tests..tests and more tests!

Went for a bone scan today. For those that have never had one, here is how it works. They take you into the room and you lie down on table. They then inject dye into your vein. The imaging machine does it's thing. They tell you the screen will be close to your face, but won't touch it. Yup, they were not kidding. The urge to move my head to the side became overwhelming. I closed my eyes. The machine is pretty open, but the "plate" so close to my face made me feel a bit closed in. That test lasted about 15 minutes. Then they send you off on your merry way to return in about 2 hours. One had to let the dye settle into one's bones. I decided to go have some breakfast. I went into the restaurant and was seated down in a booth. The sun was just coming up over a building and it became a bit bright. The waitress asked if I would like the blinds closed. No, it's fine. The sun feels nice, She ignored that and walked over to a table of 8 men and told them she was going to reach behind them, so that she could close the blinds as the sun is beaming into my eyes. I kid you not when I say, all 8 of them turned to look at me. I do believe they were looking for a crown on top of my head. Let me tell you, this waitress had to lean right over them to close the blind. I quickly glanced down at the newspaper I was reading. Had my breakfast and went shopping. I treated myself to new PJs. Also, bought myself a new housecoat. The one I own is huge and about 22 years old. It was bought when I was pregnant with my first child. It is one of the oldest articles of clothing I own. Even now, I can't think of possibly throwing it out. Will put it aside for now.
  Shopping done, time to head back to the machine. Part 2 of my fun. I got there, went right into the room. She explained it would be pretty much what it did before, so lie still. They actually wrap your feet together to prevent them from moving  and wrap your arms to your sides as well. My mind began to wonder. I was thinking about how my breathing was. Was it too much? Did it seem like I was holding my breath? If I took a deep breath, would that mean I moved too much and would have to start over?? Man, this brain of mine, just refuses to shut up! Then a good song came on. How was I going to stop singing along? Clearly, with my feet wrapped, tapping my toes was out of the question.
I moved my lips, ever so slowly to the song. Couldn't let it pass without singing along. The technician came in and asked if I had any recent chest injury or was I experiencing pain.  Could they see me sing? Did my moving of my lip indicate I was in pain? I told her now. She left again. The machine was now taking "photos" of my feet. Afterwards, I told her I did have some chest issues about 3 weeks ago. Found it hard to catch my breath cause my ribs hurt so much, but I had let my Dr. know and he said it was probably just a muscle pull from the chest fly's I was doing at the gym. Guess that thought was blown out of the water, because when I was done with this machine, they sent me to get an x-ray of my chest. Of course, we all know technicians can't tell you anything other than they saw something. Sheesh.  I was sent home to wait for the Dr to phone me. He should get the results in 24 hours. tic toc..not that I am counting.... Later, eh!

Where have I been?!

Holy Crap.
 Has it really been that long since I have written anything for this blog. Sheesh, One would think I was off living the high life and was far too busy or didn't want to appear to brag about my life, to write.  Well, I am here, finally, to tell you the honest truth about my absence. Ready?!  Here it comes!!   I got lazy. There you have it. I  just got plain, sometimes really nice, lazy!! I over thought the whole blog process. Went through a stage where I figured I was the only one that liked hearing about my days and how crazy it could be. I was once told that maybe I over talk telling stories. They are too long and maybe people don't have the time to listen or read a long winded story. I took that to heart, and decided to give people the "Coles notes" version of stories. Then I thought again. ( I know..lots of thinking going on here) I have always been a story teller. No matter what I have done or seen, I have always turned it into a story with details and such. This is who I am and the hell with the naysayers. ( Is that even how you spell "naysayers"?)  If I want to spend a good 10 minutes telling a story about getting my hair cut, then I will! My grandmother was always a story teller and so was my Aunt. I come from a long line of story tellers.  It was a friend of mine that reminded me that I love to write and some of my stories are really funny. I was admiring her paintings and told her she had such talent for painting and drawing. She said "but, you are so good at writing and I wish I could do that!". Hmmmm. I do have a talent for writing. I do love to write and make people laugh. So, this entry in my blog after soooo  many years, will be the first of many to come.
   Side note here.. Coles notes, for those that may not know what that is, is a series of books that basically took classic novels and shortened them up for anyone that didn't want to read the whole book. They could just grab one of these and get the important points of a book. For instance..when you have to read Romeo and Juliet for school and find it hard to concentrate on the funky language, you could find a Coles notes book on it and learn the important parts of the book.  Personally, I loved Romeo and Juliet. Memorized the balcony scene and everything.
    That's it for now. Just wanted to do the virtual poke and say "I'm back". Hopefully I will write a story more that 1 time every few years!!   Later, eh.

ta da....

