The Great Smoky Mountain National Park

This was the first of the day. We had just entered Cades Cove and these 6 deer were what we saw first. In the picture there are only 4 deer but to the left are two more.














I snapped this picture right after we entered the park. I wanted to capture the fog lingering around in spots on the mountain and the clouds above.














I couldn't resist this one. It looks out over the land and to me is very peaceful. I wish I had actually got out of the van to take this one because the glare from the dash in the windshield shows in this one.














This little doe just happened to look straight at me as I was snapping. As soon as I lowered the camera I thought she would run but she didn't, she put her head back down to graze in the leaves.














These were the last 4 deer out of 26 that we saw that day. They crossed the road two cars in front of us then stopped to play in the field for a moment, at that time Mr. B got out of the van and snapped this picture.














In this picture you can see the house there. That house is the original house that stood back when all the people lived in the Cove. To the left of the house is a Corn Mill where they make corn meal. My mom's dad worked in the mill until the late 70's or early 80's. Today they still make the meal there but it isn't a fully functioning mill as it use to be.














This picture shows the peaks of the mountains with a little snow on them and the sun is peaking through the clouds which actually highlighted it as I was looking at it. The camera just didn't capture how beautiful it really was.














This picture really captured the blue hue of the mountains and if you look real close, you may even want to enlarge, you can see the little bit of snow on top of the peaks.









This is one of the last pictures I snapped Monday, I loved the way the sun was peaking through the clouds to touch the mountain in various places.





In the Spring or Summer we are going to go back and go up into the part where my moms mom was born and grew up, it is called Parson's Branch but it is closed since there have been high winds and some trees have blown down up there. The road to get up there is a one lane gravel road.

I am sorry it took me so long to get these pictures posted but I have been having a huge problem with my allergies and I just haven't felt well.

Y'all have a great weekend, be careful and God Bless!

apologies once again...

Hey y'all,

Sorry I haven't been around the last few days to post the pics from the mountains as I said I would. I have been feeling under the weather the last couple of days, thank goodness it isn't the flu just a bad allergy flare up that is causing problems with my eyes, my stomach, my head and everything in between. I am going to try to get the pics of the mountains up for tomorrow.

Have a good day!

posting early for Monday...

We have had a fairly good weekend. Today has probably been the most productive day yet, all three of my children cleaned their rooms. Let me clarify here, they didn't just go in there and pick up and straighten up which is the norm..they re-organized, threw out things they don't want or need, two of them wanted their rooms re-arranged and we were happy to oblige them..it was like spring cleaning except I wasn't the one cleaning. I am so happy over those spotless bedrooms! Of course this type of cleanliness comes at a price and I am just waiting to see what will be asked of me tomorrow or Tuesday.

I am posting tonight because tomorrow we will be gone most of the day. The kids are out of school for President's Day so we are going to take off and go to the mountains, I will be posting pics on Tuesday. It is only supposed to rain in the morning but we can drive through the rain if that is the case, we are just ready to get out of the house and go somewhere as a family. That is one good thing about my kids, we have taught them that you don't have to go out and spend loads of money just to have fun. Another thing we have instilled in them is to appreciate and respect where you came from. My mom's side of the family came from Cades Cove which is in the Great Smoky Mountains and I have always loved going up there. When we are there I always wonder what it must have been like living back in those days when my grandmother was just a child running those mountains.

I have always had an interest in those that came before me. I guess the interest I have and have always had in "people watching" stems from that. I can go to the mall and sit on a bench and watch people walk by all day long, you can learn a lot by just paying attention to people. As a child I was always asking my friends what they had for supper the night before, if their family eats together and other questions related to routines in their homes. I am sure that I came off as weird and some of them that didn't really know me that well probably thought I was a few fries short of a Happy Meal or that I didn't get supper every night but that wasn't it at all, I was just curious about life in general, every body lives different and I find it very fascinating to listen to some of the habits or routines that people have.

Going back to those that came before me, I feel like a lot of our (meaning as a whole, not just my family) heritage is being lost because people don't have the time or the interest to keep family history going. To me it is the history of my family that made me who I am today. Are any of you like that?

Anyways, I will be gone most of tomorrow but I will try to catch up on Tuesday.

Have a great day, take care and God Bless!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is a day for lovers however, Mr. B and I never make a big deal about it. Instead we try to make it special for the kids because the way we see it we have 365 days a year to tell and show how much we love one another. We don't even go out to eat together at a nice restaurant because we hate fighting the crowd. Our normal Valentine routine is preparing a nice dinner for all of us at home sometimes we eat in candlelight and sometimes we don't. Mr. B and I rarely even buy a card for each other and never flowers because the flowers just wither and die, telling someone you love them and showing them the extent of your love does not wither so I prefer the show and tell.

With that being said, not everyone celebrates this special day like we do so tell me how you spend, whether you and your partner have a tradition or what.

This is totally different from any Valentine post I am sure you have ever read but yesterday I posted about some wall hangings and such throughout my house and I mentioned in one hanging in my bedroom that the flowers matched my bathroom walls. In the comment box Galen wanted to see my bathroom walls so here they are in all their pink glory.














This is just another view of the bathroom. The color didn't come out to well on this one but you can still see the pink walls and the shower curtain is the color of my bedroom walls which is Juniper Berry(a very light green).














No matter how you spend it, I wish each and everyone of you a very special Happy Valentine's Day!

some of my favorite things....

I wasn't sure what to post about today so I thought maybe I would share a few of my favorite things with you. (Please note that some of the paintings/hangings look crooked but they really aren't, I was just holding the camera at a funny angle for some reason and I didn't notice it until I had the pics loaded into my computer, by then I didn't want to go back and re-take them. Also please excuse the glare from the flash.)

If you were walking through my front door, the first thing you would see is this hanging. I received this from my Secret Pal at church in 2006. To me this says all that a person needs to have a peaceful, happy life. I really like this because not only did a great friend give it to me but also because it has that country look to it. (I must have been trying to stand on my head while taking this one..heehee!)


This is the very first painting I ever owned. Mr. B bought this as a gift for me one year for my birthday. The artist, Heath Claiborne, is local and at the time Mr. B bought this Mr. C was a client of his. Mr. B picked this one for me because he knows how much I love the mountains around here and he also knows that I find all of the streams and rivers fascinating and beautiful. This painting was done in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, another reason why it is precious to me.

I love anything Thomas Kincaid so I had to buy this one when I ran across it in October of 06. We had just signed the papers to have the house built so I never took this one out of the packaging until a few months ago when I decided where to put it. It now hangs above my sofa.



Ever heard the saying "one mans junk is another mans treasure"? Well that is how it goes with this hanging. I bought it at a neighbors garage sale this past summer and the mat on it just happens to match the colors in my bedroom. The flowers in the painting are the same color pink as my bathroom walls plus the house itself looks kind of victorian or country and that is the style I went for in my bedroom.



This is hanging in the kitchen. My cousin bought it for me a couple of weeks ago and I thought since I had the Last Supper hanging in my kitchen that I would put this there as well. It is a velvety type material and it is about three feet long.


My mom bought these hot plate rivets for me for Christmas this past year. I already have the coasters and the big cutting board that goes with it but I have never used the coasters, as of yet I haven't used the rivets either. Some things I think are too pretty to use because after a lot of use the color or patterns can start wearing and I don't want these to do that.


