Sensory Overload

Sometimes I have days where every little thing irritates me. Every night I pretty much have the same routine. Between 7pm and 8pm, I crawl into bed and play a CD that helps me relax and fall asleep. We have the room darker than a cave for most people's standards, but for me some nights ... it just isn't dark enough. The little red light on the TV when it's powered off might as well be a flashlight. I already have black tape covering the time on the clock, but the light that glows behind it ... might as well not even have it covered. I use an electronic toothbrush. I can't charge it at night because the glow is way too bright. Now on most nights I can ignore these little "lights." (this doesn't even talk about the sound that the TV makes when it's not on or the computers from the other room or the cars and dogs that are outside making noise that live down the street). Last night on the other hand. All these little things kept me from going to sleep. Sensory Overload.

I played my CD 3 times before giving up and getting up. Then I was up for an hour before laying back down for the CD to play twice before I just turned on the television set. Then I played it one final time and finally fell asleep sometime between 4 and 4:15. I fell asleep after 4am, but before 4:15am. My alarm goes off at 5am. 45 minutes of sleep I figure with waking once during that time to think "good I finally fell asleep."

Hopefully I can function today.

Closet Update

Photo taken today. It's still clean! :o)

The Closet

So in January (9th and 10th), I cleaned and organized the closet. I took photographs and posted. Once the batteries in my camera recharge, I'll post a picture of the state of the closet now. But first, who thinks it's still clean 37 days later?

Losing Friends

Today my heart sank to my stomach. I woke up to see a friend's status on Facebook. My heart sank a little bit for her. I saw that she lost a friend to lung cancer. I saw the first name of her friend and prayed that it wasn't a friend of mine from many years ago. I went onto work. I didn't think about it again. Then my boss called me into the office as I was leaving. The words stung my heart and pierced my soul.

"Pam (removed last name) passed away last night. " I felt the lump form in my throat. It was all I could do to hold the tears back. The only thing that made this loss different from our last friend that went to Heaven was that her family had preparation. Her family knew this was coming. A loss of a friend/family member when you know is difficult, but along the journey of the rest of their life you mourn.

My heart aches for my friend's family. My heart aches for her beautiful daughters, her husband of 32 years and anyone that ever crossed her path. Forgive me if I'm quiet. I tend to retreat when I mourn.

Move that Rubber Tree Plant

I am

I was talking with a new friend last night. It got me to thinking about all the things I am. I often wonder about people's first impression about me and about my own first impressions about others. Let's face the cold hard truth that when we meet people we try to put our best foot forward. We try to offer all the best parts of ourselves to them and peel back the layers of ourselves a little bit at a time.

There are many things that we can learn just based on LOOKING at a person and then there are things we learn by LISTENING. Then there are things we think we know by ASSUMING.

If I show you these two photographs ... what might you assume?


Assumption: Lover of outdoors
Fact: 15 minutes outside is 15 minutes too long.

Who am I? By my choosing, I am several things. I am Christian. I am a wife and friend. I am a teacher. I am a college graduate. These are things I chose to do. Then there are things that I am that I have no control over. I am proud just the same, but they weren't under my control. They were things I was born into. I am a daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece. There are so many other things that I am.

But there is one more thing that affects my daily life, but it is not who I am ... it is what I have. It took me years to say it comfortably. If you're just beginning your journey, it may take you a while too. However one day, you too will be able to say "I have Lyme Disease." It will roll off your tongue like "My name is Jennifer." As my new friend and I discussed last night, it's almost like an AA meeting. "Hi My name is Jennifer and I have Lyme Disease."

2010 in Review

2010 had some ups and downs. I was supposed to have written this by now. Apparently, I've been slack. I scheduled it to post today figuring I'd have it completed. I only completed 2 months. Oh well. Here ya go.

January of 2010 One year ago I was given the best news: Concerns for Lyme Disease: And I quote, "No further treatment should be needed at this time." Of course I was also told to be conscious of risk for relapse.

