It's been a long time since I blogged....AGAIN! I have a pretty good reason for it though. Jason and I have been very busy reflooring our office. Thanks so Kim who inspired us with her recent flooring remodel.

I have been gripping for the longest time about that ugly purple carpet in our office. I have a Dyson, which is in my opinion the vet vacuum on the market. My Dyson would not pick up the dog hair and all the dirt we bring in. So, the office carpet was a mess. It was so nasty and I couldn't do anything about it. When I was home on leave I developed a runny nose. It would not stop running. I told Jason I truly believe it was the carpet in the office that was affecting my allergies. So, I finally had enough a few weeks ago. I told him to rip up the carpet and we was going to refloor the office. It started out that I was going to put down linoleum, like what's in our basement. I was going to do it temporarily until we could afford to refloor the house. We drove to Lowe's one night and started to look at the Swiftlock flooring. We calculated it out and determined it was not going to be that much more expensive. So, we went all out purchasing everything to refloor the office. It took us a total of about 8 hours to refloor the whole thing. It's amazing. My runny nose is gone as well....Yippee! So, our next step is to do the hallway. Jason and I will probably tackle that this weekend. Then the following week it's on to the living room floors. I can't wait to get rid of all this hideous carpet. Funny story with the furniture. Not to brag but I used to be pretty strong before my surgery. Our desk is about 11' long and 1/2 of it is glass (as you can see below). Before my surgery I would have been able to pick it up and carry it without any problems. I can't pickup anything. I struggle to pickup Chase, who only weighs about 30 lbs. So, Jason had to come up with a system so I could help him. We took the wheels off the desk and placed my end up on our desk chairs. He picked up the other end and I wheeled the desk right out. Anyway, it was hilarious. Check out our floors below.

Before
After

Also, check out the Christmas photo below of my aqua aerobics class. This photo includes less than 1/2 the actual size of the class. Aren't they so cute?

Jason was in Philly this weekend so I had the weekend all to myself. I spent a lot of time cleaning and regretted it on Sunday. I don't know what I did but I hurt myself. It feels like my right mountain is on fire. HA HA HA! (laughing at the mountain joke). Anyway, when I'm sore I can't go to church. The pews are so uncomfortable and they hurt my back. So, I stayed home and watched about 12 - 13 hours of Felicity. It was crazy because I would watch 4 episodes and then I would get upset because I would have to get up and change the disc again. It went by so quickly. I'm still a little sore today but I feel so much better than I did on Sunday. The littlest things hurt. Oh well, I just suck it up. I only have a little over 1 year to go. :-)

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PROBLEM CHILD

That's right. This post is about Taylor again. Guess what I caught her doing tonight......eating Jason's retirement statement. I called Jason and was laughing so hard I couldn't tell him what happened. I had to email him. Ahh, we need to start agility soon or she's going to go crazy.

PROBLEM CHILD

That's right....Little Miss Problem Child did it again. First off, last week she was sick. She was so sick we took her to the vet because we thought something was wrong. This week.....she shattered her toenail chasing after a bunny. I picked her up after work tonight. She's still groggy after the drugs they gave her. I wonder what she will get into next week? It's always Jason's dogs. Does that tell anyone anything?????? :-)

So it's been another long time between posts. I have to say, I have become addicted to facebook so that seems to be where I spend most of my time now.

Just to catch you up. A lot has been going on. Each weekend we take the kids to the lake for a little hike. A few weeks ago we had to stop and come in early because it was a little too cold for Taylor. With Tay being a double coated Sheltie that tells you exactly how cold it was. Last weekend we went around sunset for a very short walk. It was icy out so when the kids ran up and down the hill the love I was a little nervous about broken bones. Also the ice fishermen were out so that's always very exciting to see.

Jason and I went on a hike last weekend. We went to our usual spot, Ricketts Glenn. Normally we deal with ice so we had our stablicers on. This time we needed snowshoes. We had to walk through about 4 - 5 inches of snow. That was difficult but we just kept going. I was very happy that my breathing wasn't bothering me at all. Before surgery, walking through that much snow, I would have been stopping all the time to catch my breath. Our favorite water fall was very beautiful and frozen over. I took my hiking poles and make sure the ice was thick before I started to walk over what is normally the pool from the fall. We walked right next to it. It's amazing that you can still hear it falling through all that ice.