My mother learned to quilt when she was young. I have three quilts that she has quilted for me and this is one of my favorites because it is pink and it has a country look to it. I also have a Southern Belle quilt that she made me a few years ago, one day I will display it here for you to see. The one thing about my mom is she actually buys pieces of material, cuts out her pattern sews them together, puts batting then another solid layer of material, then she sews it all together. Her stitches are small and very precise. She made a quilt when I was child called Sun Burst. It took her over a year to make it and I can't remember how many yards of material but it is absolutely beautiful.


This is a chest that a good friend of mine built by hand then took to a local artist to have it hand painted. I received this in December of 06 at our Secret Pal Reveal party at church. It is one of my most prized possessions.









That is a few of my favorite things around my house so what are some of your favorite things in your home?

2 sure things in life....

There are 2 things in life that are a for certain thing, one being death, the second being taxes! Well I hope I am not going to be trying out the first one anytime soon but tonight Mr. B and I will go do the latter of the two. That is right, it is tax time again and I thank God that we pay someone to handle this irritation for us. We meet with our accountant around 5 this evening and I am really ready to get it over with. I do thank my lucky stars that I don't have to mess with all of the paperwork that comes along with owning your own business. I am making it sound worse than it really is because all year long I keep receipts and other needed items separated in their own little files in my filing cabinet so that all we have to do at tax time is paper clip them together and take them to Ms. Accountant and all she has to do is enter everything in the computer and let us know the result. I have been known to procrastinate on some things in life but our taxes are not one of those things, I like getting them over and done.

Going on with other matters, the kids are out of school today along with all of the surrounding counties due to illness or to be more specific the flu. Wednesday there was talk of the schools closing yesterday and today but our county doesn't close at the drop of a hat even though all other counties were already closed, not to even consider the fact that over half the staff at all three schools were out sick as well as a huge portion of the children. The good thing about the situation is that all three of my offspring are in good health with not even a sniffle to be heard, I just pray that all of those that are sick soon get well.

I mentioned in a previous post that I have been having some problems with my computer and that my cousin was coming over to fix it. He came over yesterday and this thing is running almost like a dream again. I will give you all a warning though, when it comes to anti-virus programs I have always used Norton but it seems that Norton isn't as good as it use to be. All total I had 27 infected files and numerous Trojans sitting dormant in there, thank goodness they are gone. I now also have a new anti-virus program running.

It has been short but I have to sign off now, I have to pick my daughter up from my moms. Y'all have a great weekend, be safe and God Bless!

a post on a Thursday?

Tuesday night was a devastating night for four Southern states. Tornadoes ripped through leaving a death toll of 54 all total. The deaths in each state are as follows... Alabama=4, Arkansas=13, Kentucky=7, and Tennessee=30. The worst of the storms hit between West and Middle Tennessee. I live in East Tennessee and fortunately the storms weakened before they arrived in the valley where I live. If you enlarge the map you will see a pink dot with a purple dot on top of it. The pink dot is the county that I live in and the purple dot is Knoxville. As I said the storms weakened before they got here so we ended up with basically just loud thunderstorms that dropped torrential rains and wind gusts hard enough to blow some trees down. I consider us very lucky after what happened West of us. The storms blew into our area just as Mr. B and I were leaving to take the kids to school at 7:15 AM yesterday. The sky looked absolutely awful but didn't turn out as fierce as they looked. If you believe in prayer then I would ask you to remember all of the families touched by those storms Tuesday night.

On a brighter note...Mr. B has been wanting a truck for about three years now but he hasn't been able to find the kind of deal he wanted on the model and make of truck he wanted. A few days ago we were out wasting time and stumbled upon a truck that had him drooling. He and I both are die hard Chevy people, we like other brands of vehicles but Chevy just happens to be our favorite. Mr. B has always loved the Z71 Chevy trucks with one little thing...he loves the ones that were made in the mid 90's. I kept telling him that if he wanted a truck it had to be a king or quad cab because we weren't going to waste money on a truck that would hold only two or three people when there are five of us in this family. We went back out to the dealership where the truck was Tuesday to look at it again. The truck is a 1996 Z71 king cab, it has three doors and we were both surprised at how well this truck has been taken care of in its twelve years of existence. The only flaw that we have found in or on the truck is a small scratch that is about three inches long on the tail gate. When Mr. B popped the hood we both couldn't believe our eyes..underneath the hood looked like it had just been driven off the showroom floor, it was so clean and the truck also had brand new tires on it which is a huge thing for me.

We asked the salesman if they cleaned the motor up and he told us no that the only thing they had done to the truck since its previous owner had traded it in had been to wash the outside after the rain we had last week, the salesman also gave us the previous owners name and number in case we wanted to call him (this was done with the prev. owners permission of course). This truck even sounds like a new one, when Mr. B started it the thing started right up and purred like a happy cat.

The only problem we had was for Mr. B to make the decision on whether to purchase it or not. I didn't think there would be any thought at all on the subject since it was exactly what he had been looking for but Mr. B isn't like most people. The price was below what we were looking to spend and I knew that he wasn't going to get a better deal. This isn't the first time that Mr. B has got cold feet at the last minute like that and I think I have mentioned that about him on here a time or two. In normal circumstances I let Mr. B work situations such as these out in his head before we make a final decision but just looking at him and seeing how bad he wanted that truck put me into motion. The reason he gets cold feet is because he feels guilty about purchasing anything for himself since we have three kids, the big thing for him right now is that our oldest child will be 16 next month and we have promised to take her to look at some cars next Saturday, I know that y'all surely understand that and I agree that it was a good thought but darn it, he has wanted a truck like that for forever. So with all of that being said let me tell you what I done. Before I start, have I ever mentioned on here that I can be very spontaneous at times? Well I was spontaneous enough Tuesday that I now own a mint condition 1996 White Chevy Z71! I bought the truck, that's right the truck is my name only and the only thing Mr. B's name is on is the insurance policy, of course he is listed as the primary driver of the truck because even though it is in my name it is his truck. Why did I do it? Because I love him , he deserves it, and I knew he would have talked himself out of it and I couldn't let such a great deal slide by, he tried to talk me out of it but he knew that my mind was set and there was no changing it.

So below is a picture that I got from the internet of a truck just like his. I haven't had time to take any pics myself so this will have to do until I start snapping my camera. Mr. B's truck actually sits just a bit higher than this one. It doesn't have the lift kit on it or anything but the tires are taller than the one in the pic and that is where my only problem comes in...I am very short so I have a hard time getting into the truck. What matters is that my husband is happy.


















Y'all have a beautiful day, be careful and God Bless!

Tuesday...

The kids are out of school for election day today, of course it is just a little past midnight right now. I have been having some problems with my computer the past few days. One of the problems has been going on for a few weeks however, I have a cousin that runs a business repairing, building, and doing just about anything you can to a computer and he is doing some research on one of my little problems then he is going to come over one night to repair it.

We have been having dreary weather here. Today we had torrential rain for about four hours straight, we needed the rain because we are still considered to be in a drought condition. We are also expected to get rain for the next three or four days.

