"Welcome to your 40s."

That' s a quote from Rick the other day when I was talking to him about my headaches and my neck strain. It really is true that our bodies are not as resilient as we get older.

Remember a couple days ago when I told you about my blood pressure? Well today, I was on my way to work and I became so dizzy I couldn't drive. I sat there in my car in the Burger King parking lot for 30 mins. expecting that it would just pass. It didn't. I finally had to call work because at this point, I could not sit, walk or anything. There was no way I was going to work. Karen came and got me. (bless her). She took me to my Dr office and I was there the entire rest of the morning. We finally left about lunch time. The Dr.s and Nurses at Family Care Specialists were extraordinary. They were so kind. One nurse even took a warm cloth and wiped my face clean from where I'd been crying. There were mascara streaks all over my face, she said. My blood pressure was 210/140!!!! OMG. That's scary. It took 3 BP pills over the course of several hours to get my BP down and to get my dizziness to be better, enough that I could walk. I was getting kind of sick from the dizziness. It's better now though. My BP is down to 110/72 and my head is not spinning. I slept the afternoon away because after all of that, I was exhausted. I don't know what in the world would cause the BP to go so high. No one at the dr. office seemed to have any answers either. All the labs, EKGs etc were normal.

Rick has been the best nurse. I told him he went into the wrong career field. He said, "I'm a software guy." He took such good care of me. I love him for all he does for me and just all that he does for everyone in our lives. He is a kind soul.

I absolutely need to take care of myself! 210/140 is very dangerous and I hope to live for a very long time, so I really need to get it together. I am going to join the Y tomorrow. I'm hoping Sienna will join it with me. Leeann, Sienna and I are going to have a big time with Anna at water aerobics. Also, it is low salt, low fat and no caffeine for me. I'm turning a new page in this 40 year old book!!

Have a happy night!

I've got to get it together.

I had a physical last week and my blood pressure was 150/100! I've checked it twice since then and its been running in the 140/94 range. Not good. I have never had high blood pressure before and I am not going to start now! I've made a commitment to really watch what I'm eating again and to work out at least 5 days/week. I am getting older and I really need to take care of myself better. I went to water aerobics with Leeann yesterday morning. We really had a good time and i realized how much I have missed it! I felt so good when it was over. I love the water. But then, this morning I woke with a terrible headache on the left side of my head. It feels like I have injured my neck or something. The pain is making me feel sick to my stomach. I don't think its from the exercise but if its still hurting this evening, I will have to wait to go back to class. I even called in sick to work this morning and I rarely do that. I've spent a lot of time in my very cozy bed today.

Thanks for letting me whine a little.

Been working on some layouts

I'm going to try and post a few layouts from time to time. Scrapbooking is my passion so I'd like to share with you sometimes. I scraplifted this from SIS TV. The picture is of Rick when he was about 2. The journaling reads: If only I could have known you then. We could have grown up together and experienced so much more of life together. I would have loved to hear your childish laugh, to watch you climb trees and chase the puppies. But I am just so happy to know you now. We are so close it almost feels as if we have known each other forever.

old friends

I went to a conference today for work stuff. I was so dreading it. These things can be so boring and this one was but man, did I have a good day! I ran into some ladies that I had worked with at St. Mary's all those years ago. It was so good to see them! Two of them, Laura and Susan were my mentors when I first moved here to Knoxville. They have taught me all I ever needed to know about psych nursing. We really have some good memories together and I was just gushing with joy that I saw them today. So many relationships over the years that I have just sort of let go. It takes work to maintain a friendship and over time, people tend to lose touch. Its a shame, really. Seeing them has brought back a flood of memories, good ones. My time at St. Mary's was wonderful. The only reason I left there was for more money after my divorce. I have thought of all of them often and can I just say that I am so so happy that I saw them!!!! lol. We have promised to make a play date soon so hopefully I will do better at keeping in touch this time. I am going back to the conference tomorrow and I am absolutely looking forward to it!

Tonight is SURVIVOR!! Woohoo!!! So, don't anybody call me between 8 and 9:15. I will be out of commission for an hour. Inevitably, Chanel will call. Rick and I used to make jokes about her always calling on Thursday nights between 8 and 9. Its like she has radar or something! But tonight I will not be answering the phone. It is the season premiere!

I couldn't sleep last night. We had Fuji's. It was so dumb of me to have Fuji's on a work night. For some reason, it always causes insomnia. But, I took an ambien and thought I would be able to sleep with that. I couldn't. So I got up about 12 and took another ambien and came in here to my office until I could get sleepy. Because of the ambien, I don't remember what I did last night but I sure could have gotten into trouble! I just now checked my email and apparently, I won the item I bid on on ebay. Hmmm, don't remember bidding on any items, but now I am the owner of a new scrapbooking book. Luckily it was only $11. And, I have just finished up a beautiful scrapbook that I am making for Chanel. Its one we started at CKU. I guess last night I decided to add some finishing touches to it. Bad move. One should not ink the edges of paper when one is in an ambien stupor. Far as I can tell so far, that was about the extent of my shenanigans last night. I think Rick is going to have to chain me to the bed at night. :-)

Have a happy Thursday!!