Jason is sick this weekend so he's been home. I went grocery shopping (since another storm is coming) and had my normal breakfast at Panera Bread. I went to Lowes and just had a good time. Forgetting it was super bowl Sunday and everyone was out grocery stopping I was quite annoyed. I get in grocery shopping mode and short line mode. It's amazing to see the crowds of people standing in line waiting to check out when they should scope out all the lines for an opening. I found an opening right away with a quick cashier so I was very happy. Came home, cleaned the house a bit, played on facebook and watched movies.

This morning I went to church. Then I came home to pickup Jason and the kids for a ride. We went to BK for a Whopper. Umm, it was so good. Since we're not football fans AT ALL we'll just watch movies tonight and forget about the super bowl.

Oh yeah, probably the most important thing......On Friday I went to Johns Hopkins. When I arrived the check in lady said that they didn't have me on his schedule. More people had come in and had the same problem. Turns out Dr C. did not have clinic on Friday but he was doing a transplant. So, since I drove all that way the nurse practicioner was not very happy about my situation but was trying to get ahold of Dr. C while he was in surgery. Since I couldn't see him, I knew she could really help me with what I needed. I didn't have to see him. She told me he reviewed my X-Rays and the bar has not been displaced, which I figured. I told her that I did not want to go on any narcotics but I wanted a few things. I told her first off I wanted a hospital bed. I have been in a recliner ever since surgery and it's starting to hurt my back. I needed to be able to change positions throughout the night to eliminate all the pain in the morning that I end up with after I have been in bed. She wrote me a prescription. I cannot wait for my new bed. Finally, I can get a good nights sleep. I also asked for a prescription for botox. Botox is used for pain management. It numbs the nerves. I need to find a local doc first and then I will go for my first injection. If the hospital bed stops all my pain though, then I will not need the botox. So, I'm getting so excited about my bed. Only thing I'm worried about is how on earth anyone is going to deliver it. I have to put my jeep into 4WD before I can get up the hill. Delivery trucks cannot make it up our hill, period. Not even in the summer. If we can just get a break from this ice and snow then I can get my bed. We'll see. I'm going tomorrow to order it. Maybe they can deliver it that afternoon. Wouldn't that be exciting. It would come right before the snow storm. Woo Hoo! Today is warm too, 44 deg, so maybe the ice will melt to make it easier.

Blog #2 Pectus Recovery

As mentioned in my first blog on the issue I have been having a lot of pain. I believe this pain is caused from a nerve being pinched. It only occurs when I lay down at night to sleep. I spent about 2 months in our bed and now I have moved back to the recliner. The nerve is starting to bother me so bad that I now have to sleep sitting up in the recliner. Try that one out and see if you can sleep. Anyway, I'm not getting any sleep. I'm tired, exhausted actually but I keep pushing. I'm in bed by 9:00 each night so I can at least try to get more hours of sleep. I'm trying everything aqua aerobics, which has truly helped with my movement. I'm now trying a dancing workout which is tons of fun and really not that bad at all. I'm sore today but going to continue. I am seeing a massage therapist every 2 weeks. Nothing is really helping. I do not want to go back on narcotics so I'm just searching the internet for answers. I was looking on the Pectus Forum website and noticed a post today called Physical Therapy for Pain Relief. Another woman on the forum is having the same problems that I am having except she stayed on narcotics. Anyway, she has been receiving a different kind of therapy I have never heard of before called Myofascial Release. Their is a treatment center in PA but it's down near Philly. Since my massage therapist was a RN before she decided to help people with pain management I am going to take this website to her and see if she has heard of it before. I am willing to give it a try.

