Blessed Beyond Belief

For those of you who don’t know yet, my mom, Jackie, went home to be with her Maker on September 26th after a short battle with brain cancer.  My mom was passionate about her family, her cockapoos and her Lord.  For those of you who own one of her dogs, you wouldn’t believe the amount of time, attention and love she put into her dogs.  She was proud of her puppies, and protective of where they would go.  Not everyone passed the Jackie Application Process.  :)  When she first found out about her tumor, she still had hope that she could keep “maybe one or two”, but quickly found out that wasn’t to be.  

March 19th she had most of the tumor (she had named Fred) removed, and on March 22nd, she was told that there was no cure for the type of tumor she had.  She was told that statistically she had 6-9 months left to live.  Although there were tears, my mother kept saying she knew “the end of the story”.  She knew that Earth was her temporary home.  I was looking back through her blog, and this is what she wrote after finding out her tumor was terminal.

I want you all to know there is a deep abiding peace with my Lord that is carrying me through this time...He is letting me see incredible things along the way that most people rush on by not recognizing his hand during their day
I have my speech and movement--slow tho it is right now and the cognitive skills to be able to clean up some loose ends.
I don't know how long I have but I do know who holds my future
Oh and I guess I should mention that at this time my husband is also quite ill...so a double whammy for my kids
I covet your prayers----that I continue to see God in all of this and bring Glory to His name

My mom truly was Blessed Beyond Belief, and she lived that out even in the face of death.  On behalf of her family, thank you for your thoughts and prayers over the past 6 months.  They have carried us through, and will continue to carry us through the loss of our mom. 

twists and turns of 8 months

so a quick recap of what has gone on the lst 8 months......that translated is from the beg of jan 2012
dave tuns yellow and gets diagnosed with auto  immune hepititus and starts a process to get a tranplant....then in feb 12my hand falls off the steering wheel and after natural treatment and an mri we find i have a fast growing brain tumor....so in march surgery was performed and all that can be done is done and we wait....meanwhile mr competition goes in and out of the hospital....well so did i in all honesty....but on sep 4 dave permanently pulled out of the race and met his maker.  I am still doing ok and takin one day at a time
thank you for you kind thots and wishes and prayers
jackie

twists and turns of 8 months

so a quick recap of what has gone on the lst 8 months......that translated is from the beg of jan 2012
dave tuns yellow and gets diagnosed with auto  immune hepititus and starts a process to get a tranplant....then in feb 12my hand falls off the steering wheel and after natural treatment and an mri we find i have a fast growing brain tumor....so in march surgery was performed and all that can be done is done and we wait....meanwhile mr competition goes in and out of the hospital....well so did i in all honesty....but on sep 4 dave permanently pulled out of the race and met his maker.  I am still doing ok and takin one day at a time
thank you for you kind thots and wishes and prayers
jackie

news on the doc front
tumor has grown but not to the bad part yet
another mri scheduled
chemo starts again today and that is the way we are going to manage right now...very confident with my brain surgeon's approach to this blip in life.......but those of you who know me well know to whom i give honor and glory to

 Aug 15th

  last pup from me...isn't he cute...I am hoping to get well enough before he sells to see him 

on the medical front....hada rough 5 weeks here but hopefully that is past and we move on...a new mri is scheduled for friday but i dont think fred has stepped out of his boundary's yet

will let ou all know after we get results

It has  been a while since I last added to my blog...why does someone need to apologize when they have been absent from posting???? Or feel like they need too apologize?
Well I am not going to do that :)
I got this picture of Henry that I thot was so cute that he just had to get famous on my blog :)
On the medical front....
Dave made it on the liver transplant list so now we wait for his numbers to go up or for a spot of cancer to grow which moves him up on the list...so it is a good news/bad news kind of thing
As for me...the post MRI showed no growth so we wait for 3 months and then mri again to see if fred is behaving...once growth starts back up again....well then it becomes a matter of time....but until then.......we do what we can and live one day at a time
I have been a sewing fiend in the mean time.....there are 5 quilts ready to be quilted so will take pics when they come back
Until then...I keep pluggin away enjoying each day

puppy heaven

pretty gnarly pic of the head scar...but notice the puppies instead...they were my last hurrah and they were GORGEOUS!!!!!!!

 I got so many puppy kisses from these guys!

 one black and tan...

 and the rest these wonderful sables and whites...which I had been trying to get with other combos

 reminds me of my Grace

 they so remind me of their mother

 kisses and nippies on the nose

 i look frightened that they are going to take them away

isn't she beautiful?

puppy play date

Rare opportunities come along sometimes....when you have some of what we consider here the most basic of things taken from you learn to enjoy some of the former things with a touch more nostalgia and grace and relish those moments....even tho they are short and sweet. I got to go play with puppies from Amy yesterday!!!!!    They are six weeks and stinkin cute! Or at least I think so :) *add a BIG smile here!

Tessa and a puppy playing!

Wish you could see this guys face cuz he is one of the cutest black and tans I have ever seen....with puppy kisses galore to lavish on anyone

brothers don't bite...they hug :)

nope that isn't me standing letting pups run between my feet

Basketful of pups....dig that red color!

Well for now I will stop with the pics...hope to get more when I see the last batch this weekend

family and the mask

the fam with the new t-shirts

saying on shirts

My biggest problem is that the left part of my brain has nothing right in it and the right part of my brain has nothing left in it.

my mask

all ready to go
all strapped in

A new normal?

