Morning all,

I'm about to go get prepared for hospital this morning. Will let you all know asap how it goes. Or the DS2 will put a note on here if I can't within the next couple of days.

Hugs Prayers and Good thoughts Shaddie!

Hey Good Morning All...

The boys made it home safely. Both were asleep when they arrived and continued to take a nap once in the house. They were tired and woke up hungry. Yesterday was church, lunch with my church family then home to do laundry, off to do a few errands. The boys got home around 3:30. It was a nice day.

This is going to be a rough week at work. I have to get started on the reports that didn't get done while I was out. Two of them are rolling monthly reports so I have to do August and September to get October done. Who really reads them is my question. I know everyone is forgiving since I was not here to do them and are just chomping at the bit to read them once I get them done. hahahahahhahahaha NOT!@#$%

SHADDIE...do please let us know how you are doing after your procedure. Don't make us wait too long.


HAPPY....how was your day at the thrift shop helping out. The real question is how did your knee hold up and are you in pain today? Did you get to get in the hot tub yet? I love the video DH posted on FB of the buck eating from his hand. Nature, ain't it wonderful? I am so impressed with DH on how far he as come with his great photography. Amazing. The road trip to the grave sites was LONG and seems crazy just to get out and spend 10-15 minutes then turn around and come home. It was good conversation with my bro and SIL if nothing else. We got a lot of planning done for Thanksgiving and another road trip to Cincinnati to meet up with my nephews and their fams. Hopefully we can make this happen.

Hello to all, must get busy.

Love and hugs.

Miss Shaddie - all good thoughts, prayers and well wishes for your surgery today. Hope everything is minimal and you have a speedy recovery

Morning girls,

Quick hello today. I have an early morning appointment for physical therapy today at 9am. I don't move well early, especially when it's 36 degrees outside and my car is fogged with frost. We filled the hot tub on Saturday and the water was a bit cloudy. DH is not sure he rinsed the filters he cleaned thoroughly enough and when we turned the jets on we got some gunk along the water line. So we decided to drain and refill the tub, rather than leaving it was it was and finding that it was dirty quicker and we'd need to drain it in the middle of freezing February. So I didn't get in it this weekend at all. The tub came up to temp just as I was going to sleep last night and with an early morning rise, I decided to just opt for 6 hours of sleep. But TONIGHT - go home early workmen! I was really hurting alot on Saturday so I only worked for about 2 and a half hours at the shop. It went well. The computer died - I think old age, others think a kid one of the volunteers brought in broke it. No way to prove it. Will have to beg for a replacement, although I am starting to feel like the others that we have enough income to actually spend money on some things that we need to run our business. We'll see how that goes.

Annie - I'm glad the boys made it home ok and appeared to have a good time with Dad. I hope despite the adult issues, that they can co-parent successfully and have both in their lives. I hope you get the reports done - will take the entire month to catch up. Sometimes they don't miss one month but use the data to put together a year's worth of stuff - especially when doing trending or the new year's planning so I'm sure your efforts will not be wasted. At least I hope not. I agree with you about visiting the grave sites. A long way to go for just a few minutes. I prefer to keep the departed in my heart where I talk to them from time to time. To me, this keeps them closer than visiting a grave. At least you used the car and travel time well to talk about other stuff. Are you out of your boot yet? Your foot is going to feel like it's so light it will float up over your ears


Thanks for the nice words about DH's photography. I am glad I pushed him years ago to pursue it as he does have a talent for it. Sometimes though his need for perfection means he tosses out perfectly good pictures. He is very proud of that video of Chuckie - shows it to everyone - like a grandparent would show off pictures of their grandchildren He is really liking the convenience of the iPhone. Yesterday he went out to feel the deer and said he needs to take his camera each time he goes out. Chuckie brought some new buddies to the yard and 2 bucks came back yesterday amongst the females and youngin's. The 2 bucks started fighting - heads down, antlers clacking. I told him you know what that means - rutting (sex) season is starting. They get bonkers nuts and very dangerous when that happens. They think of nothing but humping and territory fighting and we have a yard full of does to fight over. He said yes he knows to be careful. But does he???? He is starting to get oblivious to things right in front of his nose. Yesterday he was looking on TV for the Vikings football came. As he was going through the channel directory, I noticed they were showing The Legends of Tarzan movie that he very much wanted to see on Pay Per View. I stopped him and told him about it and he kept breezing right past it because he was single focused on football. Then he did get the movie details straightened out and decided to watch it on the big screen TV down in the basement. We had a simple supper - tomato soup and a sandwich. I put all the items on a tray for him to take down and set out the sandwich fixings for him to choose. I also put an apple on his tray and I made fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. (did we have a kid's supper or what? ) As he was fixing his sandwich I asked if he was going to put a slice of apple on the chicken sandwich. He said - do we have apples? I said yes, there is one on the tray right in front of you. He said, oh - I didn't see it. That's because he was focused on the sandwich. Now I know why he doesn't listen to me - he cannot multitask. I think this comes from being retired too long.