I do not regret having this surgery at all. I'm just looking for relief from the pain. The bar will be out in another 1-1/2 years. If I have to deal with pain that long then so be it. I can do that but, if I can find another solution to my pain then I'm all for it.

http://www.myofascialrelease.com/mfr/mfr_what.asp

Pectus Excavatum - Nuss Procedure - Part 1

Pectus Excavatum - Nuss Procedure - Part 2

My friend "Runs Like a Chicken" decided it would be a great idea to create a blog for the both of us to read about our progress after the Pectus Repair surgery. She had surgery July 16th and my surgery was July 17th. She's several years younger than I am but I have enjoyed her friendship and getting to know her as we sit back and talk to each other about what's going on in our lives and how we are feeling these days. It's very interesting to hear how she's progressing and how far she has come. I'm an old lady so I'm healing much slower. Ash - I'm totally looking forward to doing this. It was a great idea and I can't wait to look back on our journals and read about all that we have been through.
So, here goes with my first post.

As stated above my surgery was July 17th. I spent 1 week in the hospital and then spent 2 months off work healing. The whole time off work Ash and I would talk every day about how we were doing and how it was so nice having each other so we would not go insane with bordom.
I am now about 6 months post op. I still have a lot of pain/burning at night and stiffness/soreness during the day.

It's hard to describe how it feels but here goes:
Days: During the day most of my soreness is with my back. I truly believe it's because I am not able to arch my back like I used to. Also, with us older folks I read that since our posture has been corrected that our backs start to ache. The pain is very minimal throughout the day. It's mainly just sore. Every now and then when bending or twisting a certain way I feel a pinch. The pinch isn't bad at all, just reminds me that I have a steel bar inside my chest. Maybe I get this pinch because my incisions are right under my boobs. Good thing they are not that big. :-)
Nights: I spent about 2-3 months in a recliner. I then graduated to our bed. I spent about 3 months in bed. Every now and then I would have slight pain and would move to the recliner. Starting about 1 week ago I started having a burning sensation on my right side. My right side has always been my problem side. The burning sensation feels like someone has a torch on my insides. It's a little below my incisions. The first night I had the burning sensation I tried laying in bed. I didn't get up right away because I wanted to see if it would go away. I laid in bed for about 1 hour with the fire feeling on my chest and decided I could not lay in bed any longer. I needed to get some sleep. So, I moved out to the recliner. The second night, same thing. I laid in bed this time for only 30 minutes before I went back to the recliner. Third night was a good night. I had slight pain on my right side. When I would start to feel the burning I would roll over on my left side and the pain would go away. Once my left side started to hurt because of the bar I would roll back over on my back. Laying on my back and then rolling over on my side continued for most of the night. I didn't get much sleep. The next night I had a good nights sleep. No pain at all and I laid on my back the whole night. The last 2 nights have been very bad. I tried the bed first, like usual, and then moved to the recliner. Now the recliner was becoming uncomfortable. So, I would then move to the couch. I laid in the couch for a hour or two and then started to hurt so I moved back to the recliner. I don't know how many times I moved from the couch to the recliner. I can feel myself becoming very tired and cranky from lack of sleep. Last night I took some of my valium hoping that would help and it didn't. Normally it knocks me out since I take 2. Tonight, who knows. I have been sore all day today. I will try the bed first and see what happens.

I was in such a bad mood last night when talking to my mom she asked me for the first time if I regret having the surgery. Although I'm annoyed that I am not 100% better I never regret having it. Before my surgery I had heart problems. I couldn't stay up late and had to have close to 10 hours of sleep each night so my heart would not hurt. Since my surgery I have not had problems with my heart at all. I will take the pain and discomfort knowing that my heart is in it's proper place and not hurting anymore. As for my breathing, I can tell a slight difference in my endurance level however I cannot tell a different in my breathing. My poor lungs have been squished for 29 years. I can't expect them to start working properly after 6 months. I just need to keep exercising my lungs and my capacity will increase.

What I wish I could do now that I can't:
1. I wish I could play basketball. I'm not very good at shooting but I love to play defense. Right now if I was to get hit or knocked around a bit that would be aweful. Jason plays with a bunch of guys on Mondays and Wednesday. I go to all the games. I sit and watch wishing I could be out their playing.
2. I wish more than anything I could finally lay in bed without any pain or discomfort.
3. I wish I knew what was going on inside of me. I sent an email to my doc and she said that I should be feeling back to normal now since I'm an active person. I do aerobics twice a week, sometimes 3 times a week. I hike on the weekends and hardly ever sit down. I'm anxious to hear what she has to say tomorrow.

