RIP Tipper 1997-2011

I took Tipper to the vet today and made the final decision to have him put down. He was severely dehydrated and according to the blood work, he had kidney and liver problems. I stayed with him until the end; petting him so he (me) would feel safe. I watched the vet euthanize him, it was peaceful and yes I did cry. It was hard and I felt guilty but I know he's in a better place. I brought him home in a little casket shaped box and Joe and I will bury him tomorrow alongside all our other beloved dogs.

Animal Update

Well it looks like Sunny will live for a few more days. Her antibiotics and steroids made the swelling go down virtually overnight. She is eating, pooping, and peeing like she is supposed to and the vet said as long as she was acting normal she was okay. However, that said, I think the cat is slipping by the day. I am having a "do not resusitate" (sp??) attitude where the cat is concerned. Monday, he threw up all day and kept acting like he needed to take a dump but had no action. He hasn't eaten for several days, is staying out of sight under the china cabinet only coming out to pee on my rug and walk into the kitchen where he lays on top of the water bowl for about an hour, occasionally taking a sip, then goes back into hiding. It's sad, but he has held us captive for 15 years and I'm ready for him to go. I'm letting nature takes its course; he really hasn't contributed to our household very much - occasionally killing a mouse, but otherwise ruining every square inch of carpet he could get to. He is a sweet cat, but has always been pretty lethargic; never having been a playful cat at all. I know this probably sounds awful to most of you, don't hate me, but as I said before, I'm ready for the cat to go - I probably won't even cry a little.

Sunny's Prognosis

Unfortunately, I did not get good news today when I took Sunny, our golden retriever, in to the doctor. Sunny has a cancerous tumor that is growing large quite quickly and is too large to remove. As soon as her quality of life starts to slip, it was suggested that we have her put down. I was given some antibiotics and some steroids to give her for about the next 4-5 days to ease the swelling and possibly the growth. Long enough to let the family get home from the ski trip so we can all say goodbye. Sad day. I've cried off and on all day, but as I told Joe on the phone toda, I am okay, it's just my way of dealing with it for now. Sunny can barely get up and down as it is, she has arthritis and she is fat (112 pounds at the doctor's office today). If Oklahoma's heat didn't kill her, something else would. We knew that she would probably be the one we would have to someday make the decision on; just thought it would be a couple of more years. All our other dogs died when they were 15; Sunny is 10. I guess size does factor in there somewhere.

December Images

All these pictures were stored on my iPhone from this past month. I finally got to them!! If you live in Norman, this is a common sight; however, it can scare the pants off of you and give you nightmares a la Hitchcock's The Birds. This picture doesn't do justice to all the birds that are actually in this busy intersection by our mall. If you'll look along the bottom telephone line it seems to look darker than the others. That's because of all the birds lined up waiting to crap on your car. Birds are on the traffic light pole. They are all over the ground on both sides of the street and are usually hanging out on top of the mall too. The mall had to get rid of most of the trees around the parking lot because of the mess the birds leave behind. The city has tried firecrackers in the trees etc. but the birds like hanging out at the mall (they must be teenage birds). It freaks Kaitlyn out whenever we go to the mall.Joe and I had a date last Saturday night and went to dinner in Bricktown, then went to the OU vs. Houston basketball game for the All College Classic. This is a blurry picture I took in Joe's office to show the "shrine" he has to the girls. I lost count after about 30 pictures.... He loves his daughters. I think there is one or two of me in there somewhere.

The little stacking dolls were given to him (actually he sent money with his employee whenever she went home) by one of the ladies that used to work for him. She was Russian and the dolls are from Russia. There are 3 sets, one for me, Kristen and Kaitlyn.

Here's Joe-boy hard at work answering e-mails before we walked over to Bricktown to eat dinner.

I took a picture of part of the OKC downtown skyline while we were walking to dinner.

Here's the new Devon Energy tower they are building. It's higher than anything in OKC. The highest tower we had before 2011 - 34 floors. When this is completed, it's 50 floors, I believe. We can see it from Norman and we're 20 miles away.

This is a shot looking down the canal in Bricktown. Some of you may remember when we went and ate at Toby Keith's restaurant we looked at the water taxis on the canal (but down on the other end). Lots of restaurants and clubs back up to the "river walk."

Since Joe is an elite member of the Oklahoma All-Sports Association we got center court seats, 4 rows up. There weren't a lot of people there (this picture was before the game started actually) but I loved our seats.

Joe, Kaitlyn and Michael left last Sunday to go to Colorado skiing for the week. I put Kristen on a plane Wednesday night to join them. Joe took this picture of Michael and Kaitlyn and sent it to me in a text but I was FORBIDDEN to put it on Facebook. I flew it up there for about 5 seconds and Kaitlyn caught me and made me take it off. She was mad because she doesn't have any makeup on. Boo hoo! I talk to Joe almost every night and they are all having a blast in the COLD and SNOW. As you can see in the background, even at Winter Park, CO they still don't have a lot of snow. I like my 45 degree weather where I am, thank you very much.

