Wow, I'm glad that this week is over. I feel better tonight, but the fatigue this week has been a little much. Plus, within a 24 hour period two "helpful" people thought they needed to tell me that since with my new drug I am feeling so much better I should be able to work at least part-time... I love people. That was the last thing I needed to hear this week.
Things like that really upset me. If I could work, I would. And I do work as much as I can between skating and auditing charts.
Dan reminded me that we already set a threshold for returning to work, when I am able to feel good for one month, keep all commitments for that month, drive myself everywhere in that same month and be able to work 20 hours per week for one month, then we will talk about the trial work program that my disability has. Until then, no dice.
It still drives me crazy when people say that to me! Oh, let me add one to Dan's list, when I can clean my house in one day, and not pay for it the two following days!!!!
When I can work for four hours straight and not have to come home and sleep for three hours straight and then get up and go to bed and sleep for 8 more hours straight!
Well, now I feel a little bit better. Thanks for letting me vent!!

Overwelming Day

Too many things going on and too many things pulling me in too many different directions. Definately a stop the world I want to get off day.

Somebody forgot to turn off my treadmill. I'm sitting still but my brain is still feeling behind...

Hopefully tomorrow will give me a chance to catch up on my rest and relaxation. I don't have to be any where until 7 pm!

I'm going to bed now. So glad that this day is over.

Snow on the mountain yesterday morning!

We woke up to snow on the mountain Sunday morning. It really highlighted the areas that had burned. It looks like a blanket of white with burnt sticks sticking up through the white.
Today I worked on the laundry: sheets, towels and clothes. I also worked on the pink bedroom. It's getting closer to be being done, but I still have a long way to go.

I'm kinda feeling down in the dumps today. Not sure why, but I just feel a little blue today.

Dan was supposed to go to Denver this week, but now he doesn't have to, so I'm relieved that he'll be close to home for me.

I'm cooking supper again for the discipleship class. Dan is going to take it in for me as I have to leave for town about 3pm for skating. So, Dan will bring the food in to the church for me a little after 6pm. I'll meet him at the church when I get done with skating and then I'll set up the food.

I hope I feel better tomorrow...

Fall Weather is closing in on us!
It is chilly outside. The heat even came on this morning so I had to run around closing windows and taking out window fans. Now, if I can just get Dan to find time to take the swamp cooler out!
This week is still hectic. Church was great last night. I have skating today and then I can come home for a little rest. Dan was gone first things this morning for a Men's breakfast at 7:30 am.
I'm getting ready to leave shortly to head for the rink. The house is a mess, I hope when things settle down I feel well enough to finish some cleaning projects and get some started.
Dan's sister, Nancy, found me some of my caffeine free coco and sent it to me, so now with this cold weather I am sittin' pretty and toasty warm!
The hornets appear to be totally gone. If I think about I will take a picture of that impressive hole. I never even new hornets would go in the ground and build nests!
I've been so amazed at the sudden rapid growth of businesses and housing and traffic to go along with it. Casper isn't the quiet little town anymore. Good Grief, I find myself planning alternate routes going home at 5pm so I'm not stuck in traffic, never use to happen!
Just in the last few months we have gotten or in the process of building: Petco, Staples, Office Depot (we've had an Office Max for years), Fire Rock Grill, Johnny J's Diner, Starbuck's, our second Walmart, possibly a Menards (they want to build next to our Home Depot), and several new banks and credit unions. (I'm always joking that Casper now has more banks/credit unions than it has bars.) They are building new roads, larger roads and adding more and more traffic lights. At this rate we'll not have any traffic flow as Casper is notorious for not synchronizing their traffic lights. I always liked that about Bloomington and Pekin, once you hit a green light, you could generally flow through each block as the lights would continue to change to green, hence you have traffic flow.
This week a Missionary to Alaska, that our church supports, was here visiting for our Missions Conference. One of his goals is to add a boat ministry. There are so many small fishing towns, logging towns and etc that are only accessable by plane or boat. Dan and I thought that was soooo cool. The guy did mention that one had to be careful when visiting those logging camps and other camp communities as often people are in those out-of-the-way places for only one reason, they are hiding out from the law...
Time to go skate!

Hornet Update!
Well after having Ozzie get stung two more times, I finally convinced Dan that his raid hornet spray was not working (he had went through almost the whole bottle). He would sit on the porch and watch the entrance with his spotting scope and he said it was a really, really busy hole.
Finally, would you just know it, Dan admitted that a friend of his was a Terminex guy. So, he gave him a call and explained the situation. The bug guy figured that the hornets had made a huge paper nest under the ground and no amount of raid could possibly get down to the "queen". He said he would be out at 7 AM to catch the hornets before they started moving around. (That was yesterday)
After the guy got out here and took a look at the size of hole that we had, he said there were probably 2-3 of those huge paper nests with at least two queens. He had this big long wand attached to a back pack of bug spray and just jammed it down and around inside the hole. He really saturated them. Said if there were any flying around still tonight that he would come back.
The upside is that he didn't even charge us for his services! Isn't God good!
I went out last night to check things out and nothing was flying in or out. There were dead hornets laying all over the ground and when you look down that big hole there are a whole bunch of dead one's just filling it up.
So, once again, it is safe to go outdoors!
Dan and I had a busy day yesterday. I had a skating class, Adults and then I went and worked at Interim for a couple of hours and then went back home to feed everybody and then turned around and headed back to town for church. We are having our Missions Conference, so we have two extra services this week.
Dan had a meeting in Gillette, WY so he was gone before I got home from Interim. He got home around 1230-1:00 am.
Neither one of us wanted to get up this morning. All of the kids were on the bed pawing at us to get up and feed them.
Well, I have to run into town to teach another skating class and then will work at Interim for as long as I am up to it. Then it is back to church tonight.
Not sure when I'll get a chance to rest up. Saturday classes and private lessons start tomorrow. Whew!

