My Calley

Just want everyone to know about what's going on in Calley's life. At work, Jamba Juice, she was named employee of the month and also has been promoted to a manager position. Since she lives at home, she works several hours a week there. She doesn't really care for it, but it's a job.

Today Calley learned that she had been selected for an internship in Washington, DC this summer. She applied to the Hinckley Institute of Politics for this and won her position out of a very competitive field. We don't know yet what area she will serve in, but she doesn't care to be an intern for a senator or congressman. She'll spend 8 weeks there and get tons and tons of experience. She is so excited and about this, and I am excited for her. Love you, Calley.

And Now It's February

I can't remember what I wrote in other blogs, so even if I repeat myself, oh well.

Larry flew out to Burlington, Vermont, on Sunday morning, Jan. 30, on a 7 AM flight. It took him all day to get there. He had meetings scheduled on Monday and Tuesday with the itinerary to fly to Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday where he would work until Friday when he would fly home. Well, things didn't quite work out the way as planned. He got to Vermont OK, and participated in his meetings on Monday, but the weather didn't cooperate with the remainder of the week. He and his boss decided they'd better get home quick or they may not make it home. The weather was scheduled to be snow and ice in the Midwest and moving east. He flew out from Vermont's little airport on Tuesday morning at 6 AM, flew to JFK, had a layover of about 4 hours, and then finally made it home Tuesday evening. He missed all the bad weather, thank goodness, and got to spend the rest of the week at home working from his office.

While Larry was flying home, Suey and her kids, and Anne and Lexi and I went to the aquarium in Sandy. It was so dang cold that day. Just walking from the car to the building took our breath away. The kids really had fun, and I enjoyed immensely watching the grandkids enjoy themselves with the exhibits. Lexi just squealed and squealed. Owen and Abby crawled through and over everything they could. The exhibits were cool, but watching my kids and grandkids was the best part.

I heard about a new diet thingy that I'm now trying. It's called Sensa. I sprinkle it on my food before I eat it and it helps cut my appetite and helps me feel satisfied longer. Gotta get this fat butt off.

Larry had a surprise for me during the week he was home. He showed me his elbow, where there was a HUGE lump. It was awful and yucky. I immediately made an appointment for him with Dr. Peterson for Friday afternoon. The doc said it was some kind of bursitis that caused a fluid build-up from rubbing his elbow on something like the sheets at night. Huh? Anway, he drained about an ounce of fluid and said it would take a few more times of draining it to get all the fluid out. Larry bought a brace to wear on his elbow to keep it from rubbing against stuff.

The photo does do justice to how big it was.

While he was at the doctor, I worked in the Provo Temple answering phones for a couple of hours. On my way out of the temple I saw Stephanie Nielsen and her husband walking toward the temple doors. Remember her? She's the lady who was burned so severely on her face, neck, arms, hands, and I don't know what else, in a plane crash about two years ago. She has appeared on the cover of LDS Living with an article inside about her. She has also appeared on Oprah where she talked about her ordeal. She is a remarkable person. Even though her face is nothing like it was because of the burn scars, she has the greatest outlook on life. As I walked toward her I spoke and said that I had really enjoyed her article in LDS Living, or maybe it was a Utah Living magazine, I don't remember. She had the biggest smile and just said, "Thank you." Incredible person.

Larry flew out again to Ohio on Monday, Jan 6. That evening I went with an Empty Nesters' group in the ward to see the Carl Bloch exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art. WOW is all I can say. I'm so glad I went. I know so very very little about art, but I did enjoy seeing his original works. He's the painter of the works the church uses and has used in church magazines, on covers, and stuff like that.

Healing at the Pool of Bathesda

The BYU Museum of Art owns this piece. It is huge.

