To He** And Back!! And Photos Of Us On The Bike!

Here we are!!  I finally got a couple of photos taken of us.  Christa took them just before we got off the Bike.  We weren't wearing our Bike Pants (which we would wear over our regular pants) since we took surface streets from our house to Christa's.  If we ride on the highway, we wear the Full Gear for protection. 

Here we are again with Walt's Helmet Shield down as well, like we would wear it while riding.  I should have moved the Mike away from my Face, so that you could see my Face better!!

Hey Ya'll,

*** My 8th Fill was on Wednesday.  I had previously stated in my blog that I hadn't felt any Restriction after my last Fill.  At least not until last weekend......We had our Family Summer Birthday Barbecue last Saturday and for some reason, from Sunday until Wednesday, I noticed that all of a sudden, I felt Restriction.....and Heartburn!!!  Even if I didn't eat anything!!  I remember reading in other blogs early in my Journey, that some of you sometimes didn't feel Restriction from a Fill, until 2-3 weeks after the Fill, could I have experienced this too???  Does this mean that I am getting close to my "Sweet Spot"???

Because of this, I was afraid to tell Laurie (the woman who administers my Fill's) as I was afraid that she wouldn't want to give me even the smallest of Fills.  But Walt (my Sweetheart), ratted me out and told her how I was doing.  He thinks that the reason that she did go ahead and give me a Fill was because I had gained 2 lbs since my last Fill, instead of losing!!!  So she gave me a small (0.25 cc) Fill.  Whats funny, since I got the new Fill, my Heartburn went away!!  At the Doctor's Office, I weighted in at 190.6 and today I weighted 188.2, so I have lost 2.4 lbs since Wednesday!!

*** For the Fill Appointment, Walt and I rode our Gold Wing up to Reno.  The ride was fantastic, the traffic was minimal, it was a really nice ride.  The only problem we had was the HEAT!!!!  Unfortunately, after having such a long time of nice weather, the day of my Appointment turns out to be the....HOTTEST DAY OF THE SUMMER, so far!!!!  It was 108 degrees and us in Full Riding Gear.  But so long as we were moving, it wasn't too bad.  But when we had to stop in town at signals, we could really start to feel the heat.

As for my Tailbone, we needed to stop once each direction for about 20 minutes, so that I could take the pressure off of it.  I forgot to take a pain pill before leaving our house!  But I did have some Tylenol 3's on me, so I took one at the rest stop which helped a lot.  Once we got home, we took off our riding gear and jumped in the pool!!  It felt so refreshing.  The water was only 82 degrees, but who cares!!!!  We needed to cool our bodies down after being in the Full Riding Gear.

*** Last night, was our Granddaughter Emily's 7th Birthday.  Our Daughter Christa always holds a small Birthday gathering the night of the Birthday just for them and the two sets of Grandparents.  My SIL Mark had barbecued a lot of different meats, as well as having salad, potatoes, fresh fruit and of course, Cake and Ice Cream (yum).  Since we will be on our way up to Portland on our Grandson Walker's Birthday next month, we also gave him his presents last night.

Today, was the Birthday party they hold for the Kids!!!  But of course, Christa always invites us to it as well, as the parents of the kids are invited too.  Emily chose Chuck E Cheese for her Birthday party, and the kids were having a blast there!!  There are so many games for them to play.  And of course, we attended this party too, as well as our other Daughter Kat and her hubby Elliott.  FYI - Walt just walked in and told me to make sure that I mention that I had a Cupcake today!!!  Well, I did and it was good!  But it wasn't a large one, and of course he made me give him the last bite!!

*** Kat had to leave the party to go to work, so Elliott came home with us as Walt and Elliott made plans to go through the Garage, to see what Equipment Elliott wanted from there.  Elliott loves Photography and will use the Darkroom Equipment.  Walt had bought a lot of Professional Grade Darkroom Equipment about 10 yrs ago.

He had planned on setting up a Darkroom in our Garage, even though we all tried to tell him the trend was Digital.  He even went so far as to have a room sectioned off and built, in our 3 Car Garage for the Darkroom, with Hot & Cold Water and everything.  Alas, the Equipment never made it into the newly built room.  It just stayed stacked up on one side of the Garage taking up space that we could have used to park one of our cars!!  LOL  Well, now Elliott will be taking it and USING IT!!

*** Tomorrow is a big day in our neighborhood.  One of the Real Estate Salesladies in the area, organizes these huge Garage Sales in our area of Town.  They are so big that she has to hold 3 different ones and the one in our area usually has at least 200-250 homes that participate!  Which means we have hundreds of cars driving by all morning checking out all the Garage Sales.  It is a Garage Sale Follower's Dream.

And lucky for us, tomorrow the temperature is only supposed to get up to about 78 Degrees!!  A big difference from Wednesdays 108 degrees!!  But hopefully we can sell off some of the "stuff" that we have had stored in the Garage for at least 10 yrs!!!!  Wish us luck, or should I say, wish Walt luck!!  LOL

Here are some photos of the two Birthday Parties.

Here is Emily checking out her new Puppy Purse I made her.  I think that she likes it!!

And here is Walker holding his Monkey.  He has named him Jingles.  I think he likes it too!

And here is Emily with her favorite gift!  A Triple Stroller!  She just loves pushing her babies around!

And here is my beloved, Walt at Chuck E Cheese today!  Doesn't he just look thrilled???  LOL  But he would do almost anything for the kids and grand kids.

Here is Emily, totally concentrating on her game.  She didn't even realize that I was taking her photo until she saw the flash go off.

Danielle (left) and Ellie (right) are Christa's two BB's.  Aren't they gorgeous?  Danielle has 7 children, and Ellie has 3 of her own!!  Why couldn't I look this after having Christa???

And here is Elliott, our great Son In Law.

I caught Kat (left) and Christa (right) playing games too!!

Here's Walker (in hat) playing a game while a friend looks on.









 

  
Here is Mark, our other great Son In Law!!  He looks on with love as Emily opens her gifts.














Well, I better go for now, till next time....

Aloha My Friends  :)

And The Doctor Says.....

                                                             OUCH!!
Hey Ya'll,

Well, I called our PCP's office yesterday and they had a cancellation for 9 am this morning!!  As you know, I usually don't go to bed before 3 am at least!  So I wasn't happy about having such an early appointment, but I was desperate to try to relieve this pain in my A**, so I took it!!!

I went in primarily for the extreme pain that I have been having in my Tailbone.  Since I broke it 12-13 yrs ago, it has continued to hurt through the years, but lately, has become so unbearable that I have to periodically lay down to take the pressure off my Tailbone.  And when at home, I always sit on a pillow unless we have company.

I also wanted to discus with him the pain I have been having in my Fingers.  I am not sure if it is regular Arthritis or if it is the early stages of Rheumatoid Arthritis.  I do have RH Factor in my Blood Work, and RA runs in the Family.  And lastly, I wanted to discus my Fibromyalgia.  It appears that it is flaring up again.  It has been controlled for some time now, but in the last few weeks I have noticed my pain levels increasing, my body hurting all over again, and I am much more tired all the time.  I rarely can make it through the day without taking a nap, even if I had plenty of sleep!!

So...the Doctor told me to continue to take my Fibromyalgia Medication that I have, and he gave me an almost 3 wk supply of a new Fibro Drug to try.  He said that several of his patients have tried it and said it worked wonders.  He said that hopefully it will work for me as well, and if so, it could potentially take care of my joint pain in my Fingers, Knees, Neck, Back, etc.

As for the pain in my Tailbone, he said that unfortunately, once the Tailbone has been broken, you pretty much always have pain for the rest of your life.  He said that the pain I am experiencing, is usually seen in someone 80 yrs old, not someone like me, at my age.  He said that once the Bone has broken, it develops Arthritis.  So get this....I have Osteoarthritis in my A**!!!  What else can go wrong??

We asked him about Surgically removing it to take care of the pain.  He said that Surgery is rarely done for this type of injury and definitely not the preferred method of controlling pain.  In fact, it is usually the last resort as it doesn't always work, and you are still left with the pain.  So he wants to try other options before he considers referring me to a Surgeon.  So he prescribed me a Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Gel called Voltaren to try.  He said that I could also use it on other Joints as needed.  If these two drugs help, then we won't do anything else but continue on with the new treatment.  But if not, he will continue to try other options.  I sure hope this Gel works, it cost me $34!  And who knows how much the Savella (for Fibromyalgia) will cost if I end up taking it long term....

