I'm loving this new thread already. Great job Dee!!!

I'm also a reader and lover of music. That doubled with a nice hot bubble bath usually lets me forget for a few minutes. That is, if the boys don't bang on the door and announce the next tattle that just CAN'T wait.
Example: (Mooooooooooommmmmm! Shane touched my popcorn!! No I didn't Mom,.....well, not until he kicked me......(me) "Cole, eat the stupid popcorn, and Shane if you touch your little brother one more time, I promise to climb in a chair and box your tall butt!!!) Mental picture: I'm 5 feet tall and my 12 year old already has me by three inches.....sigh..... smile

Anyway, when that fails, I can always look to my animals. It seems we all have a soft spot for the buggers. I have two cats, and an 80 lb Akita who is determined that she is a lap dog. If I've had an especially hard day, I go to Nikki, and just hug her around the neck and cry. She always lays that big brown-eyed beauiful head of hers on my shoulder and lets me fall. She is a hero of mine also. While hiking two years ago, she suffered "bloat". We were in a National Forest on Labor Day Weekend when she became swollen and in great pain. I had to call 911 from this remote mountain to find an animal hospital 60 miles away. The only thing I knew to tell the doctors was that she acted like a horse with colic. After rushing her in, in the middle of the night, we were told that she had literally flipped her stomach. The gases were building up in her system and killing her intestinal tissue. We could operate and have a 50/50 chance of saving her, or our dog would be dead by morning. After throwing every piece of damn plastic on me on the counter, I told the girl to keep running credit cards until she found one that would accept the "upfront" $2000 bill. It didn't matter. I was going to save her, if there was any way possible. I will never, and I know she won't either, forget them leading her down the hall to surgery. She looked back at me whining with, I kid you not, real tears running down her nose. I didn't give up on her and thank God, she's not giving up on me either.

Where would we be without these four-legged angels? I personally don't want to know.

Mandi

Husband diagnosed with stage III tonsil and floor of mouth cancer in August 2002. Three rounds of chemo/42 RAD treatments. Upper right lung lobectomy in March 2003. (Benign)