Bless Your Heart

Living out loud in the Carolinas

Vacation Consultant 🛳️ Color Street Stylist 💅
Mom to 3 pups 🐾
Lover of all things sparkly🪩 Ally 🌈

May 2026
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Kneed an update? See what I did there? With the pun? I’m on meds.

February 29, 2008
So you know those gorgeous flowers that CSP brought me? Well they make him sick. Eyes watering, nose running. Now they are living next door with Candice. Yay for her, boo for me. Now I’ll never get flowers again!

Today we went and got my stitches out. The doctor gave me pictures of the insides of my knee. I need to scan it in but I’m loopy from pain meds so I’ll do that over the weekend. I can show you my knee pre stitch removal: click to enlarge, if you can stand the sexiness I know I’m a big baby, but getting my stitches out bothers me more than going under! They poke you with those scissors and make you bleed!

I’m walking around pretty well. Still limping and I still can’t drive for 2 more weeks. And it still hurts. It’s still swollen and I’m still icing it. I can’t do a lap around the neighborhood, and stairs are still slow, but I can get around the house without my crutches now. yay!

In cuter news, we stuck Zoe in a few vessels and took her picture. Get ready to OD on cuteness. Seriously. You might want to sit down for these. Click to enlarge.
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Zoe, ZoZo, Zoester

February 27, 2008
Zoe (it’s ZoEEEEE by the way. rhymes with Joey not Joe.) It drives Lisa nuts that we spell it this way, but that’s how it’s spelled. Means life. Zoe already has a couple of nicknames. Kiki doesn’t pay her much attention. Growls at her periodically. But she’s relaxing more around her now. Molly & Zoe have moved on from Molly being totally wigged out by her to full on playing mode. Zoe basically wakes up in the morning, attaches herself to Molly’s neck, and hangs there for the next 12 hours with brief breaks to eat and potty. Potty training is going great.

Last night Zoe & I went next door to Candice’s for movie night. We watched No Reservations. I love Abigail Breslyn & Aaron Eckhart but not this movie. It had a couple of cute moments but mostly it was sad and boring. Meanwhile Zoe charmed the pants right off of Candice, but especially Richie, Can’s German Shepherd mix. Richie is about 50 times bigger than Zoe but Zoe pranced right into their house, drank out of his water dish, and wrapped him around her little paw in no time. Zoe would jump up and bite his face and tail and he would just look at her with googy eyes and follow her all over the house. Candice called after I hobbled home to tell me that Richie was pacing and whining at the window pining for Zoe. She’s a little heartbreaker!

Here are some of my favorite photos from the last few days:click to enlarge

More pics of Zoe taking over our world here.

And I know this isn’t Zoe, but I still love it. CSP brought me some beautiful flowers. They smell so good!
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Wee ones

February 26, 2008
Thursday I took Zoe by to meet Jacob & Joey. Joey pet her then was on to something else, but Jake fell in love. He couldn’t pronounce her name and would call her ZZZZZZZZZZ-Joey. So cute. While I was there Sara relayed a story. Sara babysits a little boy who is Jake’s age. The other day his mom picked him up from Sara’s and had a conversation that went a little something like this:

Did you have fun playing with Jacob today?

I guess.

Well did you ride around in the trucks?

Yeah, but Jacob wouldn’t let me ride with him. He rode around with this girl all day.

So the mom called Sara and asked if Sara was babysitting a little girl.

Sara told me all this then told Jacob to go get his new girlfriend so I could meet her. And here she is. The girl Jacob paid attention to all day. The girl who rode shotgun in his truck all day, who made Jake’s little friend v. v. jealous. Jacob smoothed her hair and told her how pretty she is. I asked her name. Sara, he said. Ok.
“Sara” is a My Size Barbie Morgan had when she was a little girl. My Mom kept it for all these years and Jake discovered her and fell in love last weekend while visiting Papa & Gigi. So “Sara” had to go home with Jake. Cracks me up. Can’t you just see Jacob & “Sara” cruising through the neighborhood?

In other news, Zoe is a doll. She is charming everyone she meets. I’ll have more pics of her here soon. But in the meantime, here’s one of her at her first vet visit. She weighed in at 2.5 lbs!
Click below for a little video.

