Carole's Clutter

2006-08-10T06:24:00.000-05:00

Mr T and his drain

Trying times

2006-08-10T06:08:00.000-05:00

Don't have a lot of time today, but it's been a rough week. I found an infected abscessed gash on T's back Tuesday night. I took him to the vet yesterday (Wed) and they had to take him to surgery to clean, trim the edges and evacuate the abscess, and then they placed a drain so that it would heal properly.

Now that he's out of anesthesia, he's decided it all my fault and won't have anything to do with me unless I'm asleep. *sigh*

Being left alone all day apparently freaked Midas out as he is not being his normal hyper self. He's also steering very clear of T - I think he's afraid of the drain. He got too close to it last night and backed up. LOL

So I have one dog holding a grudge and another one who's scared. Life's grand, I tell ya, just grand.

What possessed me?

2006-06-28T07:33:00.000-05:00

For some insane reason, I decided I should eat some veggies. I stir fried onion, celery, yellow squash and zucchini last night with some italian seasonings. I also had a bean burrito. I know, I know...what a combo! The burrito was supper, I just tasted the veggies as the plan was to cook ahead.

I'm giving it all away today. The refried beans are going to work for the mexican potluck, and the veggies are going to Priscilla. I'm going back to my protein diet. It likes me. LOL

Bathroom adventure

2006-06-19T07:08:00.000-05:00

quick funny story. I rehung the bathroom door last night before I went to bed. (note - remember, it used to be white and now it's dark oak). 4:30 am, Carole wakes up, does the half-eyed-open bathroom shuffle in the dark because, as we all know, if you turn on a light, or completely wake up, you don't get back to sleep very easily. So, shuffle out of bed, shuffle down the hall, left turn shuffle into the bathroom - BAM. Headfirst into the dark door that my half awake brain interpreted as the dark bathroom, because, of course it wasn't the door - the door is white.

So much for staying asleep. It didn't hurt, but it sure did wake me up.

A new chapter begins

2006-06-18T20:57:00.000-05:00

I've not said much about it until I was sure that I would be able to keep it up, but I have become a Flybaby. :-) www.flylady.net will tell you everything you've ever wanted to know about FlyLady. As those who know me well know, I am NOT a good housekeeper. I am not even a mediocre housekeeper. I'm a TERRIBLE housekeeper. LOL With FlyLady that is slowly changing. My kitchen isn't spotless, but any means, but my sink has been clean for 5.5 wks. I'm slowly reclaiming bits of my home. It's not all clean yet, and I don't expect it to be - I'm just keeping the same areas clean and expanding them a bit each week, while teaching myself those tidy household habits that most people seem to learn growing up and which I've NEVER been any good at, though I remember hearing many of these lesson from both my parents as a child. I guess hearing and listening aren't the same thing. LOL

In the meantime, I came very close to ditching this house and buying another, but have backed off of that idea for the time being. My plan is still for resale in the future, but we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I've started refinishing the woodwork in my house. So far I've stripped the bathroom door completely down, and done about 2/3 of the hallway door. I also did one thin piece of molding which had been sitting around ever since I moved in. It's a bit rough on the body, but very satisfying to see all that gorgeous wood reappearing from years of ugly paint.

2006-06-03T22:04:00.000-05:00

more family photos

2006-06-03T22:00:00.000-05:00

Leonard, Tammy and family come to visit Chattanooga, May 06

2006-06-03T21:54:00.000-05:00

Crazy mutts

2006-04-25T19:57:00.000-05:00

I have a funny dog story from Sunday. I went out on the front porch to do some cleaning and the front door didn’t latch. I turned around in time to see two streaks of lightning take off down the street. I said some *very bad words* and ran inside to get my car keys and the leashes because they were down the end of the street by the time I got as far as the sidewalk. The neighbors across the street were on their porch and pointed down the street so I drove towards Hickory St and couldn’t see them. I could hear dogs barking so I turned into the alley that runs behind my house. I came up behind a house a few down from me and immediately spotted Midas. I stopped the car and opened the door and he came RUNNING full speed at me and jumped into the car. (He HATES the car!). I still didn’t see T, so I drove down the alley to Holly St (going behind my house in the process) and went back around to my street. As I got near my house, I saw the neighbors across the street laughing and pointing. I look over, and there’s T sitting on the front porch waiting for me. As soon as he saw me in the car, he came running off the front porch and up on the car door, looking in the open window at me as if to say “Hey! Are we going for a ride? Cool! Let’s go!”
The neighbors later told me that he left Midas, came across the street to greet them, and then back to our side of the street and up on the porch. All in about 5 minutes. *eye roll* Crazy mutts.

Hospital Memoirs

2006-04-12T19:31:00.000-05:00

It occurs to me that I never posted my funny resident story from a few weeks ago.

Situation - I've been in the hospital about 20 hrs, haven't slept in 34. My surgeon has been consulted and his senior resident has come to see me. He's doing his info gathering and I'm already seeing that he's the type who's decided what's wrong and is trying to make my words fit his picture. Remember - my presenting symptom was sudden onset abd pain followed by a near-fainting spell. Since I fainted, he's focusing on making sure they didn't miss any cardiac problems before putting me under anesthesia for surgery. He's just about done gathering his info and is at the "well Ms Lee, we'll be adding you to the surgical schedule for tomorrow" stage when Jr Resident comes in, apologizes for interupting and sits in on the rest of the interview. Sr. Resident continues, saying we'll review your labs and EKG before going to surgery and I point out that I've not had an EKG. He says "really?" I saw "yes" - nothing more said.

They get to the assessment stage of the deal and I have Jr resident on my left, leaning over doing his listening with the scope deal, and Sr. Resident on my right near the end of the bed. The Jr. does his thing and after a few minutes, while listening to my belly, he says "did you say you haven't had an EKG?" and I say "that's right". As he's listening to me, he looks up at his Sr resident with what must've been a question face, because the Sr immediately starts to say "I'm sure she did she just doesn't..." Picture me - lying there, on no sleep hearing this bozo start to say I don't know what I'm talking about!

I cut him off before he could finish the sentence (and truly piss me off- never a good thing when I'm lacking sleep), and said, "I'm a nurse, I KNOW what an EKG is, and I HAVEN'T HAD ONE - in fact I've NEVER HAD ONE." Sr. Resident backed off in a major way, assured me that he'd make sure that one was ordered and left, hurriedly. Jr. followed him out the door after a few more moments.

Funny thing though - I was in the hospital for 36 more hours, and SEVERAL of the Jr residents made it a point to drop into my room at least twice before I was discharge, but I never saw the Senior Resident again.

As words go, it was reasonably mild, but I think I truly embarrassed him in front of the Jr. He deserved it, and judging by the attention the Jr's gave me, they appreciated having the arrogant jerk put in his place. It probably didn't help his rep any that I told all 3 of my doctors what he said and EVERY nurse I had. ROFL. Don't piss off a nurse - you'll never live it down.

Ok, while we're on hospital stories - here's my favorite stupid nurse one. I went in on Monday night, got to my room early Tuesday morning. I was NPO all day until 1 pm when they ordered me a lunch tray. I ate the lunch tray, had a supper tray arrive about 5:00 and had started to eat that too, when my GI showed up, after discussing me with my surgeon. He and I go over the plan and he tells me he wants me to have a CT scan that night, and that I'll be having a scope as well as the rectal exploration under anesthesia the next day. As he leaves he says - don't eat any more of that! *sigh* It was such a good looking tray too.

So, about 6 am, my nurse walks in tearing up little packets and saying "I've got some medication for you to take - just 4 little pills" as she starts towards me. I say, "what is it?" She says Dulcolax as she starts to hand them to me. I held my hand up like a traffic cop and said "NO". She said "what?" I said "no, I can't take Dulcolax - I tried it for my last scope and I got really sick." "HMMMPH" sez she. "HMMMPH" think I, not appreciating her overworked attitude, considering she's done NOTHING for me in 12 hrs except page my doctor (when I got cranky about being NPO for 12 hrs with no IV) and order me a tray.

About 6:20 or so, while I was on the phone with one of the several Suxters who called to check on me (I SO appreciated those calls from my family and the Suxters , though I was so freaking tired, I'm not even sure I remember everyone who called now) when she walked in carrying 3 bottles of Mag Citrate as my bowel prep for the scope. UGH, thinks I, and finishes my conversation.

When I'm off the phone, I'm sitting there looking at the mag citrate, and suddenly think - hey! I'm supposed to have a cat scan - I don't want to start this until that's done, right?
So....out I walk to harass my poor *overworked* nurse who's sitting at the desk. "Um, scuse me, but I thought Dr. Yates wanted me to have a cat scan tonight? I don't know if I should start this prep if I'm going to have that..." Poor over-worked nurse (snort) gives me a disgusted look and says, I don't have any orders for a cat scan. Me - "are you sure?" She *sniff* flips order pages in chart, runs finger over the page and half of orders - "no, no cat scan. You do have orders for a CT scan, but I know they're busy and doubt that'll be done until tomorrow".

Me - dumbfounded - head back to my room and pray to God that my night shift nurse this night is the same one I had the night before, because I've now found out that not only is my day shift nurse a bitch - she's a stupid bitch that doesn't know that a cat scan and a ct scan are the SAME BLOODY THING!

My saintly night shift nurse, Grace, doesn't say a thing when I tell her what has happened, but by 7:15 I have my first glass of CT contrast - when the CT was delayed she found out what the scoop was, she took me down there HERSELF, ordered me a bedside commode so that I wouldn't have to spend the night sleeping on the bathroom floor, and brought me IV Zofran immediately when I started to get sick from the mag citrate. She restored my faith in my peers, bless her.

It was a good day.

2006-04-09T20:00:00.000-05:00

Though it started out cool this morning at about 43 degrees, by 10 am it was in the low 50's and I went out to work on my yard. Every year I seem to have more weeds and less grass, and I've reached my breaking point. I am going to try to work on it a bit every day for the next few weeks, and hopefully have all the crud that's growing out there dug up by the end of the month. As I clear each section I'll toss down grass seed and hay, and, since it can't possibly look any worse than it currently does, hopefully by mid May I'll have a yard I don't cringe everytime I look at it. It'll be much more labor intensive than expensive, and hopefully I won't have to do it again.

Let's go....

2006-04-06T19:29:00.000-05:00

Fly a kite! That's what I did when I got off work today. It was totally spur of the moment and I had a wonderful time. Sometimes ya just got to play.

This whole "turn the clocks forward" again thing is a pain in my tush. I had a very nice schedule all worked out, and now I'm having to get up earlier. Ick. It is nice that it's light now until 8 pm; I like that part of it a lot!

So, random factoids - for those of you that weren't already aware of it, I had a short but scary spell here at the house 2 weeks ago and passed out while trying to get to the phone to call for help. That spell ended up with me in the hospital for 3 days, not sleeping for 2, a CT scan, a colonoscopy (AGAIN) and an exploration under anesthesia with 2 rectal stricturoplasties. They were SURE they were going to find a fistula, but ol' Frederica wasn't going to make it easy for them, no sirree. She's a modest lil' lady and she hid, dammit. I'm as certain as they are that she's still lurking in there somewhere, but as long as she behaves herself, I don't care anymore. I lived with her older twin brothers for 10+ years before I evicted them, so she knows the score. She doesn't bother me and I'll pretend she's not there. LOL

I'm tentatively scheduled for a capsule endoscopy test next Tuesday - that should be interesting. I say tentative, because I'm not sure that insurance is going to ok the test. We'll see. I'll be very curious to see what it shows because I've felt for years that my stomach/small intestine do not empty the way they should, though I don't know why, or what's going on. Plus *putting on nerd hat* it just kind of sounds like a cool test. LOL

I've become very addicted to Sudoku puzzles and even coughed up the $15 to download a program called Master Sudoku to my Palm pilot. LOL Yup, I'm a geek.

This Saturday Priscilla and I are going downtown to walk in the Mystery History Mile - http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1287996 The weather will be a bit cool according to the forecasters, but they've been wrong the last 2 weekends so I'm not too worried about it.

Hmmm, what else. Well, I bought a new (to me) monitor last weekend. Apparently the one I had didn't appreciate being knocked around when I fell in the computer desk. The graphics have been wonky off and on ever since. It's fairly old for a monitor also - and it's definitely been well used, at least since I got it. I'm not sure how much use it got before that. The replacement is nothing spectacular, but it works, looks ok, and the price was right, so I'm not going to fuss. I'm just glad I can still get on the net.

Guess that's about it for news today. I wish you could see T right now - he's lying on the floor next to me with his paws tucked up close to his head. I guess he'll always look like a puppy to me - he's never lost the mannerisms.

Forgot to add

2006-03-15T21:34:00.000-05:00

I have a new blog page set up! http://carolesclutter-nashvillezoo0306.blogspot.com One of these days I'll add it to the links set up on the side, but for now, this will get you to them.

Hope you enjoy the pictures - it was a gorgeous day.

Latest and greatest news

2006-03-15T21:22:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! I'm tired so here's a quick rundown.

I had 3 skin biopsies done - got the results on Monday - thank you God they were negative. I wasn't ready to go down that road again.

LateMonday night I discovered that my refrigerator was no longer doing it's job, and I had a freezer full of half defrosted meat and melted ice cream and fudgcicles. DAMN.

Tuesday I left work to meet the repairman - turns out the control board is all electronic, and it was fried. $230 later I had a cooling refrigerator full of defrosted meat. Time to start cooking.

