Hello

I may not be blogging much lately but I’m still here and still reading all your blog posts.  My friends here are very important to me and I am grateful for your friendships.

June is always a busy month for us.  My daughter-in-law Kristi's birthday is June 4^th, Tom’s birthday is June 23^rd (yes tomorrow!) and of course we celebrated Father’s Day this past Sunday.  In between all that Tom and I both have had several medical and dental appointments and we have had people we hired to come out and do some work around our house.  It’s been kind of crazy around here!

We hire someone to come out and clean our gutters around the roof of the house twice a year.  There are many trees in our neighborhood and the gutters seem to fill up quickly.  Tom used to do that job but it is much too dangerous for him now with his balance problems.  Last year we found a very nice man that is a teacher at the high school here.  He has a gutter cleaning business on the side for additional income and he has been a blessing to us.

This month we also had tree trimmers come out to trim the trees in both our front and back yard.  We have a row of Osage Orange trees at the back of our yard and they grow quickly plus the winters here can be damaging to their branches.  About every five years or so we have them trimmed to prevent potential problems.  Some people say we should have them cut down but I love having trees around the house. 

I was trying to capture the sunset and you can see some of the trees I'm talking about here.  In the summer they fill in and provide a lot of shade.

Some of you may recall in my last post I was concerned about some medical tests I was going to have done.  I had both an upper & lower GI test and they were not as bad as I thought they would be since I was sedated for both of them.  They did do a biopsy from each test and it took two full weeks before I got the results.  Fortunately, both of the biopsies were benign however the one from the colonoscopy was a precancerous adenoma.  I was told I have a high risk for colon cancer so I will have to repeat that test every five years instead of every ten.  I am, of course, thrilled both tests were benign and I feel quite fortunate I did not put them off any longer.  A colonoscopy is one of those tests we never want to have done mainly because the prep the day before is not a fun thing.  However, I have learned the importance of having that test done because it truly can prevent cancer.

We are hoping for things to slow down a bit for us in July and maybe I'll even come up with a more interesting post than this one!  Take care everyone!

Cat pictures just for fun:

Sophie says Hi!

Zeus says I'm sleeping, don't bother me!

 

The First of June - Already!

  

My blogging has fizzled out to almost nothing since January and in fact I only posted once last month.  Sure, I have a lot of excuses but really, either you blog or you don’t.  I will never be one that posts every day like many excellent bloggers I know, but I do like to post once a week.  Hopefully I will be able to improve and get back to that routine.

So, what’s been going on this month?  Like so many others living in many different areas, we have had almost daily rain and much cooler weather than usual for us.  All that rain has meant I am playing the game of trying to catch a dry day to mow the lawn weekly since it is growing like a well-watered jungle.  The plus side is the cooler weather is much more comfortable for mowing than the usual hot and sunny weather.

A positive thing has happened recently.  Tom finally decided to get hearing aids!  You may recall I had previously mentioned that he has lost all hearing in one ear and quite a bit in the other ear.  He was evaluated by an ENT earlier in the year and given the specifications for what type of hearing aids he needed.  Tom was a little unsure about taking this step so he didn’t get them right away, but after some time he finally decided to take the leap.  Accepting your aging is not an easy thing for many people.  Thankfully, we received our stimulus checks just in time to pay for the earing aids, as those that have them know – they are rather expensive!  So now he is getting used to them and trying to remember to wear them.  He can hear much better with them but just needs to get comfortable wearing them.

It’s not been the best month for me as I’ve had some minor health problems which have required a series of medical test.  A couple of weeks ago I had a CT – Calcium Score Test which is essentially a CT scan of your heart to check for blockages.  I passed it – Yay!  I have spent the rest of this month dreading some other tests that I have to have this Friday.  I will admit up front I’m a big chicken!  Due to some health issues I have to have Upper & Lower GI tests.  Yep, the lower GI test is the dreaded colonoscopy requiring the miserable one-day prep before.   I had one over ten years ago but it’s that time again.  The Upper GI is the scope test which I’ve never had done, although I should have had one a long time ago since I do have a hiatal hernia and reflux.  I didn’t have the scope earlier because, yes, I’m a chicken!  They are going to do both tests on the same hospital visit.  So, chicken me has spent much of this month worrying about this coming Friday.  I realize that may sound silly but well, that’s just the way I am.  Friday morning Tom will drop me off at the hospital.  He is not allowed to go in with me due to the hospital still observing strict covid rules.  I wish he could go with me to help with my courage, but that’s the way it has to be.  I will be put to sleep for the tests (they better do a good job with that!)  and when it is all over the nurse will call Tom to pick me up.  I’ll let you know more when I know, however if I have a biopsy from either test, I probably won’t know those results until next week.

Sorry for a post full of TMI but I am just an honest and straightforward person about things like that.  I have felt bad about not posting more often this month but honestly, my head has not been in a good place for posting and I’ve just not been feeling well.  Hopefully I will be better after this week!

I haven’t taken many pictures recently but I do have one.  There are many squirrels in our neighborhood and suddenly one of them has decided he wants to move in with us.  We have to watch the door when we go out or in because he has tried to run into the house.  Can you imagine the havoc with two cats if a squirrel came in the house!  I think he sees how spoiled the cats are and wants to join them! 

Take care everyone!