The "The Christmas Recap", edition.

Good Tuesday morning!  Whew! We finally made it past Christmas Day. Now it's the run up to New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. And counting down the days until Shawn leaves. /Cry.  Anyway. We'll enjoy every moment until then. 

So how is it going?  Well right now I'm in the bedroom listening to the puppy trying to get into the room. Based on previous experiences with puppies, we limit where he can go in the house. All bedrooms and bathrooms are off limits. He has discovered he can open some bedroom doors. Anyway. We get up Christmas morning. Brian walks the dog, he and I have our Christmas coffee (coffee with Baileys), Dad lets us know he's up and we wait for Shawn. She gets up soon enough. We play Christmas music and pass out the gifts. Glen was the one that made out with all the presents this year. Lol. I purchased 2 toys early on and Shawn got him a toy. Saturday Brian and I went to Petco and guess what?  The toys were on sale!!  I don't know how many I bought...maybe 7,8,9?  Lol. Anyway. We put all of his toys in a gift bag. I put the bag on the floor and let him go at it. His head went in the   bag and the tail wagged!  He eventually tipped the bag over and all of the toys spilled out. He entertained himself with his toys for the next 45 minutes!  He did that one toy in his mouth and push or roll another toy around thing. Every now and then he'd bring a toy over to one of us to play tug, fetch or keep away. And that was enough excitement and activity that he crashed and burned for a good part of the day!  And I mean he went and crashed in his crate!!!  Lol lol. 

I got Brian a bunch of shirts and a gift card from Dillard's. He lost some weight and his clothes were ... big. Lol. Shawn had purchased a new computer. So Brian and I paid for the extras, at her request. We went to the Microsoft store at Fashion Show mall. Made the Apple Store look like amateurs. And the MS Surface pro. Wow. So light. Makes our laptops look like tanks. :-(  Dad wanted and received a new wallet and somehow a gift card to his favorite store got in the wallet. I asked for and received slippers..the tile floor is cold, a humidifier..the desert is dry, and a Fitbit...it's waterproof and can go into the pool with me!  It was a nice Christmas and we had pretty much agreed that the new house with the new stove, oven and dishwasher was the real Christmas gift for the family. <3  Loving my kitchen! 

We finally mastered the art of a small dinner. I have to add that we had a few hiccups. So. We had a rib eye roast, greens, cornbread, fancy rice and potato salad. Potato salad was made the day before. I must say that it takes me hours to make the potato salad. Brian and Shawn helped. Took less than 2 hours!!!!!  Brian thought he forgot an ingredient. Rushed to the grocery store to get it, and the when he got home he found the forgotten item (!).  Oops!  

Christmas Day, I planned to start the greens at a certain time, then I realized he'd purchased bunches of greens instead of the packages. Oops!  These babies needed to be cleaned and cut. Time to make the fancy rice. Had the onions and celery and chives. Somehow we lost the mushrooms.  Oops!  Ah well. I just added thyme and garlic powder instead. And finally the rib eye roast. 

The rib eye roast!  Brian ordered it a few weeks ago. And let me preface this with Brian can cook a roast and steaks to rival any steak house. So a rib eye roast sounded right and good. He ordered a 5 bone roast. Sounded good to me. He picks up the roast Saturday afternoon. When he returns home he calls me to the kitchen to see his roast. Whoa!!!  That thing was huge. HUGE. Oops!! Lol lol. Fred Flintnstone huge. Lol lol lol. We could have fed our entire cul de sac. Lol lol. Anyway. He started cooking it in the morning. And he had a precise method. And you know what? He cooked this huge rib eye roast to perfection. Cooked it medium and it was tasty. Yum. And we have a lot of leftover roast!  Lol. 

I did dialysis treatment Christmas Eve night. The blood leak sensor went off, but that was because I moved and pulled on the little cord. Brian reset it and we went back to sleep. We planned to do treatment Christmas night (right), but everyone was tired. We'll do it tonight. I guess if I have to do dialysis, I can do it on my terms, rather than being tethered to a location and time and rigid schedule. Dialysis is hard enough as it is. Ugh. I hate dialysis. I hate living like this. But I guess the alternative is no alternative. Lol. Well this paragraph went off the rails. I'm doing the best I can. 