Well, tomorrow we ride up to Reno on the Bike for my next Fill Appointment.  It will be my first long ride on the Bike.  So far, I have never had pain in the A** from riding.  Partly, I believe because the seat forces me to sit up straight, and Walt's seat back is directly against me, keeping me in an upright position.  So here's crossing my Fingers that I don't have to ride in pain tomorrow!!!

The problem is that once we get there, I will have to weigh in wearing long pants, which will increase my weight.  I will take off the heavy riding boots, but still.....any extra weight is never a good thing!!  LOL  Well, I guess I should go for now.  Till next time......

Aloha My Friends  :)

A Big Welcome To Lena !!!

Hey Ya'll,

I just checked in before going to bed, and noticed that I have a new Follower!!  Her name is Lena, and she was just Banded on Wednesday the 18th!!  Which just turns out to have been the day after my 55th Birthday!!  Her blog is: Getting My Skinny On.  So please jump on over, check out her blog, and give her the love and support we all need!!  After all, she is only 6 days out of Surgery!!!  So Lena, "welcome to my nightmare".....

Aloha My New Friend  :)

I Was A BAD GIRL....

Hey Ya'll,

Warning, Warning...Lots of photo's at the end of the post!

*** Lady's and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls......I was a BAD GIRL YESTERDAY!!!  I never ate to the point of getting stuck, or having a PB, but still I overate!  And for the first time since my Surgery 9 months ago, I had Heartburn!!  I don't like Heartburn...:(  It hurts :(  In fact, I have had Heartburn off and on, for two days now :(  I was ok with the amount of food, but the Desserts I definitely overdid it.  Christa made a German Chocolate Cake from scratch (my favorite) and I had two pieces throughout the day, as well as a piece of the Cake that I made.  Not to mention some of my Dad's Peach Cobbler.  See what I mean?  I was a bad girl!!!

Did I mention in an earlier post that I have been eating like a horse lately?  Ever since my last Fill in fact.  Usually I lose at least a pound or two between Fills, but for some reason, I feel like I actually lost Restriction, rather than gain some, after the last Fill.  And I am sure that I have gained a few pounds back!!  My next Fill is THIS Wednesday, so I don't have much time to try to lose it!!

*** This trip up to Reno for my Fill, will finally be taken on our Gold Wing.  We had intended to ride it up the last trip, but wasn't able to, and because of the Summer storm in the Sierra's, it was for the better as we hit rain, and sleet.  This will be the longest trip for me on the Bike, and a test as to how my Tailbone will hold up on a long ride, before we attempt to ride to Portland, OR next Month.

*** Here's the story on my Tailbone, maybe someone can give me a heads up on why it still hurts so much, as I know that some of you are Nurses, etc.  I fell down a whole flight of stairs about 12 yrs ago on my Tailbone, the whole flight of stairs, On...My...Tailbone.  It hit every step on the way down!  It hurt so bad that I could barely stand it.  I went to the Doctor hoping that they could do something for it.  The Doctor said that there was nothing that they could do about it.  All I could do was be careful and wait for it to "mend".

That was 12 yrs ago, and it still hurts.  Once it "healed", and after about a year, it only bothered me if I sat for too long, or in the wrong position.  But I have noticed that since I have lost 40 lbs, the pain is almost constant, it hurts every singe day.  Sometimes, it hurts so bad that I can't continue to sit, I have to either stand up, or lay down for a while to take the pressure off the Tailbone for awhile.  Oh, did I mention that I sit on a pillow at all times now?? 

I am considering going to the Doctor again, to see if there is anything that can be done.  Even if it means Surgery to cut off the tip "or parts thereof", of the Tailbone so that it STOPS HURTING!!!  I would like to be able to sit like a normal person.  I realize that I have lost some cushion in my weight loss, but was it enough to bring back the pain as if I just broke the Tailbone again???  Any information would be much appreciated.  

*** Yesterday we had our Family Birthday Barbecue, celebrating all of our Summer Birthdays.  The day turned out to be a beautiful warm, but not hot day.  Which was fine for us adults, but the kids wanted to go swimming!!  Since we are not heating the pool this Summer, the water was only about 72-78 degrees, I'm not sure since I didn't check the water temperature.  Normally we would have temperatures in the upper 90's to low 100's here in August, but yesterday we had another unseasonably cool day of about 88 degrees!!  And tomorrow, it is expected to reach the 100's again for at least 3-4 days!  Go figure, the party was a relatively cool day, while tomorrow, just two days later, will be about 100 degrees!  Oh well, that's life I guess.

As you probably guessed....the kids prevailed and was allowed to go swimming!  They had a blast.  In fact, Charlie, my Grand Nephew, was in the pool most of the day, at least half of the time by himself!  I remember those days!  When I was a teenager, my parents had a pool built in our backyard and once it was built, we were in it practically every day, all day long!!  We lived in the water, and I loved it.  But now, if the water isn't the right temperature, I just don't want to go in.

We were lucky in that my parents made it.  Their health is deteriorating more and more each day, and we never know if they will be able to make it.  My Mom is really bad.  She can barely walk anymore and is in constant excruciating pain.  In the past, she would have stayed home in bed.  But we figure that she knows at each gathering, this could be the last one she attends, so she forces herself to get out of bed and dressed and make it to be with all of us, and we really appreciate it too!  We love her so much, she is the best Mom I could have ever asked for.

*** For my Birthday, I was extremely blessed with Gift Certificates from our two Daughter's and one of my BFF'S, Nadene, for Amazon.  So now I can purchase new books for my new Kindle!!  Yea!  There are so many books that I want, that it is going to be hard to choose.  But with my Gift Certificates, I can actually choose at least 15 new books.  And potentially a lot more!  Now I have to take the time to really check out the books.  But what a problem to have, don't you think???

Well, I should go for now, I have been writing this post most of the day, on and off, giving my Tailbone a rest periodically.  I will be posting some photos from yesterday, I hope that you like them.  Of course, since I took them all, I wasn't in any of them, as usual!!  Till next time....

This is a photo of my Mom and Dad and Kat, or 2nd oldest Daughter.

This is again, my Dad and Kat's Husband, Elliott.

This is Christa's Husband Mark, and my Uncle Emery.

This is Charlie, my 8 yr old Grand Nephew.  He was resting up before getting back into the pool, since the rest of the kids was now getting in!!

This is my beautiful Grand Daughter Emily!!  She will be 7 this Thursday!!  Isn't she cute?

Here is Emily and Walker, our Grandson.

Here is Emily, talking with Walt & Christa sitting on the side of the pool with my Niece's baby.  My Niece Cara is the one standing and her boyfriend Michael is sitting on the swing texting someone!

Here is Christa and Walt again holding my Grand Nephew Landon.

Again, this is my Mom, the backside of Elliott and my Sister In Law, Robin.  NO, this is not the SIL I was talking about that lives out of State.










So I hope that I didn't overwhelm you with photos!!  Again, till next time....

Aloha My Friends  :)

A Real Quickie!!

This is a photo of my Dad, and my Niece's Son Charlie, riding on a small scale Train at a local park in the Sacramento area.  Now, should I call Charlie, my Nephew once removed, or my 2nd Nephew??  I always get confused in the lingo of it.  Can anyone help me in this???

Hey Ya'll,

** I am really pressed for time, so I am going to make this a real quick post.  I have my next Fill appointment next Wednesday the 25th.  It will be Fill #8 and I currently have somewhere between 7-7.2 cc's in my 10 cc Band.  Normally I at least have a week to 2 weeks after a Fill, where I really have to watch myself.  But this time, I actually feel like she removed saline instead of increased it!!  From day one, I have been able to eat almost what I wanted.  I have had virtually no restriction at all and unfortunately, this is the month where I will traditionally gain the most weight.

