END OF THE ROAD

This is Margaret Mae and today is the LAST day of my secret BFF and my adventures.  We have had such a grand time and we hope that you have enjoyed reading about them also.  We also hope you got some laughs from us.  We read somewhere that laughs can cure most of the ails in the world so we were hoping our posts were better than Tylenol.

Gussie in his squirrel outfit.

that was rather dangerous....

 

Did you bring a ladder BFF???????

Where are the chips and beer mom?

We will always have Paris.......

and Easy

and Oklahoma and Texas...

and OLD SMOKey

And Casey....
And the Texas Map....bhahahahhahah

HERE WE ARE SULLY....

Wait BFF do you see that NoTe on the door!!!

What does it say???

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't forget to guess who my BFF is....we will donate monies to the local dog sanctuary and our friend will donate money in their name to their local dog sanctuary...it is a win win situation.

 

MM & BFF

 

STELLA ROSE

Yesterday Stella had another eye check up. She has been going almost every two weeks.  The vet has tried hard to find a ointment, or drops or anything that would stop the progression of the damage to Stella's left eye....but finally yesterday after she did the tear test and she was even worse after two weeks on her new medicine she decided we had hit a brick wall.  We started this whole eye drops etc. clear back when she was 6 months old.

So she gave me the name of two eye specialists here in Iowa and we discussed a strong possibility that she has severe glaucoma in her left eye, and it could progress over to her right eye.  She also told me that we as adults do not often notice the severe pain that glaucoma causes to their dog or cat.  We have been giving Stella a pain pill each morning, and I have noticed her rubbing her face more with her paws or on the floor etc.  I have also noticed she has a much lower tolerance for Maggie and her bulliness at times.

I have been suspecting this so it was not a big shock but it still broke my heart for her.  I know there are dogs out there who get along fine with one eye, and go about their lives.  I am hoping if it has to be that type of loss Stella will be one of them.  I think she will, she has always shown a brave heart.  I also hope they can stop it from developing worse in her right eye. 

So I will let you know more as we find out.

deb

RODEO PART II---CONTEST

IMPORTANT....IMPORTANT
Before we finish up our story we wanted to let you know about a little contest we are going to be putting on with my secret BFF.   Once our story is done today, we want you to try to guess and leave it in our comments just who this girl/guy is.  Whether it a doggie or cat or piggy or birdie or giraffe (no Jim you cannot enter and neither can any of your family) that guesses who it is...we will make a donation to the Dog Star Sanctuary in YOUR name and to make it double better my Secret BFF said THEY would also do a donation to wherever they live in YOUR name also....WOWZER!!!


So after picking up Casey our local cowdog we headed off to the rodeo.  In our trusty rodeo truck.

We could tell the rodeo was right down the road from all the dust in the air and when we pulled into the pasture to park this is the first thing we saw!!
Casey decided he wanted to enter in the horse throwing you off so hard you hit the ground and bounce competition"...we were so excited for him....GO CASEY!!

He came in second place with enough monies to buy us girls our supper.

My BFF and I decided we wanted to try our hand at our own version of riding a horse ...

Oh we are backwards????  We didn't notice.

 

We had the grandest time, but then Casey said he had a big ole Texas surprise for us and he pulled this out of his pocket.....

See that red dot SULLY!   WE are getting closer to you buddy.

So after we tried one more time to see Sully's house from on top of ole Smokey we decided it was time to hit the road one last time....

Come here ole smokey.....

And so I leave you with this thought:

Margaret Mae and my BFF

RODEO GIRLS---PART ONE

WELL it all started when we ..as in me and my Secret BFF and JIM went to the WRONG town in Oklahoma looking for Sully.  Since then we have found out that my brother, true and blue Angus slipped us the wrong information about EXACTLY where HOWE is at ....and we ended up wif pie all over our faces.  So of course when we got home this is what happened to GUSSIE.  Bahhahah......

Well being the good-hearted cowgirls that we are we weren't gonna let a little mistake like being the  wrong state at the wrong time stop us..... so we waved goodbye to OKLAHOMA and headed down to Texas.......

Jim was even getting into it, he changed as soon as we crossed the Okla/Texas line.

