The Good and The Bad

The Good: Today we ran to see if my phone could either be repaired or replaced.  We decided on the replacement of it with an upgraded phone. So I now have my camera back. I too this photo before bed.  It is Caesar wrapped up next to me.

The Bad: We came home from replacing my phone and there was water in the laundry room.  We thought the cat's water dish that is around the corner in the kitchen tipped. But when we looked at where the water was actually in the laundry room - we realized that wasn't the cause. Michael went into our bedroom and as soon as he stepped near our walk in closet his feet were wet. Our water heater sprung a leak. Luckily the people that installed it 17 years ago were the ones that were available to come out right away.  Tomorrow we have to go out of town for work and now after needing to pay for a new water heater we will need to go so Wendy is amazing and offered to come be there while the new one would be installed. The bedroom looks like it has been hit by a cyclone because I had to empty the walk in closet, but at least we will have water back tomorrow by the time we get home.

Code Names

Getting the evaporated cooler up and running for spring/summer is much more fun while being silly and using code names over walkie talkies.  I love these kind of moments where we are silly doing mundane tasks as it just makes things calmer and without so much stress.  Today's code name for me was mermaid. Michael told me I should have given multiple choice: Princess Leia, Snow White, mermaid and Ralph. 

No More Camera

My camera has went out on my phone.  It is like a part of me is gone too. I guess I didn't realize how often I use my phone camera every single day. When I said that to Michael and my friend Wendy - they both looked at me like "you are kidding."  I went back to look I said on average 10 photos a day on a normal day. If we are traveling, doing anything special like going to First Friday's then I will take 100 to 300 photos a day.  Right now I am not sure the options for getting it fixed/replaced. So it might be a while before I get a working phone camera again. I told Michael I already know what my Project Life will look like. Black cards and on the middle of the page NO CAMERA with a frowny face and a tear. Because I really am sad to be without my camera.  It is like my art now...I can't not do it. I need to express myself through photos. So crossing my fingers we will figure out the options for it soon.

Coffee Kind of Day

Some days just call for a Starbucks coffee. Today was one of those days.

Project Life

I have started doing Project Life.  I have only done January, but am looking forward to doing each month.

Morning Ritual

I receive Jennifer Louden's newsletter and she talked about Morning Ritual's asking other people what their personal morning ritual is like....and so it made me think about mine.

It is something that I would like to do, but I really don't have one. I would like one grounded in intention instead of just waking up.

Most mornings: I wake up when I wake up. I am lucky that I don't have a job that clocks in so I can just sleep until I wake up.  I then usually sit and just wake up. Usually by going through Instagram because looking at the photos in the morning - help me wake up without the assaults of social media chatter. I then do a quick a check of emails and then get up and make breakfast for myself and sometimes Michael. After breakfast, I unload and load dishwasher.  I plan what I am making for dinner and start household chores.

Slow morning: I wake up when I wake up, make breakfast, some tea,and then read.

I would like the slow morning to be more of a normal everyday ritual. 

No Homemade Noodles

I haven't made homemade chicken noodle for years. I haven't made homemade noodles ever, but watched my Mom do them growing up so thought I am going to make homemade chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles. Well - our garbage disposal had different plans. Thank goodness I had a package of frozen egg noodles up in the freezer. I was making the soup. I sauteed veggies and then added stock and the chicken. Just as I was going to start making noodles, I went to turn the garbage disposal on and water came rushing out from the cabinet doors. The garbage disposal split in 3 places so now I am out of a garbage disposal for a bit.  So maybe one day I will brave enough to try homemade noodles and try this again. It turned out fine with the frozen noodles. I just really want to try homemade noodles sometime.

July Photos

My Word is Joy

I believe it was Ali Edwards that started picking a word for the year. That will represent the goals and thing to keep present in your life for the year. This year I picked the word joy.  The end of last year, I really tried to practice finding joy in everyday.... whether they were ordinary moments or something quite extraordinarily. I found it helped me on so many levels...mentally, emotionally, creatively and physically. Although it didn't cure my pain, it helped me not get so swallowed up by it that I couldn't see anything, but the pain. I didn't pick a word last year, but kindness probably represented my year - being kind towards not only others, but myself. I always try to be kind, but I guess I wanted to take that a step further and be kind towards myself as that one is always hard for me.

So this year is joy and finding those moments of joy everyday. Today I was washing dishes and a moment of joy was looking at my dishcloth. It is a yellow handmade dishcloth made by an Aunt. It is always more enjoyable to wash dishes with a dishcloth made by someone I love.  A moment of joy in the middle of this ordinary task.

Life in 2013

Just a few notes about life....

