Daily Prompt: Turn, Turn, Turn

For many of us, winter is blooming into spring, or fall hardening into winter. Which season do you most look forward to?

My favorite time of year, is when the air outside is cool and crisp. It is warm enough during the day, to enjoy the outdoors; but the nights are crisp enough to keep you snuggled under the covers, with that someone special making the moment worthwhile.

I love watching the flowers and the yard slowly wake to the spring sunshine. The leaves and buds slowly emerging from God’s green earth; as the birds start to buzz around like a swarm of bees. Each with a different song to sing.

I love getting the yard ready for whatever the season brings. Filling the bird feeders, putting out fresh mulch to protect the new flowers as they burst into our world with abundance of color.

Picking up the million little sticks and other things the wind has dropped into our yard. Bringing the porch furniture out, cleaning and touching up then paint as needed. Cleaning the wind chimes and hanging them in their proper places. Along with the bird singing, I love the mix the wind chimes joining in. It makes being outdoors so enjoyable.

Washing the porches down and organizing the potted plants and other decor to make our porches pretty enough for pictures and ready for serious relaxing. Then we have the grill porch. Need to get the grill cleaned and ready for the season. We love to entertain.

While I do all the above, Barry is handling lawn mower repair and weed eating. I’ll hire my sweet nephews to weed one of my flower beds.

We’ll need to get the fountain going. I’d like to find a small bench and plant another butterfly bush in that bed. The shrubs need a little pruning and I am hoping we can put a cement walk on the front this year. Barry will need to add hand rails to the steps if we get the walkway done.

If you cannot tell by my page of rambling, Spring is at the top of my list for seasons. Other than the allergy end of things, I adore the Springtime weather.

Dear Lord, I appreciate your gift of Spring. You did a great job! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Mom and Barry’s turn

 

Mom had a checkup after her discharge to the hospital. Doctor said she was looking good and we’d just follow her for now. I’m to email Jody with any issues. I do love being able to email a doctor. Better response time, without the headaches of being on call.

Barry, on the other hand, has maintained an elevated creatinine level since his heart surgery. No one can explain it. Kidney function is great. Dr. R. Wanted to get a look at his kidneys, so she ordered a CTA of kidneys. We should have results soon.

I truly enjoyed the peace and quiet of the waiting room. I read a little and played a few games. I went in and joked with the staff. They wanted to see the kitten, so I pulled the pictures out.  We headed to the pharmacy and home. It was so nice for the focus not to be me for once.

Tomorrow is back to reality with an early morning mammogram and a visit with breast specialist after. At least I got a tiny break. For a few short hours, I wasn’t the patient. Felt good!!!!!!

 

Please Forgive My Absence

Please forgive my absence for the past few days. Imagine the nerve of life getting in the way. I’ll admit I let the “poor pitiful me’s” get in the way. When my favorite urologist found my new problem, my mood kinda hit the toilet with a big splash. I’ve had 2 days of sulking and I’m tired of being the only “stick in the mud” at the party.

Time for a reality check. Yes, I am sick. Yes, I hurt all day everyday. Yes, I have to see a lot of doctors. But………I love the Lord, I adore my husband, I have a loving, happy, sometimes screwed family, I have 2 great pets (a dog that thinks she is human and a fish that will come to the top of the bowl when called), I have a great life.

Why I let myself get all down and depressed, I’ll never understand. One doctor I see told me to quit worrying about getting upset. He said it’s not like I don’t have a million things to worry about.

Maybe all this studying and work I’ve done, on turning my issues over to the Lord, is working. It was much easier to turn this over to God, than in the past. I really think that listening and learning in church is the way to go. Growing up, I was more concerned with who was at church, than what I was learning. I’m learning a lot at Victory Baptist Church, they are such a truly incredible group of people.

Tomorrow is the MRI of my abdomen and pelvis. I’m praying that whatever Dr. M saw on my liver is no longer there. Please think of me tomorrow, Barry and I can use all the prayers we can get.

 

When Life Hands You Something You Really Do Not Want To Do

OK, I love the Lord, my home, my life, my family, my dog and even my little fish. I would do anything in the world for them.

I was forced into doing the hardest thing I have ever done in my life recently. All joking aside, I found this task extremely hard to deal with, but I did it! The problem wasn’t going away, I had to do something. My mother is my mother and I had to do the right thing. I have to admit, that I was a bit scared.

Growing up with mom wasn’t the easiest task on earth, but I lived. Mom and pop did a great job with the three of us. I was a breeze to raise, the other two….well, mom and pop survived. Now today, the other two faint at the site of blood and I’m a nurse.

My sisters are two of the most strong-willed, engaging and hard-working women I know. They are also, great mothers; which has allowed me to be the best aunt on earth. 

It was Mom. She didn’t want to go to the hospital and I had to take her.Well, Barry and I took her.  My mother prefers to doctor herself and she refuses to admit she isn’t as young as she once was. It’s time to slow down a little. Mom isn’t crazy about doctors or hospitals, but she is doing fine. She survived. 

I wasn’t able to have children and I feel like I’ve become my mother’s mother! It was really hard to leave her there. I wasn’t sure about our relationship, but leaving her there made me hurt. I guess that is what motherhood feels like?

She is home and doing better. She is hassling me about exercise class and wants to go to Starbucks for coffee. Says she wants to give it a try and she misses her exercise class. I guess I’ll have to take her over to the gym and I’ll deal with the rowdy roosters gawking at the class from the upstairs windows.

 

Daily Prompt: Competition

What activity, task, or game most brings out your competitive streak? 

