But I Prefer My Starbucks Hot!

You Are a Frappacino

At your best, you are: fun loving, sweet, and modern At your worst, you are: childish and over indulgent You drink coffee when: you're craving something sweet Your caffeine addiction level: low

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

This thing doesn't know my age!!

Had to laugh when this quiz came up with a very young age for me. I guess I am acting my son's age. LOL. Well, I always did say I am usually young at heart!

You Act Like You Are 27 Years Old

You are a twenty-something at heart. You feel like an adult, and you're optimistic about life. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. You're still figuring out your place in the world and how you want your life to shape up. The world is full of possibilities, and you can't wait to explore many of them.

http://www.blogthings.com/whatagequiz/">What Age Do You Act?

My MRI Experience

This was my first time ever to have an MRI. I really did not know what to expect. Well, I sort of did, but not really. As if that makes sense. Anyway I was nervous all day yesterday. One of my co-workers noticed that I was, because she asked if I was okay and whether I was nervous.

It was a long day. I started the day working 4 hours. Then it was to my Physical Therapy appointment. I was happy to report that I had no low back pain for two days in a row after work. We are getting there for that part. Plus I now know what to do when I do feel the pain. Stop and rest for one, plus I have a repertoire of stretches and strengthening things to do to help relieve the pain. That is working for me right now. Hooray!!

From there I drove home. About a 1/2 drive. That gave me time to do a potty stop and to pick up the directions to get to the Imagining Center I was going to for the MRI. And discover it is 104 degrees outside. Yuck!! I allow myself 50 minutes to get there. Good thing I did, what is normally about a 35 minute drive did take me 50 minutes. Traffic!! And heat!! My car wants to stall when I idle in the heat too long. So I turn off the air conditioner which helps the car, but then I start roasting without the air conditioner. Blech! At first I could not figure out what caused the horrendous traffic back up other than it being the beginning of a Holiday weekend (Labor Day). Turns out one of the traffic lights was flashing red so it had to be treated like a stop sign. Boy oh boy, did that create a pile up. It was worse for the people going the other way, or so it seemed. Of course I could not see how bad it was piled up behind me either. After that traffic moves a little smoother with some sitting two or three times for a light change. With the air conditioner off to prevent the stalling.

Along the way I saw a bad sight. There had been a fatality accident of some kind. There was a covered body along the road side which definitely cues you in that some one died. There were a lot of cars stopped on the other side of the road. Looked like several cars rear ended each other. My first thought a pedestrian had been hit. But when I looked online for local news, the one who died was inside a car. Details not listed yet, so I am not sure how it happened. It was sad to see that.

I pull into the parking lot at exactly 5:05 pm. The time was supposed to be there. Good thing I gave myself extra time or I would have been late with the bad traffic. The Imagining Center is new and looks very nice. A pleasant waiting room. Cool inside, yay I could cool off! I filled out my paperwork and then shortly I was led to the women's dressing room. I had to take off all metal things, my rings, watch, barrette in my hair etc. Oh and yes I did remember to take off my bra. The person doing the imaging asked me about that. She was happy I realized that I needed to do that. I was given a set of scrubs to wear. They had lockers with keys which allowed me to lock everything up. All I had with me were my glasses, hearing aids and my book to read while I wait for my turn. I'm still reading the Margaret Truman book.

After lots of questions it was time to go. Of course the glasses and hearing aids had to come off. The gal who did the imaging was wonderful. She spoke clearly so I could understand her and was very gentle and calming. She is probably used to seeing very nervous people go through this. She warned me what it would sound like, but I said most likely I would not hear it without my hearing aids on.

