I've been a little busy lately

I haven't posted in awhile because we have been quite busy remodeling our basement and adding rooms because our son and daughter-in-law moved in with us and will be living with us for the next year or two while he goes to finish his accounting degree.

We have been wanting to get the basement finished for years but lacked motivation to do it. Now we have a reason and it's coming along nicely but is A LOT of work, and it's sort of hard for me with all the medical crap I have been dealing with. BUT I am doing it, and getting back a lot of my strength in the process. I just need to be careful not to overdo it and know when I need to stop.

But we have the bathroom almost done down there and so we now have a three bathroom, four-bedroom house...and soon to have a second full kitchen complete with side-by-side fridge, full range, dishwasher, and lots of cabinets. The laundry room has cabinets and we just need to finish the walls in there...but first things first. Finish the bathroom, then the kitchen...then the laundry room walls, then the exercise room walls and then finish the dropped ceiling and it's like we have two houses in one! I am so excited about this. And it should increase the value of our house quite a bit since it is related living now.

It hasn't been easy for hubby either. He was a lot younger when we first built this house. We proudly can say that we built this house ourselves, all except for the concrete basement foundation, even did the sewer pipes and plumping underneath the basement floor before they concreted it. We did the electric, plumbing, drywall, cabinets, trim...everything. Took us 4 1/2 months only. But we worked long hours, had three kids who were so good to go though all of this. I made them a little corner of the basement for themselves to watch television and play while Jon and I were busy. At the time they were only 8, 7 and 5 years-old. We were going back and forth from our other house which was half an hour away and had to come here to take them to school and then after school we would bring them here and work till their bedtime or later.

All of this remodeling brings back memories...and we are also remembering how hard it was. And now we can't bend so well anymore, and tire easily. But we are doing it....again. Hopefully it will be done soon so we can enjoy the new projection tv that he just bought. The screen is HUGE...108 in. diagonal!

A Pet Peeve of Mine - Savers Cards

Click on cartoon to enlarge







Why can't stores simply put stuff on sale instead of making people carry around these little idiotic plastic cards to be presented to get the sale price? And what is even more senseless is that if we say we don't have the card they just use the "in-store manager's" card. So what's the point? And it's hard to find a grocery store that has old-fashioned sale prices where everyone can take advantage without having to present a card to get the deals.

It's not only grocery stores anymore. I was in Hallmark a couple weeks ago and they talked me into getting a Gold Crown card to save up points so I can get money off on my umpteenth purchase or something. I filled it out to get the little bit of a discount that day, but chucked it when I got home because I don't go there very often enough to ever get the points to get the "deals". Ace Hardware in our town now has the savers card, so does PetSmart, Borders, CVS drugs, and a couple other places I have been asked if I want to sign up for "the card".

Now I understand why the old people long for the olden days when life was simpler because I am becoming one of them.

Wonderful short animation

This is a short work in progress by Wes Ball

There is no title yet, but I will call it Bear Makes Friends

Just Married!

Well, the wedding went off without a hitch! My son is now a married man, and I now officially have another daughter! I can't believe it's all over with so quickly. Family came from out of town and are already back home in far-off states. My daughter left to go back east today (sniff) and I had to tearfully say goodbye to her again. I hate goodbyes and wish we all could live in one city together. But life takes us different places and everyone has their lives to live.

The service was so pretty and went so well for their being no rehearsal. Everyone was on time, the weather cooperated, not too warm, not cold at all. Sunshine. All of the bridesmaids looked so beautiful in their peachy-pink just-below-the-knee chiffony dresses. There were four (one being our daughter Mary who looked so pretty, as usual). The other girls were very pretty too, and looked so happy for their friend. The groomsmen were all very handsome in their tuxedos and pink ties and gray vests. Our oldest son Jason was a groomsman and nice to see him all spiffied up. Nice to see all the guys spiffied up, actually, including my hubby who has only had a tuxedo on ONE other time in our 33 years of marriage, and the first time was to our wedding in 1975! So everyone was shocked to see Mr. Sport Coat in formal attire.

