all's well that ends well....

Miss Sonja K., also affectionately known as Ginger, or Miss Ging...she was nervous before her surgery. I told her that ignorance is bliss, and since she's been through this before, she knows what it'll be like. Love is a fierce thing, I would have taken her place to spare her, but since I couldn't, I tried to make things as fun as possible, which with Sonja K., isn't too difficult. She is a cheery girl, a smiling sunshine, even in the tumultuous teen years.

The procedure went well, the surgeon removed a large piece of broken off cartilage, the size of a quarter. He showed me a nice picture of it, and also the groove behind the kneecap it had carved when it was lodged there. It caused her pain and distress because of it's tendency to move around, making that crunchy sound, ugh. Anyway, he got it out, and is pretty certain it's the last bit in there.


This was after she had been in the recovery room for a while...but yes, she woke up happy.

Since I am so nice, we went through the Panera Bread drive through on the way home...she felt so awful in the car though...and when she got home, she just conked out...Sunny was there to keep her company though...


Sonja and I have had a nice time being home almost alone (Mariel, Sam, Suze, Jon, Char, and Cam are in Boston)...we binged watched "Stranger Things", 8 episodes on Netflix. I don't usually watch things, and I would have her pause so I could sweep quick, or put things in the dryer...ha, I can't just sit there watching...my mind starts ticking on all to be done.:)

Anyway, a great thing happened last evening: Benjamin arrived! With his huge moving truck, packed full! Ashley is on her way with Anya....they don't have a place to live yet, but their house in Seattle sold already. They are probably going to find an apartment for a while, they are expecting a baby in October, and Ben starts his new job next week. It's kind of overwhelming for them. And when Ben got here, Sunny was horrible. She is scared of him, so she barked at him. When she finally made friends with him for a few minutes, she would forget, and be afraid of him again, and bark at him, right in the living room. It was really annoying.

It's strange for the grown up kids to come "home". It doesn't probably feel like home, he's been gone for over seven years now. His own house was neat, orderly, spotless...and here...well, I try. We have iron in our water, despite our water softening system, so the there is orange stain in the white porcelain sink...and with three dogs in the house, it's so hard to keep the hair swept up and the furniture covers changed and washed....and when he came in and sat down last night, I saw him looking around. Things have changed since he grew up here...the blue carpeting is long gone, and the little children running underfoot have grown up. He has visited through the years, but the house was bustling with other kids then....last night, Paul was already in bed, and so was Joseph...so it was only Sonja, dozing on the couch, and me. And barking Sunny.


I would like to say that Sunny was such a good girl at the vet. But alas, she chewed through her leash on the way there, so imagine our surprise when we arrived and there was a two inch jagged leash attached to her collar....I had to loop the long chewed off part through her collar to form a makeshift leash, also making her look like some dog no one cares about...the nice reflector collar I bough just a few weeks ago from Walmart is peeling...she looked like a sad dog...and then she was terrified...she hid behind my chair in the examining room...it's a good thing she's cute.

And the vet there is super nice, and very understanding.

Anyway. I stayed up too late, had a hard time sleeping, then Duke woke me up again at 6:15. Once he wakes me, there's no use trying to go back to bed. He'll just bark if I disappear. And Sunny was rambunctious this morning. Yesterday she totally murdered a couch pillow. I took it from her twice, then got busy with something, and before I knew it, she had ripped into it and was joyfully pulling out teethfuls of stuffing...she de-stuffed that whole pillow in like fifteen minutes.

So this morning, she went over to the couch and helped herself to another pillow. No ma'am. Nuh-uh. I took it from her, sprinkled it liberally with pepper, put it to her nose, and told her very gently, "no". She went and picked it up again, I sprinkled more pepper on it, and held it out to her...she sneezed a few times, then left it alone. I brought her outside and threw the ball for a while, she just had extra energy, and she acts weird when the kids aren't here.

I am not looking forward to her antics when Benjamin wakes up...

So here's what's going on in my life today:

Abigail is coming over for dinner. I am not sure yet what I'm making.

Our nice clean pool turned green last week, with all the rain, while I was in Boston. Then to add insult to injury, the pump stopped working. Paul has it taken apart, he somehow knows how to fix things. But in the meanwhile, the pool is green.

Is it strange to say that that every time I looked at the sparkling pool before it turned, I thought it was too good to be true? Summertime, swimming....!

Anyway. It's still summer, still barefoot days.

Kathryn seems to be settling in okay in Norway.

Evelyn seems to be having fun still in California...I miss her too much.

Kids, you should have stayed little! Growing up and leaving home...harrumph.