I need a nap!

Was a nice and busy day at work today ... tomorrow promises to be a lit on the busy side.

Why am I needing a nap?

'Cuz I like to get up bright and early to play. To be honest ... this week I've not heard the alarm very well. Let's hope it gets better. Not feeling like a million bucks ... and really could use a nap. But scrapbooking in the morning is much too much fun!


I'm catching up on this year's life. I like to do it sort of diary fashion. Don't really know what else to call it. I like to write about happenings ... and attach photos. Perhaps it isn't the way the rest of the world scraps ... but it is my way. Someday I hope my kids appreciate and enjoy it.

I have to be at a meeting in 20 minutes. Alyx is busy washing dishes. Brock went with Jari to unload a truck load of sheetrock at a job. I get to go shuttle and pick him up when the meeting is done. Jari will probably work most of the night. I am going to sleep most of it. :)

What I really, really want to do right now is haul out a sewing machine ... that new one .... and try to fashion up a few things for the craft sale that is coming up. Maybe Thursday I can do that.

The long nagging issues are nearly done

Maybe we can figure out why he still doesn't feel like a million bucks. Maybe no sleep?

In the meantime ... he's on the Deans List in college ... and enjoying it most of the time. He's firmly entrenched in the world of computers and programs. Totally foreign country to me.

We visited the surgeon last week. The one who would open up his chest again should it need to be done. This one didn't agree with what they did a year ago in Arizona. Bummer. What is done is done. In retrospect, would certainly have been nice to have the go a little easier on Blayde, but God had a plan for him. I guess he wouldn't be up here and stuyding now had it not been for the hospital stint last summer.

Yesterday he had the "tumor" aka polyp removed from his esophagus. I haven't gotten to see him yet today. Am curious to see if swallowing has been any easier today than it was on Monday. Yesterday he was more than a little drugged. I brought him to school last evening and picked him up. Can't legally drive when medicated postoperatively. I just wonder if he remembered anything that he learned in class last night!

A few more steps in this road of his ... and we'll call it good. We can anticipate that the pathologist won't see anything unwelcome in the polyp. We can anticipate that the CT scan he's having tomorrow will show only good things. And ... then maybe a string of allergy testing to find out what it is that bothers him when he eats.

I'd really like for him to get a new pair of basketball shoes and start shooting hoops again. I'd like to see some energy out of this young man ... and I'd like him to feel good again. Maybe just having the nagging niggling doubt out of one's mind will do most of the job. It would for me.

Whew!

Sometime in the last month I actually went and visited the doctor.
Can't quite believe it myself ... but I did.
So, she asks me when she comes into the exam room "you are here for your annual?"
Um, no.
My reply was "more like octennial".
Now you see how I am.

We nurses have got to be the absolute worst. We don't do what we should. And we know better.

So I go for the octennial mammogram as well. They are so much fun that I really should have pushed for somthing a little further into the future.

But I know better. How many times a week do I take care of folks who are either having a port placed for chemotherapy ... or having it removed following therapy. Too many. I really do know better.

When you have a mammogram that the radiologist doesn't like, the hospital actually sends you a lovely certified letter. Sweet. Go back again. At this point I really started to wonder why I didn't do this exam long before the "octennial"! I really like to be a glass half full kind of person, but sometimes things start to make me a tad bit on the nervous side.

After having to reschedule because I couldn't get several hours off of work, I finally made it to the Imaging Department this afternoon. These exams aren't the most comfortable in the world, but I've had much worse ... by a long shot. It was kind of like being at a photo shoot. Try this pose ... look at the proofs. Hmmm. Try it again in a different pose. Have the person in charge take a look at those pics. Still not pleased so you go for yet another pose. Whew! Finally an acceptable shot that got me out of going to the Ultrasound Department next.

It was a good day. The wonderful woman who got to do all the posing positions agreed with me. These are the kinds of days we like to have.

I was sort of having issues with trying to figure out how I'd juggle life otherwise. Thanks to God for not adding that to my life's plate at the moment.

Saturday ...

Tia and I headed to the Alaska State Fair Parade in Palmer. Just the two of us. We walked what she said was "a mile at least" and had an awesome time! Small town parades are just so much fun! Plenty of room to sit on a curb and watch the passing fun. A good coffee shop for something warm for me and something cool for Tia.

Brock helped with the United Way banner.

Doesn't he look just pleased to be sitting on his tractor seat? Love it!

We had more fun on Saturday ... after grocery shopping, we stopped at a few garage sales and found a few fun prizes! Will share those later.

Hoping to take in the State Fair on Saturday and especially hopeful that the weather stays like it's been. Not looking good at the moment, but you never know! It has been gorgeous!

Hoping

Hoping we can find another car sometime soon. The Camry Alyx was driving took a serious plunge into auto repair land shortly after she came back from vacation. She has been back to work now for about 3 weeks ... and this juggling is getting downright interesting. She doesn't have 1st hour so on days she works .. it works like this. She brings me to work for 8am and then goes to school. Brock brings her to work for 3pm and then picks me up at 4:30pm. Yesterday I had a meeting at work so was back to the hospital for the 6pm pep rally. Brock was a gem and picked her up at 11:15pm when she got off work. He can't do that tonite ... morning was a bit of a challenge for him today. So I get that duty tonite. Then ... the alarm rings again at 5:15am to get kids up and off on to the bus. Brock put in an application for the state fair today and is hoping for a job there. The fair runs through Labor Day and he's hoping to do some parking lot attendant duty. I'm hoping for him! He could use a good cash infusion.

