Two Birthdays, 49th Wedding Anniversary and Christmas Week~

I had recently bragged...bragged to my youngest daughter that I have not had a cold, allergies, flu, pneumonia, no kinds of illness like that in 8 years this coming February.  Ashleigh has not let me forget that little bragging brief that I gave her just a few days before... Oh My Goodness, GOODNESS I have been so ill!  It began several days worth beginning with what I thought was an allergic reaction to the molds that I could smell permeating from the loads of leaves I lifted up into my arms and walked to fence row and threw pile after pile over the fence for nearly 2 hours.  Then I wasn't feeling better and in fact I was really sick!  I called my middle daughter who is an RN and she came right over.  Breathing treatments to open up my airways.  Steam shower to help me breathe.  Lozenges for my sore throat, another kind for my cough.  Then the fever began and I was miserable.  My daughter said that if I wasn't better by morning I must either go to the ER, or to the DR.  I chose to go to my Internist.  As soon as I walked into the waiting room, they looked at me and handed me a face mask...Oh I must really be looking sick to them!  The DR began writing orders for me to take to the hospital next door...Blood tests, Respiratory panel test, lung x-rays...all STAT.  I thought that I must be in real trouble...everyone was shuffling me about pretty quickly, trying to get the results back.  Positive for RSV...ugh... My cough was so bad for several days that my DR said that I very well could have cracked a rib, the pain was so bad on my right side, but an x-ray was not necessary as nothing could have been done anyway.  This all began now 17 days ago and I am still not well...gaining on it a bit every day, but this is a virus that doesn't let up easy and you cannot treat it with an antibiotic.  My husby had a birthday two days ago and he awoke with symptoms as well.  RSV is not something to play around with.  It can and does kill 15,000 adults in this country every year and it has been some frightening days where I wasn't sure if I could get better at home, or would end up in the hospital.  Well I am doing better and tomorrow will be my birthday and Saturday we have to feel better so that we can enjoy a special meal out.  It's our 49th wedding anniversary...Yikes!  I am going to be fine, my husby will be fine and I hope and pray that each of you all are doing fine too.  If you celebrate Christmas, I am wishing you a very beautiful and love filled day with family and friends.  I hope that each of you are in good health for the year ending and the New Year ahead~

Remember to double click on the first image, to view a larger slideshow presentation after    you have read the narratives~

I am joining in the fun with Eileen at:

Saturday's Critter

http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/

Anni at:

http://id-rather-b-birdin.blogspot.com/ 

I'd Rather Be Birdin'

 Linking to I'd Rather B Birdin' 

   

Angie at:  

Mosaic Monday

https://tentoesinthewater.blogspot.com/

 Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global 

   http://communalglobal.blogspot.ca/

& 

Stewart for:

Wild Bird Wednesday

http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com.au/

Some of my traditional decorations as well as our tree adorned for Christmas this season~

Evening~

Daylight~

Are you nostalgic, do you keep Christmas greetings?  I keep the ones from family and closest friends~

They have been tucked away in a special box with ribbons for years and I add new ones after every New Year.  Recently I placed all of them into a scrapbook...

No picture taken yet~

I keep my husbands watercolour greetings that he does for my birthday, our anniversary and Christmas every year in the same box too.  Oh how cherished they are to me~

Then there are samples of greeting cards I have sent over the past few decades, favorite wrapping papers and gift tags used.   Our very favorite sugar cookie recipe is tucked away in this special box too~

Our three favorites...

Our dogs Silveit 6 years old next month, Svetka was 2 in May and our Meaka just turned 11 years old on December 2nd~

Our kit-cat  Survhee Pipka~

Bill and I will celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary Saturday~

This was taken of us just last month~

Our beloved Meaka turned last week~

 I should have had someone take my picture for me, but forgot and slipped in a selfie...

These are my Bible study class members, and sisters in so many ways.  We had our holiday gathering two weeks ago~

Bittersweet and a Gray Squirrel taken through the patio glass doors~

Star was cleaning her young and still at 5 months of age nursing one of her triplets two weeks ago~

Remember Miracle who was hit by a car and had a front left leg injury...she looks wonderful now~

I waited for this large buck to get across the 4 lane parkway that just opened beyond our neighborhood a couple of months ago~

I got an alert that a family in a nearby neighborhood had a hawk caught in their back porch, that had been trying to escape for 3 1/2 hours and was frantic.  I drove over to find a lovely Cooper's Hawk that had flown through and ripped a hole into the window screen.  Thank God it hadn't hit the glass window.  It was an easy capture, in that it was tired and while it flew straight up, when it came back down, it was right in front of me and I talked to it as I approached it, gathered in it's wings and checked it over.  Chuck with Wingspan of Kentucky gave me the go ahead to release it and we watched as it flew in the dark up into a nearby fir tree~

Wild Turkeys~

American Kestrel~

Red-tailed Hawk~

In our garden we had very rare visitors... Red-breasted Nuthatches and what darling little chaps they were~

We usually only have the White-breasted Nuthatches~

Tufted Titmouse are always present at the feeders~

A few more pictures from our recent ice storm that created a HUGE mess on our land~

I took this picture a couple of years ago...a reflection of the inside lights, looking out on an outside fir tree that had light snow upon it's fronds~

Merry Christmas Blessings to each of you and your families~