The kids are here this weekend. Five year old Emma was looking at my wedding pics and she asked me who it was. When I told her it was me and her Papaw, she said, "you were MUCH younger then". LOL!

What a week! Tuesday I went to work and felt awful. I knew I was getting sick. My cousin and I are the only people I know who get what we call "skinhurt" when we're getting sick lol. It feels like my skin just gets hyper-sensitive and anything touching or rubbing - especially on my back - feels very uncomfortable and almost painful. The closest I can describe is like when you have hair that grows one way, say on your arms or whatever, and you push it the other way and it just feels uncomfortable... that feeling x 10.

Anyways, I got home and tried to go straight to bed, but after sleeping about 5 minutes, Scott woke me up and said we need to take Layla to the vet - she's peeing blood. Our vet thought it was a ruptured bladder and although it didn't look that way from x-ray, we should come back in a few hours after making her drink lots of water to see if urine is leaking. Riiiight.... instead, we drove her to emergency at the small animal hospital at the college in the city. I cried the whole way. Turns out, it's her mis-managed bladder infection gone bad. It's now in her kidneys as well. It is being properly treated now and we should be okay after 6-8 weeks of antibiotics.

The next morning, I had a terribly painful throat. I decided to drive in with Scott, pick up my laptop at the office, and work from home for the day. Then Wednesday night, I woke up at 3 am and it hurt so bad I couldn't swallow at all, and it was painful to even breathe through my mouth. I went to the doctor and he swabbed for strep throat, and said it would take 24-48 hours for results. If it is, I can go back for antibiotics, and if it's not, it's just a virus and I should use lozenges and take Tylenol. I worked from home again and let them know I would also work from home Friday. Thursday night - same thing, I woke up at 3 am. I gargled salt water and it took an hour for my throat to feel well enough to try to sleep again. What do you know, I also woke up at 3 am Friday night! But managed to fall asleep again despite the pain. Now it's 5 am and it was too painful. I just got up and gargled salt water and now I'm making tea with honey.

It is just not letting up! It feels sooooooooo much better during the day. I wonder if it's just because I naturally swallow more and it doesn't get so dried out? I used a humidifier in the bedroom and it hasn't made one bit of difference. The pain is just almost unbearable. I am leaning towards this being a virus, but I am kind of hoping I get a call saying it's strep throat so at least I know what will get rid of it.

Bad week for some of you! Linds, I hope you feel better! How is Layla doing? Did her original vet ever get back to you?

Betsi, how was that colonoscopy? Fun, huh? I hope you got the come back in 5 years report!

Diana....run...don't even pack! Don't go back until you feel really relaxed!

Janet, Ricky is still going to move out? You haven't mentioned it. It is very difficult, but he will come visit you, and might even bring you his laundry! If you cook up a week's worth of meals for him, you are sure see him at least once a week.

Ricky is still planning on moving, but don't think he's in a big hurry. He's in the process of changing jobs, doing the mechanical work he's been wanting to do instead of sales at a parts store. He'll make about $5 more on the hour and have all kinds of benefits and a 401K. He hasn't told his boss yet, but will as soon as they let him know he's hired at the new place Pep Boys. Ricky told them he would like to give Advance two weeks notice. They've already sent him for the drug test so he will definitely pass that.

It had been three weeks since my floors have been swept, wanted to take it easy because of my neck, and of course, no one volunteered so today, I took my time and dusted and swept. I took a Lortab before I started and one when I got done. Then I took a nice hot shower and feel pretty good. Have a little ache, but nothing serious.

Tomorrow I'm going to be driving the bus. I'm really excited to see the kids, but there will be a few who won't be glad to see me...lol. I'm going to drive for four days and then on Friday I'll be getting my injection at the hospital as an outpatient. Then I will be off for another week, if I'm better, I can go back, if not, then he wants me off another week. Hopefully it will be only one week.

Hi all! WHEW! What a busy couple of weeks. I hope things will calm down a bit this week - actually they won't but it will be a different kind of "busy".

Gary is doing much better on Prednisone - he thinks its a miracle drug and asked why he can't take it all the time. OH MY! He just doesn't understand the devastating side effects of long term steroids. But I'm worried that he is going to be on them more than off them for the foreseeable future. Sigh.

The kids were here this weekend and we had a great time. We went out to eat, shopping, and just general visiting. It was a lot of fun - I miss them so much, but WHEW! I'm tired! LOL!

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday are pretty quiet - not too much going on at work. Gary has an eye appointment tomorrow and I have to take mom to see her orthopedic surgeon on Wednesday. I think he will release her from her broken leg repair - at least I hope so. She seems to be doing pretty good.

