My last post was almost a year ago on December 21, 2015. I am not sure why I stopped it except that perhaps it was a health issue I was being diagnosed with then and devoted a bit of time to do things I just needed to do.

I went on Facebook after a little while so I could see pictures of my great granddaughters because my granddaughter got a bit caught up in the social media and started posting photos of the great grand girls on there for all her family to see. She doesn't post much as she is busy as a computer scientist (for real) at Microsoft and the mother of 3 girls under the age of seven. So, therefore, I became caught up in the frenzy of FB. I have since learned I really don't like it. I love blogging more. But I didn't delete my FB account and that is simply because I can see daily pictures of them. I just refuse to comment on there. I truly do NOT understand how people can post some of the things they do on there. That being said, there are probably people who don't understand how I could post some of the things I do on a blog. But, no matter. I like posting gorgeous photos on here and commenting on life in general. It might take me about a week or so to start, but I simply wanted to alert any who might have liked the "eye candy" I posted to come back and look at it.

Blogging is cathartic for me. I'm almost three quarters of a century old. But no one ever believes me because I don't act it and am really a humorous person. I am also lively and love life. So come along and read sometimes. I think you'll like it.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

It's been an eventful year for us and I haven't blogged as much as I used to, but I still love it, just doing other things.

This is the newest addition to our family, Lorelai. Her father wanted it spelled that way but it sounds like Lorelei. We can do whatever we want with that precious angel.

This is her older sister. We don't know where the kinky, coiled hair came from but we and every single person who sees her loves it. It is so gorgeous and unruly it stands her apart from most other kids but she is unique.

We have never been able to tame it. It is fly-away. This picture actually has it a bit tamed. Usually, it is wild!

This is the oldest sister, long beautiful hair that did have a curl to is but it looks like it's going straighter and darkening up a bit. She was born blonde.

I love whimsy! This is my fairy door. I got one for each of the girls to take home. Miss C has a pink one like this and Miss J has a purple one as that is her favorite color. Hubby built the stairs and I got a sample of outdoor carpet from Home Depot and glued tiny roses and some fairy footprints dusted with fairy dust. They are mesmerized by it. They also have a red mailbox for receiving and sending mail to the fairies.

This is them at Thanksgiving and trust me, they are not as quiet as they look. The house was a mess for 9 days! It was Miss J's birthday during that time and her mother, my granddaughter, had packages sent and arriving on several different days from Amazon.

Miss J wears that Hello Kitty dress every day. It's a good thing there are three of them! The minute she gets home from school, clothes come off and the dress goes on. If it's in the dryer, Miss J will sit and watch until the dryer goes off. She simply HAS to have that dress on over her other clothes.

So I thought I'd just throw some photos in of beautiful festive looking homes in. I do love this living room.

A room definitely festive for the holidays.

Even this office looks festive with the greenery over the door and the chandelier and red-themed chairs.

Another kitchen looking festive. Simply gorgeous.

An embroidered plate and cupcakes I thought was cute also.

Throw in some beautiful flowers for you to see.

A colander adorned with flowers from a garden.

And a stunning room. So warm and cozy even though it's a huge room.

 And last but not least, this is what greets munchkins who come to visit us. As I said I love kids and whimsy. The little kids who see it when I open the door and have it running and roaring are enchanted. It adds to the whimsy. I call him "T" for short since he is a T-Rex and my oldest great granddaughter is fascinated with dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures.

 ~*~

Trip and A New Great Granddaughter

Yes, I have been absent for a long while, but I needed that break. Dealing with this lung disease can turn priorities around very quickly. I don't, and I mean don't, let it get me down. I pick up my sorry behind and make hubby treat me to a nice dinner or shopping or I get a date with friends who love me and go to a restaurant for a 4 hour "therapy" session.

