Just complaining...

It's been a while since I have updated but life has been so busy lately I hardly have time to sleep!
We have been short staffed at work for a month now which has thrown a real kink in everything. After my accident I was not supposed to go back to work full time until late March and had arranged with my boss to come in for half a day for a few weeks until my back/hips had gotten stronger, but things happened and I had to go back full time before I was ready and before I was supposed to. There were a few days last week that there were only 2 people at work, myself and one person down in the laundry, seems everyone is getting sick! Because my body was still in a weakened state from the accident I was more susceptible to things like colds & flues and ended up with the mother of all colds that ( as you already know ) turned out to be pneumonia. I am still sick with it, can't breath through my nose at all, can't taste anything yet and now working my way through box # 12 of tissues. Every time sneeze I end up with shooting pains in my back and hips so it looks like the road to recovery will be a lot longer than anticipated. It really sucks, I hate being sick and because I've been sick for a while I am getting super crankie not to mention that I have no energy at all. What does everybody else do when they get sick?

Sunday Seven: Pets I have had.

As we all know I love animals ( hence the 3 years of Vet. Tech in College ), and through out my years I have had several pets.....
1) My childhood dog Ajax, she was the kind of dog that would follow us every where, including onto the school bus if we had let her because every morning she would walk us to the bus stop and then go home again once we boarded the school bus.
2) My childhood cat Pointer, she had a long pointy tail that she would wrap around your arm when ever you pet her.
3) My other childhood cat Stranger. He was a stray cat that got lost and started to hang around our house a lot. He managed to tare a hold in the screen of the front door and he'd jump in through the hole every chance he got so finally after a week of this mom decided that he could stay.
4) Two hermit crabs named Lunch & Dinner. One day lunch actually ate Dinner, and a few months later Dinner passed away as well.
5) Moms dog Spirit. She was a stray puppy that wandered onto the farm of a family friend. One day when mom was visiting our friends they tried to convince mom to take the puppy because they already had 3 dogs and didn't have room for a fourth. Mom refused several times, and when she opened the car door to go home, Spirit jumped in and sat there looking at Mom with those big brown eyes. Mom just couldn't refuse her then and the rest is history.
6) Moms cat Kali the Killer Kitty. She is a VERY pretty calico cat, but she is a real Bitch as well! We rescued her from an abusive family when she was about 6 months old and because of the way she was treated her growth was stunted and at 8 years old she is only about 3-4 lbs. She bites, she hisses, she swats and she scratches, so we always tell people not to pet her ( for their own safety ). Why do we keep her? She and Spirit are best friends and play all the time! In the Hat she would curl up on Papa's lap and let him pet her for hours. Sometimes she crawls into bed with you and sleeps on your chest till you wake up and pet her. She has attitude, but we love her anyway.
7) I had 2 white lab rats names Nonan & Pilar. They were actually 2 of my & Danielle's rats from our second semester of Vet Tech, at the end of the year we had to euthanize them, or take them home. Easy choice.

Happy "Happy to be Alive Day!"

As most of you know, on March 23, 2001 I had a Medtronic Dual Chamber Kappa Dr pacemaker inserted into my chest. My heart had just decided that it didn't need to beat all the time and so just stopped ( frequently ) for no reason and with no warning. This pacer keeps my heart going and so on March 23rd I celebrate my Happy to be Alive Day. I thought I'd add a few images, I hope they worked. One is a chest x-ray that shows an implanted pacer ( though not like mine ), one is a diagram to show where it is, and one is of a woman holding a device very similar to mine except that mine is a really pretty shiny blue. I have been implanted with what is referred to as "the Cadillac" of all pacers because of the nature of my condition., its called dual chamber because unlike most people, I need to have 2 leads threaded through my artery, one leading to my right atrium, and the other to my right ventricle. Crazy huh? I hope every one had a great Happy to be alive day!

The mother of all colds.

OK, so after work tonight I went to the walk in clinic because of this cold. I figured it must be a sinus infection of something like that because my head aches are getting stronger in the sinus areas and for the past few days not only can I not breath out of my nose, but am having a progressively harder time breathing through my mouth as well, I can't take a deep breath at all. The first clinic I went to had a 3 hour wait and told me to come back at 8:00pm, so I left and went to another clinic I know of only to be told they were not seeing any more patients tonight. The third place I went to had a 20 min wait and a really cute young Dr working who also had a great bedside manner. He checked out my symptoms and put the stethoscope to my back, had me take a few "deep breaths" and was shocked at what he heard. He was surprised I could breath at all and announced that I have got pneumonia. He jotted a few prescriptions down on his little green pad ( 3 to be exact ) and asked if I have a drug plan. "No I don't" I replied, and to my pleasure he exited the room for a second and brought me back one of the prescribed meds. He told me its over $100 for just that one and because the other two would be about $100 as well he thought it would help! Wasn't that great? So I got the meds, started them tonight and hope that I feel better soon. I really hope that every one else is feeling a lot better than I am, and if you have a cold that lasts longer than 2 weeks, head to the clinic!!!

