So, a cold front went through

Yeah, right. Where did it go? If what we have outside is "cold" or "cool" or "less hot" I live in a pocket of heat and humidity that got missed.

Alan suggested we go swimming today because it's cooler outside. No sense going swimming when it's hot outside. At least that's what he thinks. Now, you have to realize that he hasn't been outside, even on the lanai to check out how "cool" the weather is, but he tells me it's cooler outside.

I have suggested that we go down to the pool in the evening for the past six nights, but his response is that it's too hot to go swimming! Now, I ask you, if it's hot, isn't that when you WANT to go swimming? I don't get it. Needless to say, we haven't been swimming together this year yet, and probably won't get to go swimming together, because I only go swimming when the weather is hot. He only goes swimming when the weather is cold.

I've been zapping my legs regularly for the past week and can't tell whether I'm noticing an improvement or not. Sometimes I think, oh, yeah, they're getting better. Other times I think it's all in my mind (the getting better part). The back, on the other hand, is doing great. So, no epidural for me. Maybe I psyched myself out on that one. The threat of having a needle stuck in my spine could have moved me to decide my back didn't hurt after all. Nah! I was sitting in the chair and the sciatic nerve took off and almost threw me on the floor the pain was so bad. I moved my body to another position in the chair and it settled down. So that's what it's been like for the past few days, sharp pain (which I don't feel because I don't want another type of sharp -- needle like -- pain), move around a bit, no pain. Or, shout to myself, "It's all in your mind."

Did I write that I went to the church ladies' tea (not church ladies, but tea for the ladies of the church)? It was a very enjoyable time. And the pictures taken by Jennifer Foster are just great.

Shandon, my SIL who has absconded his family to Florida for two weeks, took some videos and posted them on Facebook. One is the cutest thing. It's of Ellie May sitting in the sand on the edge of the beach, just about in the water. She's digging in the sand, and a wave comes in. Unperturbed, she just gets up and sits on her haunches, instead of her bottom. I guess she figures if her bottom isn't touching the sand she won't get wet. If you're on Facebook, check it out. Most people reading this are related to me and so they have Shandon on their friend's list.

Last, I'm trying to get us onto the Gaither Cruise that's going to Alaska in August. It's kinda late, but I'm going to try.

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It was thunder!

We had some nice storms yesterday. Nothing violent, but loud enough to let me know I needed to turn off the computer and disconnect it from electricity. We had an incident several years ago where our computers got fried during a lightning strike near our home, so we always disconnect and unplug during storms.

My knees are getting better enough that I was able to go to the farmer's market today, by myself without a cane and I bought tomatoes. (See Runnemede Remembered Recipes) Then I went to Bath and Body at a local strip mall and got their Lime/Coconut foaming hand washing soap. I love the smell of it. Unfortunately they didn't have any bars of soap in that flavor so I had to settle for something else.

So, it seems the electric shock treatment is doing a job on me. I'm still having trouble cooking -- it just hurts my back and knees so much -- but I'm persevering and am certain that the knees and back will continue to improve as the treatments get longer and more frequent.

My youngest left with her brood for Florida today. I shall miss them a lot. Praying for their safety.

Phil still hasn't found a job, and today I had a panic attack and it was the Lord reminding me to pray for Phil and his job-hunting efforts. I know he's probably feeling the same thing I was feeling at the time of the panic thing. I talked to Amy and next week we're planning a day with two of the four children -- the two which aren't at church camp. They will come over in the morning to play, then we'll have lunch, then we'll head down to the theater to see a movie. Amy and Phil will be coming over, too. It should be a fun time. I'm looking forward to it. Please if you're reading this, pray for Phil and Amy, specifically that the Lord will provide a job quickly -- like next Wednesday -- for Phil.

Becky and Quinn and family are still in Chicago, I think. I'm not sure. They may be home by now. I'll know when I get into my e-mails, which I haven't done yet today.

So, it's getting closer to the time I'm going to visit my sister, and I still haven't set that up. I need to set a specific time to do that. I'm thinking I'll go the day after scrapbooking, and come home on the weekend.

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Is that thunder I hear?

I hope so. I just went out to get the mail -- we hadn't gotten it for three days. There was quite a pile waiting for me when I opened the mail box. And boy was it hot and humid out there. By the time I had ridden up to the mail box on my "zoom-zoom" I was dripping.

So, I am hearing some rumblings off in the southwest and am hoping they get this far north and east.