You can hardly tell he is a baby giraffe anymore can you wif all his getup on.??????  Now my BFF and I we decided we had better change for comfort also so we switched out of OKLAhOMA clothes and changed into our Texas clothes...that way we blended in and Sully would not find us first.

This is me, (yes I have a problem wif my tongue always hanging out...Gussie says the boys think I am so weird because of that...pssft on him)

This is my Secret BFF...can you even tell us apart??

We had one more stop to make.

See we had been on the phone all night just girl talking and yacking to one of Stella Rose's good friends and he offered to go wif us, to the rodeo you know to keep us safe AND most importantly he knew JUST where SULLY lives......so we drove on down to his house and picked him up.

He told us cowboys aren't really afraid of vacuum cleaners baby giraffes so he brought along his poop shooter to keep us safe.  Well, that was news to us!!

We honked the horn of our big ole Texas Rodeo Truck and he came a running out of the house all ready for the rodeo.....

Yep its our friend CASEY!!!

Wait till you see what happens in Part Two.......

We're watching you Sully!

 

 

 

Maggie Mae and BFF

WISHFUl WEDNESDAY

I thought I saw you sitting in the sun yesterday.  Sometimes we still hear you meow at suppertime.  We hope you are giving Sammy and Trudie heck up at the bridge.  We have decided we did not need another prison guard, you broke the mold.  We miss you our brother.

Stella Rose, Margaret Mae and Angus McConnell

National Puppy Day

We have to do this, cos everyone loves puppies, and everyone needs to smile.

Me at 6 months of age.

Me again.

Maggie at 12 weeks

Maggie when she liked me.

Gussie in the baby swing

Gussie at 10 weeks...


Stella rose

THANK YOU-FAVOR

Thank you for all your positive and loving comments yesterday.  Although they brought tears to my eyes, they also reinforced how powerful blogville is when one of their families are hurting. 

Last night I went over to see Macey and she read her first book to me ever by Dr. Seuss.  It was a long book...lol.....and she struggled through some of the words, but she did a great job.  She was very proud of herself, and I was her.

I rubbed her leg and foot and we talked about how different her toes looked on her swollen foot...two of them were so swollen they almost looked like one.  She laughed and said, "look at my weird toes grandma!"   I jokingly said, " as long as when you wake up in the morning they are not yellow and you don't go quack quack then you are just fine...."   She thought that was funny, I had a hard time swallowing.

Our next step is on the 13th she will have two specific tests mapping out her lymphatic system, and showing where the damage is.  This will also show if there is time for any specific treatments or if surgery is needed right away.  We think because of the way insurances are nowdays they will require some type of treatment first.  One in 6,000 children have primary lymphedema....more girls than boys.  As one of you said, hopefully as Macey grows up research will get a better handle on it, and they will have even more ways of treating it.  (her dr. yesterday actually thought she had Cancer before and that is how she developed lymphedema, because primary is so unusual)

On another note some of you know my mom found out a few months ago that she has breast cancer.  She is 79.  After all the tests, we did find out if you had to have it, the type she has and where it is has a good prognosis.  She started her treatments about one month ago, 6 months of hormones, several biopsies during those 6 months, then a lumpectomy and then 33 weeks of radiation.   They put her on a pretty aggressive form of the hormone so she is starting to have some rough side effects, but is trying her best to deal with it.  Yesterday was her first biopsy after beginning the hormones and the tumor had shrunk 1/2 cm.  We were all celebrating as you can imagine!!!!  The dr. said it may not shrink that much each month, but it will shrink......oh happiness.

My favor is this...I am always telling her about my blog, and my friends and the four leggers and since her and my Dad live out in the hills and dips of Southeastern Iowa I wondered if anyone would like to send her a card.  She does not have any friends living anymore, and has Dad and us kids.  I will never forget how your cards made my friend Cindy feel, and she still talks about them, and looks at them.  If you would like to you can send me an email and I will give you their address.  Please do not worry about it if you cannot.  simpson_longatyahoodotcom.

Well, it is girls day out and I know my girls are really to go and have some fun.  I think Maggie and her BFF have a few things planned this week, and then at the end of this month will unveil just who that secret friend is.  They sure have been having a great time.

