Happy Day!

I had a mammogram last Thursday and got the call Friday that more pics were needed. I couldn't return the call until Monday morning. At that point, the earliest they could see me was a week; but then they called back because they had a cancellation. Today I went back, more pics were taken, doctor ordered an ultrasound, and my did they find cysts -- I counted at least 4. The radiologist came in and looked at the ultrasound and said that I was a "cyst maker" but no signs of cancer. Woohoo! He does want to check again in six months, but that's ok.
I was on a totally natural high when I left the medical office. I ran some errands and nothing bothered me...not the mercedes that parked way too close to me, not anything!

Yesterday I had lunch with my good friend, Kathy. We have known each other since high school and became good friends in college. So much fun to catch up with her. We only live about 30 miles apart -- we really should get together more often. My GPS told me that there was a Bakers Bros Restaurant close to where we were and I said maybe we will meet there next time. However, when I left, I decided to let the GPS take me there. I was directed to drive around a bit going past apartments into a very nice neighborhood, turn this way, turn that way, and now arriving at destination -- except that I was in front of someone's house with no restaurant in sight! GPS's are great -- but they are not perfect. I laughed and wondered why my GPS thought there was a restaurant there! Oh well, next time, we will pick a new place and I will look up the address before I go and just enter the address into the trusty GPS.

It's November?

Wow -- already the 11th month of the year! I spent the last week of October driving to Birmingham, visiting relatives, and driving back. Technically, I didn't drive, I rode. I also read Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris outloud! That way, dh and I heard the story together. It is the first of the Southern Vampire Mysteries. It is what the HBO show True Blood is based on. I haven't decided whether to continue the series or not, but it was pretty good for a vampire love story.

Today was busy. A couple weeks ago, I decided that I HAD to exercise and I found my DVD of Walk Away the Pounds. I decided that I could exercise every day and this would be an easy way to do it at home. Well this morning when I woke up I had this conversation in my head -- get up now and walk, I'll do it later, no you won't because you don't have time, I'll do it later really, no you won't because once you put on makeup you won't want to sweat it off -- and with that I got up and fed the dogs and did my 2 mile walk with Leslie Sansone and her buddies.

After the walk, I went to my Thursday morning breakfast group, tutored College Algebra for two hours, ran to Cabela's to pick up a package, came home and wrote to TCC for permission for dd to take 3 classes in the spring, called OSU to see if she needs more Spanish (probably not) and then went to work for 3 hours. So see if I hadn't walked this morning, I really wouldn't have done it.

Now, I'm off to bed and I'm going to try to work the NYT Thursday puzzle. Tomorrow I have to catch up on my BSF and I HAVE to walk again!

Time for a post

It's been awhile and although nothing earth-shaking has happened, I thought it was time for a post. I'm still trying to get scrapbooks finished before starting new ones. I'm currently working on daughter's volume 2 book. It is from about age 10 to 14. The next for her will be a high school one.

I thought that I wouldn't have very many pics for her high school book but we had her senior pics made last week. Now I have many pics to put in there. We went to Portrait Innovations and they did a superb job. They are very reasonably priced and even though I spent more than I had planned -- I still have spent less than other people I know!

Last week, our Connections group from church met for our first meeting. We will be studying parables. It will be interesting and we have great people in our group.

Work is pretty much the same. Math, algebra and geometry. I love it when I can get a kid that hates being there to smile. I also loved it when recently a high school girl told me that she brought her grade up from a 79 to an 89 since she had been coming for tutoring. I may not be making a lot of money -- but I am making a difference!

Tweeting!

Hey Guys -- Right now I am following a few of my friends and relatives on Twitter. Lately only my kids are updating. I love hearing from my kids, but I would love to hear from you too.

Please join twitter -- it's free and you can choose to have your updates read only by friends if you wish.

My wonderful nurse SIL has twitter -- but updates very seldom. My other SIL should twitter because she doesn't have time to blog. You can twitter from your phone if you want and you only have 140 characters to say what you need to say. For instance if you had been at the Flower Mound game, you could have tweeted "weird -- a banana just chased a gorilla across the field".

I have a sister that I follow; she has a twitter account, but never updates. I'm getting lonely out here in twitter land!

Just click on "follow me on twitter" at the right and start tweeting.

Surgery etc

It was an interesting week last week. First at BSF, I ran into a friend who I hadn't spoken to in almost 10 years. We were very good friends and our sons were friends; then something happened, we disagreed, and never spoke to each other again! It wasn't too hard, her family changed scout troops and I started homeschooling around the same time so we never ran into each other. However, periodically, I would think about her and think that it was one of the things in my past that I regretted -- I regretted that our friendship had ended so badly. Occassionally during the last seven years at Bible Study something in the lecture would remind me of it and I would pray that she was ok and that God could help me get past it. Well God does work in His own way and who do you think started going to BSF this year! So I talked to her and we hugged and put the past behind us!

That was on Monday. On Thursday, Mark mentioned that his stomach hurt. Then while he was driving home from work he said that his stomach hurt real bad and he was going to the doctor. I went to work and he came home and said that the nurse practitioner that he saw ruled out apppendicitis but he would go have a test on Monday for something else. I texted his sister who is a wonderful sister and (more importantly at the time) a nurse. She went over and realized that he probably should go to the ER. I met them there later where the doctor looked at him, poked a litte, and told us that he needed his appendix removed. So he went in for surgery around 10:30 and now is appendix-less. Friday he stayed at the hospital until his doctor told him that he could leave. Fortunately they were able to do it with laparoscopy (sp) so Mark is well on to the road of recovery.

Yesterday I rode with Mark to West so that he could go to a Boy Scout meeting. I didn't think he should drive but he insisted so I was just there. West isn't the most exciting town to spend three hours in -- but they do have good kolaches.

Que Sera Sera

A week or so ago I read a great chick-lit book called "The Think About Jane Spring" by Sharon Krum. Jane was a tough no-nonsense attorney, but she seldom got a second date. She really wanted romance and love, but couldn't seem to get it. In a funk one weekend, she watched a Doris Day marathon on tv and realized that Doris always got the guy. Well, the next day, Jane becomes Doris Day including trading her fullsize bed in for a twin bed. It's a good, funny, cheerful book.

A few weeks ago, my daughter kept telling me that she wanted to get rid of her twin over full bunk beds and replace it with a twin bed so that she would have more space in her room. Last weekend we bought the bed, sold the old one on Craigslist and she now has a twin bed. I don't think she did it for the same reason as Jane Spring but the timing is humorous and I keep humming Que Sera Sera.

Here's pics of the old


And the new:

Oh Poo! and another thing

We have four pets -- two cats and two dogs. We have a cat because many years ago dd wanted one and someone who worked with dh needed to get rid of theirs. A few years later, another cat wondered into our garage and our lives. We have a dog because ds and dh wanted one when dd was born...the dog came a few years later. Now we have two big dogs. So the cats aren't technically mine and only one of the dogs is mine.

Why am I the only one living here who can clean out a kitty litter box and pick up poop in the yard?

The other thing -- totally another subject.
In tutoring math, I am amazed at the number of times that a student says to me, we don't use a book. This is frequently right after I say, "let me see your book". I am usually saying this because I am a little lost and math books frequently have good examples right before the exercises. If I can see an example, I can usually understand it -- and then I get it! Fortunately, I have many math reference books. But why don't they use math books anymore??? The kids usually offer me their notes -- but would they really need tutoring if they took good notes?