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BLOG DESCRIPTION:
   Shi Blogs Too: from out of the mountains where I live. I will now be keeping a journal. This is something new for me. I have no idea what I am doing, just that I am diving in. This should be an interesting journey for me. Mainly because I consider myself to be a semi-private person. I live with my fiance and our two kitties, in what I have come to recognize as a small community in a somewhat remote area. Retirement has it's own life style and livelihood. Far away from the norm.       ![Merit Badge in Blog Camping
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Sorry for outbidding you in the [Link To Item #2113623] ...I'm not a fan of bidding wars and feel bad about it. I know this isn't the same thing as the package itself, but it's the least I could do. *^*Smile*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-Blog_Camping-1788309_13.gif) If you want to find out more about me...read my Author Bio ~
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| The good news here is ~ Ron's Mom got to go home with Ann and Rich. Ann is Ron's younger sister. They have taken her into their home on Whidbey Island. She is still on oxygen. They will have a health care worker come in for four hours a day to help take care of her. We are hoping for the best for her. I pray that she won't need the oxygen much longer during her stay at Ann's. None of us know how long she will be staying there. She is a pretty strong willed person. So she has that going for her. We have company tonight. Ron's chum Dave has come to stay the night. He and Ron will be leaving very early tomorrow morning on their motorcycle trip. They plan on staying in Republic tomorrow night. That is up by the Canadian border over in Eastern Washington. I'm not sure yet which direction they are headed after that. They were huddled over a map in the dining room. Right now both are off in the hot tub. That ought to make them nice and relaxed so they will fall asleep early enough tonight. They plan on getting up around 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. and head out before it gets too hot. It was over 100 degrees here today. I fixed a real nice spaghetti dinner with a green salad that we all enjoyed. Tomorrow I will finish up getting the house ready for my son Matt and the kids. They are really looking forward to their visit. So am I.   |
| Today was a nice warm and sunny day. I've been catching up on some cleaning and Ron is getting the hot tub ready for the kids when they come. He had to clean it real good and get the PH factor, and other chemical factors so that they show up right on the test strips. My youngest son Matt is coming up on August 5th or 6th. and he is bringing his boys and my son Pat's boys with him. He may even bring my granddaughter Sierra. I haven't heard for sure yet as to how many really are coming! They are staying for a few days and nights. They are looking forward to going in the hot tub while they are here. Ron is leaving with his friend Dave on a tri state motorcycle trip on Tuesday August 5 th. He will be back on Saturday, Aug. 9th. So It will be just "me and the boys" here! Unless of course Sierra comes too. We will have a cookout while they are here for sure. It is supposed to turn hotter next week so we are in for some hot tub weather for all. I get to try out my brand new bathing suit that I have not worn yet. It's all one piece pink and black. No, I am not getting my picture taken in it either!  |
| We were gone for two days. We went to Wenachee, Washington to see Ron's Mom. She is in Progressive care there with pneumonia and recovering from a heart attack. She is very weak and on oxygen. We stayed in Moses Lake with his sister Patricia. We took her to see Mom yesterday also. We are all worried about Mom's recovery from all this. I am not going to spill my concern all over this entry though. I will add updates that's for sure, however. Things are not looking so good with her recovery.  I am just plain tired. Beat to say the least.  We left Moses Lake at 5:00 A.M.this morning so that we could get home early in the day. It is a 6 hour drive both ways over the mountains! This time we got a shot of Washington Pass for you all to see it's magnificent beauty.  |
