Birthday Dinner

Our youngest turned 19 a few weeks ago and I realized I forgot to post the "Birthday Dinner Photo".  This is about the only time we get Holt to agree to go anywhere with us - promise him a Red Lobster dinner.  lol

19th Birthday

Sorry for the quality - took this with my iPhone and the lighting was not great where we were seated.  I don't get retakes....it just is what it is.  lol  (Their smiles do not represent how they really felt at the moment being asked to pose.  lol)

Here is last year's photo -

18th Birthday

Same restaurant.  lol  He got an inch taller this year at least....wonder if he is done growing.  6'1 and counting.....

Ryan, 22, is looking for a job and may have found one...crossing fingers!

In other news, work is going well (ended up working 4 days last week instead of 2) and we are house hunting.  I'm surprised at how mentally worn out I am...thought I'd be more physically tired than I am.    I'll adjust, though.  Loving being back out in the world!

Oh....today I was organizing my sock drawer and guess what I found?  The shirt I got Andy for Father's Day!  I clearly found a really good hiding place.  Ha!  Hope he likes his belated present!

Do you ever do things like that?  Makes me want to go organize some more and see what I might find.  lol

Remembering Sammy

My best friend had to put her sweet Sammy down yesterday after a long struggle with diabetes and other health issues.  She welcomed Sammy in to her home a few months prior to our Sweety coming in to ours.  In fact, Amy and Sammy are exactly WHY we got Sweety......

Here are some photos from back in the day (2002 or 2003) when we lived in Iowa and they were newer pups:

Sammy is on the left - the cute white Bichon.  Sweety is the black Pekingese.

Sammy was a great dog.....loved Amy to pieces.  He will be deeply missed.

Love you, Amy.   ( ( HUGS ) )

1st Day at Work

Just wanted to check in and report that my first day at work went GREAT!  I worked with the other employee today for training and to get ready for a big day tomorrow - a Realtor open house on 3 of the new houses.  I kept busy all day....making packets, creating and redoing brochures and flyers - one of my gifts.  (When I was in real estate, I had a partner, Amy,  and I was in charge of all buyers and marketing/advertising. I LOVE creating ads/flyers/brochures on the computer.  Amy handled the sellers, the listing details and taking deals to closing.  PERFECT arrangement - we both focused on our "gifts").

Graur Codrin

Anyhoo.....I worked 9 to 6....after 6 years reclined, that was quite the day.  (On regular days in the future, when I am the only employee for the day, I will have "down time" when customers aren't visiting...but not this week.)  Non-stop activity.  I'm beat!  I tried to take it easier this last weekend knowing I had these 2 days back to back, but didn't really.  Not surprised.  lol

Hired to be a hostess (although licensed real estate agent in another state, inactive status) around 2 days a week, I learned today they DO hope I transition into sales.....we shall see.  That would involve working most weekends..the only 2 days Andy has off.   Just not sure how I feel about that.  I have to time to evaluate that, for sure.

New boss paid me a compliment....he said "You are a racehorse being asked to give the kiddie rides at the park".  Thought that was nice!

My phone rang around 3PM..it was Holt.


"Where are you?"


"Work."


"When do you get off?"


"6."


"SIX?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I can name 2 boys who are in a little shock their mother no longer reclines in the living room.  lol  (Although on that front, Ryan has a 2nd interview for a warehouse job tomorrow.  Crossing fingers!!)

I came home, started dinner and then assigned a child to finish it, jumped in the shower, donned my yoga pants, t-shirt and removed makeup and hit the recliner.  I don't plan to move until I go to bed.  If I can walk.  LOL

I am glad tomorrow is my last day this week....I suspect I will be recouping on Wednesday.  lol

Was wondering how Andy would feel coming home for the first time in years to not having me there.  He coped by not coming home until after I was there.  Worked late, got a haircut.....   HA!

How was your day?

$10 New Member Credit at Rue La La!

Until August 23rd, 2011, new members to Rue La La will get a

$10 credit 

towards their first purchase!  

This doesn't come around very often, so if you've been toying with the idea of checking Rue La La out but haven't yet, here is your chance to get a bonus!

Rue La La is an online boutique shopping experience.  Here is how it works:

1.  Sign up for FREE.

2.  Receive your daily email, check out the deals of the day.

3.  If interested in anything, great.  If not, delete the email.

4.  It's that simple!

I have purchased shoes, makeup, lingerie, home decor items, clothes...all things I would have normally purchased - but at great savings!   My latest great deal was saving $85 on a pair of Sanita clogs!

