Babies are the BEST!!!

Well, here it is October. Our 31st grandchild arrived Wednesday, Oct. 7. He is darling and my daughter Angela looks beautiful after giving birth to him. William (after his dad) Charles (after my grandfather) but we will call him Will. I am leaving Monday to go stay with them and hold the sweet new little one who just arrived from heaven. It will be great to be there. My sister, Linda, may come from Louisville, Kentucky to visit us - I hope she does! We are going to Florida and Georgia to visit my husband's roomate who is the one who got us together. We haven't seen them in 40 years at least. We are going to have fun! I have been working hard substituting to keep extra money in the bank for our fun times. I am looking forward to no work for a couple of weeks! I am already scheduled for 3 days the first week we are home. We are so blessed in this life and I am so happy to be feeling good - not like last year! Wayne is feeling good too so we shall enjoy this trip and seeing family and friends.

A short trip

Any vacation , short or long, is always a welcome change. We went up north to see my dad and spent a couple of days with them. Then we drove to Tracy, Ca to visit Ryan and family and to be there for Caden's first birthday. It was fun to be around Kayla and Caden and to visit with Ryan and Kristina. Kayla had me telling lots of stories - of course, they had to be told her way so she could act them out! It was nice and cool at my dads and we missed some HOT temperatures at home. Now we are home and back to normal. I am doing my treadmill walking and my hot tub exercises and Wayne is doing yard work. We are looking forward to Angela, Ben and Ella to arrive the end of the month. Might even make a second trip to the beach - the last one was GREAT!

It really is summer now!

Since I finally got healthy I have been substitute teaching way too much! The $ is good but I do get tired by the end of the day! I am so lucky that when I get home my husband says what time do you want to eat? And it's ready at whatever time I choose! Some days I get home and sit because my right knee hurts so badly I can barely walk due to the pressure on it. So, next week is the last week of school and in the past I have actually been called to sub during the last week. This year yesterday was my last day - period! I need the whole summer to rest and exercise to lose another 20 pounds. I am turning in my two pages of time sheets this Monday - just in case I get a call and feel tempted to do it!

Yesterday I was at Dartmouth Middle School - the school I retired from. As I went out the office door to go to my classroom I heard a little red-head yelling grandma, grandma! She came running over and just hugged me good! I loved it! We talked for a few minutes and as I walked away I heard all her friends saying 'Is that your Grandma?" It was Janalee's daughter, Jessica. Gary's daughter Kelbie is in 8th grade there and I have actually done her class before but i did not see her the past two days while there. That is okay though because she just talked to me on Facebook and when school gets out I am taking her to lunch for some fun time. I feel so blessed in my life to have such wonderful children and grandchildren - they all make the pains and sorrows of life well worth it! Love you family!

I love this weather!

Well, finally it is warm and I love it! I know I don't have any complaints about snow and such but I just love this time of year. We have a hummingbird nest with two eggs in it in our pluot tree. Some red-breasted birds have made a nest in one of the curtains over my hot tub - I just use the other curtains for now! Wayne has put up more than 100 pounds of strawberries and they just keep coming - he has given away many too.

I really am better - I feel great! so good that all I do is work now! This week I had one day off! I only want to earn 1000$ a month which would mean 8 days but my friend, Sharon, at Hemet High School always has another job for me by the time I leave each day. Life is not boring. We have beautiful flowers that I love to look at. Our roses are especially beautiful this year. Our Thompson seedless grapes are loaded - anybody wants some come and see us the end of July! I am so happy to be feeling good and to be able to work again - I get bored just staying home. School will be out soon and that is okay too - I always like vacations! LIFE IS GOOD!!!!

Wayne is so happy our neighbors are finally putting in new grass that he is freely putting in drainage lines and extra dirt for them so it will turn out right! It is his little service project! We are doing great!

Much, Much Better!!!

Well, finally I am feeling like I will live! This has been a long 6 months or so. I ended up in the hospital for 6 days. Seemed like I was having a heart attack but when the cardiologist checked me he asked if I had ever been told I had gallstones. He told me I was going to be alright. After lots of tests and worry I had my gallbladder removed. After coming home I still didn't feel well. My doctor put me on a pill that takes care of depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. then a few nights later I decided to take a sleeping pill that I used to take all the time. I hadn't had one in 7 months. For the first time in 6 months I slept through the night. I have been taking one for 5 nights now and feel fine - the headaches have gone away even. I think I was having migraines due to lack of sleep. I even went to work yesterday at a high school and felt fine all day. this is a far cry from feeling like I was dying! I will take the sleeping pills to the scariest most miserable days of my life! Saw the surgeon today and he said I am good to go. It makes me happy to feel good since I never thought I would again. Beware of the GALLBLADDER!!

