LostWoods Blog

Taking a quick break from getting ready to go to WY to share the link for the puppy cam with you all. Susanne is Crenshaw’s owner and a breeder of Bernese Mountain Dogs.

Bruna’s puppies – live streaming video powered by Livestream

Enjoy the puppies and you might even see Cren now and then.

Happy Thanksgiving! Yes, I’m a day early, but I know there is no way I’ll make time to do a blog post tomorrow, so I’m sending you all my wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving today.

We’re going to have an interesting day tomorrow. Living in Helena we don’t have much for close-by family. Ken’s parents are over in Billings (and we’ll be going there for Christmas) but that is several hours away. Since both of us are working today and Friday, it seemed like an awfully long drive to spend a few hours eating, then another long drive back home. A couple of Ken’s cousins and their families are here in Helena and while we do spend time with them, that’s not the plan for Thanksgiving this year.

So we invited a couple single friends of ours over for dinner. One them is the brother of Ann Warren (Chinua.) I’ve known Ann for years and am happy to be getting to know her brother Charlie now that he’s living here in Helena. Charlie’s sister, Susan, and her husband are coming to Helena to see Charlie, so they will also be joining us for dinner. Ken’s ex-father-in-law and his wife live in another town close to Helena and they will be joining us, as will Jeremy (even though he’s moved out of the house now.) It ought to be a fun mix of people.

Tonight I’ll be doing some cooking — the sweet potato casserole, the cranberries — and some cleaning to get a jump on things tomorrow morning. Ken is in charge of the turkey — although I can and have made turkey for Thanskgiving gatherings before. He seems to enjoy it and I’m happy not to have to worry about that part. Just everything else. Okay, that’s not true… he usually makes dressing, too. This year he’s trying a sage, sausage, and apple dressing that sounds yummy!

Enough carrying on about food! I’m already getting hungry for the turkey and all the fixings and the meal is a day away! What I really wanted to write about were the things I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving. So, some things I’m especially thankful for this year.

Family. I’m especially blessed that my dad is still here this year. I worried when I visited before Thanksgiving last year that he might not be. We talked last night and I made him laugh and laugh with a comment about my cooking skills and gingerbread. (an old family joke — even the cats wouldn’t touch my gingerbread. It would have made a fine tractor seat cushion, I think.) I also very thankful that my grandson Merrick has recovered from his fractured skull and that I’ll be going to see him and Braysen (and their parents, of course!) in January.

Friends. As we go through life, moving from place to place, changing along the way, we lose track of old friends and make new. But the ones that really matter are the ones that somehow, no matter how far apart you are geographically and no matter how long it’s been since you last saw them, are still there. When you do get to catch up, it’s like you talked to them just yesterday. To my old (as in LOOOOOOOONG time) friends Jan and Cara — I know we don’t talk often, but I love you both. To my friends I see and talk to more often, thank you for putting up with my moods, my weird sense of humor, my rants, and my phone calls when you’re trying to get something done so you can finally leave work (Brenda ). I love you all, too. And to all my “cat” friends, including all of you blog readers who I haven’t met, but who follow this blog and worry about me and the LostWoods cats — thank you for making my life richer and more interesting. One of the most rewarding parts of having become a cat breeder is the people I’ve become friends with in the past eight years.

Health. As you know, it’s been a somewhat rough year for me health-wise. I think I probably used up one of my nine lives (if I have nine like a cat) this summer. But I’m doing well now and all the other tests I’ve had done as part of my catch-up-on-put-off-health-screenings mission this fall seem to confirm that I’m healthy. For that, I’m thankful.

Jobs. With the economy in the state it is, I’m thankful to have a reasonably well-paid (for Helena) job and that Ken does as well. I may not like my job, but I’m good at it and my work is respected by my peers. I work in a stable environment and don’t come to work each day worrying if my employer is going to lay off a bunch of people or completely close down, like happened to one of my friends this year. Every day when I read the business news, I am thankful for that.

As always, last but definitely not the least, I’m thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ who has given me life. When everything else is gone, I know where I’ll be.

The above seems like a mundane list. I’m not rich. We haven’t won the lottery. There’s lots of things I wish I had or could do. But in the end, isn’t family, friends, health, home and food, and a future all that really matters?