I am going to San Antonio to a nursing education conference Thursday to Saturday noon. It is only 90 miles away, so if something happens and Gary needs me, I can be home in a little over an hour. It's a big conference and I'll see several people from around the country that I only see at conferences, so I'm looking forward to it.

Layla is doing okay. Her urine seems to have cleared up a lot. We're just trying to take it one day at a time. I think we need to take her in for another culture on Tuesday.

I woke up this morning with one very sore and watery eye covered in gunk. It was pretty veiny when I woke up so I just wore my glasses all day. Tonight, it's completely red and hasn't stopped oozing gunk all day. Pink eye again?? At this point I just want to throw my hands in the air and give up. Back to the doctor in the morning I guess. I can't miss the whole day of work tomorrow... I stayed home 3 days last week and worked at home all weekend, and I'm kind of out of work now. I need to go get more!

My throat is not better at all... if anything, it's worse. It is so swollen it hurts to even talk.The back of my tongue is swollen as well.

When it rains, it pours!

Time for a visit to the doctor!!!

PINK EYE!!! For Scott and I both. I stayed awake all night, and he woke up in the middle of the night with itchy red eyes. We got some antibiotic drops today, and we're staying home until tomorrow.

As for my throat, the doctor said it's a virus for sure and there's nothing I can do but let it run its course. It was the reason I stayed awake all night. It hurts so bad, it feels like someone shoved a sword down my throat. Trying to swallow almost brings me to tears!!! Oh well... hopefully this is the worst of it and it will start going away soon.

Oh, Lindsey, I hope you feel better soon. There's so much sickness going around here. The kids are finally better and Karlie went back to school today after missing ALL of last week. Dean's better but, oh so whiney, and has an awful runny nose. I guess that the school's been hit hard with students and teachers......they're saying that the influenza is going around.....Yuck!

Poor Layla.....she's really having a hard time right now. Give her some extra love from me.

Gayle, I'm glad to hear that Gary's better. I worry when I hear that he's not well.

Betsi, I think that you should find somewhere to go so you don't have to hear all the roof repair all day long. It would drive me crazy!

Janet, it sounds like you're doing better. Yay! I hope the shot helps even more!

I did go shopping on Saturday but it was with Dae Lynn. She hired Kera to come and watch the kids and we both went to some flea markets and Wal-mart. It was so nice to get away from the kids!!

Dae Lynn was worried about having Dean at church yesterday and having him around the other kids so after I taught Sunday School.....then Dae Lynn had to teach Children's church so she brought Dean and I took him back home. I had someone pull up to the house but I couldn't see who it was or even if they stopped......then later I saw them drive away. I asked Glen about it because he's always giving someone permission to come and pick up something but he didn't know who it was either. It has us both worried because we're always at church on Sundays. It may be time to start locking the house up.

Tonight we're going swimming!! Yay!! There's an indoor public pool at a neighboring town and Amy is taking some kids from church and we're going to go. Glen was there the other day and said that the water is really warm so I'm looking forward to going. I'm so ready for swimming weather!!

Lindsey, I'm so sorry your throat hurts so bad. I can understand because that happened to me once. My throat hurt so bad I couldn't drink enough and I got a horrible urinary track infection and ended up in the hospital on IV's and antibiotics. So, please take care of yourself. I'm so sorry about the pink eye, I just can't believe that you have it again and now Scott has it. I'm so sorry that Layla is having troubles too. I hope she is on the road to recovery.

Diana, I'm so glad you had some time away from the kids. I would be worried too, about the car in the driveway. Someone stole my friend's Yorkie in Oklahoma last week. They live in the country too and someone took her while they were gone.

I was really tired today but I came home from school early because Gary had an eye appt and I had to drive because they dilated his eyes. His eyes are a little worse this year but not too bad yet. He has macular degeneration and has developed some floaters, but the doc said things were OK.

Diana, I hope you had fun swimming!

Scott worries about our house and even if we're gone for an hour, the doors are all locked and the alarm is set. I'm not too worried because I grew up in a small town and I don't think there's much of a threat. There is a retirement home next door and stay-at-home moms and retirees surrounding us. I'm sure they'd notice if someone weird was trying to get in our house. But in your case, I think I'd start locking up too! With nobody to watch over your place, you never know who could show up.

Gayle, that would be heartbreaking for your friend. I hope she gets her yorkie back!!

I'm glad Gary's eyes aren't getting too much worse yet. I hate having my eyes dilated! I can't see a thing.

