I've Moved

If you'd like to come visit my new home, either click on this link www.leesaslife.wordpress.com or if you are too tired to click, just wait 5 seconds or so and the page will redirect you automatically. See ya there!!!

Stressed Out

Stress. This seems to be the topic of many a blog post here recently. I am also hearing it from several people that I've run into in stores, at the bank, etc. What is causing so many people to be in maximum overdrive here lately? And, how do you react to it when you hit that point?

When I'm stressed out, I like to just get away from it all. If it is business that is stressing me out (and believe me, being self-employed is a major stress factor in and of itself!), I close my office door, turn off the phone and don't think about it. Family member causing me grief? I go into another room and chill. I know this doesn't "fix" the cause of stress, but it gets me away from it long enough to at least keep from losing my mind or going ballistic on a customer, which I have done before. I'm not proud of it, but at the time it sure felt good. lol

Some other forms of stress relief that I use are:

1) a nice, long, hot bubble bath. There is just something about warm water, bubbles and candlelight that calms me down quick.

2) dancing. If I'm super stressed, I need to get some of that energy out so I find the fastest paced song on the radio and dance it away. Yeah, I look silly and I've had several family members actually walk out of the room, but you know what? I felt better by the time I was finished.

3) alcohol. Ok, you knew that one was going to be on my list. I try not to resort to a drink too often, but there are just some days that require a good stiff drink. I prefer mojitos, but have been known to slam back a few shots of whatever is available at the moment too. I don't get rip roaring drunk, but there is enough alcohol in my bloodstream to calm me waaayyyy dooowwwwnnnn.

4) sex. Yep, that is a wonderful stress reliever. No explanations needed!

5) and finally, blogging. Sometimes I just need to get my feelings out in the open but there isn't anybody around to actually talk to so I blog. There is something really calming about putting those feelings down on paper (or on the computer screen). It is almost as though a weight has been lifted and you can actually feel the stress drifting away. I don't always post what I've written. I might be in jail now if I actually posted some of the things I've thought about doing to a few certain people when they've stressed me out:) Just writing them down helps to relax me.

Ok, those are my top five ways to relieve stress. What do you do when things get to be too much for you to handle?

Shaken...Not Stirred

When you have a herniated disc, it probably isn't the best idea to ride in a truck without good suspension for 4 hours. I went with hubby last night to take his truck to be serviced. I've never ridden in one of his work trucks before so had no idea what I was in for. Let me tell you, I will not be riding in another one any time soon. Every little bump sent me flying off my seat, a good 4 inches into the air! Who knew that I needed to wear a sports bra to ride in one of his trucks either! Ouch!

The trip back home wasn't as bad. I guess either that side of the highway wasn't as bumpy or I was just getting better at absorbing the shock myself. Regardless, I was very glad to get home. This morning I'm so sore I feel like someone took a ball bat to me. Not fun. I'm hoping a good long time in the pool this afternoon, floating and just relaxing, will help a lot. If not then look out tonight because many, many mojitos will be on my menu.

Where Did All the Time Go?

Wow, tomorrow is the beginning of August already. Where in the world did this summer go? I have a feeling what remains is really going to fly by. I checked my calendar yesterday and there is one week of August already that is completely filled in. It's not even fun stuff that it is full of, darn it. It's doctor's appointments, school registration, work stuff, etc.

I think I will take a week that has nothing scheduled and make a fun one out of it. How does "Mon-meet girls for margaritas, Tues-spa for massage, Wed-lunch with best friend, Thurs-coffee with mom and Fri-date night with hubby" sound? Yeah. I thought so. Sounds good to me too.

Finding out today

Today is my doctor's visit to finally find out what is going on with my back. I leave in one hour and will fill everybody in when I return on what Dr. Wilson tells me. I hope it is decent news and not something along the lines of "well, we did all these tests and we really need to do this test now because the first tests didn't tell us what we need to know". I've been that route already. I want answers this time!