Wow....been a while since I posted that the format has changed :( But it seems easy to navigate
So all my friends who follow me...I have some news for you....it isn't good news so if you don't want to continue reading then stop and go do something else with your day
Ok....here it goes...on Feb 9, 2012 I had an unusual thing happen...my hand fell off the wheel...normally not something to worry about but this decided to be something,...and something big. Through all of this to make a somewhat long story short--I have a brain tumor that altho they operated on it they cannot remove all of it. I am doing some radiation and chemo but that is only to slow growth of it
My life as I knew it has been changed in an instant!
I no longer can do my pups...I can't even care for an adult dog so I am finished with my fur babies...that was one of the hardest things to let go of but it had to happen
BUT!!!!!!! I want you all to know there is a deep abiding peace with my Lord that is carrying me through this time...He is letting me see incredible things along the way that most people rush on by not recognizing his hand during their day
I have my speech and movement--slow tho it is right now and the cognitive skills to be able to clean up some loose ends.
I don't know how long I have but I do know who holds my future
Oh and I guess I should mention that at this time my husband is also quite ill...so a double whammy for my kids
I covet your prayers----that I continue to see God in all of this and bring Glory to His name










i

Continuing and newe

Here is a shot of that wonderful bread enjoyed the next day

and mama Nellie with her babies

Baker's daughter

I grew up a baker's daughter...you would think that the very privilege of that would make me a wonderful baker...not so much...why bake when your father brought home 10 pound sacks of cookies.......for those of you who need a visual...think a paper grocery bag full to the brim of cookies....(and I wonder why I have a weight problem...well...no I really don't. My sweet tooth was acquired very young). And there was always bakery bread...now I am old enough to remember Wonder bread...altho I thot it started later than 1921...it was the bread of choice by most school going kids......not me...I got bakery bread for my peanut butter sandwiches............how I longed for that soft white bread instead of the heavier bakery bread...I was lucky sometimes to exchange sandwiches but most of the time I ate my bread and drooled over the lighter, whiter breads that the others had.
Stepping into my adult body now...I LOVE the heavier, bakery type breads...who doesn't love a good pumpernickel or rye? But making my own bread was way too much work......until...... today
Feast your eyes on this loaf.............I could eat the whole thing with a bit of real butter and jam...but being a good girl I stopped at 2..I mean 3 pieces...no extra butter tho :) (and that is the real reason I don't bake much...I eat too much)

doesn't that look just yummy? and it was super duper simple...The crust was nummy and crunchy....if you are interested in the recipe here is the link :) Tending My Nest by Patrice....she also does lovely knitting and sewing and gardening and............well that is enough extolling her talents :) Go check it out

I also made these cookies...in an effort to keep Dave on this saltless diet trying to find new ideas to try...these are good but will not put as much nutmeg in them next time............


Here is the link for these at Sunday Baker. She has all kinds of interesting things I want to try ;)
I guess I should go workout now that I have consumed too much of this wonderful stuff :)

two in a row

two posts in a row...and both about dogs... :) getting in a rut here...
this is the little girl that I still have left...she is doing really well at potty training...altho she doesn't look like the furry cockapoo she still has the personality of one..full of fun...love watching her run as fast as she can after the big dogs....
hopefully she finds her forever home soon :)

Please wipe your....

Please wipe your paws!!!! I wonder if I posted that by my back door if my dogs would read it and learn to wipe their four sweet pads on a rug that I would leave there just for them????
I love my laminate floors...however...with the dogs able to run in and out the doggie door my floors ALWAYS look dirty...well maybe they are dirty cuz of the muddy paws that come through that door. Wouldn't it be nice if you could teach them to not only potty outside but to wipe their paws :)
You can't see the wet muddy paws as easily as you can in real life...but oh well
Spencer looking cute

you can see the back of Cody's feet here are dirty

You can see Zoey's feet here are wet but most of the dirty is no showing

Back on the home front in the salt free living...my cupboards are now as salt free as possible....amazing how much salt they put in all these canned foods..........that are no longer in my cupboard

Here are all the things that left my house and went to either my daughters or to the food bank....there are three bags and one box packed full

but he is doing better and we are learning the ins and outs of this stuff and take each day at a time

New Best Friend

There is a new best friend for my husband in our house. Doctors told him to embrace this new friend instead of his former best friend...salt

Here is the line up of new spices and fake salt at our house


Here is the little yellow man feeling better today...sitting in the sunlight

He doesn't look as yellow compared to the lily but you can see his eyes are still yellow

Meanwhile back at the ranch...these two men...one old and one young...were putting my sink back in working order...well almost...needed a few more parts that should be installed tomorrow...but the hot water side is working so I do have a working sink...HIP HIP HURRAY!

I think he really would have preferred working on the sink instead of just being a spectator...but ya gotta do what you gotta do!

Sinkless in Seattle

I am sinkless...well not really in Seattle but Sinkless on Camano isn't really as fun to say.
My sink is gone! Gone gone gone
But read on as to where it went

Well here is the real sink...before it left my kitchen

and topless in Seattle sounds really bad

But never fear.....here is the topper that is going on my counters

Meanwhile.............the sicko was off to be babysat by his daughter and granddaughters while the counters were put on

and the poor fur-babies were locked outside while the workers worked

and what workers they were.................spent the afternoon with three strappin young men :)

and here is a corner all done

one snap shot of the top

here it is all done........woohoo!

and the strappin young men that I spent the morning with

and here is the new sink in place........waiting for 48 hours for the drains and faucet to go back in.....then I will have a 'real' kitchen back