I loved the Royal Wedding!

I stayed up all night to watch the Royal Wedding and loved every minute of it!

The Raspberries - I'm a Rocker

I am making some Valentine's plans in my head today. I will be off work a few hours early today, and am going to run a few errands to pick up a few things. I think I will make a German chocolate cake for Tim for this weekend (his favorite) and also buy a bottle of champagne. I made dinner reservations for us tomorrow early evening at a place we like that is offering a Valentine's dinner, prime rib dinner for two. I told him we have some plans, but I didn't tell him what they were. I don't want to spend a ton a money on Valentine's and I usually don't...but I wanted to ramp things up a little this year. I think I will stop at the Dollar Store today too and see what they have for some fun little things, like rose petals, candles etc. I have a few fun ideas to set up. Since Tim works swing shift, he doesn't get home till 11:30pm tonight, so I have all evening to think of what I want to do. I am going to make a nice card too, instead of buying one.

A new day

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end!

This was in my mind this morning before I headed off to the pool before work....praise God that He always loves loves loves and He is always full of mercy!

(Picture is of my twin granddaughters, Aria and Raina, taken last summer!)

ER

I ended up in ER yesterday morning due to chest pain and low oxygen levels...everything turned out okay though...they were worried about an embolism more than heart attack stuff. Got hooked up to everything imaginable including morphine! I went to a routine dr appointment at 8:30am and mentioned in passing that I'd been having chest and shoulder pain off and on for a week, on the left side, felt a lot like a pulled muscle, but painful when I breathed in deeply. My doctor checked my oxygen levels and they were lower than he wanted, so I had to go to emergency across the street from his office and have a CT scan. Tim had to take a taxi to come and get me several hours later because they wouldn't let me drive my car home. Pretty surreal, but everything came out fine, EKG fine, CT scan fine. Missed the whole day of work and everyone there worried for me. The morphine really was weird, made me sleep when I got home and slept in late today. I am still feeling kind of wiped out.

I am having a hard morning, lots of muscle spasms in my right leg. I did make it to the pool to exercise before work, but only got in about 25 minutes. Was ten minutes late to work. I am using my cane. Cortisone shots are scheduled for two weeks from tomorrow. A lot of people are praying for me, from the pool...in India....at work...from church, and friends all over. I so very much appreciate prayers for healing, freedom from pain and spasms. It's becoming increasingly harder to work all day. Today I have already cried several times. I am feeling like people are getting tired of me being in pain though (some people at work). If nothing else, this physical pain has taught me to be more compassionate to others who are suffering. I know I am going to have to have one hip (probably the left one) replaced by the summer. I am afraid a little about it all, it's the unknown, and I've never had surgery or been in the hospital before except for a broken arm. But I know God is with me. I believe He could heal me and take away my pain and this arthritis in my hip joints. He can do anything. But for now, He has not chosen to heal me with a miracle. He does use medicine and surgery for healing too. It's just not the road I wanted to walk at age 52.

"To these hardships you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His footsteps." I Peter 2:21

"But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed". 1 Peter 4:13

"For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows." 2 Cor 1:5

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Romans 8:18

"For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison." 2 Cor 4:17

Ortho doctor today

I am going into the ortho doctor today. I am hoping he will send me out for another set of cortisone shots for my hips. The ones I had last May lasted about 3 months. It was heavenly not to be any pain.
I know I am just postponing the inevitable...surgery. But I am thinking I'd rather do the first surgery in later spring.

Frozen Labs!

Anna and Tank, in Eastern Washington, duck hunting, on December 30, 2010. I sent this picture into the local newspaper for the "My Pets" section and they printed it last Sunday in the paper!

This was after they'd been in a creek a few times after a duck they couldn't find. Tim snapped this picture and then got them into the warm truck and dried them off with towels and blankets. He said it was about 8 degrees that day.

Gloomy rainy Friday

It's about as grey and dismal a day as you can get today, with rain pouring down, but it's not too cold, about 48 degrees. I am going over to Penneys at lunch to exchange some jeans I bought Tim the other day (I grabbed the wrong size, got the waist and length meaurements backwards). I have half a can of turkey chili in the fridge for lunch and a banana. I got a letter in the mail this week from the doctor's office after my physical exam last week, and I have to go in next Friday to talk to him about my cholestrol test results. They didn't even tell me on the lab report they sent what the numbers are! Usually they do. I know it must be bad. Last year it was 240, and he wanted to put me on medication, I asked for more time to eat better/exercise to get it down and he said okay. But I didn't go back to get checked and a year went by, without me being that good. It has been hard to exercise having this advanced hip arthritis, I can't walk too fast or far anymore. I know though that you are supposed to keep moving having arthritis, but when it's excruciating not fun. Anyway, I am sure this time I will have to go on medication. I am going into see one of the orthopedic surgeons I saw last year next week. He is the one who sent me out for cortisone hip shots last May, and I felt really great for about 3 or 4 months till they wore off. I am going to talk to him about getting some more shots. I am praying for healing, for God to do a miracle, and I have friends/family praying for me, but I know sometimes healing comes through medicine, surgery, etc. and isn't always instant or a miracle...although I have no doubts God could do it. I think I am going to have to bite the bullet and get at least one hip replacement surgery this year. My whole life is shrinking and become so much more physically limited, and I hate it. I am only 52, not 92! Everyone I've talked to that have had hip replacement surgery are all glad they did it. I think part of my problem is I just haven't accepted totally yet that this has happened to me. But chronic pain for the past year has really done its number and I am ready for some relief.

New year

I haven't posted anything on this blog for months, but am hoping to try to get back to regular entries again.
Knitting projects I am working on: rose-colored baby blanket for Malia, our children's church pastor. She is due with her first baby, a girl, in June.