Thursday, January 6, 2011

December 21st - Monday December 27th

Another finished project;  Donna's Shawl
On Life and Living: 



Tuesday December 21th: Up early today and we had a totally packed schedule at work on RR. Jody the former assistant worked today. She is on break from dental hygiene school. She lives life with such passion. You can feel it where ever she is. Bill went to Mount Vernon this evening for a winter solstice party and I did 3 loads of clothes and finished wrapping gifts and getting them out of the guest room. Tomorrow when I get home from work Bill's Mom will be with us through Christmas. Now all the packages are wrapped and are packed in boxes depending on their destination and all lined up on the couch in the library. It looks like Santa's shipping center.   I am so sorry I didn't take a photo.  

Wednesday December 22nd: I took a new road to work today It is longer by miles but I think it was 7 or 8 minutes faster because the traffic is less and several less lights. It is a good one to know but I heard that they do not plow or salt it in bad weather. We have had a totally packed schedule at work and I worked late by almost an hour. When I got home Bill was there with Toula and he hadn't given dinner a thought (I was waiting to see) so I had to come up with something for everyone, which was just fine.

Thursday December 23rd: I had my last physical therapy appointment today. I graduated! I still have work to do but I can continue progressing at home. I cannot wait until January when I activate my Curves membership and start exercising there again. I spent most of the rest of the day working on Bill’s Christmas present. I am scrap booking his retirement and retirement party for him including some 400 photos that were in the 20minute slide show he put together. Then Tamara and Halie came for dinner and to visit with Toula.

Halie rolled several skeins of yarn for me which was awesome. She got really good with the swift and ball winder. I love my swift. It is from The Oregon Woodworker; http://www.yarnswifts.com/ It is so easy to store, easy to use and pretty to look at, in my eyes anyway. Bill got it one year for me for valentines, what a terrific gift! For dinner tonight I made steak, gnocchi in a Parmesan butter sauce and steamed green beans, with salad. When Bill heard that Tamara and Halie were coming he decided to cancel his ‘nite out’ and stay in with us. We all had a good time and really enjoyed Toula being with us and entertaining us with her stories.







Friday December 24th: We slept in and I really needed it. I am running on reserves in the energy department. I made breakfast for Toula and I, eggs with hash browns and steak. Bill had his usual blueberry smoothie. I also made her a good lunch and we left for Bill and Colleen’s at 3:30. In between feeding Toula I worked on the scrapbook again. We had to make two different runs to Ben Franklin to get supplies for the project. I am glad they are pretty close by. Toula has lost more than 20 pounds in the last couple of years and it even has her upset. After being with her I think she just forgets to eat. When you put the food in front of her she eats well and has a good appetite. I wish she were closer and I could watch her and be with her more. She is really clear that she wants to stay in her own home. We had a great time at Bill and Colleen’s. They had decorated every corner of the house and made an awesome meal. We all had a great time together and the time just flew by before you knew it, we were heading for home. Toula and I loved seeing all the Christmas lights. What a nice day.















Saturday December 25th: We had a late breakfast and I made a salad to take to Barb and Steve’s. I had the gifts packed in bags inside packing crates determined by where we were going; yesterday to Bill and Colleen’s with asparagus and gifts, today to Barb and Steve’s with salad and gifts, and to Chris and Anne’s with more gifts. We packed the car with the last stop in the back of the trunk and off we went. I don’t know how many miles we put on the car but I did get some knitting done. It was so nice to see Chris and Ann and the grand kids. They are so busy that they never have a free minute and that means they don’t chat on the phone and they don’t text or even do an update on Face book so we feel totally out of touch with them. I start to think I have done something wrong and then when we see them I realize again that they are just very busy and don’t communicate the way Tamara and I do. There is almost no day that goes by that she and I don’t text, if nothing else at least at bedtime to say goodnight and we often text with Hannah and Halie also. It is such a joy to have that kind of communication. I wish I had that kind of connection with my family when I first left Texas for Ohio. I was so homesick back then, just to hear my mom or dad’s voice and it was so expensive to talk on the phone.

Sunday December 26th: I slept until 10am and didn’t get up until 11:30. Amanda came for lunch and to help me set up meds for the next month. I am changing 4 meds this time. We are doing what we can to switch to generic. We could not get any insurance plan that would pay anything for brand name drugs and they will only pay a percentage of generic drugs. I take a lot of medications and they are really expensive and this was going to make it impossible, I mean it, truly unaffordable for us. So I am praying that the generics work. We will check the results in blood tests around the end of January to see how I am doing.  So I am still exhausted after Amanda left I went back to bed and slept two and a half to three more hours.  When I woke up Tamara was texting and saying Hi and I was texting back when the doorbell rang.  It was Tamara and Halie and they just 'dropped by' 20 miles out of the way, to say Hi.   We had a great visit and when they left my emotions were on top of the world,   Who would drive that far to just check in on me? 

Monday December 27th: I had a great visit with Mom she was still in bed when I called and didn’t have anywhere to go for the morning and I wasn’t going anywhere either. She told me about her Christmas and I told her all about mine and we talked almost an hour. I do miss the Christmas’ I had with her and Daddy here and she and I would cook and Daddy would help Bill with projects. I really did enjoy them so much back “when Christmas was mine.” How funny is that, now we drive from place to place to place. Funny thing;  back when I got "to do Christmas at my house"  I tried to remind the family and friends and guest that Christmas is about Jesus.  This was important to me because growing up in the Church of Christ they tried to avoid talking about Jesus birth at Christmas.  My theory is that this is because it is obvious that Jesus birth could not be in December and they objected to this celebration because it was not literally true,  or something like that.  Any way the family I tried to influence didn't mention Jesus at all and Tamara and her family have adopted the candlelight ceremony that I did every year.   She even text me a photo. 
Remembering the Colors of Christmas
 represent things we can remember about Jesus

I slept till about 8 and didn’t get up till after 10 and took a nap in the afternoon. It sure does take a lot of rest to feel ‘myself’ again.



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. 

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