It was a strange feeling to be sort of immobilized. My head and shoulders were what needed to be very still since that was the main area that was being scanned. She said no coughing or moving. Just breathe normally and she gave me an alarm button in case I had problems and needed to get out of that thing. I decided I would just close my eyes rather than have a cloth over them. I was good, I kept them closed. I started to panic a little at the start and had to work to get myself breathing normally. I decided I would count to stay in control. That worked really well for me. As I expected I could not hear the machine at all, but I could feel the vibrations. I discovered I felt a lot more calm when ever I could feel the machine working. When it was between things and quiet then it got scary for me. I felt like I was floating in space or something. Very strange feeling. Then when it started up again, I relaxed. The gal touched my foot to let me know she was coming back in and pulled me out of the machine. Turns out that was the first part and I had to go in again. Ack! She asked if I was ok. I told her yes and in I went again. Oh, I counted to 400 the first time in and the second time in I counted to over 200. So the second time through was not as long. Counting really helped me get through it and kept my mind from wandering too much.

They were very curious how it was for me as a very hearing impaired person and asked me to describe how much I could hear. Like I said before, I told her mainly I was feeling the vibrations. The experience was not as scary overall as I was afraid it would be. Should I ever have to go through this again, I will not be as scared. Won't find out the results until after the long holiday weekend. I am hoping for good results. Of course.

At the Concert

Yesterday we attended a concert put on by our former church organist. I think I mentioned before he usually does it in a worship service format with readings in between the music selections. This time the theme was called Seasons of a Lifetime-A service of music and spoken meditations. Seasons of a Lifetime I believe is a book with a collection of writings by Gebhard Frost. I was told this book is out of print. Anyway, I was very touched by one of the readings. So was my husband who was doing the reading. He got choked up and had trouble getting through, but he did get through it. Meanwhile I had tears streaming down my face. Here it is.

Soggy Cereal and Tepid Tea

When I remember that I am a parent,
and think of God as Father,
I recall a special breakfast brought to me in bed.

We awoke early
to the sound of hurrying feet.
We wondered what they were up to,
our four- and eight-year olds;
but soon it came--
breakfast in bed.

It was an elaborate menu;
chilled burnt toast, with peanut butter;
eggs, fried, and chilled too;
soggy cereal,
(the milk had been added too soon)
and tepid tea.
A horrendous mix.

When they stepped out for a moment
to get something they'd forgotten (heaven forbid!)
my wife whispered,
"You're going to have to eat this, I can't!"
And I did,

I didn't eat as a gourmet,
for it wasn't gourmet cooking;
I didn't even eat as a hungry man
for I wasn't hungry.

I ate it as a father
because it was made for me;
I was expected to;
they had faith in me.
And I ate because it was served on eager feet
and with starry eyes.

I think of my poor service to God
as teacher, parent,
interpreter of the Good News.
I know that my offerings are soggy,
tepid and unfit,
but my Father receives them
and even blesses them--
not because I am good
but because he it!

It was a wonderful service of music and readings. A very enjoyable afternoon.

So Far So Good

Everytime I say that phrase I'm using as a title, I think of a patient we had at work that would say that nearly everytime we did therapy with her. I think of her frequently now. But I can't remember her name. Oh well. But anyway, I'm hanging in there pain wise. The shoulder area has been doing fine with very little pain. However, today as I was pushing a wheelchair with a heavy patient in it, I could feel it starting to tight up and kind of burn. So the rest of the way I was careful how I positioned myself behind the wheelchair for the least amount of stress in the shoulder area and went slow. Right now I feel kind of tight there. I am hoping I don't have another painful muscle spasm like I did last week. My MRI is now scheduled for next Friday. Not looking forward to it. But on the other hand it will be good to see if there is a problem or not. Of course I hope it is the "or not" option. But then I probably would not know why the pain happened in the first place.

Yesterday I went to my weekly strength training I do every Thursday. Except last week I had to skip it do to the extreme pain. Well, it was extreme to me. Plus I was at the doctor during the time I normally do the workout. Because of the doctor's orders to not lift more than 10 pounds, we did not do any arm things. The focus was legs, abs and neck and a light workout for the lower back. Lower back doing much better today. Hooray!! It would be nice if this keeps up. I went to my Physical Therapy today. Currently I have 4 more sessions to go. It would be good if my back is doing well enough to not need any more therapy after that. In the meantime I have been taught several stretching and strengthening exercises to do that should help my back in the long run. If I want to be able to keep doing my job, I need to get my back healthy again. I can now sympathize with sports stars who complain of muscle spasms, definitely not a fun thing.

