Good Morning, This Week! Lol...

Been a rough week for us so I haven't posted.  I have been sick with a kidney/bladder infection, had another autoimmune reaction to the drugs which causes the hands not to work, the washer is leaking like a sieve, the dryer broke, Steve's truck quit running and the fire pellet stove quit working.  

YIKES!  Can we have a re-do on the week, please?

Steve has been riding his bike in 20-ish degree weather because he won't take my truck and 'leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere' (home).  I have been hanging clothes on the line in the same 20-ish degree weather.  I ran out of clothespins, but not before my fingers froze off!

The chickens don't seem to care about the weather.  I have 4 new chickens; 2 roos, and 2 hens.  3 are about 2 months old and Ms. Sara is about 1.5 months old.  

Ms. Sara was hatched from one of Mrs Clara's eggs and she had to fly the coop when the other 3 came along.  Her mommy didn't seem to care that I separated them, but I did.  I had 3 monster chicks with one the size of a golf ball!

They all have survived and Ms. Sara seems to be the smartest of the bunch.  I put them all in the coop with the 'big' chickens 3 days ago and have been working on teaching them to climb the ramp, roost and such.  Today, I looked out at the coop just after daybreak and there is Ms. Sara marching down the ramp and out to the grass before the 'big gals and guys' had come out!  Lol... she has it all figured out!

On the other hand, I had to go out two hours later and get the other three off of the roost and manually take them out of the coop!  


I am getting ready to start another quilt!  No, no, I haven't finished the others - but fellow quilters assure me I am supposed to have half a dozen going at once... so all is well!  Here is the quilt I will be working on and the material I have 'auditioned' (so I am told) to go with it:

What do you think of my selection?  Yeah, I don't know either... 



And finally, I have started making cards again - trying to get back to the whole scrapbooking thing:

I am trying to keep my mind busy and active, get back to doing what I love and enjoying life. Some days are more difficult than others - like today, but I get through them. 

I got a group of girls together and we are crafting on Wednesdays here at my house.  It started off yesterday and I had 4 girls show up!  Looking forward to seeing how this works out.  I need crafter friends!

So that is what has been going on this week.  I am not going to forget about my blog.  I do have to figure out how to remember I need to blog (memory problems are awful here), but it'll be regularly.  Hang in there!

And yes, we have the money to fix all the above brokens if we don't eat (ha!), but we just haven't had the time to fix all the above.  Have no fear, hubby will get it done between the horse clinics and work.  

Until then, can someone send a little heat our way?  I hate hanging clothes as they freeze on the line.  ;-)

And here is a little laugh... my dog alerted to something outside.  I opened the door for her to tear off and stop just below the jeans on the line... she thought there were PEOPLE in them!  

Silly girl!  My protector.

Sinus Infection...

Today I have a sinus infection.  I went to the Dr, my regular GP, yesterday - and he confirmed I had a sinus infection.  He told me he would give me an antibiotic prescription, but, I should wait a couple of days and see if it didn't get better on its own. 

He doesn't get it.  

I have no cells to kick in and tell my other cells to GET BUSY and fight the infection.  

I have to find another Dr.

Yes, I got the prescription filled and am taking it.  But I am sick.

So today, instead of blogging, I rested.  


Today, instead of taking any more time away from rest, I am going to share a few sunset pictures I have taken in the last week of sunsets:

And that is all for today.

Hope you enjoy!

Off to bed. All I want to do is sleep!

And Then Came the Frozen Fog!

Have you ever seen frozen fog?  If not, you are in for a huge surprise! 

Steve raced in to wake me on December 26th and told me to "Get up! Get dressed! Grab your camera and come outside RIGHT NOW!"

Curious, I jumped into action... thinking our 'little' Cadence had done something or my chickens were up to no good... but that wasn't the case...

When I opened the back door, I gasped at the sight.  The fog was so dense and so cold!  He encouraged me to head outside and check it out.  Man, I never, ever expected to see what I was to see:


FROZEN FOG covered our little world! 

Now tell me that doesn't impress you!


It was the most incredible sight we have seen to date on our little farm.  Amazing!


Now what in the world do you call frozen fog?  Frog?
 
Hmmm?

Then Came the Ice

On December 22, 2013 we had an ice storm that covered our world in a thin layer of crystal clear ice.  It was beautiful to look at, but thankfully left most everyone safe and sound.  

Of course, I took my camera out to enjoy the beauty:

I love the shot of our frozen flag in front of the house:

 

I don't know why I love this shot, too, but I do.  The trees look lacy and Cadence is content:

I am enjoying life in Oklahoma... always a new beauty to see... but isn't it that way everywhere?  Louisiana... Singapore... yes, my camera and I can share the beauty we see...

Just wait until you see what comes next!

Battening Down The Hatches Today...

'Cause the weather station says it might get cold tomorrow... 

Might.

Thankfully this is wind chill factors they have pictured.



If it is gonna be this cold -

SEND SNOW!

That is all

except BRRRrrrrr!! 