Update: Well, I am in shock. So much so that I almost forgot to post this update. I went to see the dr. as I said earlier and didn't get good news. It's nothing life threatening or anything, just frustrating. I do indeed have a herniated disc at either L-4 or L-5, I can't remember which he said. Normally, for this they would go in and do a discectomy, but since I'm lucky to have two rods in my back this won't be happening for me. Actually, NOTHING will be happening for me. Why? Because the herniated disc is underneath the lower rod in my back and there is a ton of bone that has fused that rod to my spine that they'd have to drill through and remove along with a lot of scar tissue. Dr. Wilson said that he wouldn't even want to try to go in and fix the disc because more then likely as soon as he took bone or scar tissue away from my spinal column there would be fluid leakage...a lot of fluid. Not good. He also said that he'd have to reposition the rod and that could cause nerve damage or possibly paralysis. He also told me that the lower rod is no longer attached to my spine, but that has nothing to do with the pain i'm having and really won't cause me any problems because it is encased in the bone so at least that was one kind of good thing to come out of this visit. He did say that 90% of people with herniated discs have them heal on their own within a year. I hope I'm one of those 90%. I do feel better then I did over Memorial Day and the numbness isn't as bad as it was back in April so that's good. Maybe that is a good sign? I hope so. Since the disc is already herniated, he didn't recommend physical therapy. He did say that they could try to go in and give me a steroid shot, if I wanted, but after he told me HOW they would do that I refused to have it done. Nope, I'll live with it. Unless it gets much, much, much worse, I will just live with it.

Attack of the Frogs

When I was a little girl, I was a true tom boy. I played in the dirt, jumped ramps on my bike, played hoops and just did things that it wasn't common to see a little girl do. I also liked to explore the woods by our house and would almost always come home with a toad or two that I'd found in the creek.

Fast forward to my teen years and adulthood: I really outgrew the tom boy stage. Probably about the time I discovered that boys weren't as icky as I'd thought they were. I started wearing makeup, fixing my hair, stopped playing in the dirt, jumping my bike or shooting hoops and I definitely quit collecting toads, bugs, etc. Actually, I started acting the part of the girl who was afraid of them! Not my true self at all...or so I thought.

A couple of nights ago, my husband and I were in the pool, just enjoying a nice relaxing evening, when all of a sudden I see a tree frog peek out from underneath the pool ledge. I immediately got OUT of the pool. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind frogs. I just don't want to be as close to them as I used to be. The tree frog decided to serenade us with a song, but the weird thing was that when he started singing another frog peeked out from the ledge, then another frog, then another frog. I'd never seen anything like it.

Next day, my daughter and I decide to hop in the pool again. I knew the frogs might still be there, but the heat won out and I got in anyway. My daughter is just like I was when I was younger. She'll pick up a frog, praying mantis, bugs of any sort, no problem. She decided to check under the ledge and see if the frogs were just up under there hiding, staying out of the sunshine. Sure enough she found one and decided to catch it with the net we use to clean the leaves out of the pool. I told her not to, but she didn't listen, saying the frog would just jump into the net and she'd toss him out into the tree row. Let me just say that my daughter was not my favorite person that day. She cornered that frog and he jumped, but not into the net. No, he jumped into the pool! I immediately grabbed the legs of my swim shorts because you know the first thought I had was that the stupid frog would swim up into them and go exploring! Thankfully he didn't, but I must have made a pretty funny sight because my daughter busted out laughing. She was laughing so hard that she couldn't concentrate on finding the darn frog, which only made me more paranoid. After what seemed like hours, she finally calmed down and did find the frog, caught him and tossed him into the tree row. She said she'd look for others, but I forbid her from doing that. Needless to say, I had a hard time relaxing in the pool that day.

Yesterday, we decided to swim again, but this time my daughter got in first and took all the froggies out so I didn't have to deal with them. Like I said, I don't mind them, but I do NOT want to swim with them at all.

Doing My Part to be a Little Greener

I've been trying lately to do my part and be a bit greener for the environment. I'm sure a lot of you are doing the same. I've not done anything big, like get an electric car or something, but have been doing small things like switching my light bulbs to CFL's (compact flourescent), reusing paper that has only been printed on one side as scrap paper, just stuff like that.

Well, we also drink a lot of bottled water, which I KNOW is a big waste of materials, so I've been looking into buying some reusable drink containers to use instead. I have heard a lot about Klean Kanteens lately. They are stainless steel water bottles.