Well, that's it for my first post. If you are curious about my condition and want to know more about it Ash and I are members of a Pectus forum. Warning....most people on the forum are young males and all they care about is how they want to build up their muscles again. Every now and then though you get into some interesting conversations. I am also going to publish a video I found from youtube of the pectus surgery. (pretty cool.)

http://www.pectusinfo.com/board/index.php

Wow, it's been almost 1 month since I have last blogged. I'm becoming a horrible blogger. Sorry for those out their that check it to see if I have updated. For 2009 my New Years Resolution is to blog more.

Anyway, so let's catch you up on the McKenna Happenings.

Mainly the holidays is all that's been going on. Jason was on call this year so we had to spend Christmas home. I have to say, it was quite relaxing not having to travel. I think we're going to start telling family members they have to rotate traveling home or we're not coming home anymore. Traveling both Thanksgiving and Christmas back to back is hard. I also didn't have any time to take since my surgery so well, needless to say, the holidays was relaxing. I wouldn't mind spending the holidays home again next year :-)

Anyway, Christmas we decided to go to NYC. My friend Caras from work just moved here from Hong Kong so she didn't have anyone to spend Christmas with. We had a snowstorm the night before so we thought that the roads would delay our trip but we made it. Our normal transportation means was closed on Christmas day so we had to drive into the city. Traffic was light so it was no problem at all. Now that I know exactly what street the Lincoln Tunnel ends at I can navigate better than the first time we drove into the city. We parked a few blocked past Times Square for 15.00, which is unheard of in Manhattan. We went to Times Square where I hoped to see the Naked Cowboy but he wasn't out (boo hoo). We went to lunch at our favorite restaurant Ellen's Stardust Cafe. Caras LOVED it and will bring her boyfriend Chung back when he returns to the states in February. We then went to see the tree. It wasn't very crowded so I was finally able to see the ice rink. It was so pretty and cool to see. OH yeah, the weather was nice too. Then we walked all the way down to the Empire State Building, over to Macy's and back up to our parking garage. For those not familiar with the city that's like 30+ blocks total in walking. My legs were sore. We also visited St Patricks Cathedral, which is beautiful.

New Years Eve it was 18 deg outside. I left work early and went down to help my crazy neighbor with the bonfire. He didn't need help but I figured I would give him company. Crazy Donna and Jason were still at work. We couldn't sit by the fire because of the wind. It would change directions and the smoke would follow. Mainly the smoke followed me everywhere so everyone just didn't stand near me. My friend Dori and Gerald came over for the bonfire as well. I have pictures of everyone but only Gerald and my crazy neighbor were looking. The others are LOSERS! Oh yeah, check out my marshmellow that's on fire too. UMMMM.....

Other than that, that's been about it. I've been having a lot of pain lately in my side so I'm back in the recliner again. I told Jason I should just have the doc write a perscription for me for one of those motorized beds that I can adjust. Pillows just do not do the trick. I sent my doc an email. We will see what they say.

Enjoy our pictures....

My Snow Angel

Silly Hat Christmas Lunch

Wanting to steal from the candy dispenser.

Ever seen Felicity?

First I traveled through the seven layers of the candy cane forest. Then through the sea of swirly twirly gumdrops. Then I went through the Lincoln Tunnel

It's been a while since I have blogged. Sorry Dave. I just got back from B-ville. :-) Anyway so what have I been doing for the past 3 weeks?

Thanksgiving week we had planned on driving to the ADK's to visit with my aunt before her surgery. A snow storm was moving through the ADK's so we decided to stay home and not chance getting stuck. I had to fly out the Sunday after Thanksgiving and couldn't risk it. So, Jason and I decided to do whatever came to our minds. On Wednesday we went to Hickory Run or Boulder field. I have been wanting to see the field for a while with snow. It was so beautiful. I love snow too. We took Sam and Tay with us. Sam had her new little coat on so she was nice and toasty. I will have to post a photo of Sam with her coat on a later date.

