OT chatter 2007-11-01 | Arthritis Information

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Morning all!  Been busy lately; should be online this evening.  Hope everyone survived Halloween without too many cavities!!!! Goodmorning everyone!  The dog let me sleep in till 7 am!!!! WOOHOOO!!!  Well it is november today and what does that mean??? Its almost Thanksgiving!!!!!!!  I LOVE Thanksgiving!!!!! YAY for food

We had about 140-150 Trick or Treaters last night. I tried this the other day and had a few problems so I will try again to post a few picks from or Family Halloween Party. We just pick a day and invite all of the family from both sides to come in costume or as they are. I think this was the 5th year. It is a lot of work but also a lot of fun.

All that dressed up.

My wife and I

Ham and Cheese Witches, and Deviled eggs

began well before daybreak as I visited a beloved friend's graveside to place bunches of marigolds around her headstone, crossed candles above her heart, arranged a earthly feast for an angelic companion.In my mind I danced for her and then drank to her memory.

Who says ritual is meaningless?!

I bid you all a day filled with meaning and memory. May your hours pass in comfort, your roads be smooth, and your skies clear blue.

Peace, HappHapp, my BF and I spent some time honouring the dead last night (I have a
lot of dead people in my life). I told him I wished we treated Hallowe'en more
like Mexicans do, hanging out with the dead, making them feasts, and
maybe eating a candy skeleton (do you have those?). I mean, I enjoy
dressing up, partying, and having a lot of candy, but I wish more of a
relationship with death was incorporated into Canadian culture. Instead, it
catches us surprised and emotionally unprepared every time. [QUOTE=Gimpy-a-gogo]...maybe eating a candy skeleton (do you have those?).[/quote] We have bread skeletons and sugar skulls. The bread is dipped in limon juice (limons are a small, tough, SOUR lime-like fruit), salt and eaten with cerveza or tequila. The skulls are broken and shared with others who are visiting the cemetery. Symbolically, eating represents both acceptance of physical mortality and the incorporation of something beyond the physical into the one who ingests the bread or sugar..

Like you I have a great many dearly departed, however my beloved friend and mentor, Marguerite (affectionately know as Nana) is the only one whose grave is close enough to visit. Thus, my celebration of her life embraces everyone who has passed my way.There was a tine, not too very long ago when I could spend the whole night dancing...

Edited for inability to correctly format. Oh my.Happ39387.3761458333

Good morning chillin's!

Jay, it looks like you guys had an awesome party.  I'm so impressed with the fancy dancy grub!  Pretty creepy looking clown you are.  I have to say, that the old blue hair lady really cracked me!

Happ, I believe there is great meaning in tradition and ritual.  And I believe those on the other side do know when we honor them.

I am so pleased with the way our final haunt went last night.  It was HUGE.  We started bringing groups through at 6:15 and didn't stop until 11:00.  People stood in line for 2 hours to go through.  And it seemed to be well received.  Lots of good screams and scares were had by all.

The live snakes were great for anyone afraid of snakes.  The funny thing is we cast the storyline with 4 big guys and 3 of them were afraid of snakes, so we had to put my daughter there too, so she could actually do the snake handling!  She came up to me early in the night and said don't tell any of the guys, but one of the REAL snakes got away and I don't know where it is!!  If the guys had found out, we would have had to shut down until it was found.  (It's still loose somewhere, by the way, LOL).

My body didn't fare quite so well, I must admit.  I was up all night cause I'm a hurtin'.  It was a very, very long day yesterday, lots of stuff I did had a cumulative effect and I am paying for it now.  But that's okay, it was sooo worth it.

You would have laughed at me, however, 'cause I couldn't find my rice pack and I really wanted one, so I grabbed one of my hubby's socks and came downstairs to fill it with rice.  All I had was flavored rice mixes, so it took about 3 boxes of flavored mixes to fill one sock, and BOY did it smell!

I will make a thread with photos from the haunt, so those who are interested can take a peak, and those of you who may be sick of hearing about it can skip it, LOL!

Looks like a fun party Jay, deviled eggs, ha ha. We didn't have any trick-or-treaters, that was a first.

DD and I went to the fabric store and she asked for more material for the pajama pants she likes. Chose some beautiful Dia de los Meurtos cloth. She learned about it in Spanish. Dancing skeletons in traditional Mexican clothes, not my idea of a night time pattern.

 

Goodmorning all.  The day after infusion, and have to get up to do some stuff for the family.  I feel exhausted and sort of sick, but am trying to just work on water...and lots of it. 

