The Title is Different

But the story remains the same.  Not much has changed in my part of the world.  Thus my lack of writing.  My fatigue seems to be worsening as does the pain and though I try to fight it and ignore it, the fact is I am just not able to continue on at the pace that I have set for myself.  Sadly, somethings must go.  I wish that it could be work.  Ha!  But since that is not to be the case at this juncture in time, I have heeded the call the slow down a bit and take things a little slower.  At the same time, I also have come to accept that there are some things that I have got to allow room for and one of those things is Physical Therapy.  As much as I didn't like going for a multitude of reasons, being away from it for a while has made me realize that there was value in it for me.  But I think that perhaps what I need to do is shop around a bit because I don't think that the therapist that I was seeing was the right one for me personally. 
I am the type of person who needs acceptance, needs to be liked.  Now, I don't have to like you but I want you to like me.  Crazy?  Yeah, I know.  Maybe, I'm seeing the wrong kind of therapist!  Anyway, the therapist I was seeing before kind of had an attitude with me and I thought she didn't like me and I wasn't going to leave that practice until I had her liking me.  Part of my therapy included massage and let me tell you, when she gave massage you knew it!  It was like one of those old black and white movies where the guy goes in for massage with a woman and he's on the table and the masseuse walks in with arms the size of Toledo.  Yeah, like that!  I used to have Mr. Wonderful check my back for bruising after she got done with me.  No kidding.  Pain.  Oh, yeah.  Then I talk to my doctor about it and she said that I shouldn't have any pain, so I was outta there!  It's just a matter of time now for me to find someone that I am comfortable working with, who takes my insurance, has convenient hours and is nearby work or home.  Not asking too much.
In other news, Bellas birthday- otherwise known as the most important day in the month of June according to her, is rapidly approching and I am working on all things party.  Woot, woot!  Pink, black, white and girly to the max!  It so aptly describes both my girl and her party theme.  I took her shopping with me last week to Party City to pick out some things for said party, paper goods, pinata stuffers, that kind of thing.  As we are walking the aisles she is looking and looking for just the right 'look' and I'm smiling to myself.  I picked up a package of napkins that were black with polka dots and she informed me that they were the wrong color pink.  Okay, put those back and keep looking.  Then she squeeled and reached out her hand a grabbed a package of napkins and said she found the perfect ones.  They were exactly the right colors, bright fuscia pink with black polka dots and across the bottom they said "Another year of Fabulous".  She thinks they are perfect!  Through the rest of the store she was singing 'Fabulous, fab-you-lous...!'  Oh, how I enjoy that little girl!

A Day in the Life

Since I am full of excuses as to why sometimes I get so little done in my creative endeavors, I decided that perhaps I'd give you a glimpse into a typical day into my life. 
4:45 AM-My alarm goes off and I usually get right up with Mr. Wonderful having to push or shove me out of bed.  I stumble into the bathroom where I spend the next 20 -30 minutes doing my morning routine and dressing.  Then it's downstairs to let the dogs outside and pack my breakfast and lunch in an old lunchbag of Michelle's and take my medications.  Next, I sit down and catch up on The Talk on DVR while I straighten my hair and apply my make up in the family room.  (I know-weird.)
5:30-5:45-Out the door and into the car for my commute to wrok.
6:00-6:30-On a normal day I arrive at work between these times, though on some days I do arrive earlier-never later.  I am among the first in the building, so I turn th lights on and bring the paper in, and head to my office.  After dropping my stuff off, I grab my keys and my coffee cup and go get the laptop for the front desk, get coffee, and go open the reception area. Our receptionist doesn't arrive until 8:00 and often we have guests in earlier, so I will need to get them signed in and give them badges.  While there, I have a chance to check my personal email quickly while I sign into all of my work sites. 