Whitney and Jeff make a beautiful couple. Jeff looked very tall and handsome . . . Whitney made a gorgeous bride...her dress was very stunning..the little rhinestones in the flower embroidery twinkled. The tears of happiness in her eyes glistened with the reflections of candlelight. Everyone said afterwards how they could see it in her eyes how much she loves Jeff and how much Jeff loves her The way they look at each other made everyone weepy...lots of happy sniffling. I had a reading to do and actually made it through without choking up too much, and Whitney's very handsome brother did another reading. They exchanged their vows which really had everyone pulling out the Kleenex, and the Grandmas presented the rings, and then the Apache Wedding Blessing and all was done...they are now Mr & Mrs!

The reception was a blast. The dinner was good...slow being served, but that was okay. Better than a rushy meal. There was a wedding toast by the best man, and then little speeches here and there. They asked Jon to say something last minute and I get a bit nervous when he gets up to speak because you never know what is going to come out of his mouth! He did fine though...but when saying something about joining families he included his and then Whitney's family but forgot to mention MY family...he realized it after the fact, when it was too late to fix it...but oh well. I am glad they didn't call on me to improv...I would have passed out. I had my speech planned but absolutely suck at improv. So, without having anything prepared, he did good.

The dancing part was the most fun...Jeff has no inhibitions about dancing and was doing the Night at the Roxbury "shoulder shake" to everyone, even going up to the photographer and trying to dance with him. It was a riot. Then all the guys were on the floor doing the head thing. Once in awhile when something Jeff and Whitney heard a song they wanted to sing and dance with each other they would seek each other out, run up to each other and start jammin' out. It's so cute how they are so "connected".

We were all there till Holiday Inn threw us out. It went by too fast. I could have partied all night and forgot all about my gout foot, my aches and pains were all gone for that one wonderful day. And I really don't feel too bad afterwards, either. Maybe it's the happiness.

To Jeff and Whitney...CHEERS TO A LONG AND HAPPY LIFE TOGETHER!

One more day!

Well, tomorrow is the big day when Jeff and Whitney finally get married. It's been a whirlwind of a weekend. Today was the picnic...they had a picnic instead of a rehearsal dinner to get all the families together and meet. Whitney's parents and brother and his fiancee came from New York and the rest of her family came from Pennsylvania. Then all of her friends are from out of town. Jon's brother and his wife and three grown sons came, too. No one from my family could make it, but our good friends Kim and Bob came, and the kids old music teacher, Tim came. Jeff's friends were also there. It was a really fun time.

Whitney's family are all really nice and down-to-earth people. I love her Grandma...and she has an uncle who is really funny. I forget his name now...I think it was Uncle Bud.

The sun was shining, we had lots and lots of food left over. Lots to drink, and the guys played basketball and a bit of football. Jon's brother fell down and we all are worried about him. He is 73 and has injured his back in a fall already once this year. Hopefully he will be able to walk in the morning. And even more important, hope he can survive the trip home without too much pain.

Well, time for bed because tomorrow is going to be a really long, long day.

Five more days

This is a photo of the chapel where our son and his fiancee are getting married. It's not a church. It's not even denominational. It's for all denominations, faiths, non-faiths. Just a cute little place in the woods surrounded by trees and flowers. Just what they were looking for. And just enough church "feel" to make those feel comfortable who think that is important.

Five more days (if you don't count tonight) till wedding time. Tomorrow morning Whitney and I go to Ohare to pick up my daughter (that should be interesting during morning rush!) It will be so good to see her again. We haven't seen her since August!

Most everything is done. I really didn't have to do anything. They are taking care of everything themselves. The only thing I have to do now is go buy a pair of shoes (hopefully I can find something comfy), and I have to type up what I am going to read. I want to put it in a special frame or folder for them to keep.

I am still having sweats from the Prednisone. I wish I wasn't on this during the wedding. It causes irregular heartbeats off and on, and then the profuse sweating. I hate it. But I like the way it makes everything else feel better. So it's one of those love-hate kind of things.

So...this time next week our son will be a married man for nearly two days already. Tempest Fugit!

