Busy Day!

We had a busy day today.

Ashleigh qualified for the state S.M.A.R.T. Karate championship. A day long tournament and banquet for the top four in each division of karate. Ashleigh only qualified in fighting, she didn't actually compete much last year.

Unfortunately she did not win, she would have had second, but they only acknowledge first, because this is the championship.

I had to leave the family at the tournament. I had to go and eat, I had to be at work at 1. At least I had the foresight to reschedule my private classes for a little earlier in the day. I had lunch at McDonald's and then went straight to work. Classes were fine, as usual, and I got done at 3, instead of starting at 3 as I normally would.

I drove back to Waterville, and then took a short nap in my car. I went back into the Alfond to find the banquet just letting out and my family shooting hoops in the gym. We all stuck around and played a little basketball. The girls loved jumping into the gymnastics foam pit. Scott got stcuk in the foam. We were among the last to leave the center.

After a quick stop off at the Mister Paperback, we headed home.

Valentines for Veterans

Valentines for Veterans was a success. Several troops met together to make valentines cards for local veterans. We invited a couple of local vets to come and talk with the girls as they created their cards. We had several styles for the girls to choose from and some chose to do their own thing. FUN. My troop met early and provided the flag ceremony. I spent most of the afternoon looking for and making red sashes and white gloves.

FYI, the American Legion in Augusta does not possess a Maine flag. So our ceremony only had an American flag. It was still well done and made me proud. My girls all had fun, except Amanda who fell ill early on and went home with her Mom after the flag ceremony, poor girl had had a busy day.

All those helping out wore their tie-dyes shirts and everyone liked them, next time I think I need to mix more soda ash into the pre-soak, as the shirts lost a lot of their color when they were washed. OH Well! Live and learn!

New Steps!

Out of the blue, the company I bought the steps from called this morning. I was resting after getting the kids on the bus, around 7:30 am. I received a call - the men would be here to install our new concrete steps at about 9:30 am. AAAAAAAAAAAA...

I had breakfast plans and decided to go ahead with them, I would be back by 9:30. I had breakfast with Linda at Full Court and then headed back home.

I was back before 9:30 and I came home to find that I already had no front steps and huge truck on the front lawn. I was stuck outside and so I watched from the car as they finished the installation.

The whole thing was done by 11 am and I love having real steps in front of the house. It is a little weird though, we had almost the same steps twenty years ago! Now we need a milk box and to paint the house orange! (yes, in 1973, the house was orange!)

Rejection :(

Dialysis today was difficult. I took my medications a little late. I also gained too much weight since my last dialysis. I really do have a drinking problem. I was not sleeping on the machine and did not sleep well last night. I was getting a bit ansy and so I took my medication with about an hour left. It worked. My blood pressure was fine before I came off, after my needles were pulled, it dropped. I had a pressure of 68/34 and was feeling it. I fell asleep as well. A was moved and just vegitated in the chair for over an hour. Finally, I left the center and drove home. I crashed until my husband (who gets home around 5) says "Are you working tonight?" OOOOPS I got to work by 5:50, plenty of time. I had a class scheduled for 6 PM. No one showed. I am starting to take it personally.
My 7:30 class did attract one owner and her little brindle pitbull. Very nice dog, nice girl, both have great potential. They listened and it was a great class. I look forward to more classes with this particular team, I think they will be fun to train. I came home a little late after keeping Jess company while she fixed a leak in the fish department. She opened a filter and found a Sea Anenome living on the filter. Poor little thing was in terrible condition, all beat up, but alive. She put it back in the water and fed him a gold fish.

I came home and worked on my missing English assignments. I am still up, not good.

Rainy days and Mondays...

The church sermon on Sunday was about how meaning can shape memories. How we, as a society, have decided that Fridays are great and Mondays suck. According to Rev. Don, scientific research shows that people are no happier on Fridays than on Mondays. It is simply our perception that creates the illusion of Mondays being bad.

Having said all that, Mondays suck.

Actually today was a good day. I went over to Laura's today and we tie-dyed T-shirts for the Valentines event. It was very fun. We used the spiral pattern on all the shirts and mostly pink and red dye. It was a lot of trial and error as far as how to do each step of the process. Laura is going to finish up with the shirts.

I headed home to meet Taylor off the bus. I was exhuasted and my legs are extremely sore!

