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FDOODLES's Recent Blog Entries
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Friday, July 16, 2010
Random thoughts:
I didn't exercise yesterday, but I think I ate ok, maybe a little high on sodium since we had Panda Express for dinner (string bean chicken breast, mixed veggies, 1/4 order chow mein, honey walnut shrimp). Need to enter food into tracker to see exactly where I stand.
Going to a Spokane Indians baseball game tonight with Jim, my sister & her BF, and my friend Tammy. It's $1 night - $1 tickets, $1 beer, $1 hotdogs, etc... It should be fun.
I need to call today on the rental house that Tammy found and see what their requirements are. I was going to call on my lunch break yesterday, but instead snuggled with Jim until it was time to go back to work. 
I want to be in a new place,, but I don't want to do the actual packing and moving. sigh.
I went ahead and paid the rent yesterday, which means I have to go to the bank today on my lunch break and deposit my tip money so that the check doesn't overdraft me.
Tomorrow will be a long day, working 9am - 7pm, then straight to a BBQ/bon-voyage party. Friend is going on a 30 day deployment to Korea with the Washington Air National Guard. This will be his 3rd trip in the 5 years that I have known him, and things are not as calm over there as they were for his previous trips. His new bride will be worried sick the whole time he's gone.
I have an intermittent wrist problem. Every once in a while my left wrist starts to hurt right at the base of my thumb, making my grip non-existent. I can't make a fist or even lift a glass of water when it does this, and it started up again last Sunday. It is slowly getting less painful, and it only happens a couple of times a year. It almost feels like it just needs to pop (like cracking knuckles...) but popping it doesn't actually make it feel better. I once went to see my doctor about it, he was out and I saw the physicians assistant. She asked me where it hurt and then said "sounds like carpal tunnel, wear this brace." She didn't even touch it or look at it, and charged me $80 for a wrist brace I could have gotten for $12 at Walmart. I haven't been back. And I'm pretty sure it's not carpal tunnel, as I hardly use my left hand for anything and it doesn't hurt all the time, in fact it DOESN'T hurt most of the time.
I have no idea when I am going to find time to exercise today.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
2 weeks ago we noticed that the floor in part of our kitchen/utility room was uneven. It was a small section that we don't walk on because the clothes hamper sits there, and the bin of dog food. We also put our window a/c units in 2 weeks ago, which means that the windows are all now closed. Last Friday morning I noticed a moldy smell in the kitchen, and noticed that the floor is worse, noticeably sagging in multiple places. We moved the hamper & bin, opened the little closet where the water heater sits, and tah-dah! The floor is covered in black mold, there is obviously a leak in there somewhere. I called our landlady, she came out that night and looked at it. She called her "handyman", he came out Tuesday night and looked at it. Turns out it's a gas water heater and he is not gas certified, he won't touch it. After crawling under the house to look at the damage, he said that most likely it is a very slow leak that has been going on for years. He will fix the floor, but landlady will have to get a gas certified plummer to do the rest. I called her last night, she still hasn't even contacted anyone to come look at it.
It's bad enough that the floor is collapsing, but I have been getting headaches for the last couple of months, and am afraid that the mold has been causing them. My skin has also been hyper-sensitive, my allergy pills have not been helping nearly enough. The constant itching & welts have actually been causing problems in my relationship - I can barely stand to have Jim touch me, everything tickles or itches and the rashes become quite painful.
My rent is due today. I don't think I'm going to pay it until the problem is fixed. I'm tired of my health being in danger, and we shouldn't have to wait this long for the problem to be resolved. My best friend says we can move in with her, but that will take a lot of work. We have a lot of crap to move, I work 60 hours a week (5-8's and 2-10's) and Jim works close to 50 hours a week and also spends a day at my mom's doing yardwork. This does not leave us much time for packing, and we haven't fully decided if we are going to take her up on the offer. I think today I am going to call the health department or whatever agency inspects black mold in the home.
