Dr update

I went to my rheumatologist last week. After all the tests and procedures I have had done, we were finally supposed to have all the answers. I was disappointed when she told me that the muscle biopsy was inconclusive. We still don't know the specific myositis that I have. But the next day the dr called and said that my labs had improved tremendously so the meds are working. It will just take a while for my muscles to figure that out. Anyway I was happy for that news. And I guess I have been real good, cuz I don't have to go back until the end on Jan. Too bad I couldn't just stay home, but I have other places to go and people to see.

Phonie Bolognie

I know that isn't spelled correctly but that's how I wanted to spell it and it is my blog so I can.

My grandsons are too busy to talk to grandma on the phone anymore. They usually force themselves to say hi and then bye. Yesterday I called for advice. Molly told them grandma wanted to know what they wanted for Christmas. All of a sudden Mark needed to talk to grandma. He said hi and told me that he likes me. I said I'm sure you do. And then he blabbed on (On a good day I figure out about half of what he is talking about.) He kept talking and talking and telling me how he likes me. I'm sure what he meant to say is that I like him. Anyway, I was kiuda in a hurry and asked him to give the phone to his dad. Mark kept talking. Finally he handed the phone over. Crazy kid. I think Isaac has figured out that he will get presents no matter what so why knock himself out.

Muscle Biopsy

I made another trip to the dr last week. This time we did the long awaited muscle biopsy. I have heard of people having biopsies before. It's a bit painful but not big deal. They stick a needle in and get their sample. Well I met with my dr and he told me that I would be under anesthesia and he would make an inch long incision and take out a sample about the size of the end of a pencil eraser. That was more involved than I had expected. So I got a ride to the hospital and Trish was going to pick me up after work. It was a grand plan until the dr was 3 hrs behind schedule. It seems that another dr had a complicated emergency earlier in the day that messed up my dr's schedule. So Trish had to sit and wait. (I didn't mind waiting, I was just glad that I was not the complicated emergency this time.) Then the intern came in to explain the procedure to me. He said that he would make about an inch incision and he showed me with his fingers, but he was showing 2 inches. I pointed that out to him. He said no it is only an inch. And then his specimen was larger than the end of an eraser also. When I called him on it, he said maybe he would just take my whole arm. I said he just as well because there wouldn't be much left by the time he got done with it.  I am please to report that I do have 2 arms. One of them has a big purple bruise on it with a 2 inch incision. I see the rheumatologist in 1 1/2 weeks. Hopefully this will mean that I can go a few months in between my trips to SLC.

I was heading home Saturday morning. The Salt Lake valley was enjoying an inversion. The people on the radio said to not breath and to try not to drive. I got in my car and headed west as fast as I could. It was nice to get back to clean air.

catching up

For those who are dying to know the rest of the car story it goes like this. I have my car. I picked it up last Wed. Is it fixed? Of course NOT. The part didn't come in because of the storm that hit us. I was told that I could bring it in Monday and they would fix it. I said, "I don't think so. I have to go to Utah next week and I need my car to get there." Just for the record. It has sat down there for 8 whole days with nothing being done to it. The day they worked on it was the day that I sat and waited while they did it. Mike works with the husband of the owner. He was telling him about my adventures. He said he would call his wife and get things going. Mike said no it's ok.

Mike worked Thanksgiving. We celebrated early and enjoyed left overs. The best part was while all the rest of you were slaving over your feast, mine was done and over with and I totally relaxed and enjoyed 3 days of some good football games.  Lots of close games and Boise lost and Utah beat BYU. And basketball season is here so I can have an Aggie team to cheer for.

Still Waiting

My car is back in the shop today. They have another part to replace and then we will be all done. Once again I took the car in shortly after 8 AM and still don't have a car tonight. I told them several times that I have to have it tomorrow afternoon. I will have Mike take me down there before he goes to work tomorrow. I may spend the whole afternoon at the shop but at least I won't be stranded w/o a car again.

Car shop again

The car shop called me today. They wanted money. I tried to pay them when they finished a couple of weeks ago but they said to wait. Now they want the money yesterday. That's fine. They need to close up the account and they deserve to be paid. So when I went down there, mom (the boss) was there. Wheew. It's good to know she is back. Just like I thought, she was off recovering from surgery. She is working her way back to full time. She said that she needed to be back at work. I said, "no kidding, the place just isn't the same w/o you and gave her a brief account of my dealings. She said, Yep that's why I need to be back. I have one more appointment to get things finished up. I will do it on Mike's days off so I have some transportation.

Did you know

Besides it's conventional form Icy Hot also comes as a gel, roll-on, aeresol, roll, and several sizes of patches. I'm sure there are a few others that I have overlooked.
Just thought you might want to know.

DUH!!!!

That's how I felt when I visited my Wal-mart fabric department today. When I was in SLC last week, it took visits to several Wal-Mart stores to find some particular fabric that I was looking for. Steph even helped me out  by buying some at Wal-Mart. You guessed it. I looked in my Wal-Mart today and found the fabrics that I had been looking all over for. My Wal-Mart never has that much fabric. What are they doing? It did make me laugh.

I've been having some back muscle issues. It has resulted in a few sleepless nights. Not fun. I went to the dr and got muscle relaxers and pain pills. They helped the first night but then the pain returned and I couldn't find any relief. On a whim I decided to try some Icy Hot. Viola!! Back pain gone. Yeah for Icy Hot.

This is from the instructions for the muscle relaxer. "Take this medicine on an empty stomach. To prevent stomach upset, this medicine may be taken with food or immediately after a meal." So do I take with food or not?  

Family news

Guess this would be a good place to give some family updates. For those who don't know, Russ was put in their bishopric a few weeks ago. That should keep him busy for a while. His white shirts and ties are getting a work out.
Grandpa went to the doctor Monday. He is starting physical therapy for his hip. Hopefully that will help him out.
Lance and Molly now live in Lenanon, Oregon. They are managing an apartment complex and Lance is still looking for an engineering job.

I guess I have a couple of Mark stories to share. Several weeks ago, Mark surprised me on the phone. I hadn't talked to him for a while and he very clearly said, "Hi Grandma". I was sure I was Isaac and said "Hi Isaac". He said, "I'm not Isaac, I'm Markie". (No grandma points that day)  OOOPS.  So now when the boys come on, I always say "hi Nathan". So far I'm safe with that. The other day Mark is talking to me and he says "I'm Nathan". What a tease. It is fun to watch their little personalities.


Another time Mark got on the phone with me and said "Hi Ma-wa-win." (Sound it out). I guess we are pretty tight since I'm not even grandma, just Ma-wa-win. Since then he does say Grandma Mawawin. It's fun.

Some Results..................finally

The middle of Aug I went in for my annual "visit all my drs and get everything taken care of until next year" trip. As I have already posted, things did not go as planned since I went a-fib during my upper scope. Since then, between all my doctors (including the dentist) and procedures, I have had 12 procedures. One of them was in Elko. Fortunately many of the appts were done in the same trips. I am finally starting to get some results.

The a-fib isn't a real problem right now but the cardiologist wants to keep a close eye on it for a while. So every 3 months for at least a year, I will be going back to see him so he can do all his tests on me. I am also on an experimental drug that we will be monitoring. So I'm done with him until Feb.

We (they) have determined that I have myositis. I have a muscle biopsy in Dec to determine the specific form of myositis. I started prednisone today and haven't had any nagging aches since then. That is a nice relief. With time, they expect the muscle weakness to improve. I see the rheumatologist on a seperate trip in Dec. Hey but I only have to go over once in Nov. Maybe I should run up to Twin and get my permanent crown put on.

So 2 dr visits and 2 new drugs. Not bad. The good news is that one is free and the other only cost 5 bucks. And I don't have to eat anything but pills. It's time to upgrade to a bigger pill reminder container.

home again

I had 2 dr appts the last 2 days and will be starting 2 new meds. I'm sure there are more to come. More details later.

I arrived home just before 7 and 2 hrs later looked outside to see a covering of snow. I think I'm glad I came home tonight instead of waiting until tomorrow.

Mike's day

Mike got up early this morning and cut a load of firewood. He took the dogs with him. They knocked over the gas can on the way out. Just a little bit dripped out so that was ok but Chewy laid in the gas. When Mike stopped, she jumped out of the truck and was rolling in the dirt. And then Fluffy ran off when Mike was about ready to come home. He hung around for a few minutes and she showed up. He had quite an eventful morning.

I canned another batch of chili today. I have now done 3 batches. That will get Mike through this winter and maybe a few left over for next year. I ended up with exactly enough for 2 full cookers full today with none left over. That never happens.

Back to the shop

I called the shop today to see if my part had arrived yet. (I was sure that it had, but decided not to wait until they called to tell me). Yep it was there. She said I could bring the car right down and get it fixed. I specifically asked if it would just take an hour or so. She said yes. So off I went armed with a book. They did take the car right in. It did take almost 2 hrs. That's OK. They were working on it. When he was finished he came out and gave me the news. The part they put on there did NOT remedy the problem. We needed to order another part. That happens. No problem there. Too bad the part costs over $300. She did not want any money from me today. She said to wait until it was all fixed.
I'm pretty sure that the office lady is the owner's daughter. She needs to learn some customer service skills from her mom.

