Getting Ready

For the last three or four months I have been scouring the internet, researching the cities in Ireland that we will be visiting, readying myself for the kinds of activities we'll participate in.

Grand Circle offers lots of information on their website. It's just a matter of digging deep into the menu and clicking on various buttons. Their topics range from regional temperatures (50's & 60's) to popular eateries. They show several lists of travel and packing tips plus many "must-see" suggestions from Tour Directors. If you have the time, you can uncover a world of helpful insight there.

Then I investigated all the hotels we'll be staying in and find each of them to be first class in every respect. We'll have two and three night stays throughout our journey. One very appealing factor in this trip is the more leisurely pace of the tour. We can choose to go out every day, or perhaps stay back in a city and explore it on our own. I'm looking forward to that.

The internet has been very helpful in uncovering things to do in every town.

Today we received our "Final Document Booklet" with name and luggage tags, final air itinerary, passenger/traveler list, and hotel information. We are less than three weeks from departure and now I'm starting to feel the urgency of getting prepared. I need to pull out the clothes I plan to wear, make sure everything is clean and will be adequately warm, get all my travel-size toiletries together and packed, charge my camera batteries... and on and on.

Anyone with eyes and ears knows about the swine-flu frenzy in the global media!
I vacillate from sensing some seriousness about it to being irritated with the over-reaction that we're bombarded with. But I have enough sense to be cautious and pay closer attention to sanitation and cleanliness that is so taken for granted in the U.S. So these are the items I picked to have on the airplane to try to keep us virus-free.
We'll be abuzz with activity over the next couple weeks as we plan our packing strategies and go through several changes until we come to just the right configuration or run out of time!
Now, I just need to keep Treasure from guessing what we're up to!

Defiance!!

Does this look like the face of "Defiance?"

Well, it's hard for my sweet Westie to look defiant,

but she continues to defy the odds with her cancer.

At her appointment today, Dr. Earl came back from doing her ultrasound exam and said the cancer appears to be "encapsulating." Normally this type of tumor undulates with tentacle-like matter and can be especially troubling in the bladder where a blockage would be lethal. But today he said he can actually see an encasement and that the tumor appears to be smaller than before. We were all feeling rather jubilant!

It had occurred to me before her appointment this morning that back in August we didn't expect her to live more than two months. So heartworm prevention had been pushed out of my consciousness. Then today, seven months later, I realized she has not taken her heartguard in all that time, so Dr. Earl agreed to quickly test her and get her back on those meds too. It seems we had fallen prey to the tyranny of the urgent and forgot to deal with the everyday.

So I think we're back on track. Let's see, Heartguard once a month, Previcox once a day, Doxycycline five days a month. And let's not forget the flea preventive! Long live that defiant "Westitude!"

King William Parade

Today I went to the King William Parade and Fair with Meredith and Adrian. Well, our intention was to go to the Fair after the parade, but the morning became a little long and hot and we thought it best to cut out after the parade. Here are some of the pictures I took - I think there were over a hundred! My favorite pic is the disclaimer right at the beginning of the parade, "Our parade does not necessarily reflect the views of the King William Association" - AMEN to that! Most of the participants were in good, clean fun, but there were a few that I found a little over the edge. All in all, though, it was a fun morning. Enjoy!

This is How I Deal with Stress

Ruthie, this is for you!

Somebody must have told me when I was little that "idol hands are the devil's workshop," because I just can't sit somewhere with absolutely nothing to do! Give me a book, a Bible study lesson, or preferably some cross stitch and I"ll be content.

I remember waiting for word that Meredith's husband had obtained his visa so they could travel from Romania to the United States for an American wedding. This was all happening during the time that a sniper was randomly shooting people in the Washington D.C. area and apparently every FBI agent in the country was focused on getting that bad guy. Cristian's background check was on hold. So I stitched! It kept my mind off what was out of my control and when I finished my piece I was astonished to see that the verse I had stitched was Psalm 27:14 ~ "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart." Ironically, the bad guy was caught and the visa was granted at the same time!

So here I am, listening to all the bad news on the Fox News channel, and I found a pattern to stitch from one of my many leaflets. It reminds me of our vacation in Pennsylvania and the quiet, serene Amish home we visited. And I sit and stitch and somehow I don't dwell on the news so much. So, after receiving a magazine from my stitching friend, Ruthie, I thought I would "show" her what I'm doing via the blog. And as I uploaded the picture, I looked at the Scripture I will finish this project with. It's from Hebrews 4:9 ~ "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God." Gosh, I needed that!

Just for Fun

Adrian loves to make music on Ludee's piano. This time I quickly grabbed Graham's camera - the one with sound - and caught him "in the act!" If he gets this much enjoyment at this age, I hope his parents will pursue his interest and see if there's some latent talent in those hands!

San Antonio Tea Party

I don't know if you were watching Fox today. Glenn Beck was at the Alamo for his show this afternoon, prior to the San Antonio TEA party this evening. I missed out on being a hippie or an anti-war protestor when I was younger, so my heart was really longing to be downtown with this group. My good sense won out, though, and I had to be content watching on television. It was really exciting to see several thousand tax-paying Americans rallying for more common sense from our government. I think most of the frustration people are feeling comes from thinking you can't be heard by the folks who represent us. I hope this gets a message to them somehow.

I especially liked this cartoon that came in my email. We sure do live in crazy times, don't we?

Easter Treasure Update

It's been a while since I gave a report of Treasure. At the end of March I had quite a scare when she started passing blood in her urine. I took her to Dr. Earl on that Monday and he did another ultrasound that showed no further growth of the tumor. He thought perhaps the tumor might have sloughed off some cells and that caused the bleeding. We decided that it was in Treasure's best interest to find a way for her to keep down the anti-inflammatory pills that were causing her some tummy troubles.

Dr. Earl had previously suggested giving her an antacid such as Pepcid along with the pill, but that was decidedly not working for her. I had an idea (that probably came to me in the night, when I get most of my good ideas!) to try the pill without the Pepcid, and to cut in into fourths. Dr. Earl said just get some of it into her system, whether it be halves or fourths. And bingo! She took her pill with her food with no trouble at all!

When we went to Ft. Worth, Treasure stayed with our friend and pet-sitter Karen, and during that week she took her antibiotics. Now she is back on the NSAID and doing quite well. Except for two days of feeling blah and not eating, she is now her old self again! And we have enjoyed our girl for almost eight months since that dire diagnosis in August. Just thought you'd want to know!