MASQUERADE SUITE - Suite Mascarada - Arom Khachaturian

This has been one of my favorite pieces of music since hearing my sons perform it with a youth orchestra when they were teenagers. Absolutely awesome!

Less than two weeks till Wedding time!

Our son and soon-to-be daughter-in-law's wedding is less than two weeks away! We are all getting so excited. Everything is pretty well set, all arrangements made, we all have our fancy clothes. Responses are in! There are so many coming from out of state since Whitney isn't from here. Her parents are coming from New York, others coming from Pennsylvania and other places. All of her friends are coming in from out of state. We have several relatives coming in from other states, as well, including our daughter who will be flying in a week early and she will be here for a whole week! We haven't seen her since last August and I think when she steps off that plane I won't be able to stop hugging her for a long, long time! I miss her so much!

Good things about weddings is that they are an excuse for family reunions. Too bad people don't make time for gatherings like this more often. Time goes by too fast and before you know it, there are some who are no longer here who we wish we had made the time to visit with again. Time goes by so fast, and it's as if we are all on some kind of giant conveyor belt, some of us fall off before we get to the end, but we all eventually get to the end and fall off. Ok...now I better stop being so morbid...this is supposed to be HAPPY TIME! I am just a bit sentimental right now because my middle son is actually tying the knots. I knew he would be the first. He is just that way. He wanted it and spent a lot of time and effort looking for "the one." But his looking isn't what found him his bride...our daughter did. She met Whitney at a music festival and knew right off the bat that this girl was the one for Jeff. And she was right!

My gout is finally settling down thanks to a new rheumatologist and lots and lots of Prednisone. I hate how it makes me sweat, but I am not stopping it this time because I want to dance at this wedding dammit! And I am determined to do just that! I haven't been able to drive, so have to rely on hubby to drive me around, and he has been very good about that. I haven't been able to get to the store to do any shopping and I NEED to get some new knee high nylons and some kind of comfortable shoes that won't squeeze the hell out of my gout toe joint all night. So, hopefully this week.

So, just 12 more days till the happy event!

Trained goldfish...amazing!

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen the video and this was also a segment on Good Morning America. I had a couple of Beta fish and I swore they had personalities and people thought I was nuts. But the first one I had had a very calm temperament and was very easy going, lazy and when I took him out to put him in bowl to clean his vase he was very patient and didn't move much. But the second Beta fish I had was totally opposite in personality. He was very impatient, would get bored and flip around in the vase, splashing water and like he was demanding attention from someone. When I would take him out to put him in a bowl it was nearly impossible to catch him in the net, and he was so pissed off to be placed in a bowl I was worried he would toss himself out of it. Then once he was placed back into the vase, he would swim with violent jerks in a way there was no mistaking he was quite angry about the whole ordeal and took him several minutes to get over it. I wonder if Beta fish can be trained to do what this goldfish can do.

Happy 28th Birthday Jeff!

Today is our son, Jeff's 28th birthday! Too bad he had to work today. But Sunday we will have cake, and I have a present for him. Mom's never stop doing those things.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF! See you this weekend!

Epica - Cry For The Moon

Awesome

Time sure flies!

It seems like the week goes by so fast and like the movie Groundhog Day, it's the weekend, then the weekend, then the weekend....time is going by so fast!

Only four more weeks till Jeff and Whitney's wedding! I just can't believe how fast that came up. Seems like we were just saying it was a year away, then six months away, and now it's only one month away! All plans seem to be going well, except for a couple of minor aggravating changes that had to be made. Now is just getting people to RSVP so they know how many are coming to the reception and what they want to eat. Why do people procrastinate? We heard from the people we expected to hear back from, but there are still so many that haven't even said if they are coming or not.

I have my dress, I need to find comfortable shoes now. The gout finally seems to be easing up. I am staying with a vegetarian diet now, probably forever because I don't ever want another attack like that again...EVER. I am still limping some, and still annoying but feels great compared to what it was for awhile.

