OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD

I am so happy to being going to the hairdresser today! I know all of you ladies out there are always perfectly coiffed, but 'tis not always so for me! That "Only her hairdresser knows for sure," baloney never works for me because my hair grows so fast that it's always a struggle to keep up with those odd-colored roots that keep sprouting out of my head.

And, I know why it is that I do have so much trouble keeping the fact that I'm a gray-haired old lady under wraps.

When I was a teenager (imagine that, if you can), we lived across the street from a nursing home. There was an old lady who lived in the home with her little toothless Chihuahua, and she would walk him every day. Her name was Josephine. And Josephine, bless her heart, dyed her hair a deep, midnight black. Except. She probably didn't get to go to a hairdresser to have it done. Maybe a daughter or relative visited her and did it for her - I don't know.

But. What I do know is that I thought her head of white roots with the dark ends was ridiculously hilarious. And I laughed at her endlessly (not to her face - I wasn't that mean). And I told my mom that my hair would never look like that . . .

And so, that is why today I have endless white roots. Because in my misspent youth I had the audacity to laugh at someone else's hair, it has now come home to roost. I'm telling you children, listen to your elders; it could happen to you someday. So please, don't laugh at me when you see me wandering the streets with my little dogs on leashes and my long, white roots.

Hah! I bet you didn't think you were going to get a Por Quoi story and a morals lesson all in one post today, did you? Neither did I expect give them to you, but whew! it sure feels good to get that off my chest. And who knows, maybe confessing will give me a couple of weeks' respite from THE DREADED WHITE ROOTS!

HGTV Green House 2009

Go to HGYV.com to enter to win this home! You can enter every day!

TA DA! AN AWARD

Today I received a pleasant surprise. My friend Jan, at Ignite to Write, presented me with the Kreativ Blogger Award. How nice was that? Anyway, this is one of those pay it forward type awards, and below are the rules that go with it:

1. Post the award on your blog. Link to the person who gave you the award. Here's Jan's link: http://ignitetowrite.blogspot.com/2009/04/kreativ-blogger-awardfor-me.html and to her other blog: http://jan-mader.blogspot.com/

2. List seven things you love:
my hubby
my family
my animals
reading
nature
silence
art

3. List seven blogs you love and let those people know you’ve given them the award.
This is something I will have to think about, so I will get back to you on this!

THE NEW OREO BABY

Here is the newest addition to our herd. This is Oreo, and she was born on April 3. She is quite the show off, too. I was just positive her momma was going to have multiples, and she did, in fact, have two, but Oreo's twin did not live. So, as before, mom Bessie is still a "one bunner."

As I write, Oreo is now three weeks old, and she is quite the "kid." She spends her time trying to figure out how to play with the six week old triplets, getting into trouble with the older goats, and mimicking her mother by trying to eat grass and hay. Oh, and I forgot - the all-time, most fun our goats have - trying to climb up onto the top of the dogloo doghouse we have in the goat yard for the babies to shelter in. At any given time, there is at least one, and usually two, young goats on top of the dogloo playing King of the Mountain. They butt, they shove, and they execute daring high jumps as they play. Oreo should achieve lift-off sometime in the next week. She is just about the right size, and she has been practicing her climbing skills on the discarded street sweeper brush we have out there for everyone to scratch on.

A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

Being at home by myself the last couple of weeks has given me lots of time to think. As a matter of fact, that's about all I've done. I think it's the anesthesia, but after I have surgery, it always takes me a while to get back into the swing of things - to want to do the things I've always enjoyed doing as well as the things I need to do. Anyway, I've been reflecting lately on the people and relationships in my life. One conclusion I've come to is that I'm not the kind of friend I'd like to be. I don't call people and keep in touch. I'm stand-offish, I think. Taciturn, even. I haven't been like this all my life. I used to like being around friends and family more. What makes me like this? I think about my friends and family often, but what prevents me from sharing time and conversation with them? I know friends and family wonder about that, too. If someone is having trouble, I can be depended on to be there with food, or help, or money. But, what about when things are going well for people? That's when I'm usually invisible. Does it come with age, this wanting to stay at home and hide? Or, is it due in some part to the huge family I'm a part of, a pulling away after years of being part of the hustle and bustle and strife that comes with having eleven younger brothers and sisters and all the in-laws, exes, nieces and nephews and two marriages and step-children and grandchildren? Or, is this one of the stages all people go through as they age? Do we shed people and relationships and prune our social lives to prepare ourselves for eventual loss? I don't have the answers, but there is a part of me that says I don't do enough to maintain relationships with those I care about. If you're one of those people, know this: I think about you often. I remember and cherish the times we spent together, good, bad, or ugly. I hope your life is good, and if it's not, I hurt for you and with you.

I am Back After Surgery

Well, I'm here. I had my bariatric surgery on March 30, and was in the hospital for four days. Surgery went well, but I had a staple line bleed that corrected itself very quickly. As a result, they held me an extra day. After I came home on April 2, I began to feel progressively worse, and was readmitted to the hospital through the emergency room on Tues, April 9. After a CT scan, it was found that my spleen had been badly bruised, causing swelling, which in turn aggravated my diaphragm causing the sac around my lungs to fill up with fluid and making one of my lungs collapse. I was hospitalized for another four days during which they drained a liter of fluid from around my lungs, finally allowing me to breathe again. I've been home since Saturday, April 11, and am feeling stronger every day. Jan, I see you're not following me, but just FYI, that silly Bessie had her "BABY" on Friday, Apr. 5. She had twins but one was stillborn. The surviving one is the cutest little "Oreo." She is dark brown all the way to the middle, then white, then brown to the end. She has three white feet and a white tip on her tail. She is so sweet and lovey. Hope this finds all well, and I appreciate all the good wishes from my readers. I will write more as I feel up to it.