* My life is amazing right now. I just feel overwhelmed with joy. It is easy for the pain to flood in and bring me down though. So trying to hang on to all the good things in my life. Remind myself that I have super fantastic support system in my life between Michael, family, friends, and professionals in my life such as my doctor and therapist.  Hanging on to the abundance of joy and working to get the pain more under control.

* I got new glasses....first time I have worn glasses in at least 15 years.  I joked with the eye doctor that even though Colorado doesn't seem to mind me not having a glasses while driving....I do. :)  I had been driving more and didn't like not being able to read signs ahead.

* I have been working on a project due to Michael and some other people giving me a little nudge. Oddly it was my idea at first and then others were very much in support of it. It is doing things that are out of my comfort zone, but it has been good for me at that same time.  

* 2013 has been artful and creative for me. I am reading a book Poemcrazy (something I have never tried my hand at before) and I am having fun playing with words. Besides the poetry, I have many other fulfilling creative ideas and projects taking up my time. I can't imagine not having them going on now and want to explore them further. I hope to really push my creativity and art in 2013.

* Monday I had to get some X-rays done and handed Poemcrazy to Michael when I was taken back.  He is now hooked on it too. We are going to do Poetry Dates.

* As I started this entry...life is amazing right now. I really am enjoying life right now and I like who I am becoming. I feel very good about everything. I am always growing and working towards things I want in my life...for my life.

Good Weekend Good Day

Had a fabulous weekend out doing a day trip with friends to Glenwood Springs. They went to the Hot Spring Pools for a while and Michael and I just took a drive. Met up again with our friends for lunch and then headed back to GJ.  Perfect blue skies and with just a little chill in the air but in the sun it warmed us up quickly.   It was an absolutely beautiful day.

Today my last birthday present from Michael arrived. I got a little point and shoot camera. So cute and has all the features I wanting plus it is Orange! I can't wait to start playing with it. I am getting a book and I know will inspire me to play even more.

Life in Points

* We have been traveling quite a bit - just day trips or a few days here and there. But soon we will be taking a longer trip. We will be going to see my sister and her family. After a few days with her, we will go do a work project and then after the work is done, we will spend the weekend with Tammy as we will be in her neck of the woods. We see her again in November. She will be spending Thanksgiving with us.

* I have my follow up for my doctor coming up this week - for the sciatica. He did a treatment of cortisone that lasted 10 hours. Then he prescribed a pill that was for 5 days, but my doctor and my pharmacist were really at odds with each other on the drug. After taking this drug and seeing how I reacted, he will know better how to treat me. The drug worked great except for upsetting my stomach just a little bit which was the pharmacist concern. But the positive of the drug it brought my pain down to zero on a pain scale and the most it would go up to is a 3. It still even almost a week after it has been done hasn't brought my pain back up to where it was before (a 7 was pretty much my daily consistent pain level).

* Yesterday we did yard work. Both of us are not fans of it.  I have bad allergies that really just cause me to be miserable because I would love to have some of a garden, but just can't keep up with it. And it isn't fair for it to fall to Michael when he dislikes yard work.  This was icky yard work we had to do yesterday - pulling weeds. We have rock landscaping, but weeds come up in them and with my sciatica being as bad as it has been there has been no way I could do it before now.  It was hard to do it yesterday. Michael  ended up doing the backbreaking stuff. We had put it off until we couldn't any longer.

* The first of February is our anniversary, but the 1st of every month for the last 9 years Michael says Happy Anniversary.  We laughed that our morning was spent doing yard work - fun fun! But really I am thankful that we can have of course lots of fun together, but also make things we don't like doing go a little faster and better by doing them together.  We can laugh and have fun even when pulling weeds.

* We were out of town recently and when we arrived back in town we decided to get some errands out of the way before heading home. One thing was to go to the library as I figured I had some book waiting for me. I came with a HUGE pile.  Michael shouted from the car on my way out of the library carrying the huge pile of books that I didn't need to check whole library out. The lady in front of me got a chuckle. But the sad thing is that huge pile of books I only have like 3 left to read as I am going through a book a day still.  I got through the Anita Blake series. All caught up again...I had been 3 books behind, but reread the entire series.

Sinking

This month has been hard on me. Really hard.  I will be glad when August gets here.

The end of May my sciatica came back and it is just getting worse and worse.  To the point that this month - I can't stand or sit very long. Laying down seems to give me the most relief at this time, but still is very painful and have to readjust positions often.

Because I am in such pain, I am falling behind on things around the house and other things such as working on my website and doing art. But I have been reading like a mad-woman.  I am going through a book in a day or two.  My library requests aren't keeping up with me so in between waiting for them - I am rereading the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton.  I have most of them so keep pulling them off the shelf in between my library books.  I am almost to the point in the series where I stop liking the series.