Now off to do something else and get my butt off this computer. Hubby is home. My weekends are my crazy time as it is quite hectic since he is sort of "hyper" and then has tv on CONSTANTLY when he is home. And if my foot wasn't bad he would want me to go here, there and everywhere with him. He would like me to go to LOWES and Menards with him. I find those places unbearably BORING. It's as boring for me as it is clothes shopping for him. I hate home improvement places , except for the garden centers...I like to buy flowers. That will be pretty soon! Yay!

Exasperated!

This is day 19 of gout attack. I have been keeping to a very strict minimum food diet, only a few kinds of foods that I know don't bother me and are very low purine or none. I have been drinking gallons and gallons of water and cherry juice, taking cherry pills, and stopped taking the vitamins or anything high in niacin that might perpetuate the gout attack. Nothing works except super high doses of Prednisone, but that was giving me terrible heart irregularities and had to stop.

Despite my ulcers and asthma, and not supposed to be taking Ibuprofen, I decided to try it anyway yesterday, alternating Ibuprofen, then Acetaminophen. Now, I have a terrible burning stomach on top of foot pain. It seemed to lessen the inflammation (or maybe it was just wishful thinking) in the toe and foot, but can't irritate the ulcers or I will have double trouble. SO, now I wait, and wait for my damn doctor appointment on May 6th. I have decided to go to a new rheumatologist since my original RA doctor just up and left without a word, and the doctor who took over her patients is just too darn busy and several weeks behind (and so what does he do? He goes on vacation and his office says if there is an urgent problem to see my family doctor who knows NOTHING about gout or Lupus). This is all quite frustrating, and especially considering the fact that there is the wedding in just four weeks!

Then I am not supposed to get stressed out because stress makes these conditions worse...so what is going on? My son's car is still in a million pieces in the garage while hubby takes his time fixing it while our son still has our nice new car in the city and who knows what is happening to it. Then to top it off, I can't get ahold of him at the moment because his phone is DISCONNECTED...and his internet is disconnected, as well. I don't know how young people can be so nonchalant about bill paying. It disturbs me greatly when we once in a blue moon forget to send out a bill on time. But the young people purposely ignore them and think "whatever" about late fees and reconnection charges. I don't get it.

My results of the "What Your City Walk Means" test

What Your City Walk Means

You are optimistic and hopeful. Sometimes you do get disappointed by expecting too much. You are generally confident and friendly with strangers. You are well mannered and sociable. Money is important to you in as far as you'd like to have enough to survive. You are curious about ideas. If you had the means, you'd like to explore the whole world.

The City Walk Personality Test

What a day!

Well, today was a torturous day of grueling discomfort, but I can't wait much longer to find a dress for our son's wedding which is next month. But I managed to find one, and it is alot like the one pictured here only mine is navy and the jacket is sapphire and various shades of sparkly blues and a little bit of silver interwoven into the jacket. I just love it.

I had gone online to Nordstrom's site and found a dress with jacket that I absolutely loved, called their yesterday and someone said yes, they have a decent selection of the type I am looking for. So, I painfully squeeze my gouty foot into my shoe, and we drive to Oakbrook Mall to Nordstrom's. It's a very inconvenient mall. Everything is outdoors and entrances every which way. Hubby dropped me off at the entrance to Nordstrom's and he went to park the van while I waited for him. Just me and a mean goose were there on the sidewalk, and it was hissing at me! NO WAY could I frickin' run away from this thing, so I would have had to resort to defending myself with my purse or something. But fortunately it only hissed and nothing more.

Went all the way into Nordstrom's....limping painfully. I was thinking the whole time "I MUST BE CRAZY!" But hoped to get what I had seen online and go home. No such luck. Make my way all the way to the third floor, having to stop along the way, only to be told when I get to that department "Oh, we don't carry stuff that is online in the store". I was LIVID. I told the young, snooty woman that I wouldn't have come in with my bad foot if someone wouldn't have told me that yes, they have similar stuff there in the store. All she could say was "I'm sorry" and sigh.