We had another dramatic night. I was trying to get some work done in the evening so I was on my laptop on the main floor, and Scott took Layla upstairs for a bath. I heard him call me frantically so I went upstairs, and he had decided to give Layla a trim but she kicked reflexively with her back leg and he cut her with scissors. He didn't know how bad it was but there was a LOT of blood. It wouldn't stop bleeding. I took over pushing a tissue on the wound and had him call the vet. She said she'd meet us at the clinic in 2 minutes. By the time we got there, Layla had bled through the wad of tissue and onto my jeans and hands. I am SO queasy with blood. I could hardly stand it.

Scott held Layla down while the vet cleaned her up and gave her some shots to freeze it. She started the stitches, and there was blood all over the counter, and Scott started getting woozy. I had to take over, and Scott ran outside and threw up :( I couldn't look back at the blood but even just knowing, I was sweating and starting to get woozy too. I thought I was going to pass out. Luckily, the computer systems were shut down so after Layla was bandaged up, we could just leave, and we can go back to pay tonight. The cold air felt SO good!

I didn't want to say much to Scott because I know he felt SO bad, but I did mention that from now on we should use clippers only. He was just trying to cut a big mat from the back of her leg.

Anyways, Layla got out of bath time yet again, but the other two haven't learned yet how to hurt themselves to avoid baths! So they got baths and I tried to get back to work (unsuccessful) so we watched tv and went to bed. Overnight, my eye infection finally spread to the other eye. I was being so careful! Oh well, I held it off for 2 days. I'm not sure how much my drops are helping but they don't seem to be as goopy, but still quite red. I came into work this morning and a woman here was surprised to hear I don't have strep, because she said usually strep and eye infections go hand in hand. But the doctor said my throat problems are just a virus.

What a scare you had with Layla!! I'm sure that Scott felt so bad. It's a good thing that neither one of you are in nursing or doctoring with being woozy!

The swimming was wonderful! Glen and I got to swim very briefly all by ourselves.....so nice! Once the others were there the noise level went up and really echoed in the building. The water was just a tad bit cool for me but if I kept moving then I didn't notice it.....and I move a LOT in the water. I consider it exercise. I can't wait until it warms up so I can swim! I could drive over to this other town to swim but it's really not worth the price of gas to go 30 miles and back each time. After we swam Glen and I went to a new steak house and had a really good supper then we went to Walmart......there's always something that we need from Walmart even if we've just been. I picked up a few gifts for Dean and Karlie because they both have birthdays coming up and we met a new guy at church and his girlfriend just had a baby so we bought a baby gift. Then......I know that we shouldn't have......but we stopped at Braum's and got ice cream! They have a carb watch ice cream that is lower in carbs.....but that was definitely offset by the waffle cone and dipped chocolate that I had put on!! It was so good!!

I have to tell you what happened this morning......I laughed so hard!! There was a piece of cheese on the counter from last night. I decided to have the dogs do some of their tricks and give it to them. So I had Reuger dance, sit, and lay down.....then I had Jazzi sit (that's all she knows so far). At that point Dean walked up and saw what I was doing and saw Jazzi sit AND saw that I was giving them his cheese! He said "Sit" and immediately sat on the floor by the dogs!! I started laughing and gave him a piece of cheese!! Glen came in and I told him what had happened so he told Dean to "lay down" so Dean moved back to where his head was on the carpet intead of the hard floor and layed down!! We had such a laugh at him!! Too cute!

That is so funny Diana! Dean knows how to get treats too! Smart kid!! Lol

I know what you mean about Walmart, I never walk out with JUST what I went in for :D I always have a few extras.

I made it through almost a whole day at the office! I was told by lots of people to just go home but I stuck it out... If I went home I'd have to drive back in and get Scott. I guess I know I can work from home whenever I want but a part of me feels like I should still be in the office, or that people are thinking badly of me for staying home so much. I'm just not used to the flexibility yet!

Anyways, I left work 15 minutes early and we went to the college to get some different meds for Layla. The results of her culture were in, and almost all I could understand on the phone was that she needed new antibiotics. The vet there has a really really thick French accent so it was tough to understand! But when we saw her in person I got a little more out of it. Some of her bacteria wasn't TOTALLY sensitive to the antibiotic she was on... it was killing some, but not all. So now she's on 6 weeks of a new antibiotic, with another culture in one week. I feel like we're on the right track now and I trust this new vet 100%.

It's weird that we have nothing to do tonight. We got home late and now it's only 7:30 and I feel like I should be going to bed! Maybe I'll go watch tv and play some games on my tablet!

I so hope that the new antibiotics work for Layla! Poor girl....she's been through so much. It sounds like the new vet is going to stay on top of things.