| reikidreamerhas come up with the idea to share tips for saving money during the gas price hikes. I have gathered my thoughts on this situation and am sharing them here ~ My partner and I are both senior citizens and watch our diets carefully, so we pretty much have been doing that for quite awhile. We hardly ever over eat anything. Our only splurging would be when we do eat out. We only eat at places that are not going to be over thirty dollars for just the two of us. We eat a lot of sandwiches in the summertime. You might call them Reubens by the time we get done loading the goodies on. We love sauerkraut on our sandwiches. We tend to have more homemade soups throughout the winter months. We love just ham, carrot and celery. We also love cabbage in our soups. One of our favorites is just plain 'ole' split pea with carrot. I doubt that kids would relish these soups, however. There is one that my grandkids do love when they come, and that is Red Potato, Bacon & Green Bean Soup. Dice a package of bacon in half inch strips, chop a medium or large onion, throw in about a dozen or so small red potatoes and a bag of fresh green beans. You don't even have to cut those beans up unless you want too! We prefer them whole. Season to taste. Cook it all in the same pot with enough water to cover for about one hour. You can scoop the excess fat off the top of it.(Note:my cholesterol reading came back at only 144!) The longer it sets the more FLAVORABLE (is that a word?)it becomes!  It will feed a houseful and you may even have enough left over for the next day! For entertainment we don't have cable or dish. We don't even have the prime time channels. Nothing. Zilch! We watch all news on our computers instead of CNN. This works great for us. For local news we go to the KOMO NEWS Channel website on our computers. We save about $45 a month by doing this. We rent NetFlix movies and TV Series on DVD's now and have them delivered in our mail then we send them back at no extra cost to us. We never rent DVD's from the store any longer. Saves on gas too! We found a way to cut cost on prescription drugs also. With him he gets his prescriptions filled at Costco's Pharmacy. They are cheaper in the long run than say Walmart, because they(Costco) disperse a three month supply at once instead of only a one month supply like Walmart and elsewhere. That can not only be cheaper for certain medicines, but also saves on those trips to the drugstore every month and cuts gas costs! I might add also that I quit smoking due to some health issues. The prescription that I get to help me with this cost less a month than what the cigarettes did. Overall, when I discontinue using the Chantix I will be saving at the very least seventy - five dollars a month! These are just a few of the ways that we have cut corners to save on big spending during the course of the continued Gas Hike Prices. |
| As some of you already know Ron's ninety one year old mother has been ill for several weeks now. She had thought that she injured her shoulder and arm by moving heavy furniture before the Fourth of July. Her pain progressively worsened , however, and she agreed to be cared for in a private home, by a nurse(Daisy)who has about six other patients to care for. This has been totally out of the ordinary for her. She has lived by herself since becoming a widow around twenty years ago. She drives her own car, does her own cooking and housework. She does hires help for some of her yardwork, though. She was being administered morphine by Daisy for the pain under doctor's prescription of course. She did not get much relief and her pain continued to worsen. It seems she took a turn for the worse and this past week she was transported by ambulance to Wenachee's only Hospital. She was in intensive care and soon given an MRI. They found the cause of her pain to be from her heart. She also contracted pneumonia in a small area of one lung. So they had her on a drip and nitro patches which took her pain away finally! She is now in Progressive Care and we have been told by Pat(Ron's sis)that they don't think that she had a heart attack. However, if she did it was a minor one and did no damage. they are still running tests on her. That's hard for me to grasp. Of course I don't know all the details just what Ron tells me that he has heard from his sisters. His sister Pat lives at Moses Lake where his mother lives. She has being seeing to the care for her mother. She is worried sick over her. Now, Pat tells us that the nurse in charge of Mom says she will be discharged soon. Possibly by Monday. If that is the case Pat wants us to go over to Wenachee to pick her up at the hospital and drive her home to Moses Lake. So looks like we will be heading over that way soon. I am not sure how long we will be over there. If we are to take Mom back to Daisy's or care for her ourselves in her own home. I'm sure we will find out more on that later. I'm just glad that if Mom is feeling better that she can put this all behind her and get on with her life. Something does not sound right here though to me. I suspect she did have a moderate to major heart attack, and that she will remain in the hospital longer than the sister thinks. It just doesn't sound right that morphine would not cut the pain and the pain worsened over several weeks ...not just days! Something does not sound good at all here. |
