2013 A Year in Review Part 2 Ups Cont. and Minor Downs

March 10th, May 27th, July 5th and Oct. 6 were very nice days spent with wonderful friends.

July 6th I had a marvelous time with two of my awesome friends and previous coworkers at Ravenwood Elementary School.

July 12th In the middle of planing for her wedding Audrey, my wonderful friend, took time to have lunch with me. We enjoyed visiting and catching up.

August 12th - 23rd We traveled in 5 states on this trip and relished the visits with family and friends. The scenery was breath-taking. Places we visited were  Rest Stops in Kansas, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. We spent time in Pueblo, CO, Gunnison, CO, Saint George, West Valley, Morgan, North Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, Park City, and Ogden all in UT. We also visited Limon, CO.

August 31st Audrey and David's wedding was fabulous. They are a lovely couple. The scenery was beautiful. Jess and I had a very good time.

Oct. 12th Jess an I attended The Kansas City Renaissance Festival with friends. We hadn't been a Ren. Fest. since 2005. We took in the dancing, comical and musical groups, jousting, the parade along with the lively crowds and other familiar sights and pleasing aromas at the festival.

Oct. 20th Our darling LaKai celebrated her 8th Birthday at Chuck e Cheese. Many members of her family came as well a group of her friends. She got to do a number of games, other activities and hung out with Chuck. 

Nov. 28th I love it when we can come together as a family and savor each others company while experiencing lots of love.

Dec. 10th, 14th and 25th I love decorating for the holidays, hearing lovely music and being with family. Jess's daughter invited us to the Christmas Cantata at Gano Chapel on William Jewel Campus, Liberty, MO where she and her husband performed. Jess and I loved it.

Downs:

 Some health concerns:

 May 20th, June 10th and Sept. 9 I went to see my Podiatrist Dr. R.. The first two times the doctor removed a large chunk of nail that decided to grow into the root bed of my toe. The third time the doctor put a chemical on the toenail to prevent it from growing into the root bed again. He said the nail had again grown into that bed but was not big enough to cause the procedure to be postponed. He just removed it carefully before putting the chemical on. My toe is all better now. The nail has been behaving itself. Whoo Hoo!

Sept. 18th I called my doctor's office to schedule a time to be seen that day. I explained my symptoms and the nurse advised me to go to the emergency room because none of the doctors could see me that day. I needed to be checked soon. I was having problems breathing, had experience some sharp pains in my neck, front and back plus I had dizziness. At the hospital they took me in right away and gave me an EKG, CT Scan, checked my blood and urine. I had x-rays then they gave me a breathing treatment. The conclusion was, when all the tests results came back normal, I must have been experiencing a respiratory infection that had been going around. I have felt fine since then and my breathing is back to normal. Whew!

Oct. sometime, I can't remember the exact day, I saw my Orthopedic Dr. C. I had been experiencing a lot of lower back pain on my right side, which had been going on for years off and on but seemed to be getting worse. At his office I had x-rays, a check up, answered important questions and was given shot in my back to ease the inflammation in my sacroiliac joint. That inflammation showed up in my x-rays. The shot never did ease my pain. It doesn't work on everyone. I preceded to take a lot of NSAIDS to help relieve the swelling and pain. I even put on the prescription Voltaren Gel that Dr. C prescribed. That gel did seem to help ease my pain from the inflammation of the sacroiliac joint. The NSAIDS (aspirin and ibuprofen) were not helpful in easing my pain after a time.

I HAVE RECENTLY LEARNED THAT NSAIDS can cause stomach and other problems. EPIDURAL STEROID INJECTIONS can interfere with the bodies natural way of lubricating the joints and have other negative side effects.

To find out more about the risks of 

NSAIDS go to http://www.medicinenet.com/nonsteroidal_antiinflammatory_drugs/page2.htm

Steroid Injections go to http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cortisone-shots/MY00268/DSECTION=risks

I have also cut back on my consumption of sugars. I found that taking NSAIDS and eating a sugar packed dessert magnified my pain. I have been NSAID free and had low sugar intake for over a week now and I have almost no pain. YIPPEE!! I also where shoes with good support. Moving around lots, walking etc. helps the body lubricate the joints too. When I can I go for walks. I try to keep physically active during the day.

I will end my 2013 Review here. All in all it has been a fabulous year, full of changes, travels, ups and downs. Here's to a wonderful 2014 for everyone.

2013 a Year in Review Part 1

2013 in Review

Ups:

February 11 2013 I retired as a SPED Paraprofessional with NKC School District at Ravenwood Elementary. Retirement has its good and bad parts. I miss the kiddos I helped very much and the nice folks I worked with. I am happy to still keep in touch with most of them. But I so enjoy having me time and being able to choose what to do when I want to.

February 14 2013 Valentines Day Jess and I had a great time. We got all dressed up and when out to one of our favorite eating places Hong's Buffet and Mongolian Grill. We loved the food, the atmosphere and being with each other.