And I fear that I have gained back some of my weight.  :(  I need to give myself a Big Kick In The Butt, and get myself back on track!!!  I know what to do, I just lack the motivation right now to do it.  Stress plays a lot in my problems right now, but I can't use that as a crutch, or excuse for my own lack of self control in what, and how much I am eating!!!  I can eat a cow right now.  No...that will be tomorrow!! LOL  I will try to make myself carry my camera out and take a few photos to post though.

** As you know if you read my post on Wednesday, that Wednesday was my 55th Birthday!!  Well, August is a huge Birthday month for our family.  In fact, we have 8, yes, that's 8 Birthdays in August!!  And since this will be our last Summer in our house, we are holding one last Birthday/Swim/Barbecue Party tomorrow!!

Now normally, August is by far our hottest month!!  But for some strange reason, we have been having a really mild Summer this year, hence my not going in the water much this Summer (we are not heating the pool this year)!!  And usually we would be baking in 100+ degrees tomorrow, but get this.....it is only supposed to be 88 degrees tomorrow!!  Which means that the pool water will probably cool down over night, into the mid-upper 70's.  This is fine for the Kids, but us Adults like it at least 80, and I personally like it about 84-86 degrees!!!  Oh well, at least for those of us that don't go in the water, it won't be too uncomfortable.

** Lately, I have been in a slump.  And no, it has nothing to do with my Birthday!!  I have never had an issue turning another year older.....at least not yet!  I think that it has something to do with our filing Bankruptcy, losing our home, and all the issues and implications, etc.  Sometimes it just gets to be a bit overwhelming, trying to figure what our next move will be.  I try to think of this as a new adventure.  But with Walt working as a Consultant, it really makes it hard sometimes.

He Consults with the State of California, and as you probably know, they still have not passed a State Budget (AGAIN)!!  The Budget is due the 1st of July, but that NEVER HAPPENS.  Which means that the State will stop making payments to the Consultants first, until the Budget gets passed.  This means that we may not be paid again until October or November.  What is even more frightening, is what will happen if Arnold S follows through with his threat, that he may not sign a Budget at all!!

He leaves office in January, which could then put the new Budget crisis off to the Governor.  Never mind how it effects all those who work with the State in any capacity!!!  What can we do?  We have already declared Bankruptcy, what will we do if we are not paid for another 3-5 months???  How will be pay the current/upcoming bills, etc.  Sorry, I didn't mean to go into all this here, but it is always in the back of my mind!

** On a much happier note, our oldest Daughter Christa, and my Grandchildren Walker and Emily, took me out to lunch on my Birthday Wednesday!!  We went to one of my favorite, small family owned Mexican Restaurants!  We sat and talked for about 3 hours!!  We were there so long that I was able to eat my entire meal!!  Normally I only eat 1/2 of it and take the remainder home for dinner!!  I think that they thought we were never going to leave!!

But once we did, we went over to a Used Book Store that was in the next shopping center over.  We spent about another hour there!  So we basically spent most of the day together and I had a really good time!!  We don't get together like this very often anymore.    but it was a fantastic day.  And next week we get to celebrate Emily's 7th Birthday!!  We always get to celebrate it twice, once with the kids and all their friends and once for just the immediate family and Grandparents!!  So 2 more days of good food and Dessert!!!  Then, I can start the decline from the August Eat-A-Thon!!!

Well, I better go for now, I said that this was going to be a real quick post....well, you know how that goes!!!  LOL  Till next time....

Aloha My Friends  :)

Happy Birthday To Me!!! :)

This is the new Monkey at 16 inches in length.  The pattern was for a 2 1/2 inch Monkey, I managed to make it 16 inches!

Here are all three of the Monkeys so you can see the difference in size just using double yarn and the same size hook can do!!

Here are the two original Monkeys together.  Nanny and Puah!  Walt wants to try to find some accessories for them, LOL.

********
Hey Ya'll,

Just a real quick post to say that it is my 55th Birthday today!!!  Yes, I know, now I really am an OLD LADY!!  LOL. 

My Nieces son, Charlie's Birthday is on Thursday of this week, and next week is my Granddaughter Emily's, 7th Birthday on Thursday.  Not to mention my Cousin Della's 52nd (?) Birthday next Wednesday!! 

Well I finished Walker's Monkey.  I actually gave the one that I originally made to Walt as he wanted two, so I made a second one in a different color and gave them to him.  I then made another one for Walker as I wanted it to be larger still.  So I used double yarn which enlarged it significantly.  The original Monkeys are about 12 inches long and the new one is 16 inches!!  Just by using double yarn and the same hook.  Photos above.

Well, I better go for now, I need to get to bed.  Till next time...

Aloha My Friends  :)

What A Beautiful Sight!!

Hey Ya'll,

First off, I want to say that I had another Slime Session yesterday!  My dear Sweetheart, Walt, barbecued us some Hamburger patties along with some Green Beans.  We were sitting out on the Patio eating, with a nice cool breeze blowing (or should I say...Cool, Wind?).  And because of this, I ate my Hamburger Patty a bit too fast, so as to not let my meal get too cold.  I thought that I had slowed down soon enough though...but then, NOT!!  After a while, I realized that it wasn't going to go down peacefully, or without a fight!

So I quickly made my way into the house and took my customary seat on the edge of the tub facing the "Throne", and sliming for the next hour or so.  This always upsets Walt.  He doesn't like to see me have any problems.  But when I told him that I only slimmed and it wasn't a full PB, he was relieved!!  So, now that I have confessed my latest Slime incident....

I wanted to say that we had a great view of Venus, Mars and Saturn, above a beautiful Crescent Moon tonight!!  I attached a photo above, that we took from our backyard.  We had to take it before the Sun was 100% down, as the Moon and Planets were also going down with the Sun!!  I didn't think that we would be able to see Mars or Saturn at all as we live too close to a large City with a lot of lights!!

In the photo, you should be able to see the Crescent Moon between the trees as it is the largest visible Celestial object in the sky.  Above it and slightly to the left, if we are lucky, you can see Venus.  It shows up great on my Computer screen, but I am not sure how well it will appear in the Blog!!  It is right about at the top of the trees.  Click on the photo to enlarge it and you should have no problem seeing it.   Hopefully you will see it too.

Also, I went outside tonight to view the Perseid Showers.  I only stayed out a short time, and I only saw a couple of Meteors, but one of them was truly spectacular!!  Wow, what a rush!  I only wish that I had the time to stay out all night viewing the night sky.  Especially on a beautiful, clear, cool night like tonight was.  Oh, and did I mention how big and beautiful Jupiter was tonight???  I can't believe how many Planets were visible to the naked eye in one night!!  What a treat. 

Well, I better go for now.  Till next time.....

Aloha My Friends  :)

A Big Welcome To Jennifer W !!!

Hey Ya'll,

I just wanted to give a big welcome to my newest Follower!  Her name is, Jennifer W and her blog is: Band Geek.  She was just Banded on February 10th, 2010, and get this.....she has already lost 70 lbs!!!  OMG!  Isn't this fantastic?  Please hop on over and give her a great big welcome to the Bandster Club!!  So Jennifer....."welcome to my nightmare".

Aloha My New Friend  :)

Mr Monkey Is Finished!!

Here is the photo of the Monkey, as it was meant to look like.  I hope that I did it justice!!  LOL









Hey Ya'll,

Well, I finished Mr Monkey for my Grandson Walker tonight!!  I took a pattern that called for it to only be about 2 1/2 inches long, TOTAL!  When I finished it, it measures 12 inches with the Feet splayed out, or 13 1/2 with them pulled straight.  Here is a photo of it.  I sure hope that he likes it and he doesn't think that he is too old for it!  He will be 10 next month.

His Nostrils appear too big in this photo now that I am looking at it.  And the Mouth is too low in the Face to be seen.  But it is there!!  The pattern called for it to be about the length of the Head in my finished product!

I placed Mr Monkey next to a Teddy Bear for sizing.  What do you think?  I made a Red bow for a splash of color to break up the monotony of the dark Brown.  You can kind of see the corner of the Mouth in this photo.







Walt loved Mr Monkey so much that he put in an order for two of them!!  To be made immediately!  He wants one in the darker colors like the one I just made and the other one in lighter browns.  Kat also saw it tonight and immediately said that she wants one too!!!  I am just afraid that their Puppy will tear it to pieces!!  But I will still make it for her of course.

