leder legends

  Meet Sasha. Her fur is much longer than Walter's so she is a wooly malamute. She also much taller and leaner than Walter. Her legs seem too long and her head seems a bit different , so Aaron had her genetically tested.  Turns out she is 100% Alaskan Malamute!

  The primitive fencing we jerry-rigged on top of our old, 4 foot tall wooden fence last fall has survived the winter and the deer got the message: you are not welcome here. They have not left the neighborhood. The neighbors across the street were the first to fence in their flowerbeds but deer have great memories. Their left the gate open one evening and late at night they chased 8 hungry visitors out of there.  Anyway, my backyard is flourishing!  The hosta pips are showing everywhere...even in all the pots.  At least ten coming up here. The daffodils are in full bloom! The tulips are up and will be opening soon. We are going away for a bit so I will most likely not see them fully opened. In the meantime, I will enjoy them  like this knowing that they will be back next year because the deer did not get them. The cherry tree that never gives us cherries is in bloom as is the forsythia. We had a different visitor in the yard yesterday. A red tailed hawk swooped ...

  There was a surprise knock on the door today. It was a gentleman from our church bringing us a care package! So sweet made sweeter because it was so unexpected!  A bag of chocolates, a package of cookies, a bag of dry soup mix, 2 containers of Panera soup, a loaf of blueberry bread , two beautiful oranges and a package of current buns! Enough food for a few lunches and dinners!

  The question is how to make a decent versus excellent Sunday/ birthday dinner with limited physical mobility?  The oldest granddaughter just turned 13!!  Dinner was great but not as homemade as it normally would have been.  I bought prepared mashed potatoes, gravy in a jar, salad in a bag, Texas toast, and an ice cream cake! Baked chicken breasts, asparagus and broccoli were easy enough to prepare at home with the help of other hands. The only thing I could do with one hand was the chicken. ( new recipe for the chicken that I will definitely do again.... pound a bit, season and bake at 450 degrees for only 20 minutes. Cover and let rest 15 min. Result: delicious moist chicken!!) After all was said and done, it was a great meal. Happy birthday Ava!  I found some extra long birthday candles so she could blow them out!  Some traditions are worth keeping!

  Forsythia  We had a heat wave ! That is a scary thing in our part of Michigan when this happens in early April. If we get a freeze I’ll be out there with old sheets I think! In the meantime, I am enjoying watching things spring up amidst the weeds- particularly the hairy cress. I do wish I could pull weeds but the broken arm limits what I can do. Hosta   Lenten rose Bleeding heart red daffodils white lung wort Brunnera Lenten rose Daffodils  lilac blue lung wort burnt grass white bleeding heart posts of rescued hosta from the front yard. Surprisingly, all have survived! Pink lung wort Bear's breeches More hosta Pink pulmonaria Hosta

  I think my surgeon was pretty cool and very capable.  His office, on the other hand, drove me crazy. I was prescribed Norco and tramazole for pain control and it's working quite well. It's not a fan of the side effects. I called the doctor's office, actually it's a surgeon's office, then was told they would return my call within 24 to 48 hours. Seriously? That kind of stuff drives me crazy. What if I really needed something but it was not an emergency! The Norco cannot be taken with Tylenol. They told me that but that's about all they told me about the two drugs. So the office finally got back to me today. I want to get off those two drugs because they don't make my stomach feel very good and wanted know if that would be an issue. Oh, she says, we want to stay on Tylenol and ibuprofen for the first two weeks at least. News to me. So frustrating! 

  It has been an interesting couple of days since my surgery.   Two and a half days on the couch eating, drinking, sleeping and taking pain pills. In order not to inflict any damage on my arm or on a sleeping partner, the doctor recommended that I sleep in a recliner or propped up on the sofa for the first few nights.  It seemed like an odd recommendation, but a nerve block is really weird. From the shoulder down I had absolutely no sensation in the arm nor could I control it. My friend described it very aptly as dead wood ! Out of the sling, the arm just hung down heavily! Subconsciously,  I think I might have been worried that it would not come “alive” again and so I stayed awake the entire night watching TV.   After 22 hours all the effects of the nerve block we’re gone. I now sleep in bits and pieces in spite of the drugs I am taking. Norco is drug number one drug and besides numbing the pain is supposed make you sleep.  Tramadol is drug number two...

I went in for surgery this morning. While I liked the thought of being the first surgery of the day , it did require some effort on our part.  We don’t normally get up at 4:30 am in order to shower and dress etc. While no more than 8 ounces of clear liquid were allowed after 3:30 and before 5:30, black coffee qualified! I do like my coffee in the morning!   We arrived on time and all the prep started! I was amazed by how many different people were/are involved! All did their jobs efficiently and everyone was very friendly and happily answered all our questions! At my age general anesthesia is said to be hard on the brain and the body, so I asked for a nerve block as recommended by the SIL who is a CNRA in a hospital in Alaska.  The nerve block was put in the shoulder...it worked well but now my arm feels like dead wood and will wake up sore! So I am taking norco and tramadol interchangeably to prep for that.  Praying that will work. It has also been suggested that I ...