Time for a little update on things. Mike is doing well. Getting stronger and feeling better everyday. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Our new little dog, Josie is fitting right in with the family. You can see how affectionate she is in the picture giving Mike such a hug. We are still dealing with the diapers issues, and we have found that keeping her in a pet crate is not the best. She ate through the soft sided one we had for Gracie, so we bought a plastic crate with a metal wire front gate. I put her in and went out for a couple of hours, when I got home she was running free in the house. Mike said I probably did not have the latch in proper. So the next day I had Mike put her in the crate to be sure the latch was in proper. When we got home a few hours later, she greeted us happily at the front door. She had escaped the crate again. I'm thinking we should rename her Houdini. Later that day we noticed she was favoring her one front paw. For the next 3 days she would not walk on it at all. So it was back to the vet. $90.00 later he basically said, 'Give her 2 aspirins, and call me in the morning. The good news is that nothing is broken, puntured, or infected. So we have given up on the crating thing and just let her run the house when we are not home. So far that is working OK as long as me make sure she is 'pottied' before we leave. We are still giving her 'something to manage the pain', and she is starting to put weight on it again. But she is such a drama queen, when we are walking and she gets tired, she will sit down and hold it up and look at us with the most pitiful eyes.

I have been wearing Mickey Mouse watches for at least the past 20 years. When my eyesite started going bad, I discovered that they are the easiest to read. They have nice big numbers and Mickey's fat little hands also make it easier to tell the time. On the right side of my wrist you will see my last watch, a 'ladies' size watch. It is pretty small, smaller than the previous MM watch I had. So this time I thought I would order a 'Mens' size MM watch. Wow! I think I will be able to see the time. I'm just worried my arm will go sore lugging this around all day. Another joke on me. Ha, ha.

OK, This falls into the category of OMG!

This is something I thought I would never do, as I have always had pets that were either neutered or spayed at the first opportunity. But who else but us would adopt a pet from the Humane Society less than a week from her 'season'. What is really funny about all this is that I had the dog at the vet for her initial check-up to make arrangements for the spay operation and the vet said that she was already spay. He even showed me the scar. It was the very next morning and OMG!! I called the vet back and said I thought we had better rethink the scar issue. His response----"Opps!" So anyway, here we are trying to cope with this new pet experience. And these doggie diapers seem to be the best solution (at $10.00 a box!!!!) for keeping the carpet and furniture clean. Josie does not seem to mind having them on, at least she does not try to bite or chew them off. We did have a time trying to figure out how to just keep them on, as she would just walk out of them as they slipped down her little hips. But Mike came up with an idea to put a doggie suspender on it. It is hard to explain, so just imagine a long strip of packing tape attached at one end to the diaper and the other end to her collar. NO!! We did not tape it to the dog itself, but doubled the tape over on itself. Looks kinda funny, but works. (not shown in the accompanying photo) I guess you can take the man out of the engineering job, but not the engineer out of the man. Other than this, Josie is settling in quite nicely. She is sweet, loving and wants to please. She is the best walking pet partner I have had and that has encouraged me to get back out there for morning walks. But, I mean, really!! who would have thought she would come in heat so soon after adoption. Yuck.

Yesterday was a big day in our house. Mike came home from the hospital well on the mend. And we adopted a new member into the household.

Everyone!! Please meet Josie. She is between 2 and 3 years old and was abandoned during the floods. She is small and very sweet. She already loves being with us. So much so that she chewed a hole in the soft sided pet carrier we used for Gracie so she could be with us last night. So much for kennel training. She ended up sleeping on the foot of our bed.

Happy 4th of July weekend!!

We spent the holiday at Katy and Kent's house. She had a picnic for family, friends and neighbors. The neighborhood closed off the street for a short time so the kids could have a holiday parade. They decorated the bikes, etc. and it was very cute. Very short and very cute. If you are wondering why Lucy is going one direction and the bikes are all going the opposite direction, it is because no one told the kids the difference between a parade and a race. So while Katy and Kent paraded down the road, the kids all raced as fast as they could up and down, and up and down.

By the way, isn't Lucy just the epitome of holiday spirit in her cute patriotic dress??

CONGRATULATIONS, MIKE!!!

Well, it is semi-official!! Mike, after 40 years of service has retired from Deere. Yesterday was his last day at the office, and now he has over of month of medical leave, and then 10 months of vacation time. Then he will be offically retired. There were two good-by parties for him, a morning coffee for the factory and then a dinner party in the evening. It was very nice, and we will both miss being part of the working Deere family. But we have things to do, places to go, and people to see and it is time to move on. Life, the greatest adventure.

And to my darling husband. I am very proud of you, and happy to have shared these past 40 years galavanting all over the globe with you as part of the life with Deere. And I look forward to this next adventure. Still crazy after all these years.