Sometimes I just love looking around Rue La La for inspiration.  Their rugs and other home decor are often so beautiful.

If I see a sale coming up I don't want to miss, I put it in my iPhone to beep me when the sale starts.

I have found that most items are returnable, and working with the Rue La La Concierge team was a dream.  I have no qualms purchasing as I know the return process is smooth and easy.  (Check the item's information to see if it is returnable before purchasing.)

Check out Rue La La today!

HIRED!

I'm hired!  Interview went great!  Will start out 2 days a week with one weekend every 6 to 8 weekends...and it looks very likely I will be their next salesperson.   Will be up to me, it sounds like.   And with the nature of the business, I can sit most of the day, if needed, and can also crochet or study....perfect starting point for me.  (And the pay is great, too!)

This will be a perfect marriage of

High quality builder 

+ 

Full integrity 

+ 

Passion for real estate and people 

=

 Perfect place for me to work.  

If I had gone to a temporary agency and laid out my perfect job, they couldn't have found one better than this.

Looks like I start next week...maybe earlier....Woo Hoo!!

Early June - still reclined most all day.  (The Pain Lifted Story Here.)

Early August - EMPLOYED!

Just last week, I shared this:

I give thanks for the Divinely planned journey under Divinely planned conditions with the Divinely planned supply!

~~~

If this doesn't prove affirmations work.........

Praise God!!

Do you have any affirmations that have blessed you lately?

Job Interview!

Oh my, I am SO excited!!

This has literally come out of nowhere.  We were going around looking at houses and I was asked to consider interviewing for my favorite builder.  It would start out 2 days a week and could segue into a sales position (but non-licensed and only working for this builder, so no listing other houses, etc.)  Salary plus commission....  Sounds PERFECT in this market!  (I have been a licensed real estate agent since 2000 and only this year have gone to inactive status after years of keeping up the continuing education requirements....)

My interview is today at 2:00pm CST.

Woo Hoo!!  If this job is meant to be, it will be.  If not, I am simply excited to be getting the opportunity.  Who knew going out and about on weekends with hubby would attract such an offer?

I'll let you know how it goes!

Affirmation Thursday (and Pain update)

(First, before I start...is anyone else "enjoying" the new OS Lion for Mac...where if you don't watch your finger on the mouse, your entire page will just go flying off to the right and disappear?  Horizontal scrolling.....lovely......AGH!  lol)

Okey dokey.....maybe I should have titled this, "Keeping It Real".....I decided to share more details because several have written and upon learning, understood in a deeper way....

Credit

Am I the only girl who likes to control timelines?  Oh my....I truly am doing SO much better than my entire life before, but sometimes I have to stop and realize:  "Hey, I am NOT in control of this".

My favorite affirmations this week are:

I give thanks for the Divinely planned journey under Divinely planned conditions with the Divinely planned supply.

~~~

Adverse appearances work for my good, for God utilizes every person and every situation to bring to me my heart's desire.  "Hindrances are friendly" and obstacles spring boards!