Got a call from Dr. Peterson's office on Monday, Jan. 6 saying that he wanted me to come in for a physical. How unheard of for them to call me. I thought maybe Larry had said something about my high sugars when he was in there for his elbow lump. Came to find out that I hadn't had a physical since August of 2009. I had no idea I had skipped 2010. Guess I spent so much time in doctor's offices during 2010 with my neurological stuff that I thought I had it done. So, I was in his office today for the physical. I hate those things. But I guess it's a good thing I went because I now have full blown diabetes. I've been tracking my sugars on a One Touch machine Larry got me a few months ago. I knew I was getting out of control and kind of suspected he's diagnose me as diabetic, which he did. He made me commit to losing 2 to 4 pounds a month. Sure hopes the Sensa works. And I hope that knowing that I am damaging my body when I eat all the junk I like will help me want to change my eating habits.

Eat Your Heart Out, Sweet Tooth Fairy

My sweet darlin' Larry left about 4:45 AM on Sunday morning to fly to Vermont for work. He works so hard to provide for us and sacrifices so much by being away from home when he would so much rather be here. Chris and Anne brought Lexi over about 5:30 AM because they both had to work, so Lexi was mine for the day. Poor Lexi was so tired and fussy from getting up so early, that I left her at home with Calley while I went to church. After having a good three hours of church, I stood up and was talking to a couple of ladies in the cultural hall. All of a sudden, I couldn't talk. Tried to open my mouth and couldn't even do that. Here it was -- another spell. Susan Brown, with whom I was talking, recognized immediately what was going on because she had seen me when I had had a previous spell. She took me by the hand and got me to her car and drove me home where her husband met us and they got me into the house. I just hate when these things happen. Sure do wish we could find out what the cause is. Calley took over and got me a lorazepam and within about 15 minutes I was OK. Don't know whether the medicine is making a difference or not. Thanks, Calley, for taking care of your mom.

Lexi took a good 3-hour nap and felt much, much better when she work up. Sure do love that little darlin'.

Sweet Lexi

Calley and I both started feeling like we needed something sweet to eat. So she decided to make home-made coconut cupcakes. And I do mean home-made. Even used coconut milk, which I had on hand and don't have any idea why, in both the cake and the frosting. She said she followed a Paul Dean coconut cake recipe and some other recipe for the frosting. Toasted coconut on top. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. They are just as good if not better than the ones we buy at the Sweet Tooth Fairy for $2.75 each.

Sooooooo good!!!

I got to feeling better so I fixed some macaroni soup and home-made French bread for dinner. I usually wouldn't cook because Larry wasn't home, but since I had Lexi and Chris and Anne had to come pick her up, I knew they would be hungry. Plus, early that morning when they dropped Lexi off, I asked Chris what they were going to have for dinner. His response was, "Whatever you cook." So I cooked. Macaroni soup was the favorite soup of my kids' biological dad. And the French bread was to die for. So good.

So ended another week-end. Monday, today, I did absolutely nothing. Didn't even get dressed. Am I depressed? Is the lorazepam contributing to my feeling so down? I hate this. Stepped on my glasses and broke off one of the nose pieces, so seeing is quite difficult today. Made an appointment with my eye doctor, but can't get in for 10 days. Sometimes life just sucks, but I really have absolutely nothing to complain about. Oh yes, I do. There's a cold front coming in tonight that is going to leave us with very low temperatures for the next few days. YUK! But at least we won't be getting the kind of weather that is expected in Vermont where Larry is. They're expecting 18 - 20 inches of snow within a 24 hour period. I'm glad he's flying out of there tomorrow.

Oh, here's a picture of the amaryllis Mawmaw gave me after Christmas. I haven't killed it yet!! YAY!

Is It Already the End of January?

Yesterday was a good day. I finally got myself up and dressed and went out to lunch with my old Relief Society presidency here in the ward -- Linda Martin, Donna Stewart, and Susan Brown. A couple of others were invited but couldn't make it. We went to Cafe Paesan in Orem, a fast food Italian cafe which is located near Smiths. The interesting thing about that place is that the owners of Cafe Rio started it, so it must be good, right? Larry and I walked into it a few weeks ago but turned around and walked out because I didn't like the prices and couldn't figure out how the whole thing worked. BIG mistake. It was an absolutely delightful cafe and the food, I thought, was extraordinary. We each bought salads, which were huge. Mine had flatbread on the bottom of it and sweet potato chippies and creamy pesto dressing. I was so surprised at how good it was. We stayed there over 2 hours just chatting and catching up. I think we might have embarrassed ourselves, because every time we all broke into cackling laughter, the other diners stopped and looked at us. Oh, well! We plan on meeting every last Friday of the month and have lunch together.