Board Games drive me insane. It doesn’t matter which one of them it is,I get angry thinking about them.  Just the thought of pulling a board game out gives my  competitive hormone the kick in the hiney it cannot stand.. Maybe it is the fact that I stink at every board game I have ever tried to play. Or it could be the no good braggers that I play with. Who knows? I’ll just continue to avoid them like the plague.

The only violence I have ever exhibited when playing, was with my ex-husband. He loved to play chess. I know how, but I stink. In one of his rare forms, when he was wiping the board with me, he went too far. I picked the board up and threw it at him. Needless to say, we never played again.

I’ve played Gin Rummy and Scrabble, with Barry, no problems. I do not think we’ll ever play chess. 

Word of the Weekend: RISPOSTE

  • RIPOSTE
  • \rih-POHST\
  • DEFINITION

noun

1: a fencer‘s quick return thrust following a parry
2: a retaliatory verbal sally : retort
3: a retaliatory maneuver or measure
  • EXAMPLES

The lifelong friends always greeted each other the same way: John would point out Gary’s thinning hair, then Gary would come back with a riposteabout John’s golf game.

“Modernism, with its strong Gothic influences recalling the glories of medieval Barcelona, was very much a riposte to the conservative architecture that flourished in Madrid at the time.” — From an article by Andrew Allen in The New York Times, February 8, 2013

  • DID YOU KNOW?

In the sport of fencing, a riposte is a counterattack made after successfully fending off one’s opponent. English speakers borrowed the name for this particular maneuver from French in the early 1700s, but the French had simply modified Italian “risposta,” which literally means “answer.” Ultimately these words come from the Latin verb “respondēre” meaning “to respond.” It seems fitting that “riposte” has since come full circle to now refer to a quick and witty response performed as a form of retaliation
Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/#fVAVQUgZR2zEEr0U.99

I Wanna Run Away!

Please, someone tell me when it is okay to run away. I’m not sure how much more I can take before I crack. 

I live the “Life of Riley“. Honestly, I not sure what that means. Was it a TV show? Radio show? Cartoon? I’m going to look it up. The situations I’ve heard it used in usually involved someone having it made; not in need of anything; someone spoiled rotten. All of the above, at times, can describe my life.

I live in a beautiful home with the perfect husband and family pets. We have one boxer and one fish. One step-son that keeps his distance.

My husband and I are raising my mother. It can be a challenge at times. But we make it.

We are far from well off or rich, but we are comfy. A lot of people today can’t say that. It really hurts Barry and I to see others struggle. We help when we can, but keeping up with medical bills will eat you alive. 

Since 2009, Barry and I have run from doctor to doctor trying to figure my illness out. It is starting to feel like a waste of time. Every time I see a physician, something else is wrong.

Is this a never-ending battle? Is all the running around doing a bit of good? I guess I’m a little tired of being sick. I feel like my life is falling apart and I’m not sure what to do.

That doctor, last week, really threw me for a loop. Just uttering those 2 little words has my head in the toilet.

It was like the day the doctor told me about the brain tumor. “Oh by the way, you have a brain tumor.” That is how he told me. He added a few other things to it, but that was enough to shatter my world. My head was in a spin then, and it is spinning like a top now.

I’m not going to do anything stupid. God has kept me around for s reason. I have too much life left to live to do anything stupid, I’m just trying to write this down to see if it will shake me out of this funk.

I should be sleeping . Big birthday party tomorrow. Going to be a long day, I need my rest. Barry is snoring in the chair next to me as I type. Maggie is snoring on the couch. Maybe I should follow suit and go to sleep. Maybe I’ll feel better in the morning. 

Hope everyone has a good weekend. I’m trying to turn mine around. Be sweet!

Maggie and the Alarm Clock

This morning, Barry and I were awakened by our beloved boxer, Maggie May.

At night, Barry and I are guilty of falling asleep in our favorite chairs at night. We have done it so often that are now set a travel alarm clock, to keep Barry from being late to work.

This morning, Barry and I were all snuggled-up in bed, when that clock went off in the living room. When it didn’t stop ringing, Maggie brought the clock to Barry and dropped it on his head. We have tried to get her to fetch, I guess she has decided she’ll fetch what she wants. 

She clearly wasn’t ready to get up! 

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My New Least Favorite Words on Earth: Incidental Findings

Dr. M, my now urologist, seems like a very good doctor with a great personality/bedside manner. My appointment today went great. The kidney ultrasound is good, with one little issue to follow. Otherwise Dr. M. says my kidney’s are beautiful. Awwww, how sweet. They better be! About the only organ I have left that functions correctly.

What gets me about Cowdens Syndrome is the unknown. Today, I’m told I actually have an organ that is functioning properly, but we need to watch this “one” little spot. We want to make sure it isn’t something forming that shouldn’t be where it is. So, my roller coaster of doctors continues.

On top of the little spot that needs watching on the right kidney. It appears there is an incidental finding on my liver. He would  like to schedule an MRI, to get a better look. So, more tests, more waiting and more unknowns.

I feel like I am fussing about what is going on in my body. I truly believe that Jesus died to save us from our sins. I believe that the Good Lord has a plan for us and we shouldn’t question that plan. My life is in his hands and I am not exactly how to hand my troubles over to the Lord and not worry.

After my appointment today, I wasn’t what I would call questioning things, but I was so frustrated with the news that it brought me to tears. When I got to a private place, I asked the Lord for the grace and strength I need to make it through all of this news. My fears eased.

It is just so incredibly hard to deal with all of this. Today, I felt like the robot from “Lost in Space“.Turning in circles, arms flopping, thinking, “fix me Will Robinson, fix me!” If it were only that easy.