Stainless steel has fewer known health risks then aluminum containers and these are 100% recyclable and machine washable! They come in several different sizes and are really durable, which is fantastic for me because I'm constantly dropping things. lol

I've checked their website and think this will be my next step in going a little bit greener. How are you trying to go green? Leave some comments and let me know.

Wanna See What I Saw?

Ok, after much time spent on the computer, I think I've finally gotten the majority of our Chicago pictures downloaded, edited and ready to see. It took forever to do because I had three different cameras to get them from. I had pictures that I took with my digital camera, which isn't the best and has no zoom capabilities, my daughter's digital camera, which is awesome and does have zoom, and my cell phone, which has zoom, but very poor picture quality. So, some of these pictures are awesome and others are pretty poor. Forgive me for the bad ones. I wasn't going to download them, but it was actually easier to just select all my photos then it would have been to go in and pick and choose. Anyway, to see my pics just click on my Flickr badge in the side bar. Enjoy!

We're Back

Our Chicago weekend is over and, truthfully, I'm glad. It was nice to get away from home/work, but it was also very nice to return to our normal routine. Vacations, to me, are supposed to be relaxing, but this one was anything but. We were on the go the entire time. Hubby woke up early Sat. and Sun., woke me up, woke the kids up and then we were off. The only time I got to actually relax was on Friday evening when we first got there. My back was bugging me so he took the kids out while I stayed in the hotel by myself for a whole hour. Woo Hoo.

We did see a lot of stuff, but hubby was in such a big hurry to see EVERYTHING that we didn't actually look at anything for very long. Like I said, Friday evening he took the kids out to Navy Pier. They stayed one hour. Not nearly long enough to enjoy themselves or see everything they wanted to see. Saturday morning we went to Shedd's Aquarium, again stayed for about an hour and a half, only making it about a quarter of the way through the entire building. It was easily something that if we'd wanted to do so, we could have made an entire day out of it, but hubby got tired of looking at "fish tanks" and wanted to leave. After there, we went to Sears Tower, went up to the observation deck and looked around. Didn't stay there long either. Stopped to eat lunch at Giordano's Pizza. Let me just say YUM! It was the most delicious pizza I've had in ages. After eating, all I really wanted to do was go back to the hotel, but we'd told the kids that we'd take them to the beach so off we went. We got there and the kids took off, hubby and I spread out our towels on the sand and sat down. I could have easily spent the remainder of the afternoon there, but after a couple of hours hubs was all set to go again. Back to the hotel, cleaned up and went back to Navy Pier to take one of the boat tours they offer. We hopped onto the Seadog, which was a speedboat tour. Fun stuff, but not nearly long enough. I thought that might have been something that would kill the rest of the day, but nope, half an hour and it was over. Back to the hotel and I was finally able to sit down and relax. My back and legs told me about all the running we did too. All night long, I had leg cramps and a throbbing back. Not fun.

We got up about 9:00, Sunday morning and got ready to go. Hubby was just itching to get back home. I guess I was ready too. At least I knew once we got here, he could go about doing his own thing and I could actually relax in the pool.

Well, the pool idea didn't come to pass. When we got home, we unpacked and then I went to check the pool to see what temperature it was. Walked out and the pool was filthy. From all the rain we got Thursday and Friday mroning, the bottom was just covered with dirt. The water was clear though so I guess that was good. I swept it out, but after doing so and checking the chlorine levels found out it was reading zero on chlorine. I added all the chemicals needed and came in, figuring it would be good to go swimming today. No such luck. It is raining this morning and the pool is now green, a sign of not enough chlorine still, so putting more in and will maybe get in later if the rain stops and the chemical levels are ok.

I feel like I need a vacation now to recuperate from our weekend vacation!

Happy 4th of July

As I type this, I'm actually on my way to Chicago. I just wanted to go ahead and wish everyone a wonderful 4th of July. Enjoy the day with friends and family, enjoy the fireworks this evening too.

