My husband and I had been together for about three years before we were married.
We worked, lived, traveled, and played together. He even convinced me that helping him with our house remodel would be a great adventure. I was young and game, and gave it a go. Why not.
We were learning about each other.
Spore learned that I like curvy, creative, and artistic lines. I didn’t mind paint splatters, I thought it made an area unique, and who doesn’t like more color? Uneven was interesting to me. I had no desire to create anything that was linear or square. It was the last remodel I was asked to help with.
We were learning about each other.
My very first gift from Spore was a hawk & trowel. I think he figured that plaster work might be my true calling? The second was a Husqvarna chain saw. And at what point does a man say, “yes a chain saw, that will be the perfect gift for her”. The third gift was a pair of hockey skates. I started to get the sense that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t learning much about me at all. While I accepted the gifts graciously, I had to wonder, what the hell?
But we were learning, yes this was learning.
I learned to appreciate his love of straight lines and all of the things he could build and make for us. He learned to appreciate my love of everything different, animals, gardening, and the food I could make for us. We allowed each other to be who we needed to be. And this worked.
We were learning. It was definitely a new skill set for the both of us.
It wasn’t until we started bringing animals into our home, and having children of our own, that we found our common thread. Compassion and love for living beings. We are different parents, he is a man parent, I am a woman parent, obvious differences I hope. He is about adventure, and freedom, and spreading wings. I am about home, and nurturing, and safety, and dam it do not jump off the roof, the snow is not that deep!
But we both love. We love our animals. We love our children. We love our home. We love our garden.
This morning I was reminded how deep this love goes. I called Spore to let him know that Franny ate something, the first something in almost a week. The joy and happiness on the other end of the phone was palpable. You would have thought Spore was just told that he won the freaking lottery! And then we went through our list of what we were grateful for. We have a lot, and it is between our house walls.
Sometimes I think it is easy to get wrapped up in life and really forget about the important stuff. And everyone’s important stuff is different I believe. That’s what makes things so cool.
My children and I had a great breakfast together and talked about their projects coming up. Ocean is sleeping next to me right now. $eeker and Story are waiting to go play outside and are resting with their toys near by. Franny is freshly bathed, has a little food in her belly, and is sleeping in her rocking chair. She isn’t walking well just yet, but she looks sated. I am stoked!
Nancy
Nancy Tanner 
Yay Franny!!!!
yay is right… ! Thank you and your thoughts have been passed to all in our home…
Awesome Franny! She is one very tough girlie and it rocks that she is feeling better. Those brain things can be healed.
Thanks Sherry. She is tough. And Brave. And Proud. I want to be her when I grow up
Go Franny !!!
Thank you Lisa… we keep cheering for these little strides forward too
Nancy, This is the first that I heard Franny is ill. Brought tears to my eyes. I love this blog. love, Mom
Hi Mom, I’ll call you today
Oh Nancy, has Franny been ill? Is it related from when she received her vaccines? I hope her willingness to eat is a sign that she’s turned a good corner 🙂
she has had either a stroke or idopathic vestibular disease. The jury is out. In either case she has lost all function in her back end and the left side of her body is super weak.
Oh Nancy, I’ll be sending Franny all the good thoughts I can muster. Like I said, I hope having a good meal is a sign of more good things to come 🙂
I follow a blogger from Canada and she dealt with a very serious case of vestibular disease with her mothers recently adopted elderly BC. He recovered. If it helps, her blog posts on him (his name is Pleat) can be found here: http://digit-fetchit-herdit.blogspot.com and are under December 2012.
When did Franny get sick? Love your blog Nancy. Hugs to you all
Mickey she lost all functions over a week ago, went over like someone had grabbed her legs and flipped her. She had no sensation in her hind end or legs, and the muscles on her left side went lax. She hasn’t eaten until this morning, she is so thin, and fragile looking. She barked the other day, just once, and wagged her tail once, which are all great, but still cannot walk well, a few steps, and if the other dogs bump her she goes down. We will see what the next week brings.
I’m so sorry to hear Franny is under the weather – hope this little step turns into giant steps forward. Keeping you all close in thoughts… Hugs to all…
Thanks Sherry,
she ate a bit more last night, but is still not mobile. She doesn’t seem to be uncomfortable and is resting in front of the fireplace this morning… a couple of inches of snow and chill this morning.
I hope Franny has a better day.
Dad and Mom always did buy each other gifts they really wanted for themselves:)
I like your color of thread most of all………thank you for sharing.