April 7, 2025 Monday--5am

Good Morning!

I only see this pair of partridges--likely without mates.  Seems the false spring had the rest of them off nest building somewhere.

Keanna was here Tuesday.  The snow had started Monday night, if I remember correctly.  Snowed off and on for a couple of days.  Heavy wet snow.

That was the most snow I think we have gotten at one time all winter.  Here's the view from my patio from left to right.

Rabbits and birds were here early looking for food.

I put out some seed and Allie settled in to watch.

Didn't take them long--lol!

I went on the antibiotics for five days.  I'm a little better, but not all better.  Not running a temp anymore.  Just finished pills.  Did finally get moving by later in the week.

Changed the shower curtain.  Thinking spring--lol!

The snow was sinking.  

I finally got laundry done, letters set up to answer, banking for the month done, bullet/planner set up for April, and since Allie likes to sit and watch the door for some reason lately...I moved her bed from the bedroom that she hasn't been using lately to the spot where she watches the door.  Shockingly, she was happy with that.

Oh, and Allie and the blue flatter throw on "her" chair...took her a long time to finally lay on it.  And if I take that very throw and put it over me in my chair she won't set foot on it.  She especially doesn't like the fluffier softer ones I use that most cats I've ever had would prefer and make biscuits on.  Allie is so strange.  It took months for her to approve of the bed she's in above.  How is that one much different than this one behind my chair that she accepted first-and-only for the longest time?

 Only Allie knows--lol!  She has her secrets, I guess. ;)

By Sunday--the majority of the snow was gone and we were down to snowbanks once again.

Oh, and I decided that since these mandala pages are hard to color while inside of the book that won't lie flat and harder to tear out than I expected...well, I took a metal ruler and craft knife and cut all the pages out.  You can see the page on the right I tore out for Liam last time they were here.  What a mess!  It even ripped right into the picture.  He'll be pleased they will be easy to pick and color from now on.  Me, too!   Liam has taken to coloring these and that makes me happy.  :)  That's my colored pencil one on the left.  I need to do another one soon.

On Saturday there was a Hands Off gathering on the bridge between Fargo and Moorhead, Mn.  They were hoping for 500 people to show up and had about 2,000!  They plan to keep gathering for an hour every Friday for the next three months!  In April here they will meet in front of the post office in Fargo.  In May they will meet in Moorhead somewhere and then in June back to Fargo somewhere.  Made me very happy and lifted my spirits to see how many people came out all over the 50 states on Saturday.  Over 1300 different groups I heard.  :)  And I even heard there were international gatherings in our support, too.   

Another spirit lifter for me this week was on Sunday...I got a text from Leah asking "Map for the studio please".  Meaning she couldn't find my sketchy floor plan copy she has...and that their friends were probably over there again helping with the IKEA furniture!!!  Whoohoo!!  Yup!  What a wonderful surprise!  That meant they were either putting together the other hutch or the Billy bookcases that go in the studio.  

Was the Billy bookcases!

She needed to know where the hutches were going and where the Billy bookcases were going.  The three skinny ones are made to fit around a corner.  

The other hutch will go next to the one that is put together on that back wall.

The Billy bookcases are together!!  TaDa!

More to do in the living room/kitchen/great room--lol!  

But it is all coming together!

As far as the big IKEA furniture left to put together...we're down to another hutch for the studio, two 8-drawer dressers for the living room, and the new expandable kitchen table.

This past week Ian got to ring the bell for finishing Level 4 at Haley's Hope (help with dyslexia).

Proof that heavy wet snow stuck together well for snowman building.

The boys get deeply involved in their projects.  Here they were making a maze for some little bug thingies that crawl along--hex bugs or hex bots?    

And then Saturday was Home Depot craft day.

Earth Day planters.  :)

Anyways, that's about it for this week.

Nope--breaking news!

I just found out from Leah that there are problems with some of the rest of the furniture.  The other hutch and the two 8-drawer dressers!  The hutch is made wrong--parts drilled and made incorrectly so it won't fit together.  Has to be returned.  And there are not two 8-drawer units of drawers.  Turns out all we have is a few extra drawers.  So she has to check and see if we paid for those two 8-drawer units or if they accidentally gave us some extra drawers for the 12-unit sets of drawers.  And I don't think IKEA carries much of Nordi anymore...at least they don't have the ones I ordered online anymore.  *sigh*  We thought it was all there stacked in my garage.  

