White Gloves & Black Light

I'm sharing this YouTube video because it is so beautiful and well done. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT7x3VnrqbA

Gone to the Dogs

Tony & Elena & Ana & Nikita & Kowboy came up to visit this weekend. We all had a great time--but I think the two Golden Retrievers had an even better time! Sandy has been asleep ever since they left this morning. Kowboy had a big time with all of Sandy's toys, but he especially liked the stuffed goose and duck. He even managed to carry both of them around in his mouth so Sandy couldn't get them from him.


We took them both to the lake yesterday morning for a swim and then to the park to run a while. They both love the water and jumped in and out and chased sticks like crazy. Here they are---both bringing in the same stick to shore! Once Kowboy just dunked Sandy's head under the water so he could get the stick. They were fun to watch. It was hard to tell which one was which with the wet hair. Sandy has been tuckered out since Kowboy left. David even took him outside, just so he could see that Kowboy wasn't in the backyard, that he was really gone. He misses his buddy.


I had to take some pictures while we were at the park.

By Any Other Name

Phone call from Ana (4 1/2 years) on Thursday:

Granny, did you see the Olympics?

No, what did you see?

We watched the gymnastics and she won, she won! She's so pretty. She won the gold medal.

Oh, you mean Nastia (pronounced 'NAWS-T-AH)?

No, I mean 'ANA'!

Our 4 /12 year old Ana's given name is Anastasiya Antonovna Smith, she is called Ana (AHH-NA) or Nastia (NAWS-T-AH). Her middle name comes from the Russian female version of her dad Tony's name. So I looked up some info on the 18 year old Nastia. So our Ana figured that the other Nastia was called Ana, too!

Liukin was born in Moscow of the former Soviet Union and goes by Nastia, the Russian diminutive of Anastasia. Liukin is fluent in Russian and English, speaks some Spanish and would like to learn French. Nastia's parents are products of the Soviet gymnastics machine. Nastia's father, Valeri Liukin, was a double gold medalist (team, high bar) at the 1988 Seoul Games, and her mother, Anna Kochneva Liukin, was the 1987 rhythmic world champion with clubs. Citing their personal experiences (in wedding photos, Valeri is sporting a cast), Valeri and Anna were reluctant to let Nastia begin formal training. But since they could not afford a babysitter, Nastia tagged along to the gym. From the sidelines, Nastia began imitating the moves of gymnasts she watched and was soon outperforming them. Unable to ignore their four-year-old's natural talent, Valeri and Anna relented. Nastia Liukin captured the Olympic gold medal in the all-around competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics defeating teammate Shawn Johnson who finished in second. She added this medal to the family's trophy case exactly twenty years after her father captured two golds at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. A rising freshman at Southern Methodist University in Texas, Liukin plans to study international business.

Sandy at the Lake 2

Saturday we took the boy to the lake again. He had so much fun. And he's getting braver. David threw sticks out for him a good ways out and he jumped right out there and retrieved them. He'd bring it back to shore, shake on us and beg for more. This is a picture of him soaking wet--and nearly dry at the same time!

Happy 15th Anniversary!

Kelly & Tami are celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary today. Wow---how in the world have they been married that long when we're still so young? Tami has been sharing photos from their past on her blog http://smithacademyforgirls.blogspot.com/ and they have been fun to see the changes in them. I'm adding 2 that I found of them. One is of the dress that Tami didn't have a whole picture of, so you can see the skirt. The other is of a blue number that she showed up at our house to wear around our innocent son. And get this-----her grandmother made these dresses! She should have been in advertising, because the dresses certainly had appeal and looked great on Tami! Congratulations, you two.

To Hear or Not To Hear, That is the Question

I've now seen my oncologist and my breast surgeon in the last week. They both reported that I am officially boring and to go away and come back in 3 months. For Dr. Alison Laidley to say that is a REALLY good thing!!! And she was smiling and laughing when she said it.

I've had an annoying ringing in my ears ever since I had chemo. It's getting louder, so I asked my oncologist about it. He said it could be a side effect from the chemo but it could have nothing to do with it. We're betting on the side effect. . . . Anyway he sent me to see an ENT doctor today. He looked in my ears first. Now I had purposely cleaned out my ears this morning after my shower since I was going to see him. He looks in there and says, "Well, you might hear better without all the wax in your ears." He takes me into a little room and has me lay down so he can get a ditch digger and roots out some embarrassing looking stuff from my ears. He said it really wasn't wax, just dried skin that was compacted in both ears.

He took me back to the first room and turned off the lights to see if I could still hear the ringing. Yep. Still there---he turned off the lights because the fluorescent bulbs made a slight ringing of their own. Next he gave me a hearing test on a computer. Really interesting. You push a little button when you can hear high & low pitched sounds. Then you have to touch pictures on the screen when they say certain words. There were LOTS of words that I just couldn't hear at all what they were saying. I just knew I was going deaf. Hearing aids, here I come!

I finish the test and he takes me back to room #1 to wait for the results to print out. He comes in and tells me that I have perfectly normal hearing. That was a relief. The ones I couldn't hear, were ones that normal people couldn't hear either. He told me that there is one "cure" for the tinnitis that I have: mask it with music, mask it with music, mask it with music. There is no cure for it, no medicine they can give you. I already knew this from researching it on the internet. He said sometimes it can occur from an illness, but most of the time there is nothing they can do about it. He told me, "I want you to know that I believe you when you say you have ringing in your ears. Just because other people can't hear it, doesn't mean it's not real." He said you just learn to drown it out and try not to be in complete silence because it will drive you nuts. How true, how true! Of course with all my hot flashes now, I just keep a fan going all the time and that helps a lot!

Sandy is 7 Months Old

People look at us kind of funny when we tell them that Sandy is just a puppy and is only 7 months old. But then to us it's kind of hard sometimes to believe he's only a puppy, too. He weighs over 63 pounds and is a chunk. He loves to play with ice. He is a recycler deluxe! I've started recycling all our paper and plastic stuff. I placed a trash can in the closet underneath our stairs. Every time we have something to recycle, all you have to do is give it to Sandy and say "Recycle" and he heads off to the closet. Sometimes he will actually drop the item into the trashcan. Others he gets close to it and drops it on the floor. But he is so proud of himself when he gets through recycling.

I just finished reading a fiction novel by Dean R. Koontz titled "Watchers." Normally I'm not a reader of strange fiction, but I saw a reference to this book because Dean Koontz owns a Golden Retriever and actually used the characteristics of the breed to have a main character named "Einstein" in the book. The book was great, so now I'm a Koontz fan. Einstein was a brilliant, laboratory dog, but there were times in the book that I'd catch myself saying, "Sandy could do that." Here's our 7 month old photo. He's a terrific companion. He owns our hearts.