Well, now on to Band information.  I was a BAD GIRL the other day!  Walt and I went to Sams Club to purchase some items, and normally I am able to ignore the free samples that they give out there and at Costco.  This time, they actually had some that I didn't want to resist!  But I was good and only ate what I really wanted to eat, not just because it was there.  So all in all, I did ok.  But I did partake.  And I haven't had a PB since the one I blogged about earlier in the week!!

Now, I want to ask everyone a question.  I have noticed lately that I have been receiving e-mails that go directly to my Spam Folder (thank God!).  But the disturbing thing about them, is that they are using MY E-MAIL ADDRESS!!!!  Like I am sending them out!!!  How is this possible?  I thought that only I could use it.  So how could anyone else log on, or begin using MY PRIVATE E-MAIL ADDRESS?

The reason that I am so concerned about it, is that the e-mails I receive with my own address, are usually something to do with PORN.  Or at least involves things that I would never want my address to be involved with.  Like Viagra, or Love Toys, etc!!  Am I wrong in worrying about this?  Should I go through the problems of changing my e-mail address?  I am really interested in what ya'll think.

Now on to some more heavy information.  As you know, we filed for Bankruptcy in April of this year.  Well, our Discharge was granted on July 26th!  So now we are waiting for the Notice of Default from our Mortgage Lender.  Once we receive this, we know that the clock starts running on when the Foreclosure process truly begins.  We have received some papers from them allowing us another 30 days to try to catch up, and either stop the Foreclosure, or to try to sell the House.  We will not be doing this, so once the 30 days are up, our Foreclosure will begin.  More information to come.....

Tonight we had our Daughter Kat, and her Husband Elliott over for Dinner, as well as her friend Kayla and Kayla's two children, to celebrate Elliott's birthday.  Walt Rotisseried two Chickens on the Barbecue, and made Mashed Potatoes and Corn.  Yes, I said Walt made them.  He is the cook, not me.  I can cook of course, but for the most part, I hate to cook, and Walt loves to cook, and play with recipes.  I am a follow the recipe by the book kind of person.  He loves to experiment, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the BAD!!

However, there are some things that either I make, or I at least help with, as it is one of my Families recipes.  For Dessert, we had Vanilla Ice-Cream and Strawberries.  Yum!!  I thought it would be harder to resist eating another bowl of the Ice-Cream late tonight, while Walt was asleep in bed.  Don't get me wrong, I do want it.  Vanilla Ice-Cream is my favorite, but I have resisted without too much difficulty, so I count that as an NSV!!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

And a big thank you, to all of you that kept my Brother in your thoughts on Friday!  He made it through the Surgery fine.  They had to take most of the Big Toe, leaving him a small Stub.  But even a small Stub will help, as the Big Toe really aids in controlling balance.  Now we just have to keep our Fingers and Toes crossed that this is all that he will lose, and not the whole Foot, or Leg in the future.  However, because he is on such heavy duty Pain Meds (we all know how this is, right?), he has been fighting nausea ever since Surgery.  Hopefully, as the Pain Meds are lowered, his nausea will go away too!!

Anyway, I just know that I had other things to discuss.  But as usual, this old lady can't remember them!!  So...till next time....

Aloha My Friends  :)

 

New Look, What Do You Think?? And Eew!

Hey Ya'll,

I updated my blog look, what do you think?  Were you tired of the giant Plumeria Blossoms?  Well, I love them, but decided it was time for a bit of a change.  Maybe I will bring them back later on.

Walt and I did a lot of running around today, and our first stop was for lunch.  We ate at one of our favorite Taco joints.  And apparently he didn't need any of the Beans to give him gas.  While we were sitting and talking (in cheap semi wood seats attached to a table), I thought that I felt, and heard his phone vibrating.  I told him I thought he was getting a call and he gestured that it wasn't his phone, but himself!  I swear, it kind of sounded like his phone on vibrate, and the seats felt like there was a jack hammer being used somewhere outside in the distance!!

Afterwords, one of our stops was at Aaron Bros to buy me some Oil Paint, since it was on sale.  OMG, he just couldn't stop himself!  The smell was horrible!  I just prayed that no one would come into the store that wanted to buy Oil Paint, until we were done and out of there!!!  LOL  Sometimes he just loves to embarrass me to death!  And he is so GOOD at it too!!

Well, tomorrow night (I had assumed it would be in the morning) my brother is having his Surgery.  So I would like to thank all of you that will be thinking good thoughts for him.  We can all use as much good thoughts as we can get!

Well, last night I had a doozy of a PB/Stuck incident!!  I made the mistake of eating some Ham before I started to eat my nightly Oatmeal (at midnight)....I shouldn't have.  I thought that I had eaten it slow enough...but obviously NOT!!  I was in the bathroom for Over 2 Hours!  Finally I went and ate one more bite, of my then cold Oatmeal, and that did the trick.  Before, all I was doing was non stop Slimeing!  So the last bite of Oatmeal, appeared to be the straw that broke the camels back.

WARNING! WARNING!

That's when the real fun began.  But I was tired of Slimeing, and nothing else coming out, causing me to just Slime like crazy, not to mention the constant blowing of the Nose.  So the last bite of Oatmeal that I purposefully ate, caused me to finally regurgitate what was left of the Ham that didn't go down.  Which appeared to be most of it.  Let me tell you, it was instant relief though!!  These Slimeing incidents are not fun for those of you out there in the Pre-Band days!!  Most of us do go through them.  Some of us are lucky and rarely have them, others of us experience them quite often.  Luckily for me, not so often....Knock On Wood!!

Here is a story of one of my biggest nightmares coming true!!!  When I went to bed this morning at 4 am, I noticed that the Breathing Hose to my Bi Pap Machine was laying against the Window behind my Night Stand.  I instantly had a thought, "what if a Bug or Spider" slipped into the Breathing Hose.  I normally am very careful about where I place it just for this concern.  But I decided not to panic, and hooked myself up.

Well like I said, I hooked myself up to my handy dandy, Bi Pap Machine for the night at 4 am.  At 4:30 am, I realized that on this particular inhalation (I wasn't 100% asleep yet), something had dropped down out of the breathing hose just enough to tickle my Nose, for a split second.  Then when I exhaled, it went back up into the Hose (off my Nose).  Then on my next inhalation, it happened again!

I realized at that instant, that it wasn't the fabric tickling my Nose (as the only thing directly above my Nose is the opening to the Breathing Tube!!) but a SPIDER that was dropping out of the Breathing Hose!!  I almost inhaled it into my Nose!!!!  Instantly, before I could inhale again, I plugged off the material just below my Nose with my fingers, so that no more air would come through (nor the Spider), and quickly took off my Face Mask and turned off the Machine!!  I slept the rest of the night without it!!!!!

Here is a photo of what my Face Mask looks like (it's obviously not me!!  LOL).  I can't use the traditional C-Pap or Bi Pap Face Masks, as I am allergic to the materials and totally break out!  So I have to use this all Cloth Mask!!

HAVE I EVER SAID HOW MUCH I HATE AND FEAR SPIDERS?????

Years ago, while I was taking some major Prescription Allergy Meds, I was asleep and my then teenage Daughter Christa, was in the Living Room watching TV.  All of a sudden I woke up, and noticed on the ceiling a HUGE SPIDER!!  I'm talking Tarantula kind of Spider!!  I kept my eyes on it and it followed me wherever I moved on the bed!!  I just knew that it was going to drop down on me at any second!!  My Heart was pounding so bad that I feared having a Heart Attack!

So I jumped out of bed, and ran to our bedroom door screaming for Christa to get it off me, get it off me!!  She asked what, and I told her the huge Spider.  She looked, and of course there wasn't anything there!  Apparently, I was hallucinating!!  So I told Christa, "when I am old and gray, and claim to see giant Spiders, she will know that I mean Tarantulas"!!  LOL

Another Spider horror story from when I was about 9 yrs old.  My Mom and her friend and all of the kids between them (me included), walked to the local small market to buy some soft drinks and a candy bar for each of us.  I chose a Payday.  You know the one?  It is all caramel inside surrounded by peanuts.  Well, I had this ritual way to eat them.  Since I could care less about the peanuts, but LOVED the caramel, I always ate the peanuts first so that I could savor the caramel last.