I have searched through IKEA to find a replacement that would work for those two sets of drawers.  I found some drawers that actually match my wardrobes--so they would work just fine.  Have to see what Leah finds out later.  She was too exhausted to go find the information Sunday night. 

Isn't it crazy how things just have gone wrong almost every step of the way with the build.  Now we will be dealing with IKEA and a trip to Minneapolis (about 4 hours one way).  I really hope they don't give us much grief about this.  They still carry the hutch, so that shouldn't be a problem to return.  And if we didn't order the two 8-drawer units--then we can return the extra drawers.  If we did order them--we need to get store credit as they don't carry them anymore.  Time will tell.  Always something, it seems.  So, putting furniture together has kind of come to a halt at the moment.  

I do have the three boxes that make up the new expandable kitchen table--but two of those boxes are still in my garage Leah said.  There are some smaller things (not from IKEA) that still have to be put together.  The wall shelves unit, bathroom bench, and a chair/step stool.  So maybe can get some other stuff put together in the meantime, I guess.  

Well, such is life, eh?  It's always something.  In the meantime, I just finished my meds.  Have to go in for a urine sample on Friday.  Feel a bit better than I did, anyways...for now, at least.  My health makes about as much progress as the apartment--ROFL!  ;)  Have a really good week and see you next Monday.  :) :)   

March 31, 2025 Monday--5am

Hello!

Saying I was exhausted turned out to be quite the understatement.  I slept from 11:30pm Sunday night till 8am Monday morning and was back to sleep in two hours!  Slept from 10am till 5pm and this continued for three days with a 100.4 degree temp and aching all over.  Since I always ache all over and am tried, it was the temp and excess of those issues that gave it away...I was truly sick-sick--lol!  Down for the count.

We did get some snow, but I can't even remember what day that was.  Not enough to totally cover the brown grass and it didn't last long. 

Allie slept a lot, too.

We had the loudest sign of spring arrive.  The cowardly Grackle bullies are back.  I much prefer the robins--lol!  ;)

I thought I had the flu, but then a few days in I got the constant peeing thing...so then I thought it was a UTI again that maybe I had been fighting off from the poke n' peek and taking the preventative antibiotics.  By Saturday it really felt like a bad UTI.  Sunday Leah brought me to Urgent Care,,,busy place.  Two hours later I was home.  Only slightly elevated bacteria and such.  Not enough that they would normally even run a culture, but the nice lady I got said she'd have a culture run so Dr. Agamawi, my urologist, could check out the culture.  If it's positive we can make a decision on antibiotics.  Won't know for maybe up to three days. Left a message for Dr. Agamawi so she knows what is going on.

Then--after I get home I open up my laptop and the keyboard isn't working.  This happened once before, I remember.  So texting back and forth with Dagan and Leah--got the keyboard going again (F4 + power button together and hold) because Dagan remembered.  Only to find out I then had lost the second window where I save all my streaming channels!  (Honestly, I shouldn't even be allowed to touch electronics when I feel like crap--lol!)  Then, trying to reopen that window, got stuck on a page that seemed over-enlarged--no way out of it.  Leah was out shopping with the boys and suggested she stop by to see if she could fix it.  Yes, please!

So they stopped and she did figure it out.  She even rebuilt the lost window with all the streaming channels!  I had stored all of them elsewhere from previously losing them.  Apparently Leah and I have both saved them all!  This is obviously not the first time this has happened--lol!

Funny, Leah and I had talked about my laptop when we spent so much time waiting at the clinic.  I had recently warned them that my laptop had been acting up more and more the past few months...having brain farts, not able to listen well, and having memory issues--as we often do as we age--lol!  Then I get home from the clinic and the keyboard isn't working.  At all.  Man!  That's what I get for gossiping behind its back.  ;)

The boys and I were having a good time while Mama was working on my laptop.  Leah had to run to her sister's so she asked if I would like the boys to stay here while she did that.  Sure!  So I got some extra time with the boys, too.  Always a silver lining. :) 

Anyways, been a week where Allie and I took it easy.  I finally was forced to wash clothes so I had something to wear...and to run the dishwasher.  Haven't put everything away yet, but things are clean. :)  Oh, and they were actually going to have another IKEA party Sunday but Payton was sick and gave it to his dad, Chris...so no partying for the sick.  (Don't I know it!)