On Thanksgiving day we went to Bloom to play frisbee golf with our crazy neighbor. I wanted to play so bad. I did a few putts and then decided to try a distance throw. Big mistake. So I ended up just taking photos the rest of the time. I also spent a week healing from that throw. The day after Thanksgiving Jason played again and I went along. I was following an hawk while the guys were playing and was able to get some amazing photos of it. Hawks are probably my favorite birds and I really enjoy photographing them.

So on Sunday it was off to Memphis. I must admit, I hate Memphis. With a passion actually. The only good thing about Memphis is my friends. On Sunday night Kim picked me up from the airport and I met everyone at El Porton. It was so nice catching up with all my agility buddies. We must have been in the restaurant for about 3 hours or so. Dave had to finish is huge drink. :-) Kim was nice enough to take me back to the hotel and not make me hitchhike. HA! I spent the week in Memphis bored out of my mind for the first few days. I was excited to visit with my other friends from Memphis we met at church while we lived their. Oh how I miss them dearly. Chris picked me up in his hooptie since the poor Jeep is broken. Carie fed me, oh how the chicken was good. I also got to meet Sutton for the first time. I think he was kind of thinking "Who's this freak". I think all babies think that of me. Watch out you guys, when he gets older and comes to visit Aunt Tonya he will be right at the age where I can teach him bad things. I also got to see Lil' D again. I swear those 2 are going to get married one of these days.

I flew home on Friday and got in around 10:00. I was so exhausted from not being able to sleep while I was in Memphis. I had like 7 pillows proping me up and it still wasn't enough. On Saturday Jason played in a frisbee golf tourney so I went to aqua aerobics. The weekend instructor is about my age and tons of fun. Sunday I packed for Bentonville or what I call B-Ville for short.

Got to the office on Monday morning and I was in a hurry to get things organized. I looked at my itinerary and was dislexic. I thought the flight was at 2:30 so I was pushing Sharon to hurry up so we could get out the door. Once we got to WB Sharon wanted to stop at Lonestar and get a steak for dinner. I didn't think we had time and she mentioned the flight wasn't until 3:20. Whoops. I didn't need to be in such a hurry after all. So we ate lunch and then went to the airport. I hate to be that early too. Oh well. B-ville was tons of fun. I was so busy the whole time but I love visiting. I got Braums, Maria's, Andy's and Sonic. Umm....all of my cravings were fulfilled. I got up every morning and did aqua aerobics in the pool. Walked around in a bathing suit and everyone was staring at me. Oh well. I covered myself up with a towel. The bottom of the pool was gritty so I ended up cutting up my toes really bad so I quit doing aerobics on Wednesday. I went out every night and had a drink. It helped me sleep so good and without pain medication. Maybe I should drink more often. :-) I'm a very light drinker. I only drink Dacquiries but man, they were good. I was able to get to know Bob-O, as I call him, during this trip. The more I hang out with him the more I enjoy his company. We both work on the WM account. He's a hoot! I kept asking like 20 questions. I wanted to know everything he did at work. I like to get to know people.

Anyway, that's about it. Until next time....

Trans Siberian Orchestra X-mas Lights

I saw this a few years ago and figured I would add to my blog. This is incredble.

It's Been A Long Time

First off let me appologize to all my blogger friends for taking an aweful long time to post. With that said, where do I begin?