Weather wise we had a couple of cool days, but now it is warmer again. In the upper 80's, low 90's. I am noticing the days getting shorter. Around here the sun sets before 8 pm now. I am looking forward to the cooler weather. I am not comfortable in hot weather. And with the onset of hot flashes, the hot weather is even more uncomfortable. Yucko!

Have a Good Weekend. TGIF!

Wondering About Those Blinkies?

If you know us, you might wonder about the blinkies. Well, one in particular. I added the Cracker Barrel lovers one because we really like eating there. But the opporunity is few and far between. There are none where we live. We have only gone to one in Florida (pictured above)and each time we go we really like the food. I really loved the breakfast dish I had the last time we were there. I forget what it was called, but it was sure delicious! We ate at the Cracker Barrel twice on that trip. It was great. Really enjoyed sitting in the rocking chairs outside the front doors too. And of course browsing in the shop while waiting for a table and afterwards as well. I imagine each time we go to Florida to visit family, we will eat at a Cracker Barrel. I hope they never close like some places are due to declining business. Talking about that has me really looking forward to the next time we go. Unfortunately we don't know yet when that will be. Sigh. . . . . .

Today was Okay

The awful pain I had in my upper back last Thursday so far has not returned. Just some pain to remind me it is there. Not bad though. I continue to have problems with the lower back. I had therapy for it again today. It did get sore by the end of the day at work. The therapist asked me what I am doing when it bothers me. So I am trying to pay attention to what I am doing when it starts to bother me. It usually does not hurt when I sit down for a bit, but when I get up again then it will. It also bothers me when doing standing or slow walking things. Like working in the kitchen, or walking around the grocery store. It seems to have no rhyme or reason to it most of the time. Each time I go to therapy I learn something new to do to strengthen or to stretch my back and torso.

I got up just now for a Java refill, and it wasn't too bad this time to get up and walk. Like I said, I never know when it is going to hurt and when it is not. I just have to go with the flow most of the time.

Last night Edward found himself on the floor. He somehow rolled out of bed. We are not sure how it happened. Too close to the edge probably and then rolled over and boom, he was on the floor. I woke up because his falling off shook the bed enough to wake me up. He just told me that he is a little sore from the jarring of landing on the floor. Fortunately that is all it is. Also, fortunately the night stand on his side is NOT next to the bed. On my side it is, so if I were to fall out, I would conk my head first before landing on the floor. Does give you something to think about. I remember as a child falling out of bed and for some reason the bottom drawer of my dresser was open. I can remember hitting my head on the bottom drawer. May have to rethink furniture arrangement in the bedroom. But nightstands are so handy for putting reading material and my glasses. Many of the patients I work with have it far worse when they fall due to their fragility. Many times a bone is broken. Sometimes it is the hip and sometimes it can be a shoulder or upper arm. Depends on how they land and the type of flooring they have. Sometimes these falls are from falling out of bed. We can laugh about our situation, for many it is not funny.

The Linnea Flower

"Linnea Borealis or Twinflower is the national flower of Sweden. Named after Linnaeus (the Swedish 'father of taxonomy'), Linnéa is a very delicate wild plant - just about 1 in. high - growing in the deep shadow of Northern spruce forests. The plant has two flowers on top of each very thin stem. Foliage is in the form of creeping runners growing in deep moss. The flowers are pink, bell-like, very fragrant and grow in pairs."

http://www.theflowerexpert.com/content/flowerbusiness/flowergrowersandsellers/national-native-popular-flowers-of-sweden

People are always surprised when I tell my name is the name of a flower. They are also surprised when I say it is a Swedish name. Many folks say it sounds Hawiian. At that point I tell them about Carl Von Linnaeus who found the flower. The definition and the picture above comes from the website I have listed above. I wanted to see a picture of the Linnea flower and this is one of the websites that came up when I did a search. Now my daughter and my granddaughter can see what the flower looks like since they both have Linnea for a middle name. One time I had a patient I was working with who knew exactly where my name came from when I told her my name. She was a retired botanist, so of course she recognized the name being a plant person.