We had a bad storm last night. I was taking a bath so I really didn't get to see it on the internet. I had my Kindle in the tub with me because that's where I read......the electricity went off and my new cover has a light built in so I just flicked it on! Glen knew I was in the tub.....and was surprised that I had a light right away! The electricity was off about 30-45 minutes. I didn't know that anything more went on....but town's electricity was off all morning and Janet called to make sure we were alright! That's the first I had heard about the really bad storms that had hit. Even in town we had roofs blown off and a lot of damage. I would guess that it's wind damage not tornado. I hate it when storms turn deadly.

Since town didn't have electricity Dae Lynn and Karlie didn't have to go to school. And Glen left this morning for a snow skiing trip with the church youth. Jaci and Nate were going as well. They'll have a good time. Then tomorrow evening after Dae Lynn gets home from work I'm going to my Aunt Marva's......finally!! I'm so excited! We always have a good time!

I've started planting stuff in the greenhouse......some tomatoes and flowers.....and some lettuce, radishes, and spinach. I guess we'll see how it goes. This is really not what I had in mind for a greenhouse but I guess I'll give it a try. I really like messing with houseplants but it will be nice if I can start my own flowers for the yard. I spend so much money on buying them. I guess we'll see if I can do it. The storms really worry us because the greenhouse is made of glass......one hail storm and it could be trashed. Glen's thinking about what he can do to protect it.....so we'll see what he comes up with.

I'm glad to hear ya'll are ok, Diana! I wondered about you when I heard about all the storms this morning. Dean is sooo funny! He cracks me up:D

My GI tests came out fine. I'm glad I don't have to do that for 5 more years! The roof is finished, and we got new insulation in the attic. I sure hated to spend all that money on a roof...I could have had a new swimming pool:p Now I need to paint the shutters. They are black now, but I think I'll do them a dark sage green.

Nothing really going on here. I did go to PT yesterday. I always hurt so bad after those sessions. Anyway he gave me more exercises to do.

Tomorrow....I go get the injection. Hope it doesn't hurt too bad, but it can't hurt as bad as my neck and shoulder area. Ricky has the day off so he'll take me since they don't want me driving home.

Yesterday it was 69 degrees and so nice, but the wind would knock you down. This morning it was 37, still have wind, but not near as bad as yesterday. Well, I feel a nap coming on, so I must give in to it. :)

We must have had a small tornado south of here about 4 miles. A friend of mine posted pictures on FB of her son's house and talked about a line of damage. Her son and wife were in the house ready to head to the basement when it hit. The windows were blown out and the house was damaged but the inside was alright. So scary!

I'm getting ready to pack so I can leave when Dae Lynn comes home from work to head to my Aunt Marva's. Dae Lynn doesn't have to work tomorrow so I don't have to be here to watch the kids and my Aunt doesn't work on Fridays so I can head down early!! Her birthday is on the 12th so we'll have to do something to celebrate that. I think that she'll be 62! Hard to believe that's how old she is because she is so young to me!! I wish that all of you could meet her then you'd understand why she is so special! I'm not sure how much I'll be able to get on the computer but I'll be back home sometime on Sunday. Hugs to all of you!!!

Diana, Enjoy your time with your Aunt. We never know how much longer we have.
Can't wait to hear stories.

I'm enjoying my conference in Sa Antonio. I've visited with some friends I rarely see. It is tiring to sit all day, but I have got some good information. I'll be glad to go home tommow.

What a tornado! Thank goodness you are all safe!

We finally had snow! It is goimg to melt soon though, because it is so warm out now. I had to bring my car in because I needed a new clutch. I don't remember if I posted about it, but I drove right into a ditch a couple of weeks ago. I took a bad turn too fast. What else is there to say? Having a clutch and AWD, I figured I could rock the car out......the owner of the farm nearby towed me out finally, and it burnt out my clutch!!! I have to admit though, that I have been smelling that transmission smell before that, so that may have just been the icing on the cake.

Cost me $1100!!! And, I have to bring it in next week because the "check engine" light is on, and the cruise control light is blinking. He said to drive it and see if it goes off. It's not!!! I am really broke now, but I got a nice check from my union for reimbursement for some medical costs. All retirees get this....don't ask me why we pay it and then get it back, but it is nice toi put a check in the bank!

I have had a bad cold all week, and have been feeling lousy. I think it's going away. I haven't been to the gym all week because I didn't feel up to exercising.

The kids are coming over. The girls are sleepimng here. I'm nervous to have Brandon since he has allergy episodes almost nightly.