After my last post, which was after Halloween I started physical therapy. I should have started a long time ago but I felt it was time. I still could not move like I used to. I was stiff, could barley bend over, turn around to look over my shoulder, lift anything heavy, ect. I chose to go across the street to Geisinger. It would be perfect because I could get it done within my hour lunch break. Since my condition is very rare my PT had never even heard of my condition. He was asonished (is that the right word?). Anyway, so he said he would treat me like a woman who just had a masectomy, which, makes sense. Anyway, I was scheduled to go 3 times a week for 8 weeks. At 30.00 a pop I was not looking forward to going every week. I was happy to say, first off I knew the PT. He was our announcer at our agility demo's at the Bloomsburg Fair. He's a very nice guy to so that made it fun that we could talk about dogs while I worked out. Well, I wasn't really working out but trying to. He said that he would set me up on a home program and I only had to come and see him once a week. Yippee, that made me really happy. I started off slow, with those therapand thingies. It was really hard to. I didn't realize how much muscle I had lost after the surgery. My guns were gone...... After Halloween I also decided to try out aqua aerobics. They hold classes on Tues and Thurs at the middleschool from 6:30 - 7:15. Jason never thought I would roll out of the recliner that early in the morning. Well, I did. Keep in mind I'm normally just getting out of bed each day when class is ending. Did I mention that this class was for senior citizens? Anyway, I had the best first day. Those ladies are a hoot. My first day there was about 25 people or so in the pool. I had so much fun. After we got out it was off to the locker room. That wasn't much fun at all. Actually I was traumatized. One of the ladies, the wild one as I call her, she told me it was good for me to come so I could see what I would look like at her age. They also talked about their barrells. Barrells they were too. No shower before work so I went smelling like a pool. I immediatly was telling everyone how much fun I had. I texted my friend Dori and invited her along. I was so excited she wanted to go. So, on Thursday we met at the pool together. We can't really talk much while in the pool because we're working out but just having her there by my side made it so much fun. I left the pool and headed to her house to change. Thanks Dori!

I am happy to report that I am finally sleeping in bed. I have been for about 1 month now. Every now and then I have a day where I'm in so much pain that I have to move back to the recliner but those days are minimal. I sleep with a stack of pillows since I still cannot sleep flat. I also sleep with a heating pad. The only blasted thing I HATE is the darned thing auto shuts off after 1 hour. For those that need constant very hot heat this is bad. So every hour I have to wake up, which is normally easy because of my pain, and turn the blased thing back on. I need to search the internet for an old heating pad that doesn't have that feature so I can sleep through the night. The only time I sleep soundly through the night in bed is when I take my 2 valium, which I have to do on occassion. With the cold weather finally here brings another problem. I can't get cold. If I get cold I shiver and hurt really bad. So, our new TV we had placed in the basement had to be taken upstairs since our basement is not heated. I also have to wear heavy clothes just in case I get cold. It sucks too. Gur.... or Burrr....ha ha ha

My chest still looks great. I am so proud of it. Even though I still have pain 24/7 I still look at it like it's my new best friend. If I could go back would I do it all over again? You betcha. The pain doesn't even phase me. Hurt all day long 7 days a week but I'm healthy now. My heart is back in place, my lungs are expanding......I'm so happy. Once these blasted bars are out I will be even more happier. I'm so proud I have shown most of the ladies at aerobics class my new chest. One says my surgeon is a good one because you can't even see my incisions.

The past few weeks have been nerve racking. Traveling season is starting up for me again. I will be leaving for Memphis on Nov 30th and flying home to Scranton on Dec 5th. I'll have the weekend home with my hubby but then on Monday the 8th I am heading out to Bentonville for a week. Needless to say Thanksgiving is right before these 2 weeks I will be traveling. We planned on heading home for Thanksgiving since Jay is on call during Christmas break and we cannot go home. I really didn't want to go at all. With my pain and traveling/working like crazy I knew traveling 3 weeks in a row would be pure torture for me. Not to mention when I get home from Bentonville we'll be heading to NYC with Dori and Gerald for our annual NYC Christmas road trip. So, I told Jason almost every day. I don't want to go home but I know I'll regret it if I don't get to see my family. Well our plans have changed and we will not be going home. Our plans really didn't change for a good reason though. One of my favorite aunts, Shirley, who lives in the Adirondacks in NY State has a tumor in her brain. My other favorite aunt Linda and my mom are both very concerned. The tumor is the size of a plum and is pushing against the part of her brain that helps with her memory. At first mom told me how bad it was but I really didn't believe her. So, I called Shirley and she couldn't even talk to me. She could talk but couldn't remember what she wanted to say. I could tell she was frustrated becuase the only thing she could say is "I don't know". Mom was very worried and wanted to see her before her surgery but couldn't find a way. Stacy called me and asked if I would pay 1/2 of mom's ticket to Albany so she could spend a week with Shirley before her surgery. Mom first needed to get off work. Once that prayer was answered it was time for me to work my wonders on the internet and find mom a cheap flight. Answered prayer number 2 came when I found a ticket from Indy to Albany for 182.00. Woo Hoo! That's round trip to. I had first found the cheap rates from Columbus but mom would have to fly into DC or JFK. I really didn't want her to have to go into those airports because mom hasn't flown by herself before. God really blessed us with a ticket out of Indy connecting in Charlotte. Woo Hoo! Well aunt Linda flew in from LA and met mom. So, on Wednesday when Jason get's back from his backpacking trip with J-Cob we will be heading up to Schroon Lake to spend thanksgiving with them. We will not have the normal huge dinner most people have but I am just thankful for many things. Thankful to see my mom, my 2 favorite aunts, thanksful to be going to the ADKS (our favorite spot), and just thankful that I do not have to drive that far. Please be in prayer for Shirley. We're hoping she'll ditch the doc in Glens Falls and fly to LA to have a specialty brain surgeon do the surgery on her. Shirley is hard headed so just pray she will listen to us.

