My heart still hurts....

In November, 2012 our little boy Bruno developed a cough.  Our vet began treating him for a bronchial issue with antibiotics.  After 3 rounds he decided to do a chest x-ray and discovered a tumor in his lung right next to his heart.  We were referred to Dr Lori Hillman at Memphis Veterinary Specialists who after CT Scans & Ultrasounds & Biopsies diagnosed him with a grade 2 carcinoma.  On January 28th Dr Mac Maxwell removed the tumor and Boo spent 3 days in the hospital, then came home for further recuperation.  In March he began what would be 8 rounds of chemotherapy.

Over the next 22 months we went religiously for his every 3 month check up and what was prognoses as 6 - 9 months expected life turned into 22 !

In early September, 2014 the cough came back and hoping it was just allergies or another bronchial issue, Dr Hillman treated with predinasone.  October 21, we returned for out 90 day checkup and it was discovered that the cancer had returned with a vengeance.  Dr Hillman told us to take him home and love him until he let us know it was time for him to go.

Sometime Friday morning, October 24th between 4:00 & 6:30 Bruno passed away in his sleep.

I saw this baby born on April 4, 2002 and have enjoyed him so much for 12 years....even through all the cancer stuff, he never complained... always had a twinkle in his eyes and a wag of his tail.

This is a picture of him I took when he was peaking around the water dispenser on Wednesday.

I know he is up there at the Rainbow Bridge waiting for me and Jere and the rest of this four legged family.

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.
-Roger Caras

Till next time

Cindi
10.27.2014

Another Monday ...

I finally had a little "repair" work done on the ole body last week and have been sitting here wondering why I waited so long to have it done.  A simple 45 minute procedure has drastically changed my life for the better !! Pain meds prevented me from concentrating on my October Buddy Challenge ... put in 20 stitches, ripped out 18... so am just chilling and catching up on some reruns of Law & Order ....

Here is where I stopped (when I ran out of thread for the wings) on my Mira Halloween Fairy.

Jere made it to my LNS and got another skein of Crescent Colors "Dandelion Stem" on Saturday, and so far today, I haven't needed that wonderful little pill for pain, so I hope to get back on it after I finish my yummy coffee with Pumpkin Pie creamer .... ahhhh do love the fall and all these luscious flavors !!! 

Wednesday I made a great big pot of Momma Healy's Chicken & Dumplins ... comfort food. 

Momma Healy's Chicken & Dumplins

3-4 chicken breasts with ribs & skin -the skin helps flavor the broth
4-5 ribs celery, sliced
1 medium onion, diced
1 package chicken stock (made by Knorrs)
1 can chicken Swanson's Chicken broth
4 cans biscuits (i use the cheap kind from Kroger)

Wash chicken breast, leaving ribs & skin on. Place in large stock pot and cover with about 2 inches water. Add onion, celery & stock. Place lid on pot and boil until chicken is done.Remove to cool. Keeping the broth to a rolling boil pinch pieces of biscuits (about 4-5 pieces of each) into broth stirring after each can addition. If necessary add some or all of the canned broth, but you don't want it too juicy just enough that the dumplins can cook The flour in the biscuits will make a nice thick gravy. Place lid on pot and simmer on medium for about 20 minutes, stirring about every 5 minutes to prevent sticking. They will puff up into nice fluffy dumpllins While they are cooking remove skin & bones from chicken and shred in bite size pieces. Add chicken to pot and stir well. At this point you can add fresh cracked pepper and salt to taste.


I think there is enough left over in the fridge to have 1 more bowl today for lunch.... already getting hungry! 

There are several blogs I love reading and keeping up with what others out on the WWW are doing, but I just discovered a new one today. 

Nancy over at the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is having a giveaway of 80 skeins of her beautiful hand dyed floss .... Oh my, what fun I could have stitching with these lovelies !!!

Victoria Motto Sampler Shoppe

Dash over to her blog and take a look around!

During this short stitching sabbatical, I have been rethinking my 2015 Crazy Challenge.  The threads for one project seem to have been discontinued and I also seem to have way too many big projects, so I think I'll be making some changes to my list ...... stay tuned for details to follow sometime in December. 

