I AM SAD

This morning I received a phone call around 10:00 from the SPCA to inform me that my cat, Poppy, was with them and she was dead. She had been hit by a car. I thought they must mean a different cat. She said it was white and gray and I'm thinking my cat is not white and gray she is beautiful and clean and loving with a dark tail. They must have the wrong cat. I hung up and waited a long time but she did not come when I called. I am sad.

THIS AND THAT

First, I want to say that decision making is getting easier. Why, I do not know. Maybe it is just getting more practice doing it. I have started with small things like what will I do today or eat today or should I have a bath or a shower. How can one go wrong these. Then you go to your closet and begin to decide what will I wear today. Now this can be a very hard decision because when you look in your closet you encounter dozens and dozens of pieces of clothing that you really don't care to see anymore or haven't worn for decades. Why is it still hanging there? Would someone tell me what to do with all this mass of clothing. I must make a decision to clean out my closet--maybe another time, eh!

What do you choose to wear. Most likely it is the same thing you wore a few days ago. I truly believe I recycle only about 3-4 things in my closet that I like to wear. One day I want to open my closet door and see only those 4 things in there. Will I be happy about this? Ask Rudy. Four is probably the right number for me as my number is 4--or I could choose 8 or 12 or 16. You see how it works.

I went to Lethbridge with my 60 Chix on Tuesday to shop at Costo. Now that is shopping big. I mean, everything I bought will last until I get back there next year. In 25 minutes I spent $96--must be a record. Lunch was at Ric's Grill at the top of the old Water Tower. Nice view, nice food, good company--what more could one ask. We were joined by my daughter, Heidi--my first born--whom I love very much. She was wearing a pair of bright pink capri pants that made her look soooo good. Way to go! After a bit more shopping we ended up at Henderson Lake, sitting at a picnic table having a snack (birthday cake and coffee) and enjoying the afternoon--beautiful weather, peaceful lake and good friends.

My lapband surgery has been booked. Another decision made. Then I had to book our flights and more decisions had to be made. I only had to call the airline and change my flight and time once. Left me breathless. Rudy and I fly to San Diego August 2nd and I have the surgery at 11:00 August 3rd. We fly home on the 5th. A very quick trip but very worth it.

DECISION

As you all know I am a real mugwamp. Today that changed. I feel like a different person, I actually make a decision and carried it through. I phoned a real estate agent and listed one of our 3 acreages we have for sale. I was almost shaking by the time she got here this afternoon.

She was so professional (could it have been that she was a woman) that I am sure I just signed my life away. The price is $175,000. We did lots of research from different real estate agents and that was the price that came up the most often. It will appear on MLS by July 11th.

BLUE GLASS

I have been collecting cobalt blue glass for many years and have several very nice pieces. I even made a piece of stained glass in blue that I have in my greenhouse window above my kitchen sink. Blue is so peaceful--especially cobalt blue. In fact, I have several pieces of blue glass in this window and when the sun shines in through the blue it is gorgeous. It is not that I do not like all other colours but my eye keeps going back to blue. Now all shades of blue do not do much for me--only cobalt blue. Do you have a favourite colour that just changes your mood? I hope so.

Talking about blue glass reminds me that I also have a favourite number. Now this number is not just my favourite--it is my number. My world revolves around this number. It keeps me company all day--every day and has for years. It enters into my thinking many times during the day. It affects me physically in some things that I do, too. Now I thought that I was unique in this number thing and, of course, kept it to myself for years fearing someone would find out and think I was crazy. Well, I am not crazy, I am just stuck with the number 4. It has grabbed me and won't let go. Now I have found out there are some other number people out there. I do not have an exclusive club after all--I am glad.

LAND FOR SALE, new neighbours, 60 CHIX, history book MHHS, LAPBAND SURGERY

Rudy and I have decided that now is the time to sell one of our lots. We will put one up for sale and see how it goes. We were going to try selling it by ourselves but, in the end, decided to let our lawyer's wife, Ellen, give it a try.