Earl had a bad pancreatitis attack. He was in the hospital for a couple of days. They got him hydrated and doing ok and sent him home tonight. I'm sure Emily was more happy to have him home than he was. His vacation is over. He is setting up an app't in SLC to get things all checked out. I think he is just jealous of all the attention Ellie has been getting.  

When is it fall? (An editorial)

This is a question that I have pondered the last couple of weeks.

Is it fall when the calendar says it is, even if the temperatures are in the 70's? Not in my book.

Then we had a cloudy, stormy weekend a couple of weeks ago. It was raining and yellow leaves were sticking everywhere. And since I married Mike, I have learned that this is perfect deer hunting weather. That is fall!

But then I was driving home between Pocatello and Twin Falls and then home. First I saw the hoards of green semi trucks loaded with sugar beets traveling between American Falls and Twin. And then I even passed a couple of fields where they were harvesting beets. That brought back memories. I quickly noticed a difference from when we harvested. They dug lots more rows at a time than we did and they loaded into semis!! Now I knew it was fall.

Near Twin Falls, I passed a corn silage pit. There was a tractor driving across the pit to tromp the corn down. Oh, yes, I remember those days. (I could tell several memories that quickly came to mind). Once again the harvesting equipment has been super-sized. It used to take us at least a couple of weeks to harvest our beets and then another couple of weeks or more to harvest the corn. Carl now harvests his corn in less than 2 days. Look at all the fun they are missing out on.   It is now a confirmed fact......it is fall.

Where's my car?

I guess I should finish my car story. I called the shop Tues afternoon. She didn't know if my part was there yet. I thought she was going to check and tell me but she hung up instead. I went down there about 4:45. I was either going to wait until my car was finished or take it home without. The part was not there so I took it home as is. I'm so glad that it is driveable. She was going to call me when the part came in. It has been 2 days and I have not heard anything. Guess I will call her tomorrow and see if I can get it fixed before I go to Utah next week.
I know you are asking why I didn't take my car and run Monday. Well I have had oil changes done there several times and they were reliable and I trusted them. I don't know of any other place in town that I can say that. But that was when the owner was working there. Now the owner isn't there and things are different. I think the owner is home recovering from surgery. I hope she comes back to work soon.

Nevada Blue

Years ago I would wake up to the Elko news. They had an old DJ who was strange but his weather forecast often reported a day of "Nevada Blue". As I have been on my walks, I have been reminded of this and really enjoying lots of beautiful Nevada Blue.

Car update.   I was surprised to get a call from the shop today. She said that they had to order a part and will fix my car tomorrow or Wed when the part comes in. And then I add or Thur or Fri or whenever. I did tell her that I have to have my car tomorrow whether it is fixed or not.

Car Part 2

I called the repair shop. I was told that he was just about to put it on the rack to check it out. Does that sound familiar? At least he said that he has driven it today. BIG progress. I asked if they were lying to me again. She asked what I meant. So I told her that Fri noon I was told that it was about to go on the rack. I told her that I find this to be unexeptable. She hung up on me. Now I may NEVER get my car back fixed or not. Guess I'll be doing plenty of walking.

Not a happy camper

I'm trying to set a record for the most posts in one day.
My car has had a clunking noise in the front for some time. Mike decided that it is time to get it checked out so I called a week and a half ago to make an appt for it. They said to have it there a week from Friday at 8 AM. That was fine. We had the car there at 8 AM Friday and checked on it around noon since we were out running errands and voting. The guy told us that he was about to take this other car off the rack and then he would check out ours. I kept waiting for a call, but got nothing. I called but no one answered. So here I sit all weekend without a car. He did not even move the car! I'm really having a hard time understanding why my car had to be there Fri at 8 AM so it could sit there all weekend. Yep! I can't wait to ask them about it tomorrow morning. And at least why they couldn't call and say, we didn't get to your car today, come get it and we will work on it next week.  It does give me an excuse to stay home and not go anywhere. Too bad there is plenty of things at home that can get me into trouble also.

Papa Kelsey

On my trip home from Pocatello last week my plan was to grab a sandwich from Subway in Twin to eat on my way home. As I was getting gas in Pocatello I saw the Papa Kelsey store. I remembered the numerous times Rachel has told me how wonderful the food at Papa Kelseys is. So I changed my plans. I would now grab a sandwich at Papa Kelsey's in Twin. Rachel didn't even know that the pressure was on her for them to give me a great sandwich. I am happy to report that they delivered! It was a very good sandwich.  Now I want to go back sometime when I can try their pizza.

Umbrella

My life has been pretty boring lately. We did go to Panaca a couple of weeks ago and got Mike's mom a little wood for the winter. And I head to Utah for another dr app't this week.

I was so happy to have my produce all canned and then Mike asks if I'm going to can him some chili while my canning stuff is still out. Well I wasn't planning on it but he talked me into it. He said, "You know it is my favorite thing to eat in the winter." So yesterday I canned chili. I did try a new twist to it. I bought some roasts on sale and made my own ground beef. I watched Alton Brown do this quite some time ago but wasn't sure about trying it. He said to grind it course for chili. I chunked the meat and did it in the food processor. I was surprised at how good it worked out. I will probably make another batch of chili for him and bottle some rehydrated dried beans and then be done!!

When I got to church today I saw a lady walking in under an umbrella. Now that's ok except it was only a light sprinkle and the umbrella was almost as big as a beach umbrella. As I got closer, I saw that a deacon was carrying the umbrella for her. That's interesting. Then they got to the door and he folded up the umbrella. But then he sees me and comes running with his oversized umbrella. Now I'm the dork under the umbrella!
It was a very nice thing for our deacons to do. I noticed another deacon at one of the other doors also. And since I am such a senior citizen, I would get such treatment.

He likes me too

I went to the dentist today to replace a filling that fell out. This dentist got the memo from all my other drs. I will have a follow-up app't. We are putting a crown on the tooth. Why would I be surprised. He wanted me to come back in 2 weeks. I told him that I already have my drs scheduled for about that time. He will have to wait his turn.

I think there was something else I needed to clarify about my heart. When it does it's giggly jello imation, the blood is obviously pooled in my heart as opposed to rushing through my body. This causes blood clots and strokes. So stroke is the main concern. Yesterday was my last day of wearing my heart monitor. I am so happy. I really don't like being wired. I will take TPN and the IV line but heart monitor wires is just too much.

test updates

I did my stress test. I am happy to announce that I made it almost 7 minutes. Every 3 minutes the incline and speed on the treadmill increases.  The first 3 minutes weren't bad at all. I got in stride and could have gone for a while at that pace. Then everything increased. I was still ok for that 3 minutes. Then it kicked up again. I was hanging on to the bar and they told me to stay as close to the front of the treadmill as I could. I started falling back. I needed longer arms to stay on there longer. They wanted to know 1/2 to 1 minute before I was going to quit. I made it about another minute. They shot some contrast in me, then turned the treadmill off. My job was to get off the treadmill as quickly as possible and on to the table so they could do an echo. I stepped down off the treadmill. My legs were so very wobbly. I was having trouble standing and I was supposed to hurry. Then I got to lay on the bed for a while until everything got back to normal. My BP went up to a whopping 128 over about 70.

Next I had my heart MRI. Because of my central line, I couldn't use the cardio-MRI machine. Instead I went back to the MRI machine that I used earlier in the week. I asked for a full body MRI so I wouldn't have to go back soon, but they didn't do that. I finally was able to escape. I go back the end of the month.

For anyone who wants to know about A-Fib. The upper chambers of the heart beats really fast. Like 600 beats per minute. I read it is like jello shaking. I have had 3 known episodes of A-fib in the last month each only lasting 5-7 seconds. It can be caused by stress. One of my episodes was while I was doing cub scout training. No I really wasn't stressed enough to cause this, but maybe I could use this to get rid of a cub scout job. (Let's see, maybe I could use this to get out of other things too). A common procedure to correct this is called ablation surgery. They go into the vein in the groin area and go in and make everything all better. Stay tuned. Oh, and I learned that John Stockton had this procedure done about 6 yrs ago.

I came home and canned peaches and pears. After the last trip I canned tomatoes. Mike wants me to can him some chili con carne and I have some dried beans to bottle. Then I think I will be done for this season.

Stress Test

Tomorrow is the BIG day for my stress test. I am taking guesses for how long I will stay on the treadmill. I think the winner can get super glue (lots of super glue) and try to put me back together after I fall apart from the fatigue and exerting my body harder than it has been exerted in a long, long time.

I think I get to go home tomorrow. And do some canning.