I hope you all will have a great day tomorrow. If you’re traveling, be safe.

For anyone who didn’t catch it when I mentioned it a week or so ago. I went into the hospital on Friday for surgery to takedown my colostomy and reconnect my bowel. I’d planned to post something sooner, but writing at the computer just didn’t rise to the top of the priority list. Mostly, I’ve been sleeping and exchanging the occasional text or email message with people — not even much of that. But that’s not to say I’m not doing well. I’ve been up walking around the halls. I’m now on “full fluids” as far as food goes. (Cream of chicken soup and pudding! Whee!) Things are progressing well.

WARNING… the rest of the post may contain too much information about bodily functions. You might want to stop at the end of the previous paragraphy and call it good.

The reason I ended up in the hospital back in July was for a ruptured diverticulum. The surgeon removed a section of my colon and did a colostomy. I can’t say that I’d want to live with a colostomy for the rest of my life, but it wasn’t quite as bad as I’d expected beforehand. Still, I’m very happy to have it gone. Now, the hurdle is getting my bowel working the way it’s supposed to after a three and a half month long vacation. So I was thrilled last night — after getting to start eating yesterday — that it’s working. I felt a toddler being potty trained when I came out of the bathroom — mommy, I went number two! LOL!

Now what this means exactly for me escaping from the luxury accomodations here, I’m not sure. The doctor told me on Friday I would be staying a minimum of five days. That would be the end of tomorrow. I’m obviously hoping for sooner than that. Especially since Ken is no more willing to bring me a therapy cat this stay than he was in the summer. Mean! Besides, it’s just nicer to be home in familiar surroundings than hanging out in a hospital room all day. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, think a positive thought. I want to go home!

Sitting here beside my hospital bed giving the nurse, Jayme, a bad time. Okay, not a BAD time, but teasing a little bit about the having to ask me my name and birthday every time they changes one of my gazillion meds. Like somone might come in and want the Flagyl. LOL! Okay, someone might want my pain meds, but the dose isn’t very high, even if it is good stuff.

Everyone here has been friendly, efficient and competent. My room is nice — as hospital rooms go. And it has wi-fi. The wonders of modern technology to keep geeks like me happy. Probably the only downside is the constant parade of people to poke and prod me — usually within 15 minutes of me falling into a lovely sound sleep.

There was one other mildly alarming event… literally. On my second night here I’d just been poked and prodded and was at last drifting off when I heard a “ding!” I wondered if I’d accidently bumped the call button, but almost as soon as that thought occured, I realized the ding was accompanied by two other dings, then a pause, then repeated. ”ding, ding, ding!,,, ding, ding, ding!” The call buttons dings once, that’s it.

About then somone walked by and  shut my door and I further realized I could hear the distinctive “buzz, buzz, buzz!” of a fire alarm.

It is not particularly encouraging to hear fire alarms when one is basically immobile in a hospital bed. I think if I’d been seriously motivated, I could perhaps have made it to the door of my room in about ten minutes. Of course, I’d have expired right there, because that would have taken all the energy I had. Luckily it was either a test or a false alarm and the alarm was silenced. Still, not conducive to a peaceful, restorative night of sleep.

I’m doing a lot better today than previous days. The ghastly catheter is gone. I’ve taken a shower. I am allowed “full liquids” as in cream of chicken soup, orange juice, pudding, etc. A real step up from chicken broth and lime jello. But when you haven’t eaten in nearly three days, even broth & jello sounds pretty darn good.

My son Justin drove all the way from Denver to spend some time with me last night and this morning. He’s now continuing down the road to go see Heather & her family in Oregon. It was good to see him, even if the visit was short. Glad he finally made it all the way up here.

When Justin came in this morning he said the Basia is obviously looking for me all over — especially the hippo room/office. She’d probably still trying to figure out where Ken-dad took me and why she isn’t allowed to take care of me like she did on Sunday. I’ve asked repeatedly for a therapy cat — I think Buzzy or Allegra would be perfect — but Ken says no.