Wow Judy, going into a ditch could have been a lot worse, like rolling your car. So glad you are okay. Cars are so expensive to have repaired. I'm lucky that both Rick and Ricky know how to fix most anything on a car or truck. It really helps keep the cost down.

Well, since I'm not really suppose to do anything for a day or two, I guess I'll be on the computer and paying bills...nothing too strenuous. He wants me to stay off work for a week, I really thought it would only be a couple of days. I guess since I bounce around in a bus he wanted me off longer.

This afternoon Rick is heading down to the east side of Indianapolis to attend his neice's wedding. I'm not going since the Dr. told me to not do anything but rest for a couple days and take this medicine to help the injection do it's job. So...I won't have to deal with some of his whacked out family. There really isn't many left, just his step-brother going and his step-sister who's daughter is the one getting married. His sister, the one I can't' stand is going to be there coming from New Jersey. She's going to stay a couple days since she owns a business in Indy so she can write it all off on taxes.

The wedding starts at 4:30, but it will take almost two hours to get to the location. It's a community center instead of a church.

Ricky is working today till 8:30 this evening so I'm going to have a long evening alone. I don't think Rick is staying for the reception, just the wedding since it will take so long to get there and back.

I think I'm going to enjoy the peace and quiet...:) Although I wish a friend could be here just to talk.

Wish I was there with you!

Me too Judy.

Janet, I'm glad to hear that you are feeling a little better. I sure hope that feeling lasts and lasts and lasts!!!

Judy, I didn't know about your accident - BOO! I guess you are going to have to slow down. LOL! Sorry the repair is so expensive - I just hate car repairs. Gary didn't ever know how to fix much on a car and now he can't so we have to rely on mechanics. Luckily we've used the same one for the last 25 years, so at least we trust him.

I made it home from my conference in San Antonio yesterday. It was a good conference and I learned lots of things I needed to know - but it will just make more work for me at school. Oh well, I guess that's the way it goes.

The weather is beautiful here, everything is in bloom and the early trees are leafing. This time of the year is so fresh and clean. I've been pulling some weeds in the yard - I don't use chemicals or anything other than organic, so that means you gotta pull your own weeds. It's OK cuz there aren't that many. I didn't have any last spring but i guess that's because there wasn't any rain! LOL! We've had consistent rain all winter (not enough to break the drought though), so now I have some weeks. Oh well, you gotta take the bad with the good.

Gayle, I hope you don't mind if I pick your brain a little bit. Does Gary have to take a medication with his injections? The medicine I have to take is called Gabapentin. I started off with 1 for 3 days and then 2 for three days and then 3 for supposedly a month. But, when I had my injection, he upped it to 3 in the morning and 3 in the evening. When I'm about to run out, he's going to give me something different, but didn't say what. I go see him again on Thursday for a check up after the injection.

So far I'm not feeling any pain at all. I do feel something kind of in the back of my arm pit, not sure if it's part of the nerve or what because I do feel a tingling every once in a great while. Dr did say it would/could take a few days or so. I really didn't think he'd keep me off a week from the bus. But he is, my guess is the bouncing around in the bus. I'll be able to ask him questions better on Thursday than I was on the day of the injection. He did give me something to relax me.

It's too cold to go do anything so I'm doing laundry....thrilling! I'm so envious that you can be out and picking weeds....lol. I wish it would hurry and get warm here. I got spoiled those couple of days when the temp got up to 69 degrees.

Doesn't look like we'll be able to do much this summer as far as entertainment. Gas is now at 3.99 here. Can't believe it. Sure wish we could be drilling for more of our own oil and not depend so much on others.

Ricky is still wanting to move. He just drives me insane, because he doesn't think ahead. The place he is moving to is a two story, but one bedroom. The one bedroom is upstairs with what I would call a foyer type area off to the side. That is suppose to be the room for Ricky. They are building a wall and putting in a door that will lock with a key. Ricky wants to take some things over before the wall is done because it might not fit in the door. WELL....not a good idea as far as I'm concerned. I ask "how will you get it out if things don't work out" and he says "I'll worry about that when the time comes". So I told him he wasn't taking anything from here until the wall and door were installed. He could take what would fit through the door. Which means....he will have a very hard time getting a box spring up the stairs and through the door.

My thinking is since his friend is living there....move his stuff into that room, he won't have to worry about getting it out. I still don't think he can afford it, even with the new job, because now he'll have to pay for more gas to work in Lafayette.

We aren't discouraging him, just want him to have his eyes wide open. He'll only be about 5 miles away so it's not like him moving to another town or state, but we want him to succeed. We won't be able to help him financially if things should falter for him.