Deb

MACEY UPDATE

I always steal pictures from my daughters page, she takes better pictures than I ever would.  This is Macey last week with her sister and brothers.  Its a special picture but that's a story for another day.

Today Macey was seen by the Lymphodema-Plastic Surgery Dr. at the University of Iowa Hospitals.  Apparently he is one of those elusive butterflies we have been looking for.  He is one out of five dr. in the US that does this special surgery but I am getting ahead of myself.

Macey is now diagnosed 99% sure with Lymphedema. It was NOT caused from the bacteria that was found earlier, it is not caused by a blockage or anything worse it is Primary Lymphedema or Congenital Lymphedema.  Which means she was born with it. For whatever reason it decided to rear its head in September and she is at Stage 3 of the disease.  There are five stages.  The last two suck.

She is going back in two weeks for one full day of testing.  It will show a map of her whole lymphatic system, with contrast etc.  It will be a long day, but she is a real brave little girl.  We adults need a few of her qualities....lets just say we are not as brave.   Then two days later she will go back, and the Dr. will let her parents know if she needs a couple of months of special treatment or if they need to do surgery right away. 

The surgery is called LVA for short.  She is only the 2nd child he has ever seen.  We don't really know anything yet about the length of the surgery till after all the tests, but basically I believe they will try to reroute her lymphatic system so it will work properly....the down side is because it is Primary and not caused from something you can take away, it will be something she will have to deal with the rest of her life.

The Dr. told her momma today there is not a lot known about Lymphedema yet but they are starting to learn more.  It is a work still in progress.

Macey's mom has always had vascular/autoimmune problems even as a young girl, Kylei was born premature and now we wonder if it is all tied together.  Most likely.

So we have our answer after searching since last September.  Around Christmastime we started thinking that was what was going on, we just needed someone who went to medical school to tell us.
We are feeling lots of different emotions right now, we tell ourselves there are much worse things in the world, but when it comes to your child, grandchild it still hurts you.

And so we begin our journey......Stella Rose's Momma

EMBARASSED!!!!

I, Maggie Mae Simpson is very embarrassed that we harassed the town of Howe, Oklahoma looking for our little buddy SULLY.

Apparently he didn't live in this house

 

 

 

Nor did he live in this house

 

Or did he even live in this state

We got a message from him laughing his butt off at us that he lived in another state with the same name of town as the one we ended up at.

Sully-1
Maggie-0
Gussie-1  cos he helped out his buddy.

Maggie Mae

 

SNOOPERVISION--PART ONE

WELL, we won't be back on here until Monday but we wanted to leave you wif another story from me and my BFF's adventures.  I hope you are not getting tired of us having so much fun and sharing it wif you.  (We plan on letting everyone know after GIRLS NIGHT OUT who my friend is)

I do know one little dog who is tired of me and tired of my BFF.....his name is Sully, he is stalking us, and guess what else I found out through my snoopervision......Gussie, MY BROTHER has been helping HIM.  Gussie the little dummy forgot to delete the messages he has been sending Sully and I read them.....so that is where we begin this story.

FIRST we did this:

Officer Bites is going to be very mad at Gussie that he was stooopid enough to get caught...we made sure he could not contact Sully and warn him in anyway.

Then yesterday afternoon my BFF and I decided to go down to OKLAHOMA to visit a rodeo AND our little snooper friend.

DO YOU SEE WHERE THAT STAR IS ON THE MAP SULLY???????????



My BFF and I hitched a ride out of Iowa on this pretty little plane

and we touched down in the big airport in Oklahoma City Oklahoma.  My Mom's niece is a special ped. nurse in a big hospital in this big city so we were just gonna stay with her for the night.  I am sure she will have plenty of room for us.

So after we spent the right in Oklahoma City we rented a truck to take us to our next destination before driving on to the big rodeo.  All cowgirls drive trucks I told my secret BFF.

We also brought Jim along for protection since we couldn't find Gussie pee shooter to steal and bring wif us.

My BFF's hat is a little big for hers.

We arrive in this little town--HOWE OKLAHOMA!!!!!! 

 and immediately start looking for a house where we are going to visit.....is this the house where SULLY lives....lets go ask...."SULLY ARE YOU IN THERE"  It had a for sale sign in the front yard...maybe he knew we were coming.

