Lost entry & Happy New Year

Well, I guess I should have saved my last post. LOL I thought I did. I wrote it on Christmas Eve, wishing you all a Merry Christmas and joyfilled and blessed 2009. Since I didn't save it or there was an error, I do hope you all had a wonderful Holiday. Ours was as good as it could be. I'd been to the doctor a few days before and he told me I'm going to have to take it easy. To sit down when I get tired, to take a nap when I felt the need. He told me that it would probably take me a good 6 months for me to be completely recovered. So my Chrismas baking and candy making were deeply cut back and I took every shortcut & all the help I could get making Christmas dinner. All of my kids were here for breakfast and lunch. My daughter brought her new boyfriend. Her brothers and dad actually like this guy. Let's hope he's the winner that she deserves.


As for my recovering from last month's ordeal, I have been having trouble keeping down food some time. I don't know if it's the food or my pancreas. The DR said it is probably both. All I have wanted to do since Christmas is sleep. My husband has been so nice to let me. Last night I went to sleep about 10pm and didn't wake up till nearly 3pm today. Plus I slept for another hour later!

Well, that's all for now. Once again, Happy New Year! Love you all.

Hospital

First, I hope you all had a healthy and wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope you were surrounded with love and all the turkey you could handle....and then some. Unfortunately, I barely knew what day it was. I spent it in the Medical ICU wing of the hospital. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Sat, the 22nd I woke up with a TERRIBLE cramplike pain in the left side of my neck on to my shoulder. I took 2 aspirin, just because I thought it would do the besst-fastest. It helped. Later in the day I started coughing & it made my shoulder hurt so I took a couple more. By evening I had a lowgrade fever- took a couple aspirin.Since I am prone to ulcers, I know that I shouldn't take so much aspirin. Hind sight & such. Sunday I was SO sick. Mostly fever amd ccoughimg, but coughing up blood, Rich was practicallly begging me to go to the ER. I told him if I wasn't better Mon morning I would call the DR. I did. Mon a.m. and they told me to come in at 3:30. About 1:30 I started becoming incredibly dizzy. Then I knew something was up. My fever came & went. Tommy & the girls had to take me to my appointment & by then couldn't walk without his help. I didn't even make it into an exam room-they sat me in a chair at the nurse's desk. They started taking my vitals. My pulse was hard to find. My blood pressure was 72/40. Dr asked me a few questions...saw the stuff I was coughing up and had them get a wheelchair & take me directly to the ER (connected to his building.)

Certainly didn't take them long to get me back to a room. I had a flurry of tests. Chest xrays, CT scans, EKGs (more than one) & I don't know how many vials of blood drawn. My son took the girls to my other son's house. My daughter in law (who is a nurse) was there with me. Rich, dear hubby was at the other end of the line-125 miles from home. They can't have their cell phones on while they are on the train, but he was at the hotel, waiting to be called home. The kids were able to talk to him. Chad (oldest son) called this Emergency # and told the Railroad that they were admitting me to Medical ICU unit & they needed to get him home as soon as possible. They had diagnosed me with double pneumonia. The left lung was completely involved and just the top lobe of the right one. Sepsis (blood poisioning).

After about 5 hrs in the ER they moved me to MICU. When they moved me from one bed to the other I got the most excruciating pain in my abdomen. Nothing they did helped. In fact I had the most impatient hateful nurse that I have ever encountered in my life. They finally got hold of the admitting DR who said I could have morphine. It wasn't enough. It took the edge off. I actually heard my nurse talking to 2 other nurses, not 4 feet from me what a big baby I was being and I was driving her crazy. She complained of how bad SHE felt with a headache and how she needed to get away from me. Uhhh...Yeah I was dying. Or I thought I was. And if you're a nurse you certainly don't badmouth your patient where they can hear you!!! I have dry mouth anyway so I thought I was going to die of thirst. They did give me a few ice chips.

At some point and this is where things get foggy, they took me for another CT scan. Then they shoved a form in my face & asked me if I would accept a blood transfusion. Apparently I was bleeding internally somewhere. It was finally found that I was bleeding fro the back of my pancreas & I had pancreatiitis. I had 3 units of blood after they took me down and put in a central line.