We also enjoyed my birthday with some really extra sweet cake ~ the cake Debacle of 2010

The almost birthday snow.

February of 2010

In Feb of 2010, we got snow at least twice. In fact, I risked my life for my children.

And at the Alumni Game, it started to snow while we were there. I almost fell a couple of times and gripped onto him for dear life. But, seriously a great time was had by all. Alumni Game with my best friend at UNC.

Then we found the list of symptoms I had in 2006. It's amazing to think how sick I was almost five years ago.





IN 2009

In 2008

Pain

Just because I don't complain about it doesn't mean it's not there. I learned a long time ago how to cope with Lyme pain (without medication too). However, I've pretty much been down and out since yesterday at waking time. It feels like someone is taking a knife and jabbing into my brain. I thought eventually it would improve, but finally decided to take Tylenol. Figured it would help. I figured wrong. It still feels like someone is jabbing my brain with a knife.

Top it off with a lot of back pain and stomach cramps, I'm pretty bad shape today. I know part of it is that lovely visit from my monthly friend. In fact, MOST of it is the visit from my monthly friend. However working 80 hours over the last 2 weeks hasn't helped. I really haven't worked 80 hours in 2 weeks in YEARS. I typically work at most 6 hours a day. Sometimes with an 8 hour thrown here or there. However over the last 4 weeks, I've worked many 9 hour days each week. My body feels like it's going to die and soon. I was even limping when I stood up after sitting to feed a baby. Of course I get asked, "What's wrong?" I want to scream, "I still have it. It doesn't just go away. I just have learned how to cope with it and most days I'm pretty fine." Instead I say, "I'm fine." I walk out of the room and try to cope with it better before I walk into the next room. Next week I have two 9.25 hour days scheduled. BACK TO BACK. This has happened the last few weeks. Last week I was actually not scheduled for this, but it happened when we had too many teachers call out sick.

So now it leaves me down & out for the weekend. I have to try to pull myself back together for tomorrow. It's a short day tomorrow unless someone calls out.

To David

I have been emailing with you about your wife. I have been trying to respond for the last week or so. However for some reason, my internet browser crashes whenever I reply to your messages. So I thought I would respond here out in the open so that you would know I wasn't ignoring your messages.

I did both the High Dose IV Vitamin C and IV Glutathione. I didn't do "shots." I did full on IV's. Typically took 3 hours when I did straight out IV's, but it took less time when I had my PICC line. I believe those two things were huge in my recovery process. Now while I am not feeling 100 percent, I am working 35 to 40 hours a week and not sleeping my days away. I used to sleep a LOT more. While my friends think I'm insane for going to bed at 7:30 or 8pm, what they may not realize is that I used to nap every afternoon for 3 to 4 hours only to get up for food and then go back to bed by 7pm. Some people don't respond by the Vitamin C and Glutathione, but I did.

Hope this helps David.

XXXV

I've decided that XXXV sounds much younger than 35. Am I right?

Had a blast today. For the past 2o or so days, I've had this running count down with a friend at work. In December, she randomly blurted out that it was so many days until her birthday and that she expected a gift. She said it once and only once. So the day after her birthday (she took her actual birthday off), I showed up to work with an ornament that I made with her name on it. Well I randomly one day told her, "Hey it's 21 days until my birthday, I expect a present." I grinned and went on about my business. Then around day 14, I said it each and every day. I even mentioned it in statuses on Facebook on the weekends. I said it at different times each day and it was so random. Near the ends, it got groans from anyone that was near which made me laugh.

Today, she brought me my gift. A button that said "Happy Birthday." :o) I had to wear it all day long.

Rob made me a birthday cake again. It turned out much better than last year (though I haven't eaten it yet). We went out to eat at my fave T.G.I.Fridays. Ate way too much, got embarrassed with their birthday song and had a great time. The look on the dude's face when I told him I was "XXXV" was priceless. I don't think he'd ever have anyone tell him their age in roman numerals before!

