Friday night is alright

All of a sudden the weather has changed and it was cold and rainy today. I guess we can't complain too much because we had a nice stretch of clear and warm weather. I don't like hot weather, but I do enjoy using our pool when the water warms up so much. I think I was in my pool every day for one hour for about 3 and a half weeks straight. I enjoy mostly making whirlpools. Nothing is more soothing to me than swimming around in circles and making a strong whirlpool that will carry me when I want to float.

All of our staff started back at school this week for professional development and the first day is Tuesday for the students. Summer slows down for me at work and that was nice, so I have been easing into the fall schedule. My job is changing this year and I am not sure how it will all pan out and how satisfied I will be, so I am going to really try to keep tabs on it. I want to take on one more job before I retire and I am trying to figure out what it is that I want to do.

I felt good this summer, the best I have felt in a long time. I was busy with wedding/shower planning so I had lots to do, but I was grateful my knee was holding up as I was running around the malls. For awhile there I could not walk around a mall because of the pain. So to be active again and be able to do something like shop at the mall which many people take for granted made me feel on top of the world. I was walking from one end of the mall to the other!

My Feldenkrais practitioner said that I was a different person coming in every week. I was happier more relaxed and my body was more flexible. I am hoping I can keep it up. I felt as though I was coming out of a fog. I think just being out in the sunlight was making me happy as well. I had been pretty cooped up all winter, taking to the couch after supper and falling asleep most nights. As my work load picks up again, I need to be sure that I work harder to find balance in my life.

My husband is having his very first art show in 2 weeks. He was interviewed by our local paper today and they sent a photographer out to the house to take his picture. He has only been painting for 3 and a half years and never thought that he would be taking up a second career as an artist. He is getting a great deal of attention from family and friends and it seems like the opening will be a lot of fun. I am happy for him and also a little envious of his retiree status and his new found career.

I have a baby shower tomorrow, a 60th birthday party on Sunday afternoon and tickets to see Kathy Griffin on Sunday night. So the weekend is jammed packed with FUN!

I am just finishing up reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert for the second time. I love that book and loved it more this time around. So I think I will end this post with a quote from the book: Happiness is the consequence of personal effort.

Busy

Last Sunday we went to the bridal shower for my future daughter in law given by her mom. It was great to finally meet the rest of her family and friends that we have heard so much about. We had a fabulous time. Since all of her family is out of state, we decided to have two showers so that people would not have to travel. The shower I am hosting for my side of the family is in a couple of weeks. I am very excited about it, but also a bit nervous. First time planning a bridal shower and there is so much to do and so many details. It is fun though.

My mother turned 84 years old on Tuesday. My sisters and I took her out to dinner at her favorite restaurant on that evening and today we have having a cake with the rest of the family. A couple of days after her birthday, she fell down and could not get up. My dad was in the house, but he was in the other room and could not hear her calls for help. She was able to crawl to a phone and call us. We in turn called my dad to inform him that she had fallen. He has the panic button on him and could have called for an ambulance, but she would not allow him to call because she was embarrassed.

So we jumped into the car and drove the 20 minutes up to their house only to find that a couple of minutes before we arrived she had crawled to a chair and got herself up. She looked awful when I saw her and was very shaken up. She didn't fall by losing her balance per say, but she went to sit on the bed and the bed is on wheels so it rolled away and she fell straight down to the floor instead of on the bed. A freaky accident.

She had hit her head on the night table when she fell down which was a big concern. But she would not allow us to call the doctor and refused to go. Hard to know when to completely take charge of the elders to force them into medical care. But this time I felt she would be OK as long as we kept checking in with her for the day. So we all took turns calling and visiting and she seemed to be OK.

Yesterday we had another early morning call from my son who was working up at the camp for children who have had heart surgery. He had slipped on the wet grass and fell down and smashed his foot into a concrete wall. His foot was all swollen and bruised and there was concern that it was broken. He was in too much pain to drive home. So again we jumped into the car and drove 2 and a half hours to pick him up before the camp closed. We picked him up and then stopped off for lunch at a wonderful new Irish pub and then drove the 2 and a half hours home. We took him to our local ER for x-rays and found that although badly bruised, his foot was not broken! That was good news, as he was so worried about how he could return to work with a broken foot. So hopefully, in a couple of days he go back to his job. They were so good to give him the time off to work at the heart camp, and he feels badly that he has to take off more time.

Just got some GOOD news from my mom. Our niece is pregnant. Nice to have the phone ring and get some good news for a change!

Laughing out loud

The other day a friend and I went to the beach. She is in the middle of a very complicated and serious family crisis and has been absolutely overwhelmed by the situation. Lately when I speak to her on the phone, all I can hear is anguish in her voice no matter what the topic. She was starting to scare me, because I knew she was being eaten alive about a situation she could not change and she needed to just take care of herself.

Now I am far from an expert in taking care of myself in some ways, but in other ways I manage fairly well. And isn't it always easier to recognize issues in other people than ourselves? So I had an idea in my head that I would try to suggest something outrageous to make her laugh about the situation and hopefully it would help relieve some anxieties for her (as well as interject my own problems and ease anxiety for me!)

I think I would lose a lot in the translation but my premeditated plan worked like a charm. I had her laughing and laughing and laughing about the situation and coming up with real solutions to the problems. In this state I was able to say things to her that I had been biting my tongue at for months! And she heard them and did not get mad! I laughed my head off right along with her.