Now for information on this weekend. As I mentioned above Jason is off hiking with J-Cob. He's been wanting to do this trip with him for a few years now but this time it actually worked out for him. I was so excited. So, I'm home alone just hanging out. On Friday Jason was still in town so we went out for dinner. He stayed overnight and then left really early on Sat morning. I have no idea when he left though. That morning I went into work to get some things done. Then I went to aqua aerobics. The instructor was not there so I had the pool all to myself, which was cool. Went home, slept for like 3 hours. Then I went back to the pool that night to swim with Dori and her friend Karen and her family. Again, the pool was all to ourselves. It was so much fun too. I tried to swim but I still do not have the strengh to hold myself out of the water so I ended up hurting myself instead.....One of these days. So, Sunday I met Dori and Gerald at EBC. They wanted to visit with me. The sermon was really good and it was nice to go to church again. The pastor is amazing. Afterwards we went to Panera Bread and sat for the longest time and talked. It was so much fun. So when I go home I painted the window and touched up some paint around the house. I have a few things more I have to paint before I'm done. I watched a movie and then decided I needed to blog.

So, hope you enjoy my book!

WOW! It sure has been a long time. I am alive and well, just busy. The last 2 weeks I have spent a lot of time working on our work Halloween costume. We ended up winning but I knew we would. Our halloween costume was amazing. Overall 4 of us spent close to 200 hours working on the thing. It's going to be very hard to top it next year.

We started getting ready around 9:30 on Friday morning. All 8 of us got ready in the showroom and then grabbed a few people to help us with the doors. We started our walk outside the building making tons of noise. I couldn't see how many people were outside but I heard almost the whole company was either peaking outside the window or actually outside watching us. We went from the front of the building over to the JDE room and walked through that. After that it was off to the front of the drive near the road for a picture by the Berwick Offray sign. So many people were honking, which was really cool. A lady from the nursing home across the street ran over and asked us to come over and walk through. Of course we will :-) We walked back to the office first for the judging. It was between us and the Jackson 5. We beat them, hands down. Woo hoo! They looked pretty cool though. I also enjoyed the goth group, the man dressed up as an old woman, and the pirate. All very cool costumes. We took the caterpillar off for a bit to cool down. It was extremely hot inside that thing. After 10 minutes we walked toward the road. They had to block traffic on rt 11 so we could all cross, all 32ft of us. :) Rt 11 is a very busy street too but I don't think people minded.

On Saturday I went with Jacquie, her sister Jen, her daughter Claire and I forget the other ladies name to a corn maze. It's becoming a tradition for us to go every year, which is neat. Jason couldn't join us this year, maybe next year. After the corn maze we went to a cemetary down the street. Seems weird but it was really cool to see. They have wire cages around them that some people call the wolf cages. I'll have to be sure to take Jason out to see them. The graves are from the 1800's so people are trying to protect them. The cages have a different meaning though. I'm attaching a link if you would like to read about them.

http://www.colcohist-gensoc.org/Essays/Cages%20on%20Graves%20Explained.pdf

Fall near our house

Other than that, we have just been hanging out. We recently got a new TV. It's been a long time coming since our projector died the week I was in the hospital. I hated to have people over to watch movies in the bedroom..Yucky. So we spent a few months researching and found one that we are really happy with. It's obviously much smaller than the projector screen but I love the picture. Makes it worth it.

