On Life and Living: Dec 14 - 20,  2010



Tuesday December 14th: worked @ RR today and the schedule is packed, now everyone wants to see the dentist before the end of the year. Why didn’t they think about that in October? Besides these patients are crazy…. I had someone today who wanted only the ultrasonic scaler, the one that sprays in a ton of water, only they didn’t want the suction at all, they just wanted to swallow all that water. I would have drowned, but I aim to please. Then this afternoon I had someone who confessed that they brush a couple of times a month. Yikes, I earned my salary on that one. We cancelled family dinner this month because of everyone having crazy schedules and now I am sorry. I miss the girls and I miss sharing my holiday decorations and using my Christmas dishes.

Wednesday December 15th: worked @ RR and there was not a minute to breath, a precious one to me had some surgery today and I have been praying all day. Every so often I would check my texts to see how things were going and although they were running very late but all went well. From work we all went together to PF Chang's in Bellevue (http://www.pfchangs.com/Locations/LocationDetail.aspx?sid=3700&checked=1 ) for the office Christmas party. I had made the reservation and I went in to the restaurant in person to talk to the manager because we wanted a window seat just like last year. I confirmed the reservation myself and confirmed the window table. Then that afternoon they called me to confirm and I again made sure we were getting a window table. Then when we got to the restaurant they tried to seat us in the middle of the restaurant, not even close to a window. As you can guess this did not set well with me. The reason I wanted the window table was because of the "parade" in Bellevue. Each evening in December, at 7pm is a Toyland type parade and it "snows" and there is music. Last year we had a window table and the whole thing was so much fun to watch during our dinner. We did finally get a table on the window row but most of it was next to a wall and I choose to sit by the wall because we had a couple of new people that I wanted to be able to see the parade well. The food was delicious and at least that was predictable. At the end of the evening the manager came over to apologize and ask us how he could make up for the confusion. Nancy the other hygienist said she was coming next week with her family and had also requested a window table and he said he would leave a note for the other manager and make sure that it would happen. We shall see, but my impression is that customer service is really lacking in the reservation department. So if you counting on something special I suggest you choose a different restaurant .



Thursday December 16th: I am still wrapping presents and the yarn room looks like Santa's Toyland or a disaster happened in there. I had physical therapy this afternoon and I know I am making real progress now. This afternoon I went to Trader Joes for groceries and took food to my friend that had surgery and the family to last for a few days. I am really enjoying Bill at home. We are enjoying each other’s company a lot. We are not necessarily getting more things done. I am so far behind in copying Grannies diary. I keep hoping to catch up but so far extra time has not fallen into my life. Maybe a snow day?



Friday December 17th: No snow today. Cold, but no snow. I had coffee w/ Leah at Starbucks. It was so nice to visit with her. She has two boys that are really turning into young men and she is a fabulous knitter. This afternoon the book club met at Whole Foods market and visited for about 3 hours and it was not enough. We exchanged Christmas gifts and three hours later we were still talking and I had to leave. I have been knitting a lot; hand warmers, hats, scarves, and other gifts so we have been watching television a lot too. We are watching a television series through Netflix called Doc Martin. We started with Season 1 and have watched each episode all the way through. Taken from Wikipedia: Doc Martin is a British television comedy drama starring Martin Clunes. It was created by Dominic Minghella, and is filmed on location in and around the fishing village of Port Isaac, Cornwall, United Kingdom. Clunes plays (fictional) Portwenn's local GP, Martin Ellingham, a brilliant and highly successful London surgeon until he developed haemophobia (an extreme fear of blood) that prevented him performing operations. After retraining as a GP, he applied for a post in the sleepy Cornish village of Portwenn, where he had spent childhood holidays with his aunt.

Much of the show's humor revolves around Ellingham's interactions with the local Cornish villagers. Despite his surgical brilliance, Ellingham lacks vital social skills and any semblance of a bedside manner, and often fails to understand other people. Dr Ellingham (referred to as "Doc Martin" by the friendly locals), much to his disgust, finds the surgery is in disarray, the medical equipment is beyond repair, and the patients’ records are a mess. He also inherits an incompetent receptionist, Elaine Denham, who resents Doc Martin's moving in; this character is replaced by Pauline Lamb in the second series.