I was about half way finished with the caramel when I noticed something dark where my next bite would have occurred.  So I broke it open, and sure enough, you guessed it....a complete Spider in my caramel!!!!  I have only eaten about 1 Payday since and that was about 15 yrs ago.  I just can't forget what I almost ate!!!  And the one I did eat a few yrs ago, I can assure you that I checked it out thoroughly!!!

Well, I better go for now, I have a Monkey to make!!  Till next time....

Aloha My Friends  :)

A Big Welcome To Meg !!!

Hey Ya'll,

I just noticed that I had a new Follower.  Her name is Meg and her blog is, Life Is Random...So Am I.  She just started the 1st step in her WLS journey, by attending her WLS Seminar tonight!  So jump on over and give her all the support, we all know she can use in her 3-12 month Insurance approval!!  So..."welcome to my nightmare".

Aloha My New Friend  :)

Hida Scan News & Whew!!

The Itty Bitty Monkey For Walker????

Hey Ya'll,

Well, I woke up today and I had already received a call from my local PCP's Office requesting that I call back.  Somehow, I knew what the outcome would be.  It was NORMAL!!!  My Gallbladder is functioning at 78%, so they consider it perfectly normal.  So that is good news, yet....what caused all the pain I had????  Anyway, at least we know it isn't the Gallbladder or Liver, since the Hida Scan tests for both. 

So today, my task was to pack the two Bookcases in my Office.  Once Walt got home from work, we loaded up my two Bookcases, as well as the two Bookcases from his Office.  Then we took them over to our Daughter Christa's house, for them to use in their classroom.  Christa Home Schools our Grandchildren, so they are always needing more Book space!!  Walt figures that we just gave them about 2000 inches of Book space!  Christa just got back from a Home School Conference with a lot of new books, so she is thrilled with the new Bookcases.

Unfortunately, it was fairly warm today, and since we are trying not to use the Air Conditioner, I was working and sweating my *** off today!!  So by the time we got to their house, I smelt REALLY BAD!!!  Luckily, they had some Air on in their house, so I was able to cool down for awhile.  While we were there, Christa, the kids and I played around and decided to measure our heights.  I am 5' 3.5", Christa is 5' 2.25", Walker (who will be 10 in late September) is 4' 10", and Emily (who will be 7 on the 26th of Aug) is 3' 10".  So Walker, at less than 10 yrs old, is only 4" shorter than Christa!!

By the time we got home, I was cooled down, thanks to Christa's house.  So I no longer felt the need to go swimming.  However, if we had decided to go swimming as soon as we got home, while it was still fairly warm out, I would have gone swimming with Walt.  Unfortunately, he waited until long after he ate dinner to go in, and I no longer felt hot enough to go in, as it was now dark.  And unless it is still at least 95 degrees out, I don't go swimming at night!!!

Here is a funny story from last night.  About 2 nights ago, I was sitting in our 3 person swing, talking with Walt, while he was in the pool.  It was after dark of course, but I could still see a BIG SPIDER climbing up, directly in front of me onto the canopy overhead.  I was able to see it by the light of the pool!  I quickly moved to the side, and jumped up, out of the way!!

So yesterday, after I raised up the shades on the patio just before dark.  I went over to the swing & completely checked it out for Spiders.  I didn't find one!  So last night, while Walt was in the pool, I decided to go sit on the swing again.  Having checked it out earlier, I felt better, but not 100% sure, so I took out my handy dandy flashlight. 

You know the kind, the ones that you wind up, so that it doesn't need batteries?  Well, when Walt heard me walking out towards the swing, winding it up.  He burst out laughing at me!!!  Then continued to laugh, the whole time I was rechecking the swing and canopy for Spiders!!!  Men, they just don't get it.  I have this thing about Spiders and Bugs...ugh!!!   So there was no way that I was going to sit on the swing, until I was certain that it was Spider free!!  Anyone else have Husbands/Boyfriends like this????  Making fun of me because of one of my phobias!!!  Men!!

And I have some bad news about my Brother.  He is having Surgery again on Friday morning, to remove part of his Big Toe.  He had injured his Foot a few years ago, and the Doctor he went to, totally screwed him up by refusing to refer him to a Specialist soon enough (try 6 wks!). 

So now he is Handicapped because of it.  He can no longer run or even walk normally.  He loved to play Baseball, and now can't because of his Foot.  He can't twist it or turn it from side to side at all, so walking straight is all he can do.  He makes his living by driving a Big Rig, and only recently began driving again as it was either drive or lose everything!!!  He is hoping that his Foot can hold out long enough to be able to afford to purchase a used Automatic Big Rig, as driving his with the Clutch is killing him.

The Surgeon has basically told him that he feels it is time to take the Foot and give him a Prosthetic Foot, but my Brother isn't ready to accept this yet.  So the Surgeon has told him that if they don't take at least part of his Toe, the Foot will become Infected, which will expedite the necessity of taking the whole Foot.  So they will be taking part of the Toe, hoping to hold off the inevitable, longer.  So please send your thoughts his way on Friday morning!!!  Thanks all in advance, I know that I can count on your good thoughts.

Well, I gotta go, I need to start working on my Grandson's Crocheted Monkey that I want to give him.  Assuming I can figure out how to make it about a foot long when the pattern only calls for it to be about 2.5 inches long!!!  The pattern claims to be an Intermediate level pattern, and dummy me, I want to go and make it SO MUCH LARGER!!  Why do I always do this to myself???  Wish me luck, I will need it!!!  The photo of it, is of course, above.  Till next time.......

Aloha My Friends  :)   

What A Day!! :(

Hey Ya'll,

Well yesterday, after only getting about 3 hours sleep, I went in for my Hida Scan for the Gallbladder.  It was an easy test, but I had to lay perfectly still for about an hour and a half!  I will find out the outcome sometime this next week.  But today, I think I had a delayed reaction to the Nuclear Medicine they pumped into me.

I woke up with a Headache which just kept getting worse.  By 2 pm, it was just a step away from being a full blown Migraine.  So I went and laid down in bed as sitting up at my desk was not helping.  I took Allergy meds as well as 650 mg Tylenol (Tylenol Arthritis).  After a few hours of no relief, I had to take some more of the Tylenol.  Finally, after about 5 hours, I got up and made myself eat and start trying to function and do something.  After the 3rd round of meds and eating dinner, I began to feel relief!!  I am still not totally headache free, but at least it isn't debilitating anymore!

Now, as to the Fill I got last Monday.  I feel as though I have less restriction than I have had for the last several Fills!!  Has anyone else had this happen?  Normally I have to be careful for at least a week to 2 weeks after a Fill, but so far I haven't had any real feelings of major restriction.  I am still careful, but I don't feel like I am very tight.  Usually no matter how careful I am right after a Fill, I have a couple of minor "Stuck" episodes to deal with.  I wonder if I have lost some of the saline from prior Fills, giving me less total volume than we think I might have???  I would be curious if anyone else has had this happen to them?  And if so, did you feel more restriction like normal after your next Fill?

Earlier today, our Niece and Nephew came over and took some more of our Furniture, that we were giving our Niece, for her new apartment.  She took some of what we call, "my Furniture".  As it was my choice.  The Black Leather set was picked by both of us, but really is my husbands.  The huge Red Sectional Furniture was picked out by both of us, but my husband took it over, totally breaking down one corner of it, by how he sat/laid on it, and the Cream Sofa Set (my Furniture) was picked out for me, by me. 

We are keeping a Love Seat and Chair from both the Black Leather Set and my Cream Set.  The rest we gave away!  Now the house is REALLY getting bare.  We will now be using the Formal Living Room and Formal Dining Room, as a staging area to store boxes of stuff that we have already sifted through and boxed up to move.  We have a 3 car garage full of "STUFF" to go through!!  HELP!!!

Well, I am going to end this tonight, as I am very tired and still fighting a headache.  I just wanted to keep up with my life and Fill information.  And Walt told me to BLOG!!!  LOL  Till next time.....

Aloha My Friends  :)

A Big Welcome To ~D~ !!!

