Oh, Mary, I am so glad to hear all this! Our prayers have been answered! Praise the Lord! Is this all finished, now, except for the healing? Just so he doesn't need more surgery. You are probably so relieved and happy that both of you are home. There's no place like home...especially compared to the hospital.

Things have not gone so well here at my house. My dog had a violent seizure yesterday and then went into a coma. We had to take him to have him euthenized. We don't really know what happened. He's been going down hill for the past 2 weeks and the only thing we can figure out is that it all came from that tick he had about a month ago. I read online that some ticks are harmless and others are not. My son said he is taking ticks off his dog all the time and nothing ever happened, but he uses Frontline on his dog and we don't. Whatever it was, he was 14 years old, and I think that's average lifetime for a dog. I was upset yesterday, but I realize he had lived out his lifetime. It's just sad not to see him here.

We have hardly had any winter weather at all. We had some cold weather but it's warmer today. We've only had .2 inches of snow. That is very unusual for Pittsburgh. Maybe we are going to get it all in the next couple months.

Carole Sue - Sorry to hear about your pet. I can certainly understand that you would miss him and feel sad. I can't remember, do you have another pet or was he the only one?

My cold is bothering me more today...just when I thought it was almost gone...oh well, maybe the dark before dawn sort of thing. I bought MucinX for dh and he slept better last night. I want him to cough during the day but be quiet at night so he can rest. Our son worked today and Halo started barking as soon as he left...wasn't sure whether she had been out ...sometimes she sleeps while he's getting ready...so put her out...she was out there a long time! Then even when I got her back in his room, she barked, so I firmly told her "NO bark! Lay down and stay in your bed" Words she understands and finally she got quiet but by then I was so wide awake I couldn't sleep. I finally got back to sleep for a short time before she was barking again...by then it was 9 am so I stayed up. I made ham and bean (and a little potato) soup last night...it was good and Halo wanted the bone she could smell in the garbage. I didn't give it to her because fat stuff can sometimes make her sick but this morning I was so done with her and wanted her to be busy for a while so I threw the bone in the back yard and let her at it. She was thrilled of course, and so far has not been sick. I think it maybe only if it is large hunks of fat and esp raw fat but our son does not want us to give her much human food. It was mostly bone though just a little meat stuck to it. It is very wet here and she came in very dirty. Wiped her off as well as I could and hope she doesn't muddy up the place too much. This house is very messy and needs a good cleaning anyway. So far I've been busy just picking up and putting things back where they belong etc. Started to put away Christmas decorations and then thought about the fact that we still haven't had Christmas with our local dd and her fam so will wait a while for that.

I have to get the first of the month budgeting done. Think I'll start a new budget with the new year. Hope to get that done at least today.

Budget making: Forgot to do that last month. We just went on retirement so I' wasn't completely sure of income, or out-go that would be reasonable with DH used to going out daily, now somewhat restricted with only one car and money tighter. Surely I have enough info now to make a decent stab at it.

Mary, hope you get some decent sleep - you have to be deprived by a huge measure. Prayers continue. When ever you get to enjoy late Christmas with your DD, relax and simply enjoy them.

Carol Sue. So sorry you lost your beloved dog and so suddenly. Of course when we love an animal, any time can be too soon.

Rainy, dreary and getting much colder here now. Heading out to gym but it is awfully hard to make myself go.

I am accepting the loss of my little Pupper. I think of the things that were going wrong with him, not being able to jump up onto the couch anymore. Difficulty jumping back onto the deck from the yard, trouble with his bowels, trouble seeing. It was his time, I think. He was the only dog we had. In the past, we have had 2 at a time sometimes, but when the last one died, we agreed that Pupper would be our last one. We have had at least one dog at a time for 37 years.

I screwed up my computer. I tried to download something and I know better, but it installed all sorts of things on my PC. I uninstalled them all, but now I am getting all kinds of pop-up's. I think I'd better run a virus scan. It's always something.