While my computer is running good I went into my template and cleaned out my blogroll. I had several on there that are no longer in existence. I have actually thought about remodeling my blog again. I love the black background so I am not sure if I will keep it or get a new one. I haven't done that in a while here so I am ready for a new look, I do want to keep the header because a friend made it for me, either way I will have to wait until my computer is completely repaired before I go to remodeling over here or doing anything that will take up some time.

Sorry it is such a short, scattered post but I need to sign off for now. I am going to try to go to sleep. Y'all have a great Tuesday and be careful!

all work, no play

I have been busy for the past couple of days. Yesterday was the day for Mr. B to go back to the sleep specialists for the results on his sleep apnea test. That took a good long time to get through because first we talked with the doctor forever, then we talked with the receptionist about his monthly follow-up and insurance covering the new machine he has to use while sleeping, then we had to go back down to the first floor to Home Medical to get the actual machine and get instructed on the use and cleaning of it. I didn't think we were ever going to get out of there. After the appointment we had several errands to run so by the time we got home it was after 4 PM....where did the day go?

Today however, i have got a lot accomplished. I had to meet with the architect down at the fellowship hall at church to unlock everything for him so he could take his measurements, we are getting ready to add on to the fellowship hall and my husband is in charge of it but this morning Mr. B had a job to do in Knoxville so I got chosen to go down and unlock everything. I left the architect there and went to run a couple more errands then I finally went and washed my van and cleaned out the inside (doing a happy dance and chanting..my van is clean!). I then ran by the bank, drove by and locked the fellowship hall back up, ran by the post office, stopped by the dry cleaners, then picked up lunch on my way home. Once I was home and had consumed my meal I started on my laundry which was backed up a little because I didn't get a chance to do any yesterday. I done something today that I never do, I went into the kids bedrooms and picked up their dirty clothes..yep, that is a sure sign of a good productive day for me because I never pick their dirty clothes up, the way I see it is that they are old enough to find the laundry room and the dirty laundry hampers inside. The only time I do anything in their rooms is when I am vacuuming and that is it, they are old enough to clean it themselves and if they don't clean their rooms then they get to sit in them and stare at the walls until they are sick of looking at them so then they clean and I am once again a happy woman. Anyways, my laundry is good to go now. What helped me make the decision to go in the rooms and get their dirty laundry was because there wasn't much in each room and I don't mind grabbing a couple of shirts and a pair of jeans out of the floor while I am dropping off clean clothes on the bed for them to put away when they get home.

It is that time of year again, Girl Scout Cookie time! Bethany, my daughter started selling them on January 18 and this year they are introducing 3 new cookies. First new one is the Lemon Chalet Cremes which is a sandwich cookie with lemon creme in the middle. The second is actually not a new cookie but just a change to the old one, it is the All Bouts and to me it looks the same except it is round instead of oblong, either way it is a shortbread cookie with the bottom dipped in chocolate or now fudge as the box says. The third new cookie is a sugar free chocolate chip cookie and as usual they look like your normal chocolate chip cookie. All of these cookies are zero grams trans fat per serving, like that is gonna make ya feel better after eating a few, I mean come on..they are cookies!
We hope to sell a lot of them and this year I won't be buying as many as normal because I still have about 5 boxes left in the freezer from last year and those are there because I got stuck with a case of samoas that someone ordered and then didn't want. Anyways, here the booth sales begin on Feb. 29 so I am giving all of you a warning...starting on 2/29 through 3/11 you will probably be bombarded by Girl Scouts anytime you go to the grocery, Wal-Mart, Blockbuster and various restaurants in your local area, it will be that way if the GS are anything like they are around here so ..heads up!

As much as I would like to stay and blog, I need to sign off and go sweep the kitchen, clean my bathroom, unload the dishwasher, and dust my office.

Y'all have a beautiful day!

a beautiful day

It is such a beautiful morning out there today. Yes it is a bit on the cool side but the sun is absolutely beautiful. I was sitting on the couch a few minutes ago watching the weather report and the sun was shining through the curtains, lighting up the house. In the past few days we haven't had that much sun because it has been overcast, we've had snow flurries, sleet, rain and just cloudy days so I am really happy to see the sun so bright this morning. I don't know about anyone else but I am ready for spring, I would like to have a really good snow first but I need to pop into the real world because I live in the East Tennessee Valley and in previous years nothing but rain or sleet gets into this valley.

I actually have a semi-busy day ahead of me today, first I have errands to run for Mr. B, then I have some errands of my own, then I am going to stop by the car wash and clean the inside of my mini-van out because it is in desperate need right now and it is bugging me like you wouldn't believe, then I think I am going to stop and pick some take-out lunch up for myself to bring home and enjoy before I start the rest of my laundry and vacuuming.

At some point today I have to call the kids pediatrician and set up their yearly well check ups, I also have to call an make an orthodontist appointment for Bethany, my 12 yr old, a call will also be placed to the Department of Transportation to set up an appointment for Chesney, my 15 yr old, so that she can get her drivers license in March (***shivers***). When all of that is done I need to make an appointment with my eye doctor because I am having some problems with my eye sight and my contacts and glasses aren't helping. I am not supposed to go back to the eye doctor until the end of March but they are going to have to go ahead and see me. I really worry about my eye sight because it is getting worse at a faster speed than I think it should be. I am seriously thinking about Lasik surgery on my eyes and I want to talk to my eye doctor about it. Either way I need a new prescription because I am getting to the point of not being able to see things that well unless I am right on top of them , that is with my contacts in or my glasses on and it hasn't been a year yet since I have had the current prescription for my eyes.

I am really glad that I am working at home once again. I am on my own time clock and that is so much better. If I get tired of being home then I get a few things together that need to be done around town and go do them. One project that I am getting ready to embark upon is re-painting the kitchen. I know the house is new and I love the color of my kitchen but I have a 10 yr old son that has to touch the walls everywhere he goes around here so I have dirty hand prints on certain parts of the walls in the kitchen and it is driving me nuts. I think I am going to stick with the same color and just put a fresh coat on it. My son is a freak about washing his hands after playing outside, before and after eating, after using the bathroom and sometimes he just goes and washes his hands but if they are dirty he can't help himself, he has to touch the walls. When he opens the fridge he has one hand on the handle and the other on the wall behind him, when throws something in the trash he has one hand on the trash can the other on the wall beside him, when he is entering or exiting the house he has to put one hand on the wall right beside the back door and this isn't counting how he walks down the hallway with both hands stuck out on each wall making it look like he needs balance or something, however , the hallway isn't as bad because normally he has already washed his hands before heading in that direction.

Mr. B is as happy as a little lark now, I finally bought a wok Friday. He has been wanting me to get one for years and I for some reason just never have bought one. Friday I bought one and yesterday I made him chicken and shrimp stir-fry for lunch after church, he loved it and so did the kids, the best part was how simple and quick it was. I am at that point in life where everything you eat is kind of getting old. I have been a Food Network fanatic for years but haven't ever really had the time to play with the recipes featured on there until now. Now that I have my new cookware the kids bought me for Christmas and I no longer work I have been cooking up a storm and trying all kinds of new things plus I have all kinds of recipe books. I have an entire set of Better Homes recipe books that range from yummy sandwiches to weird and exotic foods, those books have everything in them and each book is based on one theme like Chinese , Mexican and so on, pretty much you name it and I have it in one of my cookbooks. I also have four or five cookbooks for kids since Ty and Bethany like to cook, they are filled with easy recipes that kids can do without a lot of help from an adult.