I started physical therapy. This week I have not been very faithful, it's probably why I am so sore. I'm hoping to start aqua aerobics this week. I ordered a swim suit and the ones that came in were too small. I could barley fit. Hopefully my new ones will come soon. In the meantime I'll just find something else to wear.

Well, that's about it. Until the next post......

My Favorite Band

One of my favorite bands recently released a new albumn. It's AWESOME! One of my favorite songs is Rise and Fall. ROCK ON OFFSPRING!

Taco Eating Frenzie

Tonight was taco night. We opened a box of shells and Jason asked me how many I would like. I told him 3. That left 4 additional ones so he said he was going to go ahead and cook them. So, we had a race....who can eat all 5 tacos the fastest. Of course, I won. Now I ate too much though.

Physical Therapy

I started PT today. I am very excited about it because I'm so ready to get back to normal. I came home sore though. I'll have to work at it.

Prison Break

Yippee, it's on again tonight.

Oh yeah, I just picked my nose too!

My friend Dori invited us to her parents house this weekend to make saurkraut. I love saurkraut and was really looking forward to going. Jason went out shoe shopping since he's playing bball with a bunch of old guys from work. HA HA HA, they are really not old. Anyway, he's been needing a pair for a while. His poor big toe is nothing but a blister. So, I sent him off to hunt for shoes. No way was I going with him. He's shoe picky and I didn't feel like spending 2 - 3 hours in a shoe store. So, I stayed at home and wrote one of my friends from the Pectus forum. I also did laundry, which needed to be done. When Jason got home we decided to just stay indoors and hang out. Maybe next year Dori will invite me over again.....hopefully she doesn't hate me too much!

We finished Indiana Jones, which was STUPID! Then we watched Baby Mama, which was hilarious. I'm still having problems laughing so we watched it in segments. I would laugh, cry in pain, turn the show off and calm down then start it back up again. Ahh, the life of a Pectus surgery patient.

I also got up the nerve the other day to watch a 22 second portion of my surgery. I couldn't find the whole thing but the 22 sec segment showed the chest actually coming up as the turned the bar. VERY COOL. You should check it out. I also found a more in depth one if you are interested in that too. Cool as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxcS1do6JYo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mipXsvJMG8

Beautiful Sight

Jason and I was driving to work on Thursday watching the sunrise. I turned around and couldn't believe my eyes. The sunrise created a rainbow over the mountain. It wasn't even raining. It was amazing. I can't believe we live here.

I've been a very very bad blogger. I have an excuse though..... So, let me catch everyone up on why I have a very good excuse.

Started work on Sept 11th. Boy was it rough. Being off work for 2+ months and then having to go back to work and try to get into the swing of things. Needless to say I didn't do a darned thing while I was off work except lay around and watch TV. So, working my brain was very tiring. I can't remember the last time I had talked so much during the day. Whew, I'm getting tired just thinking about it. Plus, I had to wear a bra for a week. NOT FUN! So, I would come home and get straight into the recliner and watch TV. I was so exhausted at the end of the day.

On Sept 20th it was finally off to our vacation to Seattle that we had planned for almost 1 year. I purchased the tickets for $250.00 last year, what a deal! We had a fabulous time. Very tiring but fabulous. I'll attach some photos at the end.

On Sept 29th it was back to work. I was exhausted and sore from vacation and didn't want to go back to work again. Why can't I just lay at home some more????? HA!

Actually, I'm glad to be back at work. Our busy season it starting to pickup, finally, so now I have things to do during the day. I was given the task of photographer for our Showroom only catalog, which is really cool. The funny part about it though is I needed to photograph trays of ribbon. All the trays were crooked. I cannot take a straight photo because I have scoliosis. Anyway, it gave someone a huge laugh and I was taught how to straighten the photos in paint. I NEVER work in paint and had no idea you can straighten photos in it. I was excited and still laughed that all my photos were crooked. HA!

I'm also still playing around in photoshop. Someone at work wanted me to take her photo and another girls photo and put it into the Berwick Class of 1968 reunion newspaper article. One of the photos went in really nicely, the other one went in ok but it's still funny.