Wednesday morning ( today) I met with the surgeon. He DOES want to do another exploratory on me to see what's going on in there. This time there will be a dilation done as well (I think this is probably a good thing, all in all.) If all we do is an exploration and dilation, I could be back to work in a couple of days. If he finds another fistula and does the fistulotomy again - then 2 weeks. I'm tentatively hoping to schedule it for the Friday before Memorial Day. I have a doc appt the Thurs before Memorial day that was scheduled 3 mos in advance and it was the earliest one I could get - I don't want to change that one if I can avoid it, though last time a change only involved a week or two. Hmmmm. I'll have to think on that a bit.

Spring has come to Chattanooga

2006-03-10T20:26:00.000-05:00

I try to limit my photo posts on this page, but thought I'd share this one. There will be more published on the Photopage - there's a link on the side of the page that will navigate you there.

The humiliation of it all....

2006-01-23T00:09:00.000-05:00

Ok, I have to share one of the more humilating moments of the last week.
Thursday evening, I'm very proud of myself. I packed all the necessary clothes and was off to the gym. When I went to change, I realized that the T- I'd grabbed wasn't the one I thought it was. It was long sleeved and had a huge stain on it. I thought - heck with it, I'll just wear the shirt I wore to work today. It was a blue v-neck short sleeve cotton t-type with embroidery all around the neckline. I went all around the circuit with the trainer, who kept looking at me a little oddly. I *thought* he was impressed by how diligent the chubby blond was being with her workout. Several folks came through the area on a facility tour while I was doing my routine and I made eye contact and lot of smiles 'cause I was feeling so good about myself.

*sigh* Sadly...later that evening (at home) I suddenly realized that I'd been wearing my shirt inside out the entire time. I'd had a nice white v of interfacing showing down my front and my white tag hanging out the back the entire time. (Dark blue shirt).
Mortifying....just mortifying...

Happy Birthday NOEL!

2006-01-17T20:21:00.000-05:00

My bro Noel is having a birthday today! Hooray! That means I'm almost halfway to my next one though...booo hisssssss. LOL

Hard to believe that cocky kid from 20 years ago is now an adult with a job, a family, cat, dog, house and pool! Not to mention college funds, mortgage payments, and car payments. I hope this year is a bright and shiny one for you little brother....

And I swear - your present is going in the mail tomorrow - I had some pictures to add to the box and forgot to put 'em in the car this morning. I went to mail it on Saturday and missed the last FedEx pickup.

By now, I guess you know your big sis is a slug when it comes to the post office. *sigh* I've been thinking of you all day, if that's any consolation.

da Gym

2006-01-17T19:23:00.000-05:00

I made it through my first gym visit! This time they walked me through the whole routine and that counted as one circuit. Later this week, I'll do 2 circuits, and then next week, we'll be full speed ahead - 3 circuits from then on. I also explored the Y and discovered they have hot tubs and a steam room (not to be confused with a sauna) I do not like saunas - they give me a headache, but steam rooms are miraculous things for those of us cursed with sinusitis. The showers looked clean, lots of towels available as well as hair dryers and hair spray, so it all looks pretty doable.

Still kickin...

2006-01-16T23:27:00.001-05:00

Promise, I'm still alive. Got a lot of stuff done around the house this weekend, but very little of the computer stuff I wanted to do. I have pics to scan and things to post, but having a hard time getting back in the habit.

This is probably partly because I don't have a whole lot to talk about. Somehow I don't think most of you would get as big a charge out of my daily accomplishments as I do. The high point of my day was reattaching my soap dish to my shower wall. It was a big thrill for me, but prolly doesn't sound like much to y'all!

Then there's the deep cleaning I gave the front room. (Except for the furniture - I'm still looking for my vac attachment so I can vacuum it) Again, a thrill for me, but pretty damn boring when you think about it. lol

I did a lot of cooking this weekend which is good. I also did a lot of eating - not so good. *sigh* I can't win for losing some days. LOL

It's a new year! Hooray!

2006-01-01T19:39:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated the blog. There's a couple of reasons for my being MIA.

First, I spent a LOT of time working on my parent's anniversary present. For those not in the 'know' my brother and I liberated their slide collection, I bought a dedicated slide scanner, and scanned slides until I thought my eyes would cross. I had no idea how many slides they truly had! The grand total ended up being 2776, or between 140 and 185 hours of scanning time. It was a lot of fun, and gave me a new appreciate for my dad's photographic skills, as well as allowing me a lot of time to wander down 'memory lane'.

Second, I've been learning my new job, and adapting to the 9-5 lifestyle. It's a major adjustment. LOL I'm having to find ways to get my life more organized - I can't leave stuff for 'my day off' because there's just too much to cram into a two day weekend. Even though I'm working shorter days than I was, I'm still in the "I'm home from work and it's time to veg" mode - which was fine after a 12 hr day, but not so cool after a 9 hr day.

Third, I've been in a funk. All the holidays at this time of year give me too much time to dwell on the 'what-if's' and 'shoulda, coulda, woulda's' and other general musings on the state of my life. Like everyone, I have those spots in my history that just scream "WHAT where you thinking?!", but then there are some really good memories to balance them out. LOL In my worst moments I try to figure out what the men in my life were thinking - and that's a GUARANTEED migraine - never never never try to figure out what your ex's were thinking! It turns into a never-ending round of circular thinking because truth to tell - you'll never know.

I always get the travel bug around this time of year and start thinking of places I'd like to go. I'm on the mailing list for a couple of different travel agencies, and I love reading about all the different tours they have. I have standing invitations to Dallas, Austin, Washington DC, and Kentucky (I can't remember the name of the city but on the west side of the state.) A bunch of my internet buddies are getting together next month in Pennsylania for a weekend. Then there's my favorite old stand-by. Niagara Falls. I love that place! I never seem to go anywhere, but I sure do like to think about it. :-P

Some of my IBD sucks friends and I are kicking around the idea of a camping trip to NC in the spring to visit another sucks friend. Who knows what'll come of it, but the one thing I'm sure of is that I'm buying a good camp bed, or air mattress or something of that sort before I go camping again. I'm getting too old for matting and a sleeping bag to cut it. LOL Jason thinks we're wimps but I'm holding out for a campground with flush toilets and hot showers. I can handle everything else - but I refuse to take cold showers, and I don't have time to do that "dig-a-hole-in-the-ground" thing that hard core campers take so seriously. *snicker* Bunch of IBD'ers and he wants primitive camping - HAH! Jennifer is considering coming with us and she is a JAP of the first order when it comes to comfort. (she cheerfully admits it!) Then there's Brett, who'll gamely try the new experience - but she's not terribly excited about it. Maybe she and Jennifer will 'camp' at the nearby Motel 6. lolololol

What would really be fun would be to get a whole group of friends or family together and rent adjoining fishing cabins at Fall Creek Falls. It'd be the best of all worlds! Right smack in the middle of a gorgeous park with tons and tons of outdoor stuff to do, but real walls, toilets, beds and kitchens to live out of. Plus - separate cabins for everyone, so privacy would still be an option. :-D

Well, anyway - that's the latest! I'll put a link on the side here for the slide sampler - and post a rundown on the party later (tomorrow?) but the anniversary party was a great success, and a good time was had by all. Mum was shocked and surprised, and Dad claims he was, though I have my doubts. Even if he figured out something was up, he didn't tell, and he seemed to have a good time too.

Checking in...

2005-11-27T22:18:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone - yes I am still alive and kicking. Feel like I've caught my annual cold weather cold. Yippee. It's got a new twist this year - instead of running like a faucet, my ears and jaw hurt from the sinus pressure. It's definitely not a sinus infection - just the pressure causing pain.

Tomorrow I head back to work after a four day Thanksgiving break. I had asked to sit with and observe someone for half a day, but I think I'm going to ask if I can skip that after all. Feeling like I do, I really don't want to be sitting that close to someone else and getting her sick. I'd rather just sit in my own little cubi-hell and sniffle my way through the day.

I did my research and found the safest rodenticide I could and put it in my attic and basement yesterday. It says I should see results in 4-5 days so I'll be sure to have my shovel handy Tuesday and Wednesday. I sure hope it works. There's supposed to be a new one coming out on the market that is totally safe for the muttlings, but I can't wait for it. They're destroying my house. (not the dogs - what a change! lol) I just pray I don't have one die in the wall. UGH.

Oh yes, Christmas wish list. A large burner for a Roper (made by Whirlpool) stove. New trays to go under the burners. (Black - they hide the burned stuff better lol) A water filter for my refrigerator. (GWF cartridge GE smartwater). Heating element for the water heater. I'll have to get back to you on the model # to track down the part #. I don't feel like going into the basement right now. LOL Bolt cutters to cut the old chains off my porch swing so I can hang it next year. National Geographic. Kid style bubble bath (grown-up floral, etc stuff makes me sneeze.) Bubble gum and strawberry are good. :-D Seems like there was something else at Home Depot, but I can't remember it off the top of my head.

I wouldn't mind a hot date either, but I'm not holding my breath. *sigh*

The boys want rawhides and more of the 88cent stuffed dog toys at WalMart to kill. I can't think of anything else and I'm not expecting all of this - these were just ideas that came to mind. With the repairs to the ac and the security system, Christmas is going low end this year. I'm sure you can all relate.

Cindy - I'm thinking of you. Hugs. Hugs for all of you.

Week Three

2005-11-02T05:11:00.000-05:00

Class is starting to get more interesting. We're starting to actually input data (in dummy screens of course) and the programs we're using are very complex. We learned the easiest type yesterday and it still involved about 10-12 screens by the time you were done. You have to be really anal about following the directions and skipping a step is not a good idea. The program is pretty forgiving about letting you go in and fix most of your errors, but if you make one, you have to figure out WHERE. That's when it gets tricky.

Note to self

2005-10-28T23:10:00.000-05:00

Stop buying Craisins and chocolate covered cranberries. Bad bad bad bad bad....

Weekend

2005-10-25T22:37:00.000-05:00

I didn't say anything about my weekend! Life has been too exciting lately. I've been working on a pet project in my spare time, but I took a break and did some serious housecleaning last week. It's still not clean, but at least I'm not totally embarrassed anymore.

Saturday afternoon Steve came to town. We checked out the aquarium expansion and the new riverfront and then he took me to dinner. It was good to see him again; I've missed having him around. I don't know what to think about it and decided not to worry about it and just enjoy the visit. The boys were thrilled to see him again and remembered him IMMEDIATELY. So much so that as soon as he sat down T sat in his lap - something he's never done with anyone except me. It really surprised me how well they remembered him considering they hadn't seen him in nearly two years.

Sunday I picked up Jason in Cleveland and we drove up to Knoxville to visit with our friend Ariel and her husband Chris and go to the zoo. We had a great time! Of course - the phone call during dinner from Susan (Jason's wife) who was calling to tell him the oven was on fire livened things up, but all's well that ends well. She and the cats are ok - the stove's element went up in flames but was well contained and eventually extinguished after using nearly an entire extinguisher. Poor Susan! It took them nearly an entire day to clean the extinguisher stuff off of everything.

I'll post pics tomorrow on the picture page. It's way past my bedtime - but I felt guilty for not updating the blog sooner.

So there I was...sound asleep....

2005-10-25T22:08:00.000-05:00

I'm now in my second week of training with my new job and it's been quite a change for me. The first week we spent one day in human resources (er - excuse me - People Services) orientation and then went over to our building for the grand tour and first glimpse of our new home away from home. Cubicle sweet cubicle.

Oh

My

God.

"What have I done?" That's all I could think when I first saw it. It was so small - maybe 5 x 5 and one among literally hundreds of cubicles. Thank God it's not in the center of the room or I might not have been able to come back.

I went back the next day and decided that I could make this work. A good night's sleep,a dream that reminded me of how my old job had made me feel, and a long chat with one of my fellow new co-workers who voiced the exact same feelings helped a lot. The one thing I knew I HAD to do was decorate that gawdawful ugly cubicle ASAP. LOL I moved the gargoyle in next to my phone, put some of my photography on the shelf and one on the wall, invested in a few posters from Big Lots, and filled up a drawer with snacks and food (as well as a set of silverware, a coffee mug and a soup mug) and it was starting to feel like it would be okay. Once I mounted my new memory board under the shelf where I could see it regularly, I felt much better. Now the first thing I do when I get there is turn on my undershelf light so the board is well lit. Turning off the light is the last thing I do every work day.

So there I am, with a well dressed cubicle and nothing to do in it. I played around on the intranet and found most of the policy and procedures (discovered that if my work is acceptable I get a raise in 6 months - SWEET!) the online classfieds for employees, set up my email, recorded my voicemailbox message, and started making plans to fly paper airplanes over the cubicle wall at my buddy Debbie when we get more settled in. :-D

THEN they had me sit with another nurse for four of the longest days of my life. Did I get to do anything? Nooooo...... What I got to do was listen to phone calls. Lots and lots of phone calls. Those who know me will find it hard to believe, but yes, even I get tired of being on the phone eventually.

Monday comes! HOORAY! Week two! We start computer class today! 9 am!!!

9 a.m. "Excuse me - why are y'all here? You're supposed to be in new employee orientation."

us - "Ummmm....we did that last Monday".

her - "Well we're not scheduled to start until 3 pm - there must've been a miscommunication. Y'all go on back and sit with your buddies until then."

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

So - they stick me with a different buddy - nice lady, but she doesn't interact with me at all and she's got a lovely near monotone voice. *sigh* I sat with her before and after lunch. It was a lovely lunch...

After lunch, there I am listening in on my brand new headset phone sitting directly behind my 'buddy' (because there's no room any other way) and - you guessed it - I fell sound asleep for almost a half hour. What's really sad is - my buddy never noticed! She turned around about 5 minutes after I woke up and asked me something about a caller and if I remembered what they had said. I told her, perfectly honestly, that I didn't remember.