I think I got my computer straightened out. No more excessive pop-ups. I ran a full scan which took a couple hours, then I ran a fix, another hour. It detected 44 moderate issues, which I was able to delete.

I got my new budget set up yesterday. I guess it's my OCD tendencies but I just love a new budget, so fresh and ready to begin. I love living on a budget because ours is more like a spending plan and isn't rigid at all but keeps us going for our goals and we always know where we are money-wise. I use YNAB (You Need A Budget)...have used their budgets for years now and they really helped us when our finances weren't nearly so good as they are now. Using YNAB helped us get out of debt and start saving. Now I can't imagine living any other way but we used to debt all the time. Before YNAB I would try to budget but couldn't ever stick to it. Being software now it is so easy to change it so if I want to spend more in one category I can easily switch the money over. I try to tell my kids but they don't understand...they live by how much money is in their bank acct, we don't...we live by what the budget says but keep the budget flexible to meet our true needs each month.

Yesterday dh was so weak and sad. He couldn't even get himself to walk around except what he had to do. Said he just had to rest. I think sometimes he gets worried that he won't get strong again. He hardly ate all day...he doesn't have much appetite. Last night i had to run out for TP (too many visitors! LOL) and I was trying to think what I could tempt him with ...smelled the fried chicken so bought some of that and some potato salad and dinner rolls. It worked, he ate two pcs and some potato salad and 1/2 roll...unfortunately Halo jumped up and got into the rest of the rolls!

Carole Sue - Computers are like housework...there is always something more to do. Besides my virus protection I use an anti-malware protector. It rarely actually finds malware but it does find other things that can be annoying, cause popups etc. When I'm active on the computer, it pops up with notice of finding something pretty often, even when not so active it's probably at least once a day. Who are these people who have nothing to do but cause us trouble with these things anyway

I think when both of us get over our colds we will feel so much better...he just has the cough...I actually have a more miserable cold...but I'm glad because he has enough to contend with right now. I feel in a way his cough is good because it can help keep his lungs more clear since is not very active yet. I listened to his lungs yesterday and I hear things but not sure what they should sound like after the surgery so didn't help much. He'll see the doctor on the 13th so unless he has definite bad symptoms I'll assume he's ok. The MucinX is helping him sleep at night so he mostly just coughs during the day now.

Today I'm hoping to take a package to the post office and to return our son's gift to Nordstrom. It was too small for him. Think I'll just get the cash and give him that so he can buy what he wants.

Agree with the idea of giving the cash to youngsters because they seem to enjoy shopping for what they want. I dislike shopping because it seems I'm never right, so we changed to giving money by the time the grandkids were teenagers.

Virus protection and an anti-malware protector are on my computer now, too. Last spring my virus protection did nothing to help my computer from getting a virus and the crash cost us several hundred of dollars to get the thing cleaned, reworked and I had to buy new software and you know how expensive that can be!!! Thank goodness the computer is a very good one and perhaps I can get a couple more years out of it.

I have Quicken on my computer but the budget will take last years expenditures and plug them into 2015 budget. I can then make adjustments. Hopefully the computer expense will be far less and we certainly won't need to remodel outside again with vinyl - nor paint either.

Good luck on your cold healing up fast, and so glad he liked the fried chicken and potato salad. Glad it was the rolls the dog took, not the other two things.

Mary, I have Adaware Antivirus and Microsoft Security Essentials. Between the two of them, they seem to keep my PC pretty clean, as long as I don't do things I'm not supposed to do.

I think Joe just needs to rest and not exert himself. I also think he should try to eat even though he has no appetite and don't feel like eating. He needs nutrients to help with the healing. That's good that he ate the fried chicken and potato salad. Don't be afraid to call the doctor if something doesn't seem right.

Before we retired we had plenty of money and could buy whatever we wanted. Now money is tight, but DH doesn't understand that he can't spend the money just because it's in the bank. It's for upcoming bills. Getting paid once a month is so different from when we got paychecks every Friday. We disagree on spending all the time and we struggle with it. Even if I made a budget I don't think I could get DH to follow it.