I spent 4 days in MICU. Of course, I missed Thanksgiving. I was on a clear liquid diet then. Rich & Tom & the girls went out to eat. I cried. It was the first Thanksgiving that I had not been able to participate or cook in 36 yrs. After a few days of having moved up to a "soft" diet the Pancreas DRs took me off food again because my pancreas enzymes weren't coming down. 3 more days of nothing but IV fluids. They would let me sip water with my pills. I was getting 2 bags of antibiotics a day, IV. They finally let ne back on clear liquids after a few days.

I was definitely better after about 8 days. Still had some dizzy spells. One day I got up to go to the restroom. It's not clear what happened next. My IV tubing was always getting tangled on the pole so I don't know if I was messing with that or got dizzy or what. The next thing I new I was falling. I tried to catch myself, but there was nothing there. I don't know if yelled out while I was falling or after. I smacked my head on that hard tile floor, scraped up and elbow, hit my leg on the edge of the bed and hurt my thumb somehow. When I woke up there were 6 people around me. I was fine. Just had a headache. But OF course they had to take me down for ANOTHER CT of my head. Nothing there. LOL I talked to my brother that night & he said "I could've told then that." Felt good to be teased by my big brother. The day before they let me go home the Dr told me I came close to dying. I don't know about that. All I know is that I was very sick and 2 weeks in the hosp was enough. But I didn't pressure them to let me go, becaue I knew I was weak.

I got home Sun. afternoon. I was dizzy every time I got up & down, but I hadn't had a whole lot exercise. I did walk to the end of the hall & back several times. I thought I was A OK. Then this afternoon...sick as a dog. I don't know what brought it on but to put it delicately, I was bowing to the porceline God until I had no more to lose. I have no idea what THAT was all about. Slept all the rest of the day. Feeling better tonight.

The girls let it slip that I had a surprise at home. I figured the guys had put up the Christmas tree. I knew Tommy was painting my kitchen cabinets because he started it the day before I went to the hosp. We also bought a new dining table & chairs & they'd delivered those. I had to wait till I got home to find out they had ripped up our ancient kitchen carpet & laid new tile. they aren't quite done, but it looks SO good. I was so thrilled. My tree isn't up yet, but hopefully soon.

I don't know how I am going to finish my shopping. It may be a little lighter Christmas than usual. I'm sure the kids will understand. I have a few things left to get the granddaughters, but Tom can go get those. Hopefully in a few more days I'll be strong enough to get out & do a littl shopping.

Well, I've bored you with my story long enough. I'll get round to see you all as I can.

No News is Good News....I guess.