Getting Ready

Today has been spent getting things ready for our trip to Chicago tomorrow. I did a small clutter busting mission throughout the house this morning since my mom will be coming back Saturday to feed and visit with our kitty. I have started a list of things I want to pack. Haven't actually started packing yet, but as long as I have my list it shouldn't take long. Did a small load of laundry this morning to wash up some outfits that my daughter wanted to wear this weekend. Checked the batteries in my digital camera (they were dead so bought new). I even made a few small snacks (popcorn, pretzels, crackers, etc) to take in the car for the road trip so we didn't have to keep stopping for munchies or drinks. It's only a 5-6 hour drive, but I'm sure someone along the way will say they are hungry or thirsty.

Later this evening, I will also be attempting to color my hair. At the moment, I have several gray strands peeking through and I really don't want them "peeking" out in any pictures that might be taken of myself this weekend. I don't like having my picture taken anyway, let alone with a skunk stripe of gray running down the middle of my head so will get that done tonight.

I am really hoping that my back doesn't decide to flare up on me and bother me this weekend. I'm worried that the long drive up to Chicago will set it off or that the different bed Friday night will make it to where I can barely stand up straight Saturday morning. I already know that I'm not going to be able to do a lot of walking before it starts hurting. I tried doing some yesterday and it didn't take long at all before pain started shooting down my leg. I even tried walking laps in the pool, but only made it three times around before it hurt there too. So that is going to limit some of my sight-seeing fun. My daughter did let me know that Navy Pier rents out wheelchairs, but I really don't want to do that. I'm not disabled, I just have a pinched nerve and I would hate to take a chair that someone else might need worse then I do.

Anywho, I should probably get off here and finish up some more stuff. I'll be sure to fill you all in when we return on how our trip went. As for now, I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

Finally Figured It Out

After much, much, much debate on where we should go this upcoming 4th of July weekend for a nice, albeit short, vacation, we have finally decided on the Windy City...yep, Chicago here we come.

I was beginning to think that my family was never going to agree on a location. We had places ranging from Tampa to San Diego to Galveston...all of these are plane rides away and would require a bit more planning on my end to accomplish. We also had Lake of the Ozarks, Kentucky Lake, Chicago, and Nashville on the list too, all within driving distance and much more doable, in my opinion, for a 3 day weekend.

All of these places would be nice to visit. I'd love to actually make it to every single one of them eventually. BUT...when you only have 3 days and really don't want to spend a lot of time either driving or a lot of money to fly, well, a 3-4 hour trip is just so much better.

I think we will be able to accomodate every person's vacation desires by going to Chicago. My daughter wants a beach/ocean view...well, there's Lake Michigan for her. My son wants fun stuff, like amusement park rides. Well, hello, Navy Pier!! They have a huge ferris wheel just beckoning him to test it out. My hubby's desire was good food. Hmm, Chicago and food? Yeah, I think he'll be pleasantly surprised with what he can find to tempt his taste buds in good ol' Chicago. Myself, well, I didn't really have any one thing that I wanted in a trip. Mine was more a combination of a water view (again, the lake), fun stuff to do (all types of attractions) and being able to spend a nice weekend with my family and not having to worry about work. I definitely think that one is doable.

Just Some Summer Fun Stuff

Been busy here so just thought I'd post a few blogthing quizzes for you to try. Have fun!!!

You Should Spend Your Summer at the Beach

You're a free spirit who is always thinking of new ways to have fun. And you don't just love summer... you live for it. So, you really should blow off your responsibilities and head to the beach!

Where Should You Spend Your Summer?

You Are Strawberry Ice Cream

A bit shy and sensitive, you are sweet to the core. You often find yourself on the outside looking in. Insightful and pensive, you really understand how the world works. You are most compatible with chocolate chip ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

You are Platform Sandals

Funky and urban You've got a cutting edge style that everyone envies A little bit downtown, a little bit euro, and whole lot of sexy!

What Kind of Sandal Are You?

What Your Flip Flops Say About You

You are a very sweet and sensitive person. You connect with other people easily. You're the type of person who feels bad about killing bugs. You hate to see anyone - or anything - in pain. Your ideal warm weather place: Thailand

The Flip Flop Test

You Are a Classic Bikini!

