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Friday, August 31, 2012

Too pooped to pen

Last night wasn't a good one for sleeping.  I had the headache from hell all day long on and off and by night time it was HUGE.  I tried Aleve.  I tried my pain meds.  Finally, after about 6 hours of waiting for one of them to work, something struck me.  There used to be a guy at work when Cliff worked at Chrysler that they called Doc.  He had these ways of dealing with pain that were off the norm.  I remembered something about squeezing your hand between your thumb and finger being a headache cure.  Within a minute after doing it, the pain was gone.  Amazing.  Still not bad today either!
 
~~~~~
 
While I wasn't able to sleep last night, I turned on a movie I'd DVR'd not long ago.  I think the name of it was Notes From the Heart Healer.  Great show.  I probably recorded it because it had Jeanie Francis in it.  Whatever the reason, I enjoyed watching it last night.
 
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My friends rock.  You made me feel so good being welcomed back.  Thank you.  I'm here to stay.  My plan is to first off get back in the habit of writing each night.  Once I'm successful at that, I will then start looking at ways to promote my blog.
 
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Food should have been good tonight but the ribs were stupid.  Weird pieces.  They tasted good after being crocked all day but not much meat on them at all.  I was more like rib scraps.  With them, I made fresh green beans and a tossed salad. 
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Please pray for my friend Jennifer whose mother is having major health issues.  Liver and heart.  She also had to put her dog down today and it couldn't have been easy.
 
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I need to report on my dental visit today.  It is an ulcer where injection was and unhealed tissue on bottom that is sore.  He put me on augmenten now.  I'm pretty much able to eat real food now but limited chewing.
 
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I'm so whipped.  Two hours of sleep last night didn't do it.  I'm a wreck...  And I'm falling asleep writing.  Guess I'll be working harder to make this a habit another day.
 
~~~~~
 
Night all!
 
~~Mama Sage 

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Summer's over

Now what?   

The kids are all heading back to school and Mimi's house will slow down from the constant activity of summer.  I'm gonna miss it.  Having all the grandkids in and out and all the neighborhood kids around has been great.  I will miss all the noise when it's gone.
 
When our kids were growing up, we had a very full house.  Always.  Five kids means at least double that daily.  The activity buzz was pretty varied but the one thing that was constant was board games.  Even with Atari days and Nintendo days, board games remained a staple.  We had a shelving unit in the hallway in San Antonio and it was filled to the brim and overflowing with every sort of board game you can imagine.  I guess it actually started in Altus when Kris was little.  The kids would come choose a game or two and sit on the front porch playing all day long.
 
I didn't get the kids who filled my home and yard into doing this sort of thing this summer, but we did keep them busy.  I guess the fact that it took more than half the summer for me to even FIND the basement where the games are now stored had a little something to do with it.  Our collection has grown tremendously.  We now have several cupboards filled with games.  And some some of the cupboards have puzzles.  And we could always drag up the old VHS movies and treat the kids to real movies because the remainder of those white cupboards down there have movies in them.  We did a little of the movies this summer and it went over very good.
 
I think I'll work on movie times and craft times for winter.  And we don't have to give up the idea of board games and puzzles.  I do have some other things I need to accomplish this winter, but I won't let it take over all my time.  I still want time to spend with the kids.  And of course I'll still be babysitting.  I love being surrounded by all the younguns. 
 
~~~~~
 
This summer was also filled with getting ready for this past weekend.  I was on a hunt to find as many classmates as I could for our 40th class reunion.  I was determined to get them all but in the end, we still had 45 out of 315 that we just couldn't connect with.  I have hopes that they too will be found by our 60th birthday bash in 2014 and have and opportunity to attend. 
 
Of our 315 classmates, we've already lost 31.  10%.  That's a very sobering statistic.  And when we saw who some of the kids who had passed were, it was really a big wakeup call.  Life is precious.  Another whoa moment for me was that we also have some who are in nursing homes and/or are very ill.  You know, in my heart and mind, I'd not 58.  I'm young and able.  I can move and do and enjoy.  But the mirror tells a different story.  The mirror reminds me that my locks are greying and that youthful look is fading. 
 
This time of my life is the time to reconnect with old friends.  Old friends aren't necessarily those we thought they would be.  They may not be the people you actually spent the majority of your time with many moons ago when you got your driver's license.  They may not be who you hung out with or who you dated or who knew you so well (you thought) back then.  Old friends are the people that through the years remember who you are and care about you now.  At least the old friends who matter most.  I'm not saying your best friends you had then aren't old friends who matter now.  They matter.  Just in a different way.  They were there helping mold who you were and who you'd become.  But the friends who will sustain you in the autumn of your life are the old friends you have reconnected with and who are in your life now. We need to remember all our old friends from every path we've been on in our walk of life.
 
