Find Balto in this picture.

The dogs are loving the cooler weather.

It has been almost a year since our sweet, sweet Greta passed.  I was just looking on my phone and saw that exactly one year ago today, I took the following pictures.  It is so hard to believe she was 17 years old!  Since I wasn't posting back then, I'm going to post them now.  

This was her very favorite spot in the whole world.  

I remember that bathtub picture clearly.  She was running around the house like a kitten having a great time.  Luckily, I had my phone with me.  

I really miss having a cat!  I do look forward to adopting a kitten in the near future (hopefully).  Scott says no.  Stay tuned to see who wins.  

Last night was my last night of therapy.  I don't find it coincidental at all that I started therapy on the night before my dad had to be rushed to the hospital in July and that he was released by his home healthcare nurse on the same day I was released by my therapist.  God put my therapist in my life at the exact time he knew I would need her.  I really don't know how I would have navigated the past few months without her help.  I went to her with the thought that after many, many years of anxiety, I would finally get some help.  I just didn't realize that it would be help for very different anxiety than what I had first thought.  The timing is just too perfect not to be divinely designed.  

I still have a long way to go with my "homework" but, I now have the tools to help me reach my goals.  I also know that I am much stronger than I ever thought I was and I can handle things that I would have never thought I could.  

Speaking of cats...I took this picture of my new yoga teacher.  

(Not really.  Photo by Gemma Correll)

My Week In Review

I'm typing this at my desk half covered in Selsun Blue.  For much of my life, I've battled on and off with a common skin fungus called Tinea Versicolor.  The treatment is covering it up with Selsun Blue for 30 minutes and then washing it off.  You need to do that for about 10 days.  So from my waist to my neck, I look like a Smurf right now.  

Not that long ago, I wondered if the birds would ever find my new feeder.  I'm pretty sure they are going to eat me out of house and home now.  I am having to fill it up several times per week.  

Like the commercial says, life comes as you fast.  I'm having to look at my phone to see what has happened since my last post.

My nephew, Daniel, is in the Cub Scouts.  Here he is last weekend, showing me his new tent.

He and his dad (my brother) went camping with the Boy Scouts this weekend.  I can't wait to hear how it went.

Mom and Dad sat outside with Daniel while he played in his new tent.  My brother said the tent cost him $30 at Wal-Mart.

Laura was outside as well. 

And, of course....

I came home and sat on the front porch with Blossom.

Balto prefers to stay inside

Daniel got a new rocket....

..which broke soon after I took that picture.  I do have to say, it was a really cool slingshot until it broke.

I asked Balto if he wanted to go for a walk. This is how he reacted...

We made him go anyway.

Yesterday, we enjoyed the nice weather outside....until a bee kept bothering us so we went back in.

Today I have been planting my winter flowers.

According to my phone, that was my week.  On Wednesdays I teach the Special Needs Awana class at church.  On Sunday mornings, I teach the 4 & 5 year old Sunday School class and during the worship hour, I teach the Special Needs class. 

Today one of my 4 year olds asked me what I was going to dress up as for Halloween.  I told her I was not dressing up this year.  She said, "You have to. You're a kid."  If only she knew!!!  I guess that explains why the class doesn't seem to "fear" me.  They tried to lock me in the bathroom once.  We have a lot of fun in there but, I think it might drive me to drinking soon.  

Dad went out to eat 3 nights in a row this week.  On the one hand, I'm so excited that he felt good enough to go!  On the other hand, it isn't good for his salt restricted diet.  We don't want him to start retaining fluid and have to head back to the hospital again.  He actually drove a car this week for the first time in several months.  Each day is a gift and I'm learning to take it one day at a time and live in gratitude.  

Friday Is Here

What a long week that has flown by!  Sunday, I decided to make a meal for my parents and since Dad is now on a low salt diet due to Congestive Heart Failure,  I made Cozy Beef Stew from the American Heart Association website.  Yuck.  I followed the recipe but it had too much pepper.  Mom said that once you ate a few bites, you got used to it.  (Bless her; my Mom is always trying to be positive!). Dad said, "It isn't that bad; it just needs salt.  Well, I guess that is the whole point though."  Spoken from a true salt-o-holic.  Oh well, on to the next recipe.  Meanwhile, I'm reminding myself of this quote:

Tuesday's therapy session was very stressful.  I had to visualize going over a bridge that I can no longer drive over.  Actually it is what they call a "flyover".  My nemesis is the flyover that takes you from Interstate 77 to I-485.  I used to drive on this flyover every day when I worked in downtown Charlotte.  Now, I can't drive over it at all.  