You are the type of gal who looks good in almost any bikini. Going for the understated look, you don't need a flashy bikini to turn heads.

What Kind of Bikini Are You?

Thank God It's Over

I never want to go through another ct scan again! The ct scan itself wasn't that bad, but the preparation, the nervousness and the crap i dealt with afterwards was for the birds. When I woke up yesterday morning, my stomach was already doing flip flops. By the time I got to the hospital, my hands were shaking so much that I couldn't sign my name legibly and I thought I was going to pass out. I made it through registration though and they took me back to radiology to wait. I kept telling my mom that I hoped it took forever to call me back, but unfortunately they called me so fast I didn't even have time to get comfortable. Dang, don't they know people are supposed to WAIT in a hospital? Geez!

They took me into this big room with several different curtained areas, each containing a hospital bed. The told me to go into one where I had to get into a gown and then they started on the blood work. That was NOT fun. Even though I'd drank enough water to replenish an entire lake the day before, it seemed, apparantly I was still dehydrated and every time they'd find a vein to put my IV in, it would collapse. Lucky me now has exactly 11 little holes with 11 not so little bruises in her arms!

When they finally got the IV in, the nurse took my blood pressure. I was so nervous and worked up at the point, my bp read something like 166/85! The nurse kept asking me if I had high blood pressure and I kept telling her that normally I don't. It didn't sink in to her what I was saying though. When the doctor that was going to do the myleogram came in though, he realized that I was pretty nervous and he offered to give me some good drugs to calm me down. NOW, we're talking :)

Once they gave me the feel good drugs, I didn't have a care in the world. I didn't feel them insert the needle into my back for the dye, I didn't feel them flip me over onto a different table to wheel me into the ct lab, I didn't even care when they went to take me to x-ray and my IV tube got caught between the gurney and was just about ripped out when they transferred me from it to another one. Nope, didn't care at all.

After all that fun stuff was finished, I got to lay flat on my back for 2 hours. They were nice enough to feed me lunch, but that was a real pain to do laying flat on my back. Mom helped though so I managed to get some food into my rumbling stomach. All this time, the nurses kept checking on me to see how I was feeling. I told them the only problem I had was a bit of nausea. Not a problem, they said, it would wear off. Okie dokie.

I laid there for 2 hours pretty much staring at the ceiling. They had tvs in the room, but I couldn't see the darn things in the position I was laying. I tried to sleep, but every time I closed my eyes the bed would start spinning so I kept them open. When the two hours were almost up, the doctor who did the myleogram came in and said that to him it looked like i do indeed have a disk problem, but he wouldn't go into detail because that "isn't his area of expertise". But, at least now I know that I don't have some big tumor or a alien being growing in my tailbone.

After the 2 hours were up, mom and I started the drive home. I thank God for my mom every day, but yesterday I thanked him doubly. If it weren't for her, I don't think I'd have made it home. The nausea got the best of me about halfway and I ended up getting sick. Not fun, but mom had came prepared. She knew from past and personal experience that vomit was a huge possibility after any type of stay in the hospital and had stocked her car with a big bucket, wet wipes, breath mints and bottled water. She was never a girl scout when she was younger, but she rocked the "Be Prepared" motto that day.

I finally made it home and was so thankful to get into my own bed. Drs. orders were to stay in bed the remainder of the day and believe me, I was very happy to comply. I think I slept longer yesterday then I have since I was a baby. I didn't even hear my husband come to bed that night. I was dead to the world.

When I woke up this morning, however, I was sore. Not just sore at the injection sight, but sore all over, like I'd been hit by a truck. My arms hurt, my back hurt, my sides and my legs hurt. I just felt like crapola! When the nurse called from the hospital this morning to check in on me, she could tell by the tone of my voice that I wasn't feeling right. I told her what was going on and she said that was probably just from laying around all day yesterday, but to keep an eye on it and if I got worse to call back. Thankfully, I'm feeling much better now. I am still sore and I am still moving slow, but I'm almost back to normal....well, as normal as I can get anyway.

Now the waiting begins. I hope that someone cancels at the neurologist so that I can get in sooner then July 24, BUT I'm also dreading that appointment because I know that the possibility of surgery could come up. But, I will just go with it when it happens. i can't change the results so why worry about them now, right?

