February 1, 2008

We had this huge snowstorm yesterday.  Huge by Oklahoma standards.  Huge by MY standards...considering how much I hate winter, snow, ice, dark and cold.  It was snowing really hard and the flakes were GIGANTIC!!!!!  Take a look...

I was born in Texas (Ft. Worth) and I firmly believe it predisposed me to being a summer person and NOT a winter person.  However, although Zoe is a Texas dog (from around the Waco area), she has a lot of fun with the snow and has proven much more adaptable than I am.  She was hysterical to watch during this particular snowstorm.  The snow was so wet, everywhere she went, she kicked up snowballs.  They would "run" away from her and she would give chase, thus producing more snowballs that continued to skeeter away in front of her.  She would pounce on them and eat them and chase them and jump on them...I'm telling you, I had tears running down my cheeks from laughing so hard.  You have never seen such wild and silly antics!  She though they were alive and trying to escape  and she was determined to catch them in her jaws of death!

She was pouncing on a self-created snow ball animal in this picture.  I love my crazy little dog!!!

February 4, 2008

Zoe is a very sweet little dog.  She is extremely affectionate and she likes to cuddle and snuggle a lot.  She is always following me around, laying at my feet, curled up next to me or curled up on me.  Frequently, when I'm working on the computer, she begs to be held on my lap.  Often, she goes to sleep there, with her head resting on my hand (as I'm trying to type) or laying on the keyboard.  I've tried to get pictures before, but the minute I move, she jerks awake and sits up.  But I got lucky yesterday!  She was REALLY sacked out, she didn't have her head on the keyboard...or on my hand so I was able to move a little bit, and the camera was within reach.  This is Zoe, snuggling up on my lap in the sunshine...isn't she SWEET!!!!!

She does make typing quite a bit more difficult.  And working on the computer with her on my lap like this can be challenging, to say the least!  But I can't resist her charms.  There's just nothing quite like having a little dog curled up on your lap, trusting you and feeling safe enough to go totally to sleep while you work away.  I confess that I'm smitten.  She has wormed her way solidly into my heart and I can't imagine my life without her...even if it's a little harder to get anything done at the computer - or elsewhere! 

February 12, 2008

2008 may be my year for having surgery.  In my entire life, I have only had two minor surgeries. When I was 17, I broke my finger trying to catch a line drive without a glove and blew the front out of my joint.  They had to operate to reattach the bone and tendon.  And in 1999, I had a benign tumor removed from my ankle.  It was a big one...slightly bigger than a golf ball...and it left one heck of a hole for quite some time until it finally closed up and started healing.  But that's it.  I've been blessed to be pretty healthy and have needed relatively little medical attention. 

This year is going to screw my record up.  I'm going to have a hysterectomy on February 27th, so I'll be out of pocket for a little bit and then recovering at home (and working from home) for the next 6 to 8 weeks.  And sometime this year, I need to have my rotator cuff repaired.  It was torn when I was rear-ended by the jerk tail-gater in July and it hasn't healed.  The doctor told me I had two choices:  live with it or get it fixed.  I can't sleep on it, have trouble lifting my arm above my head, can't even sleep with it out to my side unless it's totally straight, can't vacuum or do a lot of household cleaning chores without a lot of pain, can't throw dog toys for Zoe...it's not a "live with it" type of situation.  So, probably near the end of 2008, I will have to have yet another surgery to  deal with the problem.  Talk about the warranty having ended!!!!!  The warranty has ended and this old car needs some work!!!!

If you are a person who prays, I would appreciate your prayers!

                    February 14, 2008

February 23, 2008

Sorry I haven't written much.  I've been busy...trying to get everything done at work so I can take off for surgery next week.  Friday, I spent the afternoon at the hospital going through pre-op.  What a tedious process!  There were a lot of people there, so lines were long and there wasn't any good reading material.  It took over an hour at my doctor's office and then a couple of hours at the hospital, which is amazing when you consider the surgery itself is only supposed to take about an hour.  I filled out redundant paperwork and answered redundant questions, watched a video, checked the spelling of my name on numerous pre-printed forms, peed in a cup, had 4 or 5 vials of blood drawn (I couldn't watch, so I'm not positive, but I know she took at least 4) and had an EKG.  The video made my blood pressure borderline high.  I hadn't worried TOO much about what was being done, but in the video, they tell you all the things that can go wrong, and it scared me!!  I have only had one other surgery where I was totally out and it was relatively minor out-patient surgery when I had a benign tumor removed from my left ankle.  This feels like the "real deal" kind of surgery.  O.K., so maybe I'm a wimp.  I don't especially like to be messed with and this is starting to feel like I'm going to be messed with in a major way.  Where IS that magic wand when you need it???