Today I found out that one person did spot me - but she was another new employee who had been listening in on the calls for FIVE weeks and she totally understood! She and several others all said that they had nodded off - though apparently I'm the only one who's actually taken a nap. I feel bad about it, but honestly....I couldn't help it! lol Thank God I didn't get caught.

Today we actually had computer class. I learned how to toggle between windows, open Outlook, write an email, and edit a word document. *sigh* Oh well, it was better than listening in on phone calls.

I seriously do think I will like the job once I get to do it but this early training stuff is very elementary. They have all our pay information online and I've already seen the info from my first check. *sweet* That was a nice pick-me-up.

Last day at work

2005-10-12T15:09:00.000-05:00

This is Tamara, myself, and Nellie at my last day party. Nellie and I have worked together for more than 2 years - I miss her already! She's one of the reasons I lasted two years - lol.

Nellie - you're the bestest!

Crossing over...

2005-09-29T07:38:00.000-05:00

To the insurance side of the medical game.

Yes, you heard right - starting Oct 17th, I will be working for *************** as a precertification nurse. I am excited about it - the company has a fantastic reputation as both a provider and as an employer, and the chances for advancement, using skills that I enjoy, as well as their employee benefits were too good to walk away from.

I do regret having to start over yet AGAIN, but I'm hoping this will be the last time. I gave my current employer every chance - when I became unhappy in my position, I tried to work through many of the issues,and to be fair, SOME of them have improved, but not enough, and not soon enough. I also tried to find another position within the company. In eight months I applied for 6 or 7 positions - and never even received a phone call. I felt forced to look outside the company. Had they made any attempts to meet my needs, I never would have looked, and thus would never have been aware of the positions available within ********.

I am getting a little nervous about the transition - but that's normal for me. I commit to change and then I freak for just a little while. LOL

Word spreads like wildfire where I work and several hours after I officially gave notice, one of the physicians that I've worked with for four years, and had problems with off and on for four years, lol, made it a point to wish me well and tell me that he personally was going to miss me. It really startled me - and meant more than anything anyone else said. I could tell that, despite our differences, he truly meant it and it made me tear up. I never would have suspected that HE would be the one to actually 'get' to me. LOL

Getting to know you...

2005-09-14T20:33:00.000-05:00

Welcome to another edition of getting to know your friends. What you're supposed to do is copy (not forward) this entire email and paste it onto a new email that you'll send.Change all of the answers so that they apply to you. Then, send this to a whole bunch of people you know "INCLUDING" the person that sent it to you.The theory is that you'll learn a lot of little known facts about your friends. It's fun and easy. You might be surprised with some of the things you learn about people you think you know!

1. IF YOU COULD BUILD A SECOND HOUSE ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD IT BE?
A country home up in the mountains with shade, and a lake/stream and a huge fenced area for the muttlings to run.

2. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING? I don't like clothes - LOL but I guess a big floppy T-shirt is the least restrictive.

3. THE LAST CD YOU BOUGHT? of Music?! OMG - I can't remember the last time I actually specifically purchased music.

4. WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING? workday - 5:30. Other days - 7:30 ish

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE KITCHEN APPLIANCE? Dishwasher - if it's working then I don't!

6. IF YOU COULD PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? I used to play clarinet, but I'd love to play the tin whistle

7. FAVORITE COLOR? Depends on the day. Blue/green/maroon

8. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SPORTS CAR OR SUV? SUV

9. DO YOU BELIEVE IN AFTERLIFE? Yes - absolutely. I'm also a big believer of reincarnation and karma.

10. FAVORITE CHILDREN'S BOOK? Madeleine

11. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON? Spring

12. IF YOU COULD HAVE ONE SUPER POWER, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Telepathy - I'd love to FINALLY know what people are thinking rather than what they 'say' they are thinking. Grrrr.

13. CAN YOU JUGGLE? Sure! I juggle a job, a house, 2 maniacal dogs, and a chronic illness - what more do you want??? lol

14. THE ONE PERSON FROM YOUR PAST YOU WISH YOU COULD GO BACK AND TALK TO. My 9th grade algebra teacher. His class changed my life more than he could possibly imagine. Not only did he convince me that I COULD do math - he suckered me into LIKING it!

15. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE DAY? Saturday

16. WHAT'S IN THE TRUNK OF YOUR CAR/TRUCK? Jimmy Hoffa. No, seriously, 4 full size kites, 2 small kid's kites, one tent, sleeping bag, cook gear, air mattress pump, charcoal and assorted other camping sundries.

17. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SUSHI OR HAMBURGER? Hamburger

18. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FLOWER? Any that don't make me sneeze.

19. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MEAL? Whatever someone else both prepares AND cleans up. :-)

20. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? July 67

21. SOUP OR SALAD? Ick. Steak

22. MOUTHWASH OR BREATH MINTS? I'd rather have an apple

23. COMPUTER OR CELL PHONE? computer

24. POPCORN OR PEANUTS? What? Are you TRYING to put me in the hospital???

25. PEPSI OR COKE? Diet Lime Coke with Splenda

26. CABLE OR SATELLITE TV? Cable. I'm cheap.

27. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU WILL EMAIL THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TORESPOND FIRST? Carla

28. WHO'S LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Probably Noel - He hates junk mail lolol - I think I'll send it to him too!

29. WHO DID YOU RECEIVE THIS FROM...... Cathy

30. EMAIL or SNAIL MAIL.? E-mail of course...

31. PAY BILLS ON-LINE, BY PHONE OR SNAIL MAIL? Online

32. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW? Hmmm - was watching LOTR Fellowship extended version the other night on DVD. Can't remember the last thing I saw in the theater - prolly LOTR, ROTK. I am such a Tolkien fiend, and the movies are a plus in that they're kind of like a gal's 'swimsuit' edition, with all those hot male bods...*laughs*

Sucky sucky day

2005-09-05T21:06:00.000-05:00

So, here I am on a gorgeous morning, my last holiday day before back to work and I decide I'm going to go for a bike ride. I load up the bike on the trunk rack, grab my helmet and fanny pack and head over to the RiverWalk to check out the new trail. Once there, I put my sunglasses on, put my regular glasses in their hard case, grab my helmet and head to the trunk to get the bike off the rack. I remember putting helmet on head, to free up my hands to undo the bike. Apparently I set my regular glasses down. Started to get the bike down, and then remembered I hadn't checked the tires. Back to the front seat to grab a tire gauge. Checked em, yup, need air. Back in the car to drive to gas station to inflate tires.

When back from gas station, suddenly I get a sick feeling in stomach - "where are my glasses?" Tear car apart on the inside in the vain hope that somehow I put the case back in the car and didn't see them. Get down in parking lot on hands and knees looking frantically under all cars. Leave word at the concession stand and the park ranger's office to see if they've been turned in. Drive the route to gas station and back 3 times - slowly, in hopes of seeing the shiny aluminum case they were in. Pulled the bag out of the nearby trashcan to see if they had been thrown away. No luck anywhere.

No way I can function with only sunglasses. Went to a local glasses shop who TG run sales every holiday. Had an eye exam (3 years since my last one - ooops!) to find out that my left eye focuses at about 5 inches from my face while my right eye focuses at approx 13 inches. Yup - it's confirmed that I'm blind as a bat...

Then he does a few more exams and drops the ball on me. I have entered the bifocal realm. Since I do so much computer/reading work, instead of bifocals he recommends two pair of glasses. One for reading and one for everything else.
I'm not even 40 yet - and now I'm the proud owner of THREE pair of glasses??? Reading, distance, and sunglasses? $#^%#*%$*$% And I don't even want to talk about the expense other than to say thank God they were having a sale.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

2005-09-02T22:37:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's official! Dad can now take early retirement if he wants to. The thought amazes me - parents are not supposed to age, darn it.

So anyway - here's a virtual birthday toast to the best Dad I know...

Vignettes from this week

2005-09-02T20:09:00.000-05:00

ok, you asked for it (well you didn't, but too bad!) - here's a few vignettes of my last few days.

Wednesday night - after a long and lengthy play/loving session with the dogs (get yer minds out of the gutter you perverts!) I told them, ok - time for bed. They both hopped up onto the bed and started to get comfortable. I, meanwhile got a sudden urge to hit the toilet one last time. 15 minutes later, I come out to the sight of the two of them curled up, snoozing on the bed like two little angels...except one of the jokers went and got my shoe and placed it exactly in MY spot on the bed!

The next evening, when I came home from work, I found my bed exactly as I'd left it, except for the addition of a heart shaped stuffed dog toy sitting upright on my pillow. ROFL

My giggle for yesterday? An absolutely adorable elderly 'hill country' woman who, when asked if she had family waiting for her in her room, said "my little daughter is waiting in my room, but hers not so little anymore...." in the sweetest most sincere voice... I love her for the laugh she gave me that day!

and then there was the consent form we heard about (corrected immediately) that was written for a coronary intubation, instead of intervention. You medical types will enjoy that one...

Our cheap gas jumped to $3.05 - $3.19 today. Some stations are running low, and the broken gas line is causing major concerns as to whether supply will be able to be met. We've managed, through terribly short-sighted management and lack of respect for the powers of nature, to hurt ourselves far worse than any terrorist ever could.

I'll take a laugh anywhere I can get it.

Oh yeah, the guts are starting to behave again -the antibiotics seem to be helping.

TN and Taco Bell

2005-08-30T20:46:00.000-05:00

I got a chuckle this evening whenI read the following article on Chattanoogan.com. Now you can see why TN is now the 5th fattest state in the nation - don't get between a native and their fast food! ROFL http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_71626.asp

The news coming out of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama is just heartbreaking, and the devastation is beyond comprehension. I can't even imagine, and don't ever want to endure, such a tragedy. The death toll is going to be horrendous. Somehow I'll scrape up a donation for the Red Cross and I'm sure the food banks will soon be in search of donations, once supply lines can be placed. There's just nowhere for them to even have staging areas right now! It sure puts your problems in perspective.

On another front, I'm concerned about some family members who lived in MS. I'm pretty sure my cousin and his wife evacuated, but I don't know about his two adult children. As of Sunday, one of them was still in Jackson and that worries me.

quick update

2005-08-29T00:11:00.000-05:00

Not a whole lot to add to the last post. I had a nice chat with cousin Bob this evening - he and Fran's girls are growing like crazy!

Earlier in the day I met up with a friend and her daughter to check out the house she's renovating here in the neighborhood. It's so much fun to look at a building stripped to it's beams and play with the layout, and plan all the features you want to use. Or at least it is for me! lol

Aside from that I accomplished nearly none of the things I had planned for the weekend. I spent most of Saturday sleeping, and today was a pitifully wasted day. I kept thinking about stuff I should do, but that's about as far as it got.

After three and a half days of religiously taking antibiotics and eating gut-friendly I got sick of chicken and eggs, and decided to live dangerously. I went to Taco Bell. All in all, I didn't pay too high of a price for it, but it wasn't one of my better choices, either. Oh well.

On the plus side, I just figured out what I could season my omelets with to actually make them appealing. Tony Chacero's creole seasoning mix. YUMMY.

Now that I've had my 1 am omelet, I'll go take that dern horsepill sized antibiotic and try to get some sleep. Hope everyone is having a good day - my thoughts and prayers are with those in harm's way on the Gulf Coast and in the Persian Gulf.

It's back. Damn

2005-08-25T20:43:00.000-05:00

My body cohabitator - aka CD of the IBD family is back in all of it's glory. Yippee.

I 'knew' this already - but somehow it sounds worse when your doctor tells you. LOL

Anyway - I'm attempting to be kinder to my guts than they are to me. We'll see how well it works over the next week or so.

Not much else to tell - the fence is finally up - that will be a blog post unto itself. Whatever you do, don't IN MY OPINION contract any fencework with Action Fence of Chattanooga. More later.

The termite people are all paid off. The house is refinanced. Good thing I have some extra cash - as it's probably all going to end up paying my copays. So much for that great master plan. *sigh*

TG for my boys - they really are good company.

Still alive in Chattanooga

2005-07-17T23:32:00.000-05:00

Yes, your favorite blonde(ish) blogger is still kicking - and even posting once in awhile. There's been a lot going on the last few weeks, including my running battle with the fence company that took my deposit on June 4th and has called ONCE to put in my fence - when I was at work. Grrrr.

Then there was the great termite debacle - yippee - my lovely old house was being eaten from the ground up. *sigh* I wanted to puke I was so upset when I found out. Fortunately, there appears to be no major structural damage, but repair work will need to be done.

I'm in the midst of refinancing the house - hopefully that will be wrapped up by the end of the week.

My birthday and my high school reunion are both in the next two weeks. I get to A)Be older and B) See all my old classmates from TWENTY freaking years ago - I am SO not ready for this whole 20 year concept. Matter of fact, I'm not ready for another birthday just yet either, so I've decided, in the spirit of conservation, to recycle my last three birthdays instead. 35, 36, and 37 were pretty decent years and I don't mind repeating them at all - and that will allow some OTHER person to turn 38 instead. Isn't that a grand idea???

So, one year ago today I was laughing my butt off watching my niece Erin enjoy "her" party, which was, in truth, her parents wedding reception. Or, now that I see the clock, I was attempting to sooth her back to sleep after she woke up crying - again. Poor kid was so overstimulated and exhausted she couldn't get a good night's sleep - so neither did Aunt Carole. lol Though Aunt Carole wasn't feeling TOO badly about it - after splitting a bottle of champagne with Teresa. Erin and I ended up finishing the night on the sofa with her stretched out on my chest - dead asleep, finally. Poor Dane. Stuck in the house with two semi-exhaused women and a confused 2 year old.