I also hear crackling in the radio, which is another good sign. They say a cold front is supposed to go through. This particular cold front will knock the high temperatures down from 95 to 90 tomorrow, but a lower humidity for just one day.

My one daughter is leaving for Florida tomorrow with her husband and six children. I hope they have two really good weeks at the beach. My other daughter is in Chicago this weekend, enjoying a mini-vacation. My son is looking for a job. Anyone out there willing to help, let me know. He's a computer geek, and that's about all I can say. He's extremely smart and learns very, very quickly. I know this because he graduated from high school when he was 13, and college when he was 18. So that says something, right?

I'm walking better. The TENS unit on my knees seems to be doing something and my back is doing great with the patches.

It always pays to wait before jumping into something the doctor wants you to try if you have any misgivings about it at all. Getting my spinal column jabbed with a needle is not something I want to do and it really is a last resort. Also, getting my spine jabbed will not help my main problem which is my knees. I'm afraid the only thing that will help them is God's healing them. The TENS unit is supposed to stimulate something so that the cartilage grows. I don't get that, but that is what I was told. No deadline given as to when that would happen, so each day I wake up and hope today is the day that the stuff is back in my knees and I can walk pain free.

Alan wanted to know why I'm not losing weight since I don't eat much. Yesterday I had a lettuce only salad with lemon juice and salt as the dressing and then I topped it with half a can of sardines. Not many calories in that meal, but that was it for the day.

OOOOH, the thunder is getting louder!!!!! A very good sign. I guess I'd better quit not and go shut up the lanai/sun porch/enclosed deck. Another rumble. Must get going.

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Cleaning house

Today I had a special young lady to help me clean the closet where I keep so much of my scrap booking stuff. Stuff is the correct word, because stuff blossoms and gets fluffier and bigger and fatter as time passes.

The closet had been clean out and organized about a year ago, and today, Rachel took everything (almost) out of the closet. The trouble is, it didn't all go back in. Oh, bother, as Pooh would say.

I now have five 50 gallon bins in my office with things in them. They are well organized, I think, but they are out in the open, and I would like to put them away someplace. Unfortunately there are no places in which to put them except maybe under the stairs, but then it would be very difficult for me to access the things in the bins when I need the things.

I think I organized it in a good manner. One bin is solely paper. One is solely tools -- you know choppers, clippers, scissors, punches, pens. One bin is scrap booking magazines, although this bin's contents are available to whomever wants to go through it and take some or all of what's in it. One bin has give aways. You know, those things that Creative Memories consultants have in their bags to give away as drawing gifts and gifts to hostesses. I have more of those than I know what to do with because mostly I don't do parties, I do teaching sessions on my own with neighbors and friends or at my own house, and I can't give myself a gift. Even using the "guest hostess" trick, I'm still overrun with cute gifts.

So, Stacia, I really need you to come over and help me deplete some of this "stuff". I still have two boxes in the attic with albums and more paper. So you can see there is plenty to be had, I just need someone to come over and help me thin out the stuff.

BTW, Rachel helped a lot with the thinning, but there's still a bunch left.

Jenni, I'm coming your way, any requests?

Amy, I've got the Disney stuff in a large basket for you.

Stephanie, you interested?

Lori? I know you love stickers and papers and books. Come visit me, bring the kids. we'll go swimming in my pool.

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Gracie is ten!

Gracie is one of my grandchildren. She is the quiet one -- just like her mother. I love Gracie. I love all my grandchildren, and each one is special in a different way. Today is her birthday and she is ten.

Gracie is special in one way that no other grandchild could ever be special. She was born on the day that my husband was sent to Little Rock, Arkansas to receive treatment for multiple myeloma. His life expectancy at that time was one year. Well, my husband is still alive, and every year that Gracie has another birthday and Alan is still alive is a milestone. So, as Gracie is ten, my husband has been given 10 more years, and I have enjoyed his company for as long as my dear granddaughter has been alive.

I missed her birth, but the first event of really getting to know her, was when she was about three months old and she was dedicated at church. It was a Sunday, of course. It was also the day my husband started to lose his hair (from the chemotherapy). It wasn't coming out as he combed it. It was shooting out. I felt sorry for the lady sitting behind him in church. No kidding it was spitting off his head like nothing I'd ever seen or imagined.

When we got back to my daughter's home after church I just pull it out, and it didn't hurt, and by the end of my pulling session Alan was completely bald. Gracie was obivious to all that "excitement" of course, and she was so well behaved for a baby. She was so bright eyed and so pretty.