We went out to eat today to use a Christmas giftcard. When we got home there was a message of condolence from our regular veterinarian. The ER hospital we took the dog to sent them a report of his euthenasian. That was nice of her to call. If it had been earlier in the day when he got sick we probably would have taken him to her.

DH cleaned our carpets in the living room and dining room today to get rid of the dog smell. I couldn't smell it, but he could. He wants to do the bedroom, too, but we ran out of cleaning solution. We washed Pupper's afghan. It was an afghan that my mother-in-law crocheted for my step-daughter when she was little. She gave it to the dog, 3 dogs ago, and every dog since then has used it. I didn't want my mother-in-law to know that she gave it to the dog, but one day the dog laid on it and she said she didn't want it anymore after that. I don't know what I will do with it since we are not getting another dog. Maybe my step-daughter would want to take it for her cats to lie on. It has sentimental value.

I am really glad the holidays are over. I want to get my spare room cleaned out. It has become a storage room. We are going to get some snow tonight, 2-4 inches, and some frigid temperatures. I just want to stay home and hunker down.

Hello everyone and Happy New Year

I have been away ~ the longest I have been away from home and the longest I have ever been gone from here.

We went on a road trip ~ 24 days. It started out ~ my husband's brother wanted to have a sort of mini family reunion (only one of our kids had ever met his kids ~ I had only met these nieces and nephew once) and he wanted to do it in Asheville, NC and go to the Biltmore Estate ~ he had never been there ~ and thought it would be neat to go at Christmas time when they have it all decorated for Christmas and lighted up special.

My husband figured that since we are retired we could take our time and drive instead of fly. And since we were up that far (from Texas) that we might as well go a little farther and see some more of our family. So we went all the way north to the Buffalo, NY area where DH's aunt and cousins live, and a lot of places in between.

I am so thankful that on our entire trip, we didn't encounter any snow or ice/freezing rain. It was plenty cold and windy sometimes ~ I didn't enjoy that too much.

It was a good trip. We got to see and do a lot of things and see friends and family we hadn't seen in a while.

Just the same, I'm glad to be back home.

I was hoping to get to stay home and get stuff put away and kind of relax a bit, but end up having to go out today. Oh well......

Hope you all are doing well.

Gayle: So good to hear from you.
What a fantastic trip you two have had. I've been to the Biltmore several times but always wanted to see it in December. Your trip sounds so good. How smart you were to take advantage and go all the way to Buffalo, and missing the bad weather was amazing.

Carol Sue, What a compassionate thing the vet did for you. How fortunate you are that your hubby cleaned those rugs now. When our dog died, we did similar and my allergies improved so much, surprising me.

Mary, hope you find some more food Joe likes and will eat.

My energy is higher today, thank goodness. Had couple hours with the house to myself and able to read, write, relax, and feel refreshed.

Trying to clean my son's room today. He doesn't like me to clean it but I feel a little cleaning is needed now and then and he never seems to get around to it..I guess it isn't important to him but it is to me. I want the carpet cleaned at least weekly to keep it in decent shape and the sheets and other bed things changed now and then. So I get in there once a week at least if possible. This time it was time to strip the bed and wash all the bed stuff and am hoping I get it done before he comes home. Yesterday I got our bedroom cleaned except the carpet so vacuumed it this morning. First since we got home. The kids did pretty well at picking up and my dil even washed the sheets they used etc, but there is still a lot of debris on the carpets due to so many people in the house esp children. I'm still working my way through it as I can't get much done in a day due to we get up late and watch TV at night. I don't like to clean at night anyway.