Debbie, my therapist, walked me through the exercise and I wish I had a video of it for you as it was very comical.  As I closed my eyes and she guided me across the imagined bridge and I started visualizing the oncoming ramp in front of me, I felt the adrenaline start flooding my arms and legs.  My heart started to beat faster and I was breathing faster. She asked me how fast I wanted to drive over the bridge and I replied "Five MPH". Actually, I wanted to get out of the car and crawl over the bridge.  Immediately I had a flash back to when I was in kindergarten.  Our class took a field trip over the historic pedestrian bridge in Waxhaw to visit the Fire Station across the street.  Immediately I was five years old again and everyone in my class was happily crossing the bridge.  Everyone except for me that is.  I was in the very back of the class with a classmate friend and our teacher assistant, Mrs. Hemby.  I CRAWLED across the bridge.  I was scared of bridges even then!!!!   For some reason I always remember the bridge with snow on it.  There are 2 problems with that.  #1 is that it RARELY snows where I live.  #2 is that if it did snow where I live, they would have never let us walk across that bridge.  #3 (OK, there are 3 reasons) if there were even one flake of snow on the ground where I live, school would be cancelled.

Snow or no snow, I lived.  I felt both relieved and ashamed.  None of the other kids had to crawl across the bridge.  

Yesterday, we took Dad to see his cardiologist.  Here we are in the exam room waiting on the doctor to come in.  Dad is pretending to fix his hair.

Thankfully Dad received a good report from the cardiologist and doesn't have to go back for three months.

Bring on the weekend!!!  

Who Do You Think You Are

I like watching that show sometimes.  I actually find genealogy a little interesting.  For most of my life, I thought my ancestors were from Germany.  I remember asking my dad where we "came from" and he said we were "probably German".  My brother said our surname, Helms, was probably a German name.  It wasn't until I researched my genealogy last year that I found out my family came  to America in the 1500's from jolly ol' England.  

Tracing my tree I found that my Paternal Grandfather's side came from England and my Paternal Grandmother's side came from Belfast, Northern Ireland.  I can't quite trace my mom's family.  The best I can do says the family name comes from England.  

Fast forward to August.  I was sitting in the hospital waiting area and decided....I'm going to order a DNA test.  So I did.  Here are my results....

I am:

58% Great Britain

20% Ireland

14% Western Europe (France, Spain, Germany etc.) 

and 2% North Africa

I was so excited to find that I might have some North African in my history.  Turns out...all of these years I was wrong about being German.  No wonder I love Jane Austen & Irish music so much!  

God Save the Queen

Maybe it also explains my love of Britcoms...

Hmmm...I don't care for hot tea though.  Maybe that comes from my North African roots.

October

After writing that title, I now have U2's "October" stuck in my head.  It's a perfect fall weekend here in the Carolinas.

Laura is enjoying riding on the back of Daniel's tricycle

Daniel insisted that she ride back there although you can tell he is working hard to chauffeur her around.  The tires are actually flat on that tricycle.

Blossom and Balto are enjoying the weekend as well.

On Saturday, my dad was strong enough to have his baby sister come over and give him a haircut.  We are so thankful that he was feeling good enough to sit up and that Aunt Zell was willing to cut his hair.  She did a great job.

Several years ago...maybe 4...I had to get rid of my bird feeders because I had attracted a hawk to the yard.  I didn't want that kind of bird feeder.  For my birthday, I told my mom that I wanted a new bird feeder.  I put it up on Thursday evening but the birds still have not found it.  I'm thinking of renting a bird costume and pretending to eat out of it.

The little triangle hat thingy is to keep the squirrels from climbing up the pole.

Coming this week:  I got my Ancestry DNA results back!  98% of it was totally expected.  2% was exciting.

Birthday Week Recap

Monday was my birthday.  Here's me...on my birthday...

It looks like my outfit came straight out of the 80's, Right????  And in case you are wondering, those are cats on my t-shirt.  

I was on my way to celebrate my dear friend Barbara.  It wasn't Barbara's actual Birthday, it was her RE-Birthday!  Exactly one year ago, on my Birthday, Barbara received a new heart.  Monday we celebrated Barbara!

Isn't she beautiful???!!!  Barbara is amazing inside and out.  I love love love Barbara!

Dad Update:  On Tuesday, Dad had another appointment with his Cardiologist.  The Dr said his heart looks pretty good but thinks the medication may be causing his weakness...so....he changed his medication again.  Slowly but surely, it seems like Dad is making some progress.  Now we just have to work on changing his diet.  People keep telling me that he should be able to eat what he wants at his age.  They don't understand how detrimental sodium is to Dad's health. If he doesn't lower his salt intake, it is right back to the hospital.

Here's my sweet Mom watering her Petunias.  They are almost finished for the season.

Blossom is an expert beggar.  If I could teach her to stand on a street corner and hold up a sign...we'd be rich!

Balto is an expert at being lazy.

Whatever Balto.  Sleep tight.