It's UGLY

What I mean by that is that I'm having a terrible time with 'change'. I don't mean getting older either!

For some stupid reason, the city decided we needed a 'new' entrance into Eagle Hills from Lambert and Sunflower, SO THEY CUT DOWN ALL THE TREES EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's UGLY and I can see all the way up into Carbon Canyon now! UGH!

To top that off, they closed down the Desseret book store that served Orange County! No explanation, just closed it down. NOW WHERE DO THEY EXPECT WE WILL GET OUR LDS SUPPLIES? Probably off the internet - but I WANT to see what I'm buying before I give up my hard earned money. Is that too much to ask???

Doing the Grandma Thing

Last weekend, Larry and I went to Mark and Lisa's to help celebrate Kameden's 3rd Birthday. It was really fun.

This weekend we just got back from Brian and Kate's home. We actually went up the coast for a reunion of old Oil Guys that Larry worked with over 40 years ago, they had a wine tasting and a golf tournament. It was fun. Then we stayed over and had a sort of Birthday party for Grandpa, he will be 62 on Tuesday. We also went to a soccor and football game. Then our grandchildren were in the Primary Program at Church and Brian was conducting the meeting, we couldn't miss that. So, we hightailed it back from SLO to be back for the rest of the P4 meeting and my Sunday School Class.

Next weekend you will find us visiting Lisa and John and their 3 adorable boys. Lisa has promised me a turn at serving in the School carnival, a soccer game and Trunk r treat. I can't wait.

It's really good to be retired and able to go visit all our kids and grandkids all in one month without really blowing up our own schedules! Life is good.

Oh, yea, just to keep up to date, I had to buy a new skirt for Church since we didnt bring up any Church clothes, and I bought a size 10 and a size 8. For those who don't know I was wearing a 12-14. I feel very good with my new life style change and I don't miss the sugary sweets I used to indulge in.

Blogs and Blog Makers

Today Larry and I are at Brian and Kate's home. Lovely home, well organized, full of fun and love.

Kate showed me a couple of 'books' she had printed out of her blogs and I laughted my head off, all the way to my tummy (again) because I'm sure I did it the first time too.

Girly is a good blogger too! Probably the most consistant out of all of us in the family. I laught all the time reading her blogs too.

SB needs to catch up although I understand her involvment with the 'school' thing she must do with and for Kamden.

What a perfect way to look back on the day to day doings of the family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wouldn't mind if everyone would give me books of the different years of the blogging they have done. It' would keep me entertained for hours and out of their hair.

Update

Life is back to good! The epidural I got in my spine took the pain away and now I can walk, jump and run. However, it might come back, so the Physical Therapy I am in right now is amazing. The Physical Therapist took an hour to access me and see what was wrong. She came up with a statement that makes sense to me: "For some reason, your hips don't move like they should". Gee, I wonder if that is why my OB GYN Dr. screamed at me during labor with my first child Brian: "We have to do a C Section, your hips aren't separating to let the child down, it's in distress!" I think I see a pattern here, mmmm...

THE NERVE!

I have a pinched nerve that really bother's me. Luckily I went to the Orthopedic guy that Larry went to and he had an MRI done and he showed me it's only a pinced nerve, but OUCH! So, tomorrow I go in for the first of 3 shots into my spine, they call it an Epidural. Last time I had one of those, I was birthing Mark! Then I get to go into physical therapy for 6 weeks into traction. Meanwhile, he says I can still walk and keep myself getting into better shape. So, let's all pray for me to get better, I still feel good, but, oh, the pain when I get up in the morning or after sitting down for a while, ugh!

I feel good

Not only do I feel good physically, but I'm getting myself somewhat stress free too!

I have a large family history Fair this Saturday in Chino, and they have me scheduled for 3 lectures that had to be revamped into or updated into Power point. They are done!

My cousin, Judy Braxton had given me a book of the Braxton descendants that still lived in NC and so I finished inputting all of them into my genealogy program. So, that's done!

Next, I must prepare the finished product for my client, Sara. She has been a wonderful client to have, very generous with time and understanding. I'm going to give her the best finished product I know how to prepare, and I'm going to use the "Family Histoy" padded notebooks from Desseret Book. When that's done, then it's time for Christmas and after Christmas, then I have another Client to start work on, but I'm not going to start that until after the 1st of the year.

My take on General Conference

Wow! What a great two days of being uplifted. I hope everyone who could, listed to Conference, or at least videoed it so you can listed to it later.