Martin is joined by a cast which includes Stephanie Cole as his aunt, Joan Norton, who provides him with emotional support in the face of the disquiet among the villagers. Caroline Catz plays opinionated primary school teacher (later headmistress) Louisa Glasson. Doc Martin is attracted to her, but finds himself unable to express this. Louisa appears to share this mutual attraction, but finds their personalities often too different, while she is caring and nurturing (particularly occupationally), Martin is emotionally detached and at times neurotic. We have enjoyed the whole series immensely but you really do need to start in the beginning and watch in order the stories really do build on each other.

Saturday December 18: Christmas with Tamara, Todd and the girls. We had a great time. Halie loved the hat I knit for her and Hannah wanted one too so on the way home we stopped at the yarn shop and I picked up purple yarn for Hannah. They gave us Husky t-shirts and sweatshirts and we both put them on and didn’t take them off the rest of the day. Bill took me to “Five guys – burgers and fries” for lunch. They really do make a very good hamburger and I love a good hamburger. Bill liked the fries.



Sunday December 19th: I guess the season gets to everyone because I had a little crying spell today. I forgot to count my blessings for a bit and was dwelling on the "I want's". Mostly I was pouting because as things have happened this year, we are going to everyone else's for holiday events and not having any here, because of that I didn't decorate much but I like decorating and using my Christmas dishes and it is just more fun to share that with others. Maybe next year I will plan better for me.



Monday December 20th: Walked with JoAnn, I am all ready missing her and she doesn't leave for Florida for a week. I came home for lunch with Bill. He makes the best tuna salad and I love tuna salad. Then there were some errands to run; shopping at Fred Meyer, notes to deliver and packages to mail and more physical therapy for my arm. I am making progress every day.



Thank you for stopping by and visiting with me.  I would love to hear from you also so drop me a line at :  celindakot@yahoo.com    or my personal email address if you have it. 

On Life and Living                                      
Tuesday, December 7th; Time is just flying by and I feel like I am running a few days behind schedule. It is dark when I leave home and it is dark when I get off work. This morning on the way to work a car coming from the other direction made me laugh out loud. It had Christmas lights outlining all the side windows and the front windshield, just a little over the top, I thought. I have seen cars with wreaths on the front end and I have always smiled just a little more when I see them. The day went by fast as we were all busy and working hard. We have a new team member, Molly. Bill and I had a party to go to tonight and Amanda and Becky were celebrating their mom's birthday. December is so crazy we have decided to postpone family dinner until the New Year. I am just trying to find time to hook up with Chris and Ann and Tamara and her family, it isn't going to happen together and that was what I wanted at first, but I think separate is probably better for lots of reasons. I finally posted my last blog tonight and I was a full week late with that. Okay, I think I am ready for tomorrow, so it is off to bed for me.


Wednesday, December 8th Another Full day at work. Everyone needs to get their teeth cleaned before the end of the year. Sometimes it is to look good for the holiday parties but usually it is because they want to take advantage of their insurance or they are about to lose their insurance. When I got home tonight I was so exhausted I told Bill I didn’t want any dinner and I was lying on the couch when our neighbor called and ask us to come down and visit. Rich is the one person I share my affinity for tequila with and I had a new one to try…. So I put the tequila in my knitting bag and went down to visit. Funny but after a couple of tastes of tequila I was energized, I wasn’t as sore and I was all perked up. The really funny thing was that the burst of energy lasted for about three days.

Thursday, December 9th; I was at the LYS this morning when they opened at 10am for knitting circle and then headed into Seattle to my favorite Seattle Yarn Shop. I bought the most awesome button to go on a shawl I was finishing up for a Christmas gift. And I visited with Gretchen for just over an hour. I had not seen here in ages and it was so nice to catch up. Gretchen works as a project manager full time and has two young children. She is amazing. I have been helping her list her yarn on Ravelry and so I returned a bin of her yarn. It is so funny about a yarn stash. She took the lid off and looked at all the yarn and it was like she was saying “I missed you so much while you were gone.” I will tell you some yarn is never meant to be knitted, it is just meant to be admired. When I left Seattle I drove to Renton to Tamara’s house, just to hang out for a while. She had made Teriyaki chicken and rice in the crock-pot and it was delicious. I could have made a pig out of myself, but I used some self control. Tamara’s daughter Halie was making animals and things out of wadded up aluminum foil, it looked really great. I suggested she make a manger scene she is so good but a manger scene is a big deal and a little overwhelming. I think she stopped after making one oxen, it was a really good oxen. When they were all leaving for a music concert at school I headed home. It was a dark and stormy night.

