Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Tonight's picture was taken on July 13, 2008. Ironically it was just ten days before our lives transformed forever. Because ten days later, Mattie was diagnosed with cancer. But in this photo, Mattie was showing the camera that his tooth was loose and he was about to lose another baby tooth. Mattie and I had a whole production with baby teeth. He had a special little box to place a tooth for the tooth fairy. In addition, Mattie always wrote a note to the fairy, as he did not want money. Get this, one request to the fairy was for a pasta necklace. She never disappointed!!! To this day, I still have this fairy box in my nightstand, with a Mattie tooth inside!

Quote of the day: You know more about someone at the end of relationship than during the relationship. ~ Amit Kalantri

 

This morning after dropping my dad off at his memory care center, I headed to my doctor's office for blood work. The doctor is following my cholesterol level, which has been unstable since Mattie was diagnosed with cancer. Under times of stress, I truly have a hard time normalizing the level and my doctor encouraged me to develop an exercise routine. Rather hysterical, given all that I balance! But about a month ago, after the Foundation walk was behind me, I decided to try it. If not just to shut him up. In any case, I try to do 30 minutes of exercise each day on the treadmill in which I am walking and also running and and 5 minutes on the elliptical. The elliptical is something I hate, and at one time I could do 40-60 minutes on it. Not anymore, I will have to build up to it! Any case, I will be curious to see the blood test results in a few days. 

Later this afternoon, I went outside to water plants and instead got pulled in twenty different directions. Many of my crape myrtles had issues from the latest rain storms. One crape myrtle in the front yard had a whole limb that snapped off and the ones in the backyard weren't far behind. So out came the hedge trimmers and I cut back limbs and also cut back my rose garden. As the roses were so tall, you couldn't see the fountain. 

I should have taken a before photo! But when I get moving, I am focused. Any case, see the white crape myrtle? Well picture limbs so heavy that they were sitting on the grass. I removed all that debris. 

While trimming this white crape myrtle, I heard a buzzing. Then I noticed that the outdoor lights were on. At first I thought maybe the light sensor slipped or was covered and that triggered the lights to turn on. NOPE, that wasn't the issue. So I put two and two together..... the buzzing was from a light transformer. Thankfully I keep one always on hand in the garage. I got that new one out, grabbed a screw driver and disassembled the old one and installed the new one. Voilà.... the lights now work properly! Another thing to add to my ever growing resume.