Last night dh said he was craving mashed potatoes and gravy. I had some chicken breasts I was planning to use so switched my plan and baked them instead and made mashed potatoes and chicken gravy. Served steamed asparagus and canned biscuits too. It was good and plenty for son to take for lunch and I think there is still one breast left. DH seemed to enjoy it although he complained "my taste is just off...everything tastes so salty". I didn't think it was over salty but did tried to season enough that he would like it because usually he likes quite a lot of seasoning. Today his weight was up a couple pounds so either he ate more than he has been or it was too salty. We sat the chicken plate up high on top of the potatoes to keep it away from Halo...and our poor son didn't see the potatoes (he came home late as he works out after work). He was disappointed when he saw them and I felt badly. I just didn't think about it. But at least he took some in his lunch.

Love2 - Yes Halo has really been a pest recently. Guess I've treated to too often to people food. Last night she got ahold of something that upset her tummy and threw up under the table. I was worried that it might be a pill (med or vitamin) that one of us dropped because it was a bright yellow. I haven't cleaned really good under there since we got back but neither of us remember dropping anything. One of our meds could really hurt her I'd think. I checked dh's med box and couldn't find anything that yellow though. Since she's been getting a little more people food she goes around looking for it all over the kitchen/dining room floors just in case anything is dropped.

Glynne - Your trip sounds great! I love to travel but am always glad to get home too. The longest we have gone at a time is 3-3 1/2 mo. That was when we RVed. We did that every winter. It was fun but I don't miss it at all. I do hope dh gets well and gains strength so we can travel again though.

Carole Sue - Something about the new year seems to make a lot of us feel like decluttering. I have been wanting to clean out and organize our garage...usually not my territory....but with our son's stuff too it is such a mess and I know it's more of a matter of organizing it than anything. Yesterday I did one corner...not a lot but it looks better and I was able to set aside a couple things to take to the dumpster next time we make a drop. Guess that's how I'll tackle it, one small section at a time. Need to do the same in my office. One side is bed and toys and the other side is my desk and a stacked up mess of books and anything else we have stored in here!

Carol Sue ~ so sorry to hear about your little dog Pupper. We had to make the hard decision before the holidays to have our kitty put to sleep, so I understand how you are feeling. {{{{hugs}}}}

Carole Sue I just noticed your question about dh and his surgery. God answered my prayers about it being a blood clot and not a tumor and I'm very happy about that. Of course there was a lot of membrane buildup and not all of it was biopsied but the doctor sent the most suspicious to the lab so I'm assuming that it's all ok if that was. I definitely think the surgery needed to be done as there were so many issues that probably would have caused problems sooner or later even if they were not the cause of the fluid. I am immensely thankful that the "mass" was a blood clot and not a tumor! And to have the fluid not there was a great relief and made sense since he'd been feeling better. However, I WISH I knew for sure that the surgery took care of his problem with chest/side pain/fluid retention! The doctor said about the same thing. He said if the pain comes back then he should check with the pulmonary doctor. The other day he had a similar pain, same place, but he has not complained of it since. With all the other hurts from the surgery it's hard to know for sure where it is coming from. I think the only way we will know for sure the problem no longer exists is when both the back incisions are healed. They are a little red but doc said that was ok and otherwise they appear to be healing fine, but in the place they are in, it is easy to pull at them with movement. He is weak and a little sob with movement but I do think he is very gradually gaining strength...it has only been a week and at almost 80 I know that healing is likely to take longer. He goes back for his post op appt with the surgeon next week, so maybe we'll know more then, I don't know. But I know he's in God's hands and that's the best place I know to be.

Mary, I'm glad to hear that Joe's appetite is coming back. Mashed potatoes are comfort food, and it probably made him feel so much better. Your dinner sounds really good. I love everything you made.

I do not like much salt on my food, so I don't add much salt to my cooking. I have to put the salt shaker out at every meal so everyone can add salt to their own taste. My family is accustomed to that. It tastes good to me, but everyone else always wants more salt. Maybe that would work with Joe, too.

