Of puppies and late autumn flowers and eating acid-free

Sorry about not blogging last week.  Steve and I both had speaking assignments in the Mexico Ward last Sunday.  The drive there and back plus the three-hour block just took more time than I thought it would....Oh, and we had to bump family dinner time up in order to attend a special fireside that evening with J'den Cox, Columbia's own Olympic bronze medal winner!  He is a wrestler and the manager of the MU wrestling team is a member of our ward who also served a mission to Brazil so he got to travel down to Rio with J'den and his family for the Olympics in August.  J'den, a devout Christian but not Mormon, has other LDS connections.  His great-grandmother was Virginia Mutrux, a charming and one-of-a-kind lady in our ward when we first moved to Columbia in 1981.  So, many of his extended relations are members of the church.   It was a great evening.

The past two weeks have been fairly average.  Lots of walks and bike rides.  One day, the local Canada goose population was grazing on the Albert-Oakland park trail so I took a picture.
 
 Steve and I traveled to Fulton on Wednesday, the 12th to attend a funeral for a dear woman who died of early Alzheimers.  She was a year older than me!

I have been enjoying Season 1 of Poldark.  Imagine my dismay when I learned that Season 2 is currently being aired on PBS but it is already half-way through.  And, if I want to watch the first 3 episodes, I will have to pay for it.  So be it!

Health-wise, I am taking part in a breathing study to lower blood pressure through the medical school at MU.  I hope it works because it would be nice to reduce my medications.  I HAVE stopped taking my statin drug for cholesterol.  I hope changing my diet and ramping up my exercise can keep my numbers low.  And, I sure hope the side effects of the statin leave (joint pain, fuzzy brain).  Breaking news:  I have yet another dietary restriction added to my life, as if having to eat gluten-free was not enough.  I have interstitial cystitis - an inflammation of the bladder lining.  I believe I have had it for several years but it never really flared up until July when I started taking 1 tablespoon of vinegar in water every day for cholesterol reducing.  That increase of acidity  REALLY aggravated my bladder.  Lots of pain.  Like a bladder infection only I didn't think it could be that because I had no chills/fever which have accompanied my bladder infections in the past.  I looked up how to treat IC (interstitial cystitis) and diet is the first way to treat it - and it is even more restrictive than gluten-free.  NOTHING acidic at all.  The only fruits I can eat are blueberries, pears, and certain kinds of apples.  No chocolate!  Good grief.  But, I started to follow the diet and it seemed to help a bit.   And, I finally got a urinalysis about two weeks ago.  And, it WAS an infection!  I started medicine and I started to eat regularly again because - wahoo - it was NOT IC.  Well, by the end of my antibiotics, I was still having lots of pain.  And, to make things more complicated, my primary care physician is on leave - I suspect medical because she has had cancer in the past - and our e-mail communications about this condition were very irregular.  Darn.  I LIKED my doctor and I didn't really want to go to someone new.  But, last Monday, at the end of my antibiotics and still in pain, I finally just called the clinic and made an appointment for the next day with another doctor on the team.  And, I am DELIGHTED with this new doctor!  She really answered my questions and provided support and I have a consult with the urology clinic on November 2nd.  Yes, it really was an infection.  IC can make it easier for infections to occur.  Yes, I need to go back on the acid-free diet to allow my bladder to heal.  And, I have discovered an inexpensive, over-the-counter medicine called Prelief that eliminates 98% of the acid in whatever I eat.  So, if I know I will be eating acidic foods, I can take two of these pills and viola!  No pain.  Oh, how wonderful to not have this constant pain anymore.  

Yesterday, the 22nd, Steve and I spent the day enjoying autumn in Missouri.  We began with some grocery shopping at the Amish.  Baking supplies AND a bushel of apples (the less-acid kind that I can eat) so I can make some applesauce.  Then, we drove westward for some pecans from King Hill Farms in Brunswick.  (pecans are NOT on the good list - only almonds and cashews - but hopefully, once my bladder heals, I can resume eating some of the stuff I used to eat).  Then, we drove up to Brookfield where the Marceline Branch has a new meetinghouse (actually, it is an old Baptist church that has been remodeled) because Steve had a couple of interviews.  And, then, on our way home, we visited an older couple from the Marceline Branch who raise and breed Yorkies!  They live with a woman who also raises and breeds Yorkies.  It was Yorkie heaven!  I must have held two dozen puppies or full grown dogs.  So cute and so friendly. 

They also had these two miniature horses!

Speaking of dogs, Trissy has been battling something in her paw.  It didn't really respond to the antibiotic we got for it.   Being on the top of her foot, it hasn't made her lame.  But, it is sure ugly and she has really been worrying it with her tongue.  The current medicine the vet gave her does seem to keep her from licking it as much as she did.  