Last night our furnace decided to stop working. I had a guy from DeadRiver come to fix the furnace and he kept asking me to check the hot water. I must have run up and down the basement steps 8 or more times. I can barely walk today. Nice guy though, we will be changing oil companies. Winthrop Oil did not care that we had no heat, they wanted cash last night, or no help. DeadRiver (not yet their customer) came right over and fixed the problem (AIR) which should have been bled out of the system when Winthrop Oil supposedly serviced the furnace a few short months ago and DeadRiver agreed to bill us later.

Anyway... Taylor and I were planning to go to Ashleigh's game, but when we went to leave, the car would not start. I apparently left the key turned forward. (did I mention that Mondays suck?) Oh Well. Scott came home and picked up Ashleigh. We had Chop Suey for supper. Scott jump started my car and I am staying off my legs the rest of the night.

Baptism

I actually went to church this morning. It is the celebration of the baptism of Christ. All those baptized were invited to come down and remember our own baptism. It was nice, and made me feel very guilty that my children have not been baptized. I figure this spring I will talk to them about the prospect of having a baptism.

There is about 4 new inches of snow on the ground. The girls and I went to Mia Lina's for lunch after church. Work was cancelled, so I just stayed home and stayed warm.

We had pork tenders and stuffing for supper, it was quite yummy.

OOOPS I missed a few days!

I have had the schedule from heck! Thursday was a doozie. I went to dialysis, olive garden for lunch with Linda, then Girl Scouts. The girls discussed their plans for Disney, finished up on their safety award and takled about MOS Sleepover. They have decided to go and I need to register the troop.

After Girl Scouts I headed to Augusta and snoozed in the car until 7 pm. I woke with a start at about 6:55 and ran into work. My ShiTzus were re-enlisted and had the first of their classes. It went great and I was happy to have sold 2 classes. I know it doesn't seem that bad, for the average person, but it was a lot for me.

Exhausted, I cam home around 9:30 and collapsed into bed immediately, waking Friday. Friday was not too bad.

I wasted most of the day, not sure with what...

I had Daisy's at 5:30. I read them a story and we discussed goals for the cookie sale. After Daisy's I went to Melissa's and played Scene It XBox. It was a lot of fun. I had to run out and get Ashleigh at the Jr High, she was watching Rambler Revue. I went back Melissa's afterwards and stayed until midnight. Scene It is addictive.


Saturday was another day fom heck.
I had dialysis at 6:45. I was late and did not get on until 6:25 so I had to sign off at 11. I grabbed a lunch at subway with the girls and we headed over to the high school for the cookie rally. I went to training while poor Katie was stuck tending to the seven girls from our troop. The troop went from station to station learning about cookie sales. My training was just the same old information as always. At least I wasn't watching children. The rally ended at 3 PM. Taylor helped Michelle and Melissa clean the cafeteria along with the Cadettes. The place looked as good as new when we left.

We got home from rally and I rested for an hour or so. Scott had our supper ready and then the girls and I went to the Rambler Revue. It was very nice, lots of talent in this small town! We got home late and I am beat


Saturday

Liquid and Diet Journal

OK, it is late, I should be sleeping. I am going to try not to babble on for paragraphs tonight. Today I got up early and headed to Mr. market to beat the snow storm. I took Taylor with me and we bought groceries for the rest of the day, chicken ranch wraps and tacos for supper.

I had a tea and a butternut donut around 9 AM. Then watched some TV and took a nap.
Around 12, Taylor made chicken ranch wraps for everyone. I love these. Simply cold grilled chicken breast, lettuce, shredded cheese and ranch dressing in a tortilla. YUMMY YUMMY I had two, and an orange soda.

At supper we ate tacos and I drank another tea. woo hoo I did OK for fluids today. About 50oz.!

SNOW DAY!!! The day was a looong one and I decided the kids may not survive another snow day. They were at each others throats most of the day. I allowed them to watch TV and use the computer most of the morning and then threw them outside at about 2 this afternoon. They played outside for an hour or so. Taylor made hot chocolate when they came back in.

Scott got home at 5, surprised he didn't come home early, or have the state close early, but he came home at the usual time. He then spent a while in the driveway shoveling and chipping the ice off the driveway. He made it so he could at least turn my car around. He later took it successfully out of the yard to get his money. (payday today) I hope it still can climb out of the yard in the morning.

