Author: Sharon

I had to go in for some NU-cle-ar medicine today, and let me tell you, I’m glowing!

No, I’m not preggers. In fact, when the woman asked me if there was any chance I was pregnant, I huffed such a loud PHFFTTT.. that both the women next to me and the tech started to giggle. I’m guessing it was an effective Phffft!

I had to go in today to get a parathyroid scan. Are we ready for our medical lesson for the day, boils and ghouls?

The parathyroid glands are small endocrine glands in the neck that produce parathyroid hormone. Humans have four parathyroid glands, which are usually located behind the thyroid gland, and, in rare cases, within the thyroid gland or in the chest. Parathyroid glands control the amount of calcium in the blood and within the bones.

The parathyroid glands are four or more small glands, about the size of a grain of rice, located on the back side of the thyroid gland. The parathyroid glands are named for their proximity to the thyroid but serve a completely different role than the thyroid gland.

The major function of the parathyroid glands is to maintain the body’s calcium level within a very narrow range, so that the nervous and muscular systems can function properly. (Lol.. no wonder I’m a twitchy bundle of nerves sometimes..)

When blood calcium levels drop below a certain point, calcium-sensing receptors in the parathyroid gland are activated to release hormone into the blood. PTH affects the perception of well being and absence of PTH can be associated with feeling of fatigue and anxiety. (Anxiety? Who me? Nahhh…)

So, long story short, my PTH is high, and my blood calcium is high – again- and my doc said she wanted to see what’s going on. That means a radioactive isotope is injected into lil ol me, and then they tell me to lie still for 40 minutes while they take purty pictures of my neck area. Then they tell me to go away for a few hours and come back and then lie still for an hour so they can take some more pictures.

We’ll see what the Dr. thinks in a few days. In the meantime, I’m just radio-active.

In my last blog, I mentioned that we were going to meet up with my sister and aunt and then go play Bingo. Although the dinner part went fairly well, the Bingo was a bust.

We got delayed and ended up not getting out of the restaurant until 8:00 or so. By the time we went to the Bingo Hall, the place was PACKED. There wasn’t even one parking space, let alone 4. We decided to call it a night and said our farewells.

Since the Bingo hall is very close to the house I lived in while growing up, Hubby and I decided to cruise by to see the old homestead. After my parent’s died, I did this fairly often. Most people tend to go to a grave site to visit their loved ones, but I like to go to the place where the living happened, not the place where the external physical husk is buried. The house looked good and the people who own it now seem to be taking great care to fix it up. This made me feel happy and we left for home. At the entrance to the development, I glanced over to see my sister’s car and her waving madly at us. Laughing, I realized she’d done the same thing independently. She’d gone to say hello to Mom and Dad, too.

Every year, at the holidays, comes the opportunity for tension in families unless there is a clear plan for who is going where and when. I find this *choosing* to be uncomfortable and unnecessary, so I’ve decided to alter when we have our family get-together. Yesterday was our version of Thanksgiving, which I’ve called the Harvest Dinner.

Our tradition starts with a trip to the farm to pick some Granny Smith apples and then over to the pumpkin patch to get a pumpkin.

Number 4 with her beau. Her smile is so beautiful when she’s relaxed and happy.

Beautiful day, picking fruit and happy people…

Number 2 and his girl…they are geek, jr and his geek girl.  So familiar, yet so different!

This year, the pumpkin patch wasn’t as prolific or as good as last year, but we still found some great pumpkins.

And then we proceeded to gut the gourds! (Hubby calls this punkin’ guttin’ cam view)

While the kids carve their pumpkins, I finished up our dinner. I’d made some stuffed turkey tenderloins, gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans with yellow peppers and pine nuts, cranberry chutney, bread, butter, gingerbread, cupcakes and pumpkin wontons with apricot glaze. (Somehow, I’m told this might have been too much, but I like to think that it just means that all have enough and I don’t have to cook for the rest of the week!)

Number 3 brought home a new friend as well and he looks very pleased with himself.

And then we all played what we call “The Screamie Game”, which is actually called Catch Phrase. We had a great time.

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

For my birthday back in August, I was gifted with Rosetta Stone programs for both Italian and German.

I didn’t start learning or using the program right away – like I should have- and when the end of September rolled around, I decided it was time for me to get cracking. I’d like to be able to minimally understand the people, read some signs and maybe even not embarrass myself if I have to ask a question in either language. I know this is an ambitious undertaking, but why not? I’m confident that I can get some of this down in a timely manner. (Manner – with an accent, this is the plural for man in German)
What you see above is a perfect example of the system I’ve come up with to work on multiple languages. I’ve learned some Italian to get me started, but when I had gotten to a certain point, I started the German program. Now, when I learn the German (Das Madchen rennt.) I immediately translate that to Italian (La bambina corre.) and then to English. (The girl runs.) I’m keeping a journal (giornale)  – haven’t gotten to that one in German yet – and I’m writing (scrive – schriebt) down all three languages to help me remember it all. I HAVE to step up my lessons though, because I’m finding once or twice a week is too long to go between lessons now that the Italian is starting more complex sentences. (Noi abiammo dei fiori bianchi.) I should probably get a little closer with the German to where I am in the Italian. Hubby thinks I’m nuts doing this simultaneously, but honestly, it seems to be the easiest way for me to do it so far.