Well, the day is wasting so I need to go. Y'all have a beautiful day, be careful and God Bless!

ice and closures

Good morning! It has been one of "those" mornings and it is only 8:44am so far. The meteorologists kept saying there would be sleet this morning but I don't think anyone thought it would be as bad as it has been. There are wrecks everywhere! We watched for our county to close schools but the closure didn't come so we carried on with our normal school morning routine. As we, the kids and I, were headed out the back door my oldest daughter was first one out. As soon as she hit the steps she slid all the way down them stumbling for some balance because the steps were completely iced over, thank goodness she didn't fall. When we got in our vehicle I called Mr. B to ask why he didn't tell us the steps were iced over because he had been out to start my van for warming and to leave for work.

On our way to school everybody was driving very cautiously to keep from wrecking because there were patches of black ice on the roads. I didn't have a problem until I was dropping my middle child off at the middle school. When you pull in at the middle school you have to drive all the way around the back to the loop to drop students off, the speed limit through there is like 10MPH and I was going about 8MPH when I got on the back loop road, before I knew it I was going sideways. We didn't wreck or anything but it really worried me because some of those cars drive around there like the hounds of hell are on their back bumper and that kind of driving could really pose a problem. We decided that someone needed to go into the school and tell staff that the road had iced over but I was in my pj's still so it wasn't going to be me. Since my daughter goes to school there she decided that since we were early she would go tell them.

So far all schools around us have been closed but ours hasn't. None of the kids are really happy about this but the ice will be gone within two or three hours so I can understand why they aren't closing them. The problem is that we are having a rain/sleet mix. As soon as it hits the ground it is freezing. Our temps are supposed to start rising but as I was taking the kids to school we dropped from 30 degrees to 28 degrees according to the external temperature gage in my Chevy van, that gage is always right on the temp that the weather stations announce. I think that the school system should tell parents that if they are having problems getting their children to school due to the ice to wait a couple of hours and bring them and the tardy won't count against the kid. Mine are already there so I would feel better if they just kept them there since the ice will be gone in a matter of hours anyway. I say that because my kids ride the bus home each day and I don't like to think about my children on a bus going over icy roads also I don't like for my children to miss school unless they are terribly sick or weather conditions are such that it is basically impossible to get there, school is hard enough without having to make up tons of missed work.

So that is how my day has started off. Yesterday was my "FLOOR" day, the day I clean all of my floors and for once I had some help. With the kids being out of school my son stuck around home to help me yesterday. For some reason he LOVES to sweep and mop so I let him help me. I did have to go behind him and re-sweep in a couple of places but at least he was trying and when it comes to cleaning house I will take all of the help I can get.

My son is 10 now and in the past month he has just about ate us out of house and home. We can't keep the child in jeans. We just bought him 8 new pairs of jeans in December and he has already out grown them as far as length goes. When he puts them on it looks like he is waiting for a major flood to come whipping up..heehee! As you know he has severe ADHD, in May I took him off of his meds and he has done really well except for the past month so I think we are going to have to go back on the low dose Daytrana patch just to help him out a bit. His school work is starting to lack more than usual and so is his behavior. If anyone is familiar with ADHD then you know exactly what I am talking about. Since May I have incorporated more "natural" foods into his diet where as before I was making sure that he was eating healthy but those foods still weren't as clean (no chemicals) as those that the natural food stores offer. I will continue to keep up the natural foods but at the same time he needs a little something to help him through. The good thing about the Daytrana patch is that you can control how much goes in to his body.

Well, I need to sign off and get busy with my need-to-get-done list. Y'all have a beautiful day, stay warm and God Bless You!

more changes for us...

Mr. B went to the Dr. two weeks ago for a physical, it was his first in several years. After the examination the nurse made an appointment for him for last Thursday to have his blood drawn, he had to fast for fourteen hours before the blood work could be done. Today we went back in to get the lab results on that blood work and we were very surprised at what they found. We were more worried about his blood sugar level than anything because he has been a borderline diabetic for eleven years now but his blood sugar was borderline as always however his cholesterol was not so good. He had a choice of starting meds to get the cholesterol down or doing a low-fat diet for the next four months, he chose the low-fat diet. We don't eat unhealthy now but Mr. B is a junk food junkie so that could explain the cholesterol problem, they aren't sure if it was passed down through the family either. By going on the low-fat diet doesn't just mean that we are changing eating habits or that it will just be for the four month period, it means that it will be a permanent thing unless we want to bury Mr. B at an early age. I have always believed that when a person changes their eating habits that they are basically changing lifestyles because if they go back to old eating habits then what is the point in the first place. The good thing is that I will be home to cook all of these healthy meals that we will be eating.

Tomorrow Mr. B has to go to the hospital for some small testing on his sleep patterns then in a few days he will go stay overnight at the hospital to have a Sleep Apnea test performed. I am hoping that this goes well.

Since I am no longer working I have been able to catch up on my reading. I have been to the bookstore five times in the past two weeks. If you are wondering why I didn't buy multiple books let me tell you that I did and I have been averaging about one book a day if I don't have a lot of errands to run, I am a very fast reader so I fly through them. Today I bought about eight books and I am hoping to make those last a little bit longer than my previous purchases. By reading this you all probably think that all I do is sit and read but that is not so, I read in between cooking, cleaning, laundry, the kids homework and anything else that hits my schedule. For me reading has to be last on my priority list because I do have so much to do in a day.

It is that time of year when we really start thinking about our summer beach vacation. We are hoping to take a mini vacation soon because we are so badly in need of getting out of here for a few days.

Can you believe that we are half way through January already? I have always heard that time sure flies when you are having fun but I have came to believe that time sure flies as you get older..hahaha. Before we know it we will be preparing for Christmas and New Year's again.

My son is home now so I better get off of here and supervise the homework. Y'all have a wonderful day!

7 Things About Me

James has tagged me with a meme. I have to tell 7 things about myself that I haven't mentioned in any of my previous posts, then I tag 7 more people. I rarely do memes and when I do I very rarely tag other but since this one is different 7 of you better look out..heehee! The rules are as follows.....

Link to the person who tagged you;
Leave a comment on their blog so that their readers can visit yours;
Post the rules on your blog;
Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog;
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post;
Include links to their blogs;
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
7 things about me…

1. I have a scar about an inch long in the center of my forehead about an inch below my hairline. This scar has marked my body for 29 yrs. My brother , age 6 at the time, was playing golf in our yard and I, age 3, was pestering him with my presence and as always I was standing too close behind him. Needless to say he got a 2 for 1 deal when he brought the club back to swing at the ball. My mom still has the three little stitches that were in my noggin.

2. Anytime I mention siblings, I always say that I have two, an older brother (3 yrs older) and a sister (9 years younger). Something that I don't talk about is my sister that was born two years before my sister. She was born with Pneumococcal Meningitis and Hydrocephalus or better known as "water on the brain". Her name was Kendra and she died on January 14, 1983, she was only five and a half months old, I was 7 yrs old.

3. I have broken only one bone in my body during my 32 yrs of life. It is the ring finger on my left hand. I broke it while riding the bumper cars at Silver Dollar City, better known as Dollywood today. I was 8 yrs old and I was visiting the amusement park with my Girl Scout troop. My parents never knew about the broken bone because I wasn't supposed to be on the bumper cars.