I woke up yesterday and noticed that Sunny looked a little swollen. She's had a small mass (about the size of a walnut) around her collar over the last couple of weeks that looked like it had started to swell. When I went to pet her I noticed that her whole neck seemed to be swollen so I called the vet and set up an appointment for today since I'm off work. Today, it's worse, her face is mis-shapen.

She's too big for me to physically pick up and put her in my car (she weighs close to 100 lbs), so Lindsey (Kaitlyns BFF from high school) and her twin sisters are coming over about 11:30 this morning to help me load her in the car. I guess I'll have to have the vet help me load and unload later. Will let you know what it is. Poor sweet Sunny, all she wants to be is loved...

New Financial Journeys Client Birthday Card

It's time for our new 2012 company birthday card. This one was taken in Sweets & Spurs in Norman. The owner sells cowboy boots (for ladies) and cupcakes/mini pies. Our caption on the birthday card will say "Have a boot-scootin' birthday! Jann and Cindy"

I'm Obsessed with The Twilight Saga

A couple of weeks ago (before my birthday) I happened to catch the movie Twilight on television. I was instantly hooked. I have never liked books about vampires. That's why I quit reading Stephen King back in the 70's. Salem's Lot made me so upset I never read another one of Stephen King's books again. I guess what I liked about Twilight was the age of the characters (teens) and the romance in the book. (FYI, I also quit reading romance novels a long time ago). It brought back strong memories for me when I was about the age of the characters in the book.

Anyway, I decided I would like to read the books in the saga so I found them on Amazon, fortunately for me in a total package (all 4 books). I asked for them for my birthday and Kristen and Kaitlyn gave me an Amazon gift card so I could purchase them for my Kindle. I REALLY like my Kindle and I like that Kindle has an app that I can put on my iPad2 and my iPhone. So literatally I can pick up where I left off wherever I am. I keep my Kindle in my bedroom, my iPad2 on my love seat and my iPhone in my purse with me at all times. I read the first 2 books non-stop last weekend. It helped that Joe was gone all weekend hunting, Kristen was in New York, and Kaitlyn was... wherever Michael was. So I read uninterrupted as I haven't read since before the girls were born. It was heaven. I couldn't put the book down. I don't think I moved off the couch ALL WEEKEND LONG!

During this past week, I've completed the 3rd book and am a little more than half-way through the 4th book. Tonight while Joe is working the Transiberian Orchestra concert down at the Chesapeake Energy Arena (recently renamed from The OKC Ford Center) I will be watching my own little marathon of Twilight movies. I rented the 2nd and 3rd ones this morning from Hastings. Then when the 4th one (and hopefully it will) comes to the dollar movie, I'll go see that. Or wait to rent it on DVD. I don't know what I'll do when I'm through reading and watching the movies. I guess I'll have to sew something.

Thanksgiving and Birthday

There are some more "catch-up" pictures in this group. I can finally get to some of the pictures on my i-phone. This was a picture I took of a picture of a peacock when I was making Kristen's costume for Halloween.

Here is a picture taken of Kristen Halloween night by someone else. She sent it to me by text.

A picture of one of the beautiful maple trees on our street a couple of weeks ago. It was so gorgeous, I just smiled every time I saw it.

Kaitlyn and I at the Dad's Day lunch at the sorority house.

Joe and Kaitlyn at the Dad's Day lunch.

Kaitlyn and Michael at the date party last weekend. I can't remember what the theme was but she and Michael went as the numchuck and controller for the Wii game.

I had fun making my pies this year at Thanksgiving. I put a little twist on each one. This one had upside down longhorns on it. The pumpkin was the right color (burnt orange).

My pecan pie had a violin and musical notes on it. However, the pie didn't set up right and was all runny. I ended up throwing it out.

My cherry pie had football helmets and the state of Oklahoma on it.

We had Thanksgiving dinner Wednesday night so Kaitlyn and Michael could go to Tulsa on Thursday and spend Thanksgiving at his mother's house at noon and at his father's house at 3:00. It was nice actually to have Thanksgiving on Wednesday night (I had the day off) and then just eat leftovers on Thursday. Friday Kristen and I got up and drove to Dallas for 2 days of shopping. Joe went hunting with a friend in Altus, OK so he paid for our hotel room in Dallas. We went to the Outlet Shoppes in Allen, TX first then stopped by IKEA (that place is cool) in Frisco before heading to our hotel. We ate dinner at Uncle Julios (mexican). We got to our hotel room early enought to see "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders" but our hotel didn't have CMT on their cable lineup. We ended up going to bed early to rest up for Saturday. We got up Saturday morning and went to Nordstrom Rack and Off-Fifth Sacks store. Then went to Northpark Mall and the Galleria. Kristen spent the most money, I was good. Here is a picture of the beautiful tree on the ice rink at the Galleria. We drove home last night and got here around 8:00. I fought the strong north wind all the way home. I had a great time and enjoyed the short getaway for my birthday. Tonight I work at the annual Advent Festival at our church. I'm helping the middle-schoolers make hanging scented pine cones.

