Fall is not my favorite season. I think summer and spring rank above it a bit. But I do love fall and here are some of the reasons why:
1) I love the smell in the house when I turn the furnace on for the first time - kind of a dust burning smell. I know, weird.
2) Getting my warm clothes out. I love turtlenecks, vests and cardigans.
3) Crunching dead leaves. I like the sound.
4) The colors of the leaves on the mountain - the brilliant reds, yellows and oranges have got to be one of God's greatest thought processes brought to life.
5) Halloween decorations. I don't decorate much at my house anymore but anything with ghosts, pumpkins and black cats are fun. I don't like the bloody, crazy stuff, not that it's scary - it's just not fun to look at.
6) Soups and stews. I love clam chowder, squash soup, chicken noodle soup, beef stew, split pea soup ... mmmmm. And fall is the best time for them. With cornbread or big fluffy rolls.
7) The crispness of the morning air. While I know this is a precursor for really cold morning air in a few months, I do love the chill in the air in the morning.
8) Fuzzy blankets. You just can't curl up in the summertime with a fuzzy blanket to read, watch TV, whatever. But you can in the fall. I love my fuzzy blankets.
9) Slippers. Same as No. 8 - can't wear them in summer but love them in the fall.
10) Thoughts of holiday fun. I'm not ready for Christmas or even Thanksgiving but I like to think ahead a little to make tentative plans. And just the thought of eating a full turkey dinner makes my stomach smile, even today when it's not at it's happiest.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Goodbye old van
We bought a one-year old blue (sort of purplish) van in 1997 from our friends the Kriese's when we lived in Texas. It was a wonderful car. It had a nice speaker system, power everything, a little gauge that said how many miles we could go on the gas in the tank and what the temperature outside was. It seated seven and the rear seats could come out. It had all kinds of drink holders and nook and crannies. I loved that van.
We went on many adventures in our van - to Nauvoo with our friends the Pearces, Parkers and Hodgkins. Up through Texas, Minida, (Mt. Ida), Ark., Liberty, Blue Springs and Far West, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois - Nauvoo and Carthage, and back down through Hannibal, St. Louis and Muskogee, Oklahoma. Each place as well as the drive up and back holds special memories, all experienced in our blue van.
We drove it to Houston and Corpus Christi for fun with friends. We took trips to Utah, one in the dead of winter where the gauge went to 13 degrees below 0 - the lowest it had ever been. We got a flat tire in Monticello on our return trip and had to stay overnight, putting us behind in our trip and making us miss Mesa Verde (which Riley and I finally visited summer of 09.) We hauled tile, lumber, groceries, kids, cats, turtles, fish and spiders. The critters rode with us from Austin to Utah when we moved here. The Parkers welcomed all of us, even the furry ones, into their Colorado home for an overnight stay on our long journey to a new home.
I have pictures of the odometer turning over 55,555 miles in the drive through of a McDonald's on William Cannon in Austin. That was about 115,000 miles ago!
It's funny how an inanimate object can become a member of your family. That van didn't cause much grief in the repair department. We had a few things here and there to fix but overall, it was a trustworthy, solid car. And Riley thinks it was the best, most comfortable ride of any of our vehicles. It was smooth.
For the past year or so it has sat mostly undriven. When we bought Riley's Tacoma two years ago, I took over the Highlander. I tried to sell the van back then but with a tanked economy no one wanted a van with so many miles on it. Amy drove the van quite a bit but finally it started sitting more than being driven. Then, in August, Amy drove it and the AC died. We debated on fixing it - $1,100. We weren't sure we could even sell it for that much if we fixed so we decided to give it to the Kidney Foundation (like we have several other cars.) In a last ditch effort, I thought, let's try to sell it. Our mechanic friend Paul suggested $800 so I put a sign on it last Saturday. Fifteen minutes later someone called and wanted to see it. Paul said, oh, oh, maybe you could have gotten more for it. But then we sold it to people we knew through Amy's high school friends and they said what a blessing it was they were getting it for that price. We could have used a few more hundred dollars but they needed the blessing of the car even more.
And so it's done. The van is theirs. I hope they enjoy it and have as many wonderful memories in it as we did.