No one else has checked in yet so I guess I will go get ready for therapy. I hope the doctor does not call when I am out - I'm thinking I will get a call at day's end as he probably has alot of catching up to do if he was out for an entire week. Anyway, happy Monday all. Feel better Shad, check back with the rest of you lot later.

Shad - I hope all went well today and you are feeling alright.

Happy- I hope you hear back from the doc today. The pain has to be taking a toll on you.

Annie - Good luck with the reports. Good to hear that the boys got back safe and sound.

Hellos to the rest of you. Hope your week is off to a good start.

I have a conference starting at noon today and going through tomorrow. I'm sure at some point there'll be an intentional gap during the schedule when they expect you to visit the exhibit hall and chat it up at vendor booths and that is when I'll try to get back here and post.

TTFN.

Background check in the land of the living again and it is 2:34am. Think everything went well. I have 4 holes in a line across the gut at belly button level. They have removed the right ovary. I thought they were taking the left as well but apparently not. Results will filter in on follow up next week. It seems that there was a right mess on the right ovary. Cysts and fibroids tangled up and though the ovary and right down into the fallopian tube. They took the lot away. And there is a lot of scarring on the uterus. No doubt I will have a full report Monday. Bored yet? Home in the morning. So I will be back then on the computer

Holy Smokes Shad, you sure do it up right!

Evening all.

Shad - Glad all went well or I suspect you'd have more than four holes in you.

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My 3-day weekend was alright.

On Friday, I went through a box of office supplies that had been sitting around since we re-did our home office a few years ago. I now have a couple shopping bags of stuff that I’ll donate. Other items were stored in the office, since we now have space there. Some stuff ended up back in the box, but those are extra supplies that I intend to put in a storage bin in the closet in the office.

On Saturday I went through a second box from the office, but it had paperwork in there that needs a closer look. One bunch was a lot of mortgage papers – I will happily leave those alone for another couple years until after the mortgage is paid off. Another bunch was home improvement papers that need to be organized and filed. Another bunch was job-related – really old resumes and job-hunting stuff. That needs to be gone through and purged. And so on. That box was depressing because it went back to where it was almost as full as it was before I looked through it. I was glad to get out of the house and run errands after that, lol.

On Sunday I did more errands. I also bought a suit. I decided to finally buy something more formal because I had this conference coming up, and it was well past time anyway. Just a basic gray blazer and slacks. Hope it holds up well enough to make it through a dry cleaning, LOL. I’m not impressed with the quality of women’s clothing these days AT ALL. But at least if I get it into my head to actually attend the next annual meeting of my employer, I have something decent to wear (management encourages attendance, but I've skipped for many years now due to the need to wear business formal). Same thing if I decide to start interviewing, or go to more business-related functions. Which, after about a half day of conferencing, I'd like to not go to any more fuctions. In this field, at least.

I bought a pumpkin yesterday and carved it. I'll have to take a photo. I used a pattern to carve it.

On the train right now, a later one, thanks to the conference. Poor bike will spend the night at the station.

That's all for me.

Good Morning/Evening all.

Got to work at 6:55am to get a head start on things. Well that all went to heck in a trash bin. Spent the first 15 minutes in the bathroom, crappy start to this day. Now I am not motivated to get a head start on this day. Bleh. I have a CC at 2:30 that should only last an hour. It is the weekly team meeting of all those in our group across the region. (IN/OH/WI/IL/MI/IA) and of course me and my boss who leads the team meeting.

Last night was uneventful. We all had baked potatos from Wendy's. I figure that is something they cannot mess up to badly and is quite tasty. I am sure more calories and carbs than needed considering the cheese sauce, butter and sour cream, the broccoli was the only thing healthy on the tater and could hardly find any of it on the tater. Oh well. I could only eat about half of it as I was full. Don't know what is going on with me, but I cannot finish anything anymore. I get too full. Done. Maybe cause I am drinking way, way more water than I used to. Trying to get it all in. Whatever the reason, I will take it. Holding my weight at 188, and would love to lose another 15-18 lbs, then I would be perfect...ba hahahahahahahahhahhahah LMAO. The struggles are real.

