The Christmas Countdown

Here we go, two weeks from today and Christmas 2011 will be in the books. Normally by this time I am crazy with trying to get a million things done. I still have a million things on my list but am bound and determined not to let it stress me out this year. It is doable, very doable and I actually plan to have everything done and under control by Saturday--it's a goal and I really can see it working out.

This weeks list:

• Finish the crafts I am making for Christmas presents
• Put finishing touches on homemade cards, sign and send
• Finish shopping for the boy I adopted for Christmas
• Make menus for Christmas day
• Make grocery list for food I am making for presents
• Move craft stuff to the basement (with help and cooperation from the guys)
• Go shopping one last time.

Yep, that looks like the list. Taking this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon off as personal time--taking next Monday too, I think we will do a little shopping that day as well, but if it all goes as planned, it will just be picking up a few things, not really Christmas shopping.

Robert's last Final is this coming Wednesday and then he will be out until the 6th----hope he knows I still have plans for him!

I am really glad now I made the decision not to go overboard this year....I'm already liking that.

Off to work, Happy Monday!

The day finally came!

Back in June, at my first recheck from my first visit to my gastroenterologist, I thought I was doing so much better than I had been--no, I WAS doing so much better than I had been that I was happy with the results. (Warning: bodily function graphics ahead). I had went from an average of 25-30 bathroom trips a day, most without any warning to 7 or 8 and a little warning. I was, at the time, very happy with that, and told my doctor I was doing great. Beleive me, when you go from having NO warning and not even making it from your office to the bathroom, which is just down the hall to knowing you know you have to go, its an improvement--let alone the fact that what you see is more blood that BM. His response" Uh....no, you're not". He told me that day he would consider my Ulcerative Colitis still flaring until I only had 2 or at the most 3 bowel movements a day, and not be diarrhea. I thought he was dreaming but we went to work on upping prednisone continuously until the 19th of November, it finally happened.

I got up that morning and went to the bathroom...normal stool. At about 8 p.m, I had my second one, still normal. It has been that way ever since and I have still been in shock. I have not been like this in over 2 years.  I am loving every minute of it.  The look on Dr. Peterson's face, he is too.  When I told the nurse how great I was doing, she said, "You will make his weekend, you are his last patient of the day." And it DID seem to make his day.  I love that he loves what he is doing enough to get really excited about the results.

I told him I was having the normal side effects of the prednisone now that I didn't have diarrhea, weight gain. He is so funny, he is probably 6 foot tall, about my age, or a couple years older and not a string bean. He had put in my last notes that I was "slightly overweight", I giggled about it for two days because as flattered as I was, facts are facts, I'm fat.

Anyway, he told me if I "wanted" to start working on the weight he would help me, so we are starting that journey. Eventhough I am supposed to write down every bite I eat and count the calories, I am not supposed to look for anything to happen for a few more weeks because of the prednisone. He took the time to explain to me why the prednisone causes people to gain wait. You know that commercial on tv about women and cortisol? Well, prednisone is a manmade form of cortisol. Healthy cotisol levels should be around 7 mgs in the human body at any one time. I am taking 40 mg every day......my body has stopped producing the cortisol because it senses the prednisone, but having the 40 mgs still causes the same effects--hunger and weight gain. I dropped to 30 mgs yesterday and will decrease 5 mg a week until I get to 10. He warned me that when I drop below 10 (which I will do at 2 1/2 mg intervals instead of 5) I will have some days I feel rough, no relapse or anything (we hope) but my body will need to start adjusting to making it's own cortisol again and it will kinda shock my system. See why I think this guy is great?  He took the time to prepare me.

Any sign of going back to a flare, and I call him, otherwise, he doesn't want to do a colonoscopy because it has been so long since I have felt normal that he doesn't want to run the risk of throwing me into another flare...also most appreciated here.

So today I start yet another chapter in my life. I have kinda joked around that I couldn't lose weight because then I would be perfect----seriously, I'm JOKING!! But it does seem to be the only thing I have never been able to tackle if I tried, now I am going to try harder. Don't know what I will end up with but I never knew how much I missed something until I couldn't do it. I am ready to get back on a routine.

On a brighter note, shopped til I dropped yesterday with Mom, good times, I'm glad she was able to go with me--made the day a treat in every way.

The Big 2-0

It is really hard to imagine that 20 years ago today, I became a wife. What a wild ride it has been, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Don't know if I ever shared this, but when I first started working for Walmart, Rita Seimer introduced me to the overnight manager, his name was Drew and the first time I met him, he was wearing a purple shirt with a frog on it, it said "Kiss me, I might be a prince". Rita even commented to me about the shirt after she and I walked away--she had bought it, I said, it was cute. She asked if I meant the shirt or Drew. I just laughed, but the thought honestly did cross my mind.

"Drew" and I were friends from there on out. He was my boss so he was most definitely off limits but we were still friends. We had a mutual friend who knew more from each of us than he would admit for a long time. I used to catch shoplifters, this friend, whose name was Mike, was my mentor. One day, Mike pointblank told me that he had to tell Drew to let me be that day. I had gotten beat up by a shoplifter one time and after that, if Drew was working, the people would end up dumping what they had.....I had no idea that Drew was making them nervous and making them dump it. Anyway, Mike was the catalyst that caused us to finally go out after work one night. A week later, we went on our first official date  (I was officially done with the Effingham store the night we went out after work--so we could FINALLY date) and 6 weeks later, we made the trip to Kentucky to tie the knot.