| Here a cute little item that came in my MountainWings: How To Install A Home Security System In The South =================================================== 1. Go to a second-hand store and buy a pair of men's used size 14-16 work boots. 2. Place them on your front porch, along with a copy of Guns and Ammo Magazine. 3. Put a few giant dog dishes next to the boots and magazines. 4. Leave a note on your door that reads: Hey Bubba, Me, Big Jim, Duke and Slim went for more ammunition. Back in an hour. Don't mess with the pit bulls - they attacked the mailman this morning and messed him up real bad. I don't think Killer took part in it but it was hard to tell from all the blood. Anyway, I locked all four of 'em in the house. Better wait outside. "Cooter" |
| This came in my email this morning. It was of course marked PRIVATE. This kind of review is what I call negative feedback. I've gotten these kind of reviews before. I usually respond in a polite way given my nature. This is the review referring to my webpage here -
Hi i very much enjoyed this web page but i think you should add a bit more cause the main part is a little short an i think it would be great if you added even just a few more pic at the end! By the way love the pics! Don't get me wrong i loved it! okay so you might like some of my work too come check my port  This person gave a 3.5 rating with this review. This time I responded differently.  I am so sick of these rude, uncaring, thoughtless, individuals going around this wonderful site looking to get someone to come review them...when all they can do is give you a review like this one!In response to this review this is what I sent  :I'm sure you did. Love it I mean. What makes you think I would be returning some kind of favor by visiting your port after you give a 3.5 rating for something that you loved! I have just reached the point where I am tired of responding politely to these type of reviews! Maybe, I'm wrong, but I just don't feel that they deserve to get away with this type of behavior on here. There I've aired my RANT. So tell me what you think.  |
| Yesterday I had to go to Bellingham to The Northwest Cardiology Center for my Myocardial Perfusion Scan. It was a heart scan involving two main parts. They are the Stress and Resting Studies. My doctor set up the testing because of the Ultra Sound Report on my legs a couple of months ago. The traditional "Stress/Rest Thallium Scan" has, in many institutions been replaced by scans using Technetium (Tc99m) based myocardial perfusion (heart blood flow) agents. The first technetium based agent to gain acceptance was "Sestamibi" (or MIBI). This was the name of the radiopharmaceutical (radioactive tracer) which provided similar information to Thallium yet had the many advantages of the ideal imaging characteristics of Technetium. Next came along "Myoview" a Technetium based agent from a different company which once again could be used for myocardial perfusion imaging. All three provide similar information. One advantage of Sestamibi and Myoview was that the scans could be performed on one day (One Day Protocol) or over two days (Two Day Protocol). My scan was performed on one day. This test provided information such as Ejection Fraction (the percentage of blood pumped out when the heart contracts), wall motion information and also a better view of the perfusion to the heart muscle when the heart is filled with blood (end-systole) or when it has ejected the blood (end-diastole). The whole testing period lasted 3 1/2 hours. It consisted of first "resting" then "scanning while resting", then "stress testing"- exercising on a treadmill, then "scanning after stress testing". During the first half a small amount of the radioactive tracer was injected into my bloodstream. A larger dose of the radioactive tracer was injected during the "stress test". When I was finished I was radioactive! No kidding. I'm serious. They post a sign in the waiting rooms that states to patients that they need a MEMO from the Center if anyone intends to fly anywhere or cross over the border within the next two weeks. The Memo clearly states what exactly was injected. Well, I'm not flying or crossing the border anytime soon, so I need not worry about setting off anything! I was very relieved to finish up the testing and get out of there...I got to admit I became somewhat apprehensive about the testing when I first entered the waiting room with Ron at my side. I looked around at the room filled with several other patients in their gowns waiting also. I did not like what I saw. To me it looked as if they were on their way OUT!  I had this scary feeling come over me that in order for me to be in this room with all of them, I had to of had something very seriously wrong with me! Well, to make a long story short here, I Passed the Myocardial Perfusion Scan testing! I got a phone call directly from the Center and I was told that my heart scan was NORMAL. Yeah! What a relief. |