We ate supper around 7. It was delicious as usual. I ate too many tacos, but only drank one tea. I am focusing on not drinking as much. It is not easy and I really don't understand how others can not think about having a drink. Maybe I need AA.

I cancelled my class for tonight because of the icing that is supposed to continue well into the night. I feel bad, this is a client I am taking over from another trainer, they have been cancelled on a lot. Oh well, I can't control the weather.

Tonight I did the paperwork for the Girl Scouts. I wrote a newsletter (first one this school year, oops) including the dates or approximate dates of stuff coming up. I hadn't realized how much there was. I also recapped the year, it feels like we haven't done anything, but on paper it looked OK. I was even impressed. I also printed the permission slips for two upcoming events. I feel like I have my head wrapped around tomorrow's meeting. Good thing because I will probably be a zombie. I have dialysis, 6:45 - 11:30 (if things go perfectly, and they never do) then lunch with Linda (if she ends up coming into Augusta) then Girl Scouts at 2:30. Scouts ends around 5 and I have to work at 7. Doesn't sound too bad for the average person, but this schedule leaves me with no time to crash. I usually crash a few hours after dialysis. Hoping all goes well. Maybe I will nap in my car some where along the way.

OK, now very late, will have to sleep on the machine if I am able.
Boring Blog continues...

Dialysis Day entry

Today started with dragging myself out of bed, at 6:30. I did not sleep again last night, I finally fell asleep around 4AM. It hurt to get up. I then had to print Ashleigh's book report because I didn't do it last night, (I was creating this blog instead, oops) I left the house at 7, 15 minutes after I am technically supposed to be there. I hate leaving at 7, it takes twice as long to get there than when I leave at 6:30. It is amazing how much traffic changes in that half hour. After driving a bit too fast to get to there to minimize my lateness, I find the waiting room full. They were running quite behind and never noticed I was a half hour late.

Janis put me on the machines today. I always get nervous when certain techs put me on, because I have more issues with my fistula depending on who does it. Years ago Janis was one who never quite got it, but so far so good this time around. I weighed in at 4.2, a gain of 4.8 kilos. Blood Pressure was 210/109, a little high! I tried to take off 6kilos, to get to my dry weight I would have had to take off 6.6. That is 6.2 over dry weight plus .4 for the fluids they add during the process. My needles went in fine and I watched "Journey to the Center of the Earth" on my laptop. I saw it in the theaters with the kids and we all enjoyed it. My back hurt terribly from the joint in the chair. 3 hours to go. I watched my movie and continued IMing with Linda. Hey, I warned you this was a boring blog.

After the movie, I sat and stared at the ceiling for a while, 2 hours to go; then tried to sleep,1.9 hours to go; then stared at the ceiling some more, 1.5 hours to go. My laptop died early, too much battery use with the movie, so I decided to call Linda with my cell. As soon as I got on the phone... everyone needed me. They are worse than children! I got off the phone and ended up talking with the dietitian and then the social worker. She and I filled out a few worksheets together. It almost lasted until I could get off the machine. EVENTUALLY after 32 hours (that only took 4 hours to those NOT on the machine) it was my time to have my needles pulled. I held my sights and cramped and cramped, right where my new kidney is. OUCH right side cramping. I was given a little fluid before my needles were pulled, it must have helped cause they did stop. I was too dizzy to stand up, so I dozed in my chair for about a half an hour, they even moved me across the room so they use my machine.

As I started to feel better, I convinced Linda to meet me at Subway on the way home. She agreed and I got up and got a standing blood pressure. 114/55 good enough to go!

I got to Subway at 1 o'clock. I had my 12" turkey, provolone, lettuce, cucumbers, a few pickles and some lite Italian dressing. YUMMY! Probably killing me in salt. But YUMMY! I also drank about 20 oz. of sprite with lemonade.

I came home and crashed around 2:30. The phone tried to keep me awake, but I prevailed.
I woke to Taylor telling me to get up and go to work. I had to be to work at 6 and it was 5, so I got up. I arrived at work at 5:50. I had a class scheduled at 6, at 6:10 I knew no one was going to show up for it. I worked on signage and paperwork. Very fun stuff. My 7 o'clock class came and went as well, no one showed. I also made a lot of phone calls in an attempt to fill classes for next week. Oh well. I know I am getting two classes sold this week, my advanced class re-enlists this week. Yippeee! The powers that be still count that as sales success.