Hey Ya'll,

So my second new Follower is, ~D~!!  Her blog link is: A Fat Chick Gets Skinny.  She was just banded on April 2nd, so she is coming up on her 4 month bandiversary, and so far she has lost 22 lbs!!  So, if you haven't already checked out her blog, jump on over and check it out!!  So ~D~..."welcome to my nightmare"!

Aloha My New Friend  :)

A Big Shout Out To Brie !! :) Blog Information!!!

Hey Ya'll,

***Hey Ya'll, I just got notification from Brie giving me her blog link.  Here is the link: Weight Loss Bandit.  She is about 3 months into a 6 month program and could really use our help and support, so please hop on over and let her know you are here for her!!***

I just checked in and realized that I have two new Follower's.  Since I like to welcome all my new Follower's, I try to welcome them individually (at least after the first few!).  My first new Follower is Brie!  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find your blog.  If you would like to provide your blog information, I would love to Follow you too!!  So..."welcome to my nightmare".

Aloha My New Friend  :)

A Hida Scan and Wow!! What A Weekend!!

Warning!  Warning!  Extra Long Post Ahead!!

Hey Ya'll,

Well, I began a post earlier today, and was about 1/2 way through writing it....then I lost the whole damn thing!!  So now I am having to rewrite it!  Argh!!!

Well, I went to my 7th Fill yesterday (Monday) in Reno, and I did get another .05 cc's.  Which puts me somewhere between 7.0-7.2 cc's.  I did lose another 2 lbs since my last Fill, but that was almost 9 weeks ago!  So 2 lbs isn't VERY MUCH!  But at least it was a loss, not a gain thank god!

I gave them the written report from my recent CT Scan for the Gallbladder.  They said that just because the Scan didn't show any Gallstones, didn't mean that the Gallbladder isn't Diseased and that a Hida Scan would show if there were any problems with the Gallbladder.  So I am scheduled for the Hida Scan this Friday morning.  It is supposed to take 2 hours!!

They said that the HIDA scan is also used to measure the rate at which Bile is released from the Gallbladder (Gallbladder Ejection Fraction).  And that if the GEF shows a rate of about 35% or less, then the old Gallbladder is heading South Fast!!  I will keep you posted on how old, my old Gallbladder is, compared to this old Broad!  LOL

Well, I finally had a new NSV to report that I am proud of!!  Last week when our friends from Portland were coming over, I wanted to vacuum the house.  And I have got to tell you that this was the first time in many YEARS, that I have been able to vacuum without needing to stop every few minutes and sit down because of the pain.  I was able to vacuum the entire house without having to sit once!  And without a lot of pain.  :)  And I have a pinched nerve in my lower Spine which always causes me problems!!  Yea!!

Also last week, while Walt was in the pool, I was sitting on the steps talking with him, and I couldn't believe my eyes.  I have never seen anything like this before, and almost had a Heart Attack.  At first I thought I was seeing a big squirrel run across the top of our fence from one side of the yard to the other and dropping down into the property next door!  But we don't live in an area where squirrels are.  And squirrels tails are thick and bushy, not long, thin and practically hairless!!  It was a RAT!!  I don't even know where it could have come from, the closest field is about a mile away, at least!!

So, transitioning from my terror of seeing my first HUGE, WILD RAT last week!  Last week our Daughter Kat, called me up and asked me if I would like to spend the day with her the next day.  Of course I said yes!  So she came and picked me up, took me to lunch (Walt ended up joining us as well, she paid), then the two of us went to the movies to see Eclipse.  I loved it, she had loaned me her copy of New Moon, so that I could watch it the night before, so that I could see the movies in sequence.  We had originally planned to have Pedicures as well, but ran out of time, as we were supposed to meet Walt, Russ (our Son) and Kat's husband Elliott for Russ's Birthday dinner.  We had a great day together and it ended too soon!

BTW, I passed my Motorcycle Written Test!!  And it only took me 2 times to pass it!  The reason I didn't pass it the first time (I missed one too many), they were asking questions that were not in the Ca Motorcycle Handbook (which I studied).  The missed questions were in the Motorcycle Safety Course Handbook.  Which I forgot to re-read before going in to the DMV.  But since the Safety Course is not a required course, I don't feel that they should be asking questions that the average person who has not taken the course can't answer!!  They should only ask questions that can be found and studied in the official Ca Motorcycle Handbook!  Luckily, they allowed me to take it a second time immediately after, so I passed it the second time.

Unfortunately, they messed up my paperwork!  I didn't notice it until later that night after they had closed.  The paperwork stated that I needed to wear Corrective Lenses!!  I have never had to wear Corrective Lenses while driving, and I passed the eye test while there!!  So I went back in the next morning, and they said that it was too late!  They were already processing the License.  So I had to wait until I received the new License and take it back in.  So last Monday, I took the new License back in with me, and they gave me the eye test again, agreed that I didn't need the Restriction placed, and re-issued the License.  So I had to make 3 trips to do ONE THING!!!  I know, I know, pick on the almost 55 yr old woman.  She is getting old, she must need to wear glasses!!!  Well I do....to read!  But I am still ok to drive.

Switching gears again completely.  We found out a couple of weeks ago, that I have more American Indian Blood in me than I originally thought.  I thought that I was Maybeeee 1/16th-1/32nd.  I found out that I am actually 1/8th Choctaw Indian.  My Great Grandfather (on my Mom's side of the family), who was a Sheriff in Oklahoma in the late 1800's-early 1900's (and had the classic shoot out in the main street with an outlaw (both shot each other and died (and subsequently were buried close to each other in the local graveyard!))) married a Full Blooded Choctaw American Indian.

So Walt wants me to Research into my Family Tree, and see how far I can go with it.  My Dad has been checking online, and believes that he found ties in my family tree from my Mom's side, all the way back into the 1500's at least.  So that is my newest chore for me.  Research my Family Tree!!  Which I am definitely interested in doing, but don't you think that I have enough on my plate already??  Oh well, at least I can never say that I don't have anything to do!!

And last but not least, we walked into my SIL's, (Mother In Law quarters) where we were staying for the weekend up in Carson City, and was hit by a huge wave of HEAT!!  She "Forgot" that we were coming for the weekend, and didn't turn on the Air Conditioner.  It was 99 degrees in the place!  I am fairly sure that she turned on the Heat just to make sure it was unpleasant.  She always tells us that we are welcome, but lets us know in many little ways how it is an imposition, us being there. 

So we turned on the Air, and had to run it all night just to be able to sleep!  The next morning, we left for 3/4's of the day, and when we returned, she had turned off the Air, and opened up the place!  So we had to wait for her to go back into the main house, after visiting with us for awhile, then turn the Air back on (again for the night)!!  Would you treat your guests like this?  I know I wouldn't, but then like I said, I believe she does these kinds of things to let us know that she really doesn't want us there.

So, now that I have written another book, I better go.  Till next time.....

Aloha My Friends  :)

An Update On My Newest Follower, Jocelyn!!

Hey Ya'll,

***I just noticed that Jocelyn (jcraft42003), provided her blog information!!  Like I just said, her name is Jocelyn and the link to her blog is: Jocelyn's Lap Band Journey.  She is in the Pre-Surgery phase of her journey and needs all the support she can get!!  So please check out her blog and give her the help and support she needs at this scary time!!

Jocelyn, I will be trying to figure out how to make it, so that your icon gives the direct link to your blog.  If anyone else can remember how to do this, then please, go to her blog and help her!!  It has been so long, I forgot how to do it!  But I will attempt to remember!  You know how it is, a (very) soon to be 55 yr old!!  The memory is always one of the first things to go!!  LOL
***

Aloha My Friends  :)

A Big Shout Out To Jocelyn !! :)

Hey Ya'll,

***I just noticed that Jocelyn provided her blog information!!  Like I just said, her name is Jocelyn and the link to her blog is: Jocelyn's Lap Band Journey.  She is in the Pre-Surgery phase of her journey and needs all the support she can get!!  So please check out her blog and give her the help and support she needs at this scary time!! 