I checked around a bit and found an aqua long skirt and floral jacket set that was gorgeous but the jacket was nearly $600 and the skirt was $400! No way would I pay that for one day even if I did have the money. So, we decided to take a chance on Macy's. I had gone to the Macy's near home and they had this dark navy dress with metallic jacket in shades of blue and sapphire that I loved but they didn't have my size at that store. BUT they had one here in a size 10 and I thought I needed at least a 12 but I tried the 10 on and it FIT! I couldn't believe it... a 10! (Something good is coming from all this suffering this past year!)

So, got my dress and hobbled out. Jon went to retrieve the van and picked me up and I immediately took off the damn shoe.

We decided to stop for a fish sandwich at Wendy's on the way home. I can eat certain things at certain places and I wanted him to go through the drive-thru but he said "can you make it inside and we can sit and eat". I said, ok...very hesitant to put my damn shoe back on, but I did. On the way in, he made a joke that they probably wouldn't have fish since I walked on my painful foot to get in there, and sure enough. NO FISH SANDWICH. Geesh!

So, we left there and went to Denny's. I got dropped by the door and he went and parked the van and walked back (it was very crowded). While we were waiting for our name to be called, I was sitting on this little mini couch at the front hoping these little kids wouldn't run over and step on my foot. I was ready to kick them if they came anywhere near me. But soon our name was called and we got a nice, big booth. Nice thing about having a big husband, the waitresses all see that we need a big booth. :D I got the fish, vegetable and a small root beer. He got the Grand Slam breakfast with the pancakes and the whole shebang. I don't know how he can eat all that and he ate it before I had even finished my first piece of fish.

So, though I will have to suffer to get the swelling to come back down again, I am glad I got that done and over with. Now I can just relax and keep this doggone foot up for several days and see if I can get this gout attack to completely go away. This is the longest attack I have ever had. Today is day 7 of this crap. I read it can sometimes go on for week. I sure hope not! I want to be able to dance at our son's wedding!

Remember that "clown car" that hubby test drove?

Saw this comic today and apparently I am not the only one with this opinion:

I hope you never get this

The last attack I had of gout was back in October, and since I am Allopurinol and had been doing well on that, I let myself slack with my diet and started eating things I wasn't supposed to anymore. I am sorry that I grew weak in self-control and had chop suey and pizza in the same week...and a taco salad with beans, which are a big no-no during a gout attack.

The image here is no exaggeration. My toe is as red as this illustration and the joint as large as shown. And the way it depicts the throbbing isn't anywhere near the real thing. It's one of the most horrible kinds of pain you can get. Right up there with having your teeth removed with pliers with no anesthesia.

This pain went on for three days and three nights. Finally, after another sleepless night and excruciating throbbing around 4 a.m. despite taking two Vicodin at once (which usually knocks me out but didn't phase me or the pain one bit today) I phoned the doctor who told me to come in. So, since I wasn't in any condition to even walk by myself, much less drive a car, I called hubby home from work. We were both a little nervous that this would affect my RA and Lupus since last time I had a gout attack and the gall bladder attack at the same time I ended up with fluid on the lungs from a Lupus flare!

He was home in less than an hour (it's over an hour drive, usually). I got to the doctor and yes, severe gout attack. No duh! I wanted to tell the doc he had a keen eye for the obvious, but contained my sarcasm. I was in a bit of a bad mood after squeezing my foot angonizingly into a shoe, and hobbling all the way to the car, through the medical building, and to his office, and then having to wait for half an hour sitting in an uncomfortable chair in the examining room. But he was sympathetic. He prescribed Prednisone for two weeks, and said to use the Vicodin as needed, and then said to come back in a week and he would have the blood test for uric acid levels done right there at the clinic. Then it will tell if I need to increase the Allopuriinol. I hope I don't. I am on enough crap. But I will take it if I have to in order to prevent this from happening again. And you can bet that I will not be eating anything I know is bad and can bring this on. Good-bye to Chinese food and pizza forever. It's just not worth this agony ever again.

(Oh, and I am working on a project, or trying to, for that work-at-home scoring company. I finally get a decent project with them and this happens!)