I did no journaling, no letter writing...nothing much really...all week.  Watched a lot of videos.  Kept up with blogs and vlogs.  Spent a lot of the time irritating Allie...who won't sleep with me on my chair if I have a blanket over me (hates blankets for some reason)...and when I was so sick for those first three days she ran out of food and it took a lot of her complaining before I caught on to the travesty and betrayal I had forced her to endure.  (There were several kernels left in the bowl, BTW.)  Such is the life in the house of the sick.  Allie's life could have been a lot better if she didn't refuse to step on comfy, lush blankets.  Her choice...and I had to make mine.  She lost this rare time.  I would not give up my blanket.  Fevers make you chilly, my dear furry friend with the eccentricities. ;)

Keanna comes on Tuesday.  I should warn her I've been sick but I don't think I'm contagious anymore if it was the flu.  (Hard to know when you already feel like you have the flu 24/7--sad, but true.)  Fever seems to have broken finally on Saturday night.  And now it's the end of the month...so I have all that stuff to do...set up my bullet journal for April, monthly banking, and I am a week behind on journaling.  *sigh*  That's how you really know I have not felt great at all...never even got to my daily journaling all week long!  Another clear sign is I had dirty dishes left overnight on the counter or in the sink.  The little OCD things I normally would never let slide.  

But hopefully I will get diagnosed this coming week and get regular antibiotics if I need them.  I quit the preventative antibiotics on Saturday, I think it was.  Pointless to take/waste them when they obviously weren't working and if I might need to be taking regular antibiotics in a few days anyways.  Will discuss my future with antibiotics with Dr. Agamawi this week, I assume.  Oh, the joys of medical mysteries--lol!

Meanwhile, I am just working on getting better.  Body misery of some degree or another I am definitely no stranger to.  But I'd much prefer for it to be a casual acquaintance rather than when it's a constant, overbearing, annoying companion, if you know what I mean--lol!  The silver lining today was getting to spend time with Leah and with the boys.  That was soul lifting.  Helps you to get through the rough spots, those people we love. ;) 

Thanks for all the cards and birthday wishes.

Thankful my laptop is up and running again.

Hopeful it will be a better week body-wise.

Have a great week!  See you next Monday.  :)

March 24, 2025 Monday--5am

Much quieter week may have been an understatement--lol!  

Monday I had Dagan and Leah drop the boys over here so they could go to the parent-teacher conferences.  They brought Burger King for dinner afterwards and we all ate here.  I am terrible at remembering to take pictures when I have actual company.  Liam worked on coloring a mandala I tore out of the coloring book.  Used Gramma's good markers and was pretty careful about not pressing too hard. ;)

Tuesday Keanna came to clean.  After she left I changed the shower curtain again.  

Those of you who are new...I decided to go wild and buy up cheap shower curtains so I can change them as often as I want.  Before this recent shift, I think I averaged a good 20 years per shower curtain, towels, and bathroom rugs, too.  In fact, I think I had this one flora one for closer to 30 years.  Now I find I usually change them after Keanna has been here--every two weeks.  I probably have a dozen of them!  Inexpensive, fun way to change the atmosphere of the whole bathroom.  Liam will run in to see which shower curtain I have up whenever they come over.  They have also borrowed a shower curtain every once in a while to change up their bathroom at home.  Makes me smile.

The rest of the week...I mostly collapsed.  Did laundry, made some food, and ran the dishwasher...the usual "have-to" stuff.  Wrote some letters and a Thank You card to Dagan and Leah's friends for all their help.  Allie rested up a lot, too. :)

I watched the rest of season 2 of Severance (wow!) and a couple of miniseries on BritBox (Catch Me A Killer and Payback)...plus a lot of fun YT videos to help erase what political news I did see.  Oh and changed my dental checkup again--lol!  Told her we might as well try for a year vs 6 months because my immune system is still so bad my gums are still inflamed.  Told her I am just starting on antibiotics for three months so that might help.  Plus with the skin cancer above my lip...well, ever since the biopsy it bleeds quite easily.  So now I have my checkup scheduled for the beginning of June.

Was mostly a very quiet, solitary week after Tuesday.  I honestly needed the time to recuperate from the week before--lol!

Sunday woke up to a bit of snow overnight!  Not enough to cover the tops of all the grass, but I'll take it. :)

I've been just plain exhausted.  Even fell asleep for naps twice this past week.  As you can see, I didn't even take pictures--lol!  So, this will be one of the shortest posts from me in a long time.  I hope you are all doing well and that you have a wonderful week!  Oh, and it is my 74th birthday on Friday.  I am so glad to still be here!!  Till next time...

March 17, 2025 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Was an eventful week!  Goodness!  But I did manage to get some coloring done in the new mandala coloring book, anyways.