Jay...great pictures!  Thanks for sharing

Happ...I love the cultural celebrations...and the remembering of the loved ones.  Thank you for sharing

Karen....hmmmm, it is always amazing to me that grown men are scared of snakes.  As long as they are not poisonious I am fine with them.  I worry more about bears...actually.  Hope you find your snake, but it may have found a place to hibernate...if it is cold enough in the night.  I know it is here. 

WEll, I have to shower and get those things done to catch some more rest before the kidlets come home.  Hope they are in a better mood today. 

Love to all, shel

 

LOL, Shelly, the snake is loose in my family room, which doesn't really get THAT cold!

I'm not concerned - it will turn up.  Probably the dogs or cat will sniff it out and we can find it and turn it loose outside.  They were just 5 garter snakes we found in our yard, so we can thank them for their service and turn them loose now.

Wooo FREAKING HOOO!!! Ya'll see it?? WEll do ya punk??

It be my non-SWELLED, non-painful, see my kneecaps again, bends & straightens all the way right knee!!! Oh and the left knee, too!

 

And all I had to do to achieve this result was... take a crap load of IBU & muscle relaxers.

Yeah... I always respond fast & well and then it titers out.

I am off to clean house. < =text/>_popupControl();

Jay…great pics!!  I see it worked so it must have been the problem I told you about.  I love what you guys did with the pizzas and deviled eggs!  Very cute and creative!!

 

Shannon…I love Thanksgiving too.  We always do our own Thanksgiving and don’t visit relatives for it.  I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner and now the girls are old enough to help and it just gives me the warm fuzzies to be in the kitchen with them cooking and baking.  Arielle wants to do Thanksgiving dinner on her own this year but I am not ready to let her do it.  I’m sure she can, but I love doing it. 

 

Gimpy…I couldn’t agree with you more on your outlook on honoring the dead.

 

Happ…I honor my daddy every single on the anniversary of his death.  The weird thing this year…I had an infusion on the 4th anniversary of him crossing over.  Karen has been a great mentor to me in dealing with things and understanding things about crossing over and what are loved ones are really doing on the other side. 

 

Karen…rest today woman!!!  I command it!!  Like you are gonna listen to me in the first place lol. 

 

Shelly…don’t overdo today.  I am always really tired and have a headache and some nausea for a couple of days after an infusion.  I have promethazine to help with the nausea and then I just really take it easy for the day.  I eat light too.  Have you noticed if your appetite has decreased since you started infusions?  Mine has and I have lost weight.  Now that I am on 10mg of pred I don’t eat like a horse anymore.  I am back to really just eating enough to keep up the proper calorie intake I need.  

 

I am not going to be around much today if at all anymore.  I woke with a raging cold (go figure) and my RA is just bugging out.  I had to ask Danny to stay home to care for me.  I just don’t think I can manage the girls and everything on my own tonight.  They are good kids…but they are still teens and some days hard to manage lol.  I can’t take anything but Benedryl for my cold because of the hypertension.  So, it is going to be a night of snoring loudly lol.  Poor Danny!!!  I have to say even tho the RA is bugging out today…it felt so good to do “normal” things yesterday.  It was a definite self esteem boost I was in desperate need of.  Today I will just rest and snuggle up with Danny.  Tomorrow will be a better day!

 

Hope everyone is well…and if you are not feeling well today…please rest when and if you can!!!  

I cant wait till Kelsay is old enough to really help.  I only do baking for the holidays and she does help but not to much right now.  We are sticking around IL for the holidays this year.  We dont have the money to go down to KY to see my inlaws (which im fine w/).  Hubby said that if they want us to come down bad enough they can pay for us to come down (they paid for my SIL and nephews to come down from Canada), that we're not going to screw us up financially to go down this year.  So I'm fine w/ that.  I was thinking about going to Ohio for Thanksgiving, but we were planning it all on the plan to visit w/ my Grandmother since they had thought that she was only going to make it to Christmas.  Well God had different plans for her.  So we'll be w/ my side this year.  Not sure where yet, we dont usually plan that till the week of Thanksgiving. 

Liz...I have noticed a substansial loss in appetite.  I have lost a couple of pounds, but it has gone like a seasaw when I am swollen. 

I ate too heavy for lunch and had too many errands, but they are done, and I think I am going to alert my hubby that I am taking a half a pain pill and going to bed.  I am beat and hurting. 

Joonie...good deal on those knees...now don't do what I do and work yourself into so much pain that you snap at every living thing, and all of the extremities swell!

Shannon and Liz...LOVE, Thanksgiving...and having everyone home...I just like having everyone at home anytime...but Thanksgiving is magic to me!  I actually love this time of year!!!

Yea Thanksgiving is great, its the one day where you can eat and eat and no one can give you crap for it

Let hubby and the boys take it all down...you can sit back and supervise!