Busy Day Today and a run in with Hornets yesterday!
Yesterday was my home day. I usually do washing and cleaning. I vacuumed and mopped the floors and did the laundry, but I did not get all the laundry folded-not a big surprise.
Ozzie and I went outside to play some ball. I threw the ball one more time straight out back just past the mulberry tree. Ozzie ran and got it and was pushing it around with his nose when all of the sudden he abandoned the ball and ran away from it. He finally made it back to the patio and kept stopping to lick his leg. He would not go get his ball. I walked out to get his ball and was reaching down to pick it up when, I noticed several bee looking things swarming around his ball, just inches from my hand. Soon, I noticed they were swarming around me as well. I forgot about the ball and ran back to the house. Ozzie and I got in the house and sure enough, he had been stung on the inside of his back leg-there was a huge welt. Dan was home and I told him what happened. He told me to get some ice on Ozzie's leg.
Bless Ozzies little heart, we layed on the floor and he let me hold an ice bag on the inside of his back leg for 20 minutes. As we were laying there I noticed his left eye was runny and starting to swell above the eye. He had been stung on the face too! Poor baby.
Dan went outside to check on the situation. He couldn't even get close to the ball as it was swarming with Yellow Jacket Hornets. Some how the hornets have managed to build a nest in the ground and Ozzie's ball rolled right over the opening.
I don't know how I didn't get stung. It was truly a miracle.
Ozzie is doing well. He didn't even yelp when the hornets stung him.
Today was the day the official skating season started. I had to leave the house at 9:30AM in order to get to the rink in time for my class. There was only one signed up, so they will probably cancel the class. So, I finished up at the rink at 11 and then headed back home.
I volunteered to bring a meal into the kick off of the the discipleship class at church tonight. So, I had to get started on that when I came home. I had to take a nap about 1/2 way through the process.
At 4:30 it was time to head back into town for my 5:00 Power Skating Class. There are now a whopping 4 people in the class, so I guess they will probably run it.
After class I ran to the grocery store to pick up some salad stuff and then went to church to set up and warm up the supper.
So, now I'm finally back home and tired.
I don't have the church bulletin done yet. I usually try to have the proof ready for Pastor by Wednesday night service. I don't skate on Wednesday's so, I'll get it finished up tomorrow during the day.
Well, it is off to bed.

Saturday
My last free Saturday before skating season gets started. I spent most of the day trying to get the pink bedroom cleaned out and reorganized. What a mess. The more I try to organize, the messy the room gets!
I had to take a nap today for about an hour.
Busy day tomorrow with church.

Fighting a flare up this week.
Keeping busy, but not feeling so hot. While I've been able to keep my blood pressure at a pretty good spot, overall I'm feeling that underlying fatigue and yesterday afternoon I started having some of that old chest pain. I didn't make it to church last night because of it. When Dan got home my face was all flushed. Bizarre.
I did make it to Interim today and managed to get some work done before heading home.
Tonight I ran out of black ink and needed to finish up the bulletins for church. So, I headed off to the new Walmart. It was very exciting to just be able to run up the road instead of 30 minutes across town. I checked the mileage, and I live just 2.5 miles from our new Walmart. It's all very exciting. I was actually home and back in less than 20 minutes!!
We are still a little smokey here, but the smell isn't so bad. Dan is doing much, much better. We had a couple of nice rains last week so that really helped.
I'm so shocked and sad that the Crocadile Hunter, Steve Irwin died so suddenly from the Sting Ray. I was touched at the many different tv programs and snippets that have been going on. It is very heart wrenching. It just doesn't seem possible. At least he died doing what he loved.

It really cooled off here on Wednesday and got even cooler last night. Dipping into the 30's. I'm not sure if I'm ready for winter yet. The cats aren't either. They were both on the bed last night. Max under the covers and Shi up against my feet. Very unusual for me to have both cats. But, since Dan is out-of-town, I guess they felt I would have to do.
While I'm feeling better I'm still so tired underneath everything. I don't know how to explain it, other than maybe my fatigue is back but on a smaller scale. It just seems like I have to force myself to do everything because I'm tired. I'm dragging and it's very frustrating.
The fog is really rolling in this morning. Feels like London! It will burn off when the sun comes up.

I don't have skating today, but I still need to go into town and pick up some brochures at Copy Max (Office Max) and then I really need a couple of dresses or skirts. Somehow, in the process of getting rid of clothes that no longer fit or that I no longer wear, I have left myself with a small handful of skirts and no shirts to go with them or shirts with no skirts to go with them. Oh well.

The problem is, I could care less about shopping right now. I'm so tired. But, I know come Sunday morning I'm gonna wish I had something to wear.