I left work around 7:30 and came straight home. Very exciting day. Ashleigh had basketball practice, the family came home a little after 8. Taylor excitedly told me she made 5 baskets in a row while playing on the sidelines with Daddy. I wish she would play bball, she could be very good. This brings me to writing the blog tonight. I think I will be writing my other blog next. More pressure there to be witty and intelligent. Hard for me :(

weight and liquid entry

I didn't take my weight today, as I did not have dialysis and felt no need to torture myself for no reason. I think I drank about about 90oz of fluid today. I ate mostly dry foods, so I don't believe that adds anything. I did have too much salt, first in Chinese food, then in the fried munchy mania at Friendly's. Must do better!

Weight on Saturday, leaving dialysis, was (just last digits here) 9.5. Wonder what it will be tomorrow. I expect I have a lot on in fluid. I removed 6 kilos on Saturday, but still not down to my dry weight of 8.

Creating a blog...

Now that I have spent hours fixing the little details of my bolg's layout and clicking through gazillions of pictures to create a slide show, I feel the need to at least post something. I decided to create a boring blog where I can just blog about my day. No pressure here to be witty, or offer amazing advice about dog training, or even make sense. This will be my rant and rave and brag and babble blog. I plan to use the space to report the mundane happenings of my everyday ordinary life. It is now technically Tuesday, but I am considering this Monday's entry.

Today I overslept and missed breakfast with my friends. :( I was bummed. I had planned to go out with Debi and Linda to get breakfast in town. After a looooooong holiday vacation of husbands and kids, this was going to be our morning to catch up. I made the mistake of not checking for the phone before going to bed, it was in the living room. I missed all of Linda's calls this morning and slept until startling awake at 11:30! Breakfast was at 8:30. In my defense, I had a bad night's sleep and did not really fall asleep until 4 am, then was woken at 6 (cause my husband thought I had dialysis) then again at 7,(cause my kids are mean) and then nothing, out like a light until 11:30! :(

At 12:30 I started a pot roast for supper. We tried Hannaford's ready to go pot roast veggies. Fresh veggies in a plastic bowl, 5 red potatoes, 3 cut onions and some baby carrots, I added another small bag of carrots. It was soooo simple, I threw in the meat, dumped in the veggies and added the water. NO CUTTING OR PEELING! I love my crock pot! I put it on high and took off. (Hubby was home sick)

I picked up Chinese take out and headed over to Linda's. We chatted and ate, I drank too much tea, but we had a nice visit. I felt a little better about missing breakfast. At around 3:30 I left for Ashleigh basketball game.

Ashleigh's team played really well today. They seem to be coming together. Ashleigh played well, she was on the court quite a bit this game. Unfortunately, they lost in the last 2 seconds of the game, 25-27 to Maranacook. Mark was coaching Maranacook and every time he yelled Ashley (to a girl on his team) my Ashleigh would freeze and look at him for directions; he was her coach for the last 3 years!

After the game we came home and I fixed supper. The pot roast was tender and I actually served the meat (and the veggies) with a spoon! YUMMMY. I did have two teas with supper, I was naughty. It was a great meal, but we could have eaten more potato. I think next time I will buy little red potatoes and suffer peeling a few onions and skip the ready veggies. It was nice, but we need a little more and the bundle was a bit pricey. I do have enough meat and carrots leftover for someone to enjoy for lunch though.

Around 6pm, Ashleigh and I headed off to my Girl Scout team meeting. Productive meeting, very entertaining tonight, good group, even if Ellen still has it in for me. I finally registered the girls for cookie rally and Valentines for Veterans. I need to try to get my head more into the troop. This year has been such a blurr.

After the meeting, Ashleigh, Melissa and I hung out at Friendly's and had a evening snack. Ashleigh had a Reese's sundae and I had a munchy mania. Lots of salt, but I figured it was better than ice cream, at least it wasn't liquid. I had one small glass of water, no refill. I am trying to cut my liquids down to 48 oz. a day. NOT an easy task, considering I used to drink nearly 150 a day easily, sometimes more. I would rather drink than eat.

Ash and I got home around 10:30 and found everyone asleep. I sent her to bed, and she eventually went. I read Linda's blog and felt compelled to start my own daily blog, to go with my animal and dog blogs. This one is for me. This brings me to the couple hours spent setting it up. I guess that means this post is complete. Stay tuned for Tuesday... oooooh bet you can hardly wait.