You've gotta have friends.....

This is from our recent trip to Denver to our friends Glenna and Greg's daughter's wedding. We had such a lovely time! We got the chance to catch up with them and enjoy the lovely Colorado scenery with other friends (Teressa, Frank, Marge, & Jerry) that went to the wedding too!

Isn't it funny how when you have the kind of friendship that in spite of time separated, it's like you've always been right around the corner and you pick up right where things left off? It's just a little bit magical, isn't it. Like your souls have never disconnected...

The wedding was positively gorgeous! Outdoors on top of a mountain with the beautiful Colorado scenery. During the ceremony, there was a rustling off to one side and out jumped two deer running down the side of the hill. TOO COOL! (I hope to put a little slide show on here soon.)

Then the reception afterward was a blast! The food was great, the company was great, the music was great, etc. etc. Hey anytime I can get my hubby out on the dance floor - well you know something special is going on! He made the statement that that was the best wedding he had been to in a long time. Ditto my dear - Ditto.

Thanks for everything Glenna and Greg. And CONGRATULATIONS to Megan and Zach.

Ahhh the sweet smell of summer

Ahhhh, the sweet smell of summer. More like Ahhhhh-Chooooo!
Mercy! My allergies are giving me fits. My nose is stuffed, my eyes are watery, ears plugged up, etc. You get the picture and it's not a pretty one right now! Sudaphed and Claritin are my best friends right now and thank goodness they have brought along their cousin - Kleenex.

We open our fireworks stand tonight so that means I will be spending a lot of time outdoors for the next week. Maybe I should buy stock in Kimberly Clark...

The things we do...

Look at this lovely lamp. Alyssa decided the other day to "decorate" it to make her babies happy. So far I have left it alone, although I did check to make sure the stickers will come off without ruining the lampshade. She did this while she and her Papa were at home together. Hmm....

At first I thought, YIKES! and thought about peeling them off right away, but she was so proud of the fact that she had done it. Hey, I gotta give her props - they are in a nice straight line going around the entire shade. She kept saying how her babies will love her more because she had decorated the lamp for them. They must like it. Here they are still sleeping where they can see it. I will be a good grandma and live with it a few more days.

It's official. The house is making me crazy. It's been three weeks and three days since my surgery. I am still making slow progress in my recovery, but I am afraid I will go nutty in this house. I love my house don't get me wrong. But it needs to be vacuumed, dusted, laundry needs to be done, dishes are in the sink, etc., etc. And where have I been for the majority of the day? In the chair, sitting on my behonkus. I have had kind of a "down" type day. My body feeling very tired, but my brain very active. So I have been thinking of all the things I could be doing if I felt better. So I am hoping tomorrow my body will feel more like moving. Then I can try to get some of this stuff done, if I can recruit some help.

It's been a busy week, though compared to the last two. I have been out of the house on several field trips. Sunday, I went to the grocery store. Great idea! Until I started trying to push the cart after adding my groceries to it. Not good. On Tuesday, Gale took me for a spa pedicure (my first ever). It was great! My toes look lovely. After that I drove myself and ran a couple of small errands. Wednesday it was a trip to try to find me some white sandals. Jamie, Alyssa, and I went out running around. Well, I was walking very slowly. David met us for lunch at Panera Bread (Alyssa's choice of lunch spots - yippee - not McD's!) So I slyly suggested, "Hey babe, why don't you go to Kohl's with us and lets find you some new slacks?" Two hours later - we have found 2 slacks, 4 jeans, 6 shirts, and 2 pairs of shoes for Dave. I thought as long as I have him here I had better take advantage of it! He needed some new things and it's not often I can get him to the store and in the mood to actually try things on. I really don't think he minded though and he got some great stuff! Me, I came home with no sandals. Thursday, Jamie was having a garage sale, so I went and sat with her for a while. Met the girls for lunch and went back to sit a while longer at the GS. Dinner that night with Dave and then to Lowes to walk around and dream of all the stuff I want to do in the house. So all in all, like I said a busy week and I guess it all caught up with me today. Tomorrow will be a better day. I am hoping to get the house straight or maybe I will find some white sandals...

The project

Hello, I see you... Do you see me? I am peeking out the newly installed doors on the never ending building project going on in our backyard. Wow, it has come a long way in the last year. My handy-dandy hubby David has worked and worked and worked to get it up and useable. (Along with some wonderful helpers who have volunteered their time!) We are getting so close to have it fully enclosed.

The plan is to use it to store our new camping trailer. Wait...we don't own a trailer. Oh that's right, we have to have a place to store it before we can get it. It has a high ceiling on the "trailer" side and a two story section on the other side. See here's a photo from just a couple of months ago. You can kind of see the inside of the shop to see what I am talking about. Sometimes it is amazing to look at this huge structure and think that this was done by these talented and wonderful guys! A big thanks to all of them who have given so freely of their time - though I think they really do enjoy the building part of it. It's a guy thing. Hey once in a while we get the girls involved if we really need some extra arms.

One of these days it will be completely finished and we will be able to enjoy all of the extra space it will provide! I hope to get a little of that space to store some of all my extra stuff that is taking up room in the house and in the garage. It's funny, people who know where we live always ask about the shop and how it is coming along. We live next to a well traveled road and lots of people drive by everyday and have watched it's progress. I will be at Wal-Mart and someone will say, "Wow, your shop is coming along" or "Boy, that shop is sure big". It's fun to hear all of their comments. Sometimes I do the same thing, I step out into the yard and think "mercy" that is one big building.

