Lump! Etc.

Well, this was a first or very nearly so... After all the lumps and bumps on DOGS that I've had checked out, there's one on ME!  This might be TMI, but I promise to move on quickly... Back in February, after our trip to Philadelphia, I came home really quite sick.  I saw a doctor that Monday — even went so far as to switch my primary care physician in the process! — and he took one look at me and said, "you haven't been taking care of yourself!"  Welcome to being a mom with kids on vacation... He listened to my lungs, said I had pneumonia, gave me an antibiotic and some cough syrup and away I went.  Because of being so sick, the fact that my throat was uncomfortable was not a big deal.  Lymph nodes and such, right?

Except that when I wasn't sick anymore, there was still a lump that I could feel, especially when I stretched my neck upwards.  So I went back to the doctor who sent me to have a CT scan.  Huh.  There was something there.  And so he sent me straight to the best-of-the-best at MGH, who just happens to be the doctor who operated on a friend of mine.  That consult included an ultrasound where first the technician looked and took pictures.  And then she had a radiologist come and look.  And then he went and got "the big boss."  I was starting to feel downright special!

After a little research on "thyroglossal cysts" I was prepared for that to be what this was.  But the ultrasound people didn't think so because it's quite solid.  And so the fancy doctor said he would recommend a needle biopsy and how about NOW?  Well, we're here, why not.  OW, is why not, but it was done.  And two days later we knew it was NOT cancer, and we might be back to thinking about the cyst idea.  Regardless, let's just get it out of there, the doctor said.  Works for me!

So, on May 23rd I'll have this adventure and stay overnight until the next morning.  And in the meantime, the thing managed to get a zit on it or else that's just a reaction to the needle biopsy, so this is the picture I sent the doctor to make sure he didn't think it was infected.  I don't think so.  And that's just dry skin from the dried up whatever-it-was.

Um, yeah.  And then it had a zit on it.

MOVING ON.  Here's a cute picture of Jago taken the other day.  She is such a loving dog and so if you leave the vehicle and come back, she just HAS to greet you in the front seat.  I posted this picture to Facebook and someone said, "but I hear the insurance is terrible until they turn six" — I wrote back and reported, "ah, but she's 9 and 3/4!"

Miss Jago got her license (no, not really!)

This morning the dear girl had a bad stomach ache.  It was not calming down as fast as I would have liked, so I took her with me to work so I could keep an eye on her.  I posted this one as "take your dog to work because she has a stomach ache day!"  By the time of this photo, the second dose of pepto had kicked in and she was able to relax.  She had no breakfast and just rice with some decorative kibble for supper.  All appears to be well.

Miss Jago after her stomach ache subsided

The tulip bed is already past its prime, but I was able to snatch these pictures in the sunlight (before it rains for days and days)...

Red tulips in the sunlight

Amazing red tulips

Special daffodils

I have a few plant projects started... I added three more bee balm plants where I planted some last year... The balloon flowers that were there don't appear to have won the battle of the roots but that's okay if they don't sprout... I'm going for something that attracts hummingbirds.  I've planted some sunflower seeds here and there... Some have sprouted in the center of the tall sea grass where the sea grass has died away, so that could be really cool — giant sunflowers rising up out of the tall sea grass.  I supplemented the creeping phlox and so it's currently in a beautiful state — for some reason it needs fairly regular replacement or filling in of holes as dogs seem attracted to peeing on it, even the little they can get to, with a wire fence around/through it.  I planted alyssum in a couple of edging spots.  And three coleus plants in a pot that did well with them two years ago.  I bought a hydrangea through church so I'll need to find a home for yet another one of those.  And I'm hoping the landscape guys (or John, if I can motivate him) will move out a dead lilac and replace it with a red-twig dogwood that would like more sun and a good trimming.  Then I can look for some big hosta plants to put in the shady spots.  The garden club often has some excellent ones at their sale.

All for now.  Going to bed!

Concert!

Please share this with anyone you think could be interested:

The aftermath...

This post has been edited to include photos... and a bunch more words.

Tosca and Jago... Jago is air-scenting passersby...

The baptism, chrismation and party all went swimmingly well.  Son #2 did NOT come up out of the water swearing to kill us all, so what more could we ask for?  Well, we had beautiful weather and a lot of people survived the entire 2 1/2 hour service -- yikes!  Many people came to our house for the huge amount of food we laid out and we're still working our way through it.  The first set of pictures has been delivered and are fantastic reminders of the day.  I'll pick some and put them in another post.  But here's some FOOD pictures:

Pumpkin mini-muffins

4 loaves of Amish White Bread

Apple cake and rice crispy squares

Vanilla cake (two layers) with lavender-tinted dragees

Whole house is freshly painted!  Someone even came in the front door!