On a brighter note, yesterday we celebrated my sister's 15th anniversary at the office (yes, my sister and I both work for the same small company, 13 employees). I was running around all morning getting things ready: picked up the cake at Costco, up and down the stairs multiple times to transport food, moving tables & chairs from one end of the building to the other, and then back again afterwards. Plus all the cleanup. In a dress and high heels. But it was a blast, everyone had a great time. When I got home I was wiped out, I reheated leftover spaghetti for dinner and didn't move from the sofa until bedtime.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
When things change in my life, it's never just one or two little things. It's HUGE changes, wether I initiate them, or someone else does. Here are some of the things that have been going on in my life the last 2 weeks (caution, some explicit female issues right at the beginning here, not for the squeamish)...
I haven't had a period since mid-February. I was on a 2-month cycle of Provera, because of heavy/prolonged bleeding, and it was making my period last even longer than the normal 11 days I usually get stuck with. Doctor had me taking the Provera on days 14-24 of each cycle. The problem is that the Provera made me start my period again on day 21 of each cycle! This means that I bled for 14 days, had 7 days off, then bled for another 14 days, had 7 days off again. You can see how this might not be so fun, right? So I stopped taking it on day 21 of the 2nd cycle, when I realised that I was once again starting my period a week early. My period stopped, and has never restarted. I took a pregnancy test a couple of weeks ago and it came back negative, but still no monthly visit. I don't think it's menopause, because my sister is going through the exact same thing, and she also took the provera for 2 months & then stopped. Provera = messed up hormones... So I'm just enjoying not having a T.O.M. for a while!
We took a day trip to Oregon the day before Easter with Jim's 16 yr old daughter Kiersten to meet his 18 yr old daughter Aleia. Aleia did not know we were bringing Kiersten, we surprised her. The girls had so much fun getting to know each other, and Jim and I loved watching them. We took a few pictures, and I will post some of them later tonight. The trip was a blast, even though I didn't get any sleep for 2 days - up at 5:30 Friday morning, worked all day & all night, drove to daughter's Saturday morning, spent the day, drove back and got home and into bed at midnight Saturday night. I was pooped, but it was worth it! And Kiersten spent the night on our sofa, our dogs loved her!
Jim also has a 20 year old son, Matt. He has been trying to locate him for the last 6 years, but his mom did a disappearing act a while back and child support enforcement has been unable to assist (Jim had a terrible caseworker, but the new caseworker has been very helpful). He finally found Matt on MySpace last week, and sent him a message. They've been talking, texting and emailing for about a week now. So in 7 months we went from no contact with his kids to having contact with all three! Ages 16 (this month), 18 and 20...wow! I haven't met Matt yet, but am looking forward to him being a part of our lives.
I've been having a hard time committing to my exercise routine, what with my busy schedule and my emotional excitement. Seems like I just want to sleep instead! So last Thursday I dropped my car off at the Dodge dealership for an oil change, and walked the 2.5 miles to work. I loved it, and am now walking to work in the mornings and home at night, at least 3 times a week. It's 3.56 miles round-trip, so it's a great way for me to get my cardio in. It's taking me around 29-30 minutes each direction (except when I have to wait for a train or for a light to change). I really enjoy the time to myself, and I don't have to get up quite as early, I stay in bed an extra 20-30 minutes, which is wonderful!
Jim has been selected for management training with his company, he leaves for San Francisco on the 18th for a week. I'm really hoping to make a lot of changes around the house while he's gone, as he is very anti-change, but usually likes the results afterward. Things like moving furniture, painting, deep cleaning, reorganizing, etc. This training should also mean a raise for him after he gets back, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
There you have it, some of the changes that have been affecting my life lately...
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Wow. This past weekend and the beginning of this week have been quite exciting and emotional. Suddenly both of Jim's daughters are in our lives, he's back to work, I'm getting sleep (finally) and things seem to be going very well.
Some of the members on my BLC12 team, Fierce Fuchsia Felines, have decided to (sort of) follow Lent, in our own personal "get fit" way. Some declared that they would exercise every day, some that they would spend time on themselves, etc. My 40 day "Lent" committment, which started last Wednesday, is to track my food EVERY day. So far, so good. I've had to go back and fill it in for the weekend, just because of my crazy schedule, but I have done it, and been honest with myself. I truly had forgotten what a difference it does make, to actually see a summary of everything that I put into my mouth. It is definitely helping me stick to my goals!
