BY REQUEST

HEALTHY COOKIES

4 cups Corn Flakes
1 cup almonds (whole raw unsalted)
1 cup sunflower (raw unsalted)
1 cup raisins
1 cup mini chocolate chips
Mix together.

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk.
Mix all together.

Put small mounds on parchment paper.
Bake at 325* for 10-12 minutes.
Cool.

Flip over and brush bottoms with chocolate.
(I melt semisweet chocolate).
Freeze. Yum.

Can't tell how many the recipe yields because they are gone so quickly! ENJOY!

DOG SWEATER

My favorite sweater that I've made so far.

TRUCK SWEATER

Another cute sweater that I made for the hospital gift shop.

FRIDAY MOVIE

Went to movies on Friday afternoon with my daughter...sort of a family New Year's resolution of trying to get out and do more things. We saw "P.S. I Love You" with Hilary Swank and Gerald Butler. Somehow I had the idea there was some comedy involved with this movie even knowing that Hilary Swank's husband dies. After all, the TV trailer shows Lisa Kudrow going up to men at a bar and asking if they are single? gay? working? Well, let's just say, there was little comedy involved, BUT an okay movie. I didn't feel it was Hilary Swank's best work and a very different role for her. It would be a good rental, but we both enjoyed it along with the other five people in the theater.

WHAT'S THAT WHITE STUFF !

LET IT SNOW

We had our first few snowflakes last night as the sun set and the temperature fell, the rain slowly turned into snowflakes that stuck to the ground, BUT not for long. So while it was our first snow, it sure wasn't much. Maybe next time...........

FINALLY HEALING

It's been 5 days since the last surgery and I think Button has finally turned the corner. She is still wearing her Depends, but what a difference. She is finally healing. She walks without being coaxed. She goes up and down the stairs by herself. She goes out and goes to the bathroom. She is acting like her old self again. (I don't want to say any of this too loudly though, because she's not completely healed and I don't want to jinx anything).

It turned out that she did have an infection from the culture they did at the emergency vet on Sunday, so she has to stay on the antibiotics for another ten days, but at least I talked the doctor out of keeping her on the $100 antibiotic at least for now. And we aren't feeling as guilty for putting her through all of this, to say nothing of our pocketbook.

So hopefully we are through with visiting the vet for awhile and being creative with Depends diapers.

RE-STITCHED

The Depends are working great especially having a shoelace strung through the top to keep them on, but despite that, Button's stitches came out on one side and yesterday she had to be re-anesthetized and re-stitched up. We should have known there was yet another problem when the technician said the doctor wanted to meet with us. So we go into the little room and in comes the doctor (perky young gal) and showed us the OTHER side that had been okay when we brought her in and she she left it alone when she re-stitched up the other side. She said that Button woke up so fast and her techs were busy and the next thing they knew she was licking and boom, it was open. She said she thought it would heal up okay, but to watch it and if it needs to be stitched up to call and she can stitch it with just some local anesthetic and no charge. They actually didn't charge us for the second surgery, only the second anesthetic and more pills of course.

We thought this was going to be just a simple little surgery. We did learn a big lesson that we are happy to pass along to anyone. Don't do surgery on your dog at the end of the week, because when there are problems you end up at the emergency vet which is $98 to walk in the door and be examined which we had to do on Sunday. This is probably true for humans as well and probably more costly to go to the ER, but sometimes we have no choice in the schedule and just want to get it done.

Right now, Button would just like her bottom to stop hurting and to be able to walk without something between her legs.

NOT JUST FOR GRANDMA

Depends are not just for Grandma anymore. They work great for post-surgical dogs too! She's much happier than wearing that cone-head around and Daddy's undies restricted her knees so YIPPEE for Depends!!!

POST-SURGERY

Here is Button post-surgery, wearing the latest in post-surgical fashion. She was actually sent home as a cone head and we figured that was just a left-over Halloween accessory and she hated it so we have made her more comfortable in some men's jockey's.



According to the pre-surgical consent form she had "soft-tissue surgery", but in plain English, she had a tummy tuck for her vaginal lips. Unlike human tummy tucks, it was not elective surgery for Button who needed her female parts to be reconstructed a little bit. This should do the trick!

IT'S BEEN A YEAR

It has been a year since I was admitted to UW at 6 am on Halloween. I was on two anti-seizure medications and still having seizures in my left foot every 30-45 minutes, 24 hours a day. Then in about two hours time, I had the top of my skull drilled, a little tumor removed and my skull glued back on and here I am 50 pounds lighter, no more seizures, feeling great and so-o-o-o-o-o happy to be able to celebrate this anniversary.