Why did I put "Drew"---I had called him Drew for 2 years, on our way to meet his folks, 20 minutes outside of town, he tells me his mom hates for people to call him anything but Andrew. I have called him Andrew ever since.

We are at home this evening, we knew when we got married that doing anything big right before Christmas is impossible if you work in retail. We are planning a trip over New Year's to Louisville. I am taking him to the Ali museum and he is taking me on a New Year's eve dinner cruise.....can't wait!

Into December

It amazes me that time could go any faster, but it does. How is it that I remember those times as a child that it took forever for a certain day here or there to get here?  The day school was out, the first day of a family trip.....Christmas???  Now it seems like it gets here before you know it.

I have decided this year to downsize Christmas as our house---not the meaning mind you, but all the preparation and decorating. I normally decorate every nook and cranny in the house and yesterday morning, I decided I wasn't doing it. I have the tree up, the mantle decked out and of course the porch as well as the kitchen is decorated and I have declared it enough. I couldn't do it on my own though, I had to have someone validate my thoughts. I called my mom, not home. So when Robert got up, I asked him if it would be okay.....yep, he says, "I always thought you went overboard anyway". So, when Mom called, I told her I had decided to do this.....her response: "I always thought you went overboard anyway". So there you have, my official permission to get by with this. Yes, pangs of guilt sweep up every once in a while and I think, "I should just run up and get this, or that and put it out. I hate the "I have to do it all" syndrome I have....and am fighting it like killing snakes. My reward is telling myself over and over again, it will only take me about half a day after Christmas to get life around here back to normal.  We have a couple of other projects in the works so eventhough I am planning vacation the week after New Years, I really do like the idea of it not being spent taking down Christmas. Whew, now that's off my chest.

The main project we are getting ready for is the basement. It is not finished and we have no big schemes to finish it now either. We are repurposing it though. It had always been the "teen cave" but now, with Robert's friends scattered, it hasn't been used for that lately. When his friends do come home, they end up in the family room now, if here at all. So, Robert is needing more room in the garage to work on cars, Andrew is wanting a place to do woodworking ( which he never honestly got to do with his shop in the garage because it was always pushed aside to work on cars) and I want a craft room. I made my own Christmas cards this year, and the fact that I had my dining room a mess while doing it drove me nuts. We are still in the moving stuff down there and laying out plans stage but I am hoping to have everything 100% by the end of the first week of January. Should be great!

I keep waiting for life to slow down because Robert is out of high school, it hasn't, it has just changed. This week, he had ballgames on Friday and Saturday night both to play at for pep band. He went to work after he got home from them, which means he has had a couple of really late nights. Andrew is supposed to be working three twelve-hour days, in reality, he is working three twelves and a nine. And then there is my work, which just remains interesting and crazy and fun all wrapped into one. Thursday I got an email from the state wanting to come and do a site visit on one of our offices.....this was an honor because the people who are working on the software for our new program wants to see how it is working and how we are interacting with it. They want to go someplace where they know the workers know what they are doing. This will happen either Wednesday or Thursday of this week and I have chosen the Paris office for them to visit.

On the medical front, I go back to my gastroenterolist on Friday. I have had, as of today, 2 really great weeks. I have not had one bad day since the 18th of November. The downside----since the diarrhea has stopped, I am getting the typical weight gain from the prednisone that everyone else gets. I do at least feel like getting on the treadmill though so I have been trying to combat it. I believe he will start weening me back of the prednisone, I was not happy thinking about this at first but I think I am ready because this watching what you eat and still gaining is for the birds.

I think that catches up our lives, church this morning, shopping this afternoon, church this evening and then back to the grind tomorrow.

Life is good!

I'm a Believer.......

in cataract surgery.  I had seen a couple of people have this surgery and come out the other side being able to see better than they had in years but tonight I saw it first hand. My 84-year-old uncle had a cataract removed around 4:30 this evening. At 5:17, he could see the clock, through the bad eye, with a steel mesh patch over it....unbelievable. 

The thing that I got the biggest kick out of though was my mom. She has spent WAY more than her fair share in operating rooms, which tallies up to me, and various members of my family spending same said time waiting. There is a reason God put her on the table, she is not a good waiter. I thought it was funny, I know she didn't, but I remember countless times that she would be in surgery for 6 to 8 hours and we would be waiting. They took Uncle Jr back at 10 til 3, they called at 10 after 5, those apparently were the longest 2 hours of her life. She started worrying at 5 after 3 and by 10 til 5 was about fit to be tied.


Anyway, I don't believe you could say anything except the surgery was a success. They go back tomorrow but all the way home, he was telling what he could see and how happy he was.  Yep, I'm a believer.

Happy 47th Baby!

Andrew celebrated his 47th birthday yesterday. He spent the day working, 7:30 a.m. to 8 last night. His request for his birthday though was still a steak and a pineapple cheesecake.