No idea what it is, but it was brightly colored.  Placed by the front door.

I'm typing this at the table on the deck.  A wonderful bowl of pansies with curly edges is in the middle of the table — a last minute find last weekend.  I don't remember ever seeing these unusual pansies before.  Today, I added six creeping phlox to the border of the middle garden... They always need a little refreshing... I couldn't resist a packet of sunflower seeds — the giant variety — and so planted those here and there.  Always fun, if they work out.  Then I distributed two bags of top soil on the middle grassy area from where I got lazy last fall and stopped putting up the fence after the lawn guys mowed, and so it was peed on by the dogs.  Then I spread all of an old bag of patch master grass seed and then spread two bags of old grass seed around all the grassy areas.  Better on the lawn than in the bag, I thought.  I also couldn't resist two flats of lettuce and set them out in two small terracotta planters... The place where I put the planters was a little unbalanced, but I discovered that a crushed soda can under each was just the right amount of lift for leveling them.

The curly pansies

Lettuce!

All the pansies from preparing for the party are doing really well.  Various other things are coming to life.  It really IS spring!  But when the only thing at the garden shops are pansies, it's hard to restrain yourself and remember there will be other things you might want to buy LATER.

Son #1 always chooses YELLOW, his favorite color...

Slight purple tint on some, purple centers on all

Two more pots-ful

This wagon was in a 4th of July parade and then became a plant pot...

This morning's dump run included unloading a complete set of four place settings of blue glass dishware -- plates in three sizes, bowls and cups.  We've had them since we were married and they are in mint condition.  Also six wine goblets, same vintage.  Another item not likely to ever be used around here.  And I passed along a set of five wooden salad bowls made in Fairbanks, Alaska, to an Alaskan friend.  With a few minutes to spare before the dump closed, I tackled the disintegrating wooden planter alongside the house, which mostly meant pulling out the big weed clump growing out of the middle of it and then piling the pieces into a big tub and hauling it all to the van.  Still need to shovel the rest of the dirt away.

I remember my neighbor's self-imposed rule of dealing with everything she's bought before buying anything more.  I'm good to go for the next step!  All plants are planted and all bagged dirt is distributed.  But I think we need to wait and see what comes up... At most, I could order a half yard of stone to replenish in the various places the dogs pee.

A couple other stray things... I am the mother of a kid with severe ADHD!  I may not have it, but some qualities of it are definitely contagious!

After the baptism, etc., we kept the twins (our nieces) and what with one thing and another, had them through Friday!  I guess that made spring break a little more interesting for the kids.  Son #2 and the twins love to play imagination games with Angry Birds plush toys and foam blocks and can do this by the hour.

Son #2 and the twins...

While I was rummaging around in the basement for vases and dishes to serve food for the post-baptism party, I cleaned out a box and rediscovered some favorite glassware... And why not USE it?  There are two glasses engraved with "K" from my grandparents...

K is for Kinne

And three of these adorable little bubble glasses in green:

Milk tastes best in green glass!

Next up, though... Jim Malcolm in concert NEXT Sunday evening!!  April 28 at 7 PM.

Spring fling!

It's been a whirling dervish of activity around here!  A few months ago, a postcard arrived in the mail suggesting that we might want a housepainter.  Well, actually, yes, we did.  And the painter was someone we'd interacted with briefly under very positive circumstances, and his quote was very fair, so we agreed to go ahead.  He showed up last week, and has been working away with two-three guys helping every day.  He encountered some wood rot and so we called the carpenters who not only addressed the wood rot but also installed the last bits of kitchen trim and one replacement cabinet door, and will be back to try and shore up the stockade fence.  And the landscapers came by and dueled with the painters for footspace to do spring clean-up.

Meanwhile, I've spread around ten bags of river pebbles, which I only use in the main flower garden —3/4" stone delivered by the yard is good enough for other areas, and then I spread around 3-4 bags of topsoil, filling in holes the dogs dug, and three bags of bark mulch.  And planted a whole flat of pansies into various pots.  As usual, my ten-year-old son chose some bright yellow pansies, and those are in a hanging pot.  I did have some crushed stone delivered and while it wasn't what I thought it was going to be, it did happen to be something we needed in an effort to keep weeds from growing along the fence line of our back yard.  And then ever-so-kindly, our neighbors to the rear installed a tall wooden fence immediately alongside our chain-link fence, so suddenly we both have privacy and our respective dogs don't have to see each other any more!  There are three dachshunds over there that are of a typical yappy nature.