So there we were, two old friends from as far back as junior high school, sitting on the beach with the ocean lapping in front of us and laughing so hard at times not being able to stop. Laughing about life and the unfair, complicated, stressful, and sad situations that we mortal humans must learn to cope with. Laughing so hard and so deep that it just cleaned out our souls. On top of that we treated ourselves out for both lunch and dinner!

One of my favorite vacation days yet. It is just the simple things that can make a day.

This is the last week of my staycation and I am trying to savor every minute of it! Last Friday night we had free tickets to see The Pretenders at our local musical theater. I was not familiar with their music but went along with the husband. The opening act was led by Juliette Lewis who was in Melissa' Ethridge's music video, Come to my Window, she also played the disable sister in the movie, The Other Sister and has been in numerous movies. She left it all to join a rock and roll band. She reminded me of a female Mick Jagger the way she moved her body on stage. The music was so loud that it is hard to hear the words, so it all sort of sounded the same to me.

Krissie Hyde and The Pretenders are best known for their song, Chain Gang. It was an evening out, but I really did not enjoy the music because I was not familiar with it. It is always fun to go to a concert with hopes that they will play my favorite song, so when I don't have any, I get bored.

Sunday night we had tickets for Dar Williams for the 3rd time this year. I love her music and never tire of seeing her. She put on a great show singing many of my favorite songs!

The past couple of days have been hot and humid around here, just perfect to hang out in our backyard pool and relax! Just love being home when this weather hits so we can get the most out of our pool. We have had it for 21 years and I am so grateful it is still standing.

Today my "baby" turns 25 years old! Hard to believe how quickly the time flew by. He wanted to go to a very popular pizza spot a couple of towns away from here, so we took him to lunch there and came home and hopped into the pool. The rest of the family is coming tonight for birthday cake.

My kind of day!

Fashion Emergencies

I didn't mention that when I tried on my dress for the wedding that I noticed a small dark stain on the front of the dress. I only had the dress on for a few minutes and did nothing but walk up and down the hallway with my new shoes on. I don't see how I could have done anything to cause a stain, so I figured it was from the store. Without thinking I went and got a cloth with cold water and tried to get the stain out. Then I had a huge water mark on the dress that did not seem to be drying. So I put the dress in front of the fan and hoped that would do the trick. Well, sort of... most of the ring dried by now I had another spot that would not leave.

After a week of fretting about it, I brought it to a cleaner and when I took it in the girl at the front desk told me there was nothing they could do and I would just have to wear it or buy another dress. My heart sank. But after she went on and on discouraging me, she decided to get the guy from the back who actually cleans the clothes. (why could she not do this first off?) He examined the stain and smiled a big smile as he picked up the dress and whisked it away. I admit I was nervous as he just took the dress and did not ask my permission to work on it, but all was well, because he just steamed it out and it is a good as new!

I only have to put it on one more time before the wedding to have it hemmed. I am not used to all this fancy smancy and I feel so nervous around that dress!

The shoe situation did not pan out too well. The shoes that I got that everyone deemed perfect for the dress had heels that were too high for me. My knees felt like they were literally breaking in half and the muscles on my hips were pained. After looking around for weeks for something better, I brought them to the shoemaker for a little experiment. He is cutting down the heel to a height that I can handle on other shoes. We don't know for sure how this will work, but he thought it was possible that it would be good. I have no idea. I also have a back up pair of very plain low heeled shoes.

I am concerned how I am going to get through this wedding without orthotics. (I usually wear orthoics and sneakers or some other study tie shoe). I am planning to keep crutches and a pair of sneakers in the car for absolute crisis control and Ibuprofen every 4-6 hours to keep the pain at bay. I am also getting some lubricant shots in my knee starting in a week, so hopefully those will help. But I do have to worry about not doing more damage.

Perhaps I can dance like Paula does on American Idol. You know how she just gets up from her chair and wiggles around in place waving her hands in the air. I want to have some fun! After all, it is my son's wedding!

Staycation

It feels like summer has finally arrived and just in time for my stay at home vacation. I have enjoyed may hours in the backyard pool that did not even get opened until the middle of July because of all the rainy weather!

I am home catching up with every day stuff and up to my head with bridal shower and wedding plans. The wedding is in October and it is just around the corner. Time just flew by and all of a sudden I realized I needed to get cracking!

I am planning a bridal shower for my future daughter in law for Sept 12. I ran around yesterday to IKEA and Christmas Tree shops looking for cute little gifts that I could use as prizes at the shower. I have been searching on -line for shower favors and some simple shower games. One time I went to a shower where they just set a timer and every time the timer went off a gift went to the person whose present the bride was opening. That seems easy!

In the middle of all the business of wedding plans, I decided to become an AVON representative, so I am trying to get that business off of the ground. I have always enjoyed their products and my AVON rep was no longer in town, so instead of trying to find a new one, I decided to give it a go myself. I probably should have waited until after the wedding because it sure takes time to start up a new business, but I wasn't thinking about how much I would have on my plate. I am glad I did it and will just go at my own pace which is what it is all about.

And on top of all of that, my now retired husband took up painting a couple of years ago and has been getting very good at it. He brought his portfolio down to a local art gallery and the guy offered him the opportunity to have an art show! The opening night will be the night before the bridal shower! The gallery was looking to fill that date so he needed to go with the flow.

So between new businness/ shower/wedding/art show that are all happening at around the same time, we are crazy busy, but all fun and good energy happenings!