Zoe’s first vet visit from shanny on Vimeo.
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blessed

February 25, 2008
I tell you what, I have felt so blessed in the last few days. First I had my knee surgery and came home to an answering machine & mailbox full of get well messages. My MIL met us up at the surgery center. She stayed and kept CSP company while I was under the knife. Lisanne wanted to know what it feels like. It’s kind of weird. You don’t remember it. The last thing I remember was the man putting the oxygen mask on me telling me to take deep breaths. The next thing I knew I was in the recovery room waking up. Then MIL came home with us and took care of Zoe while CSP & I slept. I woke up to chicken & dumplings from the Cracker Barrel (yum) that FIL brought over when he came to pick up MIL.

Then Saturday my Mom came over. She went grocery shopping then cooked all day long. Serously. ALL DAY LONG. She made meatloaf just like I like it, rice, potato salad, baked beans and even baked a cake! Plus she kept me company while CSP slept (he was working 3rd shift). Sara came over with flowers and visited for a little while. Then Papa came over for dinner. After everyone left and it was just Gigi & me we watched movies until really late. Gigi spent the night then got up and made breakfast. She took care of Zoe the whole time too. We lounged about all day until she had to go home. She called me later with the news of A’s death.

Throughout the whole thing I’ve gotten so much support from friends, and family, my mom’s group, and you fabulous bloggy people. My heart is full and I thank you.
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Death in my extended family

February 24, 2008
My 17 year old sister Momo’s dad remarried about 8 years ago His wife, B, has 2 kids. The daughter is a junior (or sophomore) in college & the son is 22 & lives with his girlfriend. So Momo has had step siblings for quite a few years. Well today, Momo’s step brother didn’t wake up. They are doing an autopsy. This is the first close death Momo has ever had to deal with, and with it being a young person, and her step brother I’m sure it’s going to be very weird. I know when my friend Melissa died it really freaked me out. This was so sudden. I reminded Momo that I had been through something similar with Melissa and that I’m here for her if she wants to talk about it. I feel so badly for B. I can’t even imagine what it is like to lose a child.
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Alive & limping

February 23, 2008
I’m alive! I can drag my gimp self around. I have crutches for downstairs & my walker (leftover from my hysterectomy) for upstairs. My head is super loopy right now and I’m on some good meds. Apparently the surgery took longer than he thought it would because I have arthritis in my knee.

I’m getting lots of tlc from CSP & lots of kisses from the puggies. I’ve been taking lots of pics of Zoe. I hope to post some later if I can sit in the chair long enough. My Mom (Gigi) is coming in a little while to take care of me so CSP can sleep. He has to work 3rd shift tonight. ugh.

Thank you for all of your well wishes! Y’all are just the best! xoxo
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T minus 4 hours

February 22, 2008
It is 3:17 am. I can’t sleep. CSP is at work. Poor guy has to work all night then come home and drive me to surgery. We have to be at the surgical joint at 7 for my 9am surgery. I don’t know why it never really clicked in my head that I would be practically immobile for at least a couple days. I’ve accepted a purse party invitation for Saturday night and even coordinated a ride since I can’t drive. I need a Spring bag and come hell, high water, or surgery, my accessories will not suffer!I’ve lost my mind. I have a feeling that at 6pm Saturday, instead of perusing adorable bags I will be knocked out and doped up on my sofa with my swollen knee under a pound of ice. Hmmm maybe I can get a girl friend to snap some pictures of the bags for me and email them over. Perhaps instead of brainstorming bag buying strategies I should go shave my legs and paint my toes. I don’t want my doctor to have to hack through the growth to get to my knee. And I should probably pick out a pair of cute panties. Who knows what they talk about while you’re under anesthesia!
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Our family is growing by 4 feet

February 20, 2008
CSP is addicted to pugs. He’s been jonesing for one for a while now. Come on Guatemala & open back up before my house becomes a kennel!! Anyway, our breeder hasn’t had any pugs since Molly’s litter 2 years ago. A couple days after Christmas I asked her if they were still breeding pugs. She said they thought they were finished with pugs but Lo! and behold, a litter was born on Christmas Eve. Any girls? Yep, two. Aw man.