Scared Sh**less!

Ok, today is the day....ct scan with myleogram. My hands are shaking so bad that I can barely type this. I don't know why I'm so scared. People take this test every day with no problem. Why do I think that I'll be that 1% that has complications? I don't know. Fear of the unknown? Yeah, that's probably it. I have to leave in about fifteen minutes, will be there for approximately four hours, then should be home around noon or so. I'll fill everyone in on how it goes. Wish me luck. And while you're at it....anybody out there want to take my place? Please?!??!

More flooding

My previous post was about the flooding we are dealing with here in my little town, but today's post is about flooding in Cedar Rapids. My best friend in the whole wide world lives in Coggon, IA, just a few miles northeast of Cedar Rapids. Thankfully, her home and her family are all ok. The Wapsi River crested today and never did flood into their property. The Cedar River, however, has overrun the town of Cedar Rapids. Her husband works in Cedar Rapids and according to her email to me this evening, there is only one route left to even get INTO Cedar Rapids at the moment that isn't covered by water. The major highways are all closed and at least 83 of the 99 counties are considered disaster areas. She also told me that a lot of stores like Walmart are out of bread, water, milk, etc. How scary is that? Here are just a few pictures, compliments of Yahoo Images:

this is an OVERPASS! There is actually a road that goes underneath that bridge.
a train track that goes over the Cedar River that the flood waters have almost covered
View of downtown Cedar Rapids. That is I380 running through the middle of the picture. They closed that road at 6pm tonight and say it might be closed for a week.
A view of the one of the downtown streets. It almost looks like Venice with all the water!

Flooding

Here are a few pictures of the major flooding that is taking place around the area from the record 9-10" of rain we received Friday night/Saturday morning.











The scary thing is that there are no rivers by the houses that are flooded in these pictures. This is all from ditches, heavy rain and SMALL streams in the area! I don't have any pictures of the actual rivers that have flooded and overflowed their banks.

I'm Glad I Don't Live Back in the 30's

50 As a 1930s wife, I am Average Take the test!

Want to see how you would have done being a wife back in the 1930's? Check out the quiz.

I agree that marriage is a holy union and that husbands and wives should put each other first, but some of the questions in this quiz were just downright stupid. I respect my husband and try to make our marriage a happy one for him and for myself, but has to work both ways.

One of those days

Ever had one of those days where all you want to do is pull your hair out? Today's been one of those for me. I won't go into details, but I will say this...I despise days like this!!!!

Give me a mojito and a warm bubble bath, leave me alone for a few hours and I should be fine.

Neurologist Visit

I went to see the neurologist today. After many months of waiting, it was finally the "big day". I picked up my mom (she went along for moral support) and we were on our way. I got there about 20 minutes early and after checking in, the nurse led me right back to the exam room. No waiting at all, which was a very nice surprise. I was only in the exam room for maybe 10 minutes when the doctor came in. First thing he did was introduce himself then sat down and asked me tons of questions about the pain, how long it has been going on, what type (burning, stinging, stabbing), location of pain, etc.

He then went to the physical exam. He did the reflex thing where they hit your knee and I tested fine there. I also did fine on the other reflex tests that he did. I did not do well on the strength tests he had me do. I couldn't move my leg forward when he was pushing against it and I couldn't straighten my leg out in front of me when I tried before it started hurting. I also couldn't walk without a limp or without leaning forward, which he noticed as soon as I got up from the chair to walk to the exam table.

Results from this appointment were inconclusive. Dr. Wilson said he couldn't read the mri from all the hardware that is in my back. He said that the metal showed up wonderfully, but the spine/discs/etc. were so blurry that it looked like the pictures were taken underwater. So, he scheduled me for a ct scan with myleography. I was hoping I wouldn't have to have that done, but I go in June 17th for that. This is where they inject me with iodine and take pics that way. I will have that done then go back to see the neurologist at the end of July. That's the soonest they could get me back in. Argh! This means another 2 f***ing months before I know anything! I was a bit peeved afterwards, but what can I do? I knew I wouldn't get any definitive answers today anyway, but it is still annoying.