I think I’ll get to go home tomorrow some time. I hope… Now that I’m not needed the constant help and drugs that I’ve been getting here, I’d much rather be home where I have my stuff and my cats. It will be challenging — our bedroom is upstairs — but I’d still rather have to deal with that and be home.

I don’t remember everything I wrote the other day — drugs get in the way of a functioning brain — but I’ll give you the quick recap here. I suffered (an understatement – had to be one of the most, if not THE most painful things I’ve ever been through) a ruptured diverticulum on Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon, realizing that it was likely something serious that was causing the pain and a fever, I had Ken take me to the doctor at the urgent care clinic, who sent us on to the ER. After an exam and a CT scan, the ER doc broke the news to me that a surgeon was on her way in and I’d need surgery. During the surgery, about six inches of my bowels were removed. One end was tacked to the abdominal wall to be reattached later. The other section was routed through an opening (stoma) in my abdomen and I’ll have to have a colostomy appliance for the next 3-6 months. Then when the doctor thinks I’m healthy enough for surgery again, she’ll reattach everything. Yes, another fairly major surgery in less (I hope) than six months.

In the meantime, I’ll be off work for a few weeks, then probably back part time — hopefully working from home until I go back full time. Lots of kitty time!

I felt fine when I got up Sunday morning — this was unexpected and sudden. So any of you out there who have suffered through bouts of diverticulitis (I’d had two in the past two years) if your doctor recommends surgery to remove a section of bowel because they suspect weakness in the walls, take them seriously. You do NOT want to go through a rupture and an emergency surgery like this.

I’d like to thank everyone who has posted comments or written me privately with well wishes. I truly believe that prayer works wonders and I am thankful for yours. I also appreciate the offers of help and care packages. I don’t really need anything and since Jeremy has yet to find a job, I have him to be my cattery boy. It’s a bit extreme to go to these lengths to get out of litter box duty, though!

I know the blog is crashing for some reason and once I’m home and more together, I’ll try to figure it out. I thought it was something easy like a database being out of space, but unfortunately, I”m not that lucky. So I’ll need a somewhat working brain to figure this out.

Hello from the hospital where I’m recovering from emergency surgery to remove a part of my bowel due to a ruptured divericulum. Yeah, it’s just as fun as it sounds…

I woke up feeling fine yesterday morning, but just a few minutes later I felt a sudden pain in my abdomen.  I went back to bed for awhile, then got up and took a hot bath, took some Gas=X and laid back down again. Around three I took my temperature and was running a slight fever, so I asked Ken to take me to the urgent care clinic. They sent us on the ER at the hospital.  They did a CT scan gave me the bad news.

I had surgery about 9 p.m.  It went pretty well, but as with any surgery, I feel totally drained. Sore, of course, too. I’ll be ehre for 4-5 days unless I have complications. Then I’ll be off work for a few weeks, and go back part time for a few more weeks, probably.

So… the kittens’ 13 week pictures I planned to take yesterday didn’t happen.  I feel like I’m being cheated out of my last week with the babies before they start leaving. Basia was my shadow yesterday – she was takiing care of me, I think. I suggested Ken bring her to me here as my therapy cat but he said no.

Okay, enough for now. Just thought I’d let you all know what’s going on with me.

When Galia’s new Connie-mom came to get her she ended up spending the whole weekend at my house in order to get a decent priced ticket. Connie and I discovered that we have a ton in common besides our love for NFCs. Among them is an addiction to HGTV and various other home improvement shows. We watched a lot of TV over the weekend as we talked, played with the kitties, etc. It seemed like a “theme” of the weekend was green and pink bathrooms. We must have seen at least half a dozen shows where there was a green and pink bathroom playing some role… Then we went out driving around to look at all the interesting houses in Helena —- indulging in one of my favorite pastimes, which I now knew Connie would love, too. (We have a lot of mansions built during the Montana gold rush here.) And, of course, we spotted several pink and green houses! We mocked them incessantly and have joked about it several times since.

