It's Kerry's Birthday Today!!!

It was 19 years ago today that we were blessed with a new addition to our family!

She was an 8lb, 11oz bundle of joy! 

And we named her Kerry!

She was the most beautiful little baby with pudgy cheeks...

And great big eyes!

Adam loved her and the feeling was mutual!

 

I had lots of fun dressing her up in cute little girl clothes!

 

She made the perfect "Piglet" when she was two years old...

 

And I will never forget my adorable little 'Minga" (Gumby's sister) when she was 3!

Kerry loved her blankie and she loved the Disney princesses!

She also loved cats!  Here she was "helping Molly take a nap".

 Beauty & the Beast was her favorite movie when she was 3.

 As she grew, she left her fairy tale princesses behind in favor of fishing.  She LOVED to fish!

 And she always had her Dad wrapped around her little finger!

 And she ALWAYS had a soft spot for cats!

And she ALWAYS had very large eyes!

Kerry was such a sweet little girl.

 She loved to ham it up for the camera and make us laugh!

 That is our neighbor Jon in the garbage can!

    Kerry is the one in the center (pictured with Annie and Jon)

 When Tigger (Mr. Wiggles) came into our family,  Kerry had met her soul-mate.

Another one of Kerry's loves is sports.  She loves to compete in just about anything!

But softball turned out to be her favorite of all!

 Over the years, it has been her close friends and family who matter the most...

 ...and MR. WIGGLES!

 Happy Birthday, Kerry!  You are such a joy and such a pain in the ass! 
WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Embracing Me

A few weeks ago, I spent a wonderful day with my friend Mel.  We had lots of fun taking pictures of each other in Hartford.  When we got back to the house, I uploaded over 250 pictures to the computer and we looked at them.

Mel is a beautiful, young girl with barely a flaw on her skin.  She looked fabulous in every shot.

When we got to the pictures she took of me,  all I could see were the wrinkles, and I said so.

Mel looked at me and basically told me the pictures look like me.
She wasn't being mean in any way.
She loved the pictures she took of me.
They were "me".

 Don't we all tend to have a much younger mental picture of ourselves?

I don't feel inside very much different than I felt back in college.  

 I feel young.  I don't feel like I am 52 at all. 

My hair may be different now, but IN MY MIND I don't look any different than I did over 30 years ago.


 Mel's comment really made me think.

I DO have wrinkles.  Plenty of them. 

I have crows feet around my eyes when I smile.  Maybe even when I'm not smiling!

The wrinkles under my eyes are all connected now, vertically and horizontally.
I have permanent dark circles around my eyes.  And a blue vein on the side of my head.

My neck isn't as tight as it used to be.  Jowls are beginning to form.

And my neck has creases and lines in it too.

These are the things that I see when I look at myself in pictures.
What Mel made me understand that day was so very important, though.

These are not things like zits that go away and do not define you.

I will never again be without wrinkles, or circles, or saggy skin.

This is who I am now.  They are permanent fixtures on my body.

I may always feel young on the inside, but this body of mine will never get younger.

So from this day forward, I will try not to focus on the things I cannot change.

I will try to look at the bigger picture.

 

 

I will grow old with grace.  I will embrace me, as I am ... as I will be.

I spent some time with a 98 year old woman last week.  Violet Cheesman.  She was the essence of how I would want to be if I am lucky enough to reach that age.  She was so young on the inside that you barely noticed her wrinkled up face or weary eyes.  She was interested in everyone and everything.  She didn't sit back and expect others to do things for her.  If she could do it herself, she did it.  That's how I want to be.

That is my plan.

Taking the Blame

About 10 years ago when I got my first puppy,  I met a remarkable woman.

Her name is Joyce.

She lives around the corner from me, not too far away.  And she LOVES animals.

Whenever she saw me walking Jack, she would come out to see him, bringing along a dog biscuit from her garage.  She didn't own a dog herself, but she kept them stocked for the dogs in the neighborhood.

Our friendship began over our love of animals, but as time went on, I think she came out because she just wanted to chat with me.  

 Joyce's love of animals isn't limited to dogs.  She took in a stray cat and mothered it like it was her own child.  She feeds the birds in her backyard.  She knows every wild animal that wanders in the woods behind her house.  Joyce would warn me when coyotes were around.  She knows when a litter of foxes has been born.  She loves every living creature.  She loves LIFE.

Over the past few years, Joyce hasn't been outside as much.  When she did come out, she could only go as far as her front porch - as far as her oxygen tube could reach.  She has COPD.

Yesterday,  when I was walking the dogs, I saw her husband out walking.  I asked him how Joyce was doing and he told me she had been in the hospital for two weeks because she couldn't breathe.  But he told me with a smile that she was coming home that night.

When I got home, I found a get-well card to give to her.  I also printed out a few pictures to help brighten her day.  Then I brought the card over to her husband.

 
I just got a call from Joyce early this morning.  She thanked me for the card, but she LOVED the pictures of the kitten sleeping with the dogs.  She has them up on her refrigerator.

Then we talked for about 45 minutes.  Joyce told me her lungs are shriveling up from the COPD and she can't expel the carbon dioxide much anymore.  Joyce is 70 years young.  She asked the doctor how much time she has left, and he didn't give her an answer.  She knows it's not very long.

But this vibrant woman who loves life so very much is not depressed.  There is no "woe is me" attitude.  She fully takes the blame for her condition.  Joyce was a smoker for  many years, and she knows that she did this to herself. 

Joyce is looking forward to a visit from her grandkids in a few weeks.  They stay with her for a week every summer.  It will probably be the last time they do this.  She plans to spoil them while they are here.
And she can't wait to take care of their dog while they are on vacation later this summer, even though she knows being around animals makes it more difficult to breath.

Before she hung up the phone,  she asked me to tell everyone I know that it is not worth it to smoke.

So I am.

Fluff and Stuff

Halle has blown her coat for the first time!

If you have never had the opportunity to brush a dog who is blowing coat,  you probably have no idea what I am talking about.

I am talking about a fur explosion.

Have you ever opened a milkweed pod?  That would be pretty similar!

This is what I got after just one swipe of the comb!

 When I was done (two hours later),  there were 3 large piles of fluff - very soft down-like fluff.

Maddie found it very intriguing!

And Halle looks like she lost 10 pounds!