Monday:  Nothing left but small snowbanks.  

Was a week of doctors, nurses, clinics, messages, and needles in my arms.  First of all back when I went to Dr. Agamawi (the new urologist) she saw all these pale cysts in my bladder wall...I did, too, as I could watch the screen.  She said they are caused by inflammation and not cancerous.  The speedy male urologist never mentioned them so we don't know if they are old or new.  She suggested I could go on antibiotics for a couple of months...but antibiotics and I usually do not get along well at all because I get diarrhea from them.  So we agreed, not a good idea.

But, since I had gotten a UTI when I saw the male urologist before she put me on just 3 days of an antibiotic to prevent getting one.  I agreed with that.  

Much to my surprise, I didn't have any reaction to being on these three times a day for three days and actually noticed slightly feeling better.  As soon as I went off of them...right back.  Soooo...I messaged her to ask her if I could try going on these particular antibiotics for a couple of months like she had wanted.  Might work, right?  She called me back and said these are prophylactic antibiotics...preventative.  She'd not given this kind of antibiotic over a longer period of time for this use...but since my body overreacts negatively to many medications, she also thought it wouldn't hurt to try them...for three months.  Yes, you heard that right...three months.  We'll see how that goes.  Could possibly jumpstart me out of this stagnation I have been in for some time and help get rid of the inflammation or lessen it anyways.  Or I'll react badly after a while and have to stop.  I have nothing to lose, right?

These are obviously not the usual antibiotics because the pharmacy didn't actually have any in stock and had to order some.

Meanwhile--got the test results online from the biopsy.  Skin cancer.  

Tuesday: Leah was going to pick the antibiotics up for me after work but had also scheduled Target and Cashwise pickups and forgot the pharmacy closed at 7pm.  She brought in my groceries and also cut my hair for me!!  Nice!

Wednesday: Leah dropped me off at the clinic for my annual Medicare checkup with my regular doctor (Kessler) while she went to pick up the antibiotics.  We knew Leah would have plenty of time because these annual appointments usually run about an hour.  Checkup went well and Dr. Kessler agreed that I have nothing to lose by going on those antibiotics and it is a low dose.  I told her Dr. Agamawi said if I tolerate them well and have positive results I could try going to twice a day with them, too.  Time will tell.  

Then Dr. Kessler wanted me to stop at the lab on my way out.  She wanted to double check my thyroid and some other things.  I get this young guy who--firstly--I notice doesn't tie that band very tightly around my arm.  He pokes the needle in.  Nothing.  Digs around and around.  Nothing.  Decides to try the other arm.  Pokes the needle in.  Nothing.  Digs around and around.  Nothing.  I ask him--what now?  He says he can't try more than twice, so I'll have to come back tomorrow...or to one of the clinics in town.  I go home with two bandaged elbows and wonder what the heck?!  I've never had any problems with blood draws or IVs at all.  I had more trouble with my port--lol!  Very strange.

Thursday: Started the new antibiotics.  Dagan brought me to a different clinic lab over his lunchtime.  She was tickled by my cat bag.  Even had me hold it up so she could really look at it.  Happens to me fairly regularly when I actually do get out and about--lol! 

This was a lady knew what she was doing.  Seemed disappointed I didn't know the guy's name who tried to draw my blood and left me with two red and green marks in my arms.  Said he went too deep.

I have no doubt she will track him down and give him some pointers, shall we say--lol!

That night I saw Dagan briefly again when he dropped off Costco groceries.

Friday: I got a call from the dermatology department.  The lady went through the surgery type questions (do you have any metal parts or a pacemaker, etc).  She said I will be having Mohs Micrographic surgery and that Dr. Matzke is their Mohs guy and very good.  I am scheduled for May 14th.  Obviously not afraid of it growing or spreading anywhere.  She said this type doesn't...but if by chance it changes to let them know.

Of course I googled the procedure and watched some YT videos on it.  Now I feel more prepared and am glad I will be getting this guy who does this kind of surgery all the time.  Never had a surgery where they suggest you bring a book or something to work on--lol!  They cut it out, bandage you and you wait while they freeze and slice it so they can look under a microscope to see if they got it all.  Cancers can have microscopic roots.  Sounds like they get all they can visually see the first time and usually have to go back in and take another layer...then you wait again while they freeze, slice, and examine.  They do that as many times as they need to until they can see no microscopic cancer.  Then they sew the hole up.  If it is large you might need a skin graft that they take from your ear or behind the ear...but I don't think mine is that big.  Anyways, it can take 2-5 hours depending on the depth of the cancer.  

