A little island time

Finally!!  We spent three absolutely glorious days at Jekyll Island last weekend and it was just what the doctor(s) ordered for us!!  We rented a villa at Driftwood Beach and it was perfect.  Two stories (those stairs were a struggle!), two bedrooms, a fully-equipped kitchen and I think our upstairs balcony had the best view in the whole place!  

Sunrise, sunburn, sunset, repeat.  We saw that on a t-shirt in a shop there and this was true for us.  We both got a little burned, despite constantly spraying each other down with sunscreen.  The days were overcast with long periods of bright beautiful sun and it was so absolutely worth it.  Larry's immediately turned brown and mine has now.  Gone are my days of burning, peeling and turning white again.  Since menopause, my skin tans and my hair is curly.  I'm a totally different girl!

We love Driftwood Beach and since we were staying right there, we went there first.  

We think that's probably 5th most romantic beach in the country, but who's arguing?  It is romantic.

It's a beautiful place and the site of some Walking Dead scenes come fall!  They filmed there my birthday week.  Don't miss it!

I love this picture I took of Larry.  He was so tired. 

My poor foot's first dip in the ocean since she went to hell and came back.  BEST. FEELING. EVER.  !!!!!!!

Driftwood Beach is miles and miles of trees that were once part of a forest and now have become driftwood from years of the sea washing over them.  We see lots of photographers there and we've even been there when a wedding was taking place.  Yep.  Quite the romantic spot and the best place for us to go first. 

We can't go anywhere without a cat finding us!  This little girl was right outside our townhouse Saturday night.  (And Sunday morning.  And Sunday night.  And Monday morning.)  She has her ear notched, which means she's a Jekyll Feral and has been caught, spayed and returned to live her life out on the beach and eat tuna and chicken and ham and whatever else visitors give her.  Not a bad life at all.  Shoot, I'd love it!

We got up early Sunday morning, had our coffee on the balcony and watched the sun come up.  The breeze off the ocean was downright chilly at times and we were loving that!  Got home and it's 100 degrees again.  Ugh.  

We spent Sunday morning at Jekyll Beach and could not have asked for better weather!  We just sat and relaxed and fed the seagulls and took dips in the ocean and just enjoyed being together.  I've never attended a more beautiful Sunday service.  It was such a long time coming and we enjoyed every second.  Look at that sky.  

Georgia has the most beautiful coastline.  I'm not sure why everybody wants to go to Florida all the time.  Not a big deal at all.  More room for us!

We went out Sunday afternoon and shopped a little and had supper at Jekyll Island Seafood Company.  And I got to wear my new Lilly dress!  I was so scared I'd get shrimp and grits on it.  I bought it earlier this summer JUST to have when we went to the beach.  It did not disappoint.

We played 18 holes of miniature golf and Larry only beat me by two strokes, which was a straight miracle.  I suck at golf, miniature or otherwise.  It was so fun, though.

We spent some all-to-ourselves time in the pool Monday morning, had breakfast at the Jekyll Island Golf Club and went back to the beach for a while.  We always have to go and say "see ya later" to the ocean.  Ever since I was a tiny girl, I've had to do that.  Not goodbye, see ya later.  'Cause I will.

Larry feeding the seagulls again.  Popcorn this time.  We "met" one seagull, Hoppy, we called him, who only had one foot.  He was there Sunday and Monday.

Larry wrote this in the sand.

It sure was.

All the Pyrex!

If you know me, you know I've been collecting vintage Pyrex for a while now.  Over five years.  It all started when my Maw passed away and I took her Amish Butterprint home with me.  When Larry and I discovered estate sales in 2014, it just took off from there and now we've got 238 pieces!  Whaaaaaa???  

I usually take them all down and clean them and the shelves a couple times a year, and rearrange them for the seasons.  I haven't been able to do that since before my first surgery.  I've just been dusting around them.  I don't let our housekeeper near the Pyrex.  They are off limits.  If one breaks, it's ME that broke it.

I started physical therapy this week.  I'm going two days a week for about an hour at a time, doing strengthening exercises, mostly, because I'm not going to be growing back any ligaments or tendons.  We're working on building my muscles up to help support where the ligaments and tendon can't anymore.  I was feeling up to it yesterday so down came all the Pyrex and I cleaned them, dusted the shelves and put them all back, rearranging them and putting fall patterns and colors front and center.  Larry helped me and I think we did a great job!  We also moved the dining room table next to the wall so now we have all this space in the kitchen!  Our kitchen and dining room are one big room open to the living room and I love that layout.

Here's how it looked once I got them all down off the shelves.  I blocked myself in and I had to make a maze to get through.  Banjo wouldn't even come in there!

Here's me, hard at work!

  Here's after!

Soooo much room now!  I told Larry we got lots of room for dancing in there now!

I moved the chicken lamp from the counter to the table and we like it there.  I just love a lamp in the kitchen.  It makes things so cozy.