Starting in February thru April Jess and I worked on this collage. We both selected photos and Jess arranged them. It shows us as babies, children, teens and adults. Photos of us placed side by side show how we looked at that age up until 1992,  when we began dating and married. The photos then were place side by side by year. It was a fun project bringing back some very wonderful memories.

 March 29 - 31st Jason, Noi, Drake and Perresa gave me an early Happy Birthday surprise visit. They along with Heather, Kevin, and LaKai with Chris helped make my pre-birthday wonderful.  We met on 3 29 2013 at Golden Corral in Olathe, KS. Heather and LaKai brought me there where we were to meet Kevin. SURPRISE Jason, Noi, Drake and Perresa walked in with Kevin. We had a lot of fun while they were visiting.

They even helped us with our move from the 23rd Ave. house to our Loft apartment on 3 30 2013.

From March 15 to March 30th Jess and I were moving our things out of this home we had lived in since October 2007. The move was necessary monetarily since my retirement. We had to save money. That is why we moved into the apartment. We also gave a lot of our stuff away or trashed it.

If you look closely you can see a white "x" middle left side of this photo. It shows the location of our apt. It is on the 6th floor. We have lots of tall east facing window's that let in a lot of light. Jess and I were impressed with this apt. the minute we saw it. We moved only about a mile from the 23rd Ave. house.

March 15th Sylvia, David, Christina and I went to the Snake Saturday Parade NKC. Sylvia and I have seen the parade together since we first met at the parade in 2008. This year it was a cold day but we enjoyed the parade. It went on for a long time though so we left before it was over.

May 3rd and 16th, June 16th Jess and I saw movies on these dates. It's great that there have been some good movies to watch together this year.

June 8th Jess and I enjoyed seeing his oldest daughter living in a nice home with beautiful acreage all around. The dog and Kitten were fun.

July 4th I watched the fireworks from our apt. building's back deck. I had an excellent view. I made this collage from the fireworks photos I took. I love fireworks.

July and Aug. I enjoyed making this quilt for Eliana with love. The blocks are a barn and farm animals with each animal saying their sound.

Feb. 17th, June 23rd and July 21st It was great fun going to the movies this year with Heather and LaKai. I loved it very much.

The Colors of Halloween

 Ah! The Black Cat

 A Black Fawn 

 The Black Squirrel

 Black Fox

 Black Cobra

 An Orange Moon

 Mother and Baby Tamarin

 An Orange Sea Horse

 Orange Flamingos

A Sun Conure

I love Halloween and this year I decided to take a different look at the colors of this holiday, mostly in the form of animal life. The unexpected black coloring in animals captivates me. The brilliance of orange creatures and the moon cause happiness to well up inside me. I hope each of you will have a safe and happy Halloween.

Natures Unusual Creatures

              One of the newly discovered crab species

discovered near the Philippine island of Palawan.

Kermode bear
also known as a "spirit bear"is a subspecies of the American Black Bear living in the central and north coast of British Columbia, Canada.

The Blue Lobster a species found on the Atlantic Coast of North America

about 1 in 5000 lobsters are blue.

The Black Eagle, in Africa they are know as Verreuaz's Eagles, sour over forests in the hilly regions of tropical Asia where they breed and are found
in the Himalayan foothills west through Nepal into
northeastern Murree in the forests of the Eastern and Western Ghats
in peninsular India and Sri Lanka and they are also found in
Burma, southern China and Taiwan, into the Malay Peninsula.

 

I find all this information very interesting. I love to learn about the rare and unusual.

Things That Happen When I'm Not Looking

When I was young, growing up in Ogden Utah one of my favorite fun spots was Lagoon Amusement Park. It is located in Farmington, Utah between Ogden and SLC. I loved the merry-go-round, roller coaster, swiming pool, Tilt-A-Whirl and Rock-O-Plane. Yesterday I was searching for  a photo of a roller coaster when I learned that the original "White" Roller Coaster at Lagoon now has lots of company in the form of other roller coasters. The original is the only wood coaster at the park.The others are made of steal.

The first photo in this post is of the other roller coasters at Lagoon

It looks like lots of variety and styles to these roller coasters.  The last time I went to Lagoon was the summer of 1969 I believe. Many changes have occurred at Lagoon in nearly 44 years. It would be fun to go there again sometime as a observer with regards to many of these roller coaster rides. My stomach doesn't like those kinds of thrills.

Groundhog Day 2013

I have been curious about the beginnings of Groundhog Day. Included with the photo above are web sites that describe the beginnings and 2013 happenings of Groundhog Day. I thought that the groundhog would always see his shadow because of all the lights blazing down on him but I guess if it is cloudy at the time Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his hibernation place on the mourning of Feb. 2nd he predicts an early spring. If it is sunny he forecasts 6 more weeks of  winter. So it actually has nothing to do with the flood lights etc. 

Chakras

I'm just learning about Chakras and how to recognize and use them. The website http://www.eclecticenergies.com/chakras/introduction.php explains more about Chakras. I think it is fascinating that we have so much to discover about ourselves and what goes on inside of us. It is one of my goals this year to study Chakras and to be more aware of them and connect with the energies from them.