Yup!  Silver lining that I scared the young guy who did the biopsy--lol!  Now I have a guy who is known for less scarring and knows this type of specialized procedure.  

My sleep was off all week due to DST and then all these appointments and health things to think about.  We were supposed to get a blizzard Friday night and into Saturday.  Yah, right!  We sure got the cold!  Went from 67 degrees (no lie--crazy warm) down to 27, I think.  And we definitely got the wind.  But this is how much snow.

So glad because on Saturday:  There was another IKEA Party!  They packed the car up.

This is all that is left in my garage now.

Chris, Robyn, and their boys, Payton and Isaac, came over again to help!!  Now those are some really good friends!  Here they are working on the other wardrobe.

Then they got going on the drawer units...or dressers...whatever you want to call them. 

I will have a wall of storage!

Payton and Isaac worked well together and put together 21 drawers, Leah told me!

Liam came down for a while.  

Was screwing in a brace here...

...but then he got sidetracked with all the tools that looked so interesting.

So he went back upstairs with Ian.

These are the two biggest 12-drawer units!

Notice the second wardrobe is together!

The 12-drawer unit when done!

They got both the big 12-drawers together!!

And even got the other two end tables together.  Well, what I am going to use as end tables.

It is really starting to come together!

In-between the two 12-drawer units will be an 8-drawer unit.  The TV will go over the 8-drawer on the wall.

A matching 8-drawer unit will go under the window.

It is really beginning to look like an apartment!

Ian decided to turn himself into a green Minecraft zombie while everyone else was busy downstairs.  He tried to sneak down the stairs to scare everybody.  

Didn't work and Mama and Daddy were not pleased with him drawing all over himself with a green marker--even arms and feet!

So, what do you think they did when they went upstairs?  Liam wanted to be green, too.  No pictures...baths!

What is left to put together?  The two 8-drawer units and a big table for the living room/kitchen...and Billy bookcases around that back corner and down the wall in the studio.    

There's also a wall shelf unit to match this one I have on the studio wall here.

They will go on the walls in that corner of the studio by the bathroom.  Actually are shelves for DVDs--lol!  But they've been just perfect and I love them.  Couldn't believe they still sold them.  Bought this one in 2012 from Amazon.  Got clear storage bins to fit the shelves so that it is easy for me to take bins down and put them back up.

Yes, I have really gone for maximum storage.  I will kind of have a tiny house in the basement over there.  Looks like a lot but the furniture you see in the living room takes the place of all my bedroom (triple dresser, hutch dresser, regular dresser, nightstand, curio cabinet, and closet), two desks, my TV cabinet, three end tables, and plus part of the many bookcases I had here (10).  The furniture in the studio--some of it is coming with, like I said...but the rest will hold over half of what I had in the bookcases here (6-7 regular size bookcases) and a couple of closets.  Whew!

So, it is a good thing I have downsized all I could so far.  Took me a year to get through everything in this apartment--downsize and then pack what I could.  Baby steps--15 minutes at a time.  I know there will probably be more downsizing after I move as I am trying to figure out where everything will go.  I'm glad I will have some storage shelves in the maintenance room and in that storage room under the entryway!  I do have a bunch of bins and boxes in my garage shelves here that are going with me, too.  I look forward to the organizing challenge!

It does look now that I might be moving in May or possibly June.  Depends on how much help Dagan and Leah can get with the IKEA furniture and other furniture...and there is still some electric work to be done...and I don't know what else.  I don't want Leah to wear herself out.  She's just about over the pneumonia.  And we can't expect her wonderful friends to be coming over again.  They must be exhausted--all of them!  But I am so grateful that they have come over...twice!!  This has helped Dagan and Leah tremendously.

Well, this coming week...going to watch the boys this evening while Mama and Daddy go to parent-teacher conferences.  Either I will go over there or they will drop the boys off over here.  Playing it by ear.  When I am doing poorly it is easier for them to come over here...but I would love to see all the new furniture in person.  (Writing this on Sunday night and it will depend a lot on how well I sleep honestly.)

Then Tuesday Keanna comes to clean.  Other than that...should hopefully be a much quieter week.  And we'll see how things go with the antibiotic, too.  Very well I hope.  :)  

If you made it to the end...whoohoo!  Was a busy week, like I said.  Till next time...thanks so very much for stopping by!!  :)