Memories I have of the wedding include trying not to laugh during the ceremony when Noel and Cindy were dodging a bug (if I remember right), little Erin plunking her butt down right on her mama's train during the photos (and looking adorable while she did it!), the bride eating a corndog as her prewedding meal, how happy the bride and groom looked together, and how amazingly well Leonard and his new bride danced! Don't know where he got the dance gene from but it obviously skipped the rest of us - except for Aunt Libby and Pat, who gave Leonard and Tammy good competition.

I also remember trying to feed Erin her breakfast the next morning. She made it quite clear that she thought Aunt Carole was a dunce. She told me specifically everything she wanted to eat - and then looked at me like an idiot when I provided it. After a few moments - she decided to take pity on my questions of "what else do you want, honey?" and pointed at her bib. DUH. Aunt Carole was WAY out of practice with two year old's - but thanks to Erin's patience and a few helpful hints from big brother Dane - we all survived.

The great job search continues - I don't want to think about it right now, so I'll say no more.

Oh yes, one more thing. The new Harry Potter book 'The Half Blood Prince' is MAG. Absolutely wonderful. On one hand I can hardly wait for the series finale - but on the other - it will be the FINALE. :-( No more adventures.

It's way past my bedtime so I'll close this out now. Hope everyone is having a great day/week.

New photos over on the photoblog.

2005-06-28T21:33:00.000-05:00

http://carolesclutter-photos.blogspot.com

2005-06-28T20:25:00.000-05:00

Isn't this the most precious thing you've ever seen???

Personal property of Carole Lee. May not be used without her permission.

I'm still here...

2005-06-28T20:18:00.000-05:00

I'm having a little trouble getting back in the habit of posting on the blog since Granny's funeral. :-(

Everything is fine - other than my early mid-life crisis. LOL I have 30 more years to work before I can retire - what the heck do I want to do for 30 MORE years?! aaack! It's enough to make a girl hide under the bed and never come out.

As always, when stressed - I grab a camera. Some folks clean, or eat, or exercise - I eat and take pictures. :-) Chocolate chips are particularly good. lol I wonder if I could get a job taking pictures of chocolate? Wouldn't that be the best of all worlds! hahahahahahahahahaha

4:30 am and all's well?

2005-06-14T03:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I suppose all is well. LOL My sleep schedule is so screwed up this week. I slept from midnight Sunday morning until 7 pm Sunday evening. I got up at 7:30 am, felt like crap and fell asleep on the couch. Woke up at noon, still cruddy, rolled over and slept until 2. Forced myself to get up at 2 pm and empty all the trash cans, in case something in there was setting off my allergies. Took 1 gm of Tylenol - didn't begin to touch my headache. Made a couple of sandwiches which settled the nausea but had my guts rumbling so loudly they could be heard in the next room. Gave up and went back to sleep. Woke up around 7 pm, finally feeling halfway normal - got overwhelmed by the amount of housework that I'm behind in, made something to eat, watched the 4400 and then sat down at the puter to catch up with some friends and write my resume. Forced myself to head to bed at 2:30. Up at 6am for work. Felt good when I got up, but about 6:30 (as I was walking out the door for work) the nausea struck again.

Workload on Monday was ridiculously low so negotiated with boss to leave at noon. Of course at noon, all hell broke loose and I didn't feel comfortable leaving my partner by herself. Not that I was much use to her, you understand, but at least I was capable of answering telephone and sorting paperwork. I FINALLY left at 5 pm, by which point I was having minor dizzy spells, the nausea was in full force, and my head was hurting like an SOB.

Got home, crawled BACK into bed from 6 - 9:15. Woke up, thought about the progression of all this crap and decided that there was a good chance it was all allergy related. I've been using my Flonase, but restarted my Allegra-D and went back to bed about 11. LOL I woke up at 3:30 (am that is)- what a surprise! I've gotten my 7.5 hrs and now I'm wide awake. *sigh*

The good news is - allegra seems to be doing the trick. My nose is running a bit, but finally the headache is gone, and now that the drainage is minimalized, so is the nausea. TG. I hate nausea and headaches together.

Sickness report is now ended. LOL

In other news - I submitted my resume bright and early this morning, only to discover that the nurse manager left on vacation today and won't be back until a week from this Wednesday. grrrrr.

It was in the 90's on Monday and sooooo humid. God, I just can't deal with that anymore - I got shaky just walking to my car after work. ICK. Hopefully the weather will go true to form for eastern TN and the humidity will break soon for a couple of days. I hope so - my grass is badly in need of a good mowing - more than a week overdue. I should've done it Sunday, but... oh well. It's not going anywhere. (except up.)

I had a good long chat with my friend from MI on Saturday and was pleased to hear some spirit back in her voice. She's had a rough couple of years. I also heard from another old friend via email - which was a bit of a surprise. A pleasant surprise, but a surprise.

Not much else going on - I'm trying to decide what to focus my energy on today - I can't get to everything that needs to be done, but I think I'll focus on finishing up the laundry and cleaning furniture. That should keep me busy most of the day. At some point I'm going to have to stop avoiding my kitchen too. *sigh* Where's a house elf when you need one, anyway?!

Hope everyone is having a great day -

2005-06-13T00:52:00.000-05:00

Me on the Southern Belle

Personal property of Carole Lee. May not be used without her permission.

Strange experience

2005-06-02T09:09:00.000-05:00

I had a very odd experience yesterday evening. Whle I was grocery shopping I found that the 2nd book of Nora Robert's new trilogy was out and (of course) was immediately obligated to buy and read it. LOL I finished my shopping, went to a nearby fast food restaurant, ordered my food through the drivethru and then parked my car at the side of their lot, ate my food and read the book. It was still light out, I was in a very visible area with my cell phone at hand and all the doors locked, so I felt pretty safe doing this. I had been reading for about an hour when suddenly I got an incredible sense that I was in danger and needed to leave NOW. The feeling was so strong that I had lain the book aside and had my hangs on the key in the ignition before I even realized what I was doing. I looked around and could see absolutely no reason why I suddenly felt that way. Nothing had changed, no one was nearby, but my fight or flight was in full gear and I KNEW I had to leave and leave NOW. Something was very very wrong. The further I got away from there, the feeling lightened, but it didn't entirely go away until I was nearly home.

It was a very odd experience. I wasn't panicking at all - in fact I felt very calm but I KNEW to the depths of my incredibly screwed up guts that I had to leave. I just checked the police blotter to see if anything happened there last night, so far, no news. Odd. I've had 'hunches' before and have learned to pay attention to them but never anything even remotely this strong.

Everything else!

2005-06-02T08:17:00.000-05:00

LOL So many events to cover! I was sad to see them go, but my youngest brother and family have relocated to the Fort Worth, TX area. It was such a good move for them - Erin is in a wonderful day care, Dane's high school sounds 100% better than the one he left, Cindy has a job that she ENJOYS and Noel is working at a job where his skills are valued and respected. AND they have a new house! I am so happy for them and am very sure that I will be visiting TX sometime in the next year. If I can time it right, I might be able to visit Julie and Uncle Vernon too. That would be so cool, especially if I have time to go over my genealogy and go track down a few places. LOL And of course I need to go meet Swiper-kitty.

Other things. Hmm. Well almost two weeks ago Midas got bored and decided that the pkg of 2 C cell batteries I had on the counter looked like an appealing chewie. His burns are nearly healed - he has one small one on the top of his tongue and I discovered the other day that he managed to burn the underside pretty well. Half the underside of his tongue is healing. *sigh* He scared me so badly! I didn't know how severe the burns were or if he'd ingested any of the battery fluid and he obviously was not feeling well. He's back to his normal pestiferous self, so all's well.

I discovered that I had a serious termite issue - and the house has now been treated. It took 2 men nearly 4 hours working non-stop. That was horrifying news to hear. The house will soon have a new chainlink fence around the back yard - the survey showed that my property line extends 7-8 feet beyond my current fence line - which I've always been sure of since I bought the house. It was nice to have that knowledge validated and will be VERY nice to have my larger yard, gates that I can actually walk through, and fencing I'm not afraid will collapse every time Midas jumps on it. I am psyched!

I am also broke, but that's an entirely different matter. LOL It's a 'good' broke so I can deal with it.

It's been so long

2005-06-02T06:43:00.000-05:00

Gosh folks, it's been so long since I've updated my blog. My apologies to everyone - it seems like everything happened at once. Since my last entry I've made two trips to FL, had a death in the family, had my property surveyed, dealt with a suicidal dog, been de-termite-ed (like my new word?), had my parents for a holiday visit, installed my new surround sound system, bought a new sofa (well new to me), got a new (to me) dresser and nightstands and am now in the midst of trying to get the guys out here to install my new fence!

Let's start at the top of that list. April started with a bang. I went down to FL the first time for my nephew's 16th birthday. I also went because my father had hernia surgery that day AND because I was very concerned about my grandmother. She had been an in-home hospice patient for several months, but had recently taken a turn for the (much) worse and I wanted to see her. I also wanted to give my aunts a break if I could - taking care of Granny was a full time job and at times like that, I always feel guilty for not living closer. This was the first time since I reached adulthood that she a) didn't know me and b) didn't ask when I was going to get married. I was able to stay with her long enough for my aunt and uncle to be able to go try out her new golf clubs at a nearby course, though I'm not sure how much of a mental break I gave them as she and my other aunt took turns calling me to see how Granny was and if I was ok. LOL Then my aunt came home and immediately found the pill that Granny had spit out when I wasn't looking. *sigh* Some super nurse I am, huh?

I came home after that weekend and spent every spare second playing in my yard (gardening - lol) and getting ready for the Sux fest I was going to host Mother's Day weekend. 8 days before the fest took place I got a phone call that Granny was at the hospital and was going to be admitted to the hospice facility.
When my aunt realized that there truly was very little they could do for her, she wanted to take her home but Granny refused. She was comfortable where she was, and she wanted to stay. In an amazing cycle - one of the LPN's (Dena)_ who worked there, and took care of her - in fact was there when she died - had been a new nurse at the end of my Granny's nursing career nearly 30 years ago, and knew her then. It helped a lot to know that she also looked at Granny and remember who she was - the strong, caring, opinionated woman who LOVED being a nurse, a wife, a mom and a Granny, turned her yard into an ice sculpture every winter as soon as the night time temps went below freezing, had stuff growing EVERYWHERE, and would give up almost any other activity for a chance to go fishing. Man she loved to fish! To Dena, as to the family, Granny was more than what the heart disease, diabetes, strokes, and brittle old age had made her.

To my eternal relief Granny's passing was as peaceful as PawPaw's was tortuous. I'm sure she was eager to go find Lloyd (PawPaw) and see what he'd been up to in her absense. I'm sure she had a huge crowd of loved ones waiting for her arrival, with PawPaw and Uncle Delvin leading the crowd. If heaven is a place where you do what you want, she and Uncle Delvin are probably out fishing. LOL

As at my grandfather's death, I got to know some of my relatives better. This time, for the first time since I was a teenager, I spent some time with my cousins Teresa and Tim, as well as Dan's daughter, Amanda. This was the first time I'd spent time with Amanda since she'd been a very small child - and she's grown into a lovely woman. This was the first time that I'd spent time with cousins Teresa and Tim since _I_ was an adult, and I really enjoyed it! 5 or 6 years age difference doesn't sound like much, but when you're 12 and they're 17/18 it's a huge gulf. For the first time since I was very young, all eleven of the grandchildren were together. That doesn't sound like it should be so difficult, but ... my grandparents had four children. Their two sons were career Army men, and their daughters married career Navy and career Air Force men. The 11 of us grew up all over the world! Of the 11, one married military, and one, my youngest brother, went into the Air Force - the rest of us decided a civilian lifestyle looked very appealing. LOL

One very interesting note - after the funeral home visitation, my aunt Libby and her children were outside the funeral home and Granny's niece Nita Rae took a family snapshot of them. When NitaRae developed the film the next day, all the photos came out fine except for that one. There were either three or four people in the photo, with my cousin Dwayne in the middle. Directly over where Dwayne was in the photo was a long thin splash of light - covering his face and most of his body. Unlike a normal light leak it did not go from one side of the photo to the other but was centered directly over him.

Given the fact that two of the biggest disappointments in Granny's life were the facts that neither Dwayne nor I have married, I'm fairly certain that was her way of letting Dwayne know she was keeping an eye on him. To my mind, that's a good thing; maybe she'll be too busy keeping up with him to worry with me overmuch. :-D

This is getting ridiculously long, so I'll stop now and address other events in another entry.

Crazy funny dogs

2005-03-27T22:11:00.000-05:00

OMG, I just had the best laugh! There's a section in my house, right by the computer area, where you can make a circle. Here I am, sitting at the computer flurking away on IBD sucks, and the guys start playing keep away. Midas has one of my shoes, and he goes around the circle in one way, then T jumps out at him and Midas goes the other way - T runs the other way and ends up face to face with him and they do this back and forth about 7 times before they just chase each other around the circle a couple of times! I was laughing so hard I almost peed myself...

Best support site around for IBD

2005-03-27T16:20:00.000-05:00

IBD SUCKS!!!

WWW.IBDSUCKS.COM

HTTP://QURLYJOE.BU.EDU/WEBX

For anyone suffering with ulcerative colitis, or crohn's disease - the above site is absolutely, hands down, the best support site on the net. Bill is justly called "St. Bill" for keeping this site up and running for more than 10 years.