More fun with doctors

Today I got to visit with my new cardiologist. Yep, you guessed it...... he likes me. Let's back up just a minute. About 45 minutes after the time of my appt, the receptionist came to me and 2 others also waiting and told us that our dr was behind schedule. She told me that there were 3 people in front of me. I had a book and figured I'd hunker down and read for a while. My consolation was that it was now 10:45 and I know that no dr misses his lunch, so I would get out before too many hours. About 5 minutes later, they called me back. I just sat there because I knew it couldn't be my turn, the others were still waiting. They called my name again. One lady in particular was upset about waiting, I heard her saying something as I left. (It wasn't my fault). The results of this visit was that over the month that I wore the monitor, I had 2 times that I went a-fib. So now instead of going home tomorrow as planned, I am staying to have a heart MRI done Friday and also a stress test. Didn't I just have an MRI yesterday? At the time I thought they should  just do a full body MRI. I guess we will do the full body, one part at a time. As far as the stress test goes, I did one way back when I was in pretty good shape when I was in college. I didn't last very long then. I'm thinking that anything beyond 30 seconds will be a gravy. I'm not concerned about pain from my workout, because I won't last long enought for much of that. I will keep you posted. Oh and I also get to wear a heart monitor AGAIN. Last time it had 2 electrodes that we hooked up and I wore it for a month. This time I have 7 electrodes and I wear it for 8 days. The 1st monitor just recorded heart episodes. This one records everything. The dr did say that if everything checks out ok, I won't have to see him for another year. My dr adventures continue.

I stayed away from mall parking today. I have the hospital parking down now. In fact, my car can get itself from Trish's house to the hospital and back now. I just have to remember which clinic I am going to.

That reminds me. Today when I was walking down the hall in the hospital, one of Dr Fang's nurses walked by. I recognized her, but didn't think she would remember me. She looked at me and said. hi. Maybe I could have a goal to be recognized in every clinic at he U.  NOT!  

Hick from the sticks

I'm in SLC for dr appts again. I know you are all shocked with that news. Nothing exciting today. I saw the "guru" FAP GI dr today. He told me to keep seeing my other GI dr and that he is doing a good job.

I ran some errands in between dr appts. I stopped at the LDS-BSA office today. Getting there was quite an adventure for me and reminded me why I like living in Elko. The office is right across the street from temple square in a big bank building. I decided to park in the parking lot for the new downtown mall that is not completed yet. That was when my adventure began. I drove into the parking terrace and got to the gate where you take the validation card and then the arm goes up so you can enter. It didn't want to give me a card. I pushed buttons and no card. There was no attendent around. I read the sign, it didn't say anything about how to get the card. I wondered if I was in parking for people with a pass, and I didn't have a pass. I tried to turn around but the arrows all pointed to go in. Now what do I do? I went back to that machine and pushed the button that said "press here for validation card", and low and behold the card came out. OK. There really wasn't anything that said press here but I sure was glad when I figured out the code and the arm went up. Then I had to try to park close to where I wanted to be AND someplace where I could find my car when I was ready to leave. I found a sign that said, "elevators to South Temple". What a relief. That's exactly where I wanted to go. It also led to Deseret Book. That ought to be easy to find again. I navigated my way to the LDS-BSA office and found all kinds of way cool stuff. But I still had one more dilemna. Just before the elevator at the parking terrace, there was a kiosk to pay for the validation. Now I was confused if I paid there or when I exited the parking (providing I could find my way out). After doing much hunting, I was able to find an employee in Deseret Book and asked her if she could help a poor country bumpkin. She told me that I could either pay at the kiosk or at the exit. I have gray hair and Nevada license plates so it's ok that I pretend that I have no idea what is going on.

Another project for me today was to find a post office to mail a bill. I was in luck because I had my handy TomTom to direct me. It told me there was a post office near by. I drove where it told me to go and I sure couldn't see a post office or even a blue drop box. Eventually I did find a post office. Then on the way home, I drove right past a post office. Wouldn't you know it.   

One last funny thing today. As I was waiting for the dr, I heard the couple sitting near me say that they were from Elko. My ears perked up. I thought that was pretty funny.

Salt Lake might be a fun place to visit but it is bigger than I want to deal with on a daily basis.

Dr Who?

I got a call this afternoon reminding me of my app't Tues with Dr. "So and So". (I don't remember his name and couldn't spell it anyway). There was dead silence on my side for several seconds. I didn't remember an app't with this dr. I was about to ask what his specialty was and then I remembered that they called yesterday to switch the dr I would be seeing, not that I had seen the other dr either.

For some reason it seems that I just got back from a trip visiting my drs.

A deal with Steph

When I was in Tremonton the first time, I scoped out tomatoes. One place I could get tomatoes for $10 a bushel if I pick them myself. I picked just a dozen tomatoes to eat and realized that I would have a rough go of it if I had to pick a couple bushels of tomatoes. My next quest was to see how much it would cost for pre-picked tomatoes. The first place I stopped had them for $12.50 for half a bushel!! I don't think so. I went to another place. $11 you pick or $21 they pick. I'm cheap enough that I will wipe myself out to save 20 bucks. Besides, that would buy a basket of peaches. But alas, I had another plan. I called Steph. The tricky part is that Steph doesn't like tomatoes so I would have to make her a good offer. Here's the deal we made. She could visit with Rachel and Becky and I would also take her to the fruit stand for fresh peaches, etc. She also got a fresh peach shake from Peach City. I think she made out pretty darn good. The problem was that Steph got ALL her pay-off before she picked one tomato. Steph was good to her word and we got about 3 bushels. Steph convinced me that I need to make her and Dan some salsa.

Yes, there is a funny story to go with the tomato picking. I drove about half way up the field and then decided to go all the way to the end and go across to the next roadway. I knew there were furrows going across there, but didn't think that would be a big problem. We started bouncing across the furrows. I was going slow to not bounce too much, I didn't want to have tomato juice. I got stuck between the furrows. It took me a few tries to get out. When I got going, I went faster. BOUNCEY. BOUNCEY. BOUNCEY.  I guess it would have worked better if my car were 4-wheel drive.

I canned a couple dozen pints of peaches Saturday. Today I did 17 quarts of tomato juice. That barely dented my tomato supply. Tomato juice and salsa all week.

On my way home, I was able to meet the famous little Ellie. What a cutie she is. She is such a cute and patient little thing. She let me hold her for 15-20 min and then she decided that she had had enough and started crying. Of course she was fine as soon as she was safely with mom again.

Evacuation

It has been a month since my last visits with the drs in SLC so it was time for me to come back. I called my parents as I was on my way over there and found out that my mom was in the hospital  . . . . . AGAIN. It was late when I got in so our visit Sun night was short. Dad and I went home to Elwood. As I walked in the door I could smell gas. Dad could not smell it but said that other people had smelled it before and the gas company had not found anything. Monday morning I could not smell gas, but he still called the gas company. I'm glad I decided to shower before they came. The gas company guy checked around and found a leak in the underground line. He evacuated us out of the house. He said we could go in and get what we needed and then we would not be allowed back in. So I spent most of the day visiting mom at the hospital. They did not get the gas line completed Monday night. The problem with that is Carl needed gas to have hot water in the barn. As of Tues afternoon the gas line still was not complete. There was gas in the soil and they needed to do some welding. Hopefully they got that done today.

I saw my new rheumatologist today. I learned that rheumatologists treat up to 70 different ailments. I like her alot. And that is a good thing because I think she likes me too. I think we will be seeing plenty of each other. Today she had about a liter of blood drawn for tests. She is trying to find the cause for some muscle weakness that I have.

I took my pressure canner in to get tested today (in between my dr visits). My canner didn't do any better with it's dr visits than I do with mine. I was told that they do not recommend that I use that canner anymore until I have replaced the gauge. I have a new gauge ordered. I don't have any plans to use it right away anyway so no big deal there.

Rachel arrives tonight and Steph is coming to join the fun tomorrow. I will be getting some kind of produce to take home to can. Let the fun begin!

Too much like Dad

For those of you who are not family members, you will need a little bit of background information. A couple of months ago, my dad took my mom to the ER. He sat on a stool while they were waiting. My dad passed out, fell off the stool and hit his head on the way down. Besides knocking himself silly, he stopped breathing. Several times the comment was made that it was a good thing he was at the right place when it happened. He ended up with a pacemaker a few days later.

So when I had my little heart episode and the medical people are telling me that I was at the right place to have this going on. It was too weird. Well there is now more to the story. A couple of days ago I was at the family history center. I was wheeling backwards on the chair and kinda leaning back a bit. The next thing I know, I feel the chair tipping over backwards. It was slow motion, but there was nothing I could do about it. I hit the floor and thought, wheew that wasn't bad. And then my head hit the wall. Dang! That hurt. Before I even got up, I'm thinking, "just like dad." But one thing is different. My heart monitor did not go off before, during or after my crash. And I totally knew what was going on. I didn't have a bruise until the next day. I wasn't happy to go through that and not even had a goose egg or bruise as a badge of honor. So the bruise was a good thing.

