Long Time No Chat

It has been an interesting summer.....and I cannot believe it is almost over.

Several very hot days. But only 2 - 3 at a time, thank goodness. The garden we are sharing with our neighbor (while her back will not allow her to garden) has ended up being very interesting. We have had maybe a dozen cucumbers - many dozen zuchinni - no eggplants (the morning glory vines helped strangle that one) - there are 6 pumpkins - 2 watermelons -  but for the first time ever (for us) the bell peppers are going strong! The tomatoes are a total bust - not just for us either - growing big - but not turning red.

Daughter and her family found a house to rent and have moved out. The silence is interesting. I dont miss the tantrums - but I am having a grandchildren withdrawal! The dog is very confused - and he is ready to be packed up and sent to them - with his barking at night! I dont know if he is just not use to the silence or he is hearing ghosts!

Had a lovely day with the grandboys taking them to see friends in the Monterey area Saturday. And then last night - the night before he started school - 7th grade already! - the oldest cut his leg. Spent hours in the ER. Recieved 20 stitches. He did a good job. Hopefully that will not keep him out of the water in Hawaii.

Youngest grandson made it to County this year - took 5th in the breast and the back (he could have done better but oh, my, was it hot that weekend - and one boy false started and the boy next to him almost fell in while getting on the starting block). His medley relay took 9th.....the free relay didnt place. But you know what???? 6 years old and his first time at County - he did AWESOME!!!!

Busy busy busy June and July at work. And now we are the exact opposite of that!

Getting close to our busy September......Harvest Wine Festival.....Disneyland for 4 days (jsut hubby and I).....and then Hawaii (with daughters and their families)! Praying for good weather for all! After we get home the rains can come (please)!

Update

Looking back at photos on Facebook, it has been a busy year! So I am going to load some photos to share...

 Went to Sonoma for an overnighter......found a very expensive thrift store.....a great store called Tiddle E Winks.....a fantaastic winery Cline Cellars.....and a restaurant with THE BEST gnocchi I have ever had Della Santina

 yes we made pieorgies for Easter...Kaia helped.....for about 2 minutes!

 I found a fun new project - tissue dying on silk scarves...(re)discovered that red + green = a very not pretty brown! But I bought more scarves and more tissue paper so I am going to try again!

 Went to see Book of Mormon.....it was as coarse as I expected but also hilarious!

 Actually won a raffle at the after party for the Bras For The Cause walk!

 Love this photo! Together the three of us raised almost $1500!!!!! And, even with allergies kicking my butt, and not training, I managed to finish without difficulty - and at one of our fastest times!

Ramblings

Oh my but I love thrift shops/garage sales etc. I was on call last night after (trying to) sleeping all day so I spent last night watching a few episodes of hoarders. My husband and kids keep telling me they are going to put me on that show. Well, now I know I am not qualified for it! 

Those poor people are seriously crazy and it all seems to stem from some severe loss - one from her husband’s death; another after THREE failed marriages; another when he was in the hospital at death’s door and family took his ranch away from him (not sure I really understood that one!); and another who was a Vietnam vet. Made me feel sorry for them. And the majority have kids who supposedly had not stepped foot into their houses and did not know how bad it was. The Vietnam vet had children that ended up being raised by family because of his drug and alcohol use. They actually got an apology from him and planned to stay in touch, and at the very end he told them that the cancer he had 12 years ago was back and had metastasized. How sad.

But how I know I am not one? Their houses were STUFFED with TRASH! Floor to ceiling…..dirty diapers….empty soup cans….decomposing meat…..ugh. The Vietnam vet slept outside because he could not get into his house; his food was outside too. said he never got sick from eating old stuff.....gag.....None of them had running water .... some did not have electricity. One woman had TWO houses; the second one she was holding on to to sell so she had money to live off of. But she had neglected it so long it could not be renovated - just demolished. So she only could recoup the cost of the land.

Stuff is one thing, but trash is another. And some of them left a lot of the stuff outside too so everything was ruined. One guy bid on storage lockers and one time won 5 lockers full. And you have only so much time when you have to clear out those lockers and haul it all off. He hauled it off but just put it outside. So he got bargains but did not do anything with any of it. The other woman kept saying she is an "environmentalist" and she would get her 'junk' from garbage left curbside....and she took the stuff to repurpose for those who needed it. But all she did was stuff it into a room.