The boys were a bit whiny last night. Royce did not get a nap which usually makes for a terrible evening. It is hard to get his nap in on days that Sam takes Jacob to pre-k. M-W-Fs. She has to have him there at 11:30 and picks him up at 2:30. You can be sure he is getting his nap today. NANNA's ORDERS!! The boys did eat a good dinner. Chicken nuggets, then dry cereal, then popcorn for their movie. I guess that is good since Jacob does not eat much of anything. I am a little over watching "Rescue Bots in Disguise" or something like that.

Watched the Voice last night. One of my favorite shows, but could not stay awake for the entire thing. I love the banter among them. I didn't think I would like Miley Cirus as a judge but she is doing ok. She tends to go for the younger contestants and those that look a little freaky or off a bit. ha, no surprise there.

Enough babbling.

SHADDIE...glad you are home and recouping. Hope you are feeling better by now, altho the 2nd day is usually the worse.

LAURA...your 3 day weekend didn't really sound like much fun with all the cleaning, purging and tossing. Are you going to any halloween parties this year? Have a great time at the conference, lol. Not fun I am sure and usually boring. I am like you, hate junk like that. I was invited to the regional sales meeting in Chicago last week and told my boss I would rather not, you know, just getting back to work after leave and all. haha.

Hello to all ya'll. Shout out to HAPPY, hope you are feeling better my dear. Pain sucks, this I know.

Texted with CHELLE yesterday, she is doing ok physically but mentally she is suffering and sad. Prayers for her please.

Lots of hugs to all.

Morning all,

Another wretched night. I am not sure how much more of this I can take. Last night I went into the hot tub for about 20 minutes - boy did it steam up in that room and there is a big difference between being in there when it's 60 or 70 degrees outside and the 40 degrees it was yesterday. Believe me I hurried into that tub. Then I had been running the dryer to warm my towels. The dryer vents into the 3 season room right now which used to be the outside of the house. DH needs to run the vent through the floor and outside. So I am sitting in the tub, the room is getting steamy and I am thinking - hmmm - I wonder if the vent is expelling carbon monoxide gas. I wasn't thinking at the time it is an ELECTRIC dryer - I was thinking it was gas. I had no intention of killing myself so I reluctantly climbed back out of the tub, put my head in the door to the laundry room and shut off the dryer. NOW this morning I remember this is an electric dryer so I can safely use it to heat the 3 season room I did about a 20 minute soak and then quickly ran back into the laundry room and wrapped the warm towels around me. I felt relaxed and took my medication (they told me to double up on the oxycotin - sure if it don't work in the first place, take twice as much ! ) Went to bed on the early side saying my prayers for everyone and hoping that I could get a restful night or at least something like the night before where I only woke up twice.

I went to bed around 11:30 - woke up at 12:30 for round 1. Bam. Twisted around and fell back asleep until 1:30, then 2:30 and 3:30 and 4am. The pain intensified as each hour passed. I was hurting tremendously by 4am - rubbed my leg for a while (the back of my knee was knotting up something fierce). At about 4:40 I got up and started freaking out a little. My brain was going nutso - much like a panic attack and I had to work hard to get it under control again. Wasn't sure if that was the oxy doing it's narcotic thing (which is why I DON'T want to be on this med but they keep pushing it). I settled down around 5 in the recliner with a warm blanket and an ice pack on my leg. Woke up at 7 when the alarm clock went off tired, groggy, fed up and my leg is very sore - like if you had clenched all the shin muscles for hours on end which is probably what was going on. I tell you girls I am soooooo over this already. The pain, the not sleeping, I am tired of whining about the pain and feeling that no one is listening to me, the fact that it's time to start getting things done in my life and I have no inclination to do anything because I am so off kilter. I feel like a sound like a broken record. No one that I know who had this surgery has felt like this. I am starting to wonder if they botched something.