Oh and another little tidbit of information. I called cardiology to make my follow-up app't. After lots of questions and being put on hold a couple of times, I found out that I need an electrician and not a plumber. I was told that there are 2 kinds of cardiologists. The ones that saw me in the hospital are plumbers but I need an electrician. So I now have an appt with the electrician.

Dog catcher in training

The dogs and I usually go for our walk first thing in the morning but yesterday we didn't get out until the afternoon. There has been a doberman hanging around the past several days. I have had to run it off so it wouldn't follow us. The dogs are always a little ahead of me when we come home. When I rounded the corner so I could see my house, there was the dog catcher and my unleashed and unlicensed dogs running around. I called the dogs to me. Chewy came to me but dang Fluffy went right over to the dog catcher. The dog catcher had dog food to trap the stray dog and Fluffy was bumming food. I had a hard time getting her to come to me.
I did get the dogs in their pens and went out front to watch the dog catcher nab her dog. The dog lost interest in her and came over to me. I sat there petting it. The dog catcher came over to catch it by me but the dog got wise and took off. So the dog catcher put away her cage and was getting ready to leave. After she was all ready to leave, the dog came back. I lured the dog into a corner and the dog catcher got him. I guess I am a dog whisperer and didn't even know it. I even helped her get the dog into her truck. Guess I'm on good terms with her now so she should be nice to Mike's dogs. 

Continuing the medical visits

Sorry I didn't add a disclaimer to the last post. Please know that dispite anything you read on here, I am home safe and well.

Mike called me the day after the ER visit and said that he was on his way to Utah to go to my dr visits for the week. I think he thought that Trish and I were having too much fun or something and not taking things serious. And since Mike was there instead of Trish there are no pictures for this week. Sorry.

Monday afternoon I had a DEXA scan. Nothing thrilling there. Very uneventful.

Tues I got to visit my GI dr. He is getting to know me; maybe better than he wants to. He gives me a hard time. He is a nice guy. I told him about my elevated blood level and my trip to the ER. This blood level is not supposed to be over 125 and mine was well over 1,000. He said that 1,000 is high but they don't get too concerned until it is 10's of thousands or hundreds of thousands. I do have a muscle biopsy in a couple of weeks. We will see if anybody figures anything out from that.

Wed I met up with my GI dr again. He did my scope. This is how it went from my point of view. I walked into the exam room and laid on the table. They gave me some happy juice in my IV. My world started getting fuzzy and spinning. The next thing I knew, the nurse was making me wake up. I hate that. I am sleeping so restful and they start yelling that I have to wake up. Then the nurse tells me that my heart had raced for about 7-8 seconds during my procedure and cardiology would be coming to check me out. (FYI:  I did not walk out of the exam room). 

My app't was at 11:30 and I left the hospital about 5:30. My procedure only last a half hour. I think I might have beat Rachel with that recovery time. I learned that about 2 minutes into my procedure, my heart started racing. I think they called it afib. Cardiology did an echocardiogram and an EKG. Everything checked out fine. They think the epidode was caused by medication. My dr was able to complete my procedure. That was good news. I'll bet he will think twice before doing another scope on me. (I guess I'd do anything to get out of those yucky scopes).  I do have to wear a heart monitor for a month to double check that everything is ok. Those same meds have never had that effect on me before.

At first my nurse was really low key and matter of fact about my heart episode. After my heart checked out ok, I guess she decided I wouldn't have a heart attack so she told me that I had them pretty concerned for a couple of minutes. My nurse was exceptionally nice. When they came to do a blood draw, she came over and held my hand. It made me laugh (to myself). How many millions of blood draws have I had? But it was very thoughful and sweet of her. She also stuck around until I was released. Fortunately for her, that was just a few minutes beyond when she should have quit.


After all that excitement, Mike decided that he had had enough fun for one week and it was time for him to go home and back to work.

Meanwhile, I had one more app't. Thur I visited with my friends at nutrition support. It's a good thing they don't charge by the hour because I was there for a couple of hours. The 1st 15 minutes or so was social. These people have helped me through getting started on TPN and all my complications for over 19 yrs. It's nice to check in with them and they still give me ideas about TPN and other things.

I finally decided that I had had enough fun and it was time for me to go home. But don't worry I have several more app't scheduled in SLC in the next month.

What a ride

Carl has been notorious for Sat the 14th bad luck. I guess that proves that he is a day behind. Anyway, I got my turn with his bad luck, but it did start on Friday the 13th. About 5 PM on the 13th I got a call from my doctor. I have an elevated blood level that we have been watching. She was concerned that it was still elevated and wanted me in the hospital. Of course it was Friday afternoon so we could not contact my SLC dr so he could give his input and help make hospital arrangements.  

My dr and I discussed whether I would go to the Elko hospital or go to SLC. I told her that since I had 4 medical app'ts in SLC starting on Monday, I would like to go over there. I also wanted to be in Salt Lake since this was not a common problem. She had no problem with that but stressed that I needed to get to the hospital soon. In fact she asked if I could leave in like 5 minutes. She was concerned with kidney failure. I told her I would be at the University Hospital in Salt Lake the next day. Sharon told me that I should be at the hospital in the morning so I wouldn't spend all night in the ER while they decided what to do. It made sense to me so I packed up and headed out at 8:30. Trish was kind enough to let me crash at her house in the middle of the night. Thanks to Lance and Steph for talking to me while I drove over to help keep me awake. It made the drive go quick too.

I woke up Sat morning and laid in bed for a while thinking how tired I was. Then I decided that I had just as well get up and get it over with or at least get started.

Trish promised me a ride to the hospital with lights and sirens. She was the siren. RRRRRRRRRRRRR  RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR    RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR  I was the lights (dang budget cuts).  Traffic was light and we thought we could cut the lights and sirens but then Trish decided to run a red light in downtown Salt Lake. We were forced to go with lights and sirens again. We were prepared that if she got pulled over, we would just explain that we were on our way to the hospital. That should have been obvious with the lights and sirens.

We arrived at the hospital safely, but that wasn't really Trish's fault. We stopped to take a couple of pictures.  

We were trying to decide which one of us should be the patient.  It's been many years since I have been in the hospital, but my experience still paid off.   I WON!!!!

Then the wait began. There was a sign on the wall explaining the dress code. Purple is house keeping, red or blue are CNAs or admitting people, white is nurses and black is doctor. We waited 2 to 3 hours for someone in  black. She finally found me!!!  (Yes, our family spends way too much time in hospitals. I'm trying to be serious and talk to the dr and Trish pulls out the camera).  I thought if we were obnoxius enough, they would get us out quicker, but I think my nurse was actually quite entertained by us.

Sorry that this picture is not centered. Molly fixed them for me but this one was out of order so I moved it but couldn't get it centered. (Don't yell at me Molly).

The doctor's decision was that since my kidney function is totally normal, they had nothing to warrant hospitalization. So after spending over 5 hrs in the ER, they sent me home. 

But not before we got to eat. Yep, that is a $1,000 box lunch that I am eating. Trish is eating one also. That's what I got for my $2,000 + visit. Oh and they gave me an IV also.  

This is what I did when I got back to Trish's house. You will notice that I had some company also.

After a rest, I was ready for dinner. Trish was grilling zucchini. I gave her a little help. You might notice the spatula in one hand and the other hand turning the zucchini. Yep. If you use the spatula, the zucchini fall through the grill but Trish insisted that I have a spatula.

I need to thank Lance and Molly for giving me lessons on getting my pictures on the blog. Now hopefully I will get other pictures on here so I don't forget how to do it. Molly and Lance almost wrote the captions on here for me. Maybe that will be a project for another day.

Oh and stay tuned. This is just the 1st installment in my report of my dr visits in Salt Lake. Don't worry about me, I feel fine. I have follow-up tests scheduled in a couple of weeks.

How cold is it?

I took out a bag of TPN this afternoon and it was frozen. I told you it is cold here. I need to remember that when it cools off, I need to adjust the temperature on my fridge in the garage.

I didn't even open my windows today. Fall is officially here at my house. We're supposed to get down to 35 tonight. I'm not expecting much of a harvest this year. Oh well, I guess that's what I get for being neglectfull all summer.

BBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

It's cold! I had to close all the windows in my house and still thought I might have to turn on the furnace. I think the electric blanket will be sufficient and my flannel pajamas.
It isn't supposed to get that cold tonight, only down to 36 or so but it is chilly. I covered my garden. I hope it survives.

GI Dr

I spent a week in SLC entertaining several drs. Stay tuned for more details. My GI doc got to do his first upper scope on me (lower scopes are not an option). He was impressed with all my polyps. I forgot to warn him of that. He also wanted me to see Dr Burt at Huntsman who is a nationally known authority on FAP. On my way home from SLC I get a phone call. It is from the hereditary colon cancer registry (or something like that) at Huntsmans. The girl would make an awesome telemarketer or maybe she was one in another life. She started out saying that my dr requested them to contact me and then proceeded to tell me about the registry and on and on and on. I finally was able to tell her that I was already involved with her registry. Well apparently that was not part of her script so she went back to her agenda. It was very irritating to me. At one point she asked if I knew whether or not I had had genetic testing done. DUH!!! Yes, I would hope I would know whether or not I had genetic testing done. I made an appointment for genetic counseling mostly because I have been needing to update my file with the registry. I sure hope this girl is only the receptionist and that she isn't involved in my appointment or I may have a rough time.