4. I had two best friends throughout my school years and I am still in contact with both of them. A and I have been BFs since we were 3 years old. She is only 27 days older than me. B came into our friendship at age 8 when she transferred to our school. I love them both and think of them more as sisters than friends.

5. I have always had a love for water whether I am swimming, bathing, drinking it, or gazing upon it. I think water is the most beautiful thing God ever created. I still can't describe the feeling I get when I see a body of water. As a child my Aunt nicknamed me Flipper because if there was water I was in it and to this day I still take every chance I get to get in the water. Each year at the beach I normally swim more than the kids do.

6. My middle name is Deane pronounced "Dean". I have always hated it because as a child when I heard my full name come from my dad's mouth I knew I was in deep trouble.

7. I love rainy days. I have never been able to figure this out either. I don't care if it is storming severely or if it is just raining, I love it. It must come from my love of water.

So there is 7 facts about me. Now for 7 of you, I think I will go with.....

Jillie
Paige
Shari
BKS
Kaliblue
Ameratis
Leslie

Let me know if you all decide to actually do the meme so that I can come over and read your 7 things.

unexpected changes.....

Yesterday I had time to visit each and every blog on my blog roll and comment. In some of those comments I mentioned that I was no longer working and would explain in a post all about it. If you read my previous post then you know that I didn't make any resolutions/goals this year and I decided just to take it day by day. I also mentioned that I went back to work on Wednesday and that I had a good day..well, Friday I went in to work and was called into the big boss's office and got to listen to a load of crap about multiple mistakes I had supposedly made on Wednesday and that the result of those supposed mistakes was termination. That's right, I was fired! Can you say SHOCK? However, when I asked what mistakes I had made there were only about three or four things mentioned and I wasn't allowed to look at the messy hand written sheet she was going by.

I wasn't shocked because I was fired, I knew that was coming three weeks ago when I called my boss to let her know when I could come back from medical leave, she told me during that phone call that she was cross-training another girl for the office. I knew then that I was toast because there are certain things concerning the hospital that I can't talk about on here (let's just say tight budget and a huge merge and leave it at that). Just to give an example regarding those "multiple mistakes" I supposedly made Wednesday, one thing mentioned was that I hadn't checked phone messages at all. Funny thing about this one is that as soon as I got to the office Wednesday morning I listened to the messages, all 15 of them and as I had time between patients I returned phone calls to every single one and if the big boss cares to check she will find paper trails to each return call I made. Another thing mentioned was that I hadn't ordered file folders for the next day, this one is funny because on Wednesday I had no file folders to work with because whoever worked the previous business day didn't order them..hahaha..the joke must be on me. I know for a fact that the folders for Thursday arrived first thing Thursday morning because I asked the lab techs as soon as I arrived on Friday, see the problem is the fax machine in the office is old as Moses and as of late the transmissions aren't going through but you will receive a sheet saying transmission ok and the number of pages you faxed so you have to call whoever you are faxing and ask if they received it, there is also a paper trail of my phone call to the office that keeps our folders that I made Wednesday. Another thing mentioned was that I had clocked out twenty minutes early on Wednesday, I told big boss that my department boss told me when I was hired for the position to clock out and go home when I was finished with all of my work.

I didn't really defend myself much because to me it would have sounded like begging and because I knew they were reaching and grabbing not to mention the fact that they had already made up their minds, they knew they were reaching and grabbing as well. I was very mad and started at one point to blow my top but instead I pulled that back in and that is when the tears came, the temper had to come out some how and I wasn't going to make a show of myself by blasting anyone out so I let the tears flow. Big boss made sure to tell me that she didn't want me to think that my surgery and medical leave had anything to do with my termination because it didn't and to be honest I don't think the surgery or ML had anything do with it, however I do know that they couldn't have fired me while I was on ML or I could have sued...little do they know I am not the suing type and thank goodness for that because I could sue them over this because they went against a lot of the labor laws, I didn't mention that to them.

I have never before been fired so I never knew what came with it. I was so humiliated that I couldn't see straight mainly because they were trying to make it out like I didn't know my job, they made me feel stupid and unworthy. I immediately went back to my office, gathered my things and said good bye to my co-workers. Upon telling them that I had been fired I knew that some of them had been aware that it was going to happen, others were just as shocked as I was. Once I got into my vehicle a new wave of mad and humiliation hit me because my department boss didn't even have the nerve to sit in big boss's office and face me while this whole thing went down. Who sat with me in big boss's office while I was being fired? My previous department boss and she offered support when it was over.

All day Friday I cried, not because of the loss of the job, it was just a job after all, but because they lied. My one question is why couldn't they tell me the truth instead of making me out to be some bumbling idiot that didn't know my rear from a hole in the ground? I had a hard time sleeping Friday night and Saturday I was out of tears but I felt down all day. Sunday I felt a little better but I was still down. Monday morning I woke up and was home alone. Mr. B had taken the kids to school and went on to work, he knew that I had had a very hard time sleeping over the weekend so he let me rest. While puttering through the house doing this and that I had lots of time to think about the situation and then I felt so much better. Did I mention that on Friday when I told Mr. B and the kids what had happened they jumped for joy? Not because I was fired but because I wouldn't be working anymore, none of them liked it when I was working.

Through all of this I have learned a few things and one of them is that I will not be going outside my home for work any where in the near future even if I am bored to tears with being home, I will remain here and return to all of the work I done for Mr. B's business before getting the job in the first place. This morning when I woke up all the sad feelings were gone, I am happy to be back at home. I will not take working at home for granted again because while working at the hospital I realized that I am not cut out for all of the drama that goes along with working in huge groups. I just don't jive with all of the he said she said business because if I have something to say to or about someone I don't blab it to everyone else, I go straight to the person and say it, stabbing people in the back just isn't my cup of tea.

With all of this being said I have to admit that I feel much better. I don't like beating around the bush about things or just saying a few words on a matter because it makes me feel like I am hiding something and now all of you know why I am not working anymore and I feel better!

Before I go I would like to ask all of you to stop by and give Sal a few words of encouragement. This morning his mother passed away and we all know how difficult it is to deal with the loss of a loved one. Just remember him and his family in your prayers.

Y'all have a lovely evening and take care!

a brand new year....

Can you believe that 2008 is here already ? I can't because I am still wondering where 2007 went and why did it go there in such a hurry ? Did I miss something?

All last year I kept saying that I was going to slow down and enjoy the life that is passing right by me and it seemed like every time I said that something came up and life just got busier then in August I got a job which turned out to be full time and that meant hardly any blogging at all. I feel so out of touch with everyone right now, not just all of you but with my family and friends that I have on MySpace as well. I use to be pretty faithful about posting and reading everyone elses posts but in the past few months something happened and I have just lost touch with everything and everyone around me. I was hoping to get back to my old routine of checking in every day or at least every other day while I was recovering from surgery but recovery has turned out to be somewhat of a problem for me and I find myself steering away from the computer most times because it is too uncomfortable to sit long enough to do more than a quickie post. When I do get on and try to go through my blog roll reading posts and commenting I have to break it up into different increments so that I can get all the way through.