Well, they say "No news is good news." I guess it is. It's why I haven't posted. It has been SO BORRRRING around here. The girls & Tommy are watching the new Kung Fu Panda movie and I'm popping Tums. We had spaghetti & meatballs for dinner & it isn't setting very well.
I'm a bit irritated about Thanksgiving. My oldest son & his wife and kids go to HER family's for the daytime meal. Every year. My daughter (if she is with someone-and she is already.) usually goes to her man's family. Then they all show up at our house that night expecting MY traditional dinner...leftover. I make a daytime meal and whomever shows is welcome. Rich's brother and sister that liver here, usually do something with their inlaws. Sometimes my mother in law and sister in law come here. I never know when Richard will be here until the last minute because he is on call and he thinks he HAS to work that day before & after so he can get that Holiday pay. Usually they try to hold the trains until after 2pm. Mother in law is still in the nursing home & I think Richard's sister is taking their other sister back to Missour. If they will let her out, we will probably get her or one of his other brothers might. We quit having the huge family meal because I don't have anyone to really help me. Tommy of course, now. But before him it was me doing it all with as much help as Rich could give, doing it all. You know, when out kids were young and unmarried, even though MY family lived 500 miles we tried to change holidays. We'd go to KS for Thanksgiving and stay here for Christmas. Then change it the next yr. My mother in law ALWAYS had her dinner on Christmas eve. SOME years we'd have dinner & open gifts with them on Christmas eve then drive all night to Kansas so we'd be there on Christmas day. Yeah. Talk about some interesting storiess. The kids loved it though and my parents especially appreciated it. I don't think my kids would do that for us. LOL
I've already called Richard Scrooge and it's only mid November. HE HATES ALL shopping, but he ABHORS Christmas shopping. If it's something I need picked up for a guy and that's ALL that has to be bought...he will go get it...SOMETIMES. LOL I guess I ruined it for him. I'd put us in debt buying for the kids and everyone and their dog and then spend the year paying it off. He HATED that SO MUCH. I got everything I wanted & I just thought our kids should too. At least I LIMIT what I spend this year. (I TRY....LOL).
Weather has been very Autumnal. Coolish days & very chilly nights. Ater one night when it'd gotten down in the high 30s, the house was very cool all day. I finally wwent & checked the (electronic) thermostat. It has up and down buttons for the temp, right? Well it was set on 50 degrees!!!! Kenzie had been playing with it. Brrr.
Did I mention our sewer backed up last week? It was a week ago yest. I think. Wouldn't have been a big deal but it leaked a little around the seal of the toliet. Oh Lord. What a stinking mess a small amount of backed up water can make. Suffice it to say, I would love to pull up that carpet and put tile in that bathroom, but until after Holidays we're not doing anything extra. Of course it happened on a Friday & Rich had to call half dozen plumbers until he found one who could come out before Monday. Well, the clog wasn't in our line, so he got the City out there and there was major clog in the main in the alley right behind our neighbor to the Easts house. Unfortunately they were out of town & SUPPOSED to be gone for a monthh, but THANK the good Lord, their son came over, smelled the mess & got in touch with them before they left the country!! They had taken the tub out of their bath and just had a stand up shower. So the sewage backed all the way into their tiled bathroom, carpeted walk in closet and I don't know what all. Major damage there. The plumber said that the City would pay his bill, since the clog was in the city main. The City workers came out late that day and they worked into the evening. That surprised me. Just another exciting day in my life. LOL
Well. For rhe love of pete I can't think of anything else to write about. I know I will think of something really interesting to write about at some further date. I will jot it down, so I can remember to write about it. LOL
Hope you all productive weeks and are enjoying your weekend. Love ya!

Hope you all have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving if I don't write again before!!

What to do? What to do?

OMG OMG OMG OMG! THERE IS NO ONE IN THIS HOUSE TODAY ALL DAY LONG! Well at least until about 3PM. Not a man. Not a child. Well....the animals but I can count on them sleeping all day because it's going to be chilly all day. Chili? Hmmmm
I digress. WHAT TO DO? Go back to bed? I can do that any time. Clean house? Screw THAT!Although I am going to have to clean the kitchen. No big deal. Tom did most of the laundry this weekend? I need to go shopping for a new pair of shoes, but that would entail getting dressed. I hadn't planned on that at the present moment.
Could paint my 9 toenails. Go to the store and get flour and make bread and the stuff to make soupl No, that involves leaving the house.
Go Christnas shopping. Online. On TV. Distinct possibility.
Address the Christmas cards I bought yesterday.
Wrap the gifts I have bought.
We bought a new (aftificial) tree this year. 7 1/2ft with 900 lights.