Friends and such

Now this was a fun evening. Joni (at the left in blue) turned the big 4-0 this last Saturday. Several of the girls got together to help her celebrate this special day. We met at Los Cabos in Tulsa at The Riverwalk - great Mexican food by the way. Mostly we just sat and talked and got caught up. We all work for OPS and don't always have a chance just to talk. So that was nice. Two of the girls I hadn't seen in a while. My office used to be at their school site and so I haven't really connected with them since then (2 years ago!). And yes, I am calling us all girls. And yes, we are all over 30...

Thanks for the invite girls, I had a great time.

Driving again

I drove today. Oh yeah big deal. But really I haven't driven in over two weeks. I haven't driven since my surgery. And though this might seem crazy....it was just a little bit scary!

I know, I know. How goofy. But I am moving a whole lot slower than I usually do and it worried me that my "response" time might not be up to snuff.

So to start my new driving experience I drove to meet a friend for lunch. Tummy pillow in place. Seat adjusted. And off I go! (Lovely lunch by the way - thanks Jodi!) So far so good. Then I drive back home...and promptly had to take a little nap. (Thought I was past the tired part of my recovery.) No accident, no sudden stops. Yippee! I arrived at my destination and back home safe and sound.

So thought I would try it again. I was invited to Joni's 40th birthday party at Los Cabos on Riverside (You rock girlfriend!). Here I go again. Tummy pillow tucked. But this time in 5:00 traffic on 169. YIKES! I knew I was getting back in the swing when I began to loudly state my opinions of the other drivers' driving skills to no one in particular. I mean come on people... The firetruck is on the opposite side of the expressway and we are at a dead stop because people are gawking at the flashing lights! No debris on the highway, no accident, nothing. Just those pretty lights flashing on the other side. Mercy. I am NOT a patient driver.

So looks like again, another assurance that I am well on my way to recovery. :-)

Doctor visit

Had my two week check-up after the big "H" (5/20). According to my wonderful and lovely Dr. BW I am doing great! I think I agree. I feel like I have made a turn for the better. Oh, I am still bruised, still very sore, and still get tired easily; but, mentally and physically I am making leaps and bounds!

Here's the scoop:
I can drive when I feel I am ready. (Not quite sure, but mentally not ready yet. I'm still moving a little slow.)

All of my steri-strips are gone. Yippee!

My pathology report - GREAT! No signs of cancer anywhere. Praise God! The report said I had 6 small fibroid tumors, adenomyosis (an "internal" type of endometriosis), a small lipoma, multiple cysts in both ovaries, along with the severe adhesions and some other "changes" to the tubes, ovaries, etc. Isn't that something? Now put that together with the 30+ uterine polyps they removed last May.... WOW - it's no wonder I felt so crappy! ;-)

So here's to better days ahead! I go back for my full release on July 7th. I am supposed to gradually increase my activities - though still no lifting or straining. So 4 more weeks of being careful - but that is OK by me. I told the doctor I want everything to heal the right way.

Now I just need to get rested up for our trip to Denver in two weeks! I am so looking forward to it.

Wheeeeee!

Take a good look at this photo. When was the last time you had THAT much fun?

Made me just a little jealous. It's been a long time since I slid down a curvy slide...or any kind of slide for that matter! And what did she say immediately after? "Let's do that again!"

So can you tell what we did today? We went to the park with Alyssa, our grandbaby. Well not so much of a baby anymore, she's 4. We did one of her favorite things to do when we go to the park - we fed the ducks and geese. They absolutely swarmed us, so much that she begged her papa to pick her up. It was pretty funny. We were surrounded by quacking and honking and flapping. They got a little impatient and even tried to peck at my toes! Guess I wasn't tossing the bread out fast enough. :-) Alyssa and I started going to this park a while back. We would go through the Mickey D's drive through and take our Happy Meals to the park to eat. She said she would rather do that than go in and play on their playground. Yippee for me....I am not wild about those big indoor playparks. So we save our french fries and feed them to the ducks. Today we saw the ducklings we had seen about a month ago and boy have they grown. They were so cute and fuzzy then. They are still cute but not quite so fuzzy and they have about tripled in size! She got a big kick out of that and wanted to be sure the babies got some of our treats.

When we got home, she wanted to play babies. Each baby (Joni and Sally) had their own room; one on each love seat in the den. She gave them each a bottle and put them to sleep. (That seems to be her new thing, every toy has to be put to bed and then we are told "Shhhh" they are sleeping and don't wake them up!) Then she lined up all of the babies "stuff" and we had to count how many things were lined up. She kept adding to the lineup until we reached 30!

Time to go home. Jamie comes to pick her up and in our now SOP we all go out to the car to tell her good-bye. Here's the funny thing. The dog, Joe, goes to! We follow them out (usually with one of us carrying Alyssa) give hugs and kisses and then lift the dog up so she can hug him good-bye. If it doesn't happen just that way, we hear about it. Either from her or from Joe! He will squeeze in under your legs and try to get up in the car to see her. It is just so darn cute.

Well, I had better go find all the kids that have been put to sleep all over the house. I believe there are some in just about every room. I saw a witch and a gingerbread man sleeping somewhere....

Recovery

Hmmm, the definition of recovery is: return to health, return to a normal state, gaining back something that is lost, or extraction. All very well suited to my state of being right now.

I am attempting to return to health after having the big "H" about two weeks ago. Though I am not sure if gaining back something that is lost really fits my situation --Hey - that's why I had the surgery in the first place! To EXTRACT what has been causing me so much trouble.

I made the comment to my husband and in an e-mail to my friends that I have trouble asking others for help. Yeah, I knew that all along, but it has really been brought home to me this time.

I have also discovered that I am NOT superwoman. I might think I am but alas I have learned that that is not so. So recovery has been a real lesson in patience for me. Slow is how it is going and to put it mildly, "I don't do slow". And I have had to ask for help. And help has arrived when I need it most.

Thanks.