So, at 8:45 last night, I treated him to a very rare New York strip, baked potato, scalloped corn (the way his momma made, not the way I made), Texas toast and his pineapple cheesecake. It dawned on me earlier this year that I have been a terrible wife all this time. His favorite cheesecake is Pineapple, I make it once a year......why? I don't know, because that is what I always fixed him for his birthday, and for some dumb reason, it never occurred to me that he could enjoy it other times as well. Oh well, New Year's resolution, make my husband more pineapple cheesecake.

What did he get for his birthday? Well, he is wanting some major work done on the jeep, before winter. Most of it he and Robert can do themselves, but some has to be taken to a machine shop to be customized. That's what I am paying for. Then, just because I couldn't let him not have a present to open, he got a beard trimmer and a nose hair trimmer set. Probably age-appropriate there on the nose hair thing, it says you can also use it on your ears, yep, he's starting to need that too. 

Anyway, back to the grind today, but at least we had a little birthday in there!

Black Friday---GREAT Friday

Anyone who knows me knows that I think my kid is about as perfect as anyone could get here on earth--99% of the time anyway. Today, I think I kinda realized why I think that--he is my kid, through and through. And as he turns into an adult, I love the fact that I still love spending time with him and more importantly, that he loves spending time with me.

This morning, we left at 3:30 and headed to Evansville for Black Friday. I had a list 3 pages long, complete with the addresses to type into Georgia, the GPS. Our first stop was supposed to be Lowes, to get Robert an impact wrench set he was wanting, it was one of the doorbuster specials and low and behold, YESTERDAY, you could buy Lowe's Black Friday stuff online and pick it up in the store today. That cut an hour off our time, so our first stop was Menards @ 6:00. When we arrived, people were lined up all the way out to the highway. Cars were parked in the grass medians, in the road, behind other cars....my first thought was it wasn't worth it, but quite honestly, the Menards list was the longest, and had Andrew's entire Christmas wish list on it. Robert was driving, he drove around for a little bit and would you believe, some guy, who had the parking spot RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE OUT DOOR, decided to leave, and we were sitting right there. He started backing out and Robert put on his turn signal. There was a Cadillac Escalade, pulled up behind the guy, I KNOW he saw our turn signal but started to pull forward. Robert put his foot in it and pulled in the parking spot. I started to say something and he said, "Would you have not done the exact same thing?" and in all honestly, I had to answer yes (while yelling TOWANDA!!! of course). He says, "Then shut up!". That was probably the only hint of rude we saw all day. We sat in the car until they unlocked the doors, very calmly walked to the end of the line, entered the store, asked a lady where some key things were and away we went. I went to get the cricut cartridges and Robert went for everything else. Believe it or not, when we met back up, we had found (for the most part Robert had found) everything on our list except one $5.oo trimmer and nobody had asked for it, it was just something I thought would be good to have. So then we get up to the line for the register and not one, but two people told us to get ahead of them because they were still waiting on other people. That was the only crazy place we were in and it was great. The next stop was to find me a P-touch labeler. If you know me, you also know I am an organizational freak. I have one of these at work and love it. I have had so many thoughts on how I could use this at home--one of the main ones is labeling all the tops of the dresser drawers so when Andrew puts my clothes away when doing laundry, he knows where they go. Last year, I missed them at Staples, they were $10.00. The one I have at work I got for free so I didn't know how much they were. I thought it was no big deal, I would just buy one anyway.....$40, yes, I am a tightwad when I know that one day a year, I can get it for $10. So I have waited, for the last 365 days. Today, we left Menards and headed for Staples, but on the way, I saw Office Depot and knew they had the labeler for $10 also. We pulled in, Robert dropped me off at the door, I walked in, asked the guy where they were, he took me right to it and handed me one. I was in Duck heaven! Meanwhile, Robert nabbed his SECOND front door parking space of the day. Harbor Freight was next on the list, this would finish out both guy's Christmas lists. We went in, got everything we needed, out, loaded the big thing (a 12 ton press--Robert's Christmas from Nana) into the van and we were off again. At this point, absolutely everything that was a "have to have" was marked off the list. We hit several other stores and bought several more things--Robert new boots, me a new cape and purse, another cricut cartridge, Christmas decorations.....yep, it was a haul and the best part was, we just plain out had fun.


So, we arrived home at 2:30, took a nap until 4 and decided to decorate the porch with the new garland I bought today. The garland was so nice ($30 for $6 nice) that I decided we needed new lights for it. So, we loaded up and drove back to Olney to Walmart, came home and our porch is now decked out for the holidays.

I love my life........as I started to type this, Robert brought me a hot chocolate with peppermint marshmallows, yep, don't think it gets much better.

So, it is officially the "Christmas season" for me. I love this time of year. This will be my 20th Christmas with Andrew, we get to celebrate our anniversary in just a little over a week.

I have been asked by several people why I dont' blog anymore. I honestly didn't know anybody every still read it, I miss blogging honestly and have decided to try to get back at it. So, this is my New Year's resolution, but I'm gonna start practicing now.

Happy Black Friday everyone!