8:00-Receptionist arrives and I head back to my office and that's when the real fun begins!  Ha!  Usually I have about a half hour of quiet in the morning and I use that time to review and paperwork that I have on my desk and to eat my breakfast (cereal w/fruit).  I never know what the day is going to bring, but it's always an adventure.  Most days I don't spend a lot of time in my office, as I am running around the building taking care of all kinds of different issues.  When I am in my office, the phone rings way too much and I am forced to answer the darned thing.  That usually leads to something else that I am needed for or required to do and so I am off and running again.  If I am lucky sometime before I leave for the day I eat the lunch that I've packed at my desk, but sometimes it comes back home with me. 

3:30-4:00-I head out the door and leave work for the day and begin the drive home.

4:15-5:00-Arrive home.  Finally!  First thing I do after I drop my stuff is head to the bathroom after the long drive home.  Then I see who's home, usually Bella is there with Grandaddy and I say hi and exchange daily pleasantries, then Bella will often read to me for a bit.  Because the kitchen is always messy from me being gone all day, I will attempt to clean it up a little before I hit the couch or  my favorite chair for a little rest. 

6:15-6:30-Wake up from my 'rest' and have dinner.

7:00-After dinner, I might jump in the hot tub for a while before showering, then I have to thoroughly dry my very thick hair or it will be standing straight up in the morning.  Then it's into my comfy p.j.'s and my comfy chair where I curl up with my laptop and check my favorite blogs, Pinterest, blog myself, and craft what I can from my chair.  (Which is very limited, as you can imagine.)  My energy level is pretty much sapped by now and the thought of having to get up and go anywhere doesn't interest me in the least, so chair it is!

8:00-10:00-Mr. Wonderful and I sit together and watch T.V. or read or whatever,  sometimes I don't make it until ten.  So we head up to bed and fight the dogs for a spot on the bed, go to sleep and get up and do it again the next day!

Saturdays though, I SLEEP!  I can sleep sometimes until almost 9:00!  So, pretty boring but pretty busy.    That's if nothing is going on, when we have something going on it can get really crazy!

Anyway, I wanted to share a few pics with you from our Mother's Day.  We had such a wonderful day!  Spent it at the Zoo.  Bella was in heaven! 

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She's so shy, we really need to do something about that!

Yes, that is Bella and I riding a camel.  Ouch!  The camel probably was none too happy either!

Michelle, Bella and Shawn

Bella and Grandaddy feeding the Camel on the Safari Ride

I've been a little quiet around here lately, but rest asured I am still alive and kicking.  Just things have been busy and I'm still dealing with pink eye.  I have not been able to kick it!  I took the eye drops as directed for times a day for the required seven days and treated both eyes, then on the ninth day it was back again.  I called the doctor and was told to continue to take the drops, use hot compreses, same routine as before and so I did.  I also bought new eye makeup again and changed the sheets and took washing my hands to a new religion and my eyes got better.  I finished up the medicine on Thursday and woke up Friday and you guessed it-pink eye again!  This time it was in the other eye, just for a change of pace I guess but it was there never the less.  So, I worked a short day and put in yet another call to the doctor.  This time the medicine was changed and I picked up new drops at the pharmacy on Friday that were more expensive and not generic and the bottle is half the size of the last bottle, so I am really hoping the this works.  I am tired of feeling lousy, tired of the doctor, tired of medicine and quite frankly- my eyes really hurt!
 Needless to say, I have not been terribly productive.

Today though, the weather has finally broken and it is just beautiful here.  The sky was bright blue and it was a perfect day!  Michelle had called last night and asked if she and Shawn could come over with Bella and Lady (their dog) and we were happy to have them.  Mr. W worked in the morning and so I cleaned the house and got the deck cushions and umbrellas out, made a pasta salad, and some limeade and ordered some chicken and ribs from Giant Eagle.  Jim picked up the food on his way home from work, the kids brought over a cheesecake for dessert and we spent the afternoon on the deck enjoying each other's company, good food, watching the dogs play and loving on Bella.  It was a great day!   The only thing that could have made it any better is if Tim and Esther could have been here too.  But it was a truly wonderful day.

4 Verses 4 Hundred 44!

When did watching TV become so complicated?  All I want to do is sit down and turn on the TV and watch a program once in a while.  Seems easy enough right?  WRONG!  It used to be, but then we had to go and make things, better, faster, easier.  To understand what I'm referring to we have to go back a while.

