Well it has been a while since I updated everyone on my personal journey through hell. It means a lot that when I go places and bump into any of you guys that you ask how the situation is going. First off, you Care! and second of all - you read what I write! It means a lot. Dad has declined further. He just now got transfered back the acute care facility where I believe a lot of the past postings took place. He begs to go home. He is finally paying attention to the bad news details. They say that patients focus on the sugar coating and ignore the uncomfortable stuff until it is way late in the game and then they act like it is all new to them. On the one hand I am dang glad I ain't the one there holding his hand, but on the other I am sad for my brother and sister who are there - more than likely answering the same questions over and over every day to both my dad and my mom. They are looking into Hospice care since it is paid for by insurance. As I understand it, all you need to qualify is a 6 month life expectancy. Once that is granted, you can recieve care at home even if it means round the clock nursing care (which is what he needs) and it doesn't matter what happens at six months, people have been in the system for years. The current dispute is over where to be buried. My dad is from this teeny tiny dustbowl town in western Oklahoma. A place that just screams 'prairie', surrounded by wheat fields and cattle with an occasional oil derrick. A place so flat you can sit on your front porch and watch your dog run away, run away clear to the next county!! I don't want to live there but I sure do like to visit it. So I would enjoy that drive once a year. Evidentally this place doesn't have the same appeal to my mother. She would rather have him buried in the town where they live now. Odd how we attach ourselves to places. Our family has lived in five states (and that's just the ones I remember! Lord knows how many there were before the kids were born), and two prefectures in Japan where I grew up. Guess this makes a good case for cremation. The only way you can possibly sprinkle yourself from one end of the country to the other. Since he seems to be one of those long lingering death sorta guys, nobody knows how long this could go on. The doctors are baffled that he persists today. He isn't uncomfortable, he isn't in pain, for part of the day he is alert and talkative. My brother is exhausted and wants someone else to swoop in and make all the decisions. He doesn't want anything blame-able to be tied to something he said or did. My sister is a realist. She sees that this isn't going to end well or soon. She just wants my dad to go home while he can participate in the house and activities there. Once he gets further diminished she won't care if he is placed in an institution. Right now, none of us can give him the medical care and cleaning that he needs. The only option would be to hire a live in 24 hour nurse. They only have the money to do that for a few months but by then he may qualify for hospice care. He is concerned about spending all his money instead of leaving any of it to us kids. Our answer is to ask him once again to draw us a map to the buried treasure in the backyard. We know its out there, somewhere, or maybe it was the yard in Fort Worth?

I have never been thrilled with the seam in our Silestone (color = Gedatsu). I would have been way happier with no seam at all but that was not possible. The seam never upset me tooooo terribly but it was a little bit of a sore spot for me for a bit after the remodel. Now going on 4 years later I only notice and think about it every now and then, not often at all. And when I do I think, Oh that darn seam, I would be great if you weren't there! And I move on. So many other great things to concentrate on, I won't let that blasted seam ruin everything else. I hope this helps? AND while we're talkin', something I never wrote about is the fact that the underside of all the silestone wasn't polished! It is a chalky white. You can't see it unless you bend down and look up so it's not a big deal at all, but I really would have been much happier if they polished the underside! Anyone else have theirs unpolished? Was I to request it be polished? Did they screw us over by not polishing the underside?

LOL! Here they are: Oberon -- 22 pounds of attitude! He'll be three on Nov. 6. Zora the Diva -- she just turned 3 on June 22 (she actually climbed into bed and pulled the covers up over herself) Zigfried (125 pounds, but Obie punks him out all the time. His bark is definitely worse than his bite!) and Zelda (she's a Pepper & Salt Giant, and one of 10 -- yes, TEN -- of Zora and Zig's litter born March 1 and 2 of 2007. Her coat is beginning to get more gray in it now; this pic was taken at the first of April) And finally, Zena (Zena is a puppy mill rescue that I intended to foster, but she fit in so well with my pack that she stayed) So, I guess you understand that I don't just want a pool -- I NEED a pool! Giants literally have webbed feet and will swim for hours if allowed to do so. Making the trek to White Rock Lake for swimming with my motley crew is no longer an easy thing to do. LOL! They are really humans in fur! Oh! And here's the ten little Giants last year, about a week before they went to their new homes (at seven weeks, they were alreay weighing between 20 and 25 pounds -- the size of my Mini! LOL!):

We purchased 18 Model # 5700 Atrium windows from McCoy's for our new house we are building. Out of the 18 windows, 13 of them have issues. They won't stay in place when raised. When the store sent their technician out to check them a spring popped out of one and broke the top corner of the frame. The Technician told my husband that we should have bought a better quality of window. These windows might be poor quality but they weren't cheap. The window was replaced yesterday but when the installer went to open it, the spring came out. The store salesman and manufacture rep is supposed to come out tomorrow to check all the windows. We were told the store ordered new springs for the windows but that was two weeks ago and they are still not fixed. I don't recommend these windows.