We went on many adventures in our van - to Nauvoo with our friends the Pearces, Parkers and Hodgkins. Up through Texas, Minida, (Mt. Ida), Ark., Liberty, Blue Springs and Far West, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois - Nauvoo and Carthage, and back down through Hannibal, St. Louis and Muskogee, Oklahoma. Each place as well as the drive up and back holds special memories, all experienced in our blue van.
We drove it to Houston and Corpus Christi for fun with friends. We took trips to Utah, one in the dead of winter where the gauge went to 13 degrees below 0 - the lowest it had ever been. We got a flat tire in Monticello on our return trip and had to stay overnight, putting us behind in our trip and making us miss Mesa Verde (which Riley and I finally visited summer of 09.) We hauled tile, lumber, groceries, kids, cats, turtles, fish and spiders. The critters rode with us from Austin to Utah when we moved here. The Parkers welcomed all of us, even the furry ones, into their Colorado home for an overnight stay on our long journey to a new home.
I have pictures of the odometer turning over 55,555 miles in the drive through of a McDonald's on William Cannon in Austin. That was about 115,000 miles ago!
It's funny how an inanimate object can become a member of your family. That van didn't cause much grief in the repair department. We had a few things here and there to fix but overall, it was a trustworthy, solid car. And Riley thinks it was the best, most comfortable ride of any of our vehicles. It was smooth.
For the past year or so it has sat mostly undriven. When we bought Riley's Tacoma two years ago, I took over the Highlander. I tried to sell the van back then but with a tanked economy no one wanted a van with so many miles on it. Amy drove the van quite a bit but finally it started sitting more than being driven. Then, in August, Amy drove it and the AC died. We debated on fixing it - $1,100. We weren't sure we could even sell it for that much if we fixed so we decided to give it to the Kidney Foundation (like we have several other cars.) In a last ditch effort, I thought, let's try to sell it. Our mechanic friend Paul suggested $800 so I put a sign on it last Saturday. Fifteen minutes later someone called and wanted to see it. Paul said, oh, oh, maybe you could have gotten more for it. But then we sold it to people we knew through Amy's high school friends and they said what a blessing it was they were getting it for that price. We could have used a few more hundred dollars but they needed the blessing of the car even more.
And so it's done. The van is theirs. I hope they enjoy it and have as many wonderful memories in it as we did.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Being grateful for big things and I'm not dead yet
I went to the ER Friday, writhing with pain in my chest. It was a scary feeling, thinking I was having a heart attack and might die. I'd had chest pains before including the two weeks leading up to Friday. I was supposed to have a stress treadmill test at 10 a.m. that morning but the pain vetoed my appointment and sent me to the hospital instead. I was quickly cared for and given morphine, a lovely drug. I settled down after a few minutes and wondered why a horse was pushing on the back of my leg with its teeth. Very annoying. I also watched the clock get to 9 a.m., missed 9:10 and saw 9:15. I told Riley I didn't have to die now. He didn't understand. I told him my dad and niece Stacie both died at 9:10 a.m. and the bus had left so I didn't have to get on it.
Throughout the 11 hours we were at the ER they blood work, x-rays, an EKG, a CatScan, and an ultrasound. They weren't finding any heart problems which was good news but I didn't imagine the pain - it was like an elephant was standing on my chest, just like heart attack patients describe. They wanted to go ahead with the treadmill test but I had to wait for something to come down from Salt Lake so we didn't get started until around 4:30 p.m. I hadn't eaten or had a drink all day (except one I sneaked early on) so I was feeling pretty puny, as they say in Texas. Yet I endured one more test - radioactive gunk pumped in my arm, laying in a machine unmoving for 13 minutes, walking then running for 11 minutes to get my heart rate up (I couldn't go the distance but got it high enough), then laying in the machine again for 15 minutes where Riley said I fell asleep twice. It took until around 7 p.m. to get all the results. The doctor said I have no heart problems which is a huge relief given my grandfather, father and brother all had heart attacks in their 50's and my mom in her 60's. They were concerned about this family history.
They said I have a hiatal hernia but it's small. He also mentioned that stress can contribute to acid in the stomach, building up and causing pain. His suggestions were to take Maalox, lessen the stress in my life and see my regular doctor to possibly see a specialist. Two of those are easy, one, not so easy.