Friday, December 10th; Bill and I had a plan to meet the Friday Night Dessert Group for lunch on Friday now that Bill has a more flexible schedule. We have all wanted to explore more places and this week we went to Julia’s in Wallingford; http://www.juliasrestaurantseattle.com/ I had a BLT, surprise, surprise. We all had a good time visiting and catching up and we probably won’t see everyone again until Christmas Eve. On the way into Seattle we left the car at our favorite mechanic’s; http://www.etireandservice.com/ As I left my car off I ask them to look at the tires and let me know if they look good enough to get me through a snowy winter, so the oil change turned into over $600 with 2 new tires, hoses, windshield wipers, and a list of other things but I do feel more ready for winter. My car wasn’t quite ready when we got back from Seattle so to kill a little time we went down the street to the LYS that was having a trunk show of a very local, Snohomish, spinner and dyer. In the spirit of supporting local industry I bought 3 skeins of her yarn and then 3 of another hand dyed yarn that I had not seen before. Bill really like these yarns also, maybe I will knit him something…. Someday.

Friday afternoon I worked on getting the Christmas gifts ready for Dr S’s office; for Dr S I had knit 5 baby bibs for him to give to patients, new moms or pregnant ones, for Donna I had knit a prayer shawl from the book she gave me, this one was called Heart Warmer. For the Girls @ Dr S’s office I made cold weather gift bags; deicer and ice scrapers. I know that will come in handy sometime this winter.

Saturday, December, 11th Look at today’s date; 12/11/10 counting backwards. It must mean something good to numerologist, but who knows what. When I got to work it looked like Santa had stopped by. It is my last day to work there before the New Year and there were packages for me as well as my packages for everyone else. Work was good, several challenging patients and I like that. Bill chose to miss a holiday party and hang out with me tonight. I usually can’t do much after work that calls for energy because all my energy is gone by then so we had a nice dinner and watched a couple more episodes of Doc Martin on Netflix. The television is working great running on the new computer. We are streaming almost everything and it is so much better quality television than what we were getting through the antenna.

Sunday, December, 12th I was pretty tired this morning too. I think Bill brought me 3 cups of coffee in bed before I could manage to get up. We went over to Bill’s sister’s house for dinner and to celebrate her birthday with a family dinner.        

Monday, December 13th This morning I shuffled through some paper work at the desk and then I ran a couple of errands. I had a doctor’s appointment at 11:30 and it really did take an hour and fifteen minutes. We went over my list of things that are bothering me, questions about medication and more stuff like that. Regence is my insurance company right now and they have cancelled every policy that covered any part of brand name drugs so we are going to be switching several of my meds to generic and lots of them are all ready generic. The problem is that if I don’t do as well on the generics then Bill and I will have to bite the big bullet and pay the $$$ which will be several thousand dollars extra. She said I am doing awesome, that I am in good health. We are both thrilled that I am doing so well on less prednisone. One of the side effects of the lower steroids is that I have much more pain, joint pain and muscle pain. To control the pain I have been starting to take more and more ibuprofen and I knew that was not a good answer so we are trying a few things different for that. I will do blood test the end of January and then we will know how I am doing. I came home for lunch with Bill and then headed out for Physical Therapy. It is now time to start working the shoulder and naturally it is so tight and seized up so the PT spent the first 20 minutes stretching the shoulder muscles from every direction and then working me out with that rubber tubing for exercise from every angle. I am doing great in most areas but I can barely put my right hand behind my back so the goal is to be able to scratch the middle of my back. At the end of the visit today I was starting to really hurt so he had me ice it for 15 minutes with that electric stimulation on it. That was a really good thing to do. Bill made tacos for dinner and I counted my blessings. I am starting to think about New Year’s Resolutions now. I am going to look back at last years and see how I have done and then think about what I want for goals in 2011. (Eleven knitting projects, eleven something about exercise, eleven something about ……..

Thank you for stopping by and visiting with me. I would love to hear from you also so drop me a line at : celindakot@yahoo.com or my personal email address if you have it.