Donna Stewart

Susan Brown

Linda Martin

After lunch I went and picked up Mawmaw and we did a little shopping: Walmart for canning jars and lids and Macey's for food storage case lot sale. Sometimes I feel guilty because I don't spend as much time with her as I probably should. But when the hermit (me) doesn't leave the house, what can ya do?

I reached my Family Search indexing goal of 4000 names on Friday. My goal is to do at least 1000 names per month. I think I'll rest for a few days before starting up again on Feb. 1.

Picked Larry up from the SL airport on Friday night. He flew in from Ohio. He leaves again on Sunday morning at 5 AM to catch a 7 AM flight to Burlington, Vermont. This traveling is getting really old. But at least he has a good job.

Don't remember if I mentioned that I baby sat Lexi on Wednesday for a few hours. She is such a delight. I love it when she comes to me and takes my hand and leads me to whatever she wants, which is usually M & Ms.

Guess that's all for now. Boring, huh?

Canning Like Crazy

I finally got around to doing some more bottle canning today with my FoodSaver. I'm so glad to be able to put this food away, even though a lot of my bottled stuff right now is chocolate and junk food. Well, ya gotta have junk food too, ya know. With the stuff I bottled before going to Jenni'sand what I did today I now have Hershey Kisses, deodorant, Christmas butter cookies, pretzels, pinto beans, chocolate almonds, instant oatmeal, tootsie rolls, acetaminophen, and Melatonin (can't get to sleep without it). I told Larry I had bottled him a bunch of pretzels and he cracked up. He'll be grateful if there is ever a pretzel shortage. (Ha Ha)

I think I'm turning into a hermit!

I don' t like to go anywhere. I'd rather stay home. Linda Martin invited me to go to Donna Stewart's house this afternoon to watch a movie with them, but I just didn't want to go. So I begged off. Larry's been gone all week for work to Ohio, and I could have done plenty of shopping or whatever. But I just don't want to. I've needed to go grocery shopping for some great food storage sales, but I would just rather stay home. So I do. Does this mean something?

Another Day, Another Doctor's Appointment

So, Monday morning, Jan. 24, was a return visit to the neurologist's office. I had been on the lorazepam since Dec. 29 and the doc wanted to see if taking that made any difference in my seizures or spells. His hope was that there is some kind of underlying anxiety that the medicine would help with. I only saw the Physician's Assistant (Is that like the sorcerer's apprentice?) and not the neurologist, but I like the PA more than the doc. Why is it that so many doctors have absolutely NO charm or bedside personality with patients. The PA, can't remember his name, was very pleasant. I gave him all my information, he downloaded the card from my Bi-PAP machine, and then he consulted with the big N. Using the Bi-PAP is helping me.My apneac episodes have decreased from over 100 per night to just a little over 5 per night. I had no idea that my brain MUST rest at night or it finds time itself to rest, mostly at inconvenient times for me. Since I had had a few spells, he told me to take a lorazepam when I felt one coming on as well as my nightly dose to see if that will decrease the length of the spell or hopefully keep it from coming to fruition.

I babysat Lexi on Wednesday, Jan. 26. While she played I emptied canning jars my neighbor gave me and washed them so I can do some more canning. I guess I wore myself out going up and down the stairs with the jars cuz about 12:30 or so I felt a spell coming on. So I sat down on the couch, managed to call Calley to get her upstairs to watch Lexi, and fell into a stupor. Calley managed to get a lorazepam into me. And the spell didn't last very long. I don't know whether it was because of the med. or what. That time the spell was mostly just a speech thing. I sure do wish we could get all this stuff cleared up.