I'll pay any medical bill in my mail box

A year ago a bill from the U of U Med Center arrived in my mailbox. I set it aside and a couple of days later went to open it. (Put off the agony for as long as possible. The funny thing was that I didn't think I owed them anything. Just before I opened the letter, I noticed that it was not my bill. It was addressed to someone down the street from me. Wheew!

Today I was going through my mail and opened a bill that was being sent to collections and this was the first time I had even seen the bill. I was in the car heading to the Dr's office to find out what was going on. As I was backing up I looked at the letter one more time and noticed that the bill wasn't even addressed to me. And it was for the Nevada Diagnostic Imaging not Elko Diagnostic Imaging. Wouldn't I have looked like a real idiot if I had taken that bill in to the wrong office and asked what was going on. DUH???  Dang mailman needs to be more careful.

What day is it

First, I am happy to report that the garden did just fine last night. According to my thermometer it only got down to 44. It is supposed to be warm again for a while. But I now have the tarps out and ready to go back on it when they are needed.

I have my pills in those handy little pill boxes that have the days of the week on them so old people can keep track of all their pills. I am learning that they work best if the old person knows what day of the week it is before they take their pills. I have several incidents to support that. The worst case was a few days ago. It was time for my night time pills. I dumped out the pills that were in the container for the day. I didn't really notice what I was taking and started popping them into my mouth.  Right after I put the second half of pills in my mouth, one of the pills stood out in my mind. It was my thyroid med that I take in the morning. Remember I said this was evening. I took the pills out of my mouth. I had swolled a calium which I take morning and night and a priloc which I generally only take in the morning. No harm, no foul. I knew something didn't look right with my pills. I was on the wrong day and those were my morning pills. I guess my next step is a container that separates the morning and evening doses.

All you young whippersnappers reading this can just wait because your day is coming. I won't be around to laugh at you, but your kids will. And I assure you that they WILL laugh at you.

Frost Warning

It is Aug 23 and we have a frost warning for tonight! It is supposed to get down to 37-38 somewhere in there. Dang! I'm just barely beginning to start my harvest. Good thing Mike came home tonight and told me to cover the garden. I had no idea. All I have to say is it is way too early to be covering the garden. I had no great expectations for the garden this year, but I didn't expect a total bust.

Hike to Lamoille Lake

This is old news but I wanted to let everyone know that I took a hike to Lamoille Lake last month. It was our cub scout pack meeting. We had someone in worse shape than me and several young children besides all the 8 and 9 yr olds so we took lots of breaks. It was a nice, exhilarating day out enjoying nature. The hike was 4 miles up and 2 miles down. Yep! I measured it and I'm positive that's how it was.

geocaching update

After my and Mike's 1st geocaching attempt on Mon, the score was 0-2. Not so good. So Tues I found one that a couple we know did for their young children. I thought if young kids like Jr Primary age) could find it, then we should have a good chance. Yep. We found it. So now I was confident and went back out today. Today's score was 0-2. I was frustrated. These were supposed to be easy caches also. I took my gps to the successful location and discovered that my gps coordinates did not match up with the ones listed for the cache. Mike was holding the gps when I located it and I guess he didn't check it out. I recalibrated the compass. I will go back to my cache that I can find and see if it matches up now. Right now my assessment of geocaching is frustrating. 

adventure

Mike decided we need to go for a ride tomorrow and I decided that we need to do some geocaching. I can get a cub scout award for it. Long story but it goes to one of my ribbons celebrating 100 years of BSA.

So we were looking on-line for some geocaches along our way. We put in our coordinates and the geocaches that came up were in China. Ooops. I think we did something wrong. So I'm not sure where we might end up tomorrow.

We did find a map of our area with geocaches on it. And I was able to plug them into Tom Tom. So tomorrow, Mike and I and the dogs and Tom Tom are going on an adventure. It could be interesting.

For my cub scout award, I actually have to find some BSA geocaches. I can't find any near me here, but I found a couple near Logan so I guess that will be on my agenda when I go to Utah in a week.

Trish, I tried to find one near you, but no luck. It would be fun to have a partner. But we could do some regular ones if you have time.

I won ........ sort of

When I started with my weeding project, I was supposed to start in the front and work my way back. Somewhere along the way I got distracted and did the side of the house before the front was totally done. The worst thing about this is that eventhough the yard looked much better, that's not what I saw. When I sat at the kitchen table and looked out the window, I could see my little patch of weeds. Today I finished off the weeds in front so it is now safe to look out my front window. (But how long will that last).

missed calls

I should let everyone know that mom and dad survived the family get together just fine. In fact they both went to sacrament meeting Sunday. We went to the ward in Logan that they would go to. Everyone should go to church there at least once. It is an old church building, back when the churches had their own personality. It had the old woodwork and organ pipes and a balcony. Way cool!

While we were in church, Mike asked me if I wanted to take the long way home. Uhm, the church was only 3 blocks away from home, how do we take the long way home? Then he clarified, home to Elko. He wanted to go through Preston and Pocatello. I said we could go up Logan Canyon to Pocatello. This worked because that would put us in Pocatello in time to see Steph for a few minutes on her lunch (dinner) break. So we took the long, long way home and got home at 11:30 PM. It was fun (at least for me).

I have to tell a couple of stories about my parents. I will add that I am not the favorite child (but then I haven't been since I wasn't the youngest child in the family and that has been quite some time. I'm also not the least favorite child either so that's ok. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago when I visited my parents, they had an old dial scale. I weighed on it and I said "I hope this scale is not right because if it is, I have a weight problem." Sharon took her turn on the scale and said that it was 5 pounds light. So I felt it my duty to go buy them a new digital scale and I threw out the old one. They didn't say much when I gave them the scale. Later I found out that John had bought them a new digital scale just a couple of days before I did. My parents said that they didn't need it. He and Trish both weighed on the old scale and the new scale and they were the same so they took the new scale back. Then just a couple of days later, I bring them a new scale. When I was there last weekend, the new scale wasn't working very good. Dad was saying, "I wonder what Trish did with the old scale." I'm going, yah, that dang Trish. What did she do with the scale? Then my mom rats me out. She says "it was Marilyn that took the old scale not Trish." I adjusted the battery and the scale worked good again. Hopefully there will be no more malfunctions.

And then I got in trouble yet again. Have you noticed that I'm good at that? Sat morning I was in my dad's kitchen and he was in the front room and my phone rings. It is my dad. He asks if I know how to erase my number from his missed calls list. (This is something that he obsesses over and he is forever calling people when he is trying to delete their call). I told him that I just leave my numbers in there. He said, "oh, you don't know any more about this than I do." I let that go. Then Sunday morning the same thing happens. He calls and said he was trying to take my number off. A short time later I hear him asking Mike something about the phone. I was fixing lunch, but when I had a minute I went to fix his phone. It just happens that he had left the room. I went to missed calls and deleted all of them. Then I went back to fixing lunch. Dad came back and panicked when he saw his missed calls all deleted. He didn't say anything to me but he said that there were important numbers in there. The problem is that he doesn't have any idea who they are from. He had been asking Mike how he could find out who's numbers he had. How important is a missed call if they did not leave a message? If it is so important, they will call back. I'm guessing that next time I visit him, I won't even see his phone. I just hope I can stay off his missed calls list.

family fun

We had a family get together last Sat. The parade went right in front of my parent's home so that was convenient. Becky taught us that if you cheer loud when the people with the candy go by, you will get more. I'm not sure if it really worked or not but I do know that the kids had lots and lots of candy. The cousins had a great time playing together. I'm sure they all slept well that night. Of course they could have been in a sugar coma, also. Thanks to Becky and Debbie and Jenny for putting together a fun day for all of us.

Mike and I stayed with my parents for the weekend. I decided we needed some sparklers to celebrate the 24th and I bought a lighter also. We stopped to get gas on the way home. I pulled the lighter out of my pocket and was going to light it to make sure that it worked. Then I remembered that I was at a gas station and that wouldn't be a good thing to do. Guess that's why they usually don't let me have lighters.

Stay tuned for more stories from my weekend.

I need help

My name is Marilyn and I am an addict.

Before you all jump in with your suggestions for my recovery program, let me explain that my addiction is confined to my home.