November 23rd to December 6th

On Life and Living:   Life is crazy and I am very delayed in getting this together and I am still behind on Grannies diary maybe later.  I am dying to hear when my mom meets my dad,  she says it has to be soon so I will get back to it for sure.  The holidays and my travels have filled my time.  


Tuesday November 23rd: work was cancelled because of snow and ice today so I got to stay home. Before I got out of bed this morning I got a call from Debbie Youngblood and then Johnny a few minutes later. Their daddy had just then passed away. He has been sick for some time and this past week he had a serious stroke. This morning Debbie and Johnny were both with him when his breathing just slowed and he just passed on to be with his Savior. They both said it was peaceful and gentle, just what he deserved as he was an awesome man. He was my second father and I was blessed ‘beyond measure’ for having him in my life. It didn’t take long for me to decide I needed to go to Texas for the memorial service. I was so glad for the extra time because it took a little shopping to get an airplane ticket on short notice during Thanksgiving weekend. The prices were downright scary and I think that is why Bill let me do the trip by myself. It was a short trip and I promised to take good care of myself. Naturally there were no seat assignments so I will make a point of getting to the airport early enough to get a decent exit row seat.

Wednesday November 24th: work was cancelled today also because of snow and ice. Yikes the weather is much more like Christmas. Bill took a friend to the airport, she said when she called for a Taxi the night before they just laughed at her. In the afternoon Bill and I ran some errands together and I got a little more Christmas shopping done. I want to take all the Texas gifts with me when I go, that will save on shipping and I don’t have to be concerned about things getting lost in the mail.

Thursday November 25th: Thanksgiving: We woke up to fresh snow and ice this morning. There was a lot of talk between Bill’s sister and Bill and Amanda and Toula. We all agreed that the weather was too bad to risk getting Toula from Mount Vernon and bringing her to the city for Thanksgiving. Bill’s sister-in-law lives in Mount Vernon and she volunteered to take Toula a plate of Thanksgiving food and visit for a bit. She is just the sweetest thing, she is always thinking of others and she is so good to her own mother. We are blessed that she is in the family. The meal at Barb’s was delicious, my favorite is the gravy. I like the gravy on everything; the turkey, the potatoes and the stuffing. I could call it soup and eat it with a spoon. Barb said something about being irreverent about thanksgiving, I can’t remember exactly but I said and I will say it a lot, “I am so thankful that I am here to enjoy this Thanksgiving.” I am so glad to be here each day. I want my life to have value and meaning to others and I hope I am open to seeing the opportunities that are there for me to bless others. We left Barb’s in the early evening and got home for me to pack and get to bed at an appropriate time.

Friday November 26th: It was snowing like crazy again this morning but nothing about the weather daunts Bill. We got to the airport just fine. The freeways were open and not much traffic but when we drove past a couple of malls they were solid parking lots of cars. All the shoppers were out early doing their Black Friday shopping. The flight was nonstop and easy. I knitted all the way there and had made a baby bib and a hat by the time I got there. David was waiting in the baggage area and Bobbie Ann and Kimberly and her husband John, the Marine, and their son Wyatt had all come to pick me up. Wyatt is just over a year and oh he is so cute. They have taught him baby sign language and I am so impressed. I really believe that he was much

 happier and less frustrated and fussy than many other babies I have seen because he could express himself so well. They had fresh smoked brisket for dinner and then I went over to the Youngblood’s to visit for a while. When I got back Bobbie Ann showed me all her Black Friday shopping, she is totally amazing. Turns out she is an awesome Black Friday shopper. She says it is like going hunting and that there isn’t any ‘bargain’ she cannot walk away from. She had ‘adopted’ two families who were ‘in need’ this Christmas, 6 children total. She was allowed to spend $50 per child and with her daughter Jennifer’s help they had ‘bagged’ goodies for all. Each child was going to get new quality shoes, high quality jeans, a nice sweater or pull over top, 3 pairs of socks, gloves, coloring book and colored pens and a game and the moms in the family were getting gift cards to a grocery store. I was so impressed and inspired.

