The Blessing of Rain!

I must take a minute to thank God for the much needed rain He sent our way this week.  This came with some cooler temperatures too.   There was a pretty significant storm that came thru Monday night.  We experienced some of the loudest thunder I've heard in a long time. Our dogs were beside themselves--felt so sorry for them. 

The storm picture was taken by a photographer from Carthage. He had published it on Facebook so hope it's ok to share. 

Our rain gage shows the results--it was full and almost running over. 

Update, September 1, 2014

Can hardly believe its September already!  The older I get, the faster time flies. 

I am thrilled to report that on August 11, 2014, I discontinued all of my diabetes medicine--pills and shots. Since that time, my sugars have all been normal.  I feel better than I have in years!  Who knew ( I certainly didn't) that the medicine made me feel so bad!   I am limiting myself to no more than 26 carbs daily-- most days I don't go over 10. 

This picture was taken yesterday. I am 10 pounds lighter with only 15 lbs to goal!  

A New Day!

About 25 years ago, I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes.  This is a disease that is rather sneaky.  Early on it's not obvious that it is even there because I didn't feel any different.  So over the years I haven't treated it that seriously.  Now, 25 years later, I realize I should have done things differently--you know like hind-sight is 20/20.  

I have a wonderful doctor, Dr. Samuel Carter, who has tried his best to get me on the right track and lower my sugar.  On August 11, 2014, at my quarterly appointment, he informed me that my A1C was 7.7!  I was happy to learn that he had a new nurse, Karen, who is something of a diabetes expert.  She is working with me to help me get these numbers down.  

She told me I should have no more than 26 carbs a day.  At first glance that seems like an impossible goal, but I'm learning that there are a lot of things I can eat without carbs.  I'm planning to try my hardest to get this monster disease under control.  

Kurt took my picture this morning as a "before" picture, so here I am in all of my glorious fat!

Rain

This August 2014 has brought some strange weather--strange in a good way!  We have already had several nights where the temperatures were in the 50's. Some of the days this month I have had to wear a jacket when I rode the Harley to work.  In addition to the cooler weather, we have received rain frequently. This picture of our rain gauge was from last week!

My Two Wonderful Kids

Pam and Steve both will never know how much they influence me.  Pam is the one who I turn to for my many medical questions and problems and she seems to always know the answers to my many questions.  I follow her lead in so many things--from stamp collecting to scrapbooking!  Thank you, Pam for all you do!

Steve is the one who helps me stay on track with trying the latest electronic gadgets.  That, along with encouraging me to keep  moving--walking and eating right!  Even though he has lived far away from us ever since he left home (for the most part), seldom does a day go by that he doesn't call.  That is the one thing that has  keep me going for all of these years.  Thank you, Steve!

More Electronic Stuff

Today I received my first Blue Tooth keyboard.  Even though I have two PCs, an iPad, a laptop, and an iPad mini, I find that I use the mini most of the time.  What a joy to be able to just type!  Who knew it would come to this!

Kurt's Recovery

Kurt has just about completely recovered from his shoulder surgery. He was supposed to stay off of his bike for three months, but he was riding again in about a month!  What's a wife to do!

Kurt's shoulder surgery

On Thursday, May 1, 2014, Kurt had rotator cuff tear repair done on his right shoulder. Dr. Twiss said everything went great and Kurt got to come home in the afternoon. His instructions were to sleep in a recliner for six weeks as well as to wear a sling for that long also. 

The real challenge was the recliner!  After a couple of mishaps, we decided the chair wasn't the safest place to be. We moved him to the bed and just propped him up with pillows. I'm hoping that will be ok with the doctor. (We see him on Monday.) 

By Friday we realized Kurt was having a reaction to the pain medication so he was switched to a different one.  The itching he was experiencing has begun to subside so hopefully everything will go smoothly now

We took the bulky dressing off today and he can shower now. So glad this much is behind him!  

Christmas 2013--Decking the Halls

We have decided to limit our Christmas decorations this year. We did manage to get a tree up and a few wreaths up. However, no more outside mechanical displays. Going to leave that for the younger bunch. JoJo, our middle dog thought we had made another bed for her. She didn't understand when we covered it up with boxes.

 

Kurt pretended to be exhausted after getting this much done. He is so goofy!

Hooray!!!

After much searching I was able to find a way back to my original blog. It was like being at a family reunion to go back and look at the old postings. 

So many things have happened since I last posted anything.  I will attempt to highlight some of the events that were important to me.