Blood Pressure Up

Found the most wonderful gynecologist in Santa Cruz! What a night and day difference between Dr Anne Marie Jackson and old mr stuffy pants that I am not going to anymore. Dr Jackson isn't pushing me to have the rest of my "woman" parts surgically removed, we are taking a wait and see approach. When was the last time you had a doctor sit and talk with you (not at you) for half an hour and actually listen?

My blood pressure was up again. We are thinking it might be a "white coat" thing but it could also be up from the Tamoxifen. Funny thing, I found a medical report from when I got life insurance (2006) and my blood pressure at the time was very normal in my right arm but higher in the left. Now I can only have my blood pressure taken in my left arm. Curious.

Busy try to get billing done so we can get paid for all of the work done in August.
Enjoy your Monday.
Cheryl

Another busy week behind us....

but another coming up! The economy is slowly starting to turn around, we can feel it in the construction industry. Still not doing much residential repainting for home owners right now, most of the work is for general contractors and designers. The shop is producing revenue but with most of it coming from small jobs, however, we can feel a turn around coming. The only analogy I can think of that relates is a very large mountain, we are at base camp but getting ready to ascend.

Where is the federal stimulus for the small business? How about Payment for Painters instead of Cash for Clunkers? Dollars for Decks? If the federal government would give home owners a credit for painting, plumbing and other construction industry trades, we might see a faster turn around for the small businesses throughout the US.

Time to put clothes in the dry....hope everyone has a good Sunday.
Cheryl

Busy Weekend

Spent yesterday puttering around the house, then off to Donna and Steve's Party on the Patio! Very fun, met some cool people and ate really good tacos. Had a wee bit too much wine, slept through the whole ride home but oh well.

We are having dinner with Mark and Debbie this evening and taking a dip in the hot tub. Hot tubs are a no-no for lymphedema people but it should be ok for short periods. Deb says they keep the temp between 98 and 100 so I think it will be fine.

Off to make some breakfast.

Working for a Living

We are at the shop, again. Saturday we worked for a few hours before heading to our friends (Mark & Debbie) 50th birthday party and we are at it again today. I helped Eddy get passage doors ready for priming and painting, worked on a couple of estimates and updated the spray log (required to have a spray log by the Bay Area Air Quality).

Breakfast with Eddy's family for Big Ed's 63rd birthday was enjoyable. Sophia and Alethea are very well behaved little girls!

Heading home to relax before the new week starts all over again! Santa Cruz was smokey on Friday and Saturday but appeared to be better this morning when we left (just saw fog). I hope the fire gets contained soon!
Cheryl

Saturday Morning Ramblings

I had a very nice surprise this morning....Eddy made me breakfast! My original plan was to make waffles this morning with the new waffle iron I brought home from Grandpa's but Eddy beat me to making breakfast. Eddy made breakfast sandwiches with perfectly cooked fried eggs....delicious!!!! Right now I am enjoying my second cup of coffee and once that "kicks in" I plan on unloading the rest of the stuff from Grandpa's car.

Some of you may have seen the news store regarding weight lifting and lymphedema. I was able to pull up the video on the computer and I have also read more information on breastcancer.org. There are concerns in the lymphedema community about the study. I'll read more and post about it sometime soon. Interestingly, my "lymph whisperer", Sonja suggested several months ago I could start lifting weights but needed to start off with one pound and see how my arm reacted. My swelling tends to happen from the heat and over use. I still haven't started a weight lifting program since I hate to wear my compression garments to exercise.....way too hot for me!

The fire in our area is not close, so you all can relax although it is very smokey around Santa Cruz. I believe the news says the fire is 10 miles from Santa Cruz, which means even farther from us. Sad to see the news footage since there were fires very close to the same area last year.

Still doing water aerobics as much as I can but missed all of this last week because I was a Grandpa's. I am going this morning to the pool while Eddy works on another estimate or two. After we head to the shop to finish up the estimates, we are going to Mark and Debbies 50th birthday party and 10 year anniversary. There will be good food, dancing, drinking, hot tubing and possibly some swimming.

Happy Birthday to Eddy's pop, Ed! The last I heard we were going to a late breakfast on Sunday to celebrate. Looking forward to seeing little Sophia and Alethea (Eddy's nieces)....very cute.

Time to work on unloading the car.
Cheryl

Grandpa Toci

I really haven't been posted much recently because I kind of figured no one was paying attention any longer BUT my mom says she checks.....so I am going to start doing the "blog thing" more often.

Saturday Mom, Aunt Sherry and I headed down to Grandpa Toci's to be with him before getting his new, right hip and start packing up the house. Grandpa is moving to Grants Pass at the beginning of September, which will put him much closer to Mom and Aunt Sherry and make visiting family easier for us (kind of a one stop thing!). We had a lot of fun going through photos, looking at old family documents (we found my great grandmother's diary) and sorting through Grandpa's stuff.

Since I am interested in genealogy and have done a great deal of research, I am going to be the keeper of the diary (going to scan it into the computer some rainy weekend) and other historical family records. We also found the original photos of my great grandparents on canvas, but they are not in good shape.....some kind of restoration will need to be done.

I really missed Eddy but it was good for me to get away with my mom and aunt. At night we would cook dinner, Sherry would clean up then we would play Mexican Train (very fun game). Grandpa's surgery wasn't until Tuesday so we had a few days with him.

Time to look over the bills. Chat at you later!
Cheryl

Dr Jerri Nielsen

Dr Jerri Nielsen is the doctor that treated her breast cancer while stationed at the "Pole".....she passed away and with Michael Jackson and Farrah's deaths, not much attention is being paid to the loss of yet another woman to breast cancer.

This is a quote from an interview Dr Nielsen did with Psychology Today "The things that make you strong, and make you feel as though you've accomplished something, are not the easy ones; it's the things you had to work and struggle through. Those are what give us our depth -- that make us not gray and plain and nothing but give us depth and texture and longing. The quote captures my feelings exactly on my journey over the last year or so and what I am still working through.

Just wanted to share.
Cheryl