Yeah, that sounds like a nice plan, but that won't happen.  Actually, we are all in recovery mode right now.  Poor Dana had to go to work today, and actually fell asleep at his desk!!  His buddy let him snooze a few minutes and then came over to his cubicle and told him to wake up, cause the boss was coming! 

We're not doing any clean up until the weekend, and probably not a lot then.  We have other things going on this weekend that will take up our time.

Hello everybody!!  Nice Knees Joonie

Karen, you're one heck of a make-up artist!

So how are you two today?

I'm good.  Hi Gale!  Karen, I couldn't believe how elaborate your Pirate ship was.  You did a GREAT job!!!How's the critter keeper these days? 

Hola kiddos!

I just posted an update on myself and my family and Justin.

 

I've never been so emotionally exhausted in my LIFE.

 

Glad to see everyone enjoyed their halloween!!! karen, did you post pics? I'm reading this at work, so I may have missed them. :( Poohey!

Yeah, Katie, there's a thread with photos.  Check it out when you can.

You need to get some rest Katie, I'm tellin' ya. 

I hope the surgeon has GOOD news for you tomorrow!

Brisen39387.7813541667Oh, Gale...I'm up to four miles

 

Oh god, I said the damn "H" word. Now we'll get pelted with a random, non season one. Way to curse yourself, Katie!

Sooooo Link-ey-pooh....you're RUNNING 4 miles??? Like........out in the real world? Or treadmill? LoL I'd love to see the real world again....

Good for you Link.  Hope you get where you're going soon so you can stop running so much.  How many more miles you figure it will take? 

Up until 5 years ago, I ran practically every day of my life. Hubby and I used to run 10K's and half marathons. Not any more!

Well... I did no house work. Just thinking about it made my knee swell again

MIL did say it looked much better today than it did yesterday. And that it still looked very swelled to her. Yeah... she JINXED ME!!! Because after she left about an hour later it start hurtin' and swelled again. DAMN DIRTY ROTTEN KNEE!! Oh wait... not my knnes fault it is RA's FAULT!!! Nah... I will blame hubby

Welp, would stay and chat, but we are to play agame with daughter. I must psych myself up to hearing the tittybaby cry, because I know I am going to WIN!!!

Karen sounds like the haunted house was a riot.  I would have loved to see guys freaking out from snakes, it would have almost been worth it to let one loose purposefully

Katie you know you guys are in my prayers, nothing much more I can say than that.

Liz get yourself tucked up in bed and order the minions around till you feel better.

I'm waiting for a call from my GP regarding my GI specialist and seeing a neurosurgeon for my neck and I was told to ring him because my Rheumy said there was something wrong with my potassium level.  So I have to wait another hour and if he doesn't call I'll call him again.  Merryn is recovering from her surgery on Tuesday and looking forward to starting her new job as an optician on Wednesday next week. 

We have a long weekend here this weekend, a 4 day one

 

Ok, I'm back...just pickng up my daughter.  Katie, just on the treadmill.  Not nearly as hard as the real world, still it feels really good.  Karen, I hope I never get there!  I really enjoy running, I don't want to have to stop.

Ok, I am going to read Katie's update, see ya in a few.

Oh Link, its sure been better!

 

 

I remember playing games with my mom growing up. She always let me win. Hehehe until I got older, like 10 or so, then she started making me lose every other game, so that I understood what it meant to lose. She was a good mommy.

I've got minestrone left from soup kitchen last night so we'll start with that.  Then I think I'll make white chili and rice.  A salad.  And something for dessert.

Mark will clean and I will cook, that's what works best for us

Katie, are you going to stop by to say goodnight to J dog?  Alright, I'll NEVER call him that again.

Last time I talked to Mo, she had a like, 4 bags of candy corn.  You know what happened last time. Serioulsy though, I am kinda concerned.  She isn't usually gone this long.

She's in the hospital with a candy corn drip, trying to help her on the come down of her sugar high.

 

yes, I'm going to stay out there with him tonight, he's pretty emotional right now.

What's white chili?

made with albino chili beans????

 

Minus the chicken of course, it sounds like it might be good!Gale, that chicken WANTED to be in the chili. I swear!

It's yummy!!!

Has Justin heard at all from his mother?  I hope you don't say no.

This is what I made my mum for Christmas,  I'm just wrapping it up to put in the mail.