If you look at the picture, you can see that she is still beautiful. She's the lady in the back, standing up. With her in this picture are her brother, Dan, and her sister, Annie.

But today is Gracie's day. Happy birthday sweetheart. I hope it was a great day for you.

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Pain clinic again

My daughter wrote and asked me how it went today. It went okay. But after the bad omen of the caring being dead when I went out this a.m. and thinking I was going to have to cancel the TENS meeting, my dear husband was able to get the car started in a few minutes, so I was on my way. Yippee!

I saw the nurse practitioner and received the TENS unit along with instruction and was told to take it slow at the beginning so I didn’t get too sore from it. So, I’m obeying that command. There’s one thing I don’t need is more pain.

But pain I’ve got. I had to get an MRI shortly after that meeting. The MRI was in a “open” MRI – not as confined as the usual one -- but not the stand-up one. It was a lay down one and I was able to move my arms minimally and my head as much as I wanted. My right arm fell asleep which was uncomfortable, but I made it through the rest of the time without incident. I checked before entering the room, though, and there were two assistants, so I wasn't worried about being stuck in the machine. Also, I figured it looked pretty big, even for me, and I would be able to worm myself out of it if I needed to.

So, the time in the MRI was 1-1/2 hours and it went okay until about the last 20 minutes, then the pain in my whole body was not good, and I knew it. I should have called for them to stop and pick up again -- Alan does that all the time -- but I didn't and the nurse nearly had to get a crane to get me off the table -- just kidding, but she did have to hoist me up, and then I stumbled out of the facility to the car, praying that it would start again. All I wanted to do was get home -- well, almost, all I wanted to do was get home.

You see, I was near a hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop over in Anderson Township, OH, called Izzy's, and I couldn't resist stopping and getting a corned-beef on rye with sour kraut and extra pickles to take home. It comes with the most delicious potato pancake ever. More than my allotted amount of calories for the day, but I didn't care. It was ten steps into the shop and ten steps back to the car. I made it, with my sandwich in tow. Of course, not being to agile yet, I dropped the bag twice in those ten steps. Did I feel like a dork or what? But I got it home safe and sound and enjoyed it so much. I didn't forget Alan, I got him one also.

After lunch I read all the stuff on the TENS unit, attached it to my knee, and let it work for the minimum amount of time, as instructed by the CPN. I haven’t used it on my back yet, and I will do that tonight before I go to bed. Alan has to hook it up for me, because while I can still bend over and place my palms flat on the floor, I can't bed over backwards and attached electrodes to my middle back.

I felt pretty sleepy after lunch and the TENS unit treatment, so I laid down. My body locked up, and Alan had to pry me off the bed. I know as soon as I get running around the house -- joke there -- I'll feel better.

Alan and I talked and decided that I am not going to have any epidurals until we find out if the TENS unit works. I am also using a lydocane patch, which has worked really well on the back pain, I think. So, if that works, I'm not going to go through the trouble of getting a shot in my spine, thank you very much. I may have to persuade the doctor around to my thinking, but I will just walk out if he doesn't agree with me. I mean he can wait a month, right? I'll give all the other methods of pain reduction a month. If they don't work, I'll go for the big bang.


Hopefully tomorrow I’ll see some improvement in the knee. The nurse practitioner told me to get a full knee brace and told me a company that I can order from on-line to do that. Medicare pays for it. So, I’m going to do that. She said that the pressure on my knee not moving from side to side will help with the pain. Well, duh. I keep my knee stiff most of the time anyway because bending it hurts to bad.

That’s how things went today. It’s 7:45 pm and Alan is hungry. Time to MOVE on with the day.

I apologize if this is convoluted, unintelligible, or not making any sense. I'll do better tomorrow.

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So, I went to the pain clinic today

I went to the pain clinic today. To me it seemed a waste of time. The doctor asked questions, put the info into his handy-dandy laptop computer, which he carried into the examining room with him, and felt me up a bit (Alan was sitting there, so he didn't feel too much), and decided what I needed.

I could have told him what I needed. I need something that will allow me to function as a nearly-human being. You know, walking, cleaning, cooking, sitting, sleeping, etc.

So, I will be going back to the clinic several times next week. I have to get an MRI on Monday. Pray for me. I hate those things, only because I saw this dumb movie once in which the MRI operator dropped dead and the person inside the MRI was stuck there for hours until someone else came in the room. After my first MRI, where I had a panic attack remembering that movie, I always take someone with me, just in case. I mean, you never know, do you?