Scrooge (cough cough) will not have a live tree. One year we had a live one & we didn't know how to take care of it. Young, in love, horny. Water the tree? HUH? OMG When we took it out there were needles everywhere. Between one end of the house to the other. It must have take 6 months to dig them out of that lovely gold shag carpet. Ahhhh shag carpets. Water beds. Puking kids in the night. Those were the days. LOL
Hmmm what else. Could watch Season one of something. We buy all these box sets of series and they are still in the wrappers. Sheesh.
Could do a facial. I bought a bunch of new face products. This face I think it's going to take more than $120.oo bottle of deep wrinkle cream and a few other serums, creams and tubes of gunks to help. So far after about 2 weeks the only deep wrinkles it's remove are in the $120.oo worth of bills I shelled out for it. Hubby goes how much did THIS one cost? I told him You don't wanna know." How much do I not want to know? "Trust me, just don't ask." Hee hee. Actually since I am been ultra faithul with this stuff, I can tell slight difference win the wrinkles in the corner of my mouth. Definite lessening of the look of pores. I usualy don't buy that expensive stuff because I am not consistent. I use it a week then shove it off. I've been globbing it on by the dropfuls twice a day. LOL
Facial: 20 min. Leaves quite a bit more time.
If I had a friend that didn't work I might kidnap her and we could go to Hobbs and play the Slots all day. Oh I wish I had of that one ealier.
Well, since I subscribe to about 10 magazines, I think I will use some time to catch up on them. Crochet. I have two baby blankies I need to get done.
If you have me phone number lose it on Saturday! I am SO FREAKING EXCITED about theh Tech Red Raiders -NUMBER 2 IN THE NATION, thank you very nuch. Playing OKLA State. Who are also highly ranked. We are undefeatd and this is getting as close to the Super Bowl Playoffs as it gets around here. It's been YEARS since we've be ranke so high and beating NUMER ONE TEXA S last weekend was SO FANDAMTASTIC. We wsent out and bought a new tech flag. Our other one was tattered and needed replacing. i'm going one of the campus stores for goodies for the girl. Noisemakers and such. LOL We love our Tech FB.
Oh, and one thing i have been meaning to tell you for weeks, but kept forgetting...a few weeks ago our granddaughter Ashley was spending the weekend. She's in Jr High (or middle school). Someone "tried" to toliet papet our trees. LMAO. They barely got any paper streamers in the trees. Then out automatic outdoor lights probably came on & scared the bejesus out of em. They squirted strawberry syrup on some of the paper, but left about a dozen rolls of tissure laying in the yard. Too Too funny. It had to be firends Ashleys. So funny.
Okay,, I'm getting sleepy. I feel a quick nap coming on. LOL
Have a wonderful rest of your week

Squirrely week & Badass Football Game

Well, it's been quite a week and I'm glad it's about over.
MONDAY was crazy hair day at school. Those of you who know us know that 2 of our 5 granddaughters (and one of our sons) live here. So I get in on all the fun that is alimentary school again. This school has a unique way of fund raising. For $1.oo you can wear your hair ANY WAY you please. The money goes to the United Way. One day you might pay $1.oo and get to wear your pajamas to school! One day you might to wear a crazy hat. You see where I'm going with this. Here are pics of my little angels. Tuesday was stuffed animal day. Wednesday was get ready for Shelby's (the one in the jacket, birthday the next day.
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Richard's 95 year old mother fell in her tiny bathroom and broke 3 ribs. She is still in the hospital. She has been getting worse physically & mentally & acts like an angry child quite a bit. She swears it's all a conspiracy. Anyway, Rich has 2 sisters. One lives in MO and has been out here in Texas for monhs. Mary, the sis who lives here, is a retired widow & she & my mother in law were going to drive Polly back to MO. Doesn't look like that is going to happen. They are looking at putting my M I L in a nursing home. I don't know if temp. or perm.