 Or is this Sully's house.....SULLY ARE YOU IN There??????

  Well peoples kept giving us all kinds of directions so we are driving over there to surprise sneaky SULLY.

Do you think he will be surprised to see us a knocking on his front door, do you think he will think the dingo's are in his yard.....we are going to make a lot of commotion and see if he looks out his window.....

What do you think SULLY will do when he sees us? 

Maggie Mae and LP

ADVENTURE SATURDAY

No pictures as usual.

So just close your eyes and I will tell you a true blue story.  So on Saturday my momma, and the two grandgirls were on their way over to the grandgirls house to take care of bear while the parents were gone.  Remember bear our cousin.

As they were leaving the house Mom noticed across the way some little kids, and their momma outside and a big dog playing wif them.  She thought it looked like a Golden.  Mom loves them.

So as they were walking out of Alcatraz to get into the car, all of a sudden here comes the Golden, who once she got close to Mom ..Mom realized it was probably a lab mix, with the most beautiful amber eyes.  She was probably around a year old, jumping, and tail wagging all happy.

Mom and the girls noticed right away that "I just had a bath" smell, and that she was wearing a pretty purple collar but no tags.  Momma told her to go on home, so her and the girls could get in the car.

Well Ms. Pretty purple collar dog decided she was not listening to our momma and followed the car up the street, and out onto the highway!!!!!!!!!

Mom had a fit, and pulled the car over, and told the grandgirls to open their back door, and let the dog in.   Ms. Pretty collar jumped right into our little blue car, like it was HER car and not OURS and jumped all around in the car all excited.

Remember she was very wet, and smelled, and also had big muddy paws.  So it is pretty easy to imagine what everyone and the car looked and smelled like.  (Mom had just her pj's on also)

Mom drove back to the neighbors house, where everyone was still playing outside and rolled down her window and NICELY said, to the momma, "we have your dog, and are bringing her back to you..."   The other momma looked at our momma and said, "its not our dog."

OHMYPUG!!!!!   WELL, after Ms. pretty purple collar heard those words, she jumped up into the front passenger seat, and curled up.  I guess she thought she was going wif everyone to feed Bear.

Mom thought about it, and decided to drive across the river to the Frankenvet and see if anyone is missing and worrying about her.  She talked to the girl at the desk, and said someone else had called in and said this dog had been on their deck all night.  So they gave Mom a leash and they took her into the building to wait on her owner to call and take her home.  Mom then realized it was not bath water we were smelling but probably river water!

Mom called on Monday when she got back from her crappyass dr. appt. and they said the owner came and got her on SAturday!   Whew!!!  We were worried about her.  We hope whoever the owner is they keep her safe in their yard from now on.

At least our story had a good ending, except for the car, it took Mom quite awhile to get it cleaned up but she said it was worth it.
Stella Rose

CAN YOU GUESS??

CAN YOU GUESS WHERE MY BFF AND I SPENT THE DAY??

FIRST we rode into town in our hotshot truck.....I couldn't remember which side of the road I was supposed to drive on so I just drove up on the rails........hopefully the policiana do not have good surveillance cameras like they do back in the blogville......

AFTER that we decided to use up some of our energy before going for a long relaxing walk and pretending we were tourists so we did this next.  Do you know where we are Sully???  I hear you are coming to get us.......bahahahahahahahh.......

WE are watching for you Sully boy!

Later we lit the sky up cos that is something Puddles taught me so well to do and I am passing this honor down to my new friend.   See Sully if you would have been my BFF then you and I could have been breaking the law together.......

After a much needed rest we changed out of our bird/dog watching clothes, (by the way did you see the crowd that we have drawn to us at that tower) and decided to do a little shopping and eating....and take in the local scenery.....

WE did this

Do you know where we are?


And we did this

OH we loved the local cuisine and coffee......yummy!  Could you put some of that in a doggie bag so we can take some home for a late night snack???  By the way did you notice we dressed alike, girls like to do things like that don't they......

And we finished our day with a late night movie at this house

We had so much fun....did you have fun Easy??  (Easy mom toles us no more jumping on the bed)

What a wonderful day spent with my SECRET BFF so heres to you Sully.....blahhhhhhhhhhhhh

MM and LP