More or less what I am trying to say is that I miss y'all like crazy. None of you know how many times you have gave me great advice or made me smile on a day when a frown was all that would touch my face. Since I started blogging almost three years ago I have made some wonderful friends and I look so forward to checking my comment box just to see what everyone commented about. I have tried for the past two years to send out Christmas cards to several of you , this year I had the cards ready but I just never made it to the post office to mail them, isn't that sad? I don't know why I didn't get them to the post office but I didn't, maybe it was just the procrastinating thing kicking in again and time ran out on me..who knows? The thing that bothers me is that it was all of my Christmas cards, not just the ones to my online friends, I am very ashamed of myself for this because I don't want people thinking that I wasn't thinking of them during this past holiday season.

I went back to work yesterday. I will only be working three days a week now and I am very excited about that because I was just about to get burnt out before my surgery. Yesterday went well and as always it flew by. I am excited about getting back into a normal routine.

I had begun to think that I had left Christmas behind to move on and with that I had brought along a bad attitude to start the new year off with but the more I think about it I am sure that is completely opposite of what I am doing. I think I am finally digging my feet in so that I can follow up on all of the "I am going to slow down" and all of that. Basically what I am saying is the world isn't going to quit turning if my family and I aren't busy every second of each day so we are getting ready to let a few activities go. Life is still going to be busy because that is how life is with three children but I am ready to really enjoy it.

I got a new set of cookware for Christmas that I have been wanting for a couple of years and I plan on getting busy with it and doing some serious cooking. In 2007 we ate more meals out than we ate at home. That might sound good to some of you but I like to eat food that I prepare at home however during the past year time just didn't allow for much cooking and I am not one to do the frozen dinner thing a lot so we ate out.

I am not going to set any resolutions or goals for the year because to me resolutions and goals get broken just as quickly as they are made. So I am going to take it day by day and if something comes up that I don't want to take the time out to do I am just going to say so, no one will die from it and if it makes any one mad then I hate it for them. The past six weeks has really opened my eyes to just how busy we were before my surgery and I don't want to be that way again so I am digging in and not going down that path any longer, instead I am going to find a new path to go down.

I know this post seems like I am rambling and going in all different directions and I apologize for that. I really do have something to say but I am not sure yet what that is. Do you ever do that ? You know that something is coming but it takes a while to get out of your mouth or in this case your fingers? Am I even making sense ? Maybe I need to go sleep on it , you know how sometimes you just have to work things out in your head...that could be what is going on..either way it will come to me eventually. Until then y'all take care !

a good report and a one year mark...

It has been a while since I posted last time so I thought I would get on while I have the time.

First off I went to the doctor last Tuesday for my pre-op check up and that went pretty well. The doc said that I am healing well but not as quickly as I should be, which we kind of knew this was going to happen because something with my body chemical and sutures just don't mix that well so it takes sutures about three times longer to dissolve in my body than what it would take in a normal person but like I said we knew this before hand so it was expected. As far as the hormone replacement goes I am doing okay with those as well, just having a few hotflashes and I am always either too hot or I am freezing to death but my doc said that was a normal thing, she told me that if I thought we needed to go up on the mg we could however I chose to stay where I am with them and let time do its thing, I just thank God that I am not having the emotional roller coaster that a lot of women experience with hormone replacements. I am going to try to go back to work on December 26. I don't know how well that is going to go since I am still uncomfortable sitting but I am ready to try it. The doc just told me I need to take it a bit easier than I have been and maybe that will help.

Yesterday, the 18th, marked the one year since our contractor broke ground on our house. I told my husband it sure didn't seem like it had been a year and it doesn't feel like we have been living here for eight months either.

I have to go in few minutes and attend my sons Christmas party at school. Today is there last day until January 2 or 3 so they are all very excited about that.

We had our Christmas play last Sunday at church and I have to say that I walked out of there very proud of my family. They were all in the play, my oldest daughter had the biggest part (most lines) and she memorized every single one of them, she played a store owner, Holly Berry, who is a non-believer that put out a nativity scene in hopes of gaining more business however she misplaces the baby Jesus and doesn't think it is a big deal until every body mentions it and complains or voices their opinion on the matter. My husband played a street person that is actually an angel sent from God to try and open Ms. Berry's eyes by giving her a message. My twelve year old daughter played two characters, one being a customer with a group of teenage girls and the other being a thief that breaks into Ms. Berry's shop and gets caught. My son played a student that came in with his class and then another part where he is called a bathrobe child. At the end of the of the play Ms. Berry sees the light and seeks salvation. It really turned out well and this has been the biggest production that our church has ever performed before, I am really proud of everyone that was in it.

I do apologize for not being around much lately but I have been taking it easy , doctors orders, and I just haven't been in here in the office that much. I have been reading like a fool though.

Well I need to sign off, it is almost party time in my sons class.

Y'all have a beautiful day, stay warm and God Bless You!

a need to gab a while....

..and since my husband gets to hear me all the time, plus it wouldn't look very good if I were to have a conversation with myself even though I am known for that very thing, I chose to come here to sound off a bit.

Earlier today I posted but I was interrupted before I even got started so I am back again tonight. I guess you could say that I have had a bit of cabin fever the last few days even though I have gotten out of the house some. Don't get me wrong, I have thoroughly enjoyed being at home after working at the hospital all of the time for the past three months, but when one goes from busy, busy, busy to can't do nothin' it doesn't take long for the "I need to get out of here" to kick in.

Oh yeah...before I get started I wanted to answer a question from Lightning Bug's Butt..in my earlier post I had said that Mr. B was taking me to lunch so LBB asked...."Adonde van para almorzar"? To be honest with you we didn't go anywhere fancy or anything. We hit a local grill that serves the best grilled burgers I have ever tasted and I hadn't had one in a while so we went there, I wanted a burger but I am not much for a fast food burger so I chose to go to the grill.

I tried driving today, my Dr. had told me not to try it for at least fourteen days after my surgery and then only when I felt comfortable. I stayed behind the wheel for about ten minutes then I was done for so when we stopped by the bank Mr. B had to take over. I think that is the most aggravating part about this whole surgery deal for me...the recovery time and what I can and can't do. You would honestly think that since I have no external incisions on my body that things would be going great and I would be back to normal but that isn't the case. I am lucky enough to know several women that have had the same surgery done and they say it takes a while before you can go back to normal. I had surgery sixteen days ago and it is still uncomfortable for me to sit on the couch or recliner for more than thirty minutes or so at a time, when I get uncomfortable I either have to lay down or get up and walk a bit.

The good thing about the recovery time is that I have had time to read again. Reading is probably one of my favorite things to do and since starting at the hospital I haven't had time to really sit down and read a book. I had Mr. B take me by the book store today so I could purchase some more books because I have read all of the ones at home. My favorite author, Nora Roberts, just had a new book to hit the shelves and I had forgot that it was coming out this past Tuesday but as luck would have it I was at Wal*Mart picking up a couple of items for supper and anytime I go into Wally World I go to the books so I saw the book, bought it and I can't wait for the second one to come out.