Today we're finally going to see Star Wars. And Brian wants to use his Dillards card. And Shawn is giving him a mini Dillards shopping spree. Nice to have a kid who now has a few coins!  Lol. And I'll do treatment early. I am "off schedule" sort of. Deep water fitness is tomorrow at 8AM. I need to have the needles out of me for 8 hours to get into the pool. The scabs need to form so I can swim. I guess one day I'll go over bandaging and stuff after treatment. And. Shawn and I need manicures and pedicures!  

That's it for today!  Enjoy your day after Christmas. And the rest of the week!  Oh yeah. Dad went to the hot tub on Christmas Day. He just wanted y'all to know that!  ;-D

The "Christmas Eve 2017", edition.

Good Sunday morning! We're finalizing Christmas plans. Shawn arrived Tuesday evening. And it's been a blur since she arrived. Dad and Brian treated me and Shawn to lunch at the Top of the World restaurant in the Stratosphere, 101 or so stories up. We went last year and enjoyed it so it's now an annual thing. The view is spectacular and believe or not, the food is pretty good. We even splurged on desert. And of course we all shared. It's fun watching Dad digging into chocolate especially when he initially declines. 

Glen continuously surprises, entertains and impresses us. This is my 5th dog and he is smarter than our previous dogs. And that's a statement. He is a puppy though. He'll be 4 months on December 28. He gets that he needs to pee and poop outside. He also is trying to let us know he needs to go outside. He brings he's toys to is to play fetch, keep away and tug..those standard doggie games. He also will have toy in his mouth then push a ball with that toy and play fetch or chase by himself. Sometimes he will go into his crate at night by himself...putting himself to bed. And then he's figured out how to open closed doors...doors to rooms we'd like him not to enter. Like all of the bedrooms. Lol. He raises hell when dogs go by the house, or when the doorbell rings. I activated the blue tooth speaker to play some music. He really took offense at that. Lol. 

Then there's Christmas preparations. We'd initially planned to get a nice big tree. But having a puppy changed that. Even just having a dog in the past, we had to adjust. My first dog ate all the candy canes on the tree. Our last westie played with the ornaments at her level on the tree, so the bottom of tree was not decorated.   For Glen, we got a console table...which I wanted anyway and 3 foot artificial prelit tree. And instead of the lights we usually had inside on the Windows, we got a projector for outside. I actually like that. And guess who is gonna make out like a bandit tomorrow?  Lol. Everyone has bought lots of toys for him. And he'll get the rest of his vaccinations early next month, so we'll be able to take him out in public. And to a trainer!  Lol. 

On the dialysis front, I'm doing good. Feeling pretty good for the most part. I still have punky days, but it's part of the package. And every now and then I need to give Brian a break from all the work and tasks that are involved with me doing home hemodialysis.  I absolutely could not do this without him. And I am positive that by him doing this is increasing my life expectancy.  And in addition to this he pushes the hell out of me to stay active and do stuff. So yeah. He needs a break every now and then. I wish I could explain to you just how much he does. And when Shawn is here she's a huge help to all of us. And.  She and Glen are best pals. Lol. 

That's it for today. Enjoy your holiday!  

The "Finding Time", edition.

Good Thursday morning! I know I know. It's been a while since an entry. I need to find time to write. And time is an issue this time of year ... This year.  I'll start of with dialysis stuff. After Thanksgiving a component of my dialysis machine was causing problems. I'll try to explain. There are 2 parts to the machine. One is the actual dialysis machine. Now during dialysis you need a fluid called dialysate. Dialysate is the fluid that runs thru the body and removes the waste. Blood in, blood runs through the dialysate, toxins are removed and go into the dialysate and clean blood returns to the body. 

Well the machine, called Pureflow, that creates the dialysate crapped out. The dialysate is created using a premixed sack and tap water. Since the Pureflow crapped out we had to go to plan B. Dialysis patients always have a plan B, C, D and E. You know, that life threatening stuff. Anyway. The plan B is to use pre made bags of dialysate. Yes, we have some stashed away. All home hemodialysis patients do. Well there was another issue. I normally do dialysis at night 5-6 hours at night.  When I use the bags, treatment is 3-4 hours. Here's the thing. I use 7 bags of dialysate during regular treatment. Neither us nor my nurse could even contemplate how many bags I'd need for nocturnal. Lol. So I went back to short daily dialysis. Boo. Oh yeah. This includes adjusting the settings on the dialysis machine. Because it adjusts the flow and time and rate of removal. 