I got tons of birthday wishes and I had a great great XXXVth birthday. :)

Master Bedroom

Only thing it needs is a new coat of paint. Oh what am I saying .. it needs paint in the first place. We've painted all of TWO rooms in our house since 1998. One is the bathroom and the other is the computer room.

Anyways: Here's our "new" bedroom!



You can see our new curtains, new runner on the dresser, our new duvet cover & the pillow cases are part of our new sheet set. We purchased the ceiling fan over the summer when our old one went out. The picture on the wall I received for Christmas many many moons ago. When we first got married, we had a frame for our mattresses and that was it. It bothered me quite a bit. Scratch that, quite a lot.

I knew I didn't want "light" wood and preferably wanted a darker wood. I really wanted some iron of some sort in it, but in the end decided that simpler was better because I might not like the iron look in 10 years. We ordered a non-sleigh bed because the dimensions on the website. We knew it wouldn't fit our bedroom even though we really wanted the sleigh bed. Well when the bed arrived, it was the one we wanted (but didn't order) AND it fit the room. We called the place to let them know of the mistake, but told them we wanted to keep the one sent. Now if we could get the room painted, I'd be pleased as punch. :o)

The top of the dresser. I use table runners to cover my dresser so that it protects the wood a little bit from anything I might put on top of the dresser. For about 8 years, we used a Burgundy Comforter so our runner was Burgundy. Our second most recent purchased changed the color theme to the light teal green blue, but I finally got around to buying a new runner after the most recent duvet cover was purchased.

Preview

Our nightstands. We've had these lamps forever. I still love them as much as the first day we bought them. What's on my nightstand? A Lamp, A Clock that I keep facing towards me. Yes that is MY side of the bed. Also keep a telephone (which has a silent ringer!) and what you can't see because I hid it in the top drawer is the remote control for the fan/light. Yes I can crawl into bed and then turn off the light! It's wonderful.

The most wonderful invention ever because I don't have to remove my glasses, fumble to the light switch, turn off lights, fumble back to bed and get in. I just have to crawl into bed. Get comfortable and turn off the lights and then remove my glasses. It's on a dimmer turn off so turns off in a way that I can remove my glasses and scootch down in bed before it's completely off. LOVE IT! Also just like I use table runner on my dresser, I get place mats for the nightstands. You can see just how ginormous they are based on how much tiny the place mats look.

Once it's painted, I will be LOVING this room.

And yes, our closet is still clean! Must be a record for me.

Ultimate Present II

So as I was saying yesterday, I am very cold natured. My old comforter shrank to the size of a waffle and my birthday is coming up. So after much discussion, we decided to go comforter looking. I had grand visions of matching the "new" comforter with curtains so that we wouldn't have to get new ones, but alas finding a comforter we both liked would find difficult. Finding one that matched the curtains that we weren't particularly fond of anymore would prove impossible.

I must first stay that Kmart isn't a shop we visit often, but I have discovered that if I need shoes or comforters it is the place to at least take a peek. They have comforters out the wazoo and have small sized shoes (5, 5 & 1/2 ladies which is very hard to find in a lot of stores). So instead of starting off at Target, we decided to start at Kmart. As our luck would have it, Kmart had NOTHING that we liked at all. Well that's a lie becuase there were two that kind of peaked our interest. But one was kind of uncomfortable feeling (which is a definite no no) and the other well it would have worked, but I thought there was something better. :)

So onto Target we went. (No you know if we had gone to Target first, we wouldn't have found a thing there right?). We venture down the first aisle. Then the second and right about the time we get to the second aisle, my husband says something very interesting. Now at home we have this very WHITE down comforter. It's extremely comfortable, but not very attractive. I mean if you're going for stark white, it's perfect. So back to what he said or rather what he hinted at. He suggested that we might be able to find a duvet cover for this crazy comfortable stark white down comforter. Now this is what we had intended originally, but never found one in our price point that matched our style. (aka expensive tastes = expensive price point).