Spring cleaning has begun!

I am still suffering from that blasted cold ( box # 7 now! ) but wanted to get some spring cleaning done today, so first I tackled the linen closet and packed a grocery bag full of items for the donation bin, and then I decided to stop there and make cookies. While in the kitchen I happened to glance up to the top of the fridge and thought Holy Crap! How does the top of the fridge manage to collect so much stuff? I cleaned it off and found a lot of old receipts that should have been thrown out once they were brought home, a few old lottery tickets ( I buy maybe 3 or 4 tickets a year and never remember to check them till I find them again later ), 2 old ice cube trays ( and that's in addition to the 2 in the freezer that we actually use for ice ) and a lot of other crap that shouldn't have been there. Once it was cleaned off I took a bucket of hot soapy water to clean off the layer of icky duct that was all over it. The fridge is less than a year old and still managed to have that gross dust layer on top of it. What is up with that? And since I was feeling on a role, I even cleaned the oven! I really hate to clean the oven but now it sparkles. And oh yes, I made meat loaf for dinner, and Lesley, thanks for the tip! It was pretty good and I'll probably try it again.

Sunday Seven: Sample of my portfolio.

OK, this is my 4th attempt at this blog entry today, I think blogger is having a bad day so this will be my final attempt, I hope it works!

I am posting a sample of shots from my portfolio. As anyone who knows me knows, I am pretty passionate about photography and love my old manual camera. all my friends and family are used to having it pointed at them often and I am always trying to do it with out being noticed. The best pics of kids are the ones taken when they aren't posing for the camera!

P.S If anyone knows yet how to make the text appear before the pics, please let me know! It just kills me not being able to put the explination before the images!

Box # 5.

Box of what you may be asking? Tissue! I am still sick with a cold, and its a bugger of a cold at that. I am now working on box # 5 of tissues. That's 3 boxes of regular tissue, and now my second jumbo sized box of the extra soft lotion tissues, and this cold is not going away. For a few days I felt as though I was getting much better, but than it took a turn for the worse again. Ugh. I have been getting a lot of helpful ideas from customers at work who can't help but notice the fact that I have a terrible cold, but so far nothing has helped except to take a nice long hot shower at night. This helps my sinuses, but it really drys out my skin which can get pretty painful/itchy. I am using all the old wives tales for cold sufferers, lots of rest, chicken soup, orange juice & vitamin C, lots of water but no luck getting rid of this! Anyone out there know of anything that might really work? I'll try almost anything! I am pretty limited as far as meds go though because of my heart condition, I was begging the pharmacist tonight for any thing that night help!

I usually like grocery shopping!

I don't really mind grocery shopping, in fact, I usually enjoy it and most times I go I try to pick out something different to try, but that's another blog. Last night I was looking through the local flyers and notices that Supe* Sto*e was having a dollar days sale, and for once there were a lot of things in the sale that I would typically buy. So after work tonight I went to do the shopping, and, list in hand, made my way to the produce section where I looked for the first 2 items on my list that were on sale: mushrooms and broccoli. I found lots of mushroom and lost of broccoli, but they were each in the $3-$4 range, not the $1 advertised in the flyer, so I asked the next clerk I saw and he pointed me in the right direction, nest to the garlic for the broccoli instead of with the rest of the broccoli, and the mushrooms were next to the bananas. Hummm. Ok. I put them in my cart and started my search for the bread and pita bread on sale, and again had to search for it because it wasn't in with the rest of the bread and bread items. They were sold out of the pop corn and the hot dogs ( something only Hike tends to eat in our house ), and of all the places to find brown sugar, it was in the chip/candy section.
I remember shopping at Supe* Sto*e in the Hat ( I used to work at the malt shop inside and would shop before heading home at night ) and it was never that disorganized! And to make matters worse, it seamed every time I had something in my hands ( I am a label reader after all! ) there was someone breathing down my neck to get me to move ( when did the words "excuse me please" leave the English language? ) and one woman even had the nerve to try and take a package of soda crackers out of my hand and then out of my grocery cart once I placed it inside! I gave her a few dirty looks and snatched the package back and quickly ended my shopping trip. I almost never shop at this store, and every time I do its a negative experience. Have all the stores in this chain turned out this way?