Catch-up

This is a catch-up post from the last month. Here is the spice rack I purchased and made a fingernail polish holder. I saw the idea on Pinterest. I didn't initially think I had enough fingernail polish to go on the rack. And these are just mine! When both girls lived here we had more than this. For now I'm using this in the bathroom but I still may use it for craft paint when I get my sewing/craft room finalized.

This was the small spice rack I purchased. I painted it black and I may glue an old brooch on the front. Haven't decided yet.

Here's the final product in my bathroom.

About two weeks ago, Joe's grandmother, "Mama Pat", passed away. She had Alzheimers and was living in an expensive memory care/long term care facility. She had been there for a couple of years and didn't really recognize anyone. She was 94 years old, she was Joe's mother's mother. Last night we went to her memorial service. It was a private family service (there were about 40 of us) and it was held at St. Simeon's in their chapel (the facility where she had been). All of the grandchildren (except 1) were there (Joe and all his cousins) and out of 12 great-children, 8 were there (the 2 girls from California, one girl that lives in Arizona and Kaitlyn, who had a previous sorority commitment - what is unusual is they are all the same age within 1-2 years). I was glad Kristen came with us. It's probably the last time all the grandchildren/great-grandchildren will be together and Kristen is the oldest great-grandchild.

Redecorating the Office

Jann is in a redecorating frenzy so we've been upgrading our office to a more inviting space. We've been working with some of our decorator friends and they've help pick out some new pieces to go in our office. We purchased a pretty chair to go beside my desk so people can sit down closer to me rather than across the room. (It's a recliner too).

As you walk into our office this is the view you see (after you see me at my desk). We bought the new, red, distressed storage chest.

This is our seating area. The four fancy pillows in front cost more than the couch!

We brought in some different pictures for our conference room.

Our coffee bar....(neither Jann nor I drink coffee at work)

Jann's office

We moved my old desk into our work/file/office supply room.

Dad's Day at the Sorority House

Last weekend was Dad's Day at the University of Oklahoma. Kaitlyn was nominated to be the Dad's Day Chair for her sorority. The only problem was there was no information from previous planners on what to do or anything. So I helped her with ordering the chairs for extra seating, food, etc. Then through a miscommunication, the "house" boys didn't get contacted so she had no one to serve the food and clean-up etc. Joe and I stepped in, along with Michael and a few of her sorority sisters and we did it all. We set up tables, the food line, served the food, and cleaned up. It went well but I think Kaitlyn has decided she doesn't want to "volunteer" for any more positions like that. Here are a few pictures I took from that day.

Here, we had sat out the table decorations we purchased and we started cutting table covers from the roll we purchased. The extra chairs we rented were stacked by the door.
This is the "cafeteria line" they usually have opened up during the week for the girls to eat in the dining room. We pushed all the chairs from the tables in our buffet line up against the wall.This is a view looking from the back of the dining room to the front where the china cabinet is with their house china for formal dinners. We started setting up our own buffet line and used the round table to measure the tablecloths for outside.

This is one of the 2 formal living areas in the front part of the house. We had to set up tables for the silent auction in here.

One of the mascots dropped by the house and the girls were having a great time having their picture made. Kaitlyn is standing beside him on the left.

Trip to Guthrie, OK

Today our prayer shawl group took a trip to Guthrie, OK. Since we've been to Fort Worth twice on the train, we decided to do something different (and closer). Guthrie was the state capital of Oklahoma when it became a state back in 1907; the capital was later moved to Oklahoma City. Guthrie is about 30 miles north of OKC (Norman is 20 miles south of OKC). It has beautiful architecture, lots of antique shops, bed & breakfasts and a dinner theatre that people come from miles around to go to. Back about six weeks ago, there was a Groupon online for $30.00 of merchandise for

$15.00 at a yarn shop in Guthrie named S.W.A.K. (sealed with a kiss). Several of us purchased one and then the trip was born! It was a beautiful fall day here albeit a little windy!

This was a Fiddle shop down the street from the yarn shop. There were "fiddles" hanging in the third floor windows.

This building was across the street from the yarn shop. It holds a glass-blowing shop and a whimisical gift shop/art gallery. Cool stuff in there!

Here's the front of the yarn shop.

Walking around downtown Guthrie looking at all the historical markers, I came across this one. Interesting....

This was in the middle of town too. Right beside a drug store.

This is where we had lunch. It was very good. We were the only ones in there but we had a group of 12 and took up a lot of the room!

I liked this window on the side of one of the buildings.

I think this was the old state capital building.

This is our group outside the yarn store.

These are my purchases. I bought this little collapsible market basket to put my yarn and projects in on the loveseat beside me at home.

I bought some more needle stoppers and a new prayer shawl pin. I also found these cute little "angel" embroidery scissors at a unique fabric shop.

I bought both of these old spice racks that I'm going to paint and put fingernail polishes and craft paint in. Saw the idea on Pinterest!

At the fabric store, the lady had just gotten in some OKC Thunder Fabric. I bought a yard of it.

Kristen has this Chesapeake Thunder t-shirt that she's been holding and wanting me to make her a t-shirt dress from. I'm going to use the material I purchased to make the ruffle to go around the bottom. Cool, huh?