Three months later....

I knew it had been a while since I had tried to catch up with myself, but when I went to my blog tonight to see when, I could not believe it was Nov. 8.  Wow.

So, what has happened since then...

Our truck, Leonard, is fixed and well.  My endometrial biopsy went well, though I did have to have a D&C, just to make sure (TMI?).  We got to meet Darcy Ellen Weiss at Christmas when we went to visit our friends Des & Judy in Snohomish.  Jillian, Will and Darcy came to Snohomish for the holidays and we got to share a day with them before we headed to Butte for Christmas.  Ty had a successful experimental visit with a girl dog at the happy ending vet and was declared a 'stud' by the vet.  I love my new hair cutter, Jason.  He is awesome.  So, that sort of catches up with the news in my last post.

What has happened since then...reprise

Two friends from my yoga for people with cancer group died -- Richard and Pat.  Richard was also in my Thursday support group, and a friend from that group, David, also died.  November/December were sad months in that regard, except for the fact that all three of these friends celebrated celebrating life, so we (their friends) did, too.  It was good.

I had another bout of cellulitis in November (and another one on Jan. 2); a rough total of 20 since 2005.  I since have seen a new infectious disease doctor and now am on a daily regemin of penicillin for six months.  He's hoping this will break the cycle of the infection.  He, like all the other doctors, have told me to keep the lymphedema swelling down, and to make sure I don't have any cuts/pricks in my right arm.  So much for gardening in any way this spring, again (like I am so outdoorsy; though I do like being outside when it's sunny).

In late November a friend of Mark's from way back when in University of Alaska days came to visit with our friends Susan and Brian.  Mary and her husband, Chris, and Susan and Brian and Mark and I had a great weekend together getting re-acquainted/acquainted.  It was lots of fun.

My Transitions group had a fun pot luck dinner together, and it was nice to catch up with each other.  We also now are having a monthly lunch get-together.  I didn't make the first one on Feb. 2, but I will try to get to the one on March 2.

December brought football play off games and friends and family for weekends.  There was an ornament exchange party at Julie's, and the trip to Snohomish.  Butte was a good trip too, visiting with family, though it was very different than any other now that the family is getting smaller.  We were very fortunate in that our friend, Dan, from Ephrata, volunteered to come stay with the dogs.  His son and daughter and their families and kids live here, so he was able to visit with them and stay with the puppies and it all worked out really well for everyone.

January brought new fun.  We went next door to Mike and Mary's for the Fiesta Bowl and had a great time.  Mary went to school at University of Kansas, so we rooted for them.  Then Susan, Brian and our friend Wendy came over for the Seahawks v. Redskins game.  That was fun, too (lots of brunch food).  I went to the monthly El Serape dinner with 'the girls' and had a good time.  For the most part, January was full of football games with friends, and our cousin Michael got to come visit, too.

Mary, our friend next door, invited me to attend her book club group.  It was fun, and even though I probably will not be able to read the books for the club, I will still go and have a good time.

Jon & Joyce from Portland came to visit for a day, for Joyce's birthday.  Mark wasn't able to go to lunch with us because he was sick.  And we kind of cut lunch a little bit short because Jon was just recovering from being sick, too, and was starting to feel a bit pale.  But it was really great to see them, even for the short time we had together.

I have started the 'Exercise and Thrive' group at the YMCA that is part of the LiveStrong program.  I really like the group of folks that are participating.

My friend Julie invited me to go to a wine tasting at a store in downtown Olympia where you can actually blend your own wine from their wines.  It was a lot of fun.  Two other of her friends, Sharon and Janet, went with us.

The next day we had to take Brenna to the emergency vet.  On Saturday night, Brenna was acting like she was cold or scared when we went to to bed.  On Sunday morning she indicated she was in pain, which for a Lab never happens.  So, we took her to the vet and found out she had some bad teeth.  We knew about the one tooth because she had been to the vet in Sept., but the vet said it was ok because it wasn't inflamed or anything.  However, when I took her in on Monday to have a tooth extraction, it ended up being seven teeth extracted.  I felt like such a seriously bad puppy mom.  But the vet said this probably happened just because she is aging.  She had her 11th birthday yesterday (Feb. 3 -- Super Bowl Sunday; she was born on Super Bowl Sunday 2002!).  And happy birthday to you, too, Sweet Pea!

We went to a fun Super Bowl party yesterday, just like we did last year.  New friends, Paul and Connie, have this huge annual event that is lots and lots of fun.

And then the final 'catch up' is that on Thursday, Jan. 31, we collected Ty's 'little swimmers' and shipped them off to Lulu in Fort Collins for 'use' on Sat. Feb. 2.  If all goes well, Mark, Brenna, Ty and I will be taking a road trip to Colorado in late May to get a new puppy (Brenna and Ty will make the choice).

So, this is an amazingly long blog post, and I hope I don't have to do this again.  I started this so that I could refer back to it to remind myself of what I've been doing because I have trouble remembering things.  Let's hope I can keep up better.....

And that's it for now.