Here is my problem. I have become addicted to digging up my weeds. (My dad is saying, where was that addiction 40 yrs ago). I finished with the census a week ago Monday and Tues I woke up at 7 AM. I got up, walked the dogs and then dug up weeds while it was still cool outside. Same thing Wed. I filled up 2 garbage cans and made a huge improvement in my alleged flower beds. Thur same thing. We were going to Utah Fri so I wasn't going to do any weeds but after I walked the dogs I just had to do a few weeds that turned into 1 1/2 hrs. Then I was away from home for 2 days and I was fine. We got in real late Sunday night. I wasn't going to do weeds Mon but I got up and it was raining and cool and I just couldn't control myself. I even worked about twice as long as usual outside. By now my front yard was looking pretty good. The better it was looking, the more I wanted it done. I told myself that I was not totally out of control if I didn't buy more garbage cans. I have piles of weeds because all the garbage cans are full, but I didn't buy more garbage cans. I do plan to take a couple days off, I'll see if I can control myself. I think that over-doing myself the last couple of days is helping to cure me.

dog story

I have made a bit of a dent in my weedy yard. I have cleared out my flower garden spot that is between the house and sidewalk. Now I need to find someone to dig it up for me (it is too narrow for the tiller). And then I will add some topsoil and manure or mulch or something and hopefully get some plants in there by fall.

I sprayed my whole yard today. The garden got roundup, so I can roundup all the produce, the weeds got Weed B Gone (of course) and the lawn got Miracle Grow. Then maybe it can do a bit better at outgrowing all the weeds.

When the dogs and I got home from our walk today, Fluffy met up with me just before we got home, but I didn't see Chewy. When we walk, we go out in the wilderness by my house. The rules of them going with me is that they have to go on their own journey and leave me alone. They generally meet up with me the last couple of minutes of my walk. I started on my weed detail and was surprised when she didn't come back. I decided to check her dog pen. She was in there. That was surprising. Then I saw the surprise that she brought back with her. It was a decomposed, dried out, gross cat. Stupid dog. I was going to leave it for Mike to take care of but then the dang dog started chewing on it. So I had to take it away. The funny thing is that I am sure that that dog purposely avoided me because she ALWAYS meets up with me. And she is notorious for trying to bring prizes home and she totally knows that she is not supposed to.

sumnmer projects

When I woke up Tues, I couldn't decide if it was a day off, the week-end, vacation or my retirement. I did know that I would not need to count my miles or fill in a D-308, EQ Continuation  Form, NV or confidentiality form. And I have special gov't issued pencils, pens, pencil sharpeners, and paper clips. I was given more of each of those each time I started a new operation. The funny thing is that I never used one paper clip. In fact I was told to NEVER use a paper clip on an EQ. I'm not sure what I was supposed to do with them.  So ....... if anyone needs paper clips, I could probably accomodate you.

I have been enjoying my vacation. I get up and go for a walk with the dogs. The dogs are happy about that after being neglected all summer. And then I have been attacking my weeds. Since most of my yard is now dirt, I have lots of weeds. But today I bought, Weed N Feed, Round-Up and Weed B Gone. Maybe I'll spray the whole yard with all of the above and see how it works out. Oh, yah, the lawn and garden will die and the weeds will continue to thrive. So before you think I am being so ambitious I will add that I am all done with my work by 9:30 and then relax in the air conditioning the rest of the day.

I'm ALL Done!

My crew leader got a call that we were not getting our work done quick enough. What a bunch of bologna. They said they wanted at least half our work turned in being finished, right away, or they were sending in a crew from SLC to get things done. She had already turned in more than half our stuff. So she said whoever could would go to Eureka Sunday and work all day, spend the night and work Monday and finish things up. We ended up with 3 enumerators and a CL and CLA (bosses, who also did some work on the street). I didn't get there until after 5. When I checked into the motel I was told that I was supposed to be there by 4:00 to keep my room. Nobody had told me that and I had never heard that from a motel before. Oh well. Then she asked me if I would be seeing by boss. I told her yes, I was heading there right now. She told me to tell her that our credit card was not authorized so our rooms were not paid for. She also told me that they could call the sherrif in the morning and he could haul us all off. I delivered the message. Then I was told that this desk clerk had hassled the census workers other times they had stayed there. My boss made a couple of calls to get a new credit card number. It seems that since it was Sunday, they people that she needed to talk to were not answering their phones. We all joked about siting in jail together. At 9:30 Monday morning the credit card was still not straightened out, so we all took off before our boss so she could take the heat for the rest of us. After all, we all had to work.

My boss went down to talk to tell the clerk that she would have another credit card number to them in the morning. After my boss was out of sight she heard the clerk tell some other customers standing there that it doesn't matter who you are, you still have to pay for your room. Well, Duh, I'm pretty sure that the gov't is going to pay for our rooms. Later that night one of my co-workers went down and asked if she could get a yogurt. (They serve them for breakfast so they had some). The co-worker explained that she wasn't feeling well and needed something to eat. And it is Eureka, there was nothing else open. Well "Miss Personality" at the desk said that things like that would only be available to paying customers.

Sunday I did some homes in downtown Eureka again. This time I was in an area where most of the houses were obviously vacant. There were very few house numbers to be seen and no one lived around there to help me out. What a mess.

I thought I would spend a quiet night in my room and get to sleep early. Well I was with my CL and CLA until 10:30 finishing paperwork. They got wound up and I had to inform them that I am a good little Mormon girl. If they didn't already know that, they weren't suprised, (I guess that is good). Then I opened the desk drawer and there was a Book of Mormon. It was so funny. I threatened to convert them.

Then another worker came and we talked for another hour or so.  The next day I found out that the other lady that came in is a Mormon also.

Monday I went out to one ranch and then we were done and we all headed home. And then I turned in all my stuff. I am officially DONE.

I realized that I have mostly told stories about bad encounters with the census. I did have some fun ones. My favorites were the ranchers. Most of them were very friendly. The one today saw me drive up and left his work in the field to come talk to me. I apologized for taking him away from his work. He said that was ok. Our interview took less that 5 minutes. When we were done, he said that I was too quick, now he would have to go back to work.

I stopped at another ranch and the lady invited me in to the kitchen table. That is very helpful for writing things down. She apologized for the mess. She said she had just got in from the fields. (Her house was cleaner than mine, but that isn't saying much). Anyway as we were visiting, she got up and took biscuits out of the oven. I commented that she came in from the fields and baked biscuits. How old fashioned is that. It just felt good.

Eureka

Yesterday I worked in Eureka. It is 120 miles from my house. I was working in town. I learned in a quick hurry that most of the homes there don't have house numbers on them. That makes things very interesting. I took my Tom Tom and it was usually helpful. It took me right to one of my houses that didn't have a number on it.

The funniest thing that happened yesterday is that there was a vacant house. I went to the house next door to it to have them tell me if anyone was living there Apr 1. One of my co-workers opened the door. She invited me in and gave me lots of help. She answered for most of the addresses that I had. And by looking at her walls, I soon learned that she is LDS also. We had quite a visit .  . . . and then I decided that I had better get back to work.

Today I was back in Eureka. This time I was doing ranches just out of town. I knew by my maps exactly where I needed to go but after I got out there, I found out that the roads going east and west are marked but the ones going north and south are not. Fortunately my GPS figured out the roads for me and did good most of the time. Once it wanted me to turn about 100 yds after the road. Another time it wanted me to turn right but there was no road in sight to turn right on. That was when I was on my way home so I knew where I was going.

I have to tell about one house I stopped at. The lady answered the door and I was trying to determine if her house was the one on my list. The ranchers don't have street addresses, just box numbers. And then I have to go by the descriptions that I have been given and I have already documented how interesting they might be. (Actually today's descriptions were pretty good). So I'm talking to this lady and someone else came, so she went to talk to him and then her husband came out. He told me that I was looking for his house but he had already sent in his census from his other house. I told him that was good  but I needed him to answer a few questions for me. He wasn't very happy. I asked if he lived there on Apr 1. He said "yes" (I think). I asked if this was a seasonal home. He said "yes". I said "great, now I just need your name saying that you gave me this info." Then he got agitated again or was that more agitated still. He's worried that I'm trying to count him twice and I wasn't. I just needed the name of the person I interviewed. So I was walking to my truck and his wife was walking toward me so I started asking for her name. The guy came around the corner and tells her, she (me) doesn't need to know anything else. And told me I was trespassing. I decided it might be time to leave. I drove down the street and got the information I needed from his neighbor. The fun never ends.

crazy people

Here's my latest census story. I went out yesterday. There were census people out over a year ago doing map spots. They were to put a spot on a map for each living residence. From things that I have seen, I think some of them were smoking pot or something. Yesterday I went out and there was 1 map spot but 4 houses (each house is supposed to have it's own map spot. They were labeled A, B C and D and a little description was given. I had to follow up on 3 of these residents. But the problem was, which 3. The description went something like this, a large cream house with an attached garage. And a gray house with an uncovered wooden deck.  There was a small gray house with a large detached garage and a large tan house with an uncovered deck. There was no attached garage in sight. My Crew Leader came out to give me advise. She said do that house for this one and that other house for the other one.

