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Archives for March 2009

In-laws on Easter Weekend?

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Earlier today we got a call from Chris’ brother saying that he’s going to fly from his home in Chicago to Toronto April 10th to visit with us over Easter Weekend.

Now this is a guy who’s so afraid of flying that at least 99% of the time that he’s made visits to the area in the oh … 20 years that I’ve known him he’s driven the 10 to 12 hours from Chicago to Toronto rather than take an hour or two plane ride.

I guess it’s cheaper to drive if he’s bringing his family with him – well depending upon gas prices … but still .. you’d think he would have flown a few more times over the years if it weren’t for his terrible fear of flying!

So I guess we’ll have a house guest at least that Thursday night or perhaps for the whole weekend. I don’t know if he’s going to rent a car so that he can drive out of town to visit his parents and other family members or not … God … If he stays the whole weekend I might end up with a house full of in-laws! OMG! That would be terrible! Hmmm maybe it’s time to take a serious look at that Wilmington NC real estate I’m always hearing about and get FAR far away from the in-laws!

Right after Easter weekend- on Easter Monday in fact we’re having our oil tank replaced. I don’t even know if we’ll have a spare bedroom that weekend because we might need to move some stuff from the basement to the spare rooms so that the workers will be able to move around in the basement and get that tank replaced.

It’s not like I don’t like my brother in law or anything (well as long as I don’t disagree with him when he’s drunk he’s fine), I just don’t like a bunch of people descending on my house for days at a time without really even asking if it’s ok.

How do you feel about drop in guests or weekend guests?





My back is screaming!

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It was such a nice day here in Toronto that my husband and I decided to take the dog outside in the backyard and do some yard work.

We had actually started raking the lawn and tidying up the yard a little bit early last Monday evening, but now I can say that the backyard garden is cleaned of old dead leaves and foliage and looks great. Now we just have to clean up our very tiny front yard and our planted boulevard and the Spring cleaning will be done. At least outside …

I feel good having spent several hours working outside today, but my back HATES me right now!

I’ve had an aching back for over a year. I finally got one of my doctors to send me for an xray two weeks ago and just as I thought I’ve got a slipped disk. I’ve been doing back exercises to ease my pain and sleeping with two pillows under my legs at night … and it’s helped, but my back is still pretty bad. Gardening for over 4 hours today will not help at all.

I almost wish that we had a sleep number bed so I could play around with it and maybe find a bed hardness or softness that my back likes. Our mattress is very hard, but maybe it’s too hard. If I don’t sleep with those pillows under my legs I can barely get out of bed in the morning.

Once I came inside this evening I took some Advil and a Tylenol and put a heating pad on my back. I also took some Advil before I went out to work in the garden … but still .. my back is really hurting. I have a feeling that it will be worse tomorrow. Plus I’ll likely have some stiff muscles from all the bending, twisting and odd positions I was in as I tried to clean out my garden beds.

I’ll bet that most people don’t think that gardening is much of a workout, but try doing it for four hours – bending, stretching, lifting things … oh yeah, it’s exercise.

Do you have any aches and pains from doing Spring related activities?

One health crisis after another

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This has been a busy week for me. I’ve had two doctors appointments, one medical test and a ton of computer work to do! I’m glad the week is almost over.

I guess it doesn’t help that I’m not feeling well. (As usual). My Crohn’s is just in a constant flare and my back … well that’s another story … it had been feeling a lot better over the last few weeks, but I must have done something to it yesterday morning before walking to one of my doctors appointments and the next thing I know my lower back is spasming and aching. It’s still acting up, but not as bad as yesterday.

For some reason my pain doctor weighs me every time I see her (usually once a month). I hate it, but for the first time in a while I got some god news when she did her weigh in – I’d lost 8 pounds since my last visit! Yeah! Maybe I’ll be back in fighting form by early summer. Yeah! I even ran into a nurse that I worked with in the ER and she asked me if I’d found a diet pill that works. LOL Nope – just eating healthy (as per normal) and trying to be a little more active. It’s probably the slight increase in activity that helped.

Of course I could be losing weight due to the Crohn’s disease. I once lost something like 35 pounds in one month and it was at a time when I didn’t need to lose an ounce! I could have also lost a few pounds because of my thyroid … I only have half my thyroid due to a precancerous tumor that I had removed – oh … 20 years ago, but the other day I noticed that the right side of my neck, where the remaining half of my thyroid is seems to be slightly swollen so when I went to see the doctor yesterday I asked her to take a look at my neck. She thought it was a little puffy too and sent me for an ultrasound.

The talkative ultrasound tech let me know that my remaining thyroid tissue has several nodules in it and that’s a kick in the ass ’cause I take synthetic thyroid replacement medicine and that’s supposed to help keep a tumor or nodules from reoccurring. So .. I’ve got new nodules in there … so now i might be looking at more precancerous or cancer growths and I might end up having to have surgery to have the rest of my thyroid removed. Fantastic. NOT.

It just seems that it’s once thing after another with my health this year- the constant Crohn’s flares, a slipped disc in my back and now growths in my thyroid that might mean I’ll have to have surgery. What else might happen?

I have a feeling that we’re going to need a new car soon

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the other day, as Chris pulled out of the driveway to go to a store for me I noticed that our car was making spluttering sounds as he drove away. I gave him a call on the cellphone and asked him if he heard the car making funny noises but he didn’t think that it did … still … our car is getting kind of old. It’s a 1996 Ford Contour. So it’s 13 or 14 years old.

I’m actually amazed at how good it looks. It has a few tiny rust spots but other than that you’d never know the car was as old as it is.

I have a feeling, given it’s age and the spluttering sounds I heard the other day (no matter that my husband didn’t) that we’ll be looking for another car in a year or so. Hopefully not sooner! I mean it’s bound to start having some kind of serious problem – right?

Hmm maybe I’ll check online to find out which cars have the best safety ratings, best mileage etc. That’s what I did last time when we were getting our current car. I also spent some time looking for insurance online where I could compare or get quotes for car insurance prices for the cars we were interested in.

I’d love to get a Hybrid, maybe a Smart car … but I think they are too pricey for us right now unless we get a “mildly” used one. As it stands, unless Chris or I start making a ton of money our next car will probably be a used one, no matter what kind we get.

Are you driving an older car? Have you been thinking about getting a new or used car soon to replace your current one?

Time to do some yard work

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Join Green Thumb Sunday

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If you live in a northern climate you’re probably fairly excited that Spring has finally arrived. I know I am! We’ve actually had fairly nice weather most of the month, but I just got my first confirmation that Spring is truly here… I discovered my first crocus’ blooming in my backyard just a little while ago.

Yellow Crocus

Crocus’ are usually the first flower to bloom in my garden each year so it’s a sign that my personal gardening season has begun.

Now I can’t wait to get out in the yard and start clearing the dead leaves and dead foliage out of the garden beds! I need to rake the lawn as well. I guess we didn’t rake it much in the fall and it has a matt of dead grass that I’m sure once we rake it off we’ll see some signs of life in the lawn below.

I’ll probably have to wait a few weeks for the Hyacinths to start to make an appearance, but I can’t wait to see them and smell their heavily scented blooms. Don’t you just love the heady scent of Hyacinth?

Pink hyacinth

Do you garden? If you do, what’s waking up in your garden beds right now?

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