Final Post for Four Dog Day

Hello to all Kathy's Blog Friends...

In honor of our mom, this is the final post for Four Dog Day.

In October 2010, Kathy began to notice something strange happening. She described it as though her "auto-pilot" was not working the way it once did. She found herself having to think hard about whether to take a left turn instead of a right, or where to put her fingers on the computer keyboard, These changes lead her to get an MRI, which identified a malignant lemon-sized tumor growing in the Parietal Lobe of her brain. Kathy went on to have 2 surgeries. Her first Surgery was performed in November and as much of the tumor as possible was removed. Kathy went to in patient rehabilitation to help her work through the deficiencies she experienced after her surgery, including significant vision loss in her left eye. After coming home, she continued with in home physical and occupational therapy. It was always her goal to get back online. She wanted to share her story in the hopes that she could help just one person.

In early December, Kathy experienced, "The Fall That Saved Her Life." Kathy slipped in the bathroom and bumped her head. A precautionary MRI was done and it found that Kathy was not recovering the way all had hoped, due to a life-threatening surgical complication and tumor re-growth. One of the ventricles in Kathy's brain was not draining fluid properly, leaving her in a near fatal state. Two more surgical procedures were performed which temporarily saved her life. Kathy had her second surgery in hopes of permanently fixing the ventricle and removing the majority of tumor re-growth. She again went into an in-patient rehabilitation facility to help her regain her strength and then came home to continue rehabilitation and to begin treatment.

Kathy went through radiation and 2 rounds of chemotherapy. But on April 14th, we found out that her cancer had spread to the point where no other medical interventions would help her. Kathy came home that day, still with positive hopes. We all moved into our parents house. We stayed with her 24 hours a day. On April 23rd, surrounded by our dad and the 3 of us, she passed away. Her 6 month battle was over.

In our life we have never met anyone more positive, more hopeful. Our mom was a ray of light. Always optimistic. Her blog was one way she shared her amazing personality with all of you. While our mom was never able to tell her cancer story herself as she wanted to, she was able to share herself over the past 2 years with you on her blog. That is one of the many beautiful legacies she has left behind - for us and for all of you.

Please support cancer research so that no one has to go through what Kathy and our family went through. A organization that helped our family significantly at the onset of our mom's diagnosis was the American Brain Tumor Association - www.abta.org.

Thank you,
Tresa, Michael & Matt (Kathy's Children)

Four Weeks Old Today!

I spent the day in the city with Tresa and Graham. I get to go back again tomorrow when Irv and I go for a visit....and then on Monday I get to help Tresa take him for his hearing test. How lucky can one Mimi be?

Big yawn....

Happy after his bath...but then he's almost always happy....

Snuggling in his towel...

Getting sleepy...

Looking for That Happy Medium....

To blog or not to blog....that is the question. I enjoy my blog....but at times, I tend to like it too much and it consumes more time than I am willing or able to give it. I've been trying to post less, but then I tend to also read less. When I read less, I miss out on what is going on with all of you, and that sucks. Then when I do blog and you comment, I want reply to your comments and that is time consuming. When I read blogs, I want to comment...and that is time consuming.

I work a full time job and commute 40 or more minutes each way. I have things to make and things to sell and customers to communicate with.

Sometimes I think I should just say bye bye to blog land all together and the thought of doing that makes me really sad. I have so many wonderful friends on here.

I turned off my e-mail notifications the other day and today when I signed into my blog..there were all of your comments and I wanted to reply to each of them. I have to turn that thing back on.

I honestly don't know what to do. I thought about writing one day a week and reading one day a week.....I guess that might work, but I'm a bit more spontaneous than that.

Any suggestions?

Workshhop Update

Well I woke up this morning to find that the darling hobby horse I showed you yesterday was already sold! He will be on his way to New York this week! The first magazine rack has been primed and will be painted blue very soon. I couldn't find the shade Angela had suggested, but I got a neat looking blue. I also bought yellow for the other one. I think they are going to look awesome. We are also going to start painting some of our chalkboard frames in bright fun colors. We did a red one and got it listed today. We just have to find the right kind of vintage frames for the bright colored ones. I like this one a lot. We found 2 of these and did one red and the other silver.


I should be able to show you what we did with that old window soon too. We have been so busy trying to get things done and are finally making some progress.

Right now I need to finish up a couple of things and chill out for a while. I can't believe the weekend is gone and it's back to work tomorrow. Where did the weekend go? Have a great week and I'll chat with you soon.

Irv and I went treasure hunting today.....We found this awesome bent rebar star.....

This rusty tractor seat....

an old bocce ball set...

A very rusty old nursery scale....not sure what I am going to do with it yet....

another wonderful magazine rack that will get painted soon...

an awesome old wood box...

a fantastic handcrafted wood hobby horse....

and a pair of old wooden stilts....

The hobby horse is available in our etsy shop, Four Dog Vintage and the rest will be available soon. We are headed to the flea market tomorrow in search of more treasures. This is sooooo addicting! Hope all is well. chat with you soon!

Help Please

I found this fabulous magazine rack/plant stand/telephone stand at a sale today and I want to paint it. Angela from Pickles on Pizza loves bright fun colors for her accent pieces. I agree. Remember my little chest I painted bright yellow for my living room? I need some suggestions for what color to paint this. I'm thinking lime green, bright blue or even yellow....what do you think?

A Day With Graham

I took the day off today and went into the city to visit Tresa and Graham. We had a really nice day.

Tummy time....


a little nap.....
A trip to Target and Petsmart.....

Time for a clean outfit....

More snoozing.....

A big yawn....

Mommy and Graham....

Mimi and Graham....