Sadie

We had to put our beloved Sadie Louise to sleep on December 7th. She ended up with Congestive Heart Failure. She woke mom up the Tuesday night before with this crouppy cough. We took her to the vet on Wednesday and he took a bunch of x-rays. From the x-rays he could tell that her heart was enlarged and there were pockets of fluid on her lungs. Her coughing was her body's way of trying to cough out the fluid which didn't work. He gave us 2 medicines. One was to remove the fluid from her body and one was for her heart. Thursday she was still coughing but doing ok. Friday morning she woke up and was not hungry. That's when we knew something was wrong! She was always hungry! I put the pills in Peanut Butter (which she loves!) and ended up putting the peanut butter way back in her mouth so she would have to eat it. She would just sit and had this heavy panting. By 11:00 a.m. mom made the decision that we would put her to sleep. We called the vet but the only opening he had was for 6:30 that evening. By the time we got there her blood pressure was so low that he had a hard time finding a vein. She is in doggie heaven now and we miss her a lot! Mom still cries some but is doing better.

We Got Flocked

The First Christian Church (Albuquerque) is flocking people to help raise money so they can rent a bus to go to the Youth-in-Christ conference in Alhambra, CA! They have 37 kids signed up to go to the conference and only a 15 passenger bus to take them in! We got flocked! They must have come Sunday night after Youth Group while mom & I were watching a movie! We didn't even hear them! Now I have to decide who to flock!

For those not from the Albuquerque area, I thought this was such a cute idea and could be used at your church for something! They got the flamingos from Oriental Trading Co. and made their own sign for the flocking. They had a sign up in the foyer of the church where you wrote down the name of the person you wished to flock. Then when you got flocked you have to pay to move the flock along! They also have a map in the foyer that shows where the flocking has happened! Anyway we were excited to get flocked!

Snow!!!!!

Well on betweem Christmas & New Year's we had a great Snow Storm! It seems that the low pressure system was parked over Albuquerque! Anyway it snowed for 2 1/2 days! We had so much snow that on December 31st they cancled church! By the end we had 18 inches of snow! (the church area had 2 and 1/2 feet of snow!) We still have snow! It is amazing and beautiful! The only rotten thing is that I had to go to WalMart in all of this snow! We had run out of carrots for our Sadie Doggie! So like a good mommy, I shovled part of the driveway (enough to get to the door of the car!) Then drove to WalMart! The world was so beautiful! What I didn't know is that we would have snow for 2 more weeks on our street! They were plowing the major streets and it took them 2 weeks to plow our street! We had trash pick up the day before the storm and I couldn't get our trash cans off of the street for a week and a half! Luckly mom & I don't generate much trash so it was no big deal not to have our big trash cans out! When I finally got to them I had to get out the 4 inches of ice that had formed from the melting snow! Anyway it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about driving in snow and ice!

Hair Today Gone...

I usually get my hair cut about every 6 months. (Just a trim!) But it had been 9 months since I have cut my hair. I have been saving it for the last 2 1/2 years to get a big cut for "Locks of Love." That is where they make wigs for children who have Alopecia or are going through Chemo. Anyway this is the longest my hair has ever been (an inch or two abve my waist!) and it has been driving me crazy! When I was growing up I was the towhead blond with a pixie cut in the neighborhood with all of the other girls who had this beautiful blue/black long hair! So now I am the one with long hair. I don't know where any of those girls live now. But it is such a vivid memory for me! Anyway I finally couldn't stand in any longer and I cut 11 inches of hair! 10 inches went to "Locks of Love." 1 inch was left over to make my hair even! It looks so pretty now and so much easier to deal with! I also didn't realize just how scraggly it was looking!

Bad Blogger ~ Bad blogger

Well I was working on my last post when my life turned upside down. I quit my job at the church. There were problems between the pastor and myself. He thought I was being bossy and I thought I was being helpful and making his life easier! Also the pay has never been good and I knew that I would have to get another job sooner or later. At the beginning of the year the talk was that I was going to get a raise in my salary and the talk was that it was going to be a big raise. At the meeting they started with a raise of $60.00 per month! (it ended up at $90.00 per month which left my take home pay the same as the year before!) I was dumbfounded! I thought they were going to at least double my present salary. (At the time I was only taking home about $230.00 per month!) Needless to say I was very disappointed at the decision. I had been the secretary there for almost 11 years! I felt that I could no longer work there and also go there so, my mom & I started going to the church where I have been going to crochet with their Dorcas Circle. We love it! I have a lot of friends there but also miss the ones that I left. So now I have been looking for a new job for the past months! Right after I quit I was watching one of the morning shows and the person they were interviewing said that with the job market now you should start looking for a job about 4 months before you want to quit. So now I am on month 3 and I have only had one interview! I didn't expect to get the job but it was good to get that under my belt. It has been over 20 years since I have been on an interview and I forgot the questions a person needs to ask. I now am ready for the next interview. Hopefully it will be soon!

Women's Retreat

This year Women's Retreat was wonderful! The theme was Friendship and Mom & I had a great time! We got up to the beautiful Sangre de Christo mountains on Thursday and had lunch in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Then we headed up the mountain! Our campground is in a beautiful valley...

Cub Scouts

Well once again I worked at the Sandia Heights Cub Scouts Day Camp! 165 boys from First - Fifth grades! I have run the Scout Store for the last 6 years! It's a lot of fun & I love working with the boys! I also put in the ladies restroom (which is usually right behind where I am sitting) a 2 minute spa! I figure that these ladies need some prettiness in their day! So in the restroom I put some pretty (fake) flowers and some chocolate. I also try to put some air freshener in a pretty scent. Oh and some nice lotion. This idea came from my co-worker in Santa Ana, Heidi Cohn. Heidi is married with 2 boys. So when they moved into their new house she decided that her house would be a boy house. The colors would be in the earth tones so that when messes were made it wouldn't look too bad! Her oldest son's bedroom had a huge walk-in closet! His room backed on to the master bedroom. So they took and divided his closet and she made her "Testosterone Free Zone!" Her husband helped and they put into the little room they made shelves on one side. They painted the room a beautiful pinky-mauve and then she put on the shelves the shelf liners that hang down and are lacey. Her husband also found this beautiful chair for her and had it re-apolstered in a big cabbage rose print. There was also rose carpet in the room. This room measured about 6x8 feet! Her boys also knew that they could not cross the carpet. And so the "Testosterone Free Zone" was born. I figure that a guy in a house full of ladies doesn't have to have an extra room. He can just go out to the garage and work in there!