Time to get stitching !

Till next time

Cindi
10.20.2014

Day 3 of vacation ...

.... It's Wednesday, and although I said I was doing NO WORK this week, I did decide to go ahead and get rid of some crap that has been taking up a corner of the house...

Four boxes of this ..... 

... turned into 8 bags of this .....

.... and did this to my shredder .....

.... I have a friend that uses shredded up paper/magazines in her garden and other areas of her large "yard" to mix in with mulch to fill in holes etc. so recycle, recycle, recycle ....

My son & daughter in law, Robbie and Mallory .....

..... announced the pending arrival of their first little bundle ...

Baby Salemi

This little peanut is due sometime mid May, 2015.  Can't wait to find out if it is a boy or girl !!! 

In other news, The St. Louis Cardinals advanced to the NLCS for the 4th year in a row yesterday winning game 4 of the first round playoffs against the LA Dodgers. It was a very exciting CLOSE series but the Birds came out on top as they are known to do in October.  

After spending the afternoon shredding I did manage to put a few stitches in my Mira fairy....

Today, I plan to at least finish her left wing.....

Gotta stitch! 

Till next time,

Cindi

Eight Days.....

..... VACATION... Well, not really a vacation per say, but Jere is off to his annual beer drinking, racquetball playing, paling around with all his guy buddies in Minneapolis.  Yes, it is that time of year when I can be a bum and do what ever I want (within reason) .... sleep - not sleep, shower - not shower,  cook - not cook, whatever !! And I plan on doing just that.

This morning. however, I had to go to the doctor to get pre-op labs for a little upcoming surgical repair on the old body.  Got there on time, paid my co-pay and surgical "out-of-pocket" amount, got called back into a room and then was told the doctor was running late in his morning surgery.  Now I am not a patient person, but it did bring back memories of being at my OB when pregnant and the doctor was "held up" in surgery, but that was OK ... I knew he was delivering someones bundle of joy and someday it would be my turn..... but this doctor doesn't deliver babies!! They need to reconsider how they schedule appointments....

 OUCH !!

The vampire got a bit carried away.....

Oh well, hopefully it goes away before next week and I get new pretty colorful "tattoos" from the IV.

Here is a snap of my Mira Halloween Fairy through stitching on 10.5.2014

Game 3 of the Cardinal/Dodger first round playoffs are about to start so gonna go stitch & watch em play some post season ball

Till next time

Cindi

Just Realized ...

...that I haven't posted about a stitching challenge I am participating in on Cross Stitch Friendly Circle Facebook Group called The October Month Long Buddy Challenge.  It runs from October 1st  12:05am to October 31st at 11:45pm.  I was given Gill Wood who lives in Spalding, Lincolnshire as my buddy.  The way things work is your "buddy" selects a variety of projects she wants to work on during the month with the goal of completing them during the month and you select a variety of projects you want to work on.  We each decide on what we want the other to do.  Well, Gill has a BAP (Big Ass Project) she has been working on as I believe a Christmas gift for her father, so she really wanted to spend the month seeing if she could get it completed, which was great for me.. didn't have to think about it or see lots of things I would ohh and ahh over and want to dash over to 123Stitch or The Silver Needle and hit up my PayPal account for more stash.  I picked 5 things for Gill to choose from... a WIP (Glendon Place - Witches Wheel) and 4 new projects. 

She picked:

 Halloween Fairy by Mirabilia

 Though I was up at 12:05 a.m. on October 1st, I was trying to finish up on Part 2 of my Sam Sarah "Something Wicked" mystery stitch which I didn't do BTW. 

Here is how far I got with it until I literally fell asleep with needle in hand.  (no blood occurred !)

Sorry, its a little wrinkled :)

Ok, so I started on Mirabilia's Halloween Fairy on October 1st and 3 1/2 days here is where I stopped when I had to leave for Michel (grandson) and Katelyn's wedding.

Introducing Mr & Mrs Michael Healy.

And a really beautiful wedding it was ... on the lawn at Katelyn's grandmother's historical house in Aberdeen, MS.

Gonna try and get a few more stitches in before I crash.

Till next time,

Cindi
10.4.2015