Edited to add - YES!!  We got snow!

I am smiling as I batten down the hatches!

Mike and Laura Came to Visit!

One of the blogs I missed sharing while I was not posting...

Steve has known Mike for about 42-43 years.  Those guys have been through a lot together, you know, growing up years and all - and when they finally did grow up, (thank God THAT happened!) Mike married Laura, and Steve married me.

Mike was best man at our wedding - and he only had 6 hours notice and a two hour drive!

Here we all are 37 years later!

Mike and Laura live in Oklahoma City. They came to visit on September 1st - I was too sick during the visit to be much company, but they were great sports and visited with Steve.  I had an awful reaction to the Pneumonia Vaccine.  My temp was over 103!

We took it easy for the most part as I was only about 30%, but we did get to go to the other side of our property - the about 7 acres of wooded area that we have as a 4 wheeler track.  It is usually a ton of fun to ride, but getting Laura over there was the best part the time!


My darned video won't load!!  :-(

Oh well, we had a super weekend or should this say weak end (?) together... I was sooo weak and sick.  I sure hope they come back for a visit where we can play again!

108 Pounds...

Certainly that is not ME!  That would be wishful thinking... lol...

I always knew my dad was very thin... 

But I had no idea just how thin he was until I got his medical records today. 

He was 5'9", and he weighed 108 pounds.  Probably soaking wet at that. 

I think at one time he might have weighed as much as 130, but I doubt he ever weighed much more than that.  I remember hugging him and being very concerned that all I felt was ribs - and that was when I was a young child.

I spent the day trying to gather all of my medical records for Bethesda.  My step-mom and her hubby sent dad's medical records and I received them today as well.  I have one huge pile of records to scan/copy and send to Bethesda... they are going to be floored at the amount of records they will receive.

Looking through his medical records, I do believe there is a really good chance that he had what I do; Idiopathic CD4+ Lymphocytopenia. From here on out I will call it ICL so I don't bore you with the whole big word thing - but, yes, I have memorized it and learned to say it.  He ultimately died of Mycobacterium Avium Intracellular (MAI), but he acquired it because of his weakened immune system.  Last month, my Dr started me on a weekly regimen of antibiotics to keep me from getting MAI... coincidence?  I think not.  It also says in the records that he had nodules on his lymph nodes, another symptom of ICL.  Adding all of those together, it seems he may have had it before it was discovered.  What a trip that Carole had his medical records!  Thank you, Carole!  :-)

Guess what I will be doing this weekend?  Scanning/copying medical records.  Thankfully The National Institute of Health (NIH) (Bethesda) gave me a UPS number to use so they will pay for the shipping.  Good thing - it will be as thick as a brick!

Off to bed now - been a long day after a long night.  I had nightmares all night long.  So thankful I have a hubby that wakes me and holds me until all is well again.

Night all.

Snow, Snow, and Bethesda!

First off, I want to share some news!  Bethesda, MD called today from the National Institute of Health and asked a brazillion questions and then asked me to send some of my medical records...  I just happen to have access to my dads as well (thank you, mom Carole!) and will be sending them as well at their request.  They think there will be a very good chance I will accepted at that clinical and I will make number 45 in the study.  They have been doing the clinical for 2 years and that is all the people they can find... 44 plus me.

She said my disease is extremely rare and there are very few symptoms that are common in the patients they are studying.  She told me some of the things others are suffering with and I will just say cancer is high and crypto something infection is higher.  I have neither, but she said this is side effects from having the low CD4+ count.  I told her I am hanging on to my CD4's as tight as I can and feeding them fertility pills!  Lol...

So that is my exciting news for the day.  Yes, exciting, because someone is interested in trying to help me!  I am going to stick with that and move on to snow pics!


So here was the post you were supposed to get:  I am going to share a few more pics of the snow today - I LOVE snow... and yes, SEND SNOW!  There ya go!  I said it!

One of my favorites... Steph's swing by the pond:

And another favorite - do you see someone special here?

No more snow pics until someone sends me more snow, k?  Lol...

So You Missed Our Snow?

In all my lack of blogging, you have missed a lot!  Well, 6 months of a lot!  On December 6th we got snow.  Man, did we get SNOW!  We actually only got about 4" of snow, but we had about a half inch of sleet before the snow.  

 This is what Steph's house looked like:

 And this is what we looked like:

 In case you cannot tell, that is Steph and her dad...

This is Steph and I...

There were some critters that were not impressed... 

This chick was not having fun... 

Chelsea was not having fun... 

Buster was really not having fun... he had 'boy' problems in most of the snowy area...

But we pulled out the 4-wheeler and were determined to have fun!

Raelee's face got a bit... cold... yes, that was the snow blowing on her face and catching on her eyelashes and around her mouth!

We passed the gunieas who were most assuredly not having fun...

And Chip the Roo was trying to decide if he was having fun...

But he wasn't, so Raelee took him home;

Where the chickens were having fun!

And we all set about having more fun at Stephs!