I now jump into my good!

~~~

So, my pain and medication withdrawal update:

7 short weeks ago, I asked my doctor to wean off ALL my pain medications.  Rather than be vague, I will straight up tell you that I was on 300mg of a long-acting pain medication.  Three HUNDRED milligrams.  (You can click on the chronic pain, nerve damage, and spinal cord stimulator links to the right to read all about my diagnoses, conditions, medical test results, etc.)  If you have snacks and drinks, you can read the So What Happened To Me full story....Suffice it to say, there is plenty of medical proof for the medical blessings I have been given.

In early June, my pain lifted  - you can read that story HERE.   I went from 24/7 burning/searing pain to feeling amazing.  In seconds flat.  It was definitely a God-thing.

Now, 7 weeks is super fast and yet I was doing great...my first drop in dose was 100mg and I had 3 hours of restless legs and that was the sum total of withdrawal.  I was so encouraged (after having been warned I may feel like dying...).

At the outset, I wondered if doing so at this time was the smartest idea, as we typically go to Dallas sometime in June or July and that was going to drastically change my physical situation (8+ hour car rides both ways..).  I held steady on the current dosage while gone, but dropped again in dosage the day we drove home.  Ack.

As I hit 60 mg a day, I started to feel it.  At that point, I was on 30 mg, every 12 hours.  When I went to ONE PILL A DAY, 3omg total, I was putting on that smile but the behind the scenes reality wasn't pretty.  The first 3 days of each drop in dose, I would "feel it" but then my body would adjust and I'd have 3-4 days of feeling good before the next drop.

Until last Sunday I went to NO more medication (except what is called "BT - breakthrough meds, of which I am allowed 2 a day.).......

Well, I will just say straight up - Oh My Goodness.  My wonderful, LITERAL husband just stared at me with so much compassion but a huge question:

Why would a girl who was just walking 12 miles a week and just got her entire life back DO THIS TO HERSELF?  

I had to explain to him, again, the realities of being a pain patient.  (If you are a pain patient, you already know....)

The United States is having a war on pain meds.  Because of abuse and addition, ALL legitimate patients NEEDING these meds are being attacked.  It is humiliating to go to ANY doctor and have to admit being on these meds because they DO NOT WANT YOU AS A PATIENT.  Why?  We are ALL seen as "drug seekers".  (There are many "patients" who lie to get the meds, to promptly turn around the sell them.  Some for evil motives, others to simply pay their mortgage.)  But nevertheless, the nurses and docs at these clinics are TRAINED to be on the lookout for abuse and lies.

Credit

And I was tired of it.  I have wires and leads in my spinal fluid, for goodness sakes...that doesn't "PROVE" I am not lying?  Answer - it does NOT.

To start off with, most pain patients are required to sign a contract stating that they will get NO other pain-related meds from any doctor unless in an emergency situation.  (I don't have a problem with this - just wanted to add this for those that don't know how serious it is...)

I was tired of being drug-tested 3+ times a year.  (Sometimes with stick tests in office and other times with it being mailed off.)  

WHY drug test me?  To make SURE I have the meds I am prescribed IN MY SYSTEM.   (Whereas, most drug tests are used to prove there AREN'T drugs in your system.)  Isn't that a shock?  To prove I'm not selling them.

(Willingly submitting for an employment drug test feels entirely different, btw.)  Knowing that any minute, any single thing you do or say could get you "kicked out" of the only place that helps you live your life.....


While I am very thankful there are doctors willing to put up with this mess, I wish there was a better system.  I'm personally in favor of a national database that shows what and where...to stop "doc shopping".

I just wanted a different life.  To be perfectly honest.  I wanted to go to EVERY doctor I have and happily announce what I had done.  That I was FREE.

So.  I have had tears this week, with the return of some pain.  

Am I proud of myself for dropping 300mg in 7 weeks?  ABSOLUTELY.  

But why more pain?

Well...to revisit the beginning of this post....I am NOT in control of the timeline.  Duh, Cheri.  Who am I to claim it will be complete in 7 weeks?  Silly silly Cheri.

Today, I had my pain appointment.  And guess what?  I was drug-tested to see if I am now on marijuana for pain relief (illegal in my state and never prescribed) because WHO just says, "I want to be off pain meds?"  This was a red flag.  I am serious.

GRRRR....

I passed the drug test(S)......Duh....and they then proceeded with my appointment.  Because I react extremely negatively to any "nerve" medications (which are actually seizure medications mostly)...I have gone back on a tiny dose of pain medication.....45 mg a day.   And we are not shelving the plans to get off again.

Guess what the doctor said?  Getting off that much meds in that short of time likely has thrown my body in to sort of a "shock".  Not a "dead in a minute" sort of shock, but just too much, too soon.  That encouraged me. I plan to get my sea legs back and work on my MIND.....my affirmations....

Credit

I KNOW why the pain returned......there is another lesson for me to learn.  And I'm up for it....pain is a nice motivator.  :)

As my beloved friend Barbara said:  "As it says in the Bible, 

 "It Came........to PASS." 

Most people say it as one thing..............it CAME to PASS.....

But really....say this with the pauses....

It Came.........................To Pass.

So, while my journey has hills and valley, it IS Divinely planned.

Oh, and one more thing.  I sadly discovered that one thing that caused a massive fire BLAST in pain was drinking/eating sugary food items.  AGH!!!  So, on top of everything else, I have given up 90% of the sugar in my life.  Woo Hoo!!  Sugar is not healthy, anyway...but I didn't know if I could ever do it.  Fire in the butt sure helped that.  (BTW, my blood test results are not diabetes or pre-diabetes related......a former holistic-minded MD told me that SUGAR is the number one enemy of pain.  She cured herself of Fibromyalgia after everything she knew about medical science failed her.  This began her holistic journey and while she still can and does treat medically, she STARTS with food and things we ingest, every single patient.  She said it got her escorted out of a few Fibromyalgia meetings, as almost any pain patient will tell you.....sugar is one thing that makes us happy when nothing else seems to be working.)

I hope I covered everything...let me know if you have any other questions....

Serenity Garden Dishcloth

Well, I thought I had finished unpacking from our trip.  Look what I found at the bottom of my yarn bag?  How did I forget something I crocheted??

Using my favorite yarn, I made another "Simple Stripes Dishcloth"...except didn't add any stripes.  I tell you, this is a pattern you can create while doing other things.  lol  This chain length was PERFECT for natural striping.....

I may be linking to THESE parties!

My Favorite Affirmations For Health

I strongly believe our thoughts influence our experiences.  And in fact, we all do this every day, just backwards.  We have negative self-talk going all the time.  And not only that, but it is common to give attention and energy to things going wrong in our lives, rather than believing those things/actions/occurrences can go back to the nothingness from which they came.  Learning to have positive self-talk, having faith...is what God calls us to do.

Here are my favorites this month:

I am nourished by the spirit within.

Every cell of my body is filled with light.

I give thanks for radiant health and endless happiness.

