Puppies

Oh what a cutie patootie we have staying in our house.  I'll post pictures when I find my camera!

The puppy (Winnie Cooper) was great last night.  She slept all night with no crying or whimpering.  Amazingly adaptable.

My daughter hasn't met her new girl yet.  She had to go out of town this weekend so I'm sure she is just dying to get back home.  She's going to be instantly in love.  Nothing like puppy breath!

Ron is already having a ball with the pup.  They wrestled on the floor last night for about an hour and when she was completely wrung out we put her in her crate and that it was it for the rest of the night.  She was awake about 6 am and ready to eat and play!  

The good thing about this arrangement is that even if we get attached we will still see her anytime we like and will be available for dog sitting!  It's the best of both worlds and we don't have any of the expense!

Since my weight loss there have been several things I've struggled with a bit.  Every time I see my reflection I see a stranger.  My face has aged so much I don't recognize myself. Another issue is that my brain and body image haven't reconciled.  When I go shopping I always go to the larger sizes.  Seems I have to start with extra large and work my way down.  It just doesn't feel natural yet.  I would say the last 10 pounds brought the biggest changes.  It felt gradual until then and I seemed to adjust more easily.  Now I just feel like a stranger in my own body.  It's weird!  

I once lost a 100 pounds in a year.  It was the year after the twins were born.  I was so busy I hardly noticed it happening and when the weight was gone it was more of, "Oh there you are! I remember you"!  But the biggest difference between then and now is the skin.  When I was heavy I really didn't have any wrinkles.....they were well stretched out.  Now I'm a deflated balloon.  Nothing and I mean nothing bounces back!  Oh the advantages of maintaining your weight when you are young!   

But I wouldn't change a thing!  I am exactly who I was meant to be.

A Senior Moment

As if life wasn't complicated enough....we are picking up an 8 week old puppy this evening.  Now she isn't ours but will be my daughter's new puppy.  She will however be staying with us for an undetermined amount of time because Julie's elderly dog Lucy won't tolerate a puppy just yet.  We know Lucy's time is getting short so when this puppy became available Julie fell in love because she looks like her dog Chloe who passed away last year.  So what could I say?  Ron and I thought we were ready for another dog but I said why don't we keep the puppy for awhile and see if we REALLY want to go through dog ownership again.  So.........here we are.  This should be interesting!

I told Ron if we ever get a dog we should  name it Alexa.  That would sure make life interesting.  Ron calls our Alexa by a dozen different names...the last one was Alisa.  Then he gets upset cause the thing won't answer him.  I think it is a hoot!

I went to the allergy clinic yesterday and am going to have allergy testing done.  I really don't think we will discover anything earth shattering to explain the chronic bronchitis but we will see.  Right now I'm just wheezing and coughing all the time but haven't had an infection in 3 months.  That's really good for me.  I'm trying to stay on top of it with the breathing treatments and two inhalers.  So far so good!

I actually feel good over all.  I haven't had to take any arthritis medicine for about 6 months.  I attribute it to the weight loss and I'm thrilled.  My A1C was 5.8, the lowest since I was diagnosed with diabetes so I'm thrilled with that as well.  I still have to take Metformin but who knows, maybe I'll be able to get off that soon as well.

I only have 5 more days of eye drops and then hopefully get fitted for my new prescription.  Glad this is almost behind me.

We scheduled Mike for a colonoscopy next Monday.  This should be an adventure.  He has to have only a liquid diet on Sunday and I know that will be a real trip.  The man loves to eat!  His cognitive issues have worsened but we think he can still live alone for now.  He's also had some incontinence issues every now and then and the gym where he loves to go called me and said they have noticed he is getting worse.  He had an "accident" there but seem unaware of it so they called.  When they talked to him he started crying and begged them not to "kick him out".  He said it was all he has.  Of course they reassured him that was not going to happen but he was so upset they felt they needed to call us.  I'm glad they did.  We were able to reassure him that all was well and that everyone has had an accident at one time or another in their lives.  We then bought him a backpack to put a change of clothes and personal hygiene items in so he can take it to the gym with him.  He was OK with that and thought I was a genius for thinking of it.

Today we had some safety rails installed in the condo.  He's stumbled around a few times and we wanted to take some extra precautions.  We put one outside by the door and an extra one in the bathroom.

My older brother is healing but experiencing some depression which the heart doctor said is common after open heart surgery.  Of course this had also worried Mike and he cries a lot when he talks about Butch.  I think everyone is looking at their own mortality.  Mike has every reason in the world to be fearful of losing family.  He understands he would be all alone if something were to happen to Ron or I especially.  That's why I'm trying so hard to take care of myself!

Well that's my update.  Not exciting but it's life!