The company worked with Brian to fix the machine. And sending us extra bags. Yeah. This causes storage problems, but eh. Lots of packages from Fedex from the company. Finally late last week a technician came out to change out the offending part. Now I must say that the phone tech support is great. Lots of troubleshooting. So by the time the technician changed the part, the issue was solved. I finally went back to nocturnal this past Monday. I did retain more fluid than I would like during those several weeks, so now I'm removing it during treatment. It will take about a week or 2 to recover. Tell ya what though. I missed that nighttime treatment. Brian and I both disliked having to break up the day for treatment. And as an aside, Glen had to go to his crate during treatment. He is absolutely not allowed into my bedroom. Lol. Puppy needs to learn more commands!  

I also wanted to touch on another type of dialysis, peritoneal dialysis. Long time readers may recall me explaining it. Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) differs from home hemodialysis by filtering and cleaning blood within the body rather than through an outside dialyzer. With peritoneal dialysis, the patient's abdomen is filled with a special solution called dialysate that helps remove waste and extra fluids from the blood. PD requires a permanent catheter is the stomach. Strict attention to a sterile atmosphere must be maintained. The nifty thing about PD is you can do this alone, no need for a partner. And if you freak out about needles, PD is for you. But you do the PD exchanges (dialysis) several times a day. And possibly use a cycler at night. PD was not an option for me because of the catheter in the stomach. I like swim to much. And quite frankly, needles don't faze me. But it is a viable option. 

Well that's it for me for today. I'll make an effort to write another entry soon. Update on holidays, house, and Glen. And for the fun of it, it's unseasonably warm out here. Loving it. Especially after seeing the early snow in Michigan. :-(

Enjoy your day!  

These are the dialysate bags. And yes, when I travel I have to use this set up. The company will ship the bags to my hotel or location......IF I stay at least 3 days. Less time than that then I have to cart them around myself. And each box contains 2 bags. I use 7 per treatment. I can cart around a lot of boxes. :-(

The dialysis cartridge. This is where the magic (cleaning of the blood) happens.

This is the setup I use at home. The stand is the Pureflow machine. 

This a SAK which creates the dialysate from tap water. Takes 6-8 hours to fill up. 

Diagram of peritoneal dialysis. The catheter stays in the stomach and can be highly susceptible to infection if you neglect the asceptic process. 

The "The Day After....", edition.

Good Friday morning!  Sitting in the bed watching "The Highlander", while doing treatment. Need to get it out of the way. We fixed dinner yesterday for 6. Me, Brian and Daddy, of course. And Shawn flew in from Oregon. Yes. I like that my child is close enough. Whoo hoo!! Our other 2 guests are 2 close friends of ours who recently moved from Detroit to Las Vegas. We served Honey baked ham, roast turkey and smoked turkey. We cooked candied sweet potatoes, dressing with sausage, macaroni and cheese and chipotle green beans. I also had the requisite relish tray...I got that from my mom and can't seem to do away with it!  We all overdid it on the deserts. Our guests brought a delicious chocolate pie and a pound cake. We had a pumpkin pie (for dad) and a pecan pie. I also wanted a caramel cake, but I haven't been able to find anything remotely like Reen's out here. {{cry}}. We order a caramel cake from a "favorite bakery". Not only was I disappointed, I didn't like it...at all. Money spent and lesson learned. We threw it away.  Anyway. We all had a great time. The puppy was crated during dinner and never uttered a peep. Good dog!  And we all had a great time!!  So glad they are here! 

Did I mention that Shawn flew in Wednesday night?  Well she did. It's a cheap 2 hour flight from Portland. I love having her I. The same time zone and relatively close!  Anyway. Dad wanted to take me and Brian out to dinner for our anniversary and we agreed to wait until Shawn arrived. The dilemma was to figure out where we wanted to go. We finally decided on The Melting Pot. Brian Shawn and I had been in Detroit. Dad had never been. I made reservations for Friday evening and off we went. We did the full four course meal. Cheese fondue, a salad, proteins, and chocolate. Yes it was good and guess   who enjoyed it?  Why Dad did, of course!  He'd never had fondue. And he even enjoyed cooking his proteins in the broth. When the final course of chocolate came out he declined. But his granddaughter told him he should try it since he was there. And try it he did. And he loved it!  Lol. I hadn't seen my dad eat desert or chocolate since....I can't remember. We got the dark chocolate fondue and it was just delicious. Yum yum yum. 