~~~~~
 
Friendship is the only cement
that will ever hold the world together.
 
~~~~~
 
This year my family wasn't totally filled with family.  I know.  I had lots of you out there tell me how it should be, but...we had done Kennedy's birthday bash on the Friday before it since that seemed the best day and it was grand.  Nearly everyone came and I think we all had a blast.  She chose Mexican for her foods and we had chocolate pie and ice cream cake.  All her faves.  So when my birthday rolled around the next day, I decided we'd do something I had been wanting to do all summer. 
 
It didn't work out that everyone I had hoped would participate was able to, so we added in the neighborhood kids and had a great time.  We made patio stones.  Yep.  And even though we didn't have the right kind of cement/concrete to put in them, they turned out fine.  I do however have to get out there with some kind of a strong glue and glue back the stones that didn't stay put.  I think the kids all enjoyed themselves.  Rusty and Caitlin came by with cake and flowers and balloons and we enjoyed it!  There was plenty had anyone else happened by but they didn't so we just ate it and didn't pay attention to how big the pieces were.  :-)  
 
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Some of you follow me on facebook and already know what a mess things have been for me healthwise.  I'm a little worn out tonight and don't feel I can really go into a lot, but know that 1. I'm not giving up on weight loss by any means, 2. I don't have the $$$ to handle all my mouth so one day this blogger could be a toothless wonder, and 3. degenerative arthritis sucks and it's showing up all over the place.  Now it's in my left shoulder which is also nearly bone on bone.  Not yet, but it's getting there.  The doctor told me to continue to do the stretching and exercise with it I am and we'll just go one step at a time.
 
She also did give me a cortisone injection in that knee again.  The gel just doesn't seem to work long at all any more.  They re-xrayed it and the situation is worse and now we also add bone spurs to the list of knee woes.  I'm looking at surgery, soon, but need to handle anything that could be infection in my mouth first.  They don't want infection from my mouth to put me in a dangerous position.  Neither do I.  So...one day at a time.  
 
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And now a word about America's Got Talent.  When we were in Branson recently, we wanted to see shows.  We looked into all the possibilities and there are PAGES to look through.  It's a city of shows.  One that caught our eye was Todd Oliver and Friends.  Yes.  The same Todd Oliver with the same friend (s) that's on America's Got Talent.  It's HIS SHOW!  Now I personally think that anyone who has their own show or stars in a show or is a co-star on a show is a professional and should not be able to compete on AGT.  When the show started, it excited me because it was a show of NON-professionals, people trying to get out there and be discovered.  I'm sorry, but if there is a huge marque or a building with your name and advertisement somewhere in this grand country of ours, YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL and shouldn't even be put through past the first stage of competition.  Okay.  Nuff said.  I'm done.
 
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I've been working on getting back into the swing of blogging.  I have to get back into doing things like adding pictures and quotes and recipes, the daily grind, etc.  I'll just promise to get better.  I do want to share some of the things that I think have kept me on the weight loss trail.  It's a trail.  It's well worn, there are sometimes trees to dodge, sometimes it has ruts and sometimes there are puddles to jump.  I just try to stay on the seat of the jeep I'm in and not fall out.
 
The first thing I try to do now that I never did before is eat something when I get up.  I'm still working on making it mostly protein and veggies.  Cheerios just are so good sometimes.  :-)
 
Second, I don't drink pop often if at all.  Pretty much not at all.  I drink mainly water.  I have added milk too because the nutritionist said it's a must.
 
Third, I try to eat to satisfy not finish it all.  When it's something I really, really like or something I've been craving or if I'm just dadblasted hungry because time has slipped away, that is really a hard thing to do.
 
I'm working on slowing down.  It's not hard to do now and I'm hoping a habit forms.  With not much chewing power any more, eating slow is a must. 
 
Another thing that I need to work on is not drinking WITH meals, but drinking water only between meals.  I remember in one seminar I went to they stressed that drinking with your meal, you are washing things down and don't get that filled feeling.  Need to work on that.
 
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And so we're back on this journey together.  If I can't do the bariatric surgery any time soon, I need to keep working to lose all by myself.  I can do this.  I had a boss one time that told me I was a strong young lady who can do anything I set my mind to.  I'm not so young any more, but that strong lady is lurking somewhere in the fat folds.  lol
 
More tomorrow.  I will MAKE myself write. 
 
~~Mama Sage