Now, I may be dating myself here but I can remember when prompted, back to 'The Old Days'.   If I think about it hard enough, and you will recognize the symptoms because you will see the steam coming from my ears, the color rising in my face and sweat pouring down my forehead, to when you had to wait for the TV to warm up before the picture came on.  Do you remember that?  No.  Well, how about this.  Back then, there were only 4 channels to choose from!  Another thing, there was no such thing as a remote contro, the closest thing that our parents had to that was wellk-US.  "Hey, kids, get up and change the station for me will ya'?"  And of course we all know that question was rhetorical, because children in those days didn't say 'no' to their parents.  I'm not kidding.  Oh yeah, and get this, you're not going to believe it, but I speak only the truth here.  TV went off the air!  Really.  So, if you fell asleep with the TV on and you woke up hours later in the middle of the night, there was nothing on.  Maybe just the American Flag waving, but most likely just a buzzer buzzing.  Relentlessly.  Then nothing came back on until like six o'clock in the morning and then you had a choice of the morning news, cartoons or Romper Room.  Romper Room was our version of pre-school because normal run of the mill kids didn't go to school until the started Kindergarten.  If you went to school before Kindergarten it was because your parents were a) Rich b) Super Religious or c) Well, there was something wrong with you.

Romper Room

Oh, yeah!  TV.  So, anyway.  Then somewhere along the line came the advent of at home movies.  What a great idea, right?  You can watch cinematic masterpieces at home for much less than the cost of going to the movies and far more convenient.  You only have to purchase the machines and you can then choose to either rent the movies or if you would prefer you can purchase them.  Then comes the difficult part, you have to hook the machine up to your TV and make the two work together in harmony.  One thing let to another and another and technology grew and got better and faster and now we have our choice of dish or sattelite or Fios and I don't even know what the stuff is.  We have more channels than any one can possibly need!  The movie channel, the cartoon network, DIY, and Reality, Cooking and Home Improvement, Cloo, Family, Hallmark, far too many to mention. 
This is what's strange.  You can be watching a show and if the doorbell rings, you can pause it and go get the door and come back and start the show up again and miss nothing!  Totally cool, right?!  I can record shows I want to see with the push of a button, making my VCR pretty much obsolete.   So, I got the system figured out, it took me a while (a looong while) but I got there and I'm cruising along and I could operate the TV.  I was feeling pretty pleased with myself.  Then one day Mr. Wonderful says out of the blue that he was thinking of dropping our carrier because of some nonsense like he thought it cost too much money.  Like he  could get a better deal elsewhere and maybe he would start exploring options.  I didn't say much because he usually has to explore ALL options.  Well the next day I come home from work and he has switched carriers-it's done.  New dish on the roof and everything, new remote the whole shebang!  Well, I thought it would work just like the old one, but NOOOOO!  The channels aren't even the same.  I have to learn a whole new system.  And let me tell you, technology and me, we are not friends!
The other day I wanted to play a DVD of Adele in my Scrapatorium while I was working.  I Love Adele and like to listen to music while I work, so thought this was a good choice.  So, I have three remotes in my hands, one for the TV, one for the DVD and one for the dish thing.  All just to try and play one DVD.  I couldn't get the darn thing to play!  I pressed this button then that one, selected the button on the top left and got some menu, knew that was what I was looking for, pressed a button, put me back at the beginning again.  Started over.  The TV turned off.  Turned it back on, pressed the button, turned the DVD player on, pressed another button, the frickin' TV laughed at me!  Mr. W. wasn't home to help me, I was going to call Michelle but knew that by the time she finished laughing and then told Shawn and he finished laughing I would have forgotten what I had called about.  So I stuck it out and eventually got the darn thing on without throwing one remote out the window.  But I'm telling you, in the time that it took me to get the DVD to play Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt could have adopted another three kids.  Why is it so difficult!  I just want to watch my show! 
The real problem is this: now we have 444 channels and there is still nothing on!  Well, a few things:

(But one can not live on David alone!  Besides, he's only had repeats on lately and I need something new.)