I should mention that I started this entry Friday morning during treatment and just didn't feel like writing and now it's Sunday morning.  Eh. Treatment is pretty routine. Wednesday I had a blood pressure drop, but I was able to alert Brian  and he gave me some saline which fixed the problem. During Friday's treatment and treatment last night, Shawn was in bed with me. <3. 

So now it's Sunday morning. The kid is still asleep. Dad is at church, the puppy is chewing one of his many toys.  So many toys. Spoiled puppy!  Brian in on his iPad and I'm finishing this entry. That's pretty much it. Shawn leaves in the morning, but she's already purchased her tickets for her Christmas visit...Whoo hoo!!  It's been unseasonably warm..81 degrees on Thanksgiving. Nice. Movie day today for us. Have a great day!  

Desert!

Always moving..

The "Dialysis, A Puppy, and Thanksgiving", edition.

Good Friday morning. Would you believe Glen, the puppy, has kept us busy?  And how have we settled into the new house?  Well let's start with something totally new and unrelated. When we moved to the new house we knew we'd need to eventually replace the appliances. With the stove being replaced immediately. They old one was pretty funky and 2 burners didn't work..on a gas stove. Oh yeah. We went from an electric stove for most of our marriage to gas. Yeah we had gas in our first house. But I grew up with electric. Anyway. We got a pretty nice countertop gas stove. Then just before Labor Day we had an "incident" with the lock on the oven which killed the oven.  A built in oven and microwave. Okay. So instead of getting the microwave/oven combo, I opted for the less expensive option of a double oven and a counter top microwave. 

And oh yeah. The dishwasher sort of wobbled so that needed to be replaced. The plan was to get the dishwasher after the stove, but there was the oven "incident". I did promise the family that I'd get a dishwasher before Thanksgiving. So I looked up dishwashers and everyone has Black Sunday sales for the entire month of November. Jackpot!!  Finally made it to the store, purchased a nice reasonably priced dishwasher. It will be delivered and installed tomorrow. Yay!  So now all of my appliances are stainless steel. But what do we do with a trash compactor?  Lol. Eh. I watch too much Food Network and HGTV. 

Glen the puppy is growing. He's up to 7 pounds. He was 4.8 pounds when he arrived. He's fitting in well. He's inquisitive, has no fear. Barks at the garbage truck. Lol. He gets that puppy burst of energy and races through the house. He's learned the command "sit"!  He's starting to pee and poop outside (!)   He is still bitey and will be for a while. We are enjoying him a lot. Lots of tail wagging.  Shawn is coming for Thanksgiving and is looking forward to meeting him. 

Dialysis is going fine. However the Medicare contractors have determined that dialysis patients, all 400,000 of us, need treatment only 3 days a week, regardless of what are nephrologists prescribe. Because the contractors always know more than the doctor, who went to school for decades, who has treated us for years...punk ass bitches. Anyway. The dialysis community is angry and fired up. And concerned and frightened. There is a link that sends letters to our congress people. I posted the link and a plea for my friends to go to the link and share the on Facebook. I am so grateful for the many friends that responded.  I can't thank you enough. Much love and appreciation to you. I was also interviewed for a video to be sent to the powers Medicare contractors. The video includes patients who do home hemodialysis and we explained the benefits, especially the medical benefits  of extended treatment. If the contractors win, my treatment options will end by the beginning of the year. Ugh. There goes my life. Literally. My life span will be shortened. The short quick hard dialysis stuns organs including and especially the heart. 

Anyway. Life goes on for now. Shawn is in Oregon which makes coming here for Thanksgiving viable. As always we are excited. I also invited my friends over they just moved from Detroit. My menu is standard fare. Roast turkey, ham, and smoked turkey (yumyumyum) from Honeybaked Ham, macaroni and cheese, candied sweet potatoes, green beans with tomatoes, dressing, gravy, rolls, a relish tray (got that from my mom) and a caramel cake from Freed's Bakery.  We've been looking for a caramel cake similar to Ree's Cakes and Things and that is just impossible out here. And even though we ordered it, it's going to be different. We'll see. 