As most of you ladies know, the hysterectomy that I had done was a complete one which means that they took everything and with my being only 32 I had to go on hormone replacement pills. Well..that is going good, I am not having the emotional roller coaster that some women have with them at first and thus far the only thing I have noticed is that I am having more hot flashes or as I like to call them "power surges" . I spent Tuesday morning laying on the couch because every time I got up to move around the room was going round and round on me. I can go from freezing to wanting to take an ice cold shower in about 1.2 seconds, other than that things are great. Thankfully I am not experiencing the "I need to cry" emotion nor am I experiencing the "I want to hurt someone" emotion at odd times and for no reason, those things took place before surgery. I have noticed that I am more calm about things in the last two weeks so the hormone replacement pills must be working.

Can ya tell I am bored because of all the babbling?

As I said in my earlier post, I tried to get around to most of your blogs today to read and comment, I made it to most but there were some I missed so I will catch ya tomorrow.

I guess I need to sign off and head for bed since my eyelids are getting extremely heavy on me, I think I have bored myself to sleepiness!

Y'all take care, have a great weekend!

chattin' a bit...

Sorry I haven' t been around much but I have ran in to a couple of complications with my recovery and I have not been sitting very comfortably lately. I have to say that this slow recovery time is killing me but when it is all over I will look back and be thankful for the operation.

I hope everyone is doing well, I have made it by most everyones blogs today.

Y'all take care, I have to run, MR. B is take me out for lunch...WOOHOO!

HUGS!

a new addition and a Christmas tree...

Hey all! I promised pics of our new puppy, Bentley, so here they are....

This first pic was a close up of his adorable little face as Bethany held him. He really didn't like being held for the picture because he wanted to run and play.














Here he is looking at me after I finally got his attention and held it for more than a nano-second. Yes he is the small black spot in the grass there if you can't see well.....heehee!














Beth and Ty were playing with him in the yard that day so I got a shot of them to show his size. He is such a tiny little thing, the kids absolutely love him.














We needed a new tree this year and I told Mr. B last year that we would be purchasing a pre-lit tree this year because I am tired of dealing with lights each year so Friday after we left Mr. B's brothers house we stopped and picked this up. Mr. B put it up for me on Saturday but it has yet to be decorated because I don't feel like it right now and the kids haven't had time to do it. I think tomorrow night after supper we will make time for the kids and Mr. B to decorate it while I supervise. Actually if you could look closely you would see a light house ornament on there. My friend dropped it by last Wednesday after I got out of the hospital. On the end table you will see a maroon thing laying there on the edge, that is Bentley's new sweater that the kids bought him. He didn't like wearing it so that is where it was put and as you can see I decided to let them do it themselves instead of me picking up after them.














I normally have wrapped presents and gift bags under my tree as soon as it is put up but this year I haven't put anything under there yet, it is all still in hiding. Please excuse the big white pillow on the couch, that is where I was sitting before I snatched the camera out. I forgot that I had that there for my back so I snapped away.











I don't know when I will be back for another post so until then y'all take care!

surgery and recovery....

First of all I want to thank everyone for their prayers and well wishes and I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Surgery went very well. I have no external incisions which is an answered prayer. As far as recovery goes... well it is going slow but it is going. Before I had the surgery everyone at work kept telling me that after three days I would feel great but that has yet to be. I don't feel horrible or anything but I am very uncomfortable most of the time which is to be expected after what I had done. I would come by all of your blogs but I can't sit in this chair long enough to comment all of you. I have been sitting here a total of maybe ten minutes and I am already hurting from it. Soft surfaces are the same for me, I just do much better laying down or having room to find the comfortable spot.

Some people kept stressing how important it is to just rest and do nothing because over doing it is easy and I have found that really annoying because it easier than some would think to over do it, I have already done this three times now and I have paid for it each time. I am not a couch potato nor do I watch a lot of tv but I have moved from the bedroom to the couch and I read or watch tv, it gets kind of boring but it is best. When I am really hurting or just feeling blah I go lie down in my bed to rest but most times I plant myself on the couch so that I can see what is going on in the world around me.

We have a new edition to our family named Bentley. He is black, about four and a half inches tall and about six or seven inches long including his tail. Mr. B surprised the kids Saturday by blessing our family with this cute little fella. The kids have been going on and on about wanting a dog so Mr. B took it upon himself to get them one. He is a lab and something mix and he is the cutest little thing, he is so funny to watch him play around in the living room with the kids. He is also a little snuggler, he loves to snuggle with the kids in the floor. He is temporarily living in a corner of the kitchen while Mr. B builds his permanent home outside. He doesn't really like being inside so we take him out often to play, rather they take him out often play.

Anyways, I am going to sign off and go rest, I just wanted to come by and give an update.

Y'all have a wonderful week, hopefully I can get back on tomorrow and post pics of Bentley and our new Christmas tree that Mr. B put up all by himself!

it's time....

Hey y'all! I wanted to get on and post real quick before I go to bed. I go in for my surgery tomorrow and I don't know when I will be back online, I should get out of the hospital on Wednesday but it will probably be a few days before I feel like blogging. I was going to try to get on and come by your blogs but today has been out of this world busy so I had no time.

Anyways, I won't be around for a week or two after tonight so I hope that each and every one of you have a very Blessed Thanksgiving!

Love,
Heather

just passin' through.....

Hey all! How is everyone doing? All is well here other than being crazy busy all the time. I am having trouble sleeping tonight so I thought I would get online for a bit. I finally made my way through my blog roll and commented everyone.

As far as getting things done, this week has been good. I have a clean house, finally new curtains for my bedroom. After church tonight I couldn't sit still so I took my van out to the car wash and washed it ,vacuumed the inside and cleaned all the windows , I haven't had time to really give that mini-van a good scrubbing in some time now so I was really excited about that. Yesterday we got my daughters curtains hung after having them for almost seven months. The curtains that I bought for my room aren't the color that I wanted but they match everything so I will be happy with them for now. I wanted a darker country pink to match the bathroom since I have accented the bathroom with the light green in my bedroom but I couldn't the right color pink unless I had them custom made and since my surgery is only a week and a day away I didn't have time to have them custom made so I went with a darker green which is also in my comforter and it will keep the light out while I am trying to rest after surgery. Right now we just have blinds up and as soon as the sun starts rising my bedroom is lit up brightly so you can't sleep in there much if light bothers you and it does me. I don't sleep good on nights when the moon is full either because it brightens the room.

I am not so nervous about my surgery anymore, I had an appointment with my Dr. Wednesday that was a pre-surgery consult. She answered a lot of questions for me and that made me feel much better about the entire thing. She explained everything they are going to do to me during surgery in detail and that is what helped me out the most, I am a detail person so I want to know. Some people can't watch their blood being drawn but I am the opposite, if you think you are sticking a needle in my arm then be prepared for my eyes to be on that needle at all times, if I turn my head I will pass out. I still have some worries and concerns that make me a bit nervous but it isn't about the actual surgery, it is about the recovery time. For two weeks I have to take it easy and do pretty much nothing but walk a little each day, I am not one that is use to lying around all day so I am not looking forward to it but in another way I am looking forward to some good rest for a couple of days. One good thing about it is that I am booked solid up until the day of surgery so my mind won't have time to dwell on it much this week.