I can't remember what day it was, I think it was Monday morning, maybe lastSunday, I hear the girls screaming & freaking out. I got up to see what's going on. Callie, the huntress cat got herself a squirrel and took in the girls' room. GROSS! Tom was on it and had gotten it into a bag and out of the house. Thank GOD it was dead. Then a couple days later, I'm home alone, having a cup of coffee. I hear Callie's bells. She comes in thru the dog door. She immediately stops at her cat post which has a bed on top of it with her food in it, but this time she ran right past it & hear those bells jingling in song. I followed the sound into the girls' room again & yes, she'd gotten another squirrel. I know they are gifts Callie, but flowers would be SO much more pleasant than a bloody & broken squirrel.I didn't know how to get her away from her.There's usually a man around to handle it. So I shoo her away and the girls have a small toy piano (I know gross). I laid it on top of the squirrel & ran out to get the shovel. I get the squirrel in the shovel but not all the way. I'm trying to slowly at least get it outside before it falls off the shovel. I got to the gate & it fell off. Ugh. Finally I get it in the dumpster. Then I got out the cleaners. Bleach the piano and clean the blood off the carpet, there was just a couple of drops. Callie USED to bring in these birds called grackles. They look a little like a crow. But she never took them all the way to another part of the house. Usually just past the door or in the hall. I hate those birds so I didn't mind her getting them so much.
I feel the same way about squirrels. Yes, they have cute little faces & furry little tails. Well, wait until they chew through the trim of your house & set up house keeping in your attic,tear up insulation, chew on wirings. they are practically impossible to get rid of. There are a BUNCH of Oak trees in this neighborhood which neans a lot or acorns. I must say having a cat that like to hunt HAS kept a lot of birds & squirrels away.
Thursday was Red & Black day at school (our college) Texas Tech's colors. We got looking through the girls' clothes & they really didn't have much that looked "techish." Tom worked Wed night. When he got off at 6am he stopped at walmart, bought the girls black jeans, plain red tshirts, drew the Double T logo & then took them outside & did a light spray of black spray paint over the double T.They turned out great! To keep them smelling of paint, he febreezed them & threw them in the dryer with several dryer sheets. Is he a great dad or what?
Thursday I had a hair appointment. Highlights & a cut. The 3oth was Shelby's 7th birthday. We had it at the Main Event. Bowling, laser tag, pool room, game room, whatever you can think of this place has I think. She just invited just a few girls, her cousins, Ashley & Hailey,my son Chad & wife, Malizza. Us of course. Bowling is paid for by the hour. We ordered two pizzas & 3 orders of chicken wings. (I LOVE hot wings.) They bowled, had cake,opened gifts. Pretty much that was it. Ater the party was over my sons & their daughters stayed to play in the game room.
Halloween. I FORGOT to take pics but Tom has some, so I'll get him to send them to me. I make beef stew EVERY year on Halloween. Doesn't matter what the temperature is. It's just something I've done since my kids were small. takes me rhe better part of the day to make it, as I cook it in stages. Doesn't matter what the temperature is outside. The stew has been a family tradition, since MY kids were little. Of course it was nearly 80 again Friday.


Saturday--COLLEGE FOOTBALL. Texas Tech Red Raiders(number 7 in the nation) VS Texas Longhorns #1 in the nation HERE in Lubbock. Oh God,those are great games!!
Saturday's game proved JUST as exciting. We led the whole first half, then Texas came out a little more fired up! It was looking pretty dismal until the last 8 seconds when Tech through a pass for a touch down and won the game! The fans took to the field with 1second left, so of course we got penalized, but it the game was over. Texas Tech is still unbeaten. Unfortunately I wasn't able to be at the game. We didn't even try to get tickets because when they were on sale, I was still recovering from my surgery & Richard didn't want me trying walk among a nearly 60,000 crowd of people. But nothing beats being right there in the crowd. We used to buy season tickets, but not for a few years, because of my feet. Oh well, as long as they are on TV! Well it's very late Sunday night and I started this Sat. I should end it now I guess. Hope you have a good week.

TODAY IS THURSDAY

Thought I'd write a little and try to keep up with the rest of the world. Been a pretty Autumn week. I think it's my favotie sweater. Monday I went & got my nails done. Did a little Christmas shopping. I want to get it done earlier this year. Tuesday I had a checkup. I had quite a bit of blood in my urine last week, so didn't call the Dr since I had an appointment.Got my flu shot, Rx for some hormones. Rich seems to think that the fact that I don't have ANY female hormone has to do with ny "craaazzzinesss." LOL Hell, I'd been on HRT since my hysterctomy in'88. I figured I'd taken enough. Guess I quit abt, 3 yrs agi, The DR said since there was no real threat of breast cancer in my family he thought I should be on some. So we'll see. I've been having some pretty wild mood swings. So we'll try this first. Rich grilled steaks out on the grill that night. We had a whole steak leftover.Tom slices it thin and makes fajita stk out of it, So that 's what we had for dinner tonight. With all the fixings. Yum.
Rich had a DRs appointment today also. He has been dragging around for weeks. He had that cough/congestion we all had a couple weeks ago. He got a flu shot & a shot of B12. He's going back to get another shot next week. Well, Rich got the CUTE nurse today. I'm telling you SHE LOOKS like a Barbie. And her name IS BARBIE!! When I first started going to this DR I pumped her for all the info. Are you married?
Do you have kids, etc. You know my son Tom still is single. Well this was about 1 1/2 yrs ago, maybe longer & she was still married. So today being the first day Rich got Barbie for his nurse he gave her the full quiz. LOLOL Found out she's been DIVORCED about 6 mos. I think she has a 7 yr old boy. Perfect! So Rich tells her all about Tommy & what a good dad he is etc. Then asks her "Think you'd want a date?"She said "Sure!" Hopefully Tom will go back with Rich next week and get his flu shot when Rich gets his B12 shot!! LOL I told Rich I'm ready to send out the wedding invitations. LMAO. He said WHooooa, They may not have a thing in common.
I lost a paragraph somehwhere. I'll retype it & it'll show up. I KNOW I had more to write about. OH! Price of gas here. I saw $2.56. Cheapest I've seen. If a barrel of oil is worth half what it was, why hasn't the price of gas gone done 1/2 price.
That's all for tonight. Love y'all