I expect tomorrow to be another fun packed day. I get to go to Eureka. At least there are city streets for most of my places and not ranches. Well, expect for the 2 along the way that say they are on the highway and gives a description of the houses. Uhm, that highway goes for 80 miles and they are not right on the highway. Good luck to me on those. I don't think Tom Tom can even help out.

census again

I started work for the census again. Those people are still crazy. I had training on July 1. It was supposed to be for 4 hrs. We started late and then messed around and over an hour later we started the training. We were given a booklet to tell us the things to cross off in our manuals. I could have done that on my own. About half way through our training we stopped to fill in our time sheets. And that took over a half hour. I don't get why people have such a problem writing down what time they started and ended work and how many miles they drove. For training, we were even told the answers. And then it was time for a half hour break.Then we were told that we almost didn't meet for the training, but there is a stash of money in Washington DC and we had this training so we could get our share of the stash.

We completed the training and then waited and waited for the binders to get here. I had a dr app't Fri morning July 9 at 10. Thur night at 8:30 I told Mike, I guess I won't work this week. I got a call at 9 that the binders are here and we were meeting at 9 Fri morning. My crew leader told me that I could meet up with her later in the day so I could go to the dr. After the app't I called her she said that they had run into a problem and I would have to wait to get my binder. So Sat I met up with her. We are going back to places that had been reported as being vacant on April 1st from the last census job. I thought it was really stupid that we were going back to places because I knew I did mine right the first time and I assumed everyone else would also. Well I was very interested to find out that my 1st binder had 5 addresses in it and on my 1st visit I found out that all of them had been occupied on Apr 1.  And Lance gave me a bit of grief about a lady that he knows that worked with me. He told me that she beat me about 10 to 1 on completed forms. Well Lance. I was redoing one of her binders. In her defense, she was following up on someone else's job, and I know that she did clean some up and I was surprised that she missed these.

My mom used to say "don't egg them on" when we were growing up and encouraging craziness from a sibling. So now some of you leave comments that "egg me on" so I guess I'll keep going with the craziness.

Home Again

I went to Logan to visit my parents for a few days. The update on them is that Dad is very sore with his broken ribs and Mom is not feeling very good. I was with them Sat-Tues. Mom battled nausea every day but Sat. By early afternoon she was able to hold down some broth and crackers and then she ate a little dinner later on. She's really having a rough time.

Russ and John helped Dad get signed up with home health (He won't be able to drive for over 2 wks. He's not up to driving now anyway, but don't tell him that.) Mom is signed up with Hospice. One great advantage to this is they will do her blood draws and some "dr" stuff. That will help her to be able to stay home more. I took them to dr app'ts Tues. She was not up to that at all.

I also got to go to the temple when Russ and Sharon did Jami's temple work. Actually Julie and Sharon did her work but Russ was there too. What a great day!

I have to throw in one bit of humor. I went to the McDonald's drive through. I ordered a 3 piece chicken strips and a cup of ice water. The screen showed the chicken for $3.40, a bottle of water free and a med coke for something like $1.75. I told her that I didn't want a coke. She said that that was how she had to bill the ice water. But wait; the bottled water was free! She said that it was complimentary. So after some discussion and some different things popping up on my screen we finally ended up with the 3 piece chicken for 3.40 and a free bottled water and I was sure that the total showed up as 3.68. I got to the window and she asked if I wanted fries. I said no and she said my total was 3.88. I said wait a minute does it cost .20 more to not have fries. She said yes. I said, then give me the dang fries. Then she says that then my total would be 4 something. By now I am really confused and just wanted to get my chicken strips and water and get out of there. And I'm guessing that when I drove away she was thinking what a whacky lady. Yes, I have ordered from a drive through before and never had this much fun. I wondered if I was in the middle of an Abbott and Costello dialog (Who's on first)or where was the hidden camera? It was strange.

Recovery

I think I am mostly recovered from Wood Badge. Wheew. I didn't think the recovery would be that difficult. And since my visiting teachers came yesterday so I cleaned my front room for them and then Jim and his wife came today (details to follow) so I cleaned my kitchen and bathroom. My house is almost livable again.

Now I am on my way to visit my parents tomorrow. I will stay for a few days and help them out a bit.

I got the most awesome phone call this afternoon. One of my Wood Badge buddies called and said that he was on his way through Elko. He and his wife had dinner with us. Mike was happy because then he actually got dinner. And Jim and I had a nice visit. He was soooooo kind to me at wood badge. He carried my chair for me and even packed around my TPN bag for me. What a guy. I owe him a lot more than a dinner.

Here's the funny part. There is a Wood Badge song that sticks in your head. I was just getting it out of my head and then after talking to Jim, the darn song jumped back into my head. The funny thing is that when Jim got out of his car he was singing the Wood Badge song. He had been singing it all afternoon also. When Debbie and I were driving home from wood badge I kept humming it. Debbie commented on the wood badge song. I told her that it is almost as bad as the Latter-Day Prophet primary song. Then she had that one stuck in her head. I just laughed.

Don't stop now

To all those who kept praying that I would get through Wood Badge, don't stop now. The power of your prayers got me through Wood Badge but now I have the recovery left. I fill fine, just tired.

Wood Badge was amazing. I would highly recommend it to everyone. It is indescribable and I hope I remember it for the rest of my life.

There were lots of comments of the last day of how we knew we were grouped up with certain people for a reason. Then we were told that some people did not go in their assigned groups. I would really like to know who changed.

We had 5 women and 25 guys in the course. It is interesting that all the women were from the Elko area. The vast majority of participants and staff at Wood Badge were LDS. There was a guy in my group who is an engineer for NASA. He was a cool guy and a great asset to our group; especially when it came time to fly rockets. There was a guy there from Alaska. He was involved in a horrible accident at the 2005 Jamboree. He miraculously survived being electrocuted. 4 of his fellow scout leaders were killed. I wish I could have got to know him.

One of the guys in my group, Jim, became my guardian angel. He was so kind to walk slow with me and he even carried my TPN bag for me along with anything else I was carrying. All the guys in my group were good to help me out. I told Lance that they were treating me like I was a pregnant lady.

And a bit of news for my friends. I had my cell phone off at camp. I would occasionally check for messages. I was saving the battery. Fri afternoon I decided to turn my phone on for a bit hoping that Mike would call. It wasn't long until my phone rang. It was my sister. She told me mom was admitted to the hospital to drain fluid  off her lungs. My dad was sitting in the hall on a stool. He passed out, fell off and got a concussion. He was admited to the hospital also.  After tests were completed,  it was discovered that he has been having some heart episodes for some time now. He was transported to Ogden Sat and had a pace maker put in today. Mom is doing better and was released yesterday. Last I heard Dad was doing good and should be released tomorrow. I had no idea that me going to Wood Badge would put both my parents in the hospital.

I got home late Sat night. Mike was supposed to come home Sun night but he showed up Sunday afternoon with a fancy splint on his finger. He had been at the hospital also. Some big thing dropped on his finger and broke it. Anyone else?????? 

And for anyone who is wondering.............................  I am an amazing Antelope. 

I did it!!

Just want to make a quick note that I survived Wood Badge. I got home last night at 11:00. I want to report that I am glad that I did it and I'm more glad that I survived it without incident other that getting very tired.
More details to come after I come out of my coma.

Wood Badge...........Here I Come

Just a couple of quick generalizations on our little boys.

Nathan is a very happy-go-lucky little guy. He likes to giggle and makes us smile. It won't be long and he will figure out how to get to where he wants to be. He has 2 teeth and in case you are wondering, yes, they are sharp.

Mark is putting words together to communicate. He can be very funny. Today just Mark and I went to the store. Mark says, Isaac     troublemaker.     Then he says      Isaac    top     it.  Now I'm wondering if he tries to get Isaac in trouble even if Isaac didn't do anything. The only problem is that Isaac always acts guilty. Another of Mark's favorite things to say is Do    it    self. I'm sure all you folks who have had a 2 yr old or every seen a 2 yr old knows what that means.

Isaac is still sweet Isaac. He is usually a good helper and he is a good story teller. Isaac talked to us a lot while we were riding in the car. We know all kinds of secrets about his mom and dad. And that kid thinks he needs to be eating something every minute that he is awake.

The boys are excited to go see Papa and Grandma Maxwell. They can just pick up on the spoiling where we left off. Grandma, you might need to brush up on your fairy tales and bible stories. The boys' request list keeps expanding and I don't always keep up with the stories that they want.

I am off to wood badge tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure I will have lots of stories to tell when I get home.

Too many helpers???

Lance and Molly each let me know that they did not teach Isaac to say, "Say it louder." I guess he learned it because he has a very quiet voice (sometimes) and they would ask him to say things louder.

We got the moving van mostly loaded. There are still some odds and ends around but we (they) are getting there. I cleaned the oven and Molly has washed down many of the walls. We are all ready to be done with this.