A family of packrats

Jeff and Whitney came by yesterday to start helping to clear out the basement. We have been asking the kids to come go through their crap for ages. Finally, Jeff has decided to do it. I think he has about as much crap he never wanted to get rid of than our daughter, Mary. Our oldest son, Jason isn't so much of a packrat. He only hordes things that have some kind of use to him. But to the rest of us, it is "sentimental packratting". For me, I want to keep every little thing that belonged to the kids through the years, and Jon is a crazy packrat who doesn't even want to part with old paint and motor oil. So, because of our never wanting to part with anything, the house is full of "stuff" (as George Carlin so nicely put it).

Over the years we have accumulated an enormous amount of "stuff". Boxes and boxes of stuff. Going through boxes yesterday we ran across little "doggie biscuit" awards that schools give kids to get them to do things they should want to do for the sheer enjoyment of it. Like Reading. They got rewards for reading. Do any of you remember "Book-It'? It was a campaign sponsored by Pizza Hut to get kids to read. If they read so many books, they got a free personal pan cheese pizza. All they had to do was have parents sign off that they read such and such number of books. They were trusting parents to be honest. I always was. But then again, our kids loved to read and so they got a lot of free pizzas, and a pin every time they got a free pizza and all the pins were packratted away in boxes to save, for what...who knows.

We found medals, buttons, pins, tags, patches, trophies with no names on them, certificates for everything but going to the bathroom. Broken toys, dried up pens, rotted pencils and all sorts of crap. Some crap has very sentimental value like pouches of baby teeth, soccer pictures made into baseball cards, drawings, notes, letters from friends, all sorts of stuff. Even a picture of an annoying friend of Jeff's who we always joke about to this day...the infamous Joe Petry.

J & W were here for more than two hours and filled three big black garbage bags full and emptied several boxes of crap and look around down there and it looks worse than it did before they started because now there are boxes out of place, stacks of "treasures" to be re-boxed to packrat away for the next ten to twenty years.

We are doing this now because we need to get the basement finished. We are finishing the bathroom down there, want to put in a kitchenette and finish tiling the floor, finish putting up walls, etc. But in order to be able to do that, the crap has to go.

We would get done faster if we didn't have to go through this separation anxiety with each and every item we take out of a box.

More car crap

Well, it never seems to end. If I didn't know better, I could let myself fall into the victim mentality that we are cursed somehow because it's one thing after another. But I keep telling myself it's only car crap and it could be worse.

While hubby isn't even half-way done fixing out son's car, and our son has been borrowing our new Impala for the past two months, he phoned Jon today at work to inform him that the power steering went out. This is the first time we have ever had the power steering go out on a new or newer car so it was kind of a surprise and not a very convenient time for this to happen (what time is, though?)

Our son took the train and a bus to work today...and had to do a lot of walking besides, but to go home in his area of Chicago at night on foot is not a good idea. So Jon just left to drive nearly two hours to go up to the northern suburbs where our son works to pick him up, take him back to his apartment where the car is and look at the car...all in the dark. Then if he can see what is wrong with it, tomorrow order the part in the morning and go back later in the day or on Sunday to repair it.

I feel sorry for him. He never gets a minute to relax.

Reality shows

I must admit that I have gotten sucked into watching reality shows for awhile, but must also admit that they are some of the most stupid programs on television. And basically, they are all alike. Either bimbos competing to be the arm candy for some really ugly or aging rock star, or vice versa, a bunch of guys competing to be "the one" chosen by some really ugly bitchy woman (New York from Flavor of Love, for instance). Top Model was interesting to me in the beginning, however as it progressed it was the same thing. A bunch of immature young women behaving like schoolgirls, squealing, crying, whining, fighting, and generally being bitchy with one another. Celebrity fit club is basically the same thing. They make a drama out of a regular Weight Watcher's thing. Imagine people in real life acting that way when going to their local Curve's center. The only "competition" show I really can say I like, and where fighting and crap doesn't happen is America's Best Dance Crew. It's a lot of fun, and people are very good sports and even encouraging to other teams. But for the most part, reality shows are lame...here is Mad TV's and Will Sasso's take on reality tv. It's hilarious so put your drink down first:

Kenny Rogers Reality Show