I am also reading the Highlander series by Karen Marie Moning and going to reread her Fever series after the Highlander series. If you haven't read anything by Karen Marie Moning and like bodice ripper type books - read her.

Books are the only thing keeping me from drowning right now.  When I am in this kind of pain cycle, it starts to bring me down. My depression starts weighing on me and I feel myself sinking into it.  I get why. I understand it logically but trying to fight it has nothing to do with logic.  It has nothing to do with even seeing it happening - even though recognizing it is good so I can see I need to fight it. It is just hard and tiring.  Books though have become the only thing that keeps my mind from sinking into it.

So that is where things are at the moment. I just thought I would try to get a life update posted so that people didn't think I fell off the earth.

Fire

Fire started yesterday 10 miles northwest of us here in Grand Junction. The path is tracking mostly north and east away from town. They closed I-70 for a time last night and now it is down to just one lane open. But they are still concerned with the fire crossing the Colorado River. There is an evac order is mostly north and east of us - towards De Beque, CO. 


Last night I was dreaming I was cooking and I kept smelling smoke.  I kept looking in the pan in my dream and thinking it doesn't look like it is burning. Finally I woke realizing I was smelling actual smoke not dream smoke. We weren't on fire - just with the area fire the smell was carrying to us and being sucked into the house by our air. It did cause me to have to break out my inhaler but I have been lucky because I only had to use it once.  I also took some allergy meds and that seemed to help me with my sinus' and my eyes watering and stinging. 


Our beautiful state is in such trouble. Pray for rain without lightening please.

Fast

I feel like life is moving a little too fast right now.  Since coming back from Christmas vacation - it just seems like it has been one thing after another.  We came home with colds from Christmas vacation and then got hit with colds/flu in March again. Really the March flu was the worst I have felt in probably over 10 years.  I don't know if it just me getting older so bones ache more and body breaking down so I feel the flu more-so then I did when I was young and could run around even when sick.  But this flu did me in. Really 2 weeks of really being down with it and then a 3rd week with just the cough left.  After that I started spring cleaning, which I normally do but this time I needed to get it done quickly as we are having a very good friend visit.  So from the end of the flu to when she visits isn't a lot of time.  But I will manage and get things done so that we can have a great time when she arrives. We can't wait to show off our beautiful state to her.

So as I stated life feels like it is moving fast and I really need it to slow down a bit - and I am hoping that while she is here I can relax a little and have some fun.  I am really looking forward to her visit.

In a Hurry

Life just got terribly rushed for us. We were planning on leaving next week for Denver and then to Minnesota but a job came up and Michael couldn't turn it down as it is with one of his favorite clients.  So I had to drop a ton of things from my to-do list and just make do with what I could. I made gifts which I can't wait to post about after the holidays.

We got to enjoy our tree a week before needing to leave. I was really bummed that we weren't going to have time for our traditional drive to look at lights but Michael did surprise me with a mini-drive and we went to an area that had a house that coordinated the music with the lights. We also drove through our favorite neighborhood where almost every house is decorated. So the quick drive before needing to leave was a nice surprise.

It really hasn't felt like Christmas this year and now with this rush it is making it feel even less like Christmas. I am not sure if is the weather - we have had really nice weather almost like fall to spring like temperatures.  Then with things being rushed - I think there just hasn't been time to enjoy the season.  But I am sure when I get to see my family and my niece and nephew that it will seem more like Christmas with them around.

Day to Day

I am doing pretty good. I can tell that the asthma problems are coming back at least somewhat and that is distressing me but I just keep hoping it won't come back as bad.  My doctor has 2 new inhalers that will be coming by mail and hopefully they will help.  

Otherwise things are pretty normal around here.  Michael is working and working and working.  And I am doing what I can to help him out but not much I can help with at this time.  So just trying to keep up with my things as I am really behind. 

I am trying to start thinking about Christmas and presents I need to make.  I can't wait to see my family for Christmas. 

So that is about all that is going on here. 

Channeling Surfing

 * Tomorrow we are going to have lunch at some friends who live in a nearby town. They just moved to the area in August.  It is great to have them near as they are such good people.  So nice to talk and laugh with them. 


* My asthma problems have cleared up. My doctor ended up treating me for bronchitis - using an antibiotic and a steroid. Within 2 doses I was able to lay completely down flat - first time in over 3 months. I used my inhaler once in the 10 days of being on the meds. The day after ending my meds - I have had a few problems. Nothing like before but I did have to use my inhaler and ended up taking sinus meds at night. I am hopeful that whatever is going on is better. I have no doubt from now on for a while I will be easily susceptible to having problems. My doctor wants me to call if it comes back to like it was before the meds. 