And to offset all of this,  the gym is having a potluck on Sunday. These people are insanely healthy. They eat ....things. Lol. So I'm going to make the vegetarian version of green beans and jalapeños. Keeps Dad busy snapping green beans. Lol. Ezekiel bread. Ugh. 

Well that's it for today.  We finally turned the heat on..but only because it gets chilly in the evening. Stay warm and enjoy your weekend!!!  Oh yeah. If you'd like the link to send your concerns to the congress people about the proposed cutting of dialysis treatment time, let me know. 

Glen. Wondering what he can get into. 

Glen inviting me to play a game of tug. 

The "An Average of 5 Years", edition.

Good Thursday morning. Today is November 2, 2017. Five years ago today I was told my kidneys had failed. Five years ago today I started dialysis. Five years ago today I was dying. My nephrologist told me I was 2 hours away from dying. I felt like it. I couldn't move. And finally I couldn't breathe. Brian had to call 911 for EMS. The techs gave me oxygen, wrapped me in a blanket, put me on a gurney and carted me out of the front door of my house. My neighbors were outside looking concerned .. Because that's what you do when EMS comes to your neighborhood. 

I arrived at the emergency area of the hospital and was processed pretty quickly. While waiting for the results of test, I had one more episode of not being able to breathe. Pulmonary edema, scary stuff. The best way I can try to describe it is no matter how deep you gasp, no air is getting into your lungs. I imagine it's what a fish feels like out of water. Even now, five years later, it's frightening to think about. I was eventually told that my kidneys had failed and I would be starting dialysis immediately. Well, now I knew why I was feeling so bad. And there will a procedure to make me feel better. 

Of course I remember very little after that. I was taken to the intensive care unit (ICU). The last thing I remember was nurses taking off my clothes. When I wake up, I'm in a room with a zillion monitors. I had a blood pressure cuff on my arm taking my bp at regular intervals. I had an IV on the other arm. I have a Foley catheter (ugh). And I had a new catheter contraption on the right side of my groin. Apparently that was the emergency catheter for emergency dialysis. I had had a dialysis treatment....that I have no memory of. Now that's being very ill. 

I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday in ICU. I was feeling better after the initial treatments, but I had a long way to go. I recall waking up at night being incredibly thirsty, but i was to weak to reach the button to call the nurse (looking back 5 years later, why was the button so far out of my reach???).  My voice was to weak to yell, plus my throat was parched, so I could barely whisper.  Picture me feebly trying to holler "help nurse".    During the day I had a dedicated nurse, but at night we all shared a nurse, I guess. The dialysis guy brough dialysis to me. And I had a physical therapist come to help me walk again. I had to use a walker. For the record I used the walker for the next 2 months...then I moved to a cane. 

The following Monday I was moved to a regular room. I stayed in the hospital until Friday. A full week. There was a distinct difference on how I felt from when I was admitted to when I was discharged. A world of difference. I felt much better, but I was nowhere near 100%. And I clearly didn't understand how much my life was going to change. 

So here I am, five years later. I never thought kidney failure was a death sentence. I thought it was more like an inconvenience, but something I needed to adjust to. When I was doing dialysis in the centers I experienced death at an astounding scale. The turnover in center due to deaths was startling at first, then it just made me sad. Now that being said, there were others who had been there for years. There was even a mother son team doing dialysis. But why am I still soldiering on when so many have fallen? 

I know attitude has a lot to do with it. Being compliant on diet and lifestyle has a lot to do with it. And how I dialyze has a whole lot to do with it. Dialysis should done like a beef brisket, low and slow. Hahahahaha.  But it's true. In center, because the centers are a dialysis assembly line..move 'em in and get 'em out...we gotta make money..quantity over quality...treatment is high and fast. Do the treatment on the patients as quickly as possible. Well guess how that affects the heart?  Taking off too much fluid. Cramps, dangerous drops in blood pressure, passing out, nausea,....death.  This.  This is what gives the 5 year average life expectancy.  But there is more. 

An informed patient can counter this, even while doing incenter dialysis. The patient needs to know the settings that work for them. Keep track of their dry weight and know how much fluid can safely be removed during treatment. Incenter my upper limit of fluid removal was 2.5 kilograms. And I knew this because a wonderful tech actually tracked when I would crash ( dramatic and quick drop in blood pressure from too much fluid being removed). Patients need to know and question each med that is being injected into them and what meds are being described. And patients need to know that there are alternatives to doing dialysis in a dialysis center. 