NEW NEIGHBOURS

We have new neighbours as of the beginning of July. The first few days there seemed to be people all over. Lots of young people sitting around drinking beer, etc. I really had my doubts about having quiet neighbours. But since then it has been quiet--in fact all I see is a little brown and white dog. I'm finding that the older I get the more intolerant I am regarding noise around me. This is a rental house and a lady and her son had rented it for about 12 years. They were quiet and friendly. It was sad to see them go. Our neighbourhood is indeed changing. There has been 6 houses sell recently within a few houses from us. Things are changing.

60 CHIX

We will be celebrating our 45 anniversary from graduating from Brooks Composite High School on July 21-23. We have a reunion every five years. It will be held in Brooks at the Cassils Community Hall. There will be three of our former teachers there. They are always great to sit and visit with. One teacher, Mr. Baergan, will come riding up on his big motorcycle complete with leather outfit and black helmut. We were the first students he ever taught. We will have a silent auction. I am just about finished sewing a fleece quilt. Must get working on it.

HISTORY BOOK OF MEDICINE HAT HIGH SCHOOL 1956-1971

I taught at MHHS from September 1969 to June 1999 (30 years). Before that I taught in Brooks for 3 years. MHHS is having a reunion the first week-end of August. A former colleague and myself have written a book about MHHS's history for the years 1956-1971. We have it finished and it is at the printers. It took many hours of work getting the historical information, pictures that were appropriate for those years, and getting everything in the correct order.

I saw a draft of the book a few days ago and was really proud of what we had done. Then I phoned the lady who is head of the reunion committee and told her what we had done and she was absolutely delighted and surprised. We now know how many books to get printed. We kept this a secret from the reunion committee until we knew it would be completed and ready for the reunion.

LAPBAND SURGERY

I have received a letter from the doctor who will be doing my surgery and everything is set. I just have to decide on the exact date. It will definitely be this month. Will tell you when I am sure of the date. Exciting times coming up.

THE BIRTHDAY GIRL

LOOKED WHO TURNED ONE ON JUNE 30TH

What a cutie. This is my granddaughter, Katya, in her birthday dress, getting ready for her big party. Pink was the colour of the day. Her tante Heidi gave her a shimmery pink sequence dress, a princess hat with a veil and a princess banner to wear over her shoulder. We must not forget, although you cannot see them, the diminutive sparkley, pink sandals she is wearing--only fit for a princess of her stature.

TRAVEL WITH ME ON A RIVER CRUISE

I have been considering going on a river cruise in Europe in 2007 with my daughter Heidi. We always have great fun together. Anyway, my cruise director friend Donna, phoned today to see how I was getting along and asked if I was planning another cruise. When I told her I was looking into a European River Cruise, she became very animated. Next thing I knew she came to visit me and brought a book for me to look through. If you are at all interested at looking at cruises by Uniworld the website is www.uniworld.com.

She also included another book from Globus which you can find at www.globusjourneys.ca.

60 CHIX

I am driving to Lethbridge on the 11th for a fun day with the 60 Chix. Now you are going to ask me, who are the 60 Chix. We go back a long way. I was born in Brooks, Alberta in 1943. I was the first baby girl born in the Brooks Hospital and I was the youngest student to start grade one. By School Board mandate you had to be 6 by September 1 to go into grade one. My birthday was September 21 and I should not have been allowed to go but they changed the rules that year. Therefore I was the youngest in my grade.

A few years ago, when some of my classmates and myself were 59 turning 60, we formed a group called the 60 Chix complete with bright pink t-shirts with our group name 60-Chix printed on it. There are 8 in our group. The fantastic thing is that we all started grade one together and all graduated from grade 12 together. Some of us had moved away from Brooks but we still kept in touch as much as possible. As everyone turned 60 we had a party for that chick. We usually tried to broaden our horizons by going somewhere special--maybe where we had not been before. When the year was over we decided not to stop this camaraderie.

We have visited sites such as: The Japanese Garden in Lethbridge, Lee Valley Store in Calgary, the Hanna Doll Museum, Elkwater in the Cypress Hills, Millarville for the Christmas Craft sale, a guided tour of Lake Newall (which we all frequented when we were growing up), and Empress (which is 1.5 hours north of Medicine Hat on Highway 41) where we took in all the artist finery there. It is a very small town with some remarkable artists living there.

TOTALLY AWESOME DAY!!!!