Treadmill Terror

Okay, I have a lot of metal in me and my kids call me bionic... that is a joke because my bionicness is due to artificial knees that don't like to be straight or bent and my plate and screws in my wrist from last year. Wish I was the real bionic woman!

I like to walk for exercise and Wayne always worries about me while I am gone - afraid I will fall and not be able to get up. So, in the Sunday paper, 9 days ago, Sears had an ad for treadmills. I thought that I could do a treadmill and pick a low speed and be safe at home. I asked Wayne what he thought and he told me he would be much more comfortable with me on the back patio. I asked my physical therapist about it and wanted to go over and make sure I could safely use a treadmill before investing in one. I did it and liked it, at least, as much as one can like pure exercise! We discussed it and made a deal that I would not use it unless he was home just in case anything bad might happen. We purchased a nice treadmill with all the bells and whistles.

I began using it last week on Thursday. I didn't use it on Sat. or Sunday. Wayne has been using it too. Yesterday, Monday, he used it and came in to shower and then I went out to use it. I was doing a programmed workout and changing the speed lower if I needed to when it would adjust faster. I was going to warm down on my own at 5 minutes left of the 30 minute workout. With 7 minutes to go the walk pace sped up so I hit the arrow to slow it back down. I must have hit something wrong or at the wrong time and the machine sped up to 9 miles an hour! I kept trying to slow it down and it wouldn't! I forgot to pull the key off so it would stop automatically and all of the sudden I was going down. You know I am NOT supposed to fall because of osteoporosis. My shirt was caught in the machine but I was able to pull it out. I needed my husband's help... where was he? What about our deal for safety? I banged on the slider door where I was on the cement by our bedroom. I did it several times and he didn't come. I yelled several times as loud as I could for him, thinking he might be in the yard. All the neighbor dogs were barking because I yelled so loud. I even managed to get the slider opened which is difficult even when standing! He didn't come. I sat a while and finally tried to get up and was successful to my surprise. I was somewhat upset with my sweetheart to say the least!
Found out he had gone on a walk. That won't happen again.

My left knee and right elbow are badly bruised and I have a bruise on my right shin bone. I am okay but don't want that experience again. I am afraid to get on an escalator so this was a big deal to be on a moving machine! I will have to remind Wayne of our deal when I get on it from now on! SCARY!!!

One more appointment done!

I know, this is getting old! I guess I am getting old too! Today we went to Riverside to see Brett Cherry - the new Dr. Cherry - who is an allergist. He agrees with the CT scan of my sinuses that I don't have sinusitis... so what do I have? Still don't know for sure. While sitting on the exam table Wayne says what is that on your face? Those red spots? I said I noticed them Sunday morning while putting my makeup on for church - look kind of like or a lot like the Lupus butterfly! The DR. says have you been diagnosed with Lupus before? Yeah, but a long time ago in the early 90's and I was treated for it. Make a long story short he asked me to follow up with my Dr. on that since it can cause all kinds of BAD things. I just thought about Lupus last week... but I don't want people to think I am crazy! So I sent an e-mail off to my rheumatologist to see if he can get his office to let me see him since you have to wait 6 months before he is available. I had an appointment with him a week or so ago but I had to cancel it since I was not feeling very well.

Dr. Cherry did all the allergy tests on me and I didn't have any grass, mold or weed problems! He said my eyes were red and swollen - that started 2 weeks ago. Okay, Kristina, this part is for you... I am to use this huge bottle of sinus rinse twice a day and not before I go to bed or my pillow will be wet! You can use a Neti Pot (you told me about that) but he doesn't recommend it as the other bottle thing is much easier to use. I just did it and that is a huge amount of salt water up the nostrils! I really do think it is part sinus problem because the right side didn't respond the same as the left - it seemed not to be as clear. He told me it can still be a sinus problem although it is not chronic -good news! He wants me to see a neurologist. I will wait until after the Lupus thing! Wayne has an MRI of his brain next week from his neurosurgeon so I will ask him to recommend a Dr.I am hoping the sinus rinse will do the trick in the meantime! That's it - still don't have any real answers but still hoping the headaches and inability to sleep will go away.