Saturday November 27th: When everyone got up and around we just visited and caught up with each other. Mostly it was about Wyatt and how cute and smart he was, but my vote was for David my brother-in-law. I told him I thought he was ‘channeling Bill Yeager, my daddy.’ David had made fresh hot biscuits and sausage gravy, one of the very best southern breakfasts. We all enjoyed it very much, even Wyatt. After breakfast I dressed and someone took me to the Youngblood’s house where I spent the day with all the family, Cousins and Aunts and Uncles came in and out, some I hadn’t seen since my high school days. Do you think I had changed much? Debbie has a grandson and a granddaughter and they were lots of fun to watch and cheered up everyone around them. Debbie’s brother Johnny and his wife Anita were there too. They have two of the most beautiful, inside and out, daughters that I have ever met. What I mean by that is we have been together precious few times over the years and they are so kind and loving to me. I know Nita and Johnny have taught them to love me but I don’t care, they do and it means the world to my heart.

I missed Tabitha’s wedding this summer when I was sick and not traveling and so I got to met her new husband Jordan, very nice and lots of help all day with the food and flowers and even the kids. It was fun to watch. The service started at two and we all left about 1:30 for the church. Johnny promised me photos but I don’t have them yet, just the few I shot with my iphone. We all had a good time remembering what an awesome man Mr. Youngblood was and I am so glad I was there to here all the stories. At the reception afterward my job was to be ‘cupbearer.’ I loved that job. All the family and especially Debbie needed to greet and talk to all the guests. I on the other hand didn’t know so many people so I stayed right by Mrs. Youngblood and held her plate of goodies and her cup of water. She would get so dry from talking and I would just hand her the cup of water for a minute and then go back to just being nearby. Every so often someone would come and ask if I was Debbie and I would say no and point them in her direction. Debbie/Deborah Kay is an amazing woman. How many women do you know that have close lifetime friends? She has 3; Janet she met first when they lived in Corpus Christi, then she met Karen when she lived in Waco. I met her in 7th grade when her family moved to Austin and right into my neighborhood. We were best friends forever more. All three of her special friends came to Dallas for the memorial service and for the very first time we were all three together.



Top Row:  Janet and CeLinda
Bottom Row:  Debbien and Karen



Sunday November 28th: I went to church with Bobbie Ann and David, Johnny and Anita were there also, they had all ready gotten their girls off to their respective homes. Bobbie Ann and David and I went out for a delicious Mexican lunch, I packaged up my leftovers and ate them later for dinner on the airplane. After lunch we stopped by and visited the remaining Youngblood’s for a bit and then it was back to Bobbie Ann’s where I packed up (including one smoked brisket) and flew home. Bill was waiting in the cell phone lot when I landed and was there to pick me up in just a few minutes. It wasn’t raining, what a surprise.

Monday November 29th: I was up about 10 and unpacked before lunch. Bill and I went out, that was fun. He needed the break and there wasn’t anything interesting in the fridge either. We decided to go to Olive Garden for soup and salad, it was a good day for soup too. I don’t care if you are republican or democrat the medical insurance situation is crazy. If you don’t have any insurance the government pays, you just have to know how to work the system, that’s what my unemployed patients tell me. But trying to figure out what is the right policy for me has been quite the challenge. Bill figured out his plan pretty easily but I take a lot of prescription medicines. Regence is the company we have been looking at mostly because we can choose our own doctors, but they have discontinued all of their policies that pay any part of brand name medicines. They will only pay a percentage of generic medicines. This is a very big deal so Bill’s spread sheet is getting very complex as he considers all the policies and which one will best suit my needs.

Tuesday November 30th : Bill is still working on that spreadsheet, he adds new parameters to it all the time, things like deductibles, co-pays, medications which gets into generics and brand name drugs. The paper work said they covered a group of nonformularly drugs, so he called and asked what a nonformularly drug was, turns out it is aspirin. When he said the paperwork mentioned a list of nonformularly drugs and where could he go to see the list, he was told the list is aspirin. The whole maze is like that. I worked today and I feel like I am getting back in the routine. We cancelled family dinner tonight, Amanda is still sick and Becky and her boyfriend were celebrating his birthday.

