elin, one week later

She's doing pretty well. A week later she's moving better than she was before surgery, and seems to be regaining some strength.  She was able to stand and drink from the water dish, which she could not do before surgery.  She can make a loop all the way around the yard.   Before surgery she'd have to rest for ten minutes every 30 feet.

Jay used the snow blower and made a path around the yard to all her favorite sniffing places.

Coat is growing back already, incisions perfect and she hasn't bothered them at all.

Yeah, she's good.  

Love, Val
 

more christmas, 2020

 

Merry Christmas,

Love, Val, aka MOM

christmas eve 2020

No in person church service, church on the phone.

Santa was put back up again after the blizzard.

Swedish meatballs!

This distanced Christmas, we did not go to each others houses or any of that.  We were all at our own houses, but the pictures, texts, phone calls--helped it feel not so isolated.  We had fun.

Dinner at Heidi's, complete with potato sculpture:

 

Dinner at Dan and Alicia's:

My sister's house:

Virtual church at John and Dannell's, complete with to-go communion.

My brother's:

At 8 pm was an hour long zoom call of everyone in celebration of Christmas.  The call ended after midnight.  Apparently some people had catching up to do, haven't seen each other in a very long time.  It was sweet, made me very happy, all the laughing and conversation.

Christmas in a pandemic, doing our best.   Love, Val, aka MOM, aka Grandma

a good day

It snowed today like crazy, a true blizzard.  Alicia sent this on Instagram, truly suitable for framing.

Elin is feeling good, eating and drinking, able to get around a little bit, accepting our help getting up.

We slept with her in the family room last night, just to be safe.  After a while, he went to our bed.

Onward.  Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.

Love, Val

elin's surgery went well

Everything is okay.  

Both the orthopedic surgeon and the regular vet said everything went great and expect her to do well.

Jay and James picked her up from the clinic and she was able to slowly walk into the house, and she went in her kennel and has stayed there since. 

That's all right.   It's her spot.  She likes it there.  She ate a few buns, one laced with medication, so we're good on that, and hopefully she'll have a smooth recovery.  Very relieved this went well.

Onward.

Love, Val

 

it was bound to happen

 Psssht, I hate this, playing in the toilet, ransacking the bathroom.  

No, no, no.

I thought she'd rebel when I stuck her hands in the sink and scrubbed her hands, but she didn't.

More water to splash in apparently.

Our baby is finding actual mischief.  

Oh, and they were face timing with their cousin, Miss O.  I overheard a conversation all about being upside down, and it made me snicker.  I guess, I mean, if you're upside down, that's crazy.

Love, Grandma

more delivering of christmas gifts

They made time for us and I was so glad.   It was warm and bright out, John had built a little fire.

We had a good time.  It was nice to spend half an hour together, haven't seen them since we closed the cabin.

They were enthusiastic about their gifts and that was fun, even the Vikings squishies I picked out that were not on anyone's list.

These girls loved their gifts too, were still playing with them today when I went back to babysit.

What a strange Christmas, doing our best.

Love you all, Grandma, aka MOM

 

a fun day

Our neighbor texted to ask about the candlestick lights we usually have in the windows.  I told him the kids hate them because this old house is lacking outlets and they hate giving up any plug ins, so we'd made a compromise that I'd put them up the week of Christmas, not the whole month.

So we did it.  Honestly, anything for you, Don.

Yesterday Jay made meatballs for many hours, painstaking work, made the gravy, put them in containers in the freezer to take to our kids along with cookies and their Christmas presents. 

We spent hours driving around, delivering gifts, wearing our masks, being brief.  But it was fun.

There are more gifts to deliver tomorrow. 

And that is the end of tonight.   Love, Val