 

 Finally, some shots of my zinnias and of my morning glories.  The latter I had given up hope that they would ever bloom.  LOTS of green growth all summer long but no flowers until about a week and a half ago.

Beautiful October

I do not have much to write about last week.  The highlight was yesterday and attending Naomi LaFond's wedding on a farm on Lizard Lane in Grubville, Missouri!  She married her many-years best friend, Jon, on his family farm.  It was a beautiful setting - the weather was absolutely perfect - and Steve and I enjoyed ourselves. 

 Several church members from Columbia made the drive to attend (it was located south and west of St. Louis - it took over 2 /12 hours to get there) and it was fun to see Erin's brother and his wife who we knew as teenagers.  Their youngest is 18!  Here is Mary Ellen Davis Naylor with Naomi


You can see the popcorn in Naomi's hands.  That, along with hot coco, peanuts, and M&M's were the pre-wedding snack.  She had an old fashioned bathtub full of ice and soft drinks, too.  They served a yummy dinner and we had to leave before the bonfire, hayride, and dancing got started. 

Here we are with Sarah, who also attended, in front of the doors that Naomi walked through before walking down the grassy aisle. Before the wedding, Steve and I attended the temple and I gave Noah a piano lesson.  It was a full day!  But fun.

Things are still pretty green around here and, up until Thursday night, it felt like summer!  Ugh.  Had to run the AC.  Thankfully, we are back on track with "normal" October weather again. 

I have started watching a new series via Netflix - Poldark.  I zipped through the first three episodes of season 1 and I am anxiously awaiting disc 2.   I sewed, I went to pottery, I went to Civic Orchestra rehearsal, I taught five people from Democratic Republic of Congo how to ride the bus on Tuesday, I worked on quilts at Laura's on Thursday, I taught lots of cello lessons.  An average week.....

goodbye September

September quietly came to a close on Parker Street.  We had open-window weather all week.  I finished going through each room and color-dotting all the important items.  Probably a good thing I had just completed this task when we happened upon the Columbia Senior Center garage sale yesterday because all I could see was table after table of dust collectors and I was able to easily say "no thank you".  I did find a vintage ironing board that I bought for $2.50.  They don't make ironing boards like they used to.  This wasn't one of the actual wooden board types like my mother had but it was clearly from the 60's and it is really sturdy and stable.  I also found a Swingline stapler for 50 cents.  The only reason Steve and I were even there was to help our two-doors-down neighbor, Jan, haul a desk to her home. 

As we all know, fall is open enrollment time for health insurance and Steve and I decided to see if Obamacare was really a cheaper way to go.  NOPE!  Boy, I am SO grateful for Steve's retirement package and for the affordable healthcare we have until we go on Medicaid. 

Speaking of health, Sadie had her teeth cleaned Tuesday.  Dogs have to be anesthetized so their mouths will stay open during the procedure so it is kind of a big deal - no food/water after midnight, leave them at the vet all day....  Well, when we picked her up that afternoon, we learned that she had three teeth pulled because they were loose.  Gum disease?  Not sure.  But, they also had NOT given her any pain medicine so, after she got home, she was NUTS with pain.  Frantic panting and burrowing her head and inability to stay still.  I've never seen poor Sadie so agitated!  So, back to the vet for pain medicine and for the dosage for the tranquilizer we used to give Trissy for thunderstorms.  And, finally, after about 2 hours, she was able to calm down.  In fact, she was pretty loopy that night....could hardly walk.  Thankfully, she woke up the next day all perky and normal.   Ugh, I already try to regularly brush her teeth but I will be more assertive so hopefully, she won't have to go through something like that ever again.

We served dinner to the missionaries Friday night and they are always asking if they can do anything for us.  Well, this time, we said "Sure - how about helping us move the grand piano?"  It really wasn't that big of a deal.  We just relocated it away from the east window to the south part of the living room where is has been before.  This is to make room for the pink couches that have been out in the garage.  They needed to come in to make room for Elise's storage items.  She sorted everything into piles last week and yesterday morning, Steve and I filled the north part of the garage with her not-going-to-use-in-this-apartment things.   Elise's stuff-to-integrate-into-the-apartment items still in the garage, as well as the few remaining items in the Noah's Ark room where she stayed, should be gone by mid-October and then we can park the truck inside again.  Have you noticed as you drive down a street and look into people's garages that very few are actually used for car parking?

Steve and I watched an old and rather obscure musical Wednesday night - Flower Drum Song.   It is a Rogers and Hammerstein and I remember playing some of the pieces in Scotscapades in high school.  It focuses upon Chinese Americans and would not be exactly politically correct today which is why I think it is not done any more. 

Finally, we are loving this General Conference weekend.  Yesterday, we watched the morning session here at home and the afternoon session at Carroll and Sheila Wile's home with Steven and Tamara.  Today we will be here at home again. 

Happy October, everyone!