I was worn out from laying in bed all day and going to different areas of the hospital to do all the tests. Poor Riley was worn out too, experiencing sympathy chest pains and having had only two meals during the day. He is such a strength to me and such a calming influence. I love him. It was a rough day for both of us and even though I still have chest pain I know my heart is good. That's a huge blessing and an answer to prayers. (Thanks to my mom and siblings who put my name on prayer rolls in their areas!) Riley had given me a blessing in the middle of the night before we went to the ER to help me calm down and help the doctors figure out the problem.
I'm not a good patient. I don't like not doing anything, hence, I overdo and stress myself out. I wanted to get up and move around, not be tied to machines and the stupid BP cuff that nearly exploded my arm. Then I thought about people I love who are chronically ill and how they deal with medical crap nearly every minute of every day, mostly putting on a happy face while doing so. I felt ashamed that I complained about my day of inconvenience while trying to find the cause of the pain. I know they've endured many days and many tests, more than I'll ever know of.
The pain is still there but I know it's my stomach betraying me, not my heart. It's uncomfortable and Maalox, Tums and Ibuprofen are becoming my new best friends but I can deal with it.
I turned 50 this year. All the things I feel about that are for another blog, another day. But I just want to say I'm not old. I might be falling apart here and there but I'm not going to let the old people problems get me down. We all have to grow old and we can fight it tooth and nail or do it gracefully. I'm going to fight it tooth and nail gracefully.
Throughout the 11 hours we were at the ER they blood work, x-rays, an EKG, a CatScan, and an ultrasound. They weren't finding any heart problems which was good news but I didn't imagine the pain - it was like an elephant was standing on my chest, just like heart attack patients describe. They wanted to go ahead with the treadmill test but I had to wait for something to come down from Salt Lake so we didn't get started until around 4:30 p.m. I hadn't eaten or had a drink all day (except one I sneaked early on) so I was feeling pretty puny, as they say in Texas. Yet I endured one more test - radioactive gunk pumped in my arm, laying in a machine unmoving for 13 minutes, walking then running for 11 minutes to get my heart rate up (I couldn't go the distance but got it high enough), then laying in the machine again for 15 minutes where Riley said I fell asleep twice. It took until around 7 p.m. to get all the results. The doctor said I have no heart problems which is a huge relief given my grandfather, father and brother all had heart attacks in their 50's and my mom in her 60's. They were concerned about this family history.
They said I have a hiatal hernia but it's small. He also mentioned that stress can contribute to acid in the stomach, building up and causing pain. His suggestions were to take Maalox, lessen the stress in my life and see my regular doctor to possibly see a specialist. Two of those are easy, one, not so easy.
I was worn out from laying in bed all day and going to different areas of the hospital to do all the tests. Poor Riley was worn out too, experiencing sympathy chest pains and having had only two meals during the day. He is such a strength to me and such a calming influence. I love him. It was a rough day for both of us and even though I still have chest pain I know my heart is good. That's a huge blessing and an answer to prayers. (Thanks to my mom and siblings who put my name on prayer rolls in their areas!) Riley had given me a blessing in the middle of the night before we went to the ER to help me calm down and help the doctors figure out the problem.
I'm not a good patient. I don't like not doing anything, hence, I overdo and stress myself out. I wanted to get up and move around, not be tied to machines and the stupid BP cuff that nearly exploded my arm. Then I thought about people I love who are chronically ill and how they deal with medical crap nearly every minute of every day, mostly putting on a happy face while doing so. I felt ashamed that I complained about my day of inconvenience while trying to find the cause of the pain. I know they've endured many days and many tests, more than I'll ever know of.
The pain is still there but I know it's my stomach betraying me, not my heart. It's uncomfortable and Maalox, Tums and Ibuprofen are becoming my new best friends but I can deal with it.
I turned 50 this year. All the things I feel about that are for another blog, another day. But I just want to say I'm not old. I might be falling apart here and there but I'm not going to let the old people problems get me down. We all have to grow old and we can fight it tooth and nail or do it gracefully. I'm going to fight it tooth and nail gracefully.
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