I hosted a mini-sucks fest yesterday, and don't think I've ever spent a more enjoyable 6 hours with a non-family group. Conversation spun easily among EverQuest, toilet paper comparisons, home renovations, drug treatments, great docs, incredibly romantic husbands, and the woes of popcorn. LOL

Jason has plans to host a "Sucks movie night" which is to focus on our favorite terrible movies and alternatives to popcorn. LOL It sounds like a lot of fun.

I am coordinating the Chattanooga fest, tentatively scheduled for May 7th and 8th, and am REALLY excited about it now! There will be at least as many people, and possibly more.

On the job front, my application status is now 'routed' so I at least got my resume as far as the manager who's doing the interviewing.

I DID IT!

2005-03-24T20:57:00.000-05:00

Oh my gosh, I hope I'm doing the right thing! I've been working up my nerve for awhile to change my career, but I got ticked off last week and decided to look at the job listings once more, and there it was. The position that has the potential to dramatically change my career, both by broadening it's scope enormously and by allowing me to develop skills that I've not been able to use much. For example, I would be teaching classes! I am so pysched over this - of course, I'm only half qualified for it, but... if I don't try, I'll always wonder.

So, what did I do? I figured if I was taking chances anyway, I'd use a non-traditional resume format that was more easily adapted to showcase the skills I have. (Especially the ones they really wanted!) Today, I finally finished polishing it and officially applied for the position. Aaack! My coworker tells me that the hospital advertised the position in the newspaper last Sunday. I'm hoping that means that it has been posted for awhile without a suitable internal applicant. *fingers_crossed*

And what have I learned from all this? For one thing, it's refreshed my memory as to why I haven't changed positions more often than I have! LOL I hate hate hate filling out job apps. They suck.

And now, the waiting begins. tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick

What a difference a week makes.

2005-03-12T09:25:00.000-05:00

And it's been a heck of week, lemme tell ya. It's not horrible, but I've had better. On Tuesday I had to call Dr. Yates - he wanted to see me Wednesday as soon as I could get there. Of course, I was already having a routine follow-up with my regular doctor that morning, so I played doctor tag all morning. First I drove to Gunbarrel and saw Dr. Large (who was awesome, by the way) and then I drove back downtown to see Dr. Yates, after doing drive-thru breakfast. He was doing procedures so his nurse took me downstairs, got me set up in a spare room and he darted in to see me. He muttered a few choice things under his breath (much the same things that I'd been muttering since I'd called him the day before), made a phone call to my surgeon while I was redressing and then gave me a script for antibiotics. Grrr. The CD is trying to reappear, and the surgeon wants to see me again too. So, by 11 am I'd spent $95. $25 apiece for each doctor and $45 at the pharmacy. That was WITH my discount. I'll blow another $25 at the surgeon's on Monday - maybe. They keep saying they'll just bill me for the copay - but I haven't gotten a bill yet. LOL Professional courtesy? Or just a slow accountant? Who knows? I'm not gonna fuss. :-D

My coworker Jennifer was in a bad car accident Tuesday night. She thought she was ok, but ended up admitted to the hospital yesterday so I need to go see how she is. She's had nothing but bad stuff going on for months now - it really sucks.

Because she was out, I did work extra this week, which is great since the muttlings need to go to the vets soon for shots, pills, etc. I ended up working 9 extra hours, which works out to 6 at regular pay and 3 more at OT - so they equivalent of a full extra shift. Yippee! And I actually don't feel too bad for doing it either - (physically). Of course, I was useless last night and got nothing accomplished but a lot of web-surfing and some heavy-duty sleeping. My allergies must be kicking up too, as I woke myself up snoring last night. Guess there are times it's good to be single. (grin)

Something new

2005-03-06T22:22:00.000-05:00

I did something new today - I met up with another person from the IBD sucks bulletin board! After chatting with many of these folks daily since December, you really feel like you know them before you ever meet, so it's really cool to put faces and voices to the words you've been reading for months. You know them, you know their families, and you know their disease.

What was really cool was how totally liberating it was to spend the day with another CD'er. We went to lunch and when I asked if I could substitute something else for the corn that was offered, he just snickered and said "What? You don't want corn???" Anyone else would either be oblivious to it, or be thinking "oh yeah - she can't eat corn - she's sick". It's a subtle difference, but it's definitely different. The waitress must have thought we were nuts.

We sat and compared war stories, and aches and pains, but not in a "I'm so sick I feel terrible" sort of way - more like soldiers in the same trench complaining about the lousy MRE's. When you go shopping with another IBD'er - they don't think it's odd that you can tell them precisely where the restrooms are located in any store that you go to. And when they visit, they never think it odd that the bathroom is one of the first places you show off when giving a home tour! ROFLMAO

Chit Chat

2005-03-04T21:07:00.000-05:00

That's all this is going to be. Not a whole lot going on - though we did have snow on Tuesday morning. That did nothing to improve my mood that day!

Today I went to Wally-world and stocked up on their 88 cent rawhide bones, bread and some fruit. Went to the drug store and picked up my Avandia. I'm trying to get back into the habit of taking it every day. I was really bad about it in December when I was feeling so bad. I couldn't take it unless I ate, because I'd feel really bad and get shaky, and in Dec I wasn't eating a whole lot. :-( I've gotten really horrible about taking daily meds - I told Doc Yates that I thought I'd burned out on the whole concept of daily pills. He said "I'm not surprised" - geez I love that guy.

Came home with every intention of cleaning house all day, as I have a friend coming by Sunday to help me put Christmas crates back in the attic. The house is disgusting. We'll just leave it at that. Instead, it was a GORGEOUS day outside, so I cleaned out my car and then raked the front yard, laid out the soaker hose and ran it for a while and did a little weeding.

I have dusted all the furniture in the parlor and started putting photos and decorations back out. The parlor is the only room that's done - and I still have to mop in there. Oh well - at least I started. I did dust the mantel and get it set back to rights too, so that's also done. The cushions are all off the living room furniture and the rug is wadded up into a pile and covered with dog fur. I'll deal with that tomorrow.

I was able to air out the house for a bit - that was really nice. I can't believe I've gotten to the point that low 60's feels wonderful - when I think of all the times I thought 60 was cold. Now I realize that all those times I was prolly ill/anemic so of COURSE it felt cold.

I wouldn't squawk at some lovely 70's - but for working in the yard, 60's and sunny is great.

I'm gonna go knit for awhile until I pass out. I'm making a cardigan on a circular needle and so far it's going great! I love knitting in the round - minimal purling, and no seams at all. I have the body and sleeves made and joined, now I'm working on the chest and will soon be doing the shoulder shaping. Hopefully the pattern stitch doesn't give me too much grief, when I start the shaping. I'm doing this from scratch - figuring the pattern as I go, so things might be getting ugly soon.

Sweet dreams to all -

I'm free! I'm free! (but I ain't cheap)

2005-02-25T14:31:00.000-05:00

HOORAY! I'm back from seeing the GI and, drumroll please -

NO DRUGS!!!

Based on how I'm feeling he said he didn't feel the need to poison me again just yet (his words - and his terminology for most immunosuppressives). I am so happy! I'm not taking any pills and I'm not even in trouble about it. tee hee Since the surgery showed almost no disease activity at all, just one very small ulcer in the area of the fistula, he doesn't know if the meds were doing more than we thought, or if it was just time. My thoughts? Time. I am so happy I don't know what to do with myself.

I'd noticed that I was tolerating a whole lot of foods much better than I ever used to - but was afraid to hope...and since my BM's always hurt so much (pre-surgery) I guess I thought I was imagining everything else being better.

Oh, and best news? I've been thinking I gained a bunch of my 7 lost pounds back after sitting on my butt for two weeks recovering (and consoling myself with M & M's) and my newer jeans were feeling tight again... But I kept thinking - my calves look skinnier -

Per his scale I've only gained back about 1.5 lbs - and I swear it's all in my belly and period related. That really brightened my day even before I saw the doctor - I thought I'd blown it and gained back that weight and was so depressed. Once I was done with him, I was walking on air! LOL

AND, it's sunny outside, and my daffodils are blooming, and I saw my first flowering tree in bloom, and it's 60+ degrees, and ...the world is just looking wonderful today. :-D

Spring is coming!

2005-02-23T18:18:00.000-05:00

I've just finished turning the left side in front of my house into a rosebed. :-) I moved the poor rose that was languishing on the corner (it was labelled a climbing rose, but I haven't seen any growth yet - in 3 years) to the middle, and surrounded it with two climbing yellow roses, and two bush red/orange roses. Then I planted most of the remaining daffodil bulbs around them and dug a trench along in front of them and filled that with crocus and a few grape hyacinths. Added about 3.5 cubic feet of peat moss to the soil before I planted anything. On top of all that I had a bag and a half of left over "garden path" flower seed mix (the stuff that has the dried paper and all mixed in with the seed) and put that on top of it all. I have no idea if it will grow or not, as it's rather old seed - but it's certainly not going to do anything in the bag, so might as well give it a shot.

The question of the day now is "Will I be able to move my arms in the morning?" LOL

Wonder what's for supper? I seem to have developed an appetite.

I concede! They were right!

2005-02-08T22:56:00.000-05:00

I felt really good today - had a BM, didn't hurt too badly, hung around the house. Decided to go shopping tonight (more boredom than anything). One trip around Big Lots, one trip around grocery store (1.5 hrs total) and I was Hurting. Came home, had another BM and now I'm HURTING.

Damn them doctors for being right! Glad I didn't go back to work this week (sigh).

Just broke down and took half a Lortab. Gonna do the sitz thing and go to bed I guess, unless the diet Coke I drank keeps me up.

February update

2005-02-07T19:47:00.000-05:00

As many of you already know, my great-aunt "Boots" - Elizabeth Letanosky died early last Saturday, very unexpectedly. I had entertained thoughts of returning home from the funeral but am under strict 'Dad orders' to not even consider it.

I called the doctor's office this morning to get a better idea what to expect with this recovery as I'm still quite sore off and on, only to find out that it takes about SIX weeks to heal completely! Triage nurse told me to take this week off work too - so, somewhat reluctantly, I did. Sometimes I feel like a slacker, but other times, when I'm starting to feel sore and cranky, I'm glad I listened to her.

Lots and lots of sitzing going on here - guess it's a good thing I'm paid ahead on my water bill!LOL

Ye-OUCH!!!

2005-02-03T17:29:00.000-05:00

Well, as many of you have undoubtedly heard, my simple steroid injection under anesthesia became a full-fledged fistulotomy. I'd explain it, but I'm too sore, tired and cranky. I'll be fine, and once I heal up inside, I suspect I'll be feeling a lot better - but for now I'm sitting on soft pillows and eating metamucil wafers. (yummy :-P )

I'll be back in a few days or so - depends on how long I can sit.

FYI "Two-thirds to three-quarters of patients with Crohn's disease will require surgery at some point during their lives. "

Maybe I've now met my quota -

Who Knew???

2005-01-29T01:45:00.000-05:00

You know all those silly messages that pop up on your computer right when you're in the middle of something? You know - the "you have updates ready to download" message that you say - "I'll get to it later"?

Well, it turns out that if you actually DO download that stuff, it makes your 'puter behave! Go figure...

As you can probably guess - my computer is now in fine form. (rolling eyes) Just in case I also uninstalled the smiley program so no more cute graphics. Sorry!

I have my very own PDA now - I've never had one before and having a lot of fun with this one - AND it's tax deductible! Yes! Gotta love tax deductions...

And now, for your entertainment...read this. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1261997.html?menu Who the H*** goes on vacation with 30 liters of beer?!?!

Y'all have a great weekend -

Computer woes

2005-01-26T21:57:00.000-05:00

It's late and I'm headed to bed because I have to work tomorrow. Here's the situation...

I can't open outlook express - it keeps saying "program not responding" I do control alt del to see what's going on - and it shows the program open twice - with neither one responding. The same thing is happening with Yahoo IM. All the programs are very slow to respond - I've run antivirus which came clean. I also ran Ad-aware 6 with same results.
I ran ScrubReg - and checked everything it came up with and told it to auto fix. I sure hope that wasn't a mistake.
I tried to do a system restore to two different dates with no change in the problems.
I don't know what to do!

I will be home from tomorrow evening until Monday morning and hopefully will be able to fix this issue ASAP. It's really ticking me off.

P.S. Obviously, with the OE woes - please, if you email me, use the yahoo address. (mom2mutts)

WOW!!! 4000+

2005-01-22T14:02:00.000-05:00

Either my counter got confused, or I've been INCREDIBLY popular lately! LOL For my ego's sake we'll assume the latter.

There's so much going on in the family, it's just nuts. Granny's in the hospital with an infected toe and major circulation issues. My cousin Andrea just got released from the hospital yesterday after having surgery on Wednesday. It seems odd to think of Andrea as an adult. I still remember the cute but bossy three year old that wanted me to push her on the swing all afternoon! Though she did prove she was an excellent driver during our visit to Sterling in 1993 for Grampa's funeral, so I KNOW she's grown up now. LOL

I'm trying to get the house at least health department safe, so I suppose I should go get busy.

Happy Birthday to Noel!

2005-01-17T22:59:00.000-05:00

Wow - I remember when you were born - and the day you came home. How can you possibly be 32, married, and a father?

BTW, Julie says Happy Birthday - though she still thinks of you as 10 years old. LOL Time surely flies...