Wednesday December 1st; I only worked a half day today. We were having staff training at lunch, so I stayed through that. The Kerr representative and brought in lunch and had a PowerPoint presentation about all the products he is selling now. I found it very interesting because there are some amazing new products available these days and most of the time they are used in the ‘dentist’ side and so I don’t always keep up with that information as much. It was also pretty cool that he had a big TV screen, a big one, 36 inch is my guess and he just hooked a cable up to the monitor and ran the whole show off his ipad. I left after lunch to go home and get ready for the teen feed. Yes, it was the last one for this year and Phyllis my ‘partner ‘ in this volunteer effort had done most all of the work this time. I just brought in the condiments and chips so it was way easier than usual for me. I had chosen to take a low profile because I didn’t have a clue how my health would be and especially my shoulder, but it is doing well and Bill washed the crock pots I brought home and Phyllis took the other two with her to clean up and get back to me later. Can you believe anyone has 5 crock pots and uses them all and actually has to borrow others from time to time.

Thursday December 2nd : knitting day. Yeah, I was so tired I could barely get up and dressed by 10 am for knitting circle at the LYS. I am trying to start a new sweater for myself and I have gotten distracted when I should have been counting and had to start over two times now. I think I am progressing this time, but then I put it aside to work on another Christmas present. I am getting most of my Christmas presents finished and then I decide that I should do one more project.

Friday December 3rd; Today Bill started working on the roof. He had to wait till it warmed up because at first the roof was a sheet of ice. (lots of moss + moisture + below freezing temps = ice) When he did get up on the roof he worked with a new power spray nozzle for probably three hours. When he finished he was totally exhausted. He could barely climb down off the roof and then he sat down to rest and he couldn't get up off the couch for the rest of the evening. While Bill was working on the roof I ran several errands. I am doing physical therapy twice a week for my shoulder and I needed to go to Costco to return a couple of things. Since I was there I pick up a couple of roasted chickens and some ribs also a piece of round steak to cut and freeze for later, in the crock-pot. When I went in to Costco it was daylight but when I came out it was pitch black and I'm thinking, I hope Bill is not still up on that roof, fortunately he had come in and was resting. I just served his plate and brought it to him. (Broccoli and mashed potatoes and roasted chicken) After dinner Bill said he was so wishing for mashed potatoes but he was too tired to call me and tell me that that's what he was hungry for. I am glad I could make him happy that easily.

Saturday December 4th; I worked at Dr S’ office today. My first patient came in with pink eye and glasses, thinking that would be protection….. Dr S told her we would have to reschedule her and then Donna and I spent time cleaning every surface in the office; the chair arms in the reception area, the counter at the front desk, stuff like that. The rest of the day was busy and uneventful. I went home at lunch and the roof was so frozen that Bill couldn’t get up there to finish his project. But the whole hose was frozen and his new nozzle was broken, split from freezing. He was pretty sad, but he thinks he can fix it. Bill was gone when I got home, he had a Christmas party to bartend so I turned on the electric blanket and got in bed and knitted to Christmas music for a while.

Sunday December 5th; Well today we went to McClendon’s, Bill’s favorite hardware store and he was able to find the exact part that had broken on his new power washer for about $12. I think he will be more careful next time. He was so glad to be able to fix it. So as you might guess he was back on the roof spraying and cleaning. We must have and awesome roof. This evening we watched another couple of episodes of Doc Martin this British television series we are streaming off of Netflix. It is cute and funny and we are getting a real laugh out of each one. Did I mention the television is working really well, the antenna seems to be good and streaming off the internet is great with the new computer and so far it has been pretty easy to do. Cool huh?

Monday December 6th; I woke up this morning about 7 and I didn’t hurt, not much and not anywhere. That was such a shock. It is just that I pretty much hurt somewhere all the time. I don't know why I felt so good today but I enjoyed it while it lasted, till lunch time. I met two girlfriends for lunch and something about sitting in that booth set my back to hurting and then after lunch was physical therapy and he did a lot of stretching to help release my shoulder muscles that are stiff and now I am sore all over again. Just the way it goes sometimes. This afternoon I decided it was time to do the holiday decorations. So I got out the Christmas dishes that were my mother’s before me and then dressed up the house for the holidays by spreading around my collection of Santa's. The nieces often help with this the weekend after Thanksgiving, but I had to go out of town so it didn’t get done at the normal time. Bill help put lights around the trunk of the big tree in the front yard and I have big lighted ornaments for that tree too but I didn't get them out today.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting with me. I would love to hear from you also so drop me a line at : celindakot@yahoo.com or my personal email address if you have it.