I have accumulated several things with embroidery or drawings of the Linnea flower, but I wanted to see an actual picture. So there you are!

http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/shrubs/linnaea.html

The above is another website with more information about the Linnea flower.

Made It Through the Day

Today I was assisting minister at church. Edward does it too sometimes. We weren't sure if I was going to do it as scheduled or if we were going to have him do it. I decided I would go ahead and do it. But I did feel sore by the end of the service in my lower back. Upper back doing okay so far. But I did have a headache all day and yesterday too. But by this evening I started to feel that tight pain in the upper back. Managable. Took some ibruprophen which I hope helps as well as helping the headache. The doctor did prescribe the Vicodin. But I discovered it makes me so sleepy. I don't think I will take it unless I am at home and the pain is extreme. On Friday I took one just as I was leaving to drive home. I thought I wouldn't feel the affects until I got home which is about a 30 minute drive. Well, I could tell I was getting sleepy before I got home. I found that kind of scary, so now I know to wait until I know I will not be driving.

Originally I was going to be the substitute organist today. But then we found out our former organist was going to be in the area from Minnesota, where he has been since 1987, and would be able to play today. Everyone really enjoys having him play when he is here, because he is really good. Having him here turned out to be a good thing for me, because I am sure I would have been very sore if I had to play. Sitting on that organ bench tires my back very quickly and I spend close to 2 hours sitting there on a Sunday morning. I don't even bother to get down for communion because it hurts to much to move that quickly. Sometimes communion is brought to me when I do play. He will be doing a concert next Sunday which he usually does he time he comes to visit. He gets together a great group of musicians for a very nice afternoon concert. Of course we always attend it. Besides Edward and my mom are both readers for various lessons during the concert. His concerts usually take a worship service format, so the readings are very appropriate and fit into the theme he develops for each concert.

He knew my kids when they were young. He always asks about them. He remembers my son holding on to his finger nearly every Sunday when he was a toddler. I guess that is a fond memory of his. When our daughter was in the area, she also had a chance to do readings for one of his concert. One year I even played my flute for one of his concerts. He has been doing them for a long time now. He always has the suggested donations go to some charity or other organization he wants to help. This time it will be the local Food Bank.

Our grapes are starting to taste good. We took a few bunches with us to church to share during fellowship time. I need to remember to take some with me to work tomorrow. Like I said before we have more than we can eat before they go bad. Probably should share some with a couple of our neighbors too.

Hope the week goes well for all.

Wish the Pain Away

I had another episode of intense pain on Thursday. I had to text my husband (I'm hearing impaired and don't talk on the phone) to call the doctor, let work know I was not coming in and to cancel my strength training workout. The pain was in my upper left back and traveling down my arm and around my rib cage to the front. The pain was strong in enough I was crying while texting. Edward came home from work to take me to the doctor. The doctor decided it is a pinched nerve and prescribed medication for pain as needed. It makes me so sleepy, I'm not going to take it unless I really need too. I will also have an MRI. Don't know when yet though. Also he gave me a note to take to work to inform that I am not to lift more than 10 pounds for 2 weeks. Kind of makes things difficult at work to not lift more than 10 pounds.

Yesterday I went to work, I really wanted to be there for the baby shower. Also I had very little pain compared to Thursday. Boy! What a difference! But all day I was careful what I did with that arm. On Thursday I could not put my arm up to comb and style my hair. It was agony just to pull it back into a pony tail. Today it was a lot easier to do a pony tail. But my lower back was sore most of the day. I did go to my Physical Therapy appointment before I went to work. I will have at least 6 more sessions of that, because my doctor has okayed orders for 6 more. I have a series of stretching and strengthening exercises I do now for my lower back. It is helping a lot, but I still have my bad days, just like I do with my upper back. The two pain areas are unrelated according to the doctor.