Wow, what more could you ask for. Today was my granddaughters first birthday. Her birthday was on Friday but celebrated today. Around 30 some people--of all ages--arrived at noon for a great bar-b-que. We had pink balloons, a Tinkerbell cake, ice cream cones, lots of presents and yummy food. The birthday girl had on a beautiful green dress. The weather was perfect--around 22 degrees to start with--a little rain to cool things off--then lots of sunshine.

Everyone ate way too much--but that is to be expected at a first birthday party. I made 'spetzla', a German dough dish with sauerkraut. It is a favourite and quickly disappeared before I got to it.

Katya, my granddaughter, asked if she could sleep over tonight and I agreed. Not too many one-year olds know how to do this. Consequently her Mom and Dad get to sleep in longer tomorrow morning.

I was very impressed Katya received money that was ear-marked for her registered education fund. Times are a changing.

To change the topic I want to say that we have now dug our third well. We have 4 lots in our subdivision. One was given to my daughter and her husband (lot # 3). One is ours (lot # 4) and the other two are for sale. Now that the newly dug well (on lot # 3) has come in we have to decide whether to sell them (lots # 3 and # 4) right away or wait awhile and see what the prices do. Medicine Hat certainly is not like Calgary with their huge price jumps for houses and property--but we may not be far behind. This is where my 'mugwamp syndrome' comes into play. Do we sell now or wait awhile and hope the price of the land goes up. Can we afford to wait. Lot # 4 is 1.9 acres and lot #3 is 1.5 acres. Everything is so green and fresh out there because of all the rain we have had. The cacti are blooming along with other native flowers.

As you know construction of a house right now is a finnicky thing. Trying to find a company to do the basement and cement work may be hard. I would really like to have the basement poured and the house built to the stage where we could work on the inside of it this winter. This is something I will be phoning around about this week. Add this to my list of things to do.

Talk about doing things this week. I am already booked solid. My eyes get checked tomorrow, my teeth get cleaned on Tuesday, I look after Katya Wednesday and Thursday, and Friday Rudy and I rest. Then I have to see if I can find someone to do the basement, get hold of Fortis to get them to come out to the land to put the electrical lines in, phone Telus about getting rid of my land line, have another real estate agent come out to the acreages to give their version of what we should sell them for. The last one said $175, 000 per acreage. What will this one say? Maybe they are all out to lunch.

Another subject that is forefront in my mind is LAPBAND surgery. Decisions--decisions!! I have been researching this for a few months and have decided to go ahead and have it done. Lapband surgery is done to help you lose weight. I am 70 pounds overweight and have not been able to lose that much. I am diabetic so need to lose this weight so I can get off using insulin.

The surgury uses a band that is placed around the top of your stomach. The band is filled with a saline solution. When you eat you have to eat very small amounts--for the first few weeks it will be mostly liquids. The food needs to pass through the small opening created by the band. The band can be tightened or opened more. The doctor says that 95% of type 2 diabetics are insulin free after they have lost their weight.

I have researched two places where lapriscopic lapband surgery is done. The first place is in Toronto, Ontario and costs $15,000. The other is in Mexicali, Mexico and costs $8,200. That is a considerable difference in price. Both places appear to do the surgery the same way, have good treatment before, during and after the surgery. There are two differences though. The first is the difference in the money needed for the surgery and the other is that in Toronto you are sent home a few hours after the surgery, in Mexico they keep you in the hospital for two days and nights to monitor you.

I have been in contact with the Diabetes Center here in Medicine Hat and told them what I am going to do. I have an appointment with my diabetic doctor next week, I have talked to my own doctor (who is very supportive of me in this venture), I have talked to my sister, who is a nurse, and she said 'go for it'. My other sister is supportive, too. My three daughters say 'Mom, go get it done.' The last person I told about this was my husband, Rudy. I wanted to have all my bases covered and be positive in my mind that I was going to have this done. He really surprised me by saying 'who is going with you?' and I said Anita, our daughter, had said she would. After a lot of discussion and question asking Rudy said that he wanted to go with me because I might need someone to look after me. Men can be full of surprises. Loved it!!

This has given me more courage to get on with this. I started, last night, to look for cheap flights to San Diego from Calgary. Tonight I will check out how many airmiles I will need--maybe I will have enough. Whatever way I will get down to Mexicali and have this procedure done as quickly as I can. I will keep you informed on my progress.