Plus my granddaughter gave us our third great grand daughter and she is precious. Introducing Miss Lorelai. Her daddy liked the "a" better than the "e" for her name. We were going over for her birth at the end of October but she came a couple of weeks early. Very unusual for our granddaughter, but lucky for us we were there as she pulled something in her right leg/hip and was on crutches for a couple of days. The men took over with everything while we just held her and kissed her. She is a very good baby. Plus while there I started passing a kidney stone (my 15th one) and had to be taken to ER. They gave me pain killers for the "short" haul and said it way was too big to pass. So my gorgeous and sweet granddaughter took a whole morning calling around to get me an appointment with a urologist. We finally got a quick appointment (2 days later but I lived on pain killers so was fine) with one in downtown Seattle. I really wanted to go home but going back to Idaho through a desert with not much in the way of hospitals wasn't something I relished experiencing. So I just loaded up on pain killers and hubby drove the whole eight hours with me in a stupor. I wanted my comfort zone. Badly! We made it home and a few days later (today) my urologist zapped them for me and I'm now up at 3:30 AM because I've slept so much at the hospital today. I love pain killers!!!!

 

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A gorgeous red dining room.

I don't know where this is but it's ambiance is outstanding. Looks very French to me.

I love it but it is way too big for me. And painting it? Nah, I prefer lower ceilings. But it is stunning.

Definitely my kind of room. Very English and I love English decorating.

This is very "ME". There is nothing about this room I wouldn't have in my home.

An enticing vignette.

Beautiful white room with a gorgeous chandelier.

I love decorated and decorating bottles. Even the most unglamorous bottle can be made beautiful with a few baubles.

A pair of antique lamps made beautiful with stunning lampshades some one has froufrou-ed up.

Another clever vignette made from simple ordinary things.

What an adorable spot in a kitchen! I love this kind of thing also.

Another stunning bedroom. The carpet drew my eye first. I'm sure it's custom made. Even the furniture looks custom made, but clever shopping can make the statement for a much lower price.

Isn't this adorable. I suspect this is somewhere in a Scandinavian country.

Another cute cabinet made special with the talent of a wise homeowner.

I love that table covering and would do it but it would take much more fabric than I care to deal with all at one time. Beautiful though!

~*~

Inquiries on my blog

Just so you know. I have had many requests on my blog for some answers that would require a private post. HOWEVER, if you send me a comment and it doesn't have your "return email" on it I cannot answer it. It will usually look like this:

noreply-comment@blogger.com

So if you want or need a reply always put your email in the body of your email or change your settings where your EMAIL is the sending email. Some of you don't have it set up that way and that means it isn't a "reply-able" comment.

I truly would respond to you! Just let me know what your email is.

Connie

Life In The Slow Lane

This will be a long blog about what is happening in my life recently.

The short story is I now have interstitial lung disease. The long story is coming to grips with it for the last six months.

It began last October or November with a dry cough. After 3 visits to the QuickCare in our area and a visit to my doctor and prescriptions with each visit nothing helped with the cough. My primary physician told me to go to the ER if my oxygen levels went under 90. They are better equipped to handle this problem than a doctor’s office. So one day I made a visit to ER as my O2 levels were dropping fast. Just couldn’t get enough air into my lungs. It went to 70 at the ER and my fingers and toes were turning blue. They admitted me that day.

Then they called a pulmonologist in to help me. He is a very kind man. After spending the night at the hospital I was released and set to a pulmonologist. After a consultation we determined I had interstitial lung disease. There are more questions about it than not. Not many cures even if they do find the root cause. In other words too many questions and not many answers. I just live with it and hope it doesn’t get worse. I never smoked more than the one or two cigarettes in high school to show me it wasn’t something I’d want to pursue.

I’ve had 3 biopsies in my right lung and they hurt a lot, mostly when I breathed. We’ll have the results of the biopsies in about another week. There may be nothing to do with it. I refuse to read the statistics about it as I don’t want to know any more than absolutely necessary. I’m in counseling with it and like the progress we’re making, like my counselor and all that kind of stuff. My only problem is I’m short of breath and tethered to air hoses for the rest of my life and I’m actually okay with that. Another great granddaughter is due in October and that brings incredible joy to my life at this time. I’ve always loved and wanted as many grands kids or great grand kids as possible. I love them immensely and they bring great joy to me and my hubby. And my current 3 grand boys and 2, soon-to-be-3, great grand girls keep us loved and entertained well.