So after all that, what did we do today? The first Memorial Day weekend I could not get time off - so we could not go anywhere. Hubby went to PG to visit a friend Friday and Saturday. Came home this AM and we went to the antique fair in the next town over! And yes we (I) came home with a few things. But always interesting to see the things you grew up with being sold as 'antiques'! And there were lots of things I wanted but was too cheap to spend the money on!

Done!

The lighting is awful - and I have lost one of my sock blockers (but found a missing sock while I was looking for it!!) - but finished the first month's knit from stash sock.....

Joined a group - chose 12 sock yarns - labeled 12 bags with the different months - handed both to husband who put the yarns into the bags and sealed them. So each month the yarn is a "surprise" for me!

The group offers a pattern which you may or may nor chose to use.

I chose to use it.....The Hornet pattern by Heatherly Walker. Mine is a little different because I was just recovering when I got to a part in the pattern that I misread.....but it is ok, I like them! Just had to make sure that I did sock #2 the same way!

So now I have used one skein from stash.....used probably 400 yards from the 420 yards in the skein....Havent bought any new yarn since September so I am starting the year off right (altho I will probably have to buy some new yarn next month) !

Survival!

I survived my first night back at work!

Was all ready to work Saturday night - but they cancelled me. And looking back - that probably was the best thing in the world.

Last night was very slow - which helped a lot. I was surprised at how winded I was when I got back to the until from walking a specimen to the lab. But I shouldnt have been  - probably one of the longest walks I have done in well over a week!

Talking and laughing makes me cough - but I am no longer choking and coughing up nasties - so I know I am on the path to wellness.....

As long as the rugrats dont bring anything else home!

I'm Alive After All!

Oh boy, what a start to 2015. I am not sure I am enjoying this new year at all.....except that I am alive and here to complain about it.

Our grandson brought home a nasty virus and it made it's way thru the family. From him to his sister to his dad to his mom (who got really sick) to my husband. I really thought I beat it. HA!

Did not do much on New Year's Eve. Got a late lunch/early dinner at Amici's and i had one glass of not very good champagne (just because it has a fancy name doesnt mean it will taste good). And then somehow we managed to stay up till midnight. Silly silly mistake. We already decided to postpone New Years Day Dinner because hubby not feeling so well (altho he was feeling better) and me having to work that night.

Well that night I ended up having to go into work after being told initially that I was on call. And I started with a cough. Went home, took some nyquil, and slept all day long. Got up and felt like you-know-what warmed over. But no, super work ethic woman, it is too late to call in sick, they wont have time to find anyone to work.... And I dragged myself to work. Most stupid thing I have done in a long time (up to that point). Made it home, crawled into bed, slept until 2 PM, crawled out of bed, crawled back into bed by 4 PM, crawled out of bed by 6:30 to eat a 1/2 cup of chicken soup. Stayed up to watch Hawaii 5-0 (yes, DVRd) and crawled back into bed and coughed all night.

Sunday it just kept getting worse and worse. And yet at no time did I have a temperature! Just the bloody cough and feeling like a corpse had more energy than I did. And I felt like I was drowning. I could just feel water bubbling in the top of my chest and altho I kept coughing it out (it wasnt water, it was yellow yuck) I kept drowning. I tried everything we could think of.....and let me tell you Robitussin tastes as lousy as it does not work....mucinex worked one dose and but not the second....vicks vapor rub worked a little bit...

Hubby gave me his chair to sit in all day and he slept on the couch next to me for awhile. He went to bed about 0300 and I was very glad he was getting some sleep. I jsut prayed to sleep and I couldnt. I did finally fall asleep sitting on the couch at about 0430. And woke myself up seriously drowning at about 0430. I really did not think I was going to be able to breath ..... I now know how people with CHF must feel like.

So it is Monday morning and we called the MD. No appts until today or Wednesday and at that point I knew I could not survive another night like that.....so we headed to the ER. We went at a good time, we thought, because it was relatively empty, but it sure filled up while we were there.