All of this is in preparation for a bit of a shin-dig this coming Sunday when the boys are being baptized and we're all being "chrismated" into the Orthodox Church of America, otherwise known as joining it.  It's a pretty big deal, so we're making sure the boys realize we consider it as such, by commemorating it fully and completely.  There are decorated candles with little hanging medallions engraved with their names and the occasion.  There are completely white outfits to put on after they're baptized.  We'll each put on a new gold cross (and hopefully the chains to wear them on will arrive in time). There is a commemorative program we designed and printed which will be handed out to one and all with a bookmark tucked inside.

And then we're having an open house all afternoon afterwards.  Mary is making pasta salad and fruit salad.  I'm making mini pumpkin cupcakes, homemade bread and multi-layer white cake, and maybe an apple cake besides.  I've tried the pumpkin cake recipe and it's fantastic.  I've been making Amish White Bread and it is fantastic, too.  The white cake is a new recipe as well, and that is good.  Tonight I made a vegan lasagna and it was very delicious, if a bit wet.  It may set up a bit overnight.  I read through the recipe comments and erred on the side of moist rather than too dry.  So the bread, pumpkin cupcakes, and white cake will all be "fast friendly," meaning they won't use olive oil, eggs, dairy or meat.  No cheese in the lasagna!

Valentine's Dogs

Scholar's mom asked what I was holding to keep them all so rapt and looking at me... Was it a cat, she said.  HA.  They're just good dogs and cheese was doled out afterwards.

Dog life in review...

Here's a few dog photos going back in time a bit...  December 16 was the Loaner Lab's FIFTH birthday... We have a little tradition of going for a nice walk with Scholar on her birthday and that day, it actually SNOWED a little.

Happy Birthday, Yellow Dog!

Miss Jago 

Tosca, Jago & Scholar

Scholar spent Christmas with us.  Her owner's mother is in declining health.  Also her owner had her leg broken for her by a group of playful dogs in the woods.  Scholar wags her tail to arrive and she wags her tail when it's time to go home.

Tosca, John & Scholar... Scholar wonders why everyone is on HER couch.

Thank you for sitting right there and providing the perfect pillow!

Miss Jago — her idea of "comfy" so she can keep an eye on things.

 

Tosca's idea of "comfy" looks a LOT more comfortable!

Tosca with snow smiles

Jago, ready to leap...

Should have had the wide-angle lens to capture a dog in every chair!

Biggest dog gets the couch!

Sharing the bed with John... Some body has to leave to make room for me!

Scholar sleeps in Ptolli's cave... 

I made that Amish White Bread last weekend... Truly it was OMG-worthy!  I will do THAT again.  

Pow!

Trying to find a neutral way to write about this... On Friday, my Son #1 socked his best friend in the face.  He has to face the consequences, but they're pretty minor.  There are a lot of complications to this situation.  Son #1 is highly supported by the school in his friendship with this kid, because this kid is dealing with unspeakable and extremely unfortunate events in his own life, and of course none of those things are his fault.  The only piece of this I'm interested in commemorating, however, is that Son #1 first exhibited patience for, in his words, THREE YEARS.  He has done his level best to meet this kid's needs in the friendship, but on this day, he had had enough and he lashed out.

Now we are raising the children to be peacemakers as best we can.  We attend the annual peace parade in our town on Martin Luther King Day.  When they play video games we always are asking them to think about the "bad" guy in any scenario... WHY is he the bad guy?  What made him that way?  Did no one love him when he was young?  Did he get kicked around and so now he wants to kick others around?  Are the so-called "good" guys actually just stealing resources from characters who only want to preserve what they believe belongs to them?  Always, we suggest another way to see the story being told.

But at the same time, in THIS situation, we step back and re-live our own childhoods for a moment.  Would his father or his mother have ever responded this way?  Or would we have gone the doormat route?  And which is the right thing?  So, we hug our kid, we tell him we love him, and we encourage him to try and have just that little tiny bit more patience the next time so he can not violate the school rules.  And quietly, in our hearts, we are delighted that he had the strength to stand up for himself when he felt enough-was-enough.

Recreational To-Do List...