Sunday Seven: Things I like to do on a rainy day.

It's been raining here in Burnaby for over a week now, and while I am at work its fine because I don't really notice the weather outside as I am too busy, but on the week ends there are limited options for things to do, so here are some of the things I like to do on a rainy day.
1) Catch up with old friends on the phone. I did this today and had a great chat with my friend Yvette, she is an amazing woman for many reasons and one of the people I miss most from the Kingston area.
2) Watch a really long movie from under some blankets on the couch with the balcony door open so I can see/smell the rain and air out my place.
3) Sleep in and then reach for a book and stay in bed reading for a few hours.
4) Crank the tunes and go crazy cleaning. I didn't do this today because I was so beat ( I did go to the Rod Concert after all, but that is another Blog ) but on rainy days I I like to throw some music on and clean. Not just clean, but pick a project and clean it to perfection, you know, scrub the grout in the shower, use that old cleaning tooth brush to scrub the floor around the toilet, wash walls etc.
5) Bake/cook. I really do enjoy cooking and baking, so when I know I'll have all day to "play" in the kitchen, I really do! I love to try new recipes and make new variations of old favs. And that reminds me, if anyone has some recipes they really like to make, please let me know, I am looking for a few new ones. And oh yeah, if anyone has a good recipe for meat loaf or a really nice home made soup, please let me know! I have never made meat loaf ( Don't think I have ever even eaten it really ) but would love to try.
6) If I have a project started I love to work on it on a rainy day. For some reason, I always seem to get more done on a rainy day than a sunny one!
7) I like to go to the movies on a rainy day but I hardly ever do because usually a lot of other people have the same idea and I hate being in a crowded theater. If I do go, it would be to see a movie at the end of its theatre run because its usually a lot less crowded than the other ones playing.

Happy Birthday Peck!!!

Today Zachary turned 7! He is so grown up now its hard to believe that seven years ago today I was telling Alli to breath and then holding my first squirming nephew! I love you Peckstaroonie!!!

The cold.

Yep, you guessed it, I caught the cold that is going around. I woke up around 4:30 with a runny nose and popped some C*ld f X ( didn"t think I should spell the brand name ) and climbed back into bed only to wake up every 15 min to blow my nose again and sneeze a lot. Well, the sneezing is really killing me as my back and hips are still pretty sore from the accident, and I have been blowing my nose so much it is already raw, and I am using those ultra soft tissues with the lotion ( you know, the ones that are $6.00 a box? ). I have been taking the cold tablets, Dimatapp for the symptoms and a vapor thingie to help with the congestion not to mention the nasal strip plastered across my nose to try and help me breath. I am starting to get really worried because the last "cold" I had lasted almost 4 months and turned out to be a pretty bad sinus/lung infection. I had to visit 2 different clinics to convince a Dr. that it wasn't just your average cold and I hope this isn't going to be the same thing! To make matters 100 times worse, Frank and I have AMAZING seats at the Rod Stewart concert this Saturday...I hope I can go!!!
Hope everyone else is feeling better than I am!!

Zachary the almost 7 year old!

Hey Zach, just in case these gifts arrive late in the mail I wanted you to see that they are comming! Here is what you should be looking for in the mail!

Love you Buddy!

Auntie Krista.

Sunday Seven: Sewing Essentials.

Here are Seven items I find most important to any sewing/quilting project.

Hike The Gamer.

Ok, so, Hike called me at work this morning ( it was his day off from work ) to tell me that he had bought a new vide0 game. For those of you who do not know Hike very well, he is a fanatic. He can sit and play for hours with out stopping! This of course drives me nuts because his cons0le is hooked up to the big tv in the livingroom, and even though we both have smaller tv's in our bedrooms, its always nice to watch a movie ( or in Hikes case play a game ) on the big tv. Well, this is what I came home to after work: Hike had the coffee table pushed back, a snack and a drink and was sitting on the floor playing away. Well, before I went out for dinner with Sara and Frank, I went to tell him I was leaving and he was gone, but the game was still in full swing! I was kinda confused, and as I entered the living room to investigate the game, I noticed Hike sitting out on the balcony looking into the livingroom. He had gone out for a sm0ke and instead of putting the game on pause, he took the controller with him and played through the glass door! This is a no smoking house and so he has to go outside to do so, but being caught up in the new game he didn't want to pause! Enjoy these pics!