The MD said the radiologist read it as pnuemonitis which he could not figure out, because that is usually only from aspiration or vapor. See - I told you I was drowning!!! But I have read that it can also be related to a virus.  I kept praying for a breathing treatment and we were just waiting and waiting.....finally husband is standing at the door and the MD walked up and said "she got her breathing treatment and her meds right?" And husband said no - nobody has been in for awhile (best person there was the first time I started coughing so badly and I rang and asked for water; this person rushed right in with a bottle of water for me!). So he told me then what the CXR was - that he was going to give me antibiotics and a codeine cough syprup and an inhaler. He also said he was going to swab me for Flu A&B since the flu shot has been so ineffective this year.

Anyway, this must not have pleased the MD because I could all of a sudden hear someone calling out to have RT come and do treatments now for my room and another room. After a few minutes RT showed up and started a treatment, and then a 3d nurse, whom I never seen before, was in there interrupting and shoving a probe up my nose (I think she is really an alien - one of the most uncomfortable procedures I ever have had!) and shoving meds into me. Antibiotics, and then something for nausea, and then liquid Norco. At this point I am so exhausted, and so overwhelmed, I could not even think. At this point, I really dont think I should have had pain meds or antinausea meds and wonder if the mistake was from the MD or whom....

BTW, that breathing treatment was wonderful. I could finally take deep breaths again!

No sleep, anti nausea med, pain med. Pretty soon I am loopy as can be and say to my husband we need to get out of here while I can still walk. He goes out and asks someone when we can leave. Nurse #4 comes in
and asks if I am ready to home.....and that she will be right back with the paperwork.

When she comes in, she kind of looks at me odd, and says I think I will do a set of vitals before you got home. She listened to my breathing (she, the MD, and the RT were the only ones that did) and seemed to be very surprised at how bad I sounded. So she did a blood pressure with a cough too big, that took 4 times of inflating/deflating before it showed a BP very much higher than normal for me, and higher than I thought someone with no sleep would have. But I finally got out of there with a fistful of prescriptions (no pain meds at all!!) but feeling very dizzy and all of a sudden sweating and hot.

Got home and crawled into bed and slept off and on for the next 4 hours - having some of the wierdest dreams ever - ans still feeling dizzy - but having no pain whatsoever! Even tho all the time I kept telling everyone the only pain I had was from coughing......So I walked out to the living room. Husband started talking to me about the meds he picked up, and handed me the mail, and I just totally erupted - Mt Vesuvius - with vomit - right in front of my grandkids having after school snacks! Walked around the couch on the way to the bathroom, and did it again.....poor kids....I am sure I traumatized them! Threw up a few more times in the bathroom and I think I finally got rid of all that Norco and felt so much better after that!!!

And today? Well, I SLEPT ALL NIGHT! Lying down flat in my own bed!!!!!!!! Still coughing stuff up but not painful and I am no longer drowning!!!

We got the tree down. Tomorrow will get the other ornaments packed away. I think this is the longest our tree has been up and it has been driving my husband crazy! But I will admit I will be sooooo glad to get my chair back in the house!

I also want to brag about the care my husband has been giving me....he has been awesome...even if I will have to hear "I told you so" for a long time to come. First of all about going to the ER (he told me later he was made at me for not waking him up and having him take me to the ER in the middle of the night when I was just happy he was sleeping!) but also that he guessed it was pneumonia......but I can live with that (for awhile)

Can You Believe It Is 2015?

Hope everyone stayed safe - and warm - last night!

We did manage to make it to midnight - but no one else felt like champagne so the glass I had with our early dinner at Amici's was the only champagne. Lots of fireworks going on - first at 9PM and then at MN.

Our New Year's Day dinner is postponed until this weekend when, hopefully, our chief cook will feel more like cooking.

Does anyone have special good luck things that you do/cook on New Years Day? We have black eyed peas.....which no one likes no matter how I make them.

I am fighting the crud that everyone in the house has had/still has. So I dont know about my 2015 word; HEALTH!!!! I have a cough but it isnt too bad - hopefully it stays that way!