So, moving on to my painting adventure… I’m usually pretty good with color, but I’m not all that good at decorating. I don’t hesitate to paint, but anything beyond that is somewhat baffling… I spent a lot of time picking out colors that would go with my green couch and loveseat (although, I hope to replace both of them with leather in the next year or two.) I’d previously painted the kitchen backsplash a gold color that looked pretty good with the icky gold-ish Formica countertops (which someday have to go, as well) and the dark oak cupboards, but Ken hated it. Referred to it as the color of diarrhea! So I decided to paint that area and the soffit a new, more neutral color. I also needed to paint the dining room and had decided to go with an off white that would look good with the kitchen, since they really are one big room, and perhaps use the same off white in the living room with a green accent wall. Sounds like a plan, right?

I like greens, yellows, blues, golds, browns, rusts… Warm colors mostly… For the main living area of my house. I always tend to pick out off whites, beiges, and browns that are more on the yellow side. But I was trying not to do that this time — trying to pick something more neutral. The colors I settled on were from Behr: “Castle Path” — a color that looks like a combination of tan, gray, and green. Sort of a darkish khaki color. “Promenade” is a medium dark sage green, not quite olive. “White Clay” is an off white — the lightest color on the same color card as Castle Path, so the same undertones.

I started with Castle Path on the soffit and backsplash area.

As I was painting over the gold I realized that 1) it was going to take two coats to cover and 2) the color looked alarmingly gray. I did most of the area I’d planned to paint that color (although I’d also decided to do the trim throughout the three rooms in it as well), then called Ken to come home at lunch and give his opinion. I figured it would be better to change our minds before I did the second coat. Ken came home, looked at the walls and said they were “fine”. I told him if he didn’t like it, he should say so now and not make jokes later about the battleship gray walls. He again said it was “fine”. I finished the first coat and did some prep for the living room. I also painted a small patch of Promenade in the living room, and a patch of the White Clay on the other kitchen wall.

The next day I did the second coat of Castle Path in the kitchen and started putting Promenade on the accent wall in the living room. Ken came home at lunch and said the kitchen looked battleship gray and he wished it had more green in it… Then he suggested I paint all the walls in the living room green — an idea proposed by Jeremy earlier in the morning before he went to school.

I told him I thought it will be too dark in there. He countered with the argument it would cut down on the glare from the windows and patio door when we watch TV. I decided to paint the entire room green, with Castle Path as the trim color. I get most of it done by that night, but still had trim to do and one wall to paint.

The next day (a Saturday) Jeremy “helped” by painting the remaining wall. I followed behind him fixing… I painted the trim, did the touch ups, and put a second coat on Jeremy’s wall. I had to quit early to do some shopping and go to some friends’ home for the evening.

Sunday, I put the kitchen all back together, cleaned the living room and put it all back together, and started on the trim in the dining room and the kitchen wall that wasn’t painted Castle Path. I also decided to paint the far wall of the dining room Promenade to tie back in with the living room. First coat done.

I took part of the next day off to go home and paint the dining room… After fixing a quick lunch, I opened the can of White Clay and started rolling it on the wall next to the green wall. OMG!!!! It looked PINK!!! It hadn’t looked pink when I painted the patch on the kitchen wall. I don’t like pink! In fact, except for cute baby girl clothes and the occasional hot pink accent in mostly yellow, orange and/or turquoise clothing, I loathe pink! Flashbacks to all those pink and green bathrooms! But I continue painting. Maybe it won’t dry pink. Maybe I’ll forget it’s pink. It looks really good next to Castle Path. Never mind that Castle Path is really Battleship Gray! Maybe I should go to the store and spend another $25 on another gallon of paint… I don’t…

I get two coats of White Clay on the walls in the dining room (except the green wall, of course) and except where it’s right next to the green, it doesn’t look pink. Ken said it doesn’t look any different than the white that was there already and next time I want to paint I shouldn’t waste money on painting the walls the same color they already are. Men! No color receptors at all!

I then got sidetracked by having work (bummer!) and two migraines in five days. The finish work — second coat of White Clay and all the trim — had to wait until this past weekend when I finally felt human enough Sunday afternoon to finish up. I still need to finish putting everything away and I need some new curtains or valances for the living room, but the painting is done for now. Up next will be Ken’s office (green) and the cat room — color to be determined. Then perhaps the laundry room and the whole main floor will have been repainted. No more stark, shiny white!

Here are some pictures of the new paint — chosen to show off the paint, not necessarily the best pics of the house!