I was just thinking earlier that I need to start taking some vitamins. I am really bad at that. So bad that I only managed about the equivalent of one bottle of prenatal vitamins in 5 pregnancies. I know there are folks out there who have the miracle cure for me. Please don't send me info. I will find my own pick me upper. Currently ... it is a 30 minute nap ... most rejuvenating. Hoping that if I get something ... I might remember to actually take it!

Hoping that my dear hubby doesn't fall asleep on his way home tonite. Poor guy. I almost feel guilty about complaining about being tired. Yesterday he left by 6am and spent the day working in Anchorage. Home for a quick bite and a quicker nap ... and then off to another job in Eagle River. He didn't get home from there 'til 1am ... and left again at 6 this morning to do it yet again. Good gravy. When it rains it pours. I am thankful. :)

Hoping that our visit to the surgeon tomorrow is a productive one. Blayde and I will go see him in the morning. Hoping that an ultrasound will give us the info we need to finally get ahead of the esophageal problem and get that fixed! One mountain or mole hill at a time.

Gave up hoping that there were raspberries at the U-Pick Farm. The weather wasn't kind to the plants over the winter and my picking spot is in pitiful picking shape. No raspberries this winter! At least we have zucchini ... and, oh yeah, the broccoli!

S'pose all the hoping in the world isn't doing my laundry pile a bit of good ... must get down there to spin a load of work clothes for dear hard working hubby!

By the way ... in case you were wondering ... fall is here. The air is that crisp and cool want to light a fire air. Mmmmm. Think I'll close my bedroom window just a wee bit more tonite. Gets downright chilly in the morning. Don't dare check to see how cool it is ... just know that snuggling under the layers of blankets and quilts feels downright wonderful!

I did get the laundry sorted!

Do you remember that Saturday job list? I didn't make it past the sort laundry part. :) Life is just fun. Somehow that stuff just sits around waiting for you .. job lists have much in the way of patience.

I did pull the carrots and should fun to the "farm" and pick more. I tried something new with them. Dehydrated them all. You really don't end up with much in the way of carrots that way. Especially when dear hubby comes along and samples them! Found a fun website that may help me with dehydrating more things ... and remembering what to do with them after that! Will add a link on the right in case you're interested.

Decided that the bunnies needed to be outside. They're much smarter than I am. One of them hasn't been seen since she wheedled her way out through a ditch she dug. Live trap coming up. I'm told it is just the trick.

Basement? Still looks like a disaster zone. Now I'm done and out of time until next Saturday. Maybe then I'll get to it. How handy the stuff doesn't go away!

It is starting to feel like fall. Really should have gone for a walk yesterday. I didn't. I'm so bad in the exercise department. I mean really, really bad. I also get sidetracked. The air felt cool and crisp ... makes you think of pumpkin pie and bonfires. We don't have leaf burning parties but maybe we should. Just in case you remember that I also attempted to grow some pumpkins .. they certainly won't be giving me enough pumpkin to make pie. Bummer. The AK State Fair winning pumpkin is grown inside ... not outside where my punkins are this year. Maybe I'll move them next year. Maybe I'll just buy one at the fair instead!

Off to scrapbook land for the next 45 minutes. Already have a niggling headache and it's only 6:16 a.m.

I think it may just beat a massage

or why else would I be up at 7 a.m. after getting home from fishing at 1 in the morning? I think I could stand in the creek for a very long time ... casting a rod ... waiting for a fish ... being teased by it's nibbles ... come home with nothing ... and be completely satisfied. Last night I understood why my dad says " a good day fishing is when you come home with nothing to clean." So ... maybe not quite that. I could really use a silver salmon on my hook, but I really could stand there forever.

Much later, while Jari & Chad were hanging out at the campfire, Becca and I found a spot about where they're standing. She had one on. I think I caught the Loch Ness Monster. It was big and it wasn't coming in. Tree stump? Nah. I don't think so.

David and Jolene were out fishing with us as well. Love her chair. I could probably sit there for hours as well ... even without my book.

Gotta love the little guys. Vance was quite determined. I don't know that he could see where he was headed, but the water was quite a magnet for him.

This is only my second trip to Jim's Creek. You can see the Knik Glacier in the back. It is absolutely beautiful!

So now that I've skittered away about 90 minutes of a morning ... it's time to hit the job list.

• sort laundry
• wash laundry
• fold laundry
• put laundry away (makes the list checking off a wee bit faster)
• shred paper for compost
• rabbit cage needs cleaning
• dusting needs doing ... and I can't find my favorite dust cloth things at WalMart
• hit a garage sale or two?
• pick the last of the carrots
• sing to the tomatoes
• rig up a heater in the greenhouse ... my feet are cold this morning and they're INSIDE the house
• trip to the music store for to fix Tia's flute
• see if there is anything other than bills at the post office
• pick up oven cleaner at the same time ... it is seriously nasty
• listen to the rest of one of the books on cd while I try put some order into the basement
• library to renew and return
• scrub the shower and bathtubs

Can I just hang out on the internet instead?