The January Visitor You jogged back out into January's freezing cold night air. Leaving behind brave words of death just hanging there to ring forever in my head. "I am not afraid to die" you said. Then you were gone forevermore; you only visit now in dreams. Cherished memories and frequent vivid dreams prevent my heart from turning icy cold. For your tender touch and hug are gone, stolen from me the night of your death. At least I know you were not afraid, your fears have vanished now forever. Only peaceful visions rest with you forever. Fate took you away from your own dreams, and left behind those of us who are afraid, to jog alone out in the freezing cold, haunted always by your words about death: "You're afraid of death, Mom. You should have gone to Uncle Chris's funeral." Now, Son you are gone too! His namesake, my Chris, gone forever! What cruel twist of fate this demon called death, crashed into our lives, crushing all of our dreams. Leaving trails of sorrow, footprints out in the cold snow, and January's to deal with and not be afraid. Oh! Merciful God I cowered from you, afraid of your mighty powers for I had not gone to a beloved Uncle's funeral that day in the cold. Oh! Powerful God, I thought you punished me forever. Never bringing me peace, and stealing my dreams. Burdening me with guilt I would take to my death. By wrongfully thinking I had caused your tragic death. I spent years suffering, withdrawn, alone and afraid. Then gradually you began appearing in my dreams Bringing me joy and peace, at last suffering was gone; putting an end to my punishing myself forever! Pulled closer to the warmth, finally in from the cold. Even though death separates us while you are gone, I'm no longer afraid, someday we'll be together forever. 'Till then visit my dreams, come in from the cold. A Sestina Chris was born January 28, 1966 He died January 16, 1997 |
| Boy, time sure flies by when you don't even notice. We got so wrapped up in what was going on with Ron's Mother that we messed up our routines! We even thought that we were going to have to go back over to Moses Lake to help in taking care of her. It seems that she sprained or strained some shoulder and arm muscles before the fourth when she was cleaning and getting her house ready for Ann and Rich's visit. Ann is the youngest daughter. Mom lives alone at age ninety one she does all her own cooking and cleaning and manages fairly well doing it most of the time. This time she overdid it and moved some heavy furniture when she shouldn't have. There is speculation about a fall that she took outside before that too. She tells it that she was weak from not taking her breathing meds. and it was hot out and she almost started to faint and fell to her knees. Well, anyways she ended up in a lot of pain and her doctor put her on some pain meds. They made her unable to keep her food down. What little food she does eat anymore. Or the meds themselves for that matter. So her daughters were taking turns taking care of her. She just got a whole lot worse over the course of this last week. Her doctor ending up giving her a shot of morphine. The sisters were on the phone with Ron filling him in on all of it. The oldest sister Pat wants to put her Mom in a small nursing facility that only has about six residents at a time. Yet, all around the clock care when needed. The youngest sister Ann doesn't want her Mom being fed morphine when it's not necessary. They tried to get her doctor to admit her to the hospital but he felt she didn't need to be. Pat had just about talked her into going to check out that nursing center, when she changed her mind and stubbornly stated "I'm not going anywhere".  She did agree to an MRI but could not go through with it. She was too claustrophobic. Hence the ringing of our phone. Ron tends to agree with the older of the two sisters. So do I. We all went through this a couple of winters ago when Mom had pneumonia. Pat had taken her into her home then to care for her for two weeks. Pat has three small house doggies and Mom just was not happy with that arrangement then. The doggies are adorable and well mannered and clean. But, the one little Pebbles just loves to jump up on Mom's lap and lick her to death! So Mom loves to visit them but not live with them ...get it. We were ready to go back over the mountains to Moses Lake to help take care of her if needed. She is beginning to show some improvement now though so that isn't necessary were were told. I tend to agree with Ron and his sister Pat. I think that it is time that Mom goes into a nursing care center. Just convincing her of that though is another story!  |
I'm going to plug this gal's signature shop here...000hhh yeah!