Tomorrow is our weigh-in day, and I am really hoping to see a good loss. I know my sodium has still been high, and I know which foods are the cause of this (cereal, processed meats like chicken & turkey sausage, flavored instant potatoes). The main difficulty is convenience. I work 60+ hours a week, there is just not a lot of time to cook fresh. I don't have a "day" off where I can batch cook, I spend my half-day off catching up on sleep and grocery shopping. However, I am getting a good schedule down, and I think now that we are really getting settled into the new routine, I will be able to get more things done on weeknights. It also helps that Jim has volunteered to help out and do the vacuuming. With 2 big dogs that shed A LOT, vacuuming is serious business!
Now on to less serious business - Biggest Loser was finally back on tonight! Plus, tonight was my precious ZAGS senior night (final home game of the season), so I seriously got my TV fix taken care of. 4 consecutive hours (yes, I said FOUR hours) of television in one night. Good thing I got in 60 minutes of exercise this morning, plus another 20 minutes of serious speed-walking at Costco during my lunch break (with my arms loaded down, no cart thank you!). I was carrying 6 lbs of chicken, 9 lbs of pummello and 5 lbs of celery -- that's an additional 20 lbs I was carrying for at least half of that time. My heart was racing and I was seriously breathing heavy by the time I got back to my car! That is the most I have exercised in one day in a very, very long time. Although I did suffer for it, my foot has been having shooting pains every so often, no ryhme or reason to it. I do think that I may have a stress fracture on the outer edge of my foot, but I don't have the time or the $$$ to go to the doctor (again) right now. I'm still paying off the $456 in medical bills from Dec - Feb. We're talking strep throat (twice), yeast infection, gyno exam, mammogram, uterine ultrasound, and prescriptions. Once I get those all paid, I will take a trip to the podiatrist. In the meantime, I just have to be careful how I walk so that I don't aggravate it too much. The thing is, when I'm actually exercising, I get in that Zone, where I don't really notice the pain. It's after I'm done that I feel the throbbing and random shooting pains.
Well, it's about an hour past my bedtime, so I'm going to call it a night. I'm off to sleep!
Monday, March 01, 2010
Some of you know that my boyfriend Jim has recently become a part of his 15 year old daughter's life (Kiersten). Last September, he finally got to see her again after a 5 year absence. He was over the moon, but sad that he still didn't have any contact with his oldest daughter, Aleia. Kiersten lives here in Spokane with her mother & grandmother, and was much easier to get in touch with. Aleia, however, lives with her mother & step-father in Oregon, and it took us a few years to track them down. Jim and his ex-wife are not on speaking terms, and Jim hasn't seen her or Aleia in 17 1/2 years. All of his efforts to be a part of Aleia's life have been met with resistance by her mother, and this has been very hard on him.
This past Saturday, Aleia responded toJim online, letting him know that she is no longer living with her mother. She turns 18 this month, graduates in May, and has invited us to her graduation! Suddenly, Jim is a proud papa, and I am practically a step-mama! This is the most amazing thing to ever happen to us. I have always wanted children, but never had any. Jim has wanted to be a father to his children but was not allowed. Now, suddenly, we have 2 daughters who are almost grown women! We have both been overflowing with emotion for the last few days, overcome with joy and clinging to each other endlessly. I am so overwhelmed with excitement that I am constantly on the verge of tears (happy tears, of course!), as is he.
Both girls are such beautiful young ladies, and both are very sweet and very intelligent. I don't know if Kiersten knows what she wants to do after high-school, but Aleia is determined to be a pediatrician, she is one very ambitious young woman! I cannot wait to get to know both of them better, and if I can't be a mom, I can at least be a loving mother-figure and a friend.
Life can be so amazingly beautiful, can't it?
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Member Comments About This Blog Post:
We'll miss you!
Sure does sound like you have more than your fair share of life changes going on. I am glad that almost all of them are good for you and Jim. I hope you and your doctor gets the other monthly matter taken care of. Best to you and Jim and your now full life together.
