Shifting Our Focus and More Tremors for Toby

I made a deposit into Rachel's bank account Friday afternoon to cover her spring semester and the final installment of 4 years of college tuition. We're feeling very grateful to have been able to help her as we have. So many of her friends haven't been so fortunate and will graduate with a sizeable amount of debt to overcome. Up until now, she's been our priority but I think she's in a position where we can begin to pull back and shift our focus toward shoring up our savings accounts before we exit the working world. Plus, I get a sense that she's ready to take over. I was telling her a few weeks ago that once we get our arms around our finances in our retirement, we'll see what we can do to continue to help her. She said she'd rather we didn't, that she wants to take it from here. I get that.

She's off to a good start. Her plans are to take the next year off from school after graduation and continue working to add to her total of hours in the medical field to enhance her application to whatever PA school she decides on. She'll try and bank as much as she can toward a car because I know that's high on her list of wants and needs. Public transportation is okay but there are times when its drawbacks get in the way; such as getting on the southbound bus out of Rochester for Minneapolis. There's no such thing. She needed the northbound bus. It cost her an hour and a little embarrassment but I doubt she'll make that mistake again.

I think this final semester before graduation will be one of her easier ones although I could be wrong, I hope I'm not because in addition to working at the retirement home where she's a Certified Nursing Assistant, she's also working 3 days a week in Minneapolis as a coordinator for STLF. She's a busy young woman!

I'm looking forward to the start of the Winter Olympics in Sochi but the threats of terrorism are more than a little concerning. Ski jumping/flying, downhill skiing, ski and snowboard aerials, and mogul skiing are some of my favorites.

We finally found some end-tables and a sofa table for our sunporch. We still have one smaller end-table to find for the chair and ottoman but for the most part, the room is complete. We're spending so much time out there. At this time last year, we had the addition on our radar but we didn't really intend to do it until this spring. I'm glad we moved it up on our to-do list. It's a big sigh for us knowing it's done and that we're so pleased with how it turned out. It's said that good things in life take a long time. I'd say that applies here.

If you know of anyone in the Minneapolis metro area who's looking to have some work done around their home, please consider suggesting they give Joe a shot at bidding the project. I can't say enough good things about him and the sub-contractors he works with. For those who may have missed it, here's a link to the blog I kept for our project. Joe's number is 612-597-3606.

We had a good day at Foci on Wednesday. Tammy continues to have fun working on her bud-vases. She's perfecting them and has many to give away, complete with flowers! I've been enjoying working on tealight candle-holders but last week I changed it up and did a few vases instead. It's nice to do different forms. We've got so much to learn and we're slowly getting better but what we really need is more time in the studio without any extended breaks of 2 to 3 weeks or more. We've experienced too many of those. But hey, it's all about keeping it fun and we're managing to do that.

Tammy took Toby in to be seen last Tuesday as a precaution after seeing him experience some sort of seizure the previous Friday. The doctor said his heart and lungs appear fine and that his overall health is good. She did some blood-work as well and nearly all of the values came back in the normal range with the exception of a couple that were marginal but of no real concern. She said to keep an eye on him and watch for any more signs of trouble.

He's been fine all week, very much his normal self but I think he may have had another seizure or some sort of tremor this morning after coming in from outside. Both episodes have occurred after being out in the cold air. I noticed him standing in an awkward position looking at me. It wasn't a normal look and he appeared stressed. I went over to him and picked him up and he was trembling just as he was the last time this happened. I sat with him for nearly an hour and comforted him.

Tammy did some research online and came up with "Old Dog" Vestibular Disease. He has some of the symptoms but not all. She plans to call our veterinarian tomorrow and talk about a follow-up test that she thought we may want to consider. I don't like my little guy not being able to be himself.

I've had this song running through my head for most of yesterday and today...

Comments

steve c said…
Nice posting Kevin. You are a great dad. Sorry about toby. We never think our pets will get old

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