I go back to work after Labor Day.  I feel like I'm nesting getting ready for a baby!  There's so much I want and need to do before I go back to work.  I'll be cleaning and organizing something every day!

He's my heartbeat

Larry had his ablation Monday.  We got there at 6:00 AM and they took him back at 8:00 sharp. They had told us the procedure would last anywhere from two to four hours.  I went to the family waiting room with our overnight bag, my pillow and my new Nordstrom blanket and I laid down on a small couch in there, watched a little of the morning national news and snoozed a bit.  I had zero anxiety over this procedure.  I was completely at peace.  Oh, I prayed, don't get me wrong, but I just had peace about it.  I knew he'd be okay.  The patient rep lets you know what's going on every hour so at 8:17, she came and told me they had started, at 9:15, he was doing great and at 9:45, he was done!  I grabbed our stuff and went to the recovery room where they were bringing him back to.  He was coming off the anesthesia while I talked to the doctor and found out that everything went great, the area that was causing all the trouble was located and frozen and hopefully, there would be no more AFib.  Larry's had an irregular heartbeat as long as he can remember, since he was a little boy, but as he's gotten older, it's gotten worse and a recent monitoring session we did through the VA showed that he was in AFib 70% of the time.  No wonder he felt so bad!  He wasn't getting very much of that really good oxygen-filled blood flow.  We got to a room around 12:00 and we just spent the night.  My sweet friend, Debbie, came twice to check on the boys and let Banjo out to potty.  (I am so very grateful for my friends.  They have been amazing, through all that's gone on the past year, always there to help out and bring food and coffee or whatever.)  I took a few pictures while we were camping out in the "Heart Tower".  We got NO sleep.  You know you can't sleep in a hospital!  It wasn't bad at all, though.  I slept on a pullout sofa next to Larry's bed with my blanket and pillow.  He was in a lot of pain at first, chest pain from the procedure and having to lay flat for four hours. The AFib showed back up Tuesday morning and his heart rate zoomed to scary levels!  It brought all the nurses in our room.  They told us that was to be expected, though, at first, and it should calm down but they still monitored him very closely over the next several hours.  They put Larry on another med to help with that and sent us home around 2:00.  All in all, I think we both received excellent care at the Luce Heart Institute.  Couldn't ask for better!  They should add my mama's name to a wing in that heart center.  She had two open heart surgeries and countless heart caths and angioplasties there.  Long before the "Heart Tower" came to be.  

I posted this pic on Instagram and commented that I don't have any tattoos but if I was to get one someday, it'll be Larry's heartbeat over my left breast.  His heartbeat over mine.  There's no other tattoo I'd want.

This picture made me laugh so hard.  This boy was ready to GO!

Thank you, Lord, for modern medical technology, that allows doctors to know how to fix things and help us when our bodies fail.  

August

And the foot saga continues.  

I had an MRI last Friday because I'm still in pain and my foot is swelling.  I went for my last (I hope!) appointment at the Wound Care Center yesterday and my wound has finally closed up and healed, just a couple of tiny scabbies but I think it's going to be okay now.  It's scarred so badly that the doctor said yesterday when she looked at it, "Look at your poor little foot".  

I was supposed to get the PICC line out yesterday, too, but the doc decided to wait until I see my foot doctor (tomorrow) as the MRI showed fluid still in the joint AND a torn ligament.  The same ligament that was repaired in November.  The repair didn't work.  He put in two corkscrew anchors and sutured the tear but the ligament just didn't attach.  I guess we knew that was a possibility but after everything I've been through, ending up with the same torn ligament was not what I expected.  I'll see the doctor tomorrow and we'll talk about my options.  I think it's time for another set of eyes to look at me and my MRI.  We'll see.

Larry's having a cardiac ablation next week, Monday, I hope.  We were set to go last week but there was a hiccup with the insurance and the VA and the doctor's office so we had to reschedule.  I cannot tell y'all how irritated that made me.  I cannot STAND incompetence.  Don't schedule a procedure until you have all your little ducks lined up.  Just me??

School started back here today.  That's just crazy early to me.  We always went back at the end of August.  Oh well, no back to school at our house!  Except the kids who wait at the bus stop Larry made for them.  Our house is a neighborhood bus stop and Larry made a little bench for the kids to wait on.  And the bus actually stops there!  Soooo cute.

It's still summer here!  I hope we get to the beach this month or at least by the time I start lighting pumpkin candles.  I need some vitamin SEA!!

***UPDATE***  I have TWO completely torn ligaments and a torn tendon.  The same ones that were repaired in November.  The repairs did not take.  Or hold.  Or what-the-hell-ever.  I'm DONE.  Doc says he did everything that could be done and I'm going to start physical therapy and pray that helps.  Six weeks of it did not help seven years ago when I first broke my foot but I'm willing to try again.  Maybe there's different care now.  Different things they can do.  I'm going back to work next month and we reserved a villa at the beach for later this month.  Life is gonna go on around here.