Taking the good with the bad...

Last week, one of the contractors that worked on our home when we were building, Rojas, came and put stucco on our gazebo by the pool.

Every day, they cleaned up before they left...if any of you have ever dealt with contractors, you know how unusual this is...he's using a small brush as not to sweep the debris in the pool...this makes me smile :)

...forming the columns to match those on the house...

...then the arch trim and actual stucco...

They did a FANTASTIC job! Jack & a friend stained the ceiling inside and now the only thing remaining to be finished are the rafters on the under edge of the roof's edge...you can see them peeking out...

Daddy had his skin graft repair surgery two weeks ago today, so this past weekend, Gracie and I hit the dusty trail to spend some time with he & Mom (poor Jack stayed behind to care for our animal menagerie)...hopefully today when he sees his doctor, they will release his arm so that he will no longer be "one-armed"...
Gracie went to the Lions Club Carnival with Marmie, Aunt Lindsey & Uncle Pat...

She had a really fun time...and due to a Teacher's Work Day tomorrow at her school, she gets to go again this weekend!

The day we left, after several days of our Giant Schnauzer, Gator, not eating and vomiting what he did eat, Jack took him to the vet...after blood work, several x-rays and a thorough exam, the vet decided to keep him overnight...by the end of the day, they decided it was some kind of an obstruction and they took him into surgery, where sadly they saw that a baseball-sized tumor had grown at the base of his colon around his intestines, pancreas and too near various other organs for them to safely remove the tumor. Gator was put to sleep last Friday, October 8. He was exactly 4 yrs. 11 mos. old...he was taken from us way too soon...

...and to think...we really got him for Jack's Mom who requested him as a Christmas present after Jack's Daddy passed away (ironically, from colon cancer as well), but he turned out to be a little too boisterous for her and so we quickly adopted him into our "herd"...he proved to be a great guard dog albeit a little fussy with strangers (but I guess that was his job), a great companion to me while I was watering or working in the flower beds, or to all of us when we were in the pool...that boy loved water! He danced in it, barked for it to be thrown at him, water-hosed around him...any way he could get it! We all miss him very much...and although now we have one more angel looking out for us...losing two dogs and a cow in the past five months has been a bit much...can I just say, even pray, "Leave a few with us, Lord!"

One day at a time, we're taking the good with the bad...for those of you praying for Daddy's speedy recovery, thank you and please don't stop...