Margret Sloan

Now that my sister has moved “out to the boonies” in Virginia, shopping is much more of a challenge for her. She’s used to be within 10-15 minutes of all kinds of stores and services. Now that she’s out in the boonies, she has to plan and consolidate her trips and limit the trips to town to just once a week. that’s a big lifestyle change but she’s slowly adapting to it.

Another option for her is to order as much as she can over the internet and let Big Brown bring it all to her doorstep. One of her big personal needs is support hose, which she has to wear every day – even in the heat of summer. So I was delighted to come across an internet source for the ones that she likes. They are called TED Stockings and she has to wear them from the moment she gets up in the morning until the moment she turns out the bedroom light to go to bed. It’s a serious problem but that’s what she has to do to avoid a fatal pulmonary embolism. Blood clots are serious business – you can’t mess around with them.

Just to be nice, I’m going to order her a couple pair from the website and have them delivered as a little surprise. Then she can order her future pairs from the same place.

Well, we took more blood tests on my pup and he has been doing real good on the meds. The vet says to keep him on the current dosage and bring him back in 30 days for a follow up of blood tests to make sure.

He’s been acting normal and eating regular food and doing everything like he was before he got sick, so that’s good news. Look at him sitting so pretty for me:

Pup has been doing OK although I can tell when the meds start to kick in, about 10 minutes or so after I give it to him. When they take effect he gets a little sleepy and wants to cuddle. That’s so sweet and I love cuddling him anyway.

I haven’t left him alone all weekend and have watched him like a hawk. So far, so good, thank goodness.

My pup hasn’t been feeling well. He’s just a little thing, I think he weighs about 14 pounds. But he hasn’t been eating anything, no matter what I tempt him with. He won’t take anything, not even a piece of steak. So we took him to the vet and she doesn’t know what is wrong. They took X-rays and blood work and everything looks OK. But she gave me some medicine to give him every 8 hours to help with prevent nauseau. The trick is to get him to take a pill when he won’t eat in the first place.

We have to watch him closely over the weekend and take him back to the vet on Monday for follow up. I hate that we have to watch him over the weekend and be pretty much on our own if something bad happens, because there aren’t any vets open on Sundays if we need help. The next two days are going to be stressful around here.

With everyone tightening up their budgets and looking for ways to cut costs and save money to offset the huge increase in the cost of gas – its right at $4 a gallon most places around here now – I have had to cut my grocery shopping budget. My fresh vegetables from the garden help a little, but to be honest I need to save about $40 a week from my grocery bill.

So today I decided to shop at Aldis and see if they had any bargains worth picking up to stock the pantry. I was pleasantly surprised to see what a nice variety they have. However, most foods are not a recognizable name brand – they are probably house brands that Aldi has arranged to buy in quantity. the best cost savings seemed to be in canned vegetables and boxed bake goods. So we’ll give a few of them a try and if they are good enough to pass my family’s taste test, I will shop there again soon.