My hormones have been going absolutely crazy the past couple of weeks which has made me want to cry all the time. Ladies you know what I am talking about , the feeling or need to cry or finding yourself crying when you know there is really no reason to be doing so. On my way to and from work I cry at least once both ways and afterwards I do feel better, it seems to make my shoulders feel a couple of tons lighter. There are some things going on around here that has me all bothered, upset, and a nervous wreck half the time but I know I shouldn't be letting those things bother me, I think maybe right now I am just a little to sensitive to everything around me and I don't really know why.

Well it is getting late and I have to get up at 4:30 in the morning so I need to give sleep another shot. I am going to try to make it back by here before Thanksgiving but if not I hope that all of you have a blessed Thanksgiving with your families!

I miss y'all!

Before I go, here is a little something I received in an email from my sister-in-law. I laughed til I had tears rolling down my face because it is so true. Click HERE to watch!

tomorrow is Friday....right?

I sure hope tomorrow is Friday, it must be because I was off work today. Speaking of work, I am starting to settle into my new job very nicely, I rarely work down in the film room anymore except for about an hour each morning. I really miss the ladies that I work with down there so I am hoping to have at least one day working with them before surgery because after I go back from medical leave I will not be in the film room anymore, I will be in the Women's Center only.

I hope everyone had a good Halloween last night and didn't get rolled or anything. We didn't go trick-or-treating this year for the first time in fifteen years, instead our church threw a huge Halloween party for the kids and they got more candy than they do in two years of trick-or-treating. All of the kids had a great time , they were safe and the parents weren't worn out from running here and there to get candy.

As I said earlier today was my day off. Mr. B let me sleep late this morning then I got up, showered and spent the day running to and fro with him. His business is probably the busiest it has ever been in the nine years since he started it so I had to take what time I could get with him so I chose to run all over Knoxville picking up supplies, dropping off samples and listening to him drone on and on with clients on the phone, all in all it was a fun day I guess, we did have some time this afternoon to do some much neglected yard work.

I have three Saturdays between now and my surgery and we have no plans for either of them nor are we making plans. We are going to take that time to get things done around here that we haven't had time to do lately and I am sure that some of that time will be used to do absolutely nothing. We do have a small cook-out planned with my parents, my sister and her fiance this Saturday at our house since I won't be going anywhere or cooking for Thanksgiving.

Well it is coming 'round to my bedtime so I am going to sign off. Y'all have a great Friday and a good weekend!

a day off...

I had to work on my usual day off, Monday, so today was my day off however I didn't get to spend it like I had wanted to. First thing this morning I went in to wake my son and he complained with a head and belly ache, last night his stomach hurt so I thought maybe he was playing off of that to get a day out of school since he knew I was off but I put my hand on his head so that I could use the "you don't have a fever so get up" line on him and was actually a bit shocked to find that he indeed was running a fever so he stayed home. Mr. B and I were supposed to go out for lunch today as well and that didn't happen. Mr. B had planned on taking the day off but he just signed on a huge commercial contract, 40,000 sq. ft. of hardwood flooring to be exact, this work was not supposed to start until next week but the guy called last night and needed one space done today so Mr. B worked all day long and I didn't get to spend any time with him.

After a dose of Children's Motrin and a few more hours sleep my son was feeling somewhat better and I had to go to Wal-Mart so I loaded him off with me. I got in the middle of Wally World and almost collapsed from sudden pain in my nether regions, I have to say that I can't wait for that stuff to be gone from me. So pretty much most of the day I have spent in pain which worries me a bit because the majority of it is in my lower back and I am hoping that my uterus isn't falling farther back than it already has. I just pray that I can handle it for 26 more days and that nothing eventful happens in that time while waiting for surgery.

One good thing is that I am working a lot in my new position and that means that I am not on my feet much which is a good thing right now but sitting too long seems to bother my back as well. Monday was my first day in the mammography office as a registrar. I was up there at that desk all alone and I was ready to get going then the patients started coming in. It was easy but it takes about two to three minutes to get each patient registered and when you have four patients coming in at the same time even though three of them don't have appointments until an hour away things can go south fast and that is exactly what happened. At one point I had eight patients sitting in the waiting area to go back and about five of them were not happy however they all had their mammograms done at the time they were scheduled. The patients still weren't happy because they felt like they had shown up early so they should have got in early. On top of all of this the computer started to mess up, needless to say I became a bundle of nerves in a very short time which made my new boss giggle like a school girl because she said she had never seen me worked up like that. All in all it was a hard day and I was very ready to come home and go to bed at the end of the day.

On Tuesday the computer was working perfectly and I had no back ups, things went so smooth that we finished early then Wednesday I felt like I had been at it for years so it was smooth that day as well. The only thing I need to learn now is basically just the departmental stuff like what to do with all the paperwork or as they call it "busy work" . After that I will be all set up and ready to roll. Monday I didn't have to go in until 8 and I really liked that because I didn't get up until 5:45 instead of my normal 4:30 when I have to be there at 7.

We have been getting much needed rain around here and it is starting to look like fall. I was worried that all the leaves were just going to turn an ugly brown and fall off the trees but the rain seems to have revived them somewhat.

Before I go, today I received wonderful news. My little sister is getting married. Her boyfriend, now fiance, asked her to marry him the other night. They have not set a date yet but that should be coming soon. I am so excited for her and I really like her fiance. He is a sweet guy who treats her great and makes sure that she is taken care of. Congratulations to them!

Well it is getting late and I have to get up at 4:30 in the morning so I am going to call it a night. Y'all have a great weekend!

xoxo

a date ....

Hey all! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We had a great weekend. We went to North Carolina with some friends Saturday to see a gospel bluegrass band, the drive was beautiful and we had a lot of fun. Yesterday was our Pastor Appreciation Day, our theme was "Old Timers" day. All of the teens dressed in old time floral skirts with matching bonnets, all the men and boys wore over alls with white t-shirts. There was lots of food, music and games.

I am usually off on Monday but this week I get a different day off because I am working in the Women's Center today. This will be my first day alone up there and I am ready to do it, the rest of the week I will be working in the file room.

My doctors office called me back Friday and I have a surgery date, November 20 at 1:00pm. That gives me four weeks to get things done around the house and to teach my kids and husband how to do laundry and all the little extra things that I do. I am not trying to sound like my family are idiots, their not, I am just very picky about the way my laundry is done and I realize that I will just have to not be so picky while I am recovering from surgery but at the same time they need to know how to at least fold clothes and keep the wrinkles out.

It has already been decided that my kids will accompany Mr. B and I to the hospital on Nov. 20 when I have my surgery because they are all worried about it now so I don't want them sitting in class all day that day worrying. I should only be in the hospital for one to two days if everything goes the way we are hoping they do.

I was talking to my new boss on the phone telling her the exact date of surgery Friday and she told me that I would have to give her and my other boss directions to my house so that they can cook a couple of meals and bring over for my family while I am recovering, I thought that was so sweet of her, I have the best bosses!

Right now my only worries about the surgery are that I am dreading the first couple of weeks after. My doctor said that the first couple of weeks are very important and I am not to so much as make my bed, lie around is all I will be able to do for fourteen long days, looking at it right now makes it look like a hard thing to do but I am sure once the surgery is done I will be thinking that it sounds perfect. In a way I kind of wish that surgery wasn't four weeks away because of all the anxiety but in another way I am glad because it gives me time to get things done so that I won't worry during recovery.

Thank all of you so much for your kind comments!

I have to go now or I will be late for work, y'all have a great day!