I wanted to be able to photograph my scar, but it is hidden in my hair and it is really a better touching experience anyway. So here is to many more celebrations of this anniversary...here, here!!!!!

SPARE TIME

This is what I'm doing with my spare time,
creating baby sweaters to sell at the hospital gift shop.

BIRTHDAY DAY AFTER

I had such a wonderful birthday from start to finish. The highlight was taking the Locks Cruise which begins in the waters of Puget Sound and they tell you about the history of the buildings on the waterfront and what can be seen from the boat. The weather for the cruise turned out to be PERFECT! When we took the ferry over, we were delayed because of the fog and we couldn't even see any buildings in Seattle until we got off the ferry, but by the time the cruise left about an hour later, it was clear and beautiful.

This is the bridge as the boat is approaching the Ballard Locks.

The captain steering the boat into the lock. We at still on the salt water side. Once we are raised up and the gate opens, we will be on the fresh water side.

This is lake water being allowed in as part of the way the locks are engineered. This is the same way the Panama Canal works.






Once through the locks, we were in the fresh water of Lake Union. This is Gasworks Park on Lake Union. We also saw the houseboat where they filmed "Sleepless in Seattle".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOG

Tomorrow my blog will be a year old. WOW! I don't know that I can say the blog has grown so much as I have learned about the blog.

It has been quite a year, blog, it has been quite a year.

SHOUT OUT

Let's give a big shout out for HOT WATER! You never know how much you love it until you don't have it. Our 15 year old hot water tank stopped suddenly on Saturday morning. Old age was what the final diagnosis read (I am taking Medical Vocabulary I). The plumber gave us an estimate and promise of delivery and installation of a new one for Monday the 8th. We could all hardly wait. We hadn't showered. The laundry was piled and the dishwasher needed to be run.

Monday morning the company calls and says, "Oh he gave you the wrong price. It's $600 more than what he told you and we have to order the tank. It will take 10 days."
Thank you anyway.

To make a long story short the plumber's who were able to install the heater same day were the one's who don't advertise on TV and who drive the beat up van. They answer their own phone and actually return your phone calls. We ended up putting in an electric hot water heater which was half the price and available for same day installation. By late in the afternoon we really didn't care, just put it in already so I can wash my hair!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAFNA

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAFNA

I don't have a picture to post so I can only send our wishes from the Pacific Northwest all the way across the many time zones for you to have health and happiness in the coming year. Enjoy the celebration and all the best from all of us.

A BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

These two didn't want to stop eating their crab long enough to even smile for a photo. I could barely get them to look up. They enjoyed every last bit of it.

The Pumpkin Cheesecake looked better than it tasted. I'll have to keep looking for a recipe on that one.

The birthday weekend was lots of fun with movies and lots of time on the Playstation 2 and we aren't done celebrating yet. We plan to take the Locks Cruise in the next few weeks and that should be great fun.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVEN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
TO OUR LITTLE BOY
WHO IS ALL GROWN UP

A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP

It just looks like a normal bed in the picture, but to us it is so much more. It is waking up without our back's hurting. It is waking up feeling like we actually got a good night's sleep. It is delightful!!

Yes, we finally got our new bed delivered yesterday after many phone calls to 'customer service'. Abbie got our old bed and we had them take her old one away which was really Steven's old mattress and a cheap box spring that we bought when we moved here. So we are all sleeping better now :-)

NEW BED

I woke up this morning with the same old backache. That's strange. This new bed is supposed to be so wonderful....oh yeah, that's right, they didn't deliver it! Ha! Ha! The joke is on us right now. We have been dragging our feet, no, I have been dragging my feet to even shop for a new bed and finally last weekend I agreed to go look. It wasn't as bad as I had been dreading it to be. Of course I did refuse to step foot into Levitz so that eliminated BAD. We sealed the deal on Sunday and got a delivery date for Friday the 31st. We have been counting down the nights all week and could hardly wait. Thursday morning they called and said the bed would be delivered Friday afternoon. Yippee, all is going well. Then we got another call at 3 pm saying the delivery was canceled with no new projected date. Are we talking days, weeks, months? I called them on Friday morning and asked that question and it turns out that OUR mattress missed the truck and that they (customer service) are waiting for an e-mail from the vendor (the company that makes the mattress). So now we can't even entertain ourselves by counting down the nights. I have a beautiful new headboard waiting for its new bed and a back waiting not to ache. Stay tuned.........