It's a boy...and a boy!!!

Zippy Pinhead (aka The Squatter) had her babies a week ago. I was surprised to see that she only had two this time. Two twin boys. As you can see by the look on her face, her humongous size before birth was quite laughable!

So meet Tom.....

and his other brother Tom!

Aren't they just adorable.....any takers????? Please??? They'll be ready to go to their new homes by the end of June!!!! :-)

THEY DID IT RIGHT IN THE OLD DAYS This is great advice!

(Enjoy the picture - an awesome pencil drawing!)

An Old Farmer's Advice:

* Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong.

* Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance.

* Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
* A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

* Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.

* Meanness don't jes' happen overnight.

* Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.

* Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

* It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.

* Every path has a few puddles.

* When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

* The best sermons are lived, not preached.

* Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen, anyway.

* Don't judge folks by their relatives.

* Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

* Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.

* Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't botherin' you none.

* Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

* If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.

* Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
* The biggest troublemaker you'll ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'.'
* Always drink upstream from the herd.

* Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

* Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.

* If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.

* Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

April Reflections

April seems to be the "activity" month in my life. It is when I was born, it is when I had an epiphany 19 years ago that has led me on such a great adventure, it is when I have had every single heart attack with the exception of #6, and it is when I said good-bye to my dad on the very day he welcomed me into this world.

I welcomed my birthday today with open arms this year. I'm ashamed to admit that in the past I haven't always accepted getting another year older with much grace or dignity.

Today, I look back at my life with awe (tomorrow I may be bartering with someone to trade lives!). Where it has not always been easy, there have been gifts beyond belief always waiting on the other side of the "seemingly bad". I thank God for carrying me, and for the people He places in my life. :-)

God's speed....

Laughter is the best medicine!

I have to share this story as it is much too good to not share!

Last Sunday when I got out of the hospital, I excitedly called my mom to let her know that they were releasing me. She was in somewhat of a tizzy when she answered the phone and immediately burst into tears about needing to "do something with me, as I cannot continue to keep living this way..."

Puzzled by her obvious distress, I questioned her about what was going on. She, Kristin, and Tyler had stayed overnight at my place. We had a winter storm warning over the weekend, so the temps dropped accompanied by high winds. So needless to say, it got pretty darn cold! And because of my current situation, I was not able to afford propane to heat my house this winter, so I have relied on my wood pellet burning stove and space heaters to heat my house.

Saturday night, I had spoken to Kristin about how to operate the wood burning stove, as they had picked up some pellets. I was walking her through the instructions while we were on the phone and she assured me that she understood what I was telling her and that Tyler confirmed he knew how to operate the stove as well.

Here are the instructions I gave the knuckle-heads:

• First, put the pellets in the hopper. Do you see the hopper? Kristin replied that yes, she sees the hopper and check...the pellets are in the hopper. I told her not to put all of them in as they would be too heavy (as they are big bags of pellets and weigh 40 lbs.) and the feed chute would not operate properly. She said, "Oops, let me take some out because Mom put some in and I think it is too full." So she confirms that she took some pellets out.
• Second, I told her to open the glass door on the front of the stove and place a small handful in the burner basket. Check...she confirmed.
• Third, I told her to push the low setting button on the stove and it would automatically come on in a couple of minutes. Check...she confirmed she could hear it kicking on.

Seems simple, huh? Obviously, I did not practice my feedback communication skills or I would have had Kristin describe in detail the shape and location of what she, Mom and Tyler perceived the hopper, feed chute, and the burn basket (pot) to be.

Mom's distress was that the stove was a piece of crap and needed to be thrown out as it kept going out every 5 minutes. She was terrified to sleep with the space heaters on as she thought the house would burn down. So they all suffered through the night with a temp of 30 degrees in the house.

When I got home from the hospital, this is when I discovered what happened.....

Below are some pictures of the wood burning stove with labels to exhibit where things go....

It was so cold in the house when I got home. I went to the stove to figure out why it wasn't working and discovered that there were no pellets in the hopper. Well, thinking that they had all burned up, I opened up the hopper and dumped more pellets in it. I heard Kristin exclaim, "Oh MY GOD!" Thinking that she was going to scold me for lifting a scoop of pellets, I assured her the scoop did not weigh more than 10 lbs.

This was not what she was exclaiming about.....this is where I nearly peed my pants laughing so hard:

It turns out that none of them knew what a freaking hopper was....they had opened the glass door on the front of the stove and dumped the bag of pellets in there. They did not understand that the pellets were fed through the feed chute to the burn basket to keep the fire burning. Instead, they had filled the front up, taken the pellets back out and had been opening the glass door and administering a handful of pellets every 5 minutes or so when the fire went out. The hopper never saw a pellet and they froze their butts off! LOL!

I turned and looked at my son, Tyler, and questioned him that I thought he said he knew how the thing worked! He stated that no, he didn't, but was proud of the fact that he sounded like he knew what he was talking about!

I got the stove working and within an hour had a warm, toasty house.

Mom decided the stove wasn't a piece of crap after all! :-)

#7....Say It Ain't So??????

Well, I managed to make it four days out of the hospital, but continued to feel terribly sick. I called one of my friends (Colleen) after talking to the doc's office and she came and got me to take me to my appointment. Thank God for Colleen, as she was with me in Walmart getting a prescription filled when I got the phone call from the doc's office letting me know the news. Long story short...my heart enzymes were elevated double than what they were when I had the stent put in on Monday, so back into the hosptial I went. It turned out that they had missed another blockage on the right side of my heart and I was having another heart attack. They were able to clear the blockage with angioplasty and I feel SOOOOOO much better!

My mom and my sister Kristin came to take care of me and it has been a challenge for me to be on my best behavior (sit still, rest, don't do too much, etc.....) so I don't put them in the hospital (or loony bin) worrying about me. Thanks to my sweetie of a son, Tyler for bringing Mom up to be with me as well!

Mom went home today. :-( I loved having her here and spending time with her as she is and always will be so special to me. Kristin will be here through the end of the week managing my activities. :-) Both have been God-Sends!

Thanks again to the friends and family who came to visit, called, and sent heart-felt prayers my way, and a special thanks to my trooper of a niece, Randi for digging the veggie burger bite I lost while trying to eat lying flat on my back, out from under my armpit! Now that's love! :-)

#6

Well, it just keeps getting better and better! :-) Last Saturday night I was in bed sleeping when I was awakened by sharp shooting pains going down both of my arms. This being a feeling that I'm all too familiar with, I reached for my Nitroglycerin and administered the first dose. I have been fortunate to normally only have two doses at the max. This time I went the whole three doses and tried to come up with a plan to get myself to the hospital as with my current situation, the last thing I wanted to add to my bucket of stress was an ambulance bill.

I ended up talking myself into denial with the hopes that I would be better in the morning, and was finally able to go back to sleep. When I woke up on Sunday, I was not much better so I got a hold of my son who happened to be visiting friends over the weekend and he came and drove me to the hospital.

This time the blockage was on the back side of my heart and they put another stint in. But hey, the great news is that the stint they put in last April is clear and in great shape! The Drs. commented on how good my cholesterol was and that it was a good thing that I had been on the cholesterol medication. They were quite shocked when I told them that I had not been on any of my meds since before Christmas as I was trying to avoid a COBRA insurance premium. So my diet and exercise have been good. :-)

I'm back home now and doing the recovery thing. Hope to be back on my feet again within a couple of weeks.

Thanks again to friends and family for being there for me. :-)