Just as I was getting ready to leave for physical therapy yesterday, the physician's assistant from the doctor's office called. I told him what was going on. He said this is not unusual - I am still only relatively early out of surgery and still healing. He said to switch back to the oxycotin pain meds and when I said they didn't work, he said to double them up. He said I could also supplement with up to 1,000 milligrams of Tylenol AND could take some Ibuprofen at night to help with the pain. I said won't I be a drugged out zombie???? I already have a constant low grade stomach ache from the Tramadol pain meds even though I force myself to eat something when I take the medication so I'm not taking it on an empty stomach. He suggested I contact my primary care physician and get an ultrasound at the hospital here to rule out a blood clot. I said my leg does not feel hot or swollen and the pain is intense at night and tolerable during the day. He said you can't always easily tell with a clot. So I went to therapy and then walked across the parking lot to my clinic only to find that the entire clinic was closed for the day for some unknown reason. I have a follow up appointment today with the nurse practitioner for the weight management program that I looked at the day before I had surgery (another farce as far as I'm concerned). Afterwards I will walk across and see if the clinic is open and if I can persuade someone to write me an order for an ultrasound. if not, I will have to travel all the way to Duluth and I will probably just loose it totally. Like I said, I am just so over this entire ordeal already. Both of my legs are starting to hurt - I know I am not walking correctly just by the way I am feeling.

I talked to my cousin yesterday. He was a Chicago policeman and one day as he was doing a traffic stop, a rental truck came out of no where and hit him dead on and tossed him 15 feet into the air. The effect was like cracking a whip on his spine. They never did catch the dirtbag in the truck and the guy he had stopped took off too and left him for dead. He was able to use his radio on his uniform to call for help. It has been a long and very painful road for him. He is truly broken - all his discs are disintegrating in his spine - he only has 2 left - everything else has been fused and cemented in with rods. You want to talk about someone in pain - mine is nothing compared to his and his will never end. He was telling me that he just had some injections into his spine to try and relieve some pain but they won't take effect for at least 4 more days. So all he does is lay in bed with an occasional comment on Facebook. I really feel so badly for him - 57 year old and he has a body that is worse off than my 90 year old mother - with no real hope for recovery. He said he takes things one day at a time. He and his wife did have a little birthday celebration for my Mom which was nice. Oh and besides his pain he is estranged from his brother who lives at home with their Mom and Mom has taken sides and refuses to talk to D so they have not spoken in 2 years. All that AND abandoned by your mum - how is that right? So my Mom is his pseudo Mom. I'm sorry I am babbling today. Lack of sleep I guess.

Annie - when you start to eat less, your stomach fills up more quickly. I'm not sure if it actually "shrinks" as they say but you do eat less. I have the same situation now - we go to dinner and I eat the salad or soup and a roll and I am stuffed - no room for the rest of the meal and while I take it home, I do feel like I am wasting food. But that's the way it is. We were at Wendy's 2 weeks ago - they had some good looking salads too. The baked potato is one of my Momma's favorite meals. Congrats on maintaining your weight loss thusfar. I think no matter what we will always find another 5 or 10 pounds we think we need to lose. I'm sure you are perfect as you are! We watched the Voice last night too. Miley is a goofball for sure but I do like her on that show. I think she is really involved in WANTING to actually help people succeed. And she seems to know an awful lot of music. I think she is a fresh change to the show. Sometimes the slings between Adam and Blake get to be a bit too much. Enough about you boys - let's focus on the contestants! Ha ha - good for you for ditching the conference. I am in your camp about hating those things. I did turn down 2 opportunities with the shelter - one in Las Vegas (I was not looking forward to sharing a room with 3 almost strangers and dealing with elevators again) and another one in southern Wisconsin - again the elevators and a long 5 hour plus car ride there and back. I don't think I will be asked again - which is ok by me. Like you - the commute between home and work is quite enough. As chatty as I am, I just wither when it comes to making conference small talk. I traded a few texts with Michelle last week also. She has a new dog but is still mourning the loss of Santa and the shock of the passing of her brother. Sometimes busy cannot heal a saddened heart.

Shad - well I see they managed to extract something from inside you. The fact that it's not more is perhaps a good indication that not all is lost in there. What a mess for you. As Annie said - take care as the tiredness and pain will be intensified as the anesthesia wears off. Rest up and just read or relax as best you can. No chasing after ODDU either.

Laura - looking forward to seeing the carved pumpkin. It's amazing what they can do with those things now. Glad you found a pants suit that will work for you. As you are still working, I can see where you need at least one. Shame as we have had some really nice ones donated at the thrift store from people like me who have left their former corporate life. Good suits too - but people up here have no use for them until someone visits from the cities and snatches them up. I hate it when you spend a few hours sifting through things and then have to stop and you realize you have not made any real headway

Well I'd better get into the shower if I am going to get out of here on time. I really want to cancel this appointment - just like the useless nurse (patient advocate my butt) that bothers me each Monday with her calls that go no where, I just don't want to be bothered with any one except someone who will really help me here.