Jocelyn, I will be trying to figure out how to make it, so that your icon gives the direct link to your blog.  If anyone else can remember how to do this, then please, go to her blog and help her!!  It has been so long, I forgot how to do it!  But I will attempt to remember!  You know how it is, a (very) soon to be 55 yr old!!  The memory is always one of the first things to go!!  LOL
***

Well, I just returned from Reno/Carson City late this afternoon, and finally checked in to the blog and realized that while I was away, a new Follower had joined in!!  She goes by, jcraft42003.  But that is all that I can figure out!  I have tried very hard to locate your blog jcraft, and have been unable to.  So if you are jcraft42003 and read this, and would like to provide your blog information, I would love to Follow yours as well!!  If not, I totally understand too!  So...."welcome to my nightmare"!!

Aloha My New Friend!!!  :)

Book Anyone??? And Some Blogs I Can't Read!!

Hey Ya'll,

First up, I was sent a great book to read, with the condition that after I read it, I send it off to someone else to enjoy!!  I am almost finished with it, so I am seeking someone who would be interested in receiving it to read as well!

The book is called, Half-Assed a weight loss memoir and written by and about Jennette Fulda.  It is the story of her coming to terms with her weight and her extreme desire to lose it!  Just to advise upfront, this is not a memoir of someone who had Weight Loss Surgery.  Ms Fulda made the decision to lose weight and did it totally by changing her eating habits and forcing herself to start exercising!! 

She went from weighting almost 400 lbs and lost over 1/2 her total body weight!  It is a fascinating read.  I will be happy to send the book to the first person who expresses an interest in it.  Either contact me by my e-mail address, or as a comment in my blog!!

Now on to the second part of the Post title.  I am still having trouble reading some blogs!  In these blogs, I can read the Post Titles, but none of the Post Content or Comments made on them!!  The first blog that I had problems with was, "A Southern Girls Journey".  Jennifer, I still can't read your blog!  Since then, I have noticed that I can't read Drazil's blog, or the blog called, "That's How I Roll". 

I quickly (or should I say, after a long, long time tonight) I looked into all of the blogs that I follow, to determine how many blogs that I could longer read.  Luckily, I found that only these 3 blogs are unreadable to me.  Is anyone else having this problem???  Or am I just the weird one?  And if so, then why can I read everyone else's??

I haven't been posting much lately or reading hardly any blogs at all since we are in full tilt to get ourselves out of the house and hopefully into an RV in the next few months!!  But the most pressing on me for the past few days is trying to finish scanning the hundreds of photos that we borrowed from Walt's Mom for Walt's Dad's Memorial back in January.  She now wants the photos back!!  Can you believe this!  LOL 

And since we are heading back up to Reno, among other places in Nevada this weekend, then we will be taking them back to her.  Hence, my rush to scan them!!!  I have one more days worth of scanning, then I am done!!  At least with the photos that she wants back immediately.

We are also taking up the Red Furniture to our Son, Russ.  Then on to stay with Walt's Sister Carol, for a couple of nights before heading back to Reno for my next Fill Appointment on Monday!!!  Boy do I ever need it!!! LOL  We had to reschedule it from an earlier date, because of Walt's double Ear Infections a few weeks ago. 

We had originally intended to ride up to Reno and beyond on the Bike, to give me some time on the Bike to see if I could make the longer distance "ride" to Portland, OR this September pain free.  But because we had to reschedule my Fill, we decided it would be best to take up the Red Furniture over the Sierra's, while we still had good weather, and before the Winter Storms hits.  Well, it is getting late, and I need to start thinking about going to bed soon!  Till next time.

Aloha My Friends  :)
 

A Big Shout Out To Alyce !! :)

Hey Ya'll,

Sorry that I have been AWOL again these past few days!!  I will post again real soon, I promise!  But first I want to say that I checked in, and found that I have a new Follower!!  Her name is Alyce, she is 21 yrs old and will be Banded on Aug 13th, just 4 days before I turn the BIG 55!!  LOL  Her Mom isn't too happy about her impending Surgery though, and hasn't been giving her the support she needs.  So please jump on over to her blog, and give her the Support she needs and deserves!!!  The link to her blog is, My Rescue IS Possible.  And for all you Australians, she is from your neck of the woods!!  So....."welcome to my nightmare".

Aloha My New Friend  :)

Imagine My Shock, Horror & Humiliation!!!

Hey Ya'll,

Well.......Walt caught me in a lie!  I rarely lie to him, and he knows it.  I hate to lie, and I am not very good at it.  Which is why I don't like to lie!!  People can read me like a book!  So if he asks me directly about something, I tell him the truth.  Which is what I did tonight.

How many of you, without really realizing what you did, slipped back into your old habits?  Or perhaps I should say, how often do you still slip into your the old habits?  I bought a box of Carnation Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches, believing that I would just hide them from Walt, and eat one a day.  Well, he found my stash!

I had hidden them in the Freezer in the garage, inside a box of old Frozen Dinners (thinking he wouldn't look in there for awhile).  Wouldn't you know it, he comes walking in from the garage holding one of the Frozen Dinners, and said something like, "look where I was, what do you have to say"?  It took me a second or two to realize that he had found the stash!!  Imagine my shock and horror that he found me out.  It is bad enough that I felt like a slime everytime I ate one, knowing that I was letting myself down.  But for him to find out was 10 times worse!!  I hate it when I let someone down.  And I let Walt down.  And most of all, I let myself down!  Walt, I am sorry Sweetheart.

Here's a little background on my psych.  Growing up, my parents never had to spank me.  In fact, I rarely did anything bad enough, to even warrant anything more than a mere scolding.  I was after all, the perfect child, the good kid that never got into trouble.  My Dad never had to spank me, if he got angry with me for anything, all he had to say was that he was disappointed in me (even now), and I would start to ball my eyes out!!  Imagine me, disappointing my Daddy, the man I looked up to with such adulation!!  And tonight I felt like that with Walt.  I wanted to crawl into a hole, cover myself up and die.

Unlike most of ya'll, I don't have as much trouble with how hungry I am (at least most of the time).  I can go most of the day without eating.  but my downfall is controlling myself from my bad habits.  I am not hungry most of the time, I just WANT IT.  I CRAVE IT, I GOTTA HAVE IT (maybe some of you can relate to this still).  I wish they would develop a pill that could block my Brain from WANTING what I don't need.  Then life would be perfect!  Maybe I should have went ahead and had the Gastric Bypass.  They say that with the Bypass, when you eat sweets, you become so ill, that you don't want to eat them again!!  There, problem solved! 

This is partly why I haven't posted much about my Band lately.  I have been hanging in there with the weight.  Not really losing, but not gaining too much either.  Staying fairly stable.  But that is because of my inability to control myself long enough to break my old habits of, CRAVING SWEETS.  Anyone else out there feel like this, or am I the only one going nuts???  I am my own worst enemy!!!  Well, what can I say, I was found out, I hate myself right now, but I have to get up, dust myself off, and get on with my life.... 

Changing the subject before I really break down.  Today was pretty hot here in the valley.  It appears to have gotten up somewhere between 100-102 degrees.  And we are expecting it to be somewhere between 102-106 degrees for the next 2-3 days!!  Depending on which weather report you pay attention to!  I am of course, praying for the lesser temps.  LOL  And us without Air Conditioning (by choice of course)!!  I can usually take the weather up to about 92 degrees without it being too unbearable, but definitely anything over 96 is BAD!!!  Well, tonight I jumped into the pool at 7:15 pm, and didn't get out until about 9 pm!  And it felt great! 

Today, Walt went on day one of his three day 600 miles per day Bike rides!  He said that it was harder than he expected it to be.  They (our friends Don, Debbie and Walt) took the ride in 4 sections.  But he said that his Legs, Hips and Back bothered him most of the day.  He will be sure to take some Tylenol Arthritis pills with him tomorrow and Saturday!  So he survived the first day of 600 miles.  Two more to go.  He should be totally exhausted by Saturday night!

Ah.....Saturday night!  Our friends from Portland, Oregon, are here in the Sacramento area, visiting Mark's Mother.  They are heading back up to Portland early Sunday morning, so they are coming over to our house Saturday night for dinner!  I assumed that Walt was going to cancel his ride for Saturday, or at least take a shorter ride.  But he said that he still planned on the full 600 mile ride.  He will just have to start even earlier!!  He started out at 6 am today (Thursday)!  And didn't get home until about 8:15 pm as they stopped for Lunch, and he took a short break before he rode the last stretch home, from their place ( which is about a 2 hr ride from here)!!!