Today is okay so far. I can feel the upper back pain, but not as bad at Thursday. Lower back is okay at the moment. At this point, I just take it one day at a time. That is all I can do for right now, one day at a time. I am hoping I can manage to do a few things around the house that need doing. Have good Saturday!

Blogging Learning

I have been playing around with the customize feature and trying different backgrounds. I finally decided that for both of my blogs I would just go with a simple background and choose the colors I want on them. I want to make it easy to read. One of the backgrounds I had chosen made for difficult reading and I know it can be frustrating to read something against a busy background, so I decided to keep it simple for now.

Also I decided to stay home from work today. Edward was home also due to his new schedule of working 4/10. Since my back was still sore from whatever I had done to it on Saturday, another day at home made sense. Actually it gave me a chance to relax a bit more and allow that sore area to loosen up. I think it helped quite a bit to do that. I will go to work tomorrow and when I go to my Physical Therapy appointment I will have to tell her about my painful weekend. She may work on that part of my back as well as the lower part I was originally getting treatment for at this time.

I was able to get more sewing done today while Edward tackled some decluttering. It is a relief to have him deal with the piles of paper tiger as I call it. It was getting so I never had the energy to take care of it. Having him do it helped a lot. He did a lot of it while watching the Olympics. I have to say today was a productive day. I just wish it was cooler. I am not a fan of hot weather. And today it got quite warm. It is still warm out, but it shouldn't be too long before we can open the windows and let the cooling breezes blow through.

Darn Back Pain

I am getting frustrated with this back problem. It seemed it was getting better and then something new comes up. Yesterday while I was sitting at the computer I suddenly got a pain and tightness in my left upper back. The original problem is in the lower right area. So we don't know if I moved wrong suddenly, or it tightened up from favoring the lower area or what happened. But it is very sore now. Last night Edward massaged it some and added that Mineral Ice stuff I think it is called. But the process of the massage hurt so much it brought tears to my eyes. Well, alright. It made me cry. I had a difficult night for various reasons and I am still quite sore today. I have used heat on it once so far. Now I am worried how I am going to get through work tomorrow. Very carefully probably. AAACKK!!!

So that was yesterday. We decided to stay home from church for several reason. My sore back, save gas (it is a 1/2 hour drive), to get more things done at home and neither one of us had a specific responsiblity at church today. Now next week we will go. I am assistant minister for one and secondly our former organist is playing and we always love hearing him play. It will be good to see him again as well. He is doing a concert the following Sunday so we go over that way again on the 24th.

Yesterday I did some sewing. Nearly finished with the baby gift I am working on currently. I plan to finish that today and start the next baby gift that I need finished by this Friday for a shower for a co-worker. Better get to it I guess. I am thinking of starting a second blog on craft and sewing projects I have finished, but I am not sure yet. Don't know if there are others out there like that. Hmmm.....

Back is Better

My back is slowly getting better, finally! I was beginning to wonder if it ever would. I had been having lots of pain on a daily basis and would end up feeling pretty miserable most days after work. Now that I have had 3 sessions of Physical Therapy I am noticing some improvement. Not nearly as much pain. It comes and goes during my work day. There are stretching exercises I am supposed to do. I do them but not as often as I should. But them some is better than none. I am able to continue with my strength training I do once a week on Thursdays. I have definitely improved my strength since I started that in March of this year. This strength training program helps to reverse aging by turning your flab into muscle. I can tell that I am gaining muscle by how much I am able to do at my workouts. Go Me!!