You know that I transitioned to home hemodialysis a few years ago and the moved on to even longer slower treatment by doing it while I am asleep. But you know what?  I encounter medical professionals who are surprised I do hemodialysis at home...that I stick my own needles. Some don't believe me. Eh. Dicks. Anyway. 

Five years average. Well I'm passing on that. Still too much going on. I need to make my new house look like I had the Property Brothers over here (lol lol). And I have a new puppy that I need to get to dogdom so we can cuddle on the bed. Hell, he's not allowed in the bedroom yet. I don't see that for a few years, so there's that. And spending time with my fabulous daughter!!  Making it my 50 year anniversary.  Plus a few more trips. And perhaps a kidney transplant. Remember what I use to say when I first started the blog? "I got thangs to do". And that hasn't changed!  

So yeah. I made it to five years. That's nice, but can I do the same thing twice? (Who did I just paraphrase?  Hehe). I'm going for it!  Yeah, I get tired and yeah  bullshit things happen. But I'm good. Stuff always happens. So yeah. I'm here for a while longer. You can't rid rid of me yet!!

Bonus photo of Glen

The "Nearing 5 Years", edition.

Good Monday morning!  I know that 5 years ago this time I was pretty sure I was dying. And I really was dying. I just didn't know what was causing it. I felt worse than I ever had. Well. I'll return to that day on the 5th anniversary, November 2, 2012. For now, I'll talk about now!  

I just had to get a dog. And I just had to get a West Highland White Terrier. And I got it. I got the dog Wednesday night. So how have the past few days been?  We're delighted to have a puppy in the house. We're all adjusting, including the puppy, Glen. The first night we correctly anticipated the crying. We put Glen's crate in the breakfast room, the room furthest from the bedrooms. We could still hear the barking, but it was muted. As a matter of fact, the crying finally ended last night. At least it subsided early on and started up again when Glen realized we're we awake. 

The house sort of worked our favor for a puppy. We thought. We have a sunken living room, one step. Based on our previous westie puppy I thought we'd have a week before Glen could navigate the step. Heh. We had about 5 minutes before he navigated the step. At least we closed the doors to all the bedrooms and bathrooms. We spent time in the den and the den has a door we could close so we could keep an eye on him. Well. Saturday evening I left the door open to my bedroom. Guess who found his way all the way there?  Lol. Glen also found Grampy's room with Grampy in it this morning. Oh boy. 

The good news is Glen gives us cues when he needs to go outside. Yay! Smart puppy!  We went to PetSmart to get a crate and other supplies (toys). They had a buy $20 worth of toys, get a free toy box. Yes we got the toy box. Put the toys in the toy box. Glen got in the toy box. As a matter of fact he goes and plays with the toys in the toy box. Lol.  Yeah, we're enjoying the puppy. He follows us around. He greets us when we walk into the room. And he's just too cute. He barked at the garbage man today and fussed at the FedEx guy Friday. And yes, as soon as he has had his vaccinations, we're taking him to a trainer. One day he'll learn his name is Glen! 

Yesterday we tried a new Restaurant for our Sunday Brunch, Lucilles Smokehouse. So.  Much.  Food. I got baby back ribs, Dad got St Louis Ribs and Brian got brontosaurus ..er ..beef ribs. The ribs were pretty good. And we have enough left overs that we're having them for dinner tonight. My sides were meh. But we'll be back and I'll try other sides...and maybe the catfish...or the Nashville fried chicken...

Dialysis is going fine. My venous access is being difficult, but it goes through cycles. And by difficult I mean that sometime it takes a while for the needle to find the hole. Now before you freak out, the hole is a buttonhole.  The buttonhole is very much like a pierced earring hole. You know sometimes you can't hit the spot. That's all that's happening with my venous buttonhole. I'm really liking doing treatment at night. It gives me back my days. Oh yeah. The puppy is crated for the night when we start treatment. 

Nice weather for Halloween. I have decorations and candy. Hopefully we'll get some kids. At the very least, there is a grandchild in our cul de sac. I'll let the grandparents know she can collect from us. That's it for today. I'm able to write right now because Glen is taking a nap. Yay!  Lol. I think maybe I'll take a nap now, too!  Enjoy your day!