This should prove interesting!!  I am not sure, but I believe that he is planning on barbecuing Saturday night for our friends!  I would prefer to go out and not deal with the mess in the house, as we do not have much left in the way of furniture.  And the thought of dealing with cleaning up the mess in the heat, on top of all of it, is just almost unbearable.  So I am hoping that we go out at least for dinner.  We can come back and swim or talk, whatever, just don't make a MESS that I have to CLEAN UP in the heat!!!

****Side-Note****I spoke with Walt earlier, after I wrote the last couple of paragraphs, and he said that he had originally planned on barbecuing.  But he agreed that it would be better to go out.  Maybe my Brain was sending out my thoughts better than I thought!  There is a god!!

Well, I am so excited.  I finally got my Kindle DX last week and have downloaded about 18 Free Books so far.  But today, I received my Gift Certificates in the mail for Amazon!!  I have been filling out online surveys for several years now, and cashed in enough to give me $70 to spend!!  Now I can start to actually "Buy" some books.  LOL   Now that I have this "money", it is burning a hole in my pocket so to speak, but I want to be sure of what I buy with it.  I want to be sure that it is something that I really want.

Let me tell you something else about me.  I always want something.  I will save for it, and plan to buy whatever it is.  I will have saved the money, and maybe even have a coupon, or the item may be on sale, making it an even better deal.  But then I get to the store, hold the item in my hand, and 9 times out of 10, I will TALK MYSELF OUT OF IT!!!  Just ask my kids.  The kid that acts as the Devils Advocate for me is Kat.

If she is with me, she will see me fighting with myself over whether or not I should actually buy the item "that I specifically went in there to buy"!  And she will either talk me into it, or buy it for me herself!!  Walt sometimes hates it when we shop together!!  LOL  As he knows that I will almost always talk myself out of something if I am alone, but with Kat, I sometimes buy too much!  So now I have this "funny money", and I'm trying to figure out what books I want to purchase with it!!  Such is my life.

Well, I better go for now.  I have lots to do, to get the house ready for our Friends to come over, as they have never seen our house.  It is now 1:30 am and it is still 86 degrees in my Office, for Chris-sakes!!  I didn't get to bed until 5 am yesterday (Thursday), and was up (to stay) by 11 am.  The heat makes it hard to sleep.  We hate these nights, where the temps don't drop low enough to make it comfortable.  This is when we miss the Air Conditioner the most I think!!  So, till next time.....

Aloha My Friends  :)

This Will Be A Long One!!! PART 2

What A View!!

Hey Ya'll,

Part 2, here we come!!  For those of you still with me that is!!  LOL  I know how hard it can be sometimes to read such long posts.  But I am way behind in posting.  Part of the reason will be discussed in this post!

****Now for an update on Walt's Ear Infection.  I know that I told you I took him into the ER the weekend of the 4th for an Outer Ear Infection, then discovered on Tuesday the 6th that he had a Double Ear Infection, as he had an Inner Ear Infection in the opposite Ear!!  Well, the Antibiotics helped.  At least with the pain, but his Ear's are still plugged up.  So he has been taking Tavist D, trying to clear his Ears.  Unfortunately, he still goes, "what did you say"?  Like an old man!  LOL  I shouldn't laugh, I know.  I do know what he is going through though, and it is hard when you can't clear the pressure in the Ears.  But when it happens to me, it usually effects my Equilibrium!!

But big news, he will be riding several long days, to get used to riding long distances.  This is a requirement of our friend Don (he was one of my MC Safety Course Instructors).  Don will probably be riding with Walt back to Texas, to go pick up our Trike Wheels that we bought!!  Yes!  We bought them!!  But since it will be either 2, REALLY LONG DAYS, or 3 Fairly Long Days to get to Texas (and this isn't counting the ride back, of course), Don wants to make sure that Walt is physically up to it.  So he told Walt to take 3-600 mile rides, and do them on 3 consecutive days!!!  So he will be riding his ASS OFF this weekend!!  So he is really hoping to have the Ears under better control by then.

****Well, what can I say, I already broke the news about the Trike Wheels.  Walt e-mailed Don, after I texted Walt and informed him that I passed regarding my passing, and Don said "OMG, I'm getting off the road"!  And Walt said, "I'm blaming it on you"!!  LOL  Men, you gotta love them.....right?  And like I said, the Trike Wheels are in a small town in Texas.  The guy just bought his Bike, and the Trike Wheels were already on it.  He didn't want them, so he sold them to us!  Now I just need to learn how to ride our Humongous Bike!  Relearning how to control the power it has, etc.  I can't wait to see the faces I get riding it!

****Now, the reason that I haven't posted since the 7th, except to welcome my newest Follower, Christine yesterday.  Do you remember my post on June 2nd?  Where we had gone through a 14-15 hour Power Outage???  Luckily, we weren't having any real problems with heat yet.  We had been having a really mild Late Spring/Early Summer, so at least we weren't dying!!

Well, Thursday the 8th of July.....it happened AGAIN!!  Why???  Why only our area?  Just a few blocks away, they "Have Power"!!  Is there something out there that says, "Walt and Debbie are doing their best to save money this Summer, and aren't running their Air Conditioner, so let's make sure they don't have ANY ELECTRICITY AT ALL"??!! 

Again, thank goodness that it wasn't extremely hot, but it was hot enough to make it very uncomfortable.  Especially since we do run the Whole House Fan at night to cool down the house, and make it more comfortable to sleep.  And by doing this, the house at least starts out cooler the next day.  But with no House Fan at night, no cooler house the next day.  So by the next day, the house is really getting uncomfortable.  This time we were out of Power, for about 14 hours, again!!

Now, I was about 1/2 way into writing my post, when.....you guessed it.  The lights went out.  It was 11 pm and I thought, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, Not Again!!  This is going to be a REALLY LONG NIGHT!!  I immediately called in to our local Electric Co, and discovered I was the first one to report the outage.  I just knew that it was going to be an all nighter at least.  So I lit some candles and turned on our battery operated lantern, to draft some plans by, since I couldn't do anything on the Computer!  It just seems like someone is targeting our area specifically. 

Like I said earlier, luckily the temps only reached about 92 degrees that day, so all in all, it was livable.  Now, if it had happened just a couple of days later, we were in the 100's!!  Thank god for little miracles!!  And we are barely into Summer!  We have never had outages like this, in the 10 years we have been in this house.  And the ones that we did have only lasted 4-5 hours, not 14-15 hours!  And now, already 2 of them and both lasting over 14 hours each???  WTH is up with this?

****Since I mentioned the Drafting project, I guess that I should tell you what Walt's newest hair brained idea is......We both like different sections of 2-3 different 5th Wheels, so he is hoping that by the Fall, they will be so desperate to sell, that they will be willing to make some "Changes" for us.  I have told him that the kind of changes he is hoping for, will never happen.  However, he said that if we don't ask, they will not have the opportunity to say no!  Or yes for that matter.  But we do have a backup plan just in case they say no.

So I am drawing up some plans showing our "Dream RV" on Grid Paper.  When I am finished, I may post them on the blog so that you can see what I am talking about.  I have drawn up separate plans for each section, and I have drawn up one plan showing our entire "Dream RV" pieced together! 

My plans are as close to scale as I can make them, without actual known numbers.  Meaning we do not have the room sizes.  We have a few of the measurements/dimensions, so I am guesstimating the rest.  Luckily, I don't have to be perfect.  Once I finish them, I may download a free trial of one of the CAD programs out there for Macs, and attempt to put the plans on it.  I took 2 Semesters of CAD in College about 14 yrs ago, but my CAD program was for a PC.  And now we use Macs. :)

****About the only thing left for my to say is......Did I tell you I got my Kindle DX???  I love it and can't wait until I can start buying books for it.  So far I have downloaded about 18 free books, but the ones that I really want to read, I have to pay for.  Luckily, I have some money coming, in the form of Gift Certificates for Amazon.  I am expecting them any day!! (Imagine my tongue hanging out, like a Dog riding in a car, with his head hanging out the window!).  Am I excited?  Of course!

So...now that I have typed my fingers to death.  Till next time....

Aloha My Friends