My CSP doesn’t ask for much. He really doesn’t. So we went out to see the pups when they were 10 days old. So tiny! Barely had eyes open! We picked the tiniest one. We went back out on the 8th (during PhoBloDays) and saw her again. She’s coming home tomorrow. Cause you know, I don’t have enough going on. What with KNEE SURGERY and all. I made a deal with CSP that he could have this puggie, but our next 2 will be rescues. And we won’t be adding them to the family for a loooooong time. I’m setting the limit at 3.

I present to you: Zoe Noelle Lo Mein.
Puggie burrito!
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Seven strange things about me

February 19, 2008
Only 7? I was tagged by JoAnn. I have been blogging now for 6.5 years. So most of my quirks are out there already. I had to dig deep for some of these. I may lose some readers from this…
Here are 7 strange, but true things about me:

1. I am an ordained minister. When Papa & Gigi were getting married we didn’t know who would perform the ceremony. So I signed up. Just in case.

2. I like strange smells. Like lighter fluid, markers (dry erase are the best) and sleep sweat. You know, the sweat you sweat when you sleep. NOT mowing the lawn sweat or anything like that.

3. My legs and arms are really disproportionately short compared to my body. I can touch my toes in a seated position without bending. Did I mention I’m 5′ 7″?

4. I also have really goofy hands & feet. My Mom says my toes look like someone stuck their used gum to the ends of dough balls and boom there’s my feet.

5. When I’m sitting in a resting type position, my hands seem to turn palms up on their own.

6. If I like (or don’t like) something a lot, it’s really hard for me to understand why other people don’t like it (or like it). I mean, I get that people have different opinions, but on some stuff it just seems like a no brainer. Like people who don’t take vacations. EVER. I don’t get that. Or people over the age of 5 who go to restaurants and order chicken fingers. Come on. Or people who won’t switch to Mac. COME ON! I really should just get a job where I run people’s lives for them. heh. ;)

7. I’m a zit getter. It KILLS me when I see people walking around with big honking zits in public. I know you’re not supposed to pop them but I just can’t walk around like that. I have this one person I know who’s been walking around with the Bermuda Triangle of Blackheads on his/her cheek for almost 10 years. 10 YEARS. You don’t even know how hard it is to not “accidentally” trip and “accidentally” land on him/her, pinning his/her arms so he/she can’t escape and “accidentally” get those blackheads. But I restrain myself. Cause I’m classy like that.

Ok, so I can’t be the only strange one out there. If you’re brave enough to share your strange secrets then let me know!
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Special surgical requests, Valentine’s Day, & puppy love

February 17, 2008
At the doctor’s office for my pre-op appointment we covered a lot of important topics:

Dr: Have you had any previous surgeries?

me: Yes. Would you like me to work my way back from the most recent?

CSP: (leans in toward doctor) You’re going to run out of space there. Might wanna get another sheet of paper.

……………

me: Oh, and can you take pictures of the surgery?

Dr: Yes, we’ll be taking pictures during the surgery and I’ll show them to you at the follow up visit.

me: Can I have a copy?

Dr: Do you have pictures of all your surgeries?

me: Most of them.

Dr: What do you do with them? Show them to friends and family?

me: Yep.

Dr: Wow.

CSP: Well, you should have seen her uterus! It was scary!

…………………

In other news, CSP got all romantic on me and brought me a sweet card & 2 dozen roses for Valentine’s Day. He had to work so we didn’t get to go out until late. Plus, just try and get a table at any restaurant around here on Valentine’s Day. We went to Carrabbas for a late dinner (we felt better after a couple came in behind us). It was the perfect time to go. When we got home we thought we’d try for a self timer shot since we were both dressed nicely. Plus, I wanted to try out my new gorillapod. I look ever so slightly insane from all the running back and forth to the camera and trying to get in position before the camera took the picture. Of course Molly had to get in on the action. She can’t be separated from her daddy for longer than 30 seconds without her head exploding. Just look at this scene from the other day: be sure to click to enlarge She’s all snuggled up against him, cheek to cheek. But she’s still got that one eye on me. Just to let me know she’s watching. To make sure I don’t try and move in on her man.
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