Sorry for the Debbie Downer, I will be ok when I get some sleep and I hate passing out during the day. Carry on girls.

Morning, I've had a busy week end. We pick up the boys at day care and I got to know them Friday afternoon. Such sweet boys. We stopped by the house Friday afternoon to check on things. The boys liked the big back yard. Their grandparents took the boys to the park on Saturday and I stayed to wait for the granddaughter. She got their about the time they got back from the park. Their was a lot of playing going on. Saturday night I started to feel bad and Sunday morning around church time I was sick to my stomach. Come to find out that the oldest grandson had just gotten over this. Later that night Tom and Mary Ann came down with it. We are all better, Tom has laryngitis, and I still have a queasy stomach. Mary Ann has gone to work. I have the condo to myself. I was accepted by the supplemental insurance so now I'm waiting for my card. I can use the letter but still would rather have the card. I'm looking into joining a couple of places that the insurance will pay for when I get the card. Oh and a note on good news is that bil gets to order the flooring today. Yipee.

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Shad
Glad that the ordeal is done for now and hopefully you will be on the road to recovery very soon.

Happy
My you have had some pain with this knee surgery. Glad that you have finally gotten to use the hot tub. Probably a smart idea to have drain the tub to get the gunk out of it. I'm impressed with the pictures that your dh takes of the wild life. It's almost like another DR. Doolittle.

Annie
I'm so glad that I don't do the reports anymore. Don't miss them one bit. Glad that the boys got home safe and sound. Understand about little one needing their naps. Oh my was Ollie a little stinker later on the night, but I don't think he felt very well that day either. Thanks for the update on Michelle. A baked potato from Wendy's and chili sound really good today for lunch.

Laura
This time around I'm doing one thing at a time when unpacking my stuff and I'm going to purge also. Maybe this second time around I can get rid of more things.


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Gonna lay back down. I hope this queasiness subsides soon.

Well pooh bear my post just went into cyber land.

Hi Everyone!

I was at a offsite today and the Key note was on building Confidence. It was a Women's offsite and very uplifting.

Work is busy, busy, busy. The new Admin is doing a lot by herself, she does check in a couple times a day to make sure she is doing things correctly and has a question, here and there, but I think she is coming along.

I have an screening interview tomorrow for one of the EA positions. The other ones closes on Friday and that VP will be back next week. I hope she gets interviews set up soon. That is the one I think I really want. I am sure I will get a chance to interview as HR has been giving me insight and talking to me about it.

I haven't told them I have a interview for the other one. I thought I would wait to see what I thought of the screening interview. It is with the VP's HR and the current Admin.

Our weekend was busy, Friday night we watched my nephews. Took them out to eat at Olive Garden, got Greater's Ice Cream and watched "The Jungle Book" at home with them. I really liked that movie.

Saturday, was the household chores and then dinner with our friends from Missouri. Sunday was niece Bryn's gymnastic meet. Her first one since she made team. She took 3rd place on vault, and she didn't fall off the beam during her routine. She wobbled some but for her first meet, we thought it was good as the beam was her biggest fear and it was falling off.

I was very proud of her for facing her fears and for her score on the bars, she didn't like it and I thought she might melt down, but she held it together and got back in the game. Her floor routine was cute; she needs to work on her height and extension with the leaps...it will come. She has the tumbling, just needs a little more power in it.

Shad: I hope you are on your way to healing and that you are feeling better each day.

Ceejay: It sounds like the repair is finished and you are back to setting up house again.

Annie: How did the reports go? I saw you say you would be in Cincinnati over Thanksgiving....so close to me. I wish we could meet up some day!

Thanks for the update on Michelle.

Laura: your suit for work sounds very nice and it sounds like you have some plans to get some wear out of it. It is nice to have things you feel confident in especially when working in the corporate world.

Happy: I sure hope that pain is going down. It sounds miserable.

Sorry to be short on the posts but I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow is another busy day.

Feeling a bit sore and sorry for myself today and it doesn't help to sit, so I am quietly going about tidying up the house and doing the washing (but not hanging it out) and lying down with the tv or a book. I don't want to take drugs unless it becomes absolutely necessary.

So forgive me for not doing personals, maybe tomorrow