OKAY, I'm here. Gimme a beer or SOMETHIN!!! LOL

OKAY. I think I'm here. I'm obviously not a spammer, so they let me back in. But both of my blogs have the same name so I "hid" my AOL Journal that I moved over here, so if anyone wants to go back (I don't know why they would, but it's here. LOL I'm exhausted and if I had any sense I would be in bed. I stayed up late because Tom was home to get the girls off to school. Rich was up and off to a DR appointment, so I decided to sleep in. Richard came in and said, Barb you're late for YOUR DR appointment. LOL I looked at the calendar wrong, but so did he . LOL Thank God I had already showered and only had to throw on some makeup and clothes and put my hair up in a clip, call the DRs office and tell them I would be about 20-30 min late (he's the DOC that I wait sometimes 3 or 4 hours to see) so I wasn't too worried about being 20 min late. Rich went with me (he's such a sweetie) after we got out of there (AT 1:40pm -from an 11am appt)we went to a place called The Cotton Patch. Split a chicken fried steak lunch. More food that any one person should be eating. Got back to the house. Tom was going to pick up the girls from school. I was getting a headache and my foot was aching. I laid down on the couch to watch the Sopranos on A&E. Yes, I'm an avid. SICK Sopranos fan. LOL I usually fall asleep after it's over and the characters are always showing up in my dreams. LOL Ashley (oldest grand) was here for a couple days. She's moved from 5th grade over to what used to be JR High and is now 6th, 7th & 8th. She had her first formal choir concert. They all wear the same dresses...the bodice is black velvet with a sweetheart neckline & the skirt part is I think what you call taffeta, or satina ....it's not shiny like satin. (black also) with a satin ribbon dividing the bodice and skirt. I put on one of my necklaces on her. A cross pendant that has 7 chains. I fixed her hair flipped up all over (shoulder length) and pulled it back on top a little & clipped it with a small black bow. God, she looked so grown up and sing? That child has a voice of an angel. I was so shocked how well she sings. The concert was so sweet. Each class girls' choir sang and the boys are combined all three grades. It was AWESOME. I think the 6th graders out sang them all. You don't think I'm prejudiced? Tommy even brought Shelby (6) and Kenzie (5). They SO look up to Ashely.
I hate it that Chad & Malizza left town and missed this concert. He is on vacation this week and they took off Wed with Hailey and went back to Dallas (there were just there 2 weekends ago). I'm taking Ash to the Airport in the morning & she is flying down there tomorrow. I hope they have a good weekend. Chad said they were thinking about going to 6 Flags. I hope they get to.
HERE it is Texas Tech's homecoming & we are looking at about 4 inches of rain. Think I will stay home and watch the game on TV. I have to brag a little bit. I think 5 or 6 of our Big XII are in the top 20 in the nation. Tech is 7th this week. But they have a pretty tough rest of the season to finish out. I LOVE COLLEGE FOOTBALL. I love all football.
OMG, I just looked @ the clock and it is nearly 2:50am. I have GOTTA go to bed.
Luv N Hugs, Barb

Re-Setting up House

I'm here to tell you I'm moving over from AOL (getting kicked out more like it). I have a lot to write about but still am not to the point I feel like writing. I just want to get set up and let you know I am here and hope that you will include me in your new blogs.
Love you all.....All of my 9 and 1/2 toes and all.

Hugs, Barb