forever in our hearts....

sophie

january 15th 1997-july 3rd 2012

kicking the weekends butt in a nice way....

we didn't do anything out of the ordinary. or anything boring. 

all we did was live.

and you know what, living is a pretty great thing.

~

okay, so we ate out twice. went to an open house. watched movies. saw our daughter and her fiancé's almost done house. trespassed on the east side of madison and got caught. stopped at an art store. bought a book at barnes and noble. ran to the grocery store and to the fresh market. grilled steaks and chicken. ate lots of strawberries. slept in late. cleaned files and junk off my computer. then i played in light room 3 and did two loads of laundry while reading lots of new blogs.

the movies we watched were "beginners" and "money ball" and then this morning, while still in my smushed face haven't been awake very long look jammies i watched "flight plan."

let me just stand up now and applaud jonah hill.

~

if you're ever in madison and want the most amazing egg sandwich for lunch, i'd take you to the daisy cafe. that's where we ate yesterday after trespassing around one of madison's most 

beautiful {dying a slow death and that's such a shame} places

{more on that later}

now i'm going to complain, but just for a tiny bit. 

wow. it's hot here.

and i love the heat one hundred times more than the cold. but wow, it's hot here.

*

if you were in one of the areas where the storms hit, i hope you're all okay and that your

electricity is back on.

it's thursday.....

 i'm in love with the summer salad at panera. 

it's the one with strawberries, blueberries, chicken and walnuts that all go swimming together in the most delicious poppyseed dressing. yep that one. do you know it?

well if you do, or even if you don't, it's the easiest salad to make at home. 

the only thing i leave off {from panera's version} is the fresh pineapple. i'm not sure why, but i do.

oh...

and panera even sells their salad dressing at target, so there's no way to screw this up.

 thanks to a little inspiration from kim, i took a rock out of our landscaping and

loved all over it for a little bit. i think it looks happier now.

my hostas are beautiful this year. 

i wish i had an entire yard full of them.

and

these totally nasty, disgusting things are back. 

japanese beetles.

really, why are they here?

*

ps....thank you, so very very much, for all of your prayers and thoughts for sophie. 

little sophie's update....

i'm sorry i haven't kept you updated regarding sophie. 

sometimes, bad news just isn't the kind of thing you want to write about or even talk about.

~

after her liver scare, it was confirmed that she has kidney failure. unfortunately at her age, it's not something she will ever recover from. all we can do now is to continue the fluid treatments to help flush the toxins out of her body, keep her stress free, pray that she eats anything and love all over her.

if you walked in my front door, you'd be surprised to see a very happy dog, based on what i just told you. at this point she doesn't look sick. 

her tail still wags and she still runs around happy to see me if i've been gone even a few minutes. 

but she sleeps deeply for hours, yet can still make it outside on her own to go the bathroom.

~

that will all change.

we don't when or how quickly, but the disease will progress to the point where she'll be in pain or simply miserable and we'll have to put her to sleep.

~

until then, we watch her sleep and laugh while she dreams. her little legs move like they're "running" and she makes little dreaming baby noises in her throat. 

based on the photo above, i think she's reliving her days at the beach in seaside.

what a great dream to have.

*

almond or coconut flavored, please....

"when you have nobody you can make a cup of tea for, when nobody needs you,

that's when i think life is over."

~audrey hepburn~

i'll be back to my "regularly scheduled blogging" in a few days

~

here's to a beautiful week

*

at her house....

shadow

{my favorite cat}

when my older sister visits, it's easy to spend time with everyone at my little sister's house. 

it's the kind of house that's rarely quiet and never boring. where not everyone has to do what everyone else is doing. where laughter is heard almost constantly. 

and where sitting and doing nothing or everything comes naturally.

mom cross stitching and my older sister knitting

the real "down dog" position

cats, dogs and chickens aren't enough. 

a real house also has to have a monkey.

an old photo of us...i'm on the left with the furry trimmed hood.

noodles

how lucky my sister is to have fruit trees in her backyard. 

and in case you were wondering, apple trees make the best climbing trees.

*

happy weekend everyone

*

{ps....sophie had more tests today and the results will be in tomorrow morning}

did i tell you.....

that my sister is here?

~

she lives in maine and i plan on spending as much time with her as possible,

which means i'll be relatively quiet here.

i'm so lucky that all of you totally get that. 

so just like my mama always used to say...

"be good while i'm gone"

*