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