We know where we’re going as we’re religious and there isn’t enough “convincing” in the world to convince our family otherwise. We’re fun-loving Mormons.

I now await the final results on this disease. I live normally, just more oxygen flows though tubes in my nose. I still go out with friends for lunches and sit around and hoot when they show up concerned about me. I have the best friends anyone could hope for in this life. I also have that new Lexus hubby bought me as a total shock but a great one for me. I’m still very humorous and cute and lovable. Nothing has changed about me except my lungs are compromised.

The day I returned from the hospital I called a friend and asked if she could secure an angel food cake for me. She was over in 20 minutes with an angel food cake, strawberry glaze, fresh strawberries and whipped cream. She came in. I tucked a towel under my chin while laying in bed. She fed me slowly and stayed and talked to me for a couple of hours. What I didn't know until after she sat there, fed me and kept me company was that she had a family of 8 in our ward over for dinner that night. When I called all whispery-voiced, she dropped everything and told them: "Gotta go. It's Connie." And then she headed to the WalMart store and then my house. I was stunned when she told me she left them all there, her hubby and 3 kids and the family of 8 to fend for themselves when I called. I knew then why I loved that woman so much. I'm 30 years older than she is, but her physical problems, in all their immenseness, have yet to be determined and she's a young-ish mom of 3 teens and in worse health than I am, compromised lungs and all.

Then the next day, a friend came over, crawled into bed with me and we talked for a couple of hours. Her kids call me Miss Connie and my hubby Mr. Connie. I call them Miss Lainey, Miss Emma, Miss Sadie and Miss Avery. The darling boys are Mr. Miles and Mr. Graham. She's from California and her hubby is from this area and decided to set up his practice here, which is good since she's become so special to me. She's also a super person.

My first shower a week after the surgery put me in a very deep sleep for a couple of hours. It was that taxing. Hubby takes care of most chores now. We'll see how it goes when I get the results back from the doctor in a few days.

I am going to continue posting, just not on a regular basis. I love doing this. It gets my brain functioning, keeps me young and gives me something I can do at home. Another dear friend has other things for me to do from home also. I'll do what I can. I'll work around the lungs, lunches and visits from kids and grand kids. I cannot just do nothing. I have to stay somewhat active, as much as is possible. I'll turn the dirty chores over to th' Man! He can handle it and he CAN handle it.

This is one of my favorite designs for a house. I loved everything about this home when I first saw the photo—furniture, floors, sunlight streaming in, kitchen, chandelier, just everything.

Nothing picks me up like colorful flowers.

And, yes, this would be fun to have in my home also.

Thinking of making some pretty pillowcases. Yes, seriously, I am! Just want to do something around here lately.

This is adorable but just too intense for me to make right now. I'll be doing simpler things from now on. I have a request if someone can help me. I want a pillow made from a drop cloth with stenciling on it and a self ruffle. Does anyone know who might be able to make me a pillow for a living room chair with my requests? I do NOT want to do it myself. Recommendations will be greatly considered.

One of the most vibrant bedrooms I've ever seen. All bright reds and comfy chairs. Love the drapes especially. Very cozy room.

I have never seen a blue and white kitchen I like more than this one. It is just gorgeous!

The top pillow is what I'm requesting earlier in this post.

And this tassel? Oooh, be still my heart. It's so adorable. Now I'll probably be on a quest for tassels also.

The black flowery fabric on the bed is so beautiful paired with the other elements in this room.

What a great bench for an entry way. Hmmmm, I actually just had an epiphany looking at this photo.

Love this chair and its fabrics. Look at the drape pulled together also. Beautiful.

Another room that speaks to the aesthetics in my heart. Love the pink French wicker chair, pink and green drapes.

What a great entrance! Says it all in understated terms. Gorgeous.

See what you can do so easily to add a bit of drama and flair to a room. Just put tiny cups in a glass jar. I'll get on that within the hour, trust me.

~*~

Too tired to proof this. If there are any mistakes I'll correct them later.