I just couldn't resist. |
| Yesterday we rode the Vulcan down to Arlington to see the twins and their baby sister Analynn. Baby was a preemie and she had to stay in the hospital about a month to get her weight gain. She is home now and feeding fine. I got to hold her and give her a bottle of soy formula. What a dark haired little beauty this one is! I had so much fun just looking at her! She truly is a bundle of joy. Why we never even heard her cry once during the whole two hours we were there! She was just one content little sweetie-pie. I know these aren't good pics of me. I have my eyes closed because I was laughing with joy! The one of me down by the river turned out way too dark. I lightened it a little here, but it takes away from the beauty of the background. Our neighbors are haying all around us. We got some pictures here.  ** Image ID #1449910 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1449793 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1449792 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1449791 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1449789 Unavailable ** ** Image ID #1449788 Unavailable ** |
I opened up yet another shop today! This one will feature Special kinds of signatures. Check it out here:
I may be done creating shops for now. |
| I opened up a new sig shop today. This one is totally different. It's all black & white images. It's called Shi's Silhouettes & Stencils Sig Shop ~ You can check it out here
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| It was a warm sunny day today. We slipped into our shorts and headed into town to get groceries. We had a few stops to make on our way though. I had to go to my bank, then he had to go to his bank. Then we had to stop at Rite Aid to pick up my meds. We most always go through the drive-thru for them now. I really like the convenience of doing that. No waiting in line, no hassles when you get up to the counter! Ha. I've discovered that going through the drive- thru spares one of all of those unexpected issues that popped up every now and then when you stepped up to their pharmacy counter in person. Like for instance I never seem to hear the: "Did you call them both in?" or "We can have that ready for you in 30 minutes." Of course I called them both in, and your automated messenger always says they will be ready after 10:00 am. We just drive up to the window now and tell the clerk what we are after, and low and behold they come back almost instantly and hold up the little medicine bottles for us see then tell us what they are and how much, and ask if we have any questions, which we don't. Then they hand us the bag and a little clip board that I sign my name on then give it back to them. Simple as that. No hassles. Heavenly. How nice is that anyhow? You see they opened up their brand new Rite Aid down in Sedro Woolley across from the Dairy Queen and it has the drive-thru Pharmacy addition. They never had that option down at the old store when it was in the mini-mall. It just plain boils down to management I think. Everything in that new store is just running like clockwork! All I can say is it's about time. Makes for a much more pleasant day of shopping in town. |
Hey I may as well mention... my contest and auction are open again! You can find them here:
Check em out if you haven't already. If you have then your more than welcome to come back! |
| We got home from Eastern Washington around 1:30 this afternoon. It is still Saturday night where I live. We had a great time at Ron's sister's house at Moses Lake. Their sister Ann and her hubby Rich rode their Gold Wing over on Thursday also. So we all celebrated the fourth of July with a barbecued rib feast! We played several hands of Texas Holdem Poker around the banquet table. Ron's 91 year old Mom played poker with us. She won one hand and I think she felt like putting her chips in the bank!! She was so proud of herself. We all watched the big fireworks display across the lake. It was bigger and better than last year even! Today was my son Patrick's birthday. He turned 35 today. I sent his card and $ out to him last Monday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAT |
| I had fun this evening reading entries and sending out reviews for my contest entries. I closed my contest down 3 minutes passed midnight WDC time. Then I amazed myself by getting out all of the email announcements to the three winners and their awards! That was truly amazing . I even made up an item of a List of Winners for the contest. This I felt I had to do because I plan on having more rounds in the contest. Well, I wanted to be sure to get all of that done before Ron and I leave for Moses Lake on Thursday for the Fourth of July Holiday at his sister's on the lake. Well, I was really heavily into that and reading emails when I got a total shocker. I got an email from kiyasama with angelarmy and she has given me an Angel of The Month Award! It blew me away. I sat here and cried real tears. I was totally surprised! I was speechless and warm all over, now isn't that silly? But , I am ever so thankful to her and The Angel Army. As you all must be aware I love The Angel Army and WDC! Here is my Award  Ain't it pretty? |
| It has been so hot here the last couple of days. Yesterday it was 106 degrees on our back deck! Today it was 105 degrees. We live in the foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range so we get hotter here than most elsewhere in Western Washington. We've had to have our air conditioning going both days. Even with that on it was 78 degrees inside the house! We did get away for awhile yesterday on the Vulcan. We met our friends Dave and Nancy in Anacortes, and ate lunch at the Gere - A - Deli. Great food and great company! Afterwards we hopped on our motorcycles and rode out to Washington Park. From there we could see the San Juan Islands. It was cool riding in the park. Once we exited the shade we could really feel the heat off the pavement. From there we headed down to La Conner. Made our way down Reservation Rd. then looped back past Campbell Lake before parting ways with our friends to head for home. By then were were riding with just our t-shirts and jeans. It was way to hot to wear the leather. When we arrived home we had to cool the house down it was like an oven inside! |
Looks like my contest
That's good news. I was a little concerned about the contest not ever taking off, but I guess from what everyone says it is still too early to tell. Most tell me to give it a couple of months or so and it will do better. I was so glad to hear that. I really enjoy running both the contest and the auction. I got a couple of new Merit Badges: One from kiyasama over at The Angel Army for Appreciation, and one from Rising Star - runningwolf04 for Mentor. I was tickled to get both of them and I put them in my web page already! |
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