20 reasons it's good to be single

2005-01-16T21:25:00.000-05:00

Let's see if I can do this -

1. I didn't have to negotiate to get my red tub.
2. I can take my time taking down holiday decorations without listening to anyone bitch about it.
3. I can eat chili on the weekends and pass gas all day long - the dogs don't care!
4. I can shave my legs (or not) whenever I want, with WHATEVER razor I want without... (see #2.)
5. I can name my dogs crazy things like Mr. T and King Midas without watching my 'guy' roll his eyes at the crazy names.
6. I can leave books open in every room (yes I AM reading them all!) without... see #2.
7. I can make salmon pie and not hear comments about 'cat food'.
8. Ditto tuna layered salad.
9. Flowered sheets. Need I say more?
10. I will never, ever, ever, fall into the toilet on a midnight potty stop due to SOMEONE leaving the seat up.
11. If I choose to eat the entire cheesecake, no one knows except the dogs. And they're not talking. :-D
12. I can rearrange the furniture at 2 am without (see #2)
13. I can talk about 'flipping' the laundry and thawing the 'hamburg' without being ragged about my grammar.
14. No fighting over closet space. It's mine, It's ALL MINE!
15. I can now undertake small carpentry projects without being relegated to 'grunt' work. :-D
16. The power tools are Mine. ALL MINE!
17. I can have greasy toilet paper (with aloe etc) and not listen to... (you get the idea).
18. I never, ever, ever, have to watch football again. HOORAY!
19. No more wondering who paid what bill! Either I did, or I didn't. It's a no-brainer.
20. I can make lists like this and not worry about hurting anyone's feelings.

It took some thought, but I came up with 20. :-) I could just as easily come up with 20 great reasons to be in a relationship, but since I'm not, why depress myself? LOL

New pics on the photo page!

2005-01-15T14:54:00.000-05:00

You can either click on the link at left, or just click here http://carolesclutter-photos.blogspot.com I hope the link works - blogger is doing weird things this afternoon.

Another thing for the list

2005-01-06T20:16:00.000-05:00

I thought of another thing I'm grateful for...

NYQUIL!

Enough already!

2005-01-04T23:22:00.000-05:00

This blog is getting DEPRESSING so I've decided to make a list of things I'm grateful for!

1. I don't live in Thailand. Or Indonesia. Or India. Or Sri Lanka.
2. My family is alive, and healthy.
3. My student loan is paid off! Whoooo Hooooo!!!
4. My personal loan and one CC should be paid off in about 6 months.
5. My car is half paid off - I think. And just broke the 20K mileage mark. LOL
6. My dogs are NOT barking right now.
7. Having such wonderful medical care -even though I wish I didn't need it.
8. Kleenex and TP with lotion - 'nuff said!
9. My brothers' excellent taste in women. :-) Hi Cindy and Tammy!!!
10. Cable TV. Who knew you could watch M*A*S*H reruns several times a day?
11. Warm slippers.
12. That Gram taught me how to knit - for when I'm tired of watching TV. LOL
13. Gorgeous sunsets in my rearview as I drive home.
14. The internet for info and communication.
15. The IBD sucks bb - for those who've walked the walk, done the drugs, and gladly share their experiences with the rest of us Suxters.
16. I have a job! I don't always like it - but I LOVE the paycheck.
17. I DIDN'T marry Rob - hallelujah chorus on that one!
18. Dog is healthy enough to be having a barkfest right now. SHUT UP!!!
19. Dog is obedient enough to actually care that I just yelled at him! ROFL (Guess you can guess which dog is was, huh?)
20. That I have the choice of a wonderful bed, aerobed, or comfy sofa to sleep on tonight. Going for the sofa again I think - at least my head will be up and hopefully less coughing.

I think my next list will be the 20 reasons it's good to be single! LOL

I'm home

2005-01-04T15:49:00.000-05:00

after a memorable trip home. If only it was memorable in a better way! LOL

I enjoyed seeing everyone again, but my body was conspiring against me. Looking back I wonder if I was trying to come down with this cold before I left, but once I got there I had a sinus headache on Friday and discovered my new med did not like the Bushwhacker I tried to have with dinner. Never mind that NOWHERE in the drug literature did it have an alcohol warning - within 2-3 oz of my drink it felt like my face was on FIRE. Horrible feeling. It finally eased up and went away, but no more alcohol for me. :( Very disappointing as I'm such a lush - it was my biannual drink. LOL New Year's and my birthday. I may occasionally have something else, but that's awfully rare. I did greatly enjoy my meal at McGuire's Irish Pub as well as my brother and sister-in-law's company. Just wish I had been feeling better. I was very disappointed as I'd been looking forward to that trip all week, and hate that my body crapped out on me.

Saturday was a lot of fun - I had a lot of aches and pains, but it was nice to be around everyone and watch all the kids playing. Obviously the hula hoops I bought on the spur of the moment were a good investment. :D Mum made an awesome meal, and I think everyone got plenty to eat. I can't wait to get the pictures developed!

Sunday was pretty much a bust. I woke up feeling pretty good, went to do some shopping and 2 hours later could barely move I was hurting so bad. I had bought some stuff and wanted to get it gift wrapped, but couldn't face walking to the back of the store. I told the cashier, and bless her, she took it back and got it wrapped for me, and brought it back to me. I was SO grateful!

I did finally make it out to drop off some gifts and say hi/bye to various relatives. As long as I didn't move too much and sat down a lot, I was ok. Ridiculous! I sound like I'm freaking 90 years old, not 37.

Drove home yesterday -taking my time.

Saw doc Yates today. He agreed with me not taking any more of the meds, at least for now, and probably not anymore as my kidneys didn't seem to be liking the new drug any more than the rest of me did. The ulcer is still there, though a bit better, so we are now moving into the realm of experimental therapy. I'm considered a 'rescue treatment' patient - where all conventional meds have failed. Grrr. Makes me sound like I should be on Survivor, or the drama story at the end of the Reader's digest.

He's sending me to a surgeon to be evaluated for having steroids injected directly into the ulcer - under anesthesia. This does NOT involve cutting me open at all, but because of the location it's a surgeon's realm. And NO ONE gets near that part of me without anesthesia anymore - lol. My own personal rule. One good thing I just noticed in some reading is that steroid injections have also been used to decrease scar tissue - so I'm gonna discuss that with him at the same time - if we're there anyway, would it be possible to treat the scar tissue/stricture at the same time? Or too many side effects? I don't know much about it, but it would be nice to have it ALL get better at the same time. :D

Minor delay

2004-12-29T21:09:00.000-05:00

Hi all, I will be there on Thursday. Just had too much I wanted to get done today - and no energy to rush through it. I'm just about done now and ready to leave out in the morning. I'm still looking forward to seeing you all.

I wish you all...

2004-12-25T11:02:00.000-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Dear family, if all goes well I will be joining you on Wednesday afternoon/evening. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again!

Love,

Carole

Hooray!

2004-12-23T20:14:00.000-05:00

I've survived the workweek! This week has really been rotten. Long slow days at work, and short restless insomniac nights. Grrr. Last night I FINALLY get to bed at decent hour (9:30) am sleeping good then starting to get restless again, but could've pulled off at least another hour when half the dern fire station drives down my street with all sirens! Dogs think this is WONDERFUL, run to the front room and sing along at the top of their lungs! Apparently it was a false alarm, as they left quickly, but it took me 15 mins to calm the guys down and another 30 before I (sort of) fell back to sleep!

Oh well, I still got enough sleep and that's the main thing. Carole without sleep is not a nice person. My fangs start showing, and I get an evil glint in my eye.

My new drugs are having some interesting side effects - but tolerable I suppose. At least until I can find another drug - lol.

I'd better get going - I have many gifts to wrap before I hit the road tomorrow. My friends Carla and Scott have invited me for Christmas supper (lasagna - yum!). She originally had said 1 pm, but forgot that was Bekah's nap time, so it is now supper. I'm actually happier to have it supper. That way, once I get home tomorrow I can hole up and vegetate for a solid 24 hrs. :D I found the Kenneth Branagh production of MacBeth at Big Lots for $3, so I bought it. Have no idea if it's any good, but loved his production of ... heck, I can't remember the name of it! It had Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Keanu Reaves and Kenneth Branagh as some of the lead actors. :( Memory is crap lately. Oh well - it was really good, and for $3 I took a chance on it.
I'm also pleased that I found a foam, eggcrate style full size mattress topper for $9. Hopefully it will help ease my aching joints. I had one once before for my twin bed, and seems like it really made the mattress more comfortable.

Frustrated

2004-12-21T06:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, I hate to whine (no, not really - but I do try not to inflict it on you too often!) but I am so frustrated. It seems like I've been under the weather since Thanksgiving. :-( Despite Rhinocort and Allegra D I feel like I've been battling sinus drainage forever, and suspect that without those drugs I would've had the sinus infection from hell by now.

The gut is overall feeling better, but the rest of the body aches almost all the time. I don't know if it's from the Crohn's or the new medication. I don't mean to say that it hurts all the time, but if I push myself at all - my legs ache. I even broke down yesterday while at work and bought a new pair of shoes from the uniform shop, with the hopes that the aching was from bad, worn-out shoes. (I don't think it is, but am sure the old shoes weren't helping.)

I had a reasonably easy day at work yesterday, though my gut was a bit upset from the chicken stew on Sunday. I KNEW I should've left the veggies out. (d'uh). I took another two hours of PAL and left at 5:15, ran one errand and got home at 6pm. By 8:30 I was asleep and nothing got accomplished (again!). Grrr...

It's not that I can't function - I just seem to get tired easier. Good news is that I sleep REALLY well nowadays. LOL I was noticing that even over Thanksgiving. When I was tired - wham! It would just hit me.

BTW, Mum and Dad, at this point, I think the trip on Friday will be okay - I'll be able to sleep in, and driving is not exactly strenuous. LOL I've been invited to Carla and Scott's house for Christmas dinner (1 pm) and expect that that will be the only thing I do on Saturday, and no plans for Sunday at all. The laundry is caught up so if I can just get the kitchen clean I'll be in good shape.

Well, I'm awake, not hurting and my nose is running like crazy so I guess it's time to take the Allegra and get something done. Yippee.

Here I am again!

2004-12-19T11:18:00.000-05:00

yes, I know I've been a very bad Blogger - it's been over a week since my last update.

So, to start with, overall I'm feeling much better. For those who've been in touch - thank you for your concern. :-) The doc had me stop medicine for a few days and then restart it at a lower dose. My gut is still a bit irritable, but most days I'm feeling myself again. I can still tell when I've pushed too hard - Thursday ended up being a very long day - I was for about 19 hrs, and on Friday I could really tell. Despite a good nights sleep I was still very achy when I woke up. I took it easy on Friday and read/dozed most of Saturday morning as well. Now I'm pretty much back to normal.

I have accomplished very little this week - LOL Julie called yesterday and got my butt out of bed, and I did get most of the laundry done. I've got the last load going now. I have a pot of chicken stew on the stove and it smells so good! That's the real reason I make it - not for the taste, but the smell. (grin)

My big concern this week was whether or not I would have a job. There were the first set of job "reallocations" done this week. http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_60017.asp After I thought about it for a bit, I thought maybe this wouldn't be such a bad thing - and then when I saw what the severance pkg was, I wanted to know where to sign up! My only stipulation would be that health insurance would be continued for at least a year. Did a lot of dreaming about what I could do with that money. I'm now almost hoping that they do offer me one on the next go-round. That should give me time to get house refinanced. I think I'd take the money, use it to upgrade automobile to something more practical, and invest a portion of it in the most essential for resale value home repairs.

I need to do some serious thinking about what I want to do with the rest of my life. They say to do what you love. I love nursing and making a difference in people's lives - but my body doesn't love it so much. I think I'd enjoy learning to be a general contractor - learning the right ways to restore my favorite old homes. Or being an architect - for the same reasons. Of course I'd LOVE to be a photographer-and actually know what the heck I'm doing, instead of winging it -. Research is also a definite option - as everyone knows, I can bury myself in reading material for hours on end without any difficulties at all.

As you can probably guess, I'm getting restless. I'm bored and lonely and looking for things to fill my time. With all this hoopla at work I think about moving again sometimes - it would be nice to be closer to the family - but then I remember the stifling heat in the summer, and wonder if I really want to deal that again.

I think maybe I'll go research photojournalism and see what the opportunities/training/salaries might be for that. See ya on the net!

Dealing...

2004-12-11T06:50:00.000-05:00

The human memory is an amazing thing. Did you know that you are incapable of remember pain? You can remember BEING in pain, and how you described it at the time, but you cannot remember the actual feeling. I've decided that this is a wonderful thing - otherwise the species would have killed itself off years ago. Most women would've had one kid, said "I don't think so!" and never done it again! LOL

Yesterday was NOT a good day for me - my Crohn's snuck up and whacked me good. :-( It's so easy to forget how debilitating this damn disease can be - until it rears it's ugly head again. I can handle the diarrhea and the sore butt, but the joint pain gets me every time. It started yesterday around noon - and by 3:30 was pretty much non-stop in my lower back and knees. (Sorry Noel - I tried to get your call but missed you - then never called you back.) It finally started easing up around 10:30, thank God, and I was able to get some sleep by midnight, though I woke up around 3 freezing to death and with my shoulder aching like everything else. That's a new one - it's never gone for my shoulder before. Around 7:30 last night I actually called my doc's answering service - something I've never done in the 10 years I've been diagnosed. He's going to touch base with me today and see how it's going. I am so lucky that he was on call this weekend and not one of his partners. They're great too, but they don't know me.

On other fronts, today is two very special anniversaries. My parents have been married for 39 years now - amazing! And, I can now claim four years cancer-free. :-) I'm pretty happy about that too.

My Tylenol is starting to kick in and take the edge off of the remaining pain - so I guess I'll go work on some of this stuff I need to do for the party tonight. I hope I can pull it off...

2004-12-01T14:58:00.000-05:00

The Christmas tree that Daddy decorated for me, being guarded by my regal King and Queen Bear.

