Happy Birthday To Me!

The plan was...

Take me for a nice evening walk...

No nagging such as: "Come on Gracie...  hurry up...  you've smelled that same spot for five minutes ~ let's go!"

No pulling, yelling, complaining or making snide remarks about me lifting my leg when I pee.

Only wonderful & beautiful compliments like:  "Gracie, I love when you lunge at other dogs" and... "When you yank at this leash it makes me run and get such good exercise...  thank you Gracie."

You see....

Today is a special day.....

It is my birthday!

And I was promised Dairy Queen ice cream

But Dad wanted to go to Rita's first for an italian ice.

And when he did, the very nice, wonderful, sweet, beautiful, kind girl on the other side of the glass asked my mom if I wanted a doggie cone...

She hesitated, since we were on our way to Dairy Queen.  But then Mom said,"yea!"

So I had 2 ice creams!!!!

Best.  Birthday. Ever.

(minus the ear drops and pills I have to take for my ear infection and my sore paw)

Dear Samson, if you were here I would have shared xoxoxoxo

Teach The Children Well> Gracie's Post

Its time to say goodbye to summer.  Not Summer the cookie carrier, but summer the season.  

There's been a lot of silly talk inside the pool shed.  "I got to carry the new little guy around in the water this year and the little girl too,"  "Well, the master of the house floated on me almost every day... "   "Hey, did you check out Mr. Shark?..  The kids played with him a lot.  He's tired.  No wonder he's asleep"   "*sigh*"  "Guess snow will be blowing against our door before too long."  "We need to rest up for next year."

But Summer the cookie carrier is not going anywhere.  And I, being the caring, obedient, loving pup that I am...  I'm doing my best to train her and teach her the difference between right and wrong.  

It's been tough.  She's so fixed on the kitteh's.  To brainwash her convince her that dogs rule and cat's drool is an exhausting feat.  

But.  When I witnessed the following scene inside her dolly house...  I knew she had finally got it.

Dogs = on the bed with the rest of the pack people.

Cat's = Laying on the hard floor in humble adoration of the dog (who is basically a people too). 

Today I go to the vet.  I have a bad paw and an ear infection.  My birthday is Wednesday and I will be ten years old.  I am hoping for Dairy Queen ice cream.  I am hoping to feel better. I am hoping for mom to quit putting leaves on my head and taking my picture.

Gary's Heart

Gary's catheterization took place at around 8 AM this morning.  We had to be at the hospital by 6, so I could not believe that he did not wake me up until 5:15 to leave the house twenty minutes later...   I really needed more time.  But then again, I managed to walk out the door and be there on time so maybe I didn't need more time after all.

By 9:30 the doctor came out to talk to me and explained that one of Gary's main arteries was 99.9% blocked.  If he hadn't got in there when he did, it would have surely led to a heart attack.  The doctor was able to stent it, and that is a praise report!!!  We were so thankful that it could be taken care of without surgery.  

He will be staying the night in the hospital and coming home tomorrow.  

Thank you all so much for your best wishes and prayers.  It means so much to us!!  

Dear Dad,

Don't worry about me.  I'll be fine without you.  As long as you get better and come home real soon.  I'll keep your side of the bed warm for ya. 

Love, Your girl Gracie

If Only We Could Purchase Time...

It has become very difficult to stay true to blogging lately.  I love to blog and visit those I've come to know and love.  But life has got in the way.  Facebook is easy and not nearly as time consuming, so I have been keeping up with that... kind of.  If you happen to have a FB page, please friend me!  

This is what we've been up to:

With Gary being retired, I am running the office on my own.  I do my own paperwork, marketing, testing, sales, service and answering the phone and scheduling.  I'm loving it, but suddenly, the office has become extremely busy.  It's a good thing...  I feel blessed to have such a productive business and to be helping people to hear better.  

The grandkids>   Jake is in soccer now and Rissi starts dance tomorrow.  Then there are sleepovers every now and again... though I haven't even had much time for them lately.

Gracie keeps me busy, of course.  She's my baby.

Gary and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary yesterday.  It was low key.  Church and then a small town festival with happy music, greasy food, and peanut butter fudge.

Gary has been having some health problems and goes in for a cardiac catheterization on Wednesday.  If you would remember, please say a prayer that he will not need to have bypass surgery.  

Grass is dying and the air is crisp.  Fall is tapping at the door. It seems we opened our pool just yesterday and its time to close it already.  Months have swiftly come and gone leaving me bewildered.  Honestly.  Its crazy how time flies as you get older.  

Our living room has been tore up in, like, forever while we await our new wall to wall carpeting.  Seems the installers are pretty backed up.  Everything is on hold till then.  It will be good to live a normal life again, if that ever happens.  Gary was in the middle of doing what he has to do to hang our big screen TV over the fireplace when his EKG and nuclear stress test came back negative.  So until we know the results of the catheterization on Wednesday we are in limbo on that AND our anniversary 'getaway' at the end of this month.  We take one day at a time.  

Looking for Trouble

Isolated

Yesterday I received a call from a woman who wanted to schedule a hearing test for her mother.  We will call her Maggie.

Maggie is in her eighties and has never had her hearing tested.  She is blind and extremely hard of hearing.  Her condition is isolating her from the rest of the world.  

Her son-in-law wheeled her in (she was in a wheelchair) and I tried to carry on a conversation with her.  She was not hearing me.  Her eyes were glazed over and there was no response to any of my questions to her.  

"You have to get down close to her ear and speak,"  the daughter said.  "She can't hear you."  

When I checked her ears they were totally occluded with earwax so I sent her up the road to a walk-in clinic to get them cleaned out before going forward with the test.  

When she came back, she was hearing a little better, but still....  a huge deficit in her hearing.  After testing her and putting a set of hearing aids in her ears, we were able to carry on a conversation with her.  

I now know that she had cake for breakfast and that she wasn't sure what was for dinner.  Her eyes showed life and she laughed at my jokes.  

Her family and I were elated.  

This day is a reminder that God has richly blessed me with the opportunity, skills and tools that can make a difference in the lives of others.  

Each morning I unlock the door and walk into my office (which is an extension of our home),  I feel so very grateful.