Wonderful Weather

Sounds kind of corny to talk about the weather but when spring is only a few weeks away and we have warmer weather like we do right now, I feel like talking about the wonderful things it brings our way. I noticed on campus today that they have planted some new flowers and some other flowers are already coming up through the ground. Spring always reminds me of new life. Kind of like a starting over period. The flowers bloom, the grass becomes green and the birds start to sing. Our cows usually have their calves in the spring. There is new life everywhere. I had a really tough week this week but seeing all the signs of spring made me feel better. We sometimes go so fast through life that we fail to see the beauty around us. I used to sneak out of the house when I was a kid and go lay on the flatbed hay truck and stare up at the stars. Just the smells of the outdoors and the cool breeze blowing across my body was enough to put me to sleep. I really love snow and wintertime but when spring comes, I am just as happy to it. I hope everyone enjoys their spring break and uses it as a time to renew their spirit. We could all use a little break..

My Katydid

I love children. I have loved children since I was a little girl myself. Having grown up in a large family I was used to being around kids. Sometimes I wonder why I get so attached to children. I think the answer is that children are innocent and sweet. They don't say things to hurt you and they don't care if you are pretty, what clothes you are wearing or the size of your bank account. They love you for who you are. Spending time with children is so rewarding for me. Every once in a while I get super attached to a particular child and Katydid is such a child. She is my great niece. The daughter of Rachel, whom I also spoiled when she was young. I usually take my nephews and nieces throughout the summer months for a couple weeks at a time. I first watched Katy when she was six months old. I absolutely fell head over heels. She was such a sweet little girl. Always smiling and what a smile she has. She can melt your heart. She is such a beautiful little girl on the outside and her personality matches. She lights up a room when she enters it. She has such a sweet way about her that you just want to hug her all the time. She loves to feed the cows on the farm and feed Angel our horse. I don't think there is anything she doesn't like to do outside. When she leaves to go back home, I miss her terribly and my heart feels like it will break. I usually spend the next week crying because I miss her and start thinking about how I can talk her momma into letting me have her for a couple more weeks. I love all my nephews and nieces like they were my own. They are very precious to me. I wanted to share Katydid with you all ,so you can see what sunshine looks like closeup. I don't have any of her best pictures on my computer but her best picture couldn't do her justice.

My Cat Priest Holmes

I have a cat that I named Priest Holmes. I named him Priest Holmes because I am a KC Chiefs fan and Priest Holmes is a running back for the Chiefs. Anyway, Priest was just a kitten when my huband brought him into the house and I bottle fed him and tried to save him. There were two white kittens. I was unable to save one of them but Priest hung in there. I have never had an indoor cat before. I am an animal lover but we grew up with dogs not cats and so my images of how bad cats could be was pretty one sided. I thought of them as being smelly and peeing all over everything and their litter boxes smelling up the place. I couldn't let the little guy die so I nursed him to health and when he was strong enough to go outside, I just couldn't do it. I had fallen in love with the little bugger. He is very spoiled and I adore him. When I am doing my homework, he gets jealous and wants to lay on my books so I can't read. He actually fetches just like my dog. They both want my attention and are very jealous animals. I was so wrong about cats being smelly. I clean his litter box everyday and you would never know we have a cat in the house. He is very clean and never messes anywhere but his litter box. I guess it goes to show how wrong you can be about things when you go on hearsay. I am glad I saved him because he as been a wonderful addition to our family.

I spent four days in the hospital this past week. I was having chest pain and my cardiologist said I needed to go to the emergency room and be checked out. I told him I have lots of homework to do so he said instead of going to Barnes I could go to St. Elizabeths and get checked out there. I went to St. Elizabeths and they would not release me to go see my cardiologist on my own or drive myself to Barnes. My ekg showed I was not having a heart attack. I have a dialted assending thoracic aorta. They are afraid of dissection which can occur. If it does I don't have long to get to the hospital. When I was first told about it, I cried because the surgery to correct the problem is very risky so they don't perform the operation until it reaches a certain size. Because it is so close to my heart valve, it is more risky. Dissection is when the inside layer of your aorta tears and leaks into the outer layers. You can bleed to death very quickly. So anyway they send me to Barnes by ambulance. I felt really stupid because I wasn't sick and they really only needed to do an MRA on me. MRA is the same thing as an MRI just specialized for the aorta. I understand why they were taking precautions. They kept me in the hospital for four days and I got a really good understanding of just how bad nurses have gotten. I had maybe two good nurses the whole time I was in there. The rest could kill someone who didn't feel well enough to speak for themselves. I was in a room with an older woman who had a heart attach and she was also a diabetic. They took their time getting her a shot when her blood sugar shot up because they brought her the wrong food. I finally threatened to leave under my own authorization if they didn't let me out because I had two evening classes on Monday and I cannot affort to get behind with 9 classes. So they called my cardiologist and they did some more tests and let me go. The silver lining to all of this is that I got some badly needed rest and was able to take care of the lady in the room with me. There is always something good to be thankful for.