Clean House

Shuntika just was not dependable and her cleaning was sub-par. I really liked her, but I was paying her to clean, so two weeks ago, I let her go. Today I found Melody in craigslist.org in an ad for home organizers. Oh goodie, a neat-freak organizer that will clean my house each week too! I will meet her tomorrow.

Kelsey

Our darling yorkshire terrier's health continued to decline very quickly. It appeared that Kelsey had a fast-growing brain tumor. Only 3 weeks after her first seizure, I made the difficult decision to have Kelsey put to sleep. The date of her death is September 10, 2008, nine days shy of her 13th birthday. Our home is painfully empty, so our plan is to wait a couple of months, then consider getting another dog.

Jacksonville Zoo

Today was spent at the Jacksonville Zoo with my sister Kat, her daughter Robin and her family. Robin and Keven just moved back home from living in Buffalo, NY for several years. Their sons are just darling, ages 4 and 18 months. The zoo is wonderful, and much much better than Disney's Animal Kingdom. I wish I could go again and again! This photo was taken a week earlier when we had dinner together at a local barbeque restaurant.

My Mother

My mother has been very sick with a lung infection, heart arhythmia, high blood pressure, and extreme weight loss (and she's already thin) from the lung medications, and so I went to my hometown of Jacksonville to spend time taking care of her in the hospital all last week, from Friday to Friday. I stayed at night, my sister Patty stayed during days. On the last day our sister Kat came in town from the Pensacola area and has been a great help. Saturday my dog had several grand mal seizures and I hurried home Sunday to say my last goodbyes to her. What a surprise to find my little dog smiling at me and her little stump-tail wagging! She was very groggy, but recovering. Today is Monday and she is nearly normal...a little senile acting, and her muscle tone is flabby. I took her to the doctor to see what could be done. Kelsey now will take medication twice a day, phenobarbitol. It is a barbituate and makes her seem sleepy, but she will not die from too many seizures! At 1:30 I will leave with my dog and drive back to Jacksonville to continue taking care of my mother and father in their home. Next weekend I will go home for a week, then I will go back for another week. Hopefully by then my mother will have strength to take care of herself.