I ask you... does this little girl look like she is going anywhere?

She turns out to be about 8 years old, her eye problem is conjunctivitis, not cataract, and as you can see, there IS a second eye.  Her organs are working well, and her clumps of hair so stuck together have been shaved.  She has all of her shots.  She needs a dental, but will have to be sedated for that, so it will come soon.  She does NOT like her eye drops, but we will insist.  She is purebred Shihtzu, as near as the doctor can tell.

She is now listed as "Bessie" on our records at Dr. Tom's. 

What do you think?

On another front, we have a new old china hutch in our bedroom.  I saw this hutch many months ago at Wild Horse Antiques.  When Michelle closed her shop and moved to Texas, I forgot about it, but now the shop is open and the actual owner of the hutch is running it.  It is kind of an antique/flea market place, but I saw the hutch and realized it was down to 100.00.  I went back and talked to the man, and he told me he had given 165.00 for it at auction, but wanted to move it.  I went back again and asked him if he would take two payments, one of $50.00 and one in two weeks.  He agreed, so Saturday, we brought it home.  Okay... Keith brought it home and Keith and Nathan somehow got it unloaded and in the house. It is sitting in our bedroom, and I unloaded about half of what was in the kitchen hutch and moved it into this one, so we can get to our everyday plates easily now in the kitchen.  When you only have six cabinets, you have to use everything you can for storage.

Here it is empty:

Just what every bedroom needs. 

My mother's crystal water glasses are in it, my grandma's candy dish, some old milk bottles, a Pysanky egg someone gave us for our wedding, a needle case from my mom's sewing basket, and some salt and paper shakers that I like.  A little collection of dogs.  Christmas plates. It has two shelves down below, now full of things, so it was lucky Keith put a shim under it.

My Puss N Boots cookie jars look nice in it, don't they?

A Wonderful Evening and a Good Day

We had a quiet, at-home evening last night, but it was good.  Nathan watched some tv, (they have very limited tv in Garnett) and Keith did an errand, while I blog-hopped. 

I love Sunday mornings.  I used to go to church at 8:00 AM, so would get up very early, do chores, and then change clothes for church.  Now, I sleep a little later on Saturday and Sunday, fix a good breakfast for Keith/me/Nathan, make a batch of cookies for Nathan to take home with him, and then go to church at 10:30... and I forgot to say I feed all the dogs and do chores, too!  It's so peaceful here, and I can sit down at the table with the Sunday Kansas City Star, and read it slowly.  I love it.

It's Sunday evening now, and the starlings only hit us once today... early in the morning.  I banged on a pot several times when I saw them coming back, and once it warmed up to the fifties, they flew away to eat somewhere else.  The chickens had a great day, and the big flock spent it in the pasture.  I have so many older birds in that flock, but I hate to get rid of them, they are like old friends.  I thought originally if we had another bad winter like the last two, that we would lose the older ones.  So far, except for poor Widget this week, we are good.

Keith has gone to wash my car off, and that brings me to an observation.  We need rain.  The little ponds are drying up again, and the marsh near Lawrence usually so full of water and herons... is almost dry.  I mean literally, almost dry, there is one pool.  When a car goes down the road, the dust billows like a fog, rolling into the fields and yards alongside it.  I am constantly dusting in here.  I'm starting a prayer for rain, because I'm getting worried.

Before I left for church, Keith gave Bess a bath.

As you can see, the dust of the road had covered her little body well

We thought for a while last night that she had only one eye... and that that eye had a cataract in it, but after Keith washed her, we realized there was a good eye on her left.

Tomorrow she is going to go to Dr. Tom, and we will have him assess her health all over.  Then we'll decide what to do.  We have a good relationship with the rescue from whom we got Hannah and Abby, and they specialize in small dogs.  We don't want to approach them until we know what's what.

Keith left after I got home from taking Nathan to meet his mom.... he was in a hurry to get to Lee's Summit to do this:

Yes, he was visiting the Little Prince.  Need I tell you he was over there all afternoon?

I was asked to go, but to tell you the truth... I have become happiest at home, and nothing makes me feel better than puttering around here, cleaning, doing wash, baking or cooking, and taking care of the animals.  Our neighbor Troy came over to trade me some egg cartons for eggs (which I was glad to do) and he met Bess.  He told me his wife is now looking for a Peke, but I am holding out hope. 

I cooked some green beans "slow and low" with onion and bacon, and when Keith got home, we had a piece of a ham steak, with some rice and mushrooms, and the green beans.  The fat pugs got to have some green beans, too!

Wherein I Reveal Some Secrets - Worth Reading!

I'm still not used to typing these blog entries without my Little Doll at my feet, snoring.  I miss her.  I could cuddle my toes into her side and she would snuffle and go back to sleep, keeping my toes warm.  I was so used to her being on my right side that it seems empty now on the couch, though Gertie has moved over there, and her contented little mewlings have done much this week to help us along.

