09.03.2003 | 9:04 pm

I should draw you all a picture of how my right knee as it appears on the latest x-rays. It looks like the femur is trying to slide right off the top of the tibia and come crashing down into my ankle below. The whole joint looks like the leaning tower�.leaning inward, toward my other knee and downward toward my ankle. YOUCH!!! The good news is that it isn�t hurting nearly as bad as it was two weeks ago. This doctor and I were certainly simpatico when it came to thoughts of surgery. He really encouraged me to wait till the summer to have such a serious surgery done. That way I�ll have almost three months to recover. So, for the time being, I am taking that extra good anti-inflammatory, Mobic, and trying to be a good little girl till the summer. Meanwhile, after the DR visit, I headed to Wal-Mart. Funny how that store is almost a civil place in which to shop on a week-day morning. I got all my grocery shopping done for the week and headed home. Since my appointment was too close to the middle of the day to take just a half-day, I took the whole day. I must have been tired, because I took a 4 hour nap�YUP�FOUR hours. I was shocked!

The Labor Day weekend was fabulous! Our property up toward Flagstaff had received plenty of rain�enough to bring out all the wild flowers that didn�t get a chance to bloom last spring. The meadows were full of golden flowers. The woods were blooming with every color of delicate flower as well. And, oh, to be out of the relentless heat of the valley! What a treat. We have a sitting porch where one can sit and watch the chipmunks and blue birds nibble on bread and corn. It is so peaceful and serene. Then, of course, there are the �killer� games of Boggle and Uno that take up the time in the evening. With no TV or telephone, the kids have to make their own entertainment. Saturday morning was taken up with discovering and the watching of hundreds of thousand of baby lady bugs hatching and making their way into the world. All around the property, on trees and in the bushes were these clumps, mobs actually, of baby lady bugs. They huddled together as the evening approached, to keep warm. By Sunday, most of the darling ladies had vanished into the wilderness. We watched Mars and the moon with the telescope every night too. Our ranch is just a few miles from the Lowell Observatory. Through the years we have taken many trips to the observatory and have fostered a �star-gazing� interest in the family. The Milky Way and other constellations seem clearer and closer without the lights of the big city dimming their view.

When we go to the ranch�everyone helps cook and clean-up. Our food isn�t what one would consider gourmet�but we cook a lot, and often. Our biggest problem always seems to be figuring out how to get all the left-overs home. Usually there is one glass of milk or juice we have to beg someone to drink. There are always a few hamburgers of hot dogs that we don�t want to haul home. Oh well�what a blessing to have abundance.

catsnapples~ at life

P.S. McKay, my little grandson broke his first tooth today!

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