Three recipes to try...  I'm always wishing for ways to showcase my cousin's amazing maple syrup although I hate to mess with the brilliance and simplicity of homemade waffles or vanilla ice cream... However, here is a recipe for Maple Cookies I'd like to try.

Then I followed somebody's Pinterest, one click led to another and I found Baked Cinnamon Roll Pancakes.  They look so good you could probably enjoy them just by reading the recipe.

And here's some bread I'd like to try... Amish White Bread.  This weekend, I made a recipe off the King Arthur Flour website for Hearth Bread.  It rose well, but I think another time I would try it as a single loaf rather than a double, and do the version where you let it rise a second time.

I just finished reading the 19th in a series of books by Janet Evanovich... I'm just finishing up the "in between" ones which appear to combine characters from two different series.  But somehow I tripped over a movie titled after the first book in the series, "One for the Money," on Netflix.  So some night I want to watch that.

Anyway, just wanted to store those links somewhere so I could close all these tabs in my browser!

Bon Voyage, Casco... Rest easy, old friend.

This morning I received an email from the Maine island cousins telling me that their very sick dog may finally be done with her fight for life...  They wrote:

Hi Elizabeth,

Have been meaning to write you to let you know Casco is checking out. She is here with us, comfy on the couch at the end of a week of not eating...her liver started to refuse food and she had to go with it. We are hoping she will journey off via sleep so cancelled a vet appointment today as we felt it would be stressful and hopefully nature can take its course. She has wakeful moments, like "I cannot leave this world...who will guard the yard..And you?" As ever though, we are following her lead here, hoping not to see her in any pain, or we will have to head the mainland route. We have all said goodbye, even Linda our [local to me] neighbor by phone, and let her know it is ok to go, even though we will miss her, we will stiver on...but Hanna said she wonders if Cass might also be waiting for you to give the ok, just via brain waves...so I thought—good idea, I had been meaning to let you know anyway. So, please send her some send offs if you can...it would be so much more her if she can go from here.

And so I sat down and wrote the following...

Hi, all... Thank you for letting me know.  Casco has certainly fought a long and brave fight, having lived so many years with fullness despite her various adversities.  She has been such a personality.  As her spirit winds its way heavenward, Casco may find the perfect comrade to whisper her guardian secrets to, to send your way, as Ptolli sent us Amanda, completely unexpected but exactly what we needed.

And so we will pray for endless sleep and rest, which she so deserves, and light a candle for her tonight at church, that she might see a beautiful light in her dreams, and follow it... And when she awakes it will be in a meadow of tall green grass under a huge shade tree with squirrels racing through its branches, by a brook... And when she goes to drag herself forward, it is suddenly no trouble at all, as she is light and strong and with four perfect legs she was always meant to have... Oh the riotous barking then!  And here comes Ceile with her tail wagging so hard and fast, as it touches both sides of her body, to show her all the best spots, to give Casco a quick lick on her face and assure her that Abby will look after "our girls" and it's okay to rest and be happy.

Godspeed, dear Casco.  You are a very brave dog, you have worked so very hard, and it is indeed okay to rest and let go now.  You are very loved and that love will go on and on.

Love, Elizabeth

John and I have escorted four dogs into the-life-to-come... I wish allowing any of them to pass in their own time at home had been an option.  And I really hope Casco can slip away in her sleep soon.

You may have seen this before...

... but it's worth repeating.  And current for me, since I made this tonight:

Carrot Cake (which people who don't even like carrot cake will like)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a cookie sheet or 9X13 pan with spray.

In a large bowl, blend with a whisk:

4 eggs (or 1 c. Eggbeaters)
2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil (canola)
3 X 4 oz. jars of carrot baby food or
     1 1/2 cups cooked carrots, pureed with minimal water

In a smaller bowl, whisk together:

2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking SODA
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon

Add the whisked dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk all together until well blended.  Pour into prepared cookie sheet or pan.  Bake 20-25 minutes, longer for the 9X13 pan, until the center springs back when touched.  Cool before frosting.

Cream cheese frosting:

4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar.

Blend all ingredients in your dry ingredients bowl until smooth.  Spread on cake.

I made this tonight after attending Vespers where I learned that tomorrow's Italian-themed charity brunch could use more desserts.  I'm not a fan of Italian pastries since I don't care for anise (although I do like ricotta pie from Virgilio's).  So, I figured I could make my carrot cake quickly and then decorate the frosting with red, white and green frosting to make an Italian flag.  Voila!  Dessert is in the fridge, ready for tomorrow.