Well, just heard the dryer buzzer so better go fold some clothes before they get all wrinkled.

Hi Janet! The medication the doctor has you on is for nerve pain. You had a lot of tingling and shooting pain (if I remember correctly) so he is having you take that along with the injection. Gary's uncle had to take it when he had a disk issue in his back, but Gary has never taken it. Gary's pain is just constant, not shooting or tingling. I think it's a good idea for you to be on it, and I think it's a good idea to NOT be bouncing around in the bus.

Janet, I not only pulled weeds today, but I mowed the yard too (with the John Deere, LOL!). Our real grass isn't growing yet, but the (what I call) trash grass is, so the yard was looking shaggy. Believe it or not, I had never actually mowed with the John Deere. We had a lawn service last year (and will have it again this year too) before I got the John Deere, so I only used the it to haul things around in the little trailer. The lawn company hasn't started mowing yet, so I decided to see if I could actually mow the yard! LOL! It took me exactly 15 minutes to mow our 1/2 acre. Not bad. If I didn't have so much weed eating and places where the John Deere can't go, I could do the yard myself. Nah! I don't want to do that! LOL! :D

I posted a big long post yesterday and ended up losing it before I got it posted.......fustrating!!! Anyway.....here goes again.....

I had a great time at Marva's. We really didn't have an agenda except for getting a little car that she had sold and to the buyer. We went to some flea markets and just shopped where we wanted to go. It was such a nice and relaxing time!! Marva has a birthday coming up so I bought some of the stuff she had picked out to buy for herself and bought dinner on Sunday.

We went to an ice cream store called Cherry Berry.....I thought that I could control myself......wrong!! I did have sugar-free ice cream.....but then added some other flavors.....and toppings!! It was sooo good!! If you like ice cream it is a definite go-to place!!!

We went to my cousin, Michelle's, home. She'd lived there for a few years but I'd never been there to see it. After they bought it they found out that it needed a lot of things repaired on it that hadn't been done correctly and they've been in the process of making repairs. The house was very beautiful and the rooms were sooo big! She fussed about having everything clean for me to see it but she doesn't realize that I have Dae Lynn AND two kids living with me and nothing stays clean anymore!!

We went to church on Sunday......it was so nice! They have such an awesome Praise and Worship band......I loved their music! The pastor....who is from Kansas and someone I knew....but not personally......preached a sermon that was so perfect for what I'm going through right now. Each time I've been there his sermon has seemed like it was just for me!

On the way home I stopped at my neice, Natasha's house to see the baby. She is such a little doll.....about 4 months old now. Natasha is my brother's daughter from his first marriage and she is going through a divorce and child custody. Since I was driving right through her town I wanted to stop for awhile.

Yesterday was Dean's birthday........Can you believe that he's TWO? The girls had planned a swimming party at the place we went the other day so we just turned it into a birthday party for Dean. We went to Big Cheese Pizza afterwards to eat and open gifts! I gave Dean several things and one was a stuffed Goofy. Dae Lynn bought a Mickey Mouse but is saving it for when Damon is out of jail so he can see Dean open his gifts.....Anyway, Dean kissed and hugged him.....and even tried to feed him his pizza!! You could tell that he loved it!! Too cute!!

I hope it's nice outside.....I have seeds to plant in the greenhouse! I'm so excited to finally be doing something out there. I have a few tomatos up and some radishes!! Fun!!

Oh my goodness! Mowing! Planting! And here we're having our first real blizzard of the winter! I can't even see across the street anymore. The highways were too bad to travel on so I'm working from home today. We had to cancel Layla's appointment for a urine culture. We'll take her in tomorrow if we can. We're supposed to get another 10 cms of snow today. I think it will be more than that!

Thank you Gayle for the information, I really appreciate your knowledge and your willingness to share. I love you very much! Today I'm really feeling great. Still once in a great while I'll feel a little numbness in my shoulder and down my arm, but only for a few seconds and NO pain.

Diana...how are you heating your greenhouse or is it warm enough? It is still too cold here also the temp today is suppose to get up to 60 degrees. It just so windy though.
Sounds like you had a great weekend, I'm so glad. You needed a break and you got to do the things you love doing.

We are thinking of planting a garden this year....course we thought of planting one last year and it didnt' get done. I would love to have a green house to start flowers to plant. They get expensive so having a greenhouse to get some started would be wonderful.

I'm excited about starting things in the greenhouse but even the seeds are expensive. I bought some heating mats to start the seeds sooner.....and not have to heat the whole greenhouse. It gets plenty warm when the sun is out but at night is when it gets cold but the heat mats sit underneath the trays and keep them warm. It works pretty good and so far I have three mats. I'm thinking that I may get more but I'll probably wait until next year.

