i miss her so

SQUIRREL!

Our dear Honey loved to watch and chase the squirrels.  We could say "squirrel" and she'd go flying out the doggie door to the backyard.  She'd manage to scamper a few feet up the olive tree, barking at the squirrel/squirrels (sometimes there were two at a time). The squirrel would "bark" back at her ... well it might have been a chuckle the squirrel uttered. 

It makes me smile to think of Honey saying this ...

"You're my angel on earth.
I'm your angel in heaven.
Nothing makes me happier.
Except for a squirrel angel floating by."
~ Elaine Seamans

Wishing you lots of squirrel angels, dearest friend!

so leave awhile

So leave awhile the paw-marks on the front door
Where I used to scratch to go out or in,
And you'd soon open; leave on the kitchen floor
The marks of my drinking-pan.

~ Robinson Jeffers, "The House Dog's Grave"

 

I see you everywhere,
dearest girl, best friend.
You are forever in my heart.
Miss Licky Loo, Honey Bun Bun.

our doggie is very ill

Update Tuesday 3:15 PM

My husband just called from work - he received a call from the vet, they don't think Honey will make it much longer.  He is racing home and we will go and make our goodbyes to our beloved girl.

My heart is breaking ...

------------------------------


Update Tuesday 09/18/12 8:45 AM -


We are on a terrible roller coaster ride. 

We visited Honey late afternoon yesterday and she was very much improved, compared to Sunday. Her cough was looser and more productive. She wanted to come home with us so much, broke our hearts. We were elated and very encouraged.

We received a call at one o'clock in the morning last night. Telling us that, as we had been forewarned, Honey was much worse. SOB!!!!!!!  They asked permission to place something in her vein to be more able to monitor the oxygen in her blood and make sure she was getting enough oxygen and facilitate their being able to respond to her needs.

We were told the next 24 hours will be the key. 

Thank you all so much for your kind words and support, I am so grateful and appreciative.  Thank you for your friendship and care.  Please keep sending out those healing vibes, thoughts and prayers for our dear Honey. 


------------------------

Edited to add 10 AM:  The vet just called.  Honey has pneumonia from aspirating her food. They had to put her on oxygen.  They are aggressively treating the pneumonia. It takes 2 to 3 days to fully present itself.  She will most likely get worse before she has a chance to get better. The next couple of days are crucial for her.

They are going to do further tests to determine why she has the mega esophagus condition.  If she makes it through the pneumonia, this will be a life long condition for her, requiring continual testing and follow up visits as the possibility of aspirating her food again and subsequent bacterial pneumonia will always exist.

The abdominal ultra sound showed she does have some foreign matter in her stomach.  They are going to treat the pneumonia first, while doing further testing on her esophagus and will hope that the foreign matter has passed through her system at that time. If not, they will do an endoscopy and remove it. 

They believe the esophagus condition and the matter in the stomach, are unrelated.

SOB SOB SOB - needing lots of hugs over here!

--------------------

We had to take our doggie to the vet Sunday morning - she had an episode of vomiting that went on through the night.  The third vet at our veterinary hospital was as flummoxed as the previous two as to the origin of our Honey's nausea.  This has been going on for months now.  We left with yet another "possible" thing that could be the cause and yet another bunch of prescriptions. 

Honey proceeded to get worse as the day turned into night ... her symptoms now included a strange cough.  We left for the Emergency Hospital at nine last night, getting there at 9:20 and staying until after 2:00 in the morning.

Honey's cough got even worse in the nearly five hours we were there and her breathing became labored. So she has spent the night where they could monitor her around the clock and give her oxygen, keep her hydrated, etc. 

Turns out she has something wrong with her esophagus and that because of that, she probably aspirated some of her food and that she most likely has pneumonia - even though the chest xray showed none (apparently there is a "lag time" with xrays!).

The questions remain, why she has been having these bouts of nausea, why something is wrong with her esophagus??  They will do new chest xrays this morning and she'll have an abdominal ultra sound this morning to see if there are any clues to be found there.  Of course the "C" word came up.

I am so afraid she won't make it.  sniffle sniffle sniffle ...

Please please please if you can spare any good thoughts, prayers for our beloved Honey Bun Bun, it mean the world to me. 

March 2011
Honey came to lay with me in bed and console me
after my daddy passed away.  She had a trip through
the sprinklers first LOL. 

half a dollar

Edited to add: Several people suggested to me that perhaps I am wrong about the worth of my colonial currency, so I googled and found that yes, it could possibly be worth more than I previously thought. I had googled it when I first found it and was able to find more than one site stating it's worth at maybe a few dollars.  I was lucky that first time for I was able to find an exact match to my inherited half a dollar.  This evening I haven't been able to find the same denomination.  WAH! The interesting news is that colonial currencies like this (but not identical) are selling on Ebay for anywhere from twelve dollars, up to several thousand dollars.  What???!!!  WHOA!  So now I will need to have it appraised.  Thank you to those who spoke up and questioned me ... let that be a lesson, don't rely on googling for your evaluating the worth of well, much of anything.

What fun stuff I've found amongst my parents things!  These blew me away when I found them ... a "half a dollar" from 1776 and I'm not sure what you call the second, some sort of promise to pay thingie from 1815. 

And it was not the first time during this long journey that I thought I was going to be a bazillionaire hahhahhahahhaha. I thought for sure that the intact currency from the Colony of New York would catapult me onto Easy Street, LOL! 