Chickens do.  It's a well known fact among chicken whisperers, that the highest calling for a chicken is to either be food or provide food by way of eggs, for human beings.  They hope one day to also be used as attire for humans and hope that day is in their futures.Of course you know the answer is no. Well, it was, for a long time. Then he called her today and layed into her. Pretty much told her, look, I have a lot of crap going on and for once you're going to stay quiet and listen to me. And she did, but of course there was no apology there. There never is. I don't think she had much to say about it either. Can't say that really surprises me. :(Katie, I'm tellin ya, that just boggles my mind.  Her attitude is truely something that I cannot figure out. It's so...unnatural.  It doesn't "go" with being a mom.I know. She's out there in limbo sometimes. But not always, that's the weird part. And for a while you know, we were chalking it all up to the cancer diagnosis. But that's been totally nixed, so I don't know what her issue is now.Pammy, the necklace is beautiful.  And your mom will like it all the more because you know what they say about handmade gifts.  Last year my tough Marine son actually knitted me a blanket.  His then girlfriendnowwife aught him how.  Isn't that funny?  And sweet.WHAT????  She doesn't have cancer?  Are you sure they ever really said she did?  I know one and know of two other people who have greatly embellished a so called cancer diagnosis and they are all three people who seem to be desparate for attention.  it's all eyes on them all the time.  maybe his mom is like that? She certainly seems self centerd enough for something like that.How gorgeous.  It's so sweet when guys do stuff like knit and crochet.Yeah, he calls her self centered alot, and I can't say that I've been real quick to disagree. No, they did say she had cancer. She did have a tumor in her colon. It just came back inconclusive, and so they assumed, and started her on chemo. When the second tumor showed up, they got a good "reading" I guess, on it, and it was begnin(sp) So they said stop chemo, you're fine. And she hasn't had one since. Who knows. Then again, this is the same hospital that told Justin he originally had lymphoma, before he slipped into a coma, and they figured out he had Chrons. So ya know, we may not be dealing with the brightest of docs.

Link, I don't believe your chicken whisperer story for one minute.

Gale...it is true, you can ask any chicken you want.  They'll back me up.

Katie, I'm glad she isn't dying.  An alive mom is a mom you can make ammends with and I hope it works out that way for Justin and her.

I gotta agree with Link on this one. I think chickens strive to be our dinners.

I'm really not, I just love chicken. ba-GAWK!

And all those poor turkeys that are being raised solely for the purpose of the Thanksgiving meal...don't get me started! LOLGale, seriously.  What else do chickens and Turkeys have goin?

LOL Omg you guys crack me up! Thanks for the laugh, I really needed it. :)

 

And yes, Gale, what else do they have goin' for them?

 

How is everyone? I need to go back and read the post, i will read them later.

Well gee...thanks Link! Hi Milly.  What are you gonna do about your medicine dilemma? < =text/>_popupControl();

Gale…do you have any good recommendations for a good vegetarian cookbook?  Danielle really leans towards being vegetarian (she has a seafood weakness lol) and I have no idea what or how to cook for her. 

 

I am still in mucho mucho pain and have resorted to my pain distractions to help me cope.  My hands are so swollen the skin is shiny.  It’s really gross to look at lol.  Danny rubbed my hands and they felt better for a bit.  RD out of office on Fridays but will put in a call to PCP in the morning to get permission to up my pred and to find out how high to up it.  My infusion is Monday afternoon and I will call in the morning and tell them I need to talk to the doc. 

 

Danny stayed home today to care for me.  I just felt I could not manage the girls etc. on my own.  It is a good thing he did too because the girlies were in rare fighting and arguing with me and each other form today.  I think it is just the worry and stress that I might be going downhill again and wind up in the hospital again. 

 

You guys are cracking me the heck up tonight.  I sure needed the laughs!!!   

 

Sheesh! The site froze up on me and it was like 10 minutes before it would let me back on!

Liz, I don't really have a specific vegetarian cookbook that I like more than any other...most of my really good recipes I've just collected through the years.

What you and Danielle really need to be looking at is getting a book on protein complementing so you'll know what types of food go together to make a complete protein.

Sorry you're still having so much pain...for some reason I thought your Remicade infusion was today.

Well gang, I'm getting sleepy, so I'm going to hit the sack.

Hope everyone has a restful and pain-free night!

Love ya's!

Hi Jay, The family Halloween pics were neat!  I can't believe you had 140-150 people.  We didn't have any cause it was raining really hard.  This is the first place where they have Halloween scheduled, but not on Halloween.  To me it seems so wierd.  We move from LI, NY to PA a little over a year ago.  Just thought I'd let you know I liked the pics.  Take care and when you have a chance, post me.  Take your time about that as I know you're not on line that much.  Take care Jay, and God Bless

      ~Dotti51~

The Moosewood Cookbooks are excellent vegetarian cookbooks...they were the first I used when I became vegetarian.  I recently started eating meat again and I still use them.


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