It's windy here too. If it's windy here at the house then it's really windy because we're protected by the trees. I've got something up on the roof that's whistling! I don't know what it is but Glen's going to have to check it out. He put something up there for a weather station and it may need a cap or something on it to keep it from whistling.

Oh....and the swimming last night was so nice! The water was a little cooler than last time but as long as I kept moving I was alright. There were a couple of other women there swimming and I guess they told Dae Lynn that we were a "rowdy" group! I don't know what they're used to but we were just swimming and playing around! You could tell that they were put out by us......oh well! You can't please everyone and it is a "public" pool!

I'm glad you enjoyed your swimming Diana! You're right, do what you want because it's a public area!

Janet, I love having a garden! But I suck at it lol! I am good when I buy flowers and put them in planters every year, but we do have perennials in our front yard and they get SO overgrown with weeds and we just don't have the time to keep up! This spring we are just going to kill everything and fill in the area with cedar chips. We might just buy a few little bushes or something to put out there, and hopefully the weeds won't be so bad! The vegetable gardens aren't so bad though. they don't tend to get quite as weedy for some reason! We will have to see this year how the new dogs do with the veggie gardens... Layla never touched them but I hope they don't start eating the onions or peas or anything lol!

I hurt my back again somehow yesterday. I keep getting the same pinched nerve, at least a couple of times a year. Yesterday it happened when I was putting my laptop in the car after work, I kind of twisted my body and felt something happen in my lower back. It has been painful ever since! It is really low on my back, kind of right between my hips.

I have a feeling I'll be dealing with this for the rest of my life :( It all started with one dumb night in college when I was on a pub crawl in the middle of winter and some guy kept saying he could bench-press me, and I told him he couldn't! Finally I let him try, and he dropped me on my back on the frozen pavement :mad: I hope they invent time machines soon so I can go back and not try that again lol.

Oh Lindsey, I sure hope your back doesn't cause you problems for long. Take it easy and don't lift anything.

Janet, I don't know if I mentioned it or not but I'm so happy that you're feeling better!! Just take it easy and do what the doctor says so it doesn't flare up again.

Lindsey, I'm so sorry that your back is hurting. We get one better than another one is hurting. Start taking some ibuprophen so it can help the inflamation.

I have a hip that hurts. I don't say much about it because I think that it's arthritis. If it gets any worse I'll go to the doctor. I keep taking ibuprophen but so far it doesn't help much. Growing old is hard!!!! I do take something for arthritis....it's the gabapentin, like you're taking, Janet.

It is so windy here!! I think that it's going to blow in some rain....which is good as long as we don't get the bad storms.

I was on the computer earlier and Dean spilled almost a whole cup of coffee all over my chair and carpet. I get so tired of spills and things that are hard on the house. It sure didn't set my day off right.

We also had a hawk hit the window in the living room! It was a really loud sound and the fine white feathers flew everywhere!! He laid there for awhile then the next time I checked he was sitting up. He finally flew off but I don't think he was flying right......oh well, at least he's not by the house where Jazzi and Reuger will get him. We have birds hit the window all the time because of feeding them near the window but I don't think we've ever had one that big hit.

We have the Alley tonight. I like going once I get there but I'm never ready to go. Tonight I'm in the nursery again. I was there a couple of weeks ago. The kids are good but the Alley is so interesting that I hate missing the skits and games!! Last time I took a movie that I wanted to see so it helped the time to pass. I chased the kids around the room doing Kung Fu!!! We were laughing and having such a good time.......I may just do that again!!!

Diana, you did tell me you were happy I was feeling better. Thank you for that. I really am too. Once in a while still I feel something in my left shoulder and then a tingle down my arm, but it only lasts less than a minute. Still no pain. Thank you God!!! I go back to the dr that gave me the injection tomorrow at 10:00 AM.

The gabapentin you're taking, Gayle told me it was for nerve pain and then I looked it up and of course she was right. Maybe taking some Glucosomine might help with your hip. Quite some time ago, our wonderful Gayle suggested I take 2000 units of it a day for the pain in my knees. Two capsules equals 2000 so I take one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I haven't had knee pain since. I was taking the capsules together and it still somewhat ached but after splitting them up to morning and evening...no pain at all. Whatever you try, I hope it works. Pain just isn't any fun.