Nuh huh!  Turns out to not be worth much of anything more than it's face value ... and of course, it's immense sentimental value to me.  Sentimental value = treasure beyond words.

Isn't it fun that it's called a "Half A Dollar" ... love the wonderful graphics on it too.

Sadly the Promise to Pay Bearer note 75 cents, is damaged but still such fun to see. I'll have to research and see how these were used. 

Joining Vintage Thingie Thursday at Colorado Lady.

we will remember you

  2003

 2004

 2006

2007

For five years I participated in a mail art call in tribute of September 11th. I read about the call for mail art in one of the rubber stamp magazines and was delighted there was some small way that I could contribute something.  (I don't seem to have taken photos of my submission in 2005.) 

The background of the last envelope is taken from photos we took at the 9/11 quilt show at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, August of 2002.  It was amazing and so very heartbreaking to see all of the blocks that had been made in tribute to those lost. 

That's me in the red ... this is only a very small section of the exhibit.

It was overwhelming and I just dissolved into tears.


We will always remember you

old macdonald had a farm

with a chick chick here ...

and a chick chick there ...

teddy bear

This little teddy bear was given to me by my mother about a year before she passed away so it is very dear to me.  We shared so many of the same interests. Reading (mysteries, especially old English tea cozy mysteries). Crafting (especially embroidery). Gardening (especially planting bulbs and annuals). Movies. Teddy Bears. Dollhouse miniatures. Dogs. Live Theater.  I could go on for a long time yet ...

This September will be the 16th anniversary of her passing ... miss you so very much Mom! 

I'm joining Claudia's new fun link party, A Favorite Thing Saturday. 

I look forward to seeing what your favorites are too.
You can join the fun here.

dear harriet

(Great Great Grandfather at age 30)

So many little treasures found in my parents house.  Bits and pieces of my ancestors lives.  

 

Three photos of and one letter written by, my Great Great Grandfather.  This letter was written in 1857 to my GGGF's fiance, Harriet, about six weeks before their wedding day.  No words of love or mention of their impending nuptials.  GGGF was soon to be 23, perhaps his youth precluded his use of flowery language. He is quite the serious minded young man. I feel a bit sad for dear Harriet LOL. 

 

I suspected this letter couldn't be an original but I had so wanted to believe that it was the original that I momentarily talked myself into believing it was.  Then, I googled when typewriters came into use and typewriters were not commercially available in 1857.  PHOOEY.  

Can't even trust one's relatives to leave you the real authentic stuff. SHEESH.

So a family member must have typed this up, copying from the original, at some later date.  My guess is that another branch of the family kept/received, the original letter and the rest of the relatives received a typed facsimile.

 

(I thought I didn't have a picture of Harriet but I just remembered that I do!)

 

(there is barely visible handwriting at the bottom of the page - I tried to darken it but no luck. WAH!)

Possibly a family clue, lost forever now, left by whoever typed up the letter.

Although GGGF seemingly wasn't much of a romantic, he appears to have been quite industrious in other areas of his life.  He was a farmer, a banker, a real estate agent and a representative in the state legislature for eight years.

These two photos are of GGGF, not sure what age?  Look at that mustache!

I have some of the documents he wrote ... land grants, patents, indentures, etc., written on parchment.

missing pieces

Can I tell you that it broke my heart to go to my nieces engagement party and not hear her mention her father or anyone else mention my brother?

party time

Tonight is my oldest nieces engagement party, given by her fiances family.  It's a happy time and a sad time for me - my brother, her father, passed away when she was nine years old and her little sister was only three. Her father would have traditionally given the first toast to the couple tonight. WAH! So I've got the sads a bit "around the edges" today, keep finding myself tearing up and sighing.

This much loved and lucky couple are going to have a beautiful wedding next year atop a hill on the peninsula where they both grew up with a breath taking view of the ocean, followed by the reception at the same spot and at the same time that the brides parents wed (paying tribute to the adored and beloved husband, father and brother who will attend in spirit and in hearts).

They then will be off to a fantastic honeymoon on the Amalfi Coast of Italy.  La di da! Lucky dawgs!

I bring this all up because 1.  I am a proud Auntie :) , 2. I am a smoosh and immersed in memories today and 3. Our gift to them for their engagement has all to do with their honeymoon - sorry to have taken the long (and hopefully scenic route teehee!) to getting there.

I couldn't think of what on earth to get them for an engagement present, was at a complete loss.  I searched the internet for ideas, nada zip zilch, nothing that interested me.  I finally hit upon the idea of something related to their honeymoon. 

So I found them wine from Costa d' Amalfi with a lovely label on it. 

I hoped to find them wonderful Italian chocolates (since my niece shares my addiction to chocolate)  but I left it until too late and could only find the typical Perugina Baci candies locally but I fancied them up with a banner I made with photos found on flickr of shots of the Amalfi Coast. 

I also added travel books on the Amalfi Coast, a language translation book, a photo album. 

I love Paper Source and picked up bags and wrapping paper that I liked there - the funny thing is that they don't have any traditional bows for packages - so I tried to make this really cute origami one I found online but nothing doin'!  I'm all thumbs and couldn't get the center bit to pop up blah blah blah like it was supposed to, so I made old fashioned ones with loops, out of stationery.  They turned out okay if you don't look at them - or touch them, or they start to fall apart bwhahahhahahha!

Wishing you all a lovely long holiday weekend!