"Ferdinand The Cat"

O.k., I am hoping that the majority of you have read the book about Ferdinand the Bull who loved flowers and all the other cows made fun of him because he spent his days lying under the shade of a tree smelling flowers. I don't remember the rest of it, I am sure that there is a moral to the story, but the reason I bring this all up is because my cat is a complete and total freak for flowers!

Everytime we have had flowers around the house, the cat gets all weird and he will do almost anything to get to the boquet...I don't know if its that he likes to drink the flower water or he likes to eat the foliage because he does both. The problem lies in that he gets so into the flowers that he knocks the flowers over and spills whatever water is in them all over! We have woken up to find a dozen roses scattered all over the house and a giant puddle of water on our nice WOODEN table and chairs! Yes, it left a water stain. Now everytime Ari gets me flowers we have to keep them in the bathroom or in our bedroom and keep the doors shut at all times!

Ari surprised me with a beautiful boquet of roses and sunflowers and stuff, so I have been keeping them in the bathroom where we can enjoy them a little more. (We don't hang out in our bedroom much, it's super cold, it's super dark -so we can sleep during the day- and it's pretty small, so we mostly use it for sleeping.) At any rate, we had company over for dinner, he used the bathroom and forgot to shut the door when he was done. We didn't notice that the door had been left open until we heard this giant crash followed quickly by a large splash and Jack sprinting out to the living room as if his life depended on it! Auuuuhhg. Flowers everywhere, water everywhere...oh joy! Well, on the bright side, the flowers got some fresh water and the bathroom floor got mopped, so it's not all bad. : ) But from now on, our Cat will forever be Jack/Ferdinand the Cat, the flower loving freak! : )

On a completely different subject, I meet with my Surgeon tomorrow at 2 p.m. our time, (which is 3 p.m. your time if you live in OR or WA.) So I should be finding out whether or not I am going to have a surgery and hopefully when it will be. I am feeling a lot of anxiety. Mostly I am nervous about two things; the first is that the doctor will tell me that there is no hope for me and that there is nothing he can do to improve my back. I highly doubt that will happen, but keep in mind that fears are generally irrational. : ) The second thing that I am scared of is that I am going to have the surgery and all of the pain that comes after it. The surgery I am going to have (if I am having one) is very similar to the last one I had when they fused my back. Most of you know that that was a dusey, I was in hospital for a week, and then my doc gave me a choice of going to a nursing care facility, or if I was very lucky, perhaps I had family who could provide around the clock care for the first two to three weeks. Blessed as I am, my family was able and willing, but it was the hardest thing I have ever had to live through and I always said that I didn't feel like I could ever live through it again...so that's why I am scared...it was complete and total H-E-double hockey sticks, and it took a very long time, six month to a year to recover completely. Well, hopefully we still have my walker around somewhere because I know I will be needing that thing again. Blech. Sorry, I don't mean to dump on you, but I need to "deal" with these feelings. I have been really good at ignoring them and just staying busy in my head so I don't have to think about it or process it. I know that isn't the healthiest way to deal, so I am trying...it just comes out like this. : )

I appreciate, covet and request your prayers. I know that God uses them to help me find the grace that I need to get through this. Thank you for your prayers, I will keep you posted.

Love Kristen