Personal property of Carole Lee. May not be used without her permission.

2004-12-01T14:48:00.000-05:00

These were all taken at the Chattanooga Chrismas boat parade, Grand Illumination, and fireworks show on Nov 26, 2004. This is a night shot of the fountain at Coolidge park, with the carousel in the background

Personal property of Carole Lee. May not be used without her permission.

2004-12-01T14:47:00.000-05:00

After the boat parade, which was great, the boats pulled in closer and lined up to see the firework show

and here're a few firework pictures...

Personal property of Carole Lee. May not be used without her permission.

Thanksgiving Update

2004-12-01T13:33:00.000-05:00

Well, guess you want to know what else has been going on? LOL A whole lot of cooking, for one thing! Mum and Dad arrived the evening before Thanksgiving and were able to stay until the following Monday, so we had plenty of time to hang out. We stuffed ourselves silly on Thanksgiving, enjoying a really tender turkey and tons of side dishes, while using my good china and Granny and PawPaw's furniture. I remember eating several holiday meals at that table when I was young - though most of the time I got shunted to the kids table. Invariably I was the kid Granny snagged to set the table - and I remember her showing me where the basic silver went when I was 8 or 9 and had set it all out backwards. (I AM a leftie after all!)

On Friday I started my Christmas decorating -with Dad patiently handing crates up and down the attic ladder for me. Poor guy - nearly every visit he gets to visit my attic! I think he's seen nearly as much of it as I have. We took a break and went down to see the Chattanooga boat parade and Grande Illumination which I had never seen. What fun! The fireworks were spectacular and I got a few good pics. I'll post them next. If there were any good boat parade pictures then Mum probably has them, as most of mine were crap. On Saturday I finished decorating the living room and dining room and on Sunday I decorated the parlor. Daddy decorated my miniature tree in the dining room for me - and it looks spectacular! I even found some little 'rice lights' to put on it so it lights up and everything. I'll post a picture of it too.

Dad caught a cold while he was here :-( so he spent a lot of time resting his eyes in front of the TV, while Mum decided she wanted to sew and made herself a totebag from some leftover awning material that I had. We went to an estate sale, and though it was slim pickings, I did manage to pick up a nice bedspread and scarf.

For the most part we just hung out, puttering around the house, reading and dozing. The boys entertained us several times with a 'sing' - which my parents had never experienced - lol. It was nice having them here - especially since they'd never before seen my home decorated for Christmas!

Since they left, I've been busily keeping my doctors in business. (sigh) As you may know, the Remicade infusion that I had been taking to control my Crohn's disease stopped working for me and I've not been on any medication since my last infusion in September. Dr. Yates did a bunch of blood work and studies and was strongly considering putting me on cyclosporine. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a601207.html - for information on cyclosporine. When I met with him yesterday, he told me that he'd discussed my case with several other physicians, to see if they had ever had patients similar to me - with rectal/perianal Crohns that just doesn't seem to respond to all the normal treatments. We're a small and select group, apparently, but I am NOT the only one. Gee what a relief! LOL All the docs recommended trying Tacrolimus. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a601117.html - for info on tacrolimus. While there are not yet large group studies, small group and anecdotal evidence shows a strong positive response to tacrolimus. Cyclosporine does not have the same type of success rate. Dr. Yates is leaning strongly towards using T instead of C, and after discussing it, I'm game to give it a shot. If all goes well, I'd start it next week. He is still determining the best dosage for me as he's never used in in a Crohn's patient before, though he's very comfortable with it with his liver transplant patients. I just want my butt to stop hurting. One fellow IBD'er on the IBD sucks board used to call it 'taco butt' - so appropriate! ROFL

By the way - I would not be taking either of those drugs at the levels shown in the information. The drugs were originally developed to stop organ rejection in transplant patients - obviously I won't have need of that high a dosage.

On another front, I was really disturbed when my bloodwork came back showing worse blood sugar values than before I started on medication! Talk about frustrating - I saw Dr. Large today about that, and he is inclined to leave things as they are and recheck it in two months. He suspects (and I agree now that I've thought about it) that the higher levels are due to the Crohn's flaring up - not a worsening of the 'metabolic syndrome' - aka pre-diabetes.

I'm 37 and my body is falling apart on me - sigh. What will 67 be like at this rate?!

On an upside - Mum and Dad will be happy to hear that I found the outdoor lights I wanted at Target! Hooray! The spacing was right and everything - so I didn't need to hang more hooks or do more than shake the lights out, hang 'em up and plug 'em in. All done! And Bob called me a few hours ago and left a message that Rebecca Audrey Meier arrived this morning just after 10:30 am, at 20 inches and 8+ pds. Congratulations and love to the new parents!!!

Gerard Alexander

2004-11-30T19:22:00.000-05:00

Hi all,

It's been a while since I've posted, and I've a lot to catch up on, but this entry is for Gerard Alexander. I just received an email from my friend Sherry in Michigan. After a difficult year, the last I knew life was going well for her. She and her husband had bought a lovely new home, were expecting a child, and were past the traditional pregnancy "danger" zone for miscarriages. This was a big deal after losing a much wanted pregnancy the year before.

10 days ago, Sherry's uterus ruptured and she hemorrhaged. Little 6 month gestation Gerard Alexander died, and she very nearly joined him. Sherry and Mike buried their son yesterday. As icing on the cake, another pregnancy would be life-threatening.

Ya gotta find the good things in life and hang on to them, 'cause God knows there's enough tragedy out there to drive anyone to despair. Parents, hug your kids tonight, and be grateful you have them.

How to tell if it's been raining all day

2004-11-22T21:10:00.000-05:00

You come home to muddy footprints on your floors. Your dog is chasing his tail in the middle of the living room (at 3 years old!). You have toys dumped in your lap every time you sit down. Small furry noses intrude into any activity you attempt to do below waist level. AND the dog runs past you at warp speed carrying his latest treasure - your dustpan! (All the while watching you out of the corner of his eye to see if this latest gambet will convince you to play 'keep away'!)

So much for cleaning!

2004-11-21T19:00:00.000-05:00

LOL I started today thinking I was going to get a lot of cleaning done. HAH! I found out Friday that I was invited to (another) potluck. I got the kitchen cleaned up and decided to make another dish of my squash dressing. It's very tasty, and suitable for vegetarians. (I work with three.) While doing that, I decided to do another trial run on the biscuits as I'd not been pleased with their performance on my first attempt. They were MUCH better this time! :D I had apples to use up, so I made a batch of my applescotch cookies too.

In between all that I had a long conversation with Julie - who gave me several cooking tips - and a decent conversation with my niece, Kaitlynn, who was killing time until her birthday party started. I moved the turkey from the freezer to the fridge. And I ran a load of laundry. But, as I'm sure you can guess - there was no cleaning going on - aside from recleaning my scraper and whisk over and over again.

T curled up on his bed in corner of the kitchen and slept as I cooked, while Midas hung out on the back porch watching the drizzle and keeping an eye out for any roving dogs that might come by to visit. A calm and pleasant day in the chaos that masquerades as my home...

Cooking away

2004-11-18T20:48:00.000-05:00

Our Thanksgiving potluck at work is tomorrow and I've decided to do a test run on my Granny's biscuit recipe. I also made a casserole dish of my squash dressing. I know - it sounds weird, but it's actually pretty good, and usually is totally gone by the time the day is over. The biscuits are in the oven, and I'm winging it - as the recipe neglected to mention either the temperature or the length of time to bake them - LOL So, when in doubt, go for 350 degrees, and check every few minutes. We're at 15 minutes now and they're smelling wonderful but don't look quite done yet. The dressing is already done - and I'll be having a biscuit or two before bed. :-)

I think I've gotten all my grocery and holiday shopping done, for now. I have a few more gifts to buy - and lots of them to wrap! I also have to figure out how to get Kaitlynn's birthday present to her. (sigh) Somehow, some way - she will get it. If I'm lucky, she'll even like it.

Musings

2004-11-15T18:51:00.000-05:00

It hit me the other day how much things have changed in the last 20 years. When I graduated high school - our household microwave was still a novelty, and great fun to play with. I credit it with at least the first 10 of my unwanted pounds. LOL You could pop a few pieces of buttered bread in, cook it for 5 secs, sprinkle sugar on it and have a lovely sweet treat. :D

Our family was really cool - we were one of the few that had an ACTUAL computer at home. Not an Atari game system, mind you, but a real live Atari 800 COMPUTER. We used to get those programming magazines and Leonard and I would read code to each other as we input the programs. 7 or 8 pages later, it would finally be done and we'd call everyone around to see the wondrous graphic program we'd just done - usually to find that it didn't work, either due to a typo on our part or, more exasperatingly, a misprint in the magazine!

I remember the first time I ever heard of the internet - my friend Julie was receiving 'roses' from another computer user in the PJC computer lab. She kept explaining that he would 'send' them to her - I couldn't figure out how it was getting from one computer to another! The words 'network' and 'internet' were gobbledegook. I finally figured it out my freshman year in college when a classmate (who must've been really rich) had a computer that he plugged into a PHONE line and was able to send messages to other people! WOW!!! I was amazed - and still remember his ISP - Comp-u-Serve. LOL Anyone remember them? And, in case you're wondering, here's a dozen roses for you. @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->-- @->--

I remember the good ol' days - when my baby brother started his day off watching Captain Kangaroo religiously. When the Saturday morning cartoons were actually funny and the main characters were "The Justice League" with SuperMan, WonderWoman, AquaMan, and the WonderTwins. Scooby-Doo was a weekly fixture and not a goofy movie.

What did we learn from those cartoons? That brainy was not something to make fun of - knobby kneed, goofy guys could be popular - might did not always make right - that people working together usually accomplish more than one person alone - and that the good guys should always win!

And remember those short little commercials that always ran between the cartoons? "I am a Bill" "We the People -" "I am a Verb" and their friends? How MUCH did we learn without realizing it? I can still quote half of the Proclamation - because I can hear it, being sung, in my memory from that silly little commercial 30 years ago! BTW - those are now available on DVD under the title "SchoolHouse Rocks" - and I'm seriously thinking about buying it for myself...sometime after I replace the DVD player of course. (sigh).

I think the thing I liked best about the cartoons is that they credited their young audience with having both brains and morals. That's probably why my generation has such a distinct hatred of that damn purple dino and it's insipid little songs. LOL We grew up on Romper Room, Mr. Rogers, and Captain Kangaroo - programs that encouraged us to get moving, get thinking, and be "NICE" too.

What things do I remember that would amaze my nieces and nephews? Black and white TV. TV that was ABC, CBS, NBC and one or two local stations - that were REALLY local programming! And forget about remotes - if you wanted to change the channel you got up and turned the dial and then tuned the station in. Life before VCR's and microwaves, when leftovers were actually heated up on the stove (and tasted terrible). I remember sleeping in the floorboard of our car - there was no hump between the two sides - on a long trip up the east coast. The battles over who got to sit in the front seat. Riding my bicycle with no helmet (what's a helmet?) and a flag on a long skinny pole off the back post so everyone could see me. Visiting my grandparents and watching - gag - the Lawrence Welk show. (I still don't miss that!)

I remember watching "Hogan's Heroes", "M*A*S*H", and "Bewitched" in black and white - and thinking (at age 6 or 7) Barbara Eden was the prettiest lady I'd ever seen in "Jeanie". Overall, my 3 favorite female TV characters were probably Samantha on Bewitched, Jamie on Bionic Woman (and Six Million Dollar Man) and, of course WonderWoman - cause she looked AMAZING.

How the world has changed! What things do you remember?

800 + ; It's amazing!

2004-11-09T16:19:00.000-05:00

Yes, if you note the counter at the left, you'll notice that my site has now been hit more than 800 times since it's May 14th inaugural note. WOW! I know I can take credit for about a third of those hits, as I love to check and see if anyone has actually been interested enough to come by. LOL It's abit weird to know that so many people have come by and not have any idea what most of them think of my site. It must be similar to how film actors feel - I'm performing for an invisible audience and looking to the numbers to see if anyone cares.

To remind you - I have many more blog pages - though most of them are photo related. They should all be able to be accessed from http://carolesclutter-photos.blogspot.com .

In other news - today is Julie's birthday! HIP HIP HOORAY!!! Ok, she'd probably prefer I didn't mention hips - but hey...SHE'S the one who had to remind me that we're now closer to 50 than 20! I could've gone a few more years not thinking about that math fact. Thanks a LOT Jules! (eyes rolling)

Honestly, it's been way too many years since we first met - I think we'd both prefer not to do that math, but we've had fun, haven't we Julie? I'm so glad we found each other again; our internet chats and long distance cleaning sessions brighten my days and give me something to look forward to. We've bonded these last few years over long discussions on cleaning products, the pros and cons of cloth diapers and breast-feeding, the utter boredom of house cleaning (I STILL can't believe you cleaned your baseboards with a q-tip!!! The men in white coats were looking for you for weeks!), and the impenetrable mysteries of the male psyche. We've shared recipes and heartaches. Ok, my heartaches anyway! LOL I get the vicarious thrill of hearing about Miss B as she grows and changes - without ever having to have filled a bottle/sippy cup or change a diaper. How much better can it get? :-)

On an aside - thinking of Miss B just reminded me of one of my favorite memories from my last visit home, when I started to teach Erin the words to "Zippety - do -dah, zippety - yay"... I think she likes it as much as I do! For a brief moment, Erin, I and Mum were all singing the same song - talk about an intergenerational memory -

Depressing -

2004-11-04T19:40:00.000-05:00

My neighbor across the street rang my doorbell tonight, shortly after I got home. He was upset and finally came around to telling me that his common-law wife didn't pay the power bill again and it was cut off. They're not talking, and he didn't want her to stay in the house tonight with no power so he wanted me to keep her here with me tonight. I feel terrible, but I said no.