As we're turning the corner, I see something that I loved. I thought to self, "Self if only they had a comforter in THIS. It's soooo pretty, but even if they do ... I bet it's close to 200 bucks!." I looked anyways. Then I realized that the pretty thang ... that I thought was a sheet set, was indeed a duvet cover. I thought we had hit the lottery. I knew I was going to ignore this lovely style and keep on going once I saw it so I looked quickly at the price. Keep in mind that when we went to K-mart, they had all these bed in a bags on sale for 49.99 that were typically a 99.99 price point. So we were hoping for that kind of price point. I looked once. I did a double take. This beautiful wonderful delight that looked so perfect was only 52.99!

At this point, I show to the husband. ;) He thinks it's perfect too. Except we hadn't felt the thing. What if it felt like the one at Kmart that was sort of okay, but felt horrible. So we unzipped the package and stuck a hand in. AWWWWWWWWWWWWW it was like the heavens opened up and sang for us. This is stock photo from Amazon's website, but here is the duvet cover. We did NOT pick up the Shams. We've never been big sham people as it seems like all they are there for is to throw in the floor to sleep at night (and then I never have the energy to put them back on the bed the next morning so they stay there ... FOR MONTHS!) I'm hoping that Rob can take that kind of taupe color and pain the walls. If he does, you'll definitely get pictures! :) BTW: Bed didn't really match curtains that we hated anyways so we picked up two panel curtains that were very plain. WE like them, but we need to get valance so it doesn't look as bare. Once the walls are painted, it will look 100 percent better.

The Ultimate Present

I'm a cold natured person. VERY cold natured. If I could, I'd use the electric blanket in the summer! Well a few years ago, we purchased a new comforter with curtains to match. As much as I LOVED them, there were two big problems. The first time we washed the new comforter, it shrank. It barely covered the top of the bed. AND the curtains (valance part). Well they presented a whole new problem. It was barely noticeable to anyone other than us. Let's be honest, we're the only ones in our bedroom ever anyways. However, our window needed 2 valances. One of the valances had FOUR stripes of cream and the other Valance had FIVE stripes of cream. So it made the one with five stripes just a hair longer than the other one.


Stay tuned for what I got for my birthday that's coming up. I'm so stoked!

Inspired

My closet inspired me to work on my dresser and chest of drawers. I haven't fallen off the face of the planet. I promise.

The Phenomenal Closet

Rob's shirts.


Our pants.

My Shirts (and dresses and skirts)



Isn't it phenomenal?

Still alive

I'm still living. I just have been focused on other things. One of those things is getting my home back in order. Today I focused on our master bedroom closet. Purchased new hangers (I was so done with those white plastic hangers) with some Christmas money and spent today throwing things away from the closet. Sad to say I threw away something that I've had since I was probably 11 years old! *gasp* How this item managed to go from house to house to dorm to house to dorm house to dorm house to dorm to house is beyond me. There are a few more clothing items that I really should get rid of, but for some reason I keep holding on.

Probably share pictures soon.

Review soon

I had planned on posting a full on 2010 review today, but I haven't been feeling good today. I work a really long shift tomorrow too so in liklihood the review won't happen tomorrow either.

So Long 2010

Lots of things happened in 2010. Some of those things gave me tremendous joys. Some that caused tremendous pains, both physically and emotionally.

So Long 2010, Hello to 2011.

For those of you that will be watching the Rose Bowl Parade ... you will have the opportunity to see Western Carolina University's Marching Band. They are awesome on the field and I can't wait to see them on the television. I believe that HGTV has the parade commercial free. It's 8am PST (so for all of us on the Eastern coast that's 11am). I believe they are number 48 in the line up. Can't wait to see my Pride of the Mountains Marching Band!

Frosty the Snowman

Is a very leaning soul.

Poor Frosty.

Still snowing

So far we've had about 15 hours of snow. That's crazy. Here's a picture from noonish.



Most of the time North Carolina's snow isn't good enough for snowman building. Today's snow was perfect for building snowmen.