Some folks came this morning to help pack. I had my stuff all together in the boys' room and Molly told them that that was my stuff and it all stayed. Well when I went to unhook, my fanny pack with my pump was nowhere to be found. Oh me! Oh my! I was sure it would be months before I say it again. Lance and Isaac went out in the truck and found it for me. Wheew! I did have one pump so it wasn't a total disaster but it is nice to always have a backup pump. My alcohol prep pads have also come up missing. They will be easy to replace.  

Then Nathan's lunchtime came. I fed him yesterday and he gobbled down a whole container of squash and cried when I stopped feeding him. I asked Lance if he usually eats more. Lance said they hadn't been able to get him to eat more than half of one while we were on our trip. Nathan ate all his applesauce this time and of course he tried to get g-ma to give him more because he was almost to starve to death.

We had some essentials to keep out, I thought it would be good idea to put them in the kitchen cupboard since they were all empty. I couldn't believe it when I opened the cupboard and it was empty. This time Molly saved the day and retrieved our stuff from the moving van. There were paper plates, napkins, plastic utinsels and diapers. What were they thinking packing away diapers.

Tom Tom

We made it to California. The little boys have managed to get a nap in either in their strollers or in the car but grandma hasn't had any naps yet. Yesterday, everytime we got in the car, Mark fell asleep. Today he fell asleep in the stroller and slept through our lunch. Molly took him out of the stroller and laid him on the seat of the booth where we ate and he still didn't wake up. We did give him some left over chicken nuggets when he woke up.

I got a couple of story CDs for the boys to listen to. The 1st day when they were starting to get restless, we put in Cinderella. Pretty soon they were both asleep. (Isaac and Mark have been riding in our car). So now whenever they get fussy or grandpa is tired of listening to them, he plays Cinderella. So far it puts at least one of them to sleep almost every time.

Isaac keeps saying I like you grandma and I like your car. It is so funny listening to Mark and Isaac interact. One quick story. Molly has taught Isaac instead of saying "What"? or "Huh"? to say, "Say it louder." Mark said a bunch of words. I couldn't figure out how they all connected together and what he was trying to say and neither could Isaac. So Isaac says, "Say it louder, Mark". You NEVER have to tell Mark to be louder, he is a pretty loud boy. So here Mark turns up his volume and says exactly the same words. We still didn't know what he was talking about but everyone within half a mile heard it.  

I bought a  Tom Tom to help us on our trip. Each night we program it for the next day's activities. We have made it to our destinations, but we have had a few interesting routes. Last night Lance and Molly programed in Fisherman's Wharf. We had another stop along the way and we were almost to the wharf and Tom Tom wanted to play games with us. The Fisherman's Wharf we wanted was not the one Tom Tom had in mind. We ended out in some industrial area near the bay. I'm not sure that there was even a wharf there. All I have to say is that it was not crowded there so I guess everyone else missed out on Fisherman's Wharf. It was kinda funny. And we got to drive by AT&T baseball field. It would have been cool to watch a game or at least see the field. We now check the map before we rely on Tommy.

Lance and Molly are watching Wicked now. All the other boys are sleeping. I'm not far behind them. We will be in Reno tomorrow and then we will be working hard to get L & M packed up.     

Random thoughts

How is it that dreams work? Sat night I dreamed that I was to meet Mike in the chapel and he had some little boy (I don't know who he was). I couldn't find Mike and couldn't hear the little boy, so I knew they weren't in there. The strange part came Sun AM. I had a really hard time waking up and an even harder time getting ready for church. I didn't have much hurry in me, but was trying to get out in time for church. Mike in his great wisdom offered to go to church and get us a place to sit. I had to tell him about my dream and tell him to not forget to go to church. I sure would like to know how my subconscious knew before hand that Mike would go to church before me.

My back was pretty stiff when I tried to get up this morning. The worst was when I tried to bend over and pick up my TPN backpack. (It was filling those darn walls of water yesterday). Fortunately it felt better after my warm bath this morning and it didn't bother me today.

We had our weekly census meeting this morning. I keep thinking we are about done and my crew leader keeps pulling out more binders. Today I told her that I have to quit so I can get ready for my trips. I had one phone call to make so I met up with her this afternoon and turned my stuff in. She pointed out a BIG boo boo I made on some EQs that I turned in last week. I had said that the house was occupied but there were no people listed. I guess I had listed them on a blank EQ because they were Spanish speaking and I didn't want to mess up the real EQ. Then I forgot to transfer the info to the real EQ. The problem is that I threw away the EQ with the info. All that saved me was that I had written down the rancher's phone number. I was able to call him and get enough info to complete the form. I did remind my Crew Leader that I had already quit so she couldn't fire me.

One last story. I skyped the little boys yesterday and Mark told me what he wanted Grandma to show him when we go on our trip. He repeated the same one word several times for me. I guess I missed Grandma school that day (and a whole lot of other days too, I have lots to learn) anyway Molly finally told me that he was saying shark. The problem is that seeing a shark is not on the agenda his parents have made up. Maybe Mark and grandma will have to go on a little trip of our own. Or I will overwhelm him with lots of other stuff so he doesn't miss the shark. Or better yet, he doesn't know what a shark look like. Hummmmmmmm

My garden is in

I now have 4 days until I leave for my 2 weeks of activities. Of course I have lots to do to get ready. I am now in the mode of what absolutely needs to be done before I go. I decided that it wouldn't be good to plant my garden the end of June so that was today's project. I spent this morning getting things ready for Mike to go back to work so I started gardening about noon. It was cloudy but very warm (for a change). I was sure that it was too hot to plant the entire garden, but I would see how much I could do. Since I live in Nevada, it wasn't too long before the weather changed. I had my seed packages laid out in categories, root plants, squash type plants, etc. Dark, dark clouds rolled in and it was windy and started to sprinkle. I gathered up my seeds and prepared to head inside when it stopped sprinkling. So it was back to planting. I got everything planted except for a few of my potatoes and my herbs. Then the dark clouds rolled in yet again and rain was threatening. I still had to fill up my walls of water. I was able to get my tender little tomatoes protected and then it decided not to rain. It doesn't matter now, I'm ready for it. I'm kinda sad to miss watching the plants pop up but when I come home 3 weeks after my planting, I should have everything up. You will notice that there are no pictures. It was all I could do to just get them in the ground.

I think the next thing to top my list is getting ready for Wood Badge. A lady from Elko is going to meet up with me in Elko and give me a ride to camp and then back to Elko. She was kind enought to say she will bring my stuff from Elko for me. Mike got the tent and sleeping bag out for me. Now I just need to hem pants and sew on patches. I don't like to hem pants and I don't like to sew on patches. I will keep telling myself to hurry and get it done and be through with it.

Silly Grandma

When I have a senior moment, or when my kids have a junior moment that's what I hear, "Silly Grandma". Well I will throw myself under the bus and share my latest "Silly Grandma" moment. After Molly made her blog private, I kept watching on my blog list for her to update it. No updates forever. Then a couple of nights ago Molly told me that she was just finishing putting boyz pictures on the blog so I checked it. I was surprised to see that I had been missing out on all kinds of blogs. I even found out that I made Lance miss the bus (sorry). He never told me about that.  Oh well all I can say is Silly Grandma.

We are going to San Francisco with Lance and family in a week. I was given an order for chocolate chip cookies. That won't bother Mike any either.

Tomorrow is plant the garden day. Hopefully we won't have too many more nights of frosts.

Wood Badge update. Mike got my gear out for me. I think he is excited for me to go. I talked with the lady who is over Wood Badge. The are lots of old unhealthy people going. I will be in good company. And there is a good chance that I will survive. Stay tuned.

More Snow

I dragged myself out of bed this morning only to see it snowing outside. I groggily took a shower and then my partner calls to say that she isn't working today. After dragging myself out of bed and having my shower and Mike's truck was available, I told her that I would see if Mike would go with me and I would get done so I won't have to work any more. Well then she decided that she would go. We drove 70 miles on wet gravel roads (you should see Mike's truck) and found people home at the 2 ranches we went to. What an excellent day. I'm pretty sure that after our meeting Tues AM I will be unemployed again. I still have to sort out things from one of today's ranches and I have to make a phone call but I'm resting up tomorrow and giving myself a 3 day weekend.

Where are we

We went in search of a few more ranches today. After we turned off on the dirt road and had gone just a bit, my partner announced to me what road we were on. I told her that I hoped that wasn't the road we were on because if it is, we were 30 miles off course. She gets a bit confused. Once again We made it to our destination and home again. It was quite interesting today because they gave us a description of where the ranch was located and also the block number. (The block number tells us what area we are to be in.) Well the block number did not match up with the description. It was off by maybe 30 miles and 2 mountain ranges. It would involve a totally different route from Elko. Makes for an interesting day.

A requisite for ranches is to have several dogs; usually border collies. One of the houses we visited today had half a dozen sheep on it's front porch. They were a little "put out"  when we disturbed their rest. One of them left a nice deposit by my feet as it walked off. I have attempted to interview dogs and now sheep, but they are reluctant to give much info. Sage brush will be one of my next attempts.

We go out again Friday and then I hope to be done. I'll try to come up with a good story or two to end with.