She's disabled, and there's no way I could keep the dogs away from her. Also no way for me to get her out of the house once he brought her in (stairs). AND I have to leave tomorrow by 6:30 for work and I'm not leaving her alone in my house.

Does this make me a terrible person? All I could think was - if she gets it, she'll never leave. I feel rotten, but they've taken advantage of me for nearly 3 years now, and I can't let it continue.

Oh, so tired!

2004-10-30T22:48:00.000-05:00

What a day - started it with buying a new bucket of laundry detergent - $20 Sears brand and it does 275 loads. And, best of all, it actually works! LOL The best $20 I've spent this year - since my first bucket lasted from the end of January until now - about 9 months. I unloaded my car today also - finally. I think it's a new record though - I unloaded it LESS than a week after my return. :-D

I did splurge a little at the nursery. I bought pansies and violas to put in the front yard. Then I came home, reclaimed the flower beds (we won't talk about how long it's been since I've done anything with them) and actually planted most of them! I also went through and trimmed out a bunch of brush and used my blower to move most of the right side yard and front yard leaves to the road. I shaped up the nandina bush too while I was at it - and have finally decided that I like it. I've had a love/hate relationship going on with that bush since I bought the house, so it was a relief to decide that it was ok after all. LOL

As I'm typing, it's pouring outside - I'm so GLAD I moved all those leaves! Now the water run off will drain more easily, and hopefully not cause me anymore problems. Wish I could take the blower up on the roof and use it to clean out my gutters - that would be a huge help. Oh well - one thing at a time.

My next big plan is to figure out who to foist all this dern Halloween candy on. Trick or treating was tonight and I got a whopping 5 kids - and 4 bags of candy to give out. All I know for sure is that it can't stay here. No way, no how, one way or another this stuff is history!

Well that's the update of my exciting life - I'm just a 'party' animal. I think I'm going to have an ounce of two of my very good port and head for bed. I hope your weekend is going at least as well as mine!

Long week

2004-10-28T19:46:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's been a long week and I'm very grateful that it's nearly over. I FINALLY went and talked to the mortgage company - and then talked to another mortgage agent who gave me some very good questions to ask. Tomorrow, if it's not too busy, I'll call the first one back and clarify some details. If it's really as good as it sounds, I expect to be signing a new mortgage within a month. Keep your fingers crossed! LOL To make it work long term, I have to commit to the idea of selling within a few years - but the longer I go without a garage and a bigger yard for the guys, the easier that thought gets. And every time the neighbor's teenager blares his car radio going in and out of the alley, the idea is positively delicious!!! Besides, I've had this address for almost 3 years now - and we all know I've never lived at any address more than 4. I thought I'd killed that rolling stone mindset, but it's still there - prodding me from the depths of my brain, whispering "isn't it time to move yet???"

I have to wonder, is it a military-kid thing, or is it just me? I don't think I move just for the joy of moving (cause really it's a royal pain in the ass!), but sometimes I wonder if it's an ingrained habit. Or, did I inherit the 'restless' syndrome, that drove my ancestors to travel, always looking for a 'better' place? I don't think it's a case of "the grass is always greener" - as I like my home and my area. I just have very specific wants that this home will never be able to provide - short of bulldozing the neighbor's house and buying the lot - ROFL. Who knows - I might actually get lucky! The bungalow across the street has an empty lot next to it - and two older spinster sisters that have lived there for an eternity -

I have no idea how I got off on this ramble - but suspect it has to do with wants/wishes and exhaustion all rolled together. Y'all have a great day!

Try this again

2004-10-17T20:07:00.000-05:00

I posted on Saturday, but there was a glitch and the post never made it to the blog.

So, just a quick review of the weekend. I spent a large portion of Friday getting ready for the craft sale next Wednesday. I bagged up soap crayons, put hangers on dozens of Christmas ornaments, and then spent several hours dipping spoons in milk or dark chocolate, cooling them, then putting either vanilla or mint candy stripes on some of them. Then I bagged them up in groups of four. Hopefully people will buy them to stir their coffee/cocoa with at work. If not, well, if I'm lucky they'll be serving coffee at Granny's party and I can give them away. LOL I made 120 of them, or 30 bags. Guess we'll see how it goes. I am STILL working on the throw - I put it aside for awhile and then, when I was ready to get back to it, I had hurt my neck! It's still doable - especially since I've completed nearly everything else. Cross your fingers and hope I actually sell something this year ok? Julie Hardy (Gulley) made 20 pairs of earrings and I'm hoping that they will sell as well.

On Saturday I went to the Georgia Apple Festival in Ellijay, GA with Scott, Carla and Bekah Earley. We had a great time, but there was a surprising lack of apple related activities there. There were two growers, two tables that were selling apple butter (and not even the really good kind with pecans and raisins!) and two places that were selling apple pies. Very disappointing in that respect, but the festival overall was nice and we got to see a lot of neat stuff.

Today, I did a little tidying in the TV room, and got about 1/2 of the remaining handstitching done - and the rest won't take as long as there's no more 'figuring' to do. Then I've just got to neaten up the edges and pray that Mum's old sewing machine can sew this monster's edges together. LOL

I've got a lot to do between now and Friday, when I leave to go home for Granny's birthday party, but hopefully the essential stuff will get done, and I will come out of this sale with some cash in my pocket.

I got an estimate on tree removal this evening also. To just remove the one big tree was $3500, and the guy honestly didn't recommend taking it down. I also got his evaluation of another tree and an estimate to just have 4 trees pruned back instead of removing any. The problem tree is a hackberry tree. I am now off to research the net to find out more about this strange tree. :-) Y'all have a great week!

One week later

2004-10-12T06:59:00.000-05:00

Well, after a week of ice, heat, ointments, a desperate session with a massage therapist and assorted drugs I can now move my neck reasonably well. I wake up feeling nearly normal and end the day tight and sore. Obviously not all the way back to normal yet, but functional. I'll just have to keep on being nice to it... :-(

So, the dogs are having a 'sing' in the front room, I've eaten breakfast, the laundry is caught up, and my kitchen is already 90% clean - all in all, the day is off to a good start. AND the bedroom is clean! Hooray!!! I'm on a roll.

Happy Birthday to Cindy!

2004-10-07T17:50:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to Cindy - the best thing to ever happen to my baby brother! I hope you're having a wonderful day - your birthday card is still sitting in my car :-( Oooops! Anyway I hope you're having a wonderful day. Enjoy your birthday dinner and hey!, one of those hugs from Erin? It was really from me. :-D

Update

2004-10-05T12:27:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! All my plans for cleaning etc went out the window this morning. It seems I slept on my left shoulder all night long. This by itself would leave me sore - however, to top it off, around 3:30 something startled me awake, causing me to jerk my head to the right and pulling every muscle on the left side of neck in the process.

Do you know how many muscles it takes to lift your head when you're getting out of bed? It's amazing! Took me at least 10 minutes this morning to figure out how to get out of bed without hurting anymore than I already was. Finally ended using my hand to support my neck as I moved. I tried heat - NOT the answer. Finally ended up trying ice and that has helped a lot. I can stand up and move around. Yippee.

I did get some stuff accomplished today - like updating photos in both my photo blog and my dog stories blog - you'll have to check them out and let me know what you think. Now I think it's time to go lay down with the ice pack, and maybe a Flexeril. Geez this hurts - only I could manage to hurt myself while ASLEEP! Grrrr...

Home again, home again, lickety split!

2004-10-01T05:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, that was me last night, coming home from Nashville. What a neat city! I picked up my treasures from BuyEssex (and definitely got a deal!) and then went to check out nearby Radnor LakeState Park/protected wildlife area. Very beautiful, and peaceful, and the weather was ideal for a good stroll. Sunny, but cool, and lots of shade. The trails were wide and well-tended and I did ACTUALLY see some wildlife while I was there! Lots of squirrels and turtles, a few chipmunks (a personal favorite of mine) and a small group of deer. After that I drove into the city and found Centennial Park, across from Vanderbilt University. Really cool thing about this park is that it has a to-scale copy of the Parthenon on the grounds. Of course I took lots of pictures and will post some of them when I get a moment to relocate the camera.

Steve and I met up when he got off work, and he played tour guide for a few hours - driving me around downtown and showing me the sights - what a neat city! It's bigger than I'd like but it's interesting. It was good to catch up with him, and see his life there in Nashville - it obviously agrees with him. We compared stories on the wonders of being an aunt/uncle - his niece is now 6 months old and he's totally in love with her - lol. Then it was past time for me to be heading home, where the boys were anxiously awaiting my arrival. I am going to be SO tired later today!

Ivan hits home

2004-09-24T21:24:00.000-05:00

The following are photos that Cindy shared with me this evening of Hurricane Ivan's romp through Pensacola. Scary - and sad...

BTW, Happy Birthday Aunt Libby!

2004-09-24T20:58:00.000-05:00

6010 Margaretta St. Granny and PawPaw's

2004-09-24T20:56:00.000-05:00

End of an era -

2004-09-24T20:52:00.000-05:00

another view

2004-09-24T20:37:00.000-05:00

Hurricane Ivan's destruction. CitiFinancial C3 call center in Pensacola - FORMER workplace of 300+ people, including my sister-in-law - Cindy.

2004-09-17T00:24:00.000-05:00

My own personal waterfall - and I have two more in the basement.

2004-09-17T00:23:00.000-05:00

Lucky lucky me - Ivan didn't want me to feel too left out - so he flooded me. Grrrr

Thank God they're ok -

2004-09-16T20:50:00.000-05:00

Hurricane Ivan came ashore near Gulf Shores, AL and beat the crap out of Pensacola. Stats currently being released state "About 364,969 of Gulf Power's 405,000 electric customers were without electricity Thursday." They are estimating a solid 3 wks before power is totally restored.

Everyone is alive and so far uninjured. My grandparents home had the roof caved in by their tree. It sounds like it is non-repairable. The end of an era, I suppose. It's hard to believe.

I look at the pictures on http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com in their picture gallery and the devastation is nearly unbelievable. I can't imagine how much work is going to have to be done just to restore the infrastructure. Water, sewage, electricity, clear roadways - all those things we take for granted have to be cleared, restored or rebuilt.

Ivan is now headed here to Chattanooga - we have 4100 homes without power currently, but it seems like a normal rainstorm to me. Not much else going on so far. I'll head to the basement soon and make sure the sump pump is still working before I head to bed. I guarantee I'll sleep better than I did yesterday!

Labor Day Weekend

2004-09-07T19:10:00.000-05:00

See the link at the left "Cherokee National Forest" if you want to see how I spent part of my Labor Day weekend.

I also have to put in a plug here for Shrek 2 - I laughed my head off all the way through it. Definitely a keeper, and also a candidate for the DVD collection.

Frances comes to visit!

2004-09-07T19:08:00.000-05:00

She must've heard I was curious about her, so she's come to TN. grrr. It's been raining all day, with heavy rain expected between now and 11pm. The dam is at 4.2 ft, it floods at 18 ft and is expected to go to 19 ft by tomorrow afternoon. SO...lowlying areas will be VERY soggy by tomorrow. Yecch.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed that my sump pump doesn't go out! LOL BUT, I'd rather deal with this than what Florida's had the last month. God bless'em - we're getting off lucky, and we know it

Good news comes in Three, too

2004-08-25T19:31:00.000-05:00

I noticed a trend a few years back - whenever a friend announced she was pregnant, within a few months two more would follow.

My cousin/friend Fran Meier is due in November, and on Sunday I got an email from Carla announcing a second pregnancy for her and Scott. I sat at my computer last night wondering who number three was --- today my email announced lucky mama-to-be number three would be my friend Sherry, in Michigan.

Life finally seems to be on an upswing for her, and I'm so happy - she had a hell of a year last year.

My life seems to be on a plateau right now. Not as great as I'd like, but a whole lot better than I've had before. Too bad I want it all! NOW! ROFL Despite what people think, I'm really NOT a very patient person.

2004-08-23T21:28:00.000-05:00

Craft project in progress. This will be a throw sized 'quilt' made of old vests and backed with denim. There will be buttons in the neck openings and ties on the plain panels.

Update

2004-08-23T21:10:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,

Life got a little out of control here the last few weeks. I got majorly behind on my housekeeping duties and then work got crazy. Story of my life (or lack of).

So what's new? Well, my youngest niece, Erin is now TWO! Hooray! I can't believe it's been two years - she sure has changed! She was a scrawny handful when I first held her - unbelievably tiny with sticks that masqueraded as arms and legs, incredibly long, pretty fingers, and enormous blue eyes. She still has the blue eyes, and the long pretty fingers, but boy has she grown! She's walking and talking, and flirts like a pro. LOL God save us from those blue eyes in about 14 more years -

Also Leonard and Tammy have moved into their new house. I can't wait to see it...

I have gotten the laundry caught up - it was a battle, but I finally got it done. I have spent most of my free time this weekend working on my craft project for the craft fair in October. I sure hope someone buys it, after all the work I'm putting into it. Actually I've been working on the most detailed part of it, which worked out well, because it gave me time to think about what to do on the rest of it. It also is giving me a chance to more accurately know how long this thing is going to take me! I'm hoping to have it finished by this weekend. All I have left to buy for it is one more tie. I got lucky and found three child size clip-on ties at the thrift store, so now I just need one more to complete it.

Well it's 10:15 and past my bedtime - sigh. This getting old stuff is for the birds! LOL

Nighters -