Today I had my work physical along with the TB test we always have to do once a year. Working in a medical facility, this is especially important. I currently have this little black circle on my arm so they can see where the TB test was done when it is checked again on Friday. Oh, and I passed the physical. Even with the back problems. So on to another year. As long as I stay healthy I will be fine with the job. Oh, and in case you don't know what it is I do, I am a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant. I have doing this for almost 6 years now. It was a midlife career change for me. Prior to that I was an Instructional Aide in a Special Education classroom for 12 years. I worked mostly with severly handicapped children. I worked with a wide variety of handicapped children over the years. Now I am in a geriatric setting. Quite different from working with children. I frequently learn interesting things from my patients because they have experiences that are different from mine.

Getting There and Random Thoughts

I am starting to get the hang of how to work this blog. Sort of obvious by the things I have added to it so far. Kind of figuring out how to make it reflect us. But at the moment it is reflecting more of me rather than B-Daddy. The picture above is one I took when our roses were in full bloom. Right now there are no flowers on our rose bushes. But they are looking fairly healthy based on how nice the new leaves look at this time. 2008 has been our gardening year. We are in the process of making our little piece of lot in this park look pleasing to the eye. So far it is coming along nicely and we have ideas to add to it as we are able. We planning to continue to tinker with the yard even through the winter so the weeds don't overwhelm us like they did this year. We figure poking through the yard and keeping the weeds pulled will help to maintain what we have done so far.

We approaching another season soon. And that means leaves, leaves and more leaves. We tend to have lots to rake up because of the trees that are around us. We still plan to meander through the local thrift shops and see if we can find pots or other interesting containers that will work as planters in the yard or on the steps. My hope is to have even more color next summer. I can dream anyway.

Gardening was something I was never really interested in or knew much about. But this year I have discovered the pleasure of making things grow and seeing them turn into a thing of beauty. Probably a result of needing to develop new things as we get used to being empty nesters. A feeling that still takes getting used to. Yesterday our area supervisor bought lunch for the rehab team to welcome our new Director or Rehab. The conversation turned to what people did on the weekend. There was talk of what people did with their kids. At that point I had nothing to add to the conversation. It was strange to not be talking about what I did with my children over the weekend. But I am not the only one. Two therapists are not married, one has college age kids, one guy is a father to be and then me with grown up kids. I believe I am the oldest therapist with the oldest kids in that group. Kind of a strange feeling I must tell you. I suddenly felt quite old compared to everyone else. Yep definitely strange. But I am happy to say I am basically young at heart with a young attitude most of the time. Gotta do something to keep people thinking I am younger than I really am.

Our Grapes are Ripening

Here is one of the pictures we took today of the ripening grapes. The are getting close to being ready to pick. Not quite sweet enough yet. A little tart still. But I have noticed in the news that crews are starting to harvest the grapes already. So it does not surprise me that ours are almost ready. This is the second year for us to have so many grapes. Too much for us alone of course. So I will be taking some to work, church etc.

Today we puttered around in the yard a bit. Did some trimming, deadheaded flowers, fertilized and watered, and planted some vinca flowers. I am getting to know some flower names now that we are spending more time out there. Plus walking around where flowers are sold and checking out the names and so forth. We are already making plans for what to plant next year. I think we will try to start some stuff from seed and see how that does for us.

Before it got too warm, we took a walk around our park, but because of my back I was not sure how far I could walk. Surprisingly I managed to walk the entire park. It was nice to check out changes and see what other people are doing in their yards. We got some ideas we could eventually try in ours. One thing we may try is succulents which don't take much water. It was a pleasant walk. I am glad I was able to do that. Taking walks together is something we need to do more often.

So How Many Blogs Can We Have?

We are beginning to get confused here with this blog business. First it was Yahoo 360, then it was Xanga and now we are here. We can blame it on our precious daughter-in-love. I prefer to call her that rather than daughter-in-law. Because we love her that is why! And she is married to our son and mother of our precious granddaughter. And it is through these blogs we can keep in touch and share pictures since we live on opposite sides of the United States. It has been fun to discover other family members using this too. So that is why I will get started with this one. Eventually I will figure it out I'm sure and make an interesting page that I like using. So here is day 1 of trying to figure all this out. Happy Sunday!!