I know what you mean about spills and such. Only my problem is mostly the dogs. My furniture looks horrible, the loveseat has snags all over it because of Brenna digginng. The recliner has tears on the foot rest where the Ozzie chewed it. The couch in the other room has tears in a cushion because I had the puppies too close to it and the chewed it. Now it seems the dogs keep missing the pads on my carpet. I'm so tired of it and ready to get rid of all of them except for Joey.

When Ricky moves I know he is taking two, but that still leaves me with 3 Yorkies and Penny. Penny will always be here, but the others....we'll see what it's like after Ricky moves out. I may move them to the garage. I just know I'm tired of them being in the house tearing things up, missing the pads, eating poop and barking their fool heads off.

ROFLMBO..... so sorry...I sure got on a rampage didn't I? LOLOL Oh dear...get me started...lol.

I know what you mean about the barking. I had a Jehovah's Witness that came to the door during Dean's nap and Jazzi went crazy......of course, she ended up waking Dean up. Sometimes when she won't settle down I go ahead and crate her and Reuger. They don't bark in the crate most of the time. Oh....and I wasn't too happy with the JW guy either!!! He comes by pretty regularly to chat with Glen!! This time he must have been pretty serious because he brought a pastor with him!!! I'd say that it's a waste of time for both of them!!! LOL

I know, the JW use to come by here quite alot. I wouldn't let them in and one day one of the dogs was smelling the brief case type bag he sat on the porch. Well he kicked my dog and said loudly but not quite a yell to "get away" and that was all it took for me to tell them what I really thought and to not ever come back. Haven't seen any of them sense.

Good for you!! I would have done the same thing!! This gentleman is very nice and if you met him on the street would really like him. He thinks that he's going to "convert" Glen!! Ha! Ha! Ha!! We don't agree with the teachings of the JW so that's not going to happen!!

I have a funeral to go to this morning. A very dear friend of ours passed away on Saturday. He had diabetic complications and had some toes removed....then part of his leg....then they found out that he had lung cancer. He never woke up to know about the cancer. So sad because just a few weeks ago he was so healthy and running around. We were really good friends with some of his kids and were even named guardians of some of his grandchildren should anything happen to the parents. My Mom was best friends with him and his wife.....who passed away a few years ago. His granddaughters are very musical and I'm sure that they'll be singing in the funeral.....always a treat to hear the girls.

Damon was suppose to get out this morning but Dae Lynn just called and there is some kind of hold-up so who knows when he'll get out. The people at the jail are NOT organized and you have to make sure you get receipts for things or they'll say that you never paid them....and they steal things! Do you sense that maybe the wrong people are in jail??? Or maybe I should say that there should be more people IN jail!!! Damon and Dae Lynn are headed to Wichita for a couple of days alone.

This evening Kera, Karley, and Kiley, have a music program at the school. I really want to go so I guess that I'll have to just bite the bullet and take Dean and Karlie. I sure hope that they're good for me!! I always enjoy the school music programs......they remind me of when I was in school. I love music!!

We had rain, snow, then rain AND snow this morning!!! Quite the combination!! Not much snow but I enjoyed the few minutes that I had!! LOL

The big heavy wind blew in some rain this morning. Sometime around 5:30 or 6:00 this morning the rain was pounding so hard on the windows it woke me up. Thought the windows were going to break. When I went to town this morning it was 39. Suppose to have a nice warm-up coming so I'm excited about that. Spring is in a few days...so I hope the nicer temps stick around.

Dang'it Janet, you blew the cold air all the way to Texas - it is FREEZING!!!!! It's cold and rainy and will be all weekend! The guys tried to fish today but didn't catch a thing. Also, we could NOT get our satellite dish to pick up the signal at the trailer and so we had to pay $130 for a service call. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!! Direct TV wouldn't come to service it because it is not at our residence. Of course it isn't - we don't use Direct TV at home, only in our travel trailer. We had to call an independent repair person to come out. So frustrating - but we did get it fixed. Well actually we had to get a new dish. Ours was sitting on the driveway after we got back from the deer lease in January, and it blew over and hit the concrete. We didn't think a think about it, but it bent the contour of the dish just enough so it wouldn't pick up the signal :mad: The new dish only cost $40, but it was $170 all together. :mad::mad::mad: The service person did set everything up and tuned the signal for us, so we are good to go now.

I'm on spring break for the next week. I'm going to the lake with Gary for a few days, but because Janet blew all the cold rainy weather down here, I'll only be able to sit in the trailer for the next couple of days. ;)

Sorry Gayle sure didn't mean too. The wind blew back cold temps here too. It's 33 degrees right now. Warmer temps are predicted for mid week.....so ready for spring, have I mentioned that before? ;)