Also on Monday I'm being fitted for a TENS unit. That's supposed to help stimulate the muscles and make them function better so that the pain isn't so bad. I can't figure out how that will help with bad bones, but apparently having bad bones isn't an issue at the pain clinic. And they're getting the big bucks because a TENS unit is covered completely by Medicare and/or our secondary insurance, as is the fitting, etc.

Speaking of which, Alan and I were discussing the health care issue this morning, after the doctor's appointment and we decided that it's good that we're getting all this stuff done now, because when the new "free" government health care kicks in, we old folks will be put on rationed health care. Did you all know that? Oh, yeah. So, we're getting done as much as we can now while it's still an option.

Then on Wednesday or Thursday I will get shots or an epidural depending on what the MRI shows. I think I would prefer a cortisone shot rather than an epidural, but I'm willing to get whatever the doctor thinks will work.

I've tried the "diet" route, and have researched extensively what to eat for bone pain and arthritis, and maybe it's working as it should -- now there's a scary thought -- but I don't feel like it is.

And, I'm sorry sis, I'll have to postpone my trip to visit with you for at least a week, maybe longer depending on the regime the doctor puts me on. Bummer!

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Quit complaining

Complaining is something I'm good at, and something I'm very good at recognizing.

This will be short and sweet.

I wish the present occupant of the White House would quit complaining about what was inherited, and do something about it! (Expletive deleted) it!

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Doin' okay.

I'm visiting my daughter Becky. Everyone is getting ready to go camping. Not my cuppa tea. I'll stay here at the house, thank you very much!

I'm doing okay after the fall, except my knees still hurt pretty bad; but, then, that's a fact of life at this point of my life.

I was able to drive with minimal discomfort. I just hate people who drive at 40 mph when the speed limit is 60 mph, though. Why do people do that? I was able to pass one of these slow pokes and she (yes it was a woman, mid-40s maybe) and she was just driving along, probably listening to something on her car radio. She definitely was NOT talking on a cell phone -- the usual indicator of a pokey person.

Then I came up on a truck, and I knew I didn't have a chance to pass that vehicle the rest of the way to North Vernon, IN. So, I just had to veg for a while and go slower than I like. I mean, if the speed limit is 60 then I want to go 60. If the speed limit is 45, which it is in a few of the towns along the way, I slow down to comply with the towns' regulations. I understand the need for driving slow in some areas, but in the wide open spaces of southern Indiana, where you can see from one side of the state to the other? No, I want to let the car rip and go at the speed limit -- or should I say go at LEAST 60 mph. ;)

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Fell again. Please laugh with me about this.

What is it with me a falling down?

Yes, I fell again. I knew my foot was numb, but didn’t think the whole leg was, and when I got up, the walker moved and I fell forward. Alan got in here (my office) to help me in record time. Wow! Just goes to prove he can move if he has to, I guess. Anyway, pray for me. My good knee – which isn’t that good – now hurts like you know what. How does a person with no knees walk? Very slowly!

Alan and I got to laughing so hard when I was trying to get up and he was trying to help me.

I remember when my mother fell off her bed in her last days, she just sort of slid onto the floor. She weighed only about 70 pounds, and my sister-in-law and I couldn't get her up off the floor. Well, the more we tried toget her up, the more we laughed, until we were laughing so hard, we almost wet our pants.

At least it was laughable. It could have been worse. Of course, now I’ll have more aches, tomorrow, in places I didn’t know I had. Getting old is so much fun!!!! NOT!

I had to scoot across the floor on my bottom to the edge of the daybed, and then had to remember how I turn over in bed using the headboard (or side of the day bed in this case) to maneuver me around. Thinking is not my strong suit when I'm on the floor, because panic sets in and I can't remember even my name. I see myself living on the floor for the rest of my life.

But, I did it, with much pain in my good knee ensuing. God is good. It could have been much worse.

Now, is Alan not going to let me in my office because I fell down in there. He won't let me near the stairs because I fell down them at Christmas time. Soon I'll be banned from the whole house!!!!!

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Ten pounds

Okay, so do Acai pills work? Well, I started taking them just before Memorial Day. Didn't get on the scale since then, and found out this morning that I had lost 10 pounds. So, I guess they do work. I'll keep taking them until the end of the month, when the "free" trial wears out, then I'll not take them any more -- I mean it costs about $70 a month for them -- too much moola.

Yes, they give me some pep, and I haven't needed an afternoon nap since I started taking them. And, I do sleep better at night, without the aid of that little blue pill.

