Kendalan decided in Kindergarten that she wanted to be a spelling bee champion. She has practiced every year. A few years back in 4th grade she was the third runner up. This year she was the 2nd runner up and will be able to participate in the State spelling bee in February. Dad and I both attended the spelling bee. There were 15 participants from 4th, 5th 6th, 7th and 8th grades. We were on the edge of our chairs as the participants walked up to the podium. It was nerve racking for me, I can only imagine the stress Kendalan was under. Many words would have put me out a long time before the word "opinionated" knocked her out. Personally, she and I think she spelled the word right but the judges did not hear her correctly. Oh well, she will go to the spelling bee and in the mean time we will be practicing lots of spelling words.
Today was supposed to be an icy day out. However, it was rain instead of ice. I felt like I had been cooped up in the house for several days and decided that I would run to JoAnn Fabrics and get the things that I needed to start preparing to make a T-shirt quilt. Zora decided to go with me and as usual, Mom was convinced to buy some fleece so Zora could make her boyfriend a blanket. I think that it turned out very nicely. Tessa, Kendalan and Zora tied the fleece after Mom cut the pieces straight and cut the "fringes" for them to tie. The back is red. Nice colors picked out by Zora with a little influence from the boyfriend :)
Our dog, Pugston, has been having some health problems. He has a deformed toe with nail on his right front paw. The nail grows and curls back into his toe if we don't get them trimmed frequently. We were very busy this summer and his toenails grew almost overnight it seemed. The next thing I knew he was limping and favoring his front right foot. He will NOT let us trim his toenails. He turns into a 50 pound mass of muscle and there is no way that Dad and I can hold him down to trim his nails. So we have to take him to our vet each time. We thought that we had the nail thing under control after taking him every 3 weeks to have them trimmed, but I have noticed that he is limping pretty bad each morning when he gets up. It is almost like he is getting arthritis in his legs. He also had his teeth cleaned a couple of summers ago and a couple of tumors removed. It looks like his teeth are giving him problems again and he has a couple of bumps that are suspiciously looking like new tumors. He will be 9 years old on January 29th. I did some research this past week and his breed of dog has a life expectancy of 9 to 15 years. We do not have the funds right now to have his teeth cleaned...if that was an option and it was very expensive to have tumors removed. We are praying that we will not have to let him go to the rainbow bridge soon.
Dad continues on his IV inotropes. He had an appointment in Omaha this past week and they said it looks like he is doing great. So we are keeping the IV running and the phone lines open!