Yesterday's trip to the post for my checkup was a very good one, and I want to share it with you.  Like most other bloggers, I don't quite tell everything that is going on around here.  Some personal things I think are not things that you all would be interested in, and some are just not things that I want to share.  But I think it's time to share one thing, and not because a famous chef has done it lately.

You know, if you've read this blog, that Keith and I believe that this place helps keep us healthy.  Neither of us wants to atrophy as we get older, and though it is harder for me to lift the water buckets now, I compensate by not filling them as full.  I usually park far from the stores and groceries to walk, and try to walk as much as I can while doing chores.  Keith has begun playing golf again, and is walking, instead of riding a cart.  In fact, he played 18 holes today, and came home exhausted and starving, but he WALKED.  A year ago, he could never have done that, and I am so proud of him.

Eight years ago, while on a checkup at Great Lakes Naval Air Station in Illinois, where we were seen while Keith finished his Army career up at Fort Sheridan, I was diagnosed with Type Two diabetes.

I have to admit that at first, I did not take this very seriously.  We were about to move back to Kansas, and the diagnosis came a day before we left.  I had a fast class with a technician who showed me how to poke my finger with a needle, and gave me some simple instructions to do it five times a day, and off we went.  I was stunned, to say the least. 

When we got settled in Leavenworth, I signed up for some courses at Munson Army Health Center, where I was soon to start temping.  There I learned a little more about this disease, and what it could do.  I had had a friend at my old job, Bob, who had been diagnosed with diabetes some years earlier.  Bob would not take his medication, and eventually lost his sight and his leg, and this scared me but I STILL didn't take it very seriously.  I began about a four year period of going to the doctor and being told my A1C was 7 or above, and not getting too concerned.  I ate as normal.

Finally, three years ago, the doctor suggested to me that I have lap-band surgery.  I did, and my life has never been the same.... more about that in a later post. 

My A1C dropped down to six as I lost weight, and I was mighty proud of myself, though I did not do extra excercise, I COULD, once again, do lots of chores here.

As my weight stabilized (I'm three years out on surgery), my A1C began to climb again, until in November it was back up to 7.6.  I should tell you that retirees were switched two years ago to a nurse pracitioner who was herself in the Army.  She is stentorian, and I never mixed well with her. About the time it went back up to 7.6, Keith and I began to make small changes to the way we eat here. We did not give up all treats, in fact, I baked more this past Christmas season than any other in my life... but we began to eat less red meat... to eat more vegetables and fruits... and other things that changed the way we were eating. We had frozen or canned things from our own garden, and we ate those.  We did chores regularly, even those days that were miserable outside, cold and wet... slogging back and forth taking care of the animals.  Even as late as last week, I asked myself WHY was I still doing this. 

I'll tell you why.

I went up to have blood drawn on Thursday morning, and to see the NP yesterday. 

My A1C had gone down to 6.5, and I HAD LOST WEIGHT.  Over CHRISTMAS.

For the very first time since being diagnosed, I was elated.  All of the little things we are doing are paying off, and we are going to continue to tweak. I also mentioned our food pantry to the Nurse Practitioner, who immediately began talking about the new food pantry at her church in a town five miles from us, where there has never been one, and there is such a need for it!  We continued talking about eggs and the need for food for a good ten minutes.

I'm not bragging here... I'm just saying that I'm finally coming to my senses and realizing I have control over this insidious thing inside me.

So, if I am beating my own drum tonight, it's because I am still dancing on air, even though I had to re-fill the waterers and put down some new feed THREE TIMES TODAY.

Poor chickens.

So, here's the second important thing about this post. 

Nathan is here with us today, and we were glad to see him.  His mother brought us something she found on the way here today... she scooped it up off the road.

It's a little Shih-tzu girl.  She is emaciated, and has a cataract on her eye.

She has huge clumps of hair stuck all together on her legs, like something you would have seen on Animal Cops years ago on Animal Planet.  We think there is no left eye, but we can't tell for sure.  She was so hungry.  We spread food out over the entire day, so she would not be ill.  She wants to be held, and to be near you.  I lay down for a few minutes this afternoon on the couch, and she jumped up lightly, and curled up near my chest.  She can't weigh five pounds.  Keith is calling her "Bess".

On Monday, he'll run her down to Dr.Tom, on the way to work.  We'll have Tom assess her chances, and tell us.  If she is adoptable, (and temprement-wise, she sure seems to be) then we'll contact the rescue from whom we got Hannah and Abby, and see if they will take her.  They specialize in small dogs, and have great success. 

If the eye is bad, then we will make another decision, one that won't be as pleasant, but she will have had a few days of warmth and food, and a resting place here near Hannah.

God does have a way, doesn't He?