* We started using a Roku for the TV.  We are really enjoying it. It is basically streaming content to the TV. All the content except Netflix that I am watching is free. But there are some channels that do cost but so far I am not seeing a need for them. 


That is about all for right now....going to go to bed.

Forgetful

Just a list of life...

* Taking an e-course - well trying too - been fitting it in around other things. It has been incredibly inspiring and has had so much useful information. It is overwhelming though too.

* My brain is on information overload with everything I am trying to get in there and remember. My focus and just remembering things has been really hard for me lately. I have to write everything down. I have to save everything. I have to keep everything so that I can go over it again and again. It is very frustrating. I used to be one of these people that you tell me something and I will remember it forever. Now I don't. It is odd the things that stick but the majority of things don't stick.

* I haven't had to use my inhaler for over 2 years (I have asthma) and about 3 weeks ago I started needing it daily. Last week to 10 days ago - I started needing it 4 to 6 times a day. So I called to make a doctor appointment and my doctor was booked up for 2 weeks but they have a new doctor starting there and asked if I wanted to see her. And so I said yes. I mean I can't breath what choice do I have. My doctor and my therapist are right in the same clinic. So last week when I went to see my therapist, my doctor saw me come in. And so I told him I couldn't get into see him and was having asthma problems. He came right back to my therapist office with me and listened to me breathe, talked to me a bit and called me in a new prescription for an inhaler since mine was OLD. (no charge for seeing me either.) We think it is just a bad allergy season but it is odd - that I haven't had to use it in 2 years and now have had to use it so much. But it has calmed down in the last 4 days - so that is good. I just am so thankful for the great health care providers I have because really I don't know what I would do without them.

* We have been in Denver a lot this past month. It was a lot of up and back so it felt rushed. But it had to be that way because of business. And also our little boy cat is having bad allergies too so he is on an allergy pill schedule so we had to get back to stay on that so that he doesn't have set backs. So we did a lot of drives back in the moonlight which was actually kind of nice. And the roads were very empty. But on our way over the last time the weather was kind of bad and we saw 3 cars off the road even one totally flipped. We came out of the tunnel and could barely see the car in front of us so it was very scary. But it cleared up not to far away but it weird because it hadn't been bad and then all of sudden is bad and all these cars off the road and then it was fine again.

* In between traveling, Michael and I had a chance to meet some friends I have known online for years. I have known the woman of the couple for many years and they were thinking of moving to Grand Junction so we met for the first time face to face when they were in town. It was so nice to met her/them. They were so nice and we had a great time with them! But their plans for moving here fell through as his allergies were so bad here. The junipers were making it impossible for him to breath. And as I said above my allergies have been the worst this year so I could totally relate to that and didn't blame them for not wanting to move here. They are retired and want to stay in Colorado but just don't want to stay up in the mountains where they are as it is too much maintenance for them. So although I understand not moving here - it did make me sad. We all got along so well - it would have been really nice to have them here. She does have family here though so I know we will see them again thankfully.

.... So life has been busy. And moving along. Sometimes too fast so I should try to capture some moments so that I don't forget them.

Amazing Life

A friend wrote me saying I have been quiet again so she was worried something was wrong. And in fact it is completely the opposite. I am doing really good. I am feeling a peace that I have felt in a long time. I really feel like I am doing good and on the path I need to be/want to be. I have been side tracked by some things I needed to help Michael with but I am just glad I can help him as he has so much on his plate right now. And I know that I will make time for the things I need too.

Michael and I took our change jar in and cashed it in - we had $100. We decided to use that money for us - for a few date nights. Here in Grand Junction on Tuesday's the Avalon theater has what is called Dinner and a Movie. If you have dinner in one of the downtown restaurants and bring the receipt to the movie theater, they will give you 2 free admissions. A few weeks ago Michael and I went to the Rockslide and then went to the movie after. The movie was Serenity. We are Serenity fans. Seeing the movie with other Serenity fans was so fun! I loved it! The whole evening was SO MUCH FUN! We have been talking about it since. North by Northwest is going to be playing February 8th and it is one of my favorite movies. And so we are going to go see that too.

On top of date nights, we had a chance to go to Durango this past weekend. Leaving Friday and coming home on Sunday. So a quick trip but really nice. Michael has been working really hard and this weekend he didn't do work or check work things at all. It was really nice just to have a weekend for us. We just relaxed, talking, walking around and enjoying each other's company which was perfect for the weekend before we celebrate 8 years together. Today Michael and I celebrate 8 years of being together. Wow! We both are very blessed to have been on this journey together. He is an amazing man that I have no words to capture how much I love him and how much he means to me. But each day I feel joy in my heart of being with him. And happy to celebrate 8 years with him.

Amazing life and amazing journey!