Alan is getting weaker and he feels absolutely awful. The pain is wearing on him, I know. Been there, done that. However, I don't like the way he looks or sounds. He just sounds so pitiful. Pray for him, if you're reading this.

God is so good, all the time, and I thank Him for life and for the husband he gave me. I know at times it seems to others that I don't love him (my husband), but I do, and we do talk to each other in a way that others cannot understand and think is horrible. I complete his sentences. He completes mine, which is annoying to some folks.

I get angry with him when I hurt and he wants me to do something that he can do just as easily as I can. Like yesterday. I was finishing up clearing the dishes from dinner, was walking back to the bedroom to lay on my back and he asked me to bring him something from the kitchen which wasn't on my way to the bedroom. I looked -- rather I glared -- at him and told him to do it himself. Well, stubborn as he is, he just did without for the rest of the evening, which I knew he would.

I felt guilty, of course, but does he drop everything for me when I ask for something like ice or a blanket or something of that ilk when I'm flat on my back? No. And then I feel guilty for even asking him for help because I know how much it hurts him to walk even one step, let alone 10.

Guilt -- what a horrible thing -- yet it's something I have in my soul every day for the way I don't show my love for my husband, whom I do love so much. And then I rationalize why I didn't show that love for him all the time. For example, I hurt, he knows that, so let him do it himself. Instant guilt! Could you get me some ice -- when you get up, not before, and don't get up just to get me ice, but when you get up, get me some ice in my mug. Well, guilt sets in and I get up sooner than I wanted to and get him his ice. Now why couldn't he get up and get his own ice? I don't know. He hurts, I hurt, and in a contest of who hurts the most, I think it would probably be a tie, except that I have a higher tolerance for pain (being a woman) than he (being a man) does.

Enough venting.

Praise be to God that I still have a husband who needs me to get him ice even when I don't want to do it. God could have taken Alan to be with Him anytime in the past 43 years, but has allowed us to be together for that long, and I pray, much longer.

I got my papers from the pain institute and filled them out. Looks like I'm going to get some relief somehow. Although, I'm still not sure I want to go the epidural route, if that's what they suggest.

So, I guess, I need prayer from lots of folks and prayer for wisdom on what to do next.

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Sacrifice

Recently, almost every time President Obama opens his mouth he is asking us to sacrifice.

I got to thinking about that. Sacrifice, Bible style.

God sacrificed His only son so that I can have salvation through His (the son's) shedding of blood.

The Israelites had to sacrifice a lamb and then put the blood on their door posts so that they would be spared.

Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son before God stepped in and said He provided another sacrifice because of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac.

Giving up something that meant so much to them, but they did it willingly.



But...I don't think this is the kind of sacrifice the President is talking about. I think he means that we are to give up everything we have or ever would have, and I don't know the purpose, except that he wants himself and his "friends" to be the only people in America that aren't sacrificing anything. I don't believe that losing one's job (not something people are doing willingly) is sacrifice. It's torment. It's awful for those people. They are living in a state of fear, fear of how are they going to support their families.

Also, because sacrifice is something that is done willingly, it is entirely different from what the president is say our sacrifice should be -- our sacrifice is akin to slavery, no options, just live with it. Not a pretty picture.

Sacrifice infers willingness to do something, as I said. Am I willing to sacrifice anything so that my President can spend money on foolish things, or buy companies, or have a date with his wife? Sorry, but no, I'm not. Where is HIS (the president's) sacrifice in all this. Shouldn't he be an example of how his "subjects" (I think he thinks he's a king) are to sacrifice?

Is losing a job a sacrifice? No it's an intolerable result of the new spending and stimulus which isn't working, except in reverse. Today, another 70,000 (estimate) jobs were lost because of Chrysler dealerships closing. Excuse me, but what happened to the PROMISE that we would have more jobs available for people, and no more job losses? Of course, anyone who believed that and voted for BO is a fool -- yes, a fool. And anyone who didn't vote for McCain because they didn't like the alternative is as much as fool, and really are the people who put the present man in office. It's because of those who did not vote for McCain because they didn't like the alternative, and basically just didn't vote, that we are faced with sacrifice. I hope they are enjoying what they have sown.

Why do these men with clay feet keep using Biblical terms when they don't even know what they mean. BO using sacrifice, Clinton using atonement. I just can't get a handle on this, except that God is setting up the men and women who will be helping the Anti-Christ to take over the world. At least I can look forward to the return of our Lord, SOON.

Even so come Lord Jesus. Amen

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