Right before your eyes you will see my first painting. Yes, it is upside down. If I could figure out how top rotate it, I will...but for now, it doesn't look too bad the way it is.  I was with some friends admiring a picture in a store. The one friend agreed with me that it look really nice. The other friend said to us "you could paint that your self." To which we replied, after pausing a bit, with a "get out of here!".  No, she said, just take a photo of it and copy it yourself. Better yet, buy the original one, copy it by painting it, then return it. Since the picture I was looking at was a mountain scene with trees and snow..I thought I wouldn't be so keen on trying to copy that. She decided she will be our painting instructor and start us up small with this simple leaf design.
  I have to admit I am NO artist. Can't draw to save my life!  But, this was so fun to do. I was covered in paint, cause that's how I roll. Whether baking or whatever..I seem to wear whatever project I am working on. That's the fun bit. It took us one Sunday afternoon to paint this and I am so impressed. She said it helps to have some music in the background to set the mood. We had African tribal music going. I have chosen some opera music...ahh chosen it..have yet to actually have it playing in the background
  Since this leaf painting, that I have named The Fall Leaf,  I have tempted to paint a winter scene with trees.  Notice that picture isn't on display here??!!  There is a good reason for that. Good grief!!! But, I am not giving up on this. I have such a good time doing this and have some ideas of what to paint next..besides my arms, easel, clothes and whatever is handy to my brush.

just wondering...

Here I sit at the dining table playing a game on Facebook. Yes, I like to play games on Facebook. Mindless, time killing games. In my defense, I do play scrabble with several people and would love to challenge my over seas friends, but scrabble won't share.. They have a separate game for North Americans and another one for Europe.  Haven't a clue why?!! Do you Europeans have strange words that it won't accept on our board game?  We have the word "Zen" that it rejects all the time and, for future reference, no matter how many time you yell at your computer saying "it's a word..hello..anyone there?", it still won't accept it.  Anyway, I am playing a mindless, highly addicting, game (candy crush) and I am running out of moves. Suddenly a notice will come on informing me that for my real $, it will give me 5 extra moves.  My question is, just how desperate do you have to be to pay real money for face money or turns or points. What would drive you to actually pull out your credit card and say "hey, what a great deal I have going here."  If you have a spouse that goes over the bills, what would be your reasoning as to why you just had to purchase 5 more moves for 99Cents.  I can just imagine the blank stare I would get from my husband. Hmm almost tempting to give it a try. Almost..not quite.  Hey time has passed, maybe I have earned more lives while doing other computer things. Yipee!!  Game on people!

I am in love...

I walked into my magazine store with anticipation of bringing home my usual wad of British magazines. They seem to be the only ones I buy. I am not even from the UK, but I got addicted to them while living in Switzerland.  Addicted might seem like a harsh word, but anyone that knows me will say I have always been crazy about magazines. Only once in a blue moon do I actually throw some old ones out. Anyway, while I was there, I noticed a new style of e-reader.  Hmmm do I dare look at it. I knew it would cost the earth to buy cause it had just come out. Doesn't cost anything to look! Funny how I say that so often, and yet can't seem to follow that when in certain store. lol (Ikea being one of those stores!). I was with my son and the two of us began playing with the new e-reader. He was pressing all kinds of things and swiping his fingers along the screen. I stood there like some old nervous Nellie and kept saying "don't do that, you don't know what it might do". "It's ok mom. It won't hurt it.". I kept expecting the lights of the city to dim from all the things he was doing. Technology these day, you never know.  It would be cool to own one of these tablets, I thought. BUT I was not prepared to pay that amount. I have my e-reader that still works fine. I went on my merry way to fetch my magazines. Yes, they cost a bit here.  But, I think they are worth it.
  Skip a few months ahead and it's mother's day. My son got me that e-reader. Holy crap!! I told him that was very generous of him and way over the top. He said I deserved it and he now had a job and could pay for it and he really wanted to!  Awwww.  Frankly, I got spoiled by everyone this mother's day!! Gush gush!  anyway, back to the new fancy e-reader..now knows as my tablet! This thing is amazing!  I got free games to play, I can check emails and the most important discovery is that I can download my British magazines for half the price of what I pay. No way!!!  I text a good friend of mine that is well advanced in this technology thing, and I knew she downloaded magazines on her ipad. I asked if it was just like having the magazine in your hand. Does it really include everything from the magazine. She confirmed it was indeed the real thing. Whoopee!! So, now I have 3 magazines that I buy for my tablet. Think of how clean and de-cluttered my house will be without magazines hanging around for months on end. This will leave me with some empty shelves that I think can easily be filled with "stuff" from some of my favourite stores.
  Not only can I read my magazines, but I can join the kids in games. We are hooked on a great golfing game right now.  So, yes, I am in love. I am looking forward to having a dr.s appointment and bringing this tablet with me to keep me entertained. I realize most of everyone had one of these tablets..I always seem to be slightly behind the times. All I can say is Thanks, Child for buying me this new "toy"!!  Anyone want to challenge me to golf??!!

