A bittersweet weekend

This weekend was a real mixed bag of highs and lows. I tend to be an eternal optimist with most things, but this weekend proved to challenge me to the hilt to keep that spirit up. Allow me to explain.

The sweet

 As most of you know, I held my garage sale this weekend. It was the coolest thing to have some followers/fellow bloggers come all the way out to my quiet little community to take in the event!

 Attire was a clean farmer's jacket (yeah baby!) and my Make Mine Beautiful work apron to hold my millions. :) And who's that cutie pie standing right beside me?

photo from Ocean Soul

 One guest, all the way from Kamloops that happened to be visiting my home town was sweetie pie Karen from Ocean Soul. (Thanks sister Ester for taking the pic!)

What delightful gals! I first met them at another garage sale home. I was walking over there in the pouring rain, with a coat covering my head, when Karen turned around and recognized me instantly. "IT'S DONNA!!!" I felt like an absolute movie star until my coat leaked and I started getting drenched. :) Thanks for my 1 second of fame, Karen. :)

Oh my goodness... Karen's home is so beautiful! And CLEAN. She claims to have an ocean home while living in a desert. You can check it out how she uses white HERE.

 THIS POST had me LOL. :) She's funny too!

And then Cindy and LeeAnn, both readers, came by to snoop out the junk. Gaaahhhh I wish they faced the camera, they were sooo adorable! Chickens! :) But so darn sweet.

That cute little dude to the right is Kim's son. 

Kim is also a reader and they came in hopes of snagging the highway I sign they spotted in a blog post. I simply made sure they did. :)  Nice score! So glad they came! The sign landed in the most perfect of hands I can see. I'm thrilled this sign gets to land in a very cool bedroom rather than being stored in my garage! Thanks for this awesome shot, Kim!

I also had a few other readers come by but with the pouring rain, they preferred no photos (I so get that!) Honestly, the sale was a success alone in just meeting these wonderful folks and made the day totally sunny despite that darned pouring rain!

So fun! Thanks for the visits, all! I had a blast meeting you! Now just don't tell a soul how messy my house was when you took the mini peek upstairs, ok? :)

Why my house was a mess

 If you follow FJI Facebook, you'll already know what's going on in my private world. My sweet little 18 yr old buddy Beethoven fell ill,  so I took him into the vet. I was terrified. I've dreamed this visit many times over and I was hoping that was one dream to never come true.

But it did. I was able to bring him back home after the tests but not without issues. Once he got home, he could no longer walk.  I'm so glad this happened on a weekend so I could completely cater to him.

While waiting for the test results, the garage sale continued on. Running up and down stairs to care for my baby vs. selling things outside was challenging but my son came to the rescue when needed.

And then the phonecall came with the test results. My sweet kitten had stage 4 renal failure. (stage 4 is the worst) There's no cure. His kidneys are failing and there was talk of bringing him in that very day to be put down.

My heart sunk and I booked it in. But as I continued to care for him, I just couldn't do it that quickly. His sweet face was so bright still even though his body failed him. After another chat, it was determined to ride out the weekend as he was still eating and drinking and contact the vet on Monday.

Sunday terrified me. He was so sick that I made another appoint. to put him down. And then something clicked and his eyes went bright again. He made marked improvement with all the pampering and am happy to report can at least do litter box duty on his own now. Talk about a yo yo of emotions! I decided to hang tough until I could talk to my own vet again on Monday.

These days, my little guy gets rides on this pillow wherever I go. I prop him in all his favorite spots when I'm also there.

My heart is just breaking for the pending outcome of this, however I will do my best to focus on enjoying him today and try not to be too busy dreading tomorrow.

Mother's Day Fun

My son refused to let Mother's Day slip by without some recognition. So later in the day once I knew my lil' guy would sleep for a few, we raced off for a quick Starbuck's Cinnamon Dolce Latte (YES)  and picked up an unexpected dessert at the meat place.



Clancy's triple chocolate fudge cake. Oh my word. Locals, you must try this stuff! They had samples out that did me in. And it's cut in strips so you can freeze it in small sections. Perfect!



And for dinner, my boy insisted he buy with this own garage sale money, so he treated me to my alltime favorite pizza evah... Yarrow Pizza House Special. Decadent! This is no slap happy crap in a pan. This is real food. Ask for extra sauce and extra cheese and you'll have it made.

I'm glad the weekend held some wonderful times, for they helped keep me sane. Thank you dear friends and son!

As to what's in store next? Guess we'll just have to find out together.

Update: Monday AM

Here's our little traveling setup. Note the cut litter box so he doesn't have to jump. It's working! He's now standing up to drink his own water too! A major key appears to be well fed and hydrated. I'm offering it constantly and he's taking it and as you can see, it's all pretty accessible.

I couldn't be more proud. :)