine together and enjoyed our visit. I'm sure there will be more now that the weather is slowly changing into more of an autumn feel to the air.

I close tonight's journal entry on a sad note......

This pic is from 2008 when Amber and Mike lived in Katy, Texas and before they went to Scotland for a year. Jersey (the younger black lab) is Amber's dog and Shiner ( the trained hunting yellow lab dog) is Mike's. Shiner passed away a couple of years ago and this afternoon at 3:30......Jersey joined him.

She was so loved and all of our hearts are hurting tonight.....most especially Amber's.

And yet, in her grief, she found a way to make this emotional time as meaningful as she could.

She arranged for a vet to come to their home this afternoon as Jersey was not able to walk on her own by this point. Then she picked the kids up early from school so they would have an opportunity to say their goodbyes - letting their teachers know what was going on.

I admit to crying several times today.....and that's a drop in the bucket to the tears the Bells have shed.

Jersey loved her family as much as they loved her.

At the end of her life, she was surrounded with more love than at the beginning.