I would cut back on giving Halo any people food since he is vomiting. My dog was a very picky eater. He liked pork and Cheerios. Sometimes chicken, but many times turned away from it. He would NEVER eat a pill left on the floor. He smelled everything before he ate it and a pill would never smell good to him. Some dogs, like my son's dog, would eat anything that fell on the floor. We had other dogs like that, too, in the past. We had one dog who was always under foot when I was cooking, waiting for something to drop. I would drop something on purpose once in a while for her. LOL

Yesterday I made beef stew for the first time in years because DH always says he doesn't like it. I only made a small amount because I expected him to want a hamburger or something else. He ate the stew, and afterwards he said "This is surprising, but that was really good. Next time make more." I had trimmed all the fat off the meat, and cooked the meat in the pressure cooker to get it really tender before putting it in the stew. Today he requested Beef Vegetable Soup. It's so cold here that it's soup and stew weather.

Love2garden, I have allergies. I cough a lot and my nose runs. My doctor tested and said I am allergic to cats, but not dogs, but when we got Pupper I noticed that my cough got worse. Now I'm wondering if it will improve without a dog in the house. We always had to shampoo our carpets several times a year to get rid of the dog smell, so we shouldn't have to do it as often now.

Gayle, since I live in a colder climate, we usually go to a warmer climate for vacation. It seems funny to hear that you went North to a colder climate. That must be unusual for you. I have never been to Texas. In my mind I picture cactus and cowboys. LOL

We slept in until after 9 this morning! Halo was whining and barking long before that of course. She tried to trick me into letting her out of her masters (my son)'s room again after he left but this time I heard him take her out so knew she didn't need to go out. I did finally let her out at 8 and then left her free in the house. She used to be good in the house (her pottying is no problem), but now she sometimes gets into the garbage because she's learned how to open the cupboard door under the sink. Carole Sue, the dog you had that followed you around in the kitchen sounds like Halo...she didn't at first but now as soon as she smells me cooking she's right there looking for anything she can find. I think it's because I started giving her small amounts of human food, so my bad. I mix it with her dog food. My son has always said she's a picky eater and I can't imagine her eating a pill but the bright yellow color did make me wonder. She's been fine since though. Ds said she has a sensitive stomach but the only other time she's been sick was when she got into the garbage and ate raw fat. Wish that had made learn to stay out of the garbage

Last night I made a MexiCali Taco Hashbrown Casserole and it was very good. It was a recipe someone posted on Facebook and I had to try it. It had red/green peppers which made it pretty and Mexi Cheese blend which my son likes. I wasn't sure dh and I would like it but we sure did. I confess I had a small second helping but then felt very full, so know I shouldn't have. Didn't stop me from snacking a little later though...that's my problem..love my evening snacks. Despite that, my weight was down a pound this morning, hoping to maintain or drop more. My new years resolutions (if I have any) are to lose weight (that's it every year!) and get healthier and to declutter and organize the house.

Carole Sue - Regarding the salt, Dh's more common complaint with my cooking is that I don't use enough salt so I think his taste is just a bit off right now. I always have the salt shaker on the table but we rarely use it. However he always uses soy sauce if I serve Asian food. Your beef stew sounds good. I had some beef veg soup at the hospital that was really good and made me want more. It certainly is the time for it as you say. We are like you we always look for a warm climate to travel to, but Gayle was also visiting family.
We have some condos that are in central OR where it is really good and often snowy. As much as we'd like to visit them we always wait for spring. One year we went there for Thanksgiving (when no children were local) and we slid down the mountain on the way home...we said no more of that.

Have any of you tried the Alight plus sizes clothing? I see an ad on this site page for it and see a cute black evening skirt. I'm not a plus size overall but for a skirt it would probably work as my middle is so big. I've had to return so many clothes though so I'm reluctant to order anymore online unless I can return to a local store.

Well, my plans are to clean my office and the the main bathroom too. I accomplished what I planned yesterday so hope I do today...these two rooms are easier. Also would like to do a little decluttering and clean my kitchen stove if I find time. Still much to do from company but the house is beginning to look better finally.

Hi to Love2Garden and Gayle! We're a small but happy group these days!