Congrats and Past Due Thank Yous

I have been behind on keeping up with the latest news from the bloggers listed in my blogroll. I was so surprised and happy to read about Mrs. Who's important announcement. Congratulations are in order as she and her hubby are expecting a baby!

Some past due thank yous are in order because some very kind ladies have honored me with some blogger awards. From Ordinary Life's Janet I've been awarded the Nice Matters Award. Thank you, Janet!

Out of My Mind's cmk has been gracious to award me with the I'm Totally Fabulous Award. Way back in June she also surprised me with the Rockin' Girl Blogger award. Thank you, cmk! At the time I tried to figure out how to put these award buttons on my sidebar and either couldn't figure it out or was afraid if I messed around with the "trying to figure it out" that I would totally screw up how the sidebar is set up.

I'm passing this one on to Deep in the Forrest's Jackie. I'm sure she has probably already received this award but a person can't have too many awards, right? To me, she fits the bill for "Rockin' Girl". Another gal who fits the bill is Pickled Beef's Tink. Again, since this award was going around earlier in the summer I'm sure she's gotten this from someone but she "rocks" my blog readin'.

I'm passing this one on to Hammer and Dazd.
Each fabulous in their own unique way.






Last but not least I'm passing on the Nice Matters Award to Ksquest, The Torn Pages'Sue, and Mrs. Who.

Regarding this whole blog business...I have several blogs on my blogroll and even other blogs not on my blogroll yet but I read them. So many of them I enjoy reading but I am sorry to say that I don't leave comments on them every single time I drop by to read the latest. I don't know why this is exactly. Some of it is probably pure laziness, another has to do with pressing for time issues (geez, Cindi how long does it really take to leave a little comment?), and another reason may be that I am just not in a "talkative" mood. Does that make sense? I do a lot of "lurking" and not saying anything. I'm sure other people do the same thing but even so, most people like to get some feedback once in a while. It is kind of like sitting there in the boat and hooking a worm on your fishing pole and throwing the line out into the water. You wait and wait and wait. You wonder....hmmm are the fish biting today? Maybe I didn't use a good bait. Maybe the fish are farther up the stream. Maybe the fish have had their full and moved on. You take it in stride and figure at least you had a relaxing time sitting there lost in your thoughts. Then you get a "bite" and a smile comes to your face. Pull up the fish, unhook it and throw it back in and decide to try it all over again. Sometimes you get a bite and other times the fish just ain't bitin'.



This week has been very tiring and physically painful for me. I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned on my blog that I have diabetes type II. I have to take a lot of medicines to keep it in check along with my high blood pressure meds. I suffer from diabetic neuropathy in my feet too.
The neuropathy is the worst thing for me to cope with. On one hand my feet feel so numb. If I drop something on my feet nowadays, I don't really feel the pain that should be there. On the other hand my feet do hurt but it is in a different way. It is hard to explain to anyone who doesn't have it themselves. Dealing with diabetes is so depressing to me.


For quite some time now I have had tremendous pain in the calves of my legs. I have had that test to make sure I don't have peripheral artery disease (PAD) and the test was negative for it. I have all the same symptoms of PAD though. Then this week I started having the most awful cramps in my right leg. It was like a charley horse but ten times worse than any charley horse I've ever had. When I was walking into work on Thursday, I was in the parking lot halfway to the hospital (where I work) when the muscle in my right leg cramped up and seized on me so bad I had to stop walking. I was afraid it would take me to my knees the pain was so shocking and scary. I managed to limp the rest of the way, while praying under my breath that I would make it inside okay. All the while I am doing so while trying to have a normal pleasant expression on my face.


I made it inside and was relieved to be able to sit down. For the rest of the night, every time I had to get up and walk anywhere it was sheer torture on me. One of the e.r. nurses told me that low potassium will cause leg cramps too. So I looked up foods that are high in potassium and decided to buy some. I already knew that bananas are high in potassium but I didn't know that apricots, raisins and bran are high on that list too. By Friday, when I got up and around to get ready for work it was "so far so good" and I babied myself as I walked because I didn't want to hurry too fast for fear my cramps would get worse. Same thing happened when I got to work though. By the time I clocked out, I was miserable. I knew I needed to go to the grocery store so I wrote out my list and put things in the order of the easiest and fastest way to get each item according to where it was located in the store. By the time the pain levels were too much to handle, I just nixed getting certain things that were farthest from the check-out. At least I got the most important things. When I got home, I just brought in the bags with "refridgerator" items and left the rest in the car overnight.



On Saturday and today I have been using an electric massager on my leg calf and it seems to have helped a tiny bit. I wanted to go visit my parents but I just didn't want to chance making the cramps worse. So I stayed home and rested up. It really sucks. Taking my dog outside to do his business is the most I've been able to do. I am going to have to make an appointment to see my doctor. I can't keep up if this leg cramping won't ease up. I have been wondering if this pain could also be a symptom of menopause. I have a lot of other menopausal symptoms. I have not suffered any hot flashes but I have a lot of trouble sleeping straight through the night without waking up every few hours or less.

Anyway, I won't continue my boring you with my travails. I am just very frustrated and feeling discouraged about it.



This coming Saturday will be my first day of a nine-day vacation. I am so ready for it. On the ninth day of my vacation my siblings and I will be getting together to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Mom and Dad insisted that they did NOT want us to host a public party for them like we did several years ago when my grandparents had their 50th. They had that impromptu family celebration a few weeks back when they went up to northern Indiana to visit my mother's family. What we are planning is just a cook-out and all of us are giving my folks a money gift so they can take a one or two day trip somewhere. We can't make reservations for them anywhere because of my Dad's health. Dad has good days when he is full of energy and he has bad days where he just can't do anything. This way, they can decide when they can go somewhere and what to do.

I'm not going to spell check this post. So if there are any boo-boos, just overlook them! hehehe