Last year, we had a Sister’s Dinner at my Aunt’s house. Since then we’ve had a crab feast at my sisters house and a get together in February. This has become a healing time for my sisters and I. After the death of our parents, we all needed time to find where we were and deal with that in our own way. Now, instead of coming together because our parents wanted us to, we come together because WE want to.

Tonight, we are going to that fine dining establishment, Denny’s, to chat and visit with one another and catch up on my 72 year old Aunt’s ghost hunting adventures, and then we are going to go play BINGO! (Shhhh.. don’t tell, but Hubby LOVES to play Bingo.. hehehe)

I like to move things around now and then and try new colors and themes for my blogs, so I decided I’d had enough of the blue and pink on here and was going to try something new. Something FRESH! Something DIFFERENT!!

Notice it’s the same-old, same-old?

Yeah, me too.

I went to customize, chose some new colors and hit preview and all I got was gray. Gray, dull, dismal, gray – grey, gris. Blech. On top of that, it didn’t show any content, as if I’d erased my entire blog.
O. M. G.
That would totally suck.

In a panic, I hit that back button. I decided I’d rather have the blue and pink than risk obliterating my blog. At least until I figure out a way to print out the darn thing and put it in a notebook. Seems counter-intuitive, but I’d like to keep a paper copy to be sure I have my past, even if I decided to go live out in the sticks and give up electricity, the internet and all things social, grow a beard, own goats, stop bathing and become one with all the little creatures that would feast on my flesh.

Pah! Who are we trying to kid here? Me? Give up the internet?? And goats, nah, far more likely I’d own llamas… and rabbits. At least you can knit with those.

You’ll have to click through to YouTube, but I think it’s worth it.

You’d think from my last post I was in a crappy mood, but not so much. I just thought that the song and lyrics pretty much fit a few situations and I wanted to share.

Having said that, you’d think I’m bitter and angry. Nope. Again, not so much. Disappointed and surprised – which I’m pretty sure that song mentions, but so be it.

I read recently, “Never make your happiness contingent on another person or material goods.”

In some ways that sounds pretty harsh and closed-minded, but I don’t read it that way. Life changes, things come and go, people come and go but you are your only constant. If you can remain happy and upbeat and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, then you’ll be fine. If you are dependent on others to always help you out, you’ll find yourself disappointed, the victim, and maybe even stranded.

Sure, invite people into your world. Enjoy them while they are there. You probably will miss the good feelings you felt with them, but that shouldn’t be the end of your world. Work it out, and move on. Can you remember them with fond feelings? Depends. Is it THEM you are remembering or is it actually the feelings you felt when you were with them that is the true thing you are missing?

If that’s the case, your focus needs to find a way to feel the same way, the same happiness, you did when they were around. If that means a new relationship, or a new car, or new music, or pictures of puppies, or soft fuzzy blankets, then so be it. As long as you are feeling better about your world than you were a moment ago, that’s progress.

Today, I’m radiating with it. I’m rolling in it. If you read aura’s I’m probably a blindingly yellow right now. It’s moving through me, so don’t attract my attention unless you want a direct gaze at something awesome and a little frightening.

I’m Power Full today.

My body is thrumming, my mind is sharp.

Now my job is to take this power full day, and do something good with it. I’ve noticed that today, I’ve got a bit of an edge on. It’s not like I’m angry or anything. I was a bit annoyed earlier and I think that’s colored my view today, but I’d rather be happy. I’d rather be the radiant person who smiles at you and you feel better immediately.

As a friend of mine used to say, “If she could only use that power for good instead of evil…”

That’s what I choose to do. I want to make every person who comes in contact with me feel equally power full and good. Or whatever it is they need to feel.

Am I out of my mind? What am I going on about? Dunno.. if you’ve never felt this way, then you’ve never felt this way. It’s an exhilaration, a feeling of can-do, a feeling of euphoria, a coming together of all that I am. I’d like to feel like this all the time, because it’s quite addictive. I aspire to feel like this as much as I can.

Try it, you might like it! :0)

Stifled. Edited. Compressed. Manipulated. Angry. Unjustly Accused. Misunderstood. Abused. Misled. Hurt. Compromised. Forced. Suppressed.

Me too.

But then I work really hard to change the way I look at things.

Sometimes it works. Today, I’m having troubles.

When my children were young – oh those many years ago- I bought each one of them a big plastic tub and put their name on it. As the years went by, I collected school projects, events they performed in, notes they wrote and pictures they drew and slowly filled the box with reminders of their childhood.

Since we are going through a bunch of stuff and purging items we don’t need before we move, I told my youngest that she needed to begin to sort through her stuff and decide what she wanted to keep. Out of the storage unit came 6 big boxes and the tub with her name on it.

She opened the tub and started going through it finding the bracelet I wore in the hospital when she was born, her many school awards, some poetry she wrote, all of her chorus programs, newspaper articles about her, her report cards and the little notes the teachers would write about her progress. This kept her  laughing and giggling for at least two hours as she read out loud some of the poems she’d written and handed me things she’d written about Mommy. It was glorious and certainly worth the shoving, lugging, moving and storage of that box (and the other three) for the past 21 years.