morning after a long weekend..

We had a nice long weekend and had great weather! Everyone in the family had their own plans. Some were home for a night, some were not!  It is always a surprise who is at the dinner table at night. Quite rare to have everyone here for dinner. This weekend was just like that. My husband was away and the kids were coming and going all weekend. All the fun ends when last night we had to try and get back into the groove of things. I set my alarm to get up at 7 am. This was in part for me to get ready for getting up tomorrow at 5 am. Ease myself into this early morning rising. Since I managed to stay up late, I reset my alarm for 8 am. My kids are good at getting up for the school bus. My alarm went off at 8 am and I eventually got out of bed. Worked my way out of the room, stood in the hallway and saw my youngest also standing in the hallway. Whoa!!  What day is this? What time is this? 20 questions raced in my head thinking I clearly missed something and maybe I didn't have to set my alarm.  I am always first to question myself over and over before I realize it isn't quite as it seems. I looked at him then said, "You missed your bus?"  Now, this kid hates mornings. Not the hate that lasts for a minute or two. It is a full on miserable, not talking to anyone for a long time, kind of hate. So, he looked at me and nodded his head. Ok,  My morning started with feet hitting the ground running! I grabbed a protein bar and got in the van and took him to school.  Decided while I was out, I may as well go work out. Starting the day that fast, usually leaves me with a foggy head all day long. I sound like a princess don't I.  Gee, unless I have my hour of morning leisure, then I just can't cope. lol
Hope you have a great day!!

A comedy of errors!

    Sometimes when my husband is talking away, I tend not to listen, I zone out and think of other things. I have learned that, when he was talking about the hoses for connecting to the water tank, I should have listened. He is away this weekend and it was up to me to make sure the garden got watered. We have a large garden so it takes a lot of water. We are lucky enough to live near a canal, so he hooks up the huge water tank to the tractor and goes helps himself with some water. They did say there would be lots of rain this weekend, so I really didn't think I would be needed to deal with the garden. Well, we all know how accurate the weather people are. We got maybe a sprinkling of rain..so..ugh..I had to water the garden tonight.  A simple task for the person that listened to what their husband was saying about the hoses...not so much for me!  There are 2 rows, along our spruce trees, that have green hoses. The one does have a nozzle, so I knew that would be my end hose. Surely it would be long enough to reach the water tank. Ya right...I can dream!  So, I rambled away moving those heavy hoses trying to figure out how one connects them. The dog was amused and watched me with great interest. I think, I heard her snicker..but couldn't be sure! My rambling was getting louder and louder. How hard is it to connect these stupid hoses and why do they weigh so bloody much!! I decided to hook up the one with the nozzle to the water tank and see what that would do. Well what it did was nothing. It wasn't long enough!  Sigh. Ok, I am a grown women, how hard is this?  I got the extra hose and brought it to the hose I was using and unhooked the nozzle end and got sprayed with a lot of water cause I didn't turn off the water! Arggg.
    Finally, I got everything all sorted. For future reference, turn water pressure off when changing hoses, wear rubber boots (cause water added to dirt turns into heavy mud that stick happily to sneakers), and above all...listen to my husband when he describes the newest things he buys for objects around the house. You never know what you will need to use them.