Lynchburg

Long day yesterday. We went to Lynchburg, Tennessee with our dear friends, Steve and Joanna. Steve thought it would only take 2 hours to get there but it ended up taking about 3 1/2. Long day. We had lunch there and then ended up having to wait an hour for the Jack Daniel's tour and then, it was so late, we just came home. Steve is a big JD connoisseur so it was fun. The county that Lynchburg is in is a dry county (go figure) so we weren't able to taste any. They did waft the smells our way and sometimes it seemed it was so potent one could get tipsy on just the scent. The time seemed to pass pretty fast. We always have a good time with them and Joanna doesn't like silence so she kept us entertained. :-) Our tour guide was a little weird. Every time he would say "Tennessee Whiskey" he would take his hat off. Before we knew it, whenever he would take his hat off, Steve would take his off and hold it to his heart too. It was pretty funny. It was quite the bonding experience between the two of them.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't get time to go shopping. I do plan to go shopping today because as I discovered yesterday, none of my jeans fit, and that's a good thing!

Have a happy Monday!

All I have to say tonight is...

GO GATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT??!!??!!!!!!!

Rick is not always known for his tact and you will understand what I mean in just a minute. I have been losing weight and had been working out pretty consistently until about 3 months ago and I just stopped. I have no excuses. I just quit doing it. I've tried and can do it for 2-3 days and then, the laziness sets in. You must know how much I love my bed! I do not want to get out of it to work out in the mornings because it is sooooo comfy. So, Rick has been very complimentary about my weight loss .Usually. Tonight, before bed, he was rubbing my arms and said....get ready... " You're getting pretty flabby. " OMG! Who says that to a woman? And my response was, "WHAT?!?!?" He said, "well, you are." He wasn't mean about it. He was just making an observation in his INTJ way. So, needless to say, I am getting out of bed at 6 a.m. tomorrow and walking with Leslie Sansone. I promise. ;-)

I'm excited already!

Just started a new book.
Getting prepared for our trip next month. You never can be too prepared for Disney World. Now, I have been to Disney at least 10 times and you would think that there would be no need to read the hundreds of books there are out there about it. But I learn something new every time I read this book. It is very cool to read and fantasize about what a blast we are going to have. We always do have a good time. We have learned to take our time and just mosey around the parks. We don't have kids with us anymore so there is not all of the pressure to hurry up and get to the next ride. Its amazing how much you can miss if you just run from one ride to the next. The way we do it, we get to take in a whole lot more. It is just an incredible, awesome place and I can't wait to enjoy it again. Only 6 weeks to go and I will be at my most favorite vacation spot in the world!

Rats!

This is the first photo I have ever had taken of the 4 of us together. It's hard to believe that we have all been together for 11+ years and we have never had our photo taken together.
We spent the day at Chanel's and as always it was a lot of fun. Sienna came with us and she had so much fun at lunch telling Chanel's roomates stories of Chanel's ditzy days. She is still pretty ditzy but when she was in high school, oh my goodness! It was a miracle she made it to college unscathed. It was fun for all of us to have a laugh but especially to watch Chanel laugh at herself.

We took Chanel a computer and Rick was helping her get it all set up. In this pic he is telling her "now this is a wireless mouse and when you lose this one, here is a wired one to replace it." LOL! He knows her so well.


And here is Chanel's pet. You may say,"gosh. It looks just like a rat" Well, that's because it is a RAT. a creepy, smelly rat. eeewww. I did hold him for about 10 seconds but he smelled so bad, I couldn't stand it. I had to give him back. She even told me that they took him to the groomers because of the smell and they told them "Sorry, we don't groom rats.' I think its hilarious that they even asked!

All in all, it was a great day. It was wonderful having all of us together for the day.

Hope you have a very happy Tuesday.

It's football time in Tennessee!!

I love football season! There's just something in the air during football time that puts everyone in an excitable, competitive kind of mood. We watched our first football game of the season last night and unfortunately, the Vols lost. I am an avid Gator fan and its a lot of fun to be a Gator fan in Tennessee, especially when the Gators are national champions. I try not to gloat but it's hard not to when I am a fan of the greatest team in the country. : ) See the link on the side. So, so proud!

We got Sienna moved into her new apartment and her old apartment is clean and ready to go. Sienna's new apartment is very nice. I really like it a lot. Her roomate seems to really like Sienna and I think they will get along just fine. I am happy that she is settling in. All of her neighbors seem very nice. There is an older gentleman who lives upstairs who really seems to be looking out for the girls and that makes me feel better. I hope she will be happy there.

Going to Chanel's tomorrow to set up her computer. She had her first week of grad school. Though she says there is a whole lot of reading, she seems to like it okay. She's a very smart girl and I think she will be fine. She keeps talking about moving to California though. I just need to try to keep her here until she finishes school.

Not a lot going on with me and I like it that way!!

Have a happy Labor Day!!!