~~~

What God has done for others, He does for me and more.

I am claiming the first one over and over as I get ready to my final drop in medications in a few days...I am now down 90%....almost done!  How is it going?  Dropping in dose every 7 days gives me 3-4 great days......

Does stress in your life manifest physically?  Do you get headaches, pain, depression?   Or how about this - do you put that "Why, I'm FINE look on your face around everyone else and then fall apart in private? ...Hmmm.......Well, I DO!!  Is that a girl thing or just a Cheri thing?  :)

For 6 years, I thought of that saying that "God only gives you what you can handle" and I would scream, "I'm good....don't send anymore...thanks though!!" seemingly falling on deaf ears.

But guess what I realized?  I didn't BELIEVE it would resolve.  I didn't truly believe.  That was a tough chat with myself.  Some things just seem impossible, you know?  But truly is anything impossible with God?  NO!  So why don't we easily do what God calls us to do?  I love this verse:

"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."  Matt 21:22
King James Bible

"If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."  Matt 21:22  New International Version 1984

But honestly,  if I believe even thinking about negative things gives them power, then what would writing them in a blog or forum do?  What would getting nearly 300 amazing blog friends in the world to THINK and GIVE ENERGY to the negative do to and for my family?   How can these things go back to the nothingness from which they came if I think about them all the time, talk about them all the time, and then write them down?  Writing them down becomes LAW!!  We MUST keep our minds focused positively.  This is something I work on every single day....just the other day, I wrote about a huge issue and now wish I had worded it differently.  One day at a time......

~~~

Let go and take your mental hands off.  Put it in God's hands and use this statement:  "I put this situation in the hands of Infinite Love and Wisdom."

~~~

How are you doing with positive self-talk?  What are YOUR favorite affirmations?

Would you be interested in an Affirmation and Praise Report blog hop, or do you already know of one?  Where we could all write a post on our blogs and share with the world?  How powerful would that be?    Let me know!

Have a blessed day!

Crochet Striped Dishcloths

We are finally home, I got my photos uploaded and edited and here we go.  I am SO excited that the first 2 dishcloths came out almost perfectly square!  The 3rd I kind of winged with the design and ended up making it quite a bit bigger.

I found this FREE pattern  - Simple Stripes Dishcloths - HERE.

First of all, the very first one I was making?  ACK!  It was going horribly so I gave up on it and started over.  I didn't like the color combo and I had screwed up on the count.

So these are brand new projects.

This is the first one I started but scrapped - ICK!  (Why is the photo quality so poor???)

This is the one I did on my own and it is NOT square and larger than the others.

I used Sugar 'n Cream Rose Pink and Peaches n' Creme Mocha Swirls...which I LOVED.   And I love the cone concept...so easy to use.  The Mocha Swirls is thinner than the pink, however, so it made a smaller total dishcloth when used alone.  There is also a shorter width on the Mocha Swirl stripes, but I love them just the same.

If you are a newer crocheter or just want something to do that is almost mindless...this is your pattern.  So easy...

I may be linking to THESE parties.