I can't think of any one thing that I felt, except that God really does love me and knows me, I believe that He accepts me for all my faults and that if I keep trying to improve myslef, He will make me better than I could be by myself. So, I will keep trying.

They talked a lot about love, anger and repentence. I wonder if they were talking about me??? After a a little refelection, I believe they were.

Did someone ask What else can happen?

Well, today was a GREAT day, although, on my way to pamper myself in getting a pedicure, I suddenly felt my front tooth and it felt GONE. Not completely, but the whole back part! Since my dentist is 4 stores down from my pedicure place, I stopped in to see if I could get an emergency appointment. Dr. Olsen himself came out to see me and said he would do it right now if I wanted to do it then, so I have a new or fixed front tooth. The really, really funny thing is that at that same time, Larry was sitting in his dentists chair getting his front tooth fixed that had cracked when we were in SLO at Ashlynn's baptism.

This all could be worse, so I'm really looking on the bright side and snickering.

"itis" - ugh

I can't explain how tired I am of 'growing'. I know that there is "opposites in all things", but give me a break!

Here I am trying to get myself healthy and in shape and the first problem that cropped up was a severe pain in my left hip. It was so bad, I couldn't walk. I found out I had Bursitis. A shot of cortisone fixed that problem.

I was good to go for about 2 weeks.

Then I started with the same pain in my right hip. I went into the Dr. before our Hawaii vacation and got another cortisone shot.

It didn't work, so the problem has been getting worse as time goes on. I'm fine AFTER I get up and walking. But, after I sit or lay for more than 15 minutes, I'm back to being crippled when I get up. Now the pain goes from my sciatic nerve to my ankle, right down my right side.

So, I go back to the Dr. And now I get to have an MRI, because he is pretty sure I have arthuritis in my right hip which is pinching a nerve. So between Bursitis and Arthuritis, I'm an 'itis' mess.

Bottom line, don't get old.

B M I

That's Body Mass Index in case your wondering. I really do have a new lifestyle and it's paying off in more ways than one.

When I started this (about 4 or 5 weeks ago), all I knew was that I HAD to get my body healthier, which in turn would make me happier, not that I was unhappy with how I looked, because I wasn't, it was because of how I FELT! I had aches and pains I have never had before (bursitis), I couldn't bend or contort like I used to without pulling a muscle so bad I had to be in bed for days. I couldn't open jars or cans or lift water bottles anymore! I could see that I was going to be in a wheelchair before I turned 60 if I didn't do something about it. So, the first thing I did was go to the Lord in fervent prayer about my concerns. Then I went to bed.

The next morning I woke up with EXAXTLY what I had to do. I had to start walking again, with weights. AND I needed to find someone who could help me understand HOW to exercise and stretch properly. So, I went for my first walk (in 3 months, my normal walk is fast but only lasted 1/2 hour on Monday, Wednesday & Friday- unless I had something else better to do). While I was out walking I saw a sign in the Liquor store parking lot saying "Personal Trainer, call for a free evaluation XXX-XXX-XXXX" So I called and went in for an evaluation. I met Dave Gibson at that time. He is the nicest guy, and so knowledgeable. He charges $65.00 per session and he sells either 10 or 20 sessions. Well, I KNEW I had to do this. I went home and talked to Larry and he reluctantly agreed that I could buy 10 sessions (AND THAD WAS ALL 'WE CAN'T AFFORD IT" I started working out at Athletic Unlimited with Dave Gibson, and he is only a half a block away from my house.

When I started, I had a print out of: (this is embarrasing) On 10 Aug 2009
Body Type: Standard
Gender: Female
Age: 57
Height: 5 ft. 2 in
Weight: 149.1 lbs
BMI: 27.3
Fat %: 38.9
BMR: 5558 kj
1329 k cal
Impedance: 577
Fat Mass: 58.0 lbs
FFM: 91.o1 lbs
TBW: 66.61 lbs
Desirable range Fat %: 23-24%

Today I had the same weigh in and here are the results:

Body Type: Standard
Gender: Female
Age: 57
Height: 5 ft. 2 in
Weight: 144.61 lbs
BMI: 26.4
Fat %: 36.9
BMR: 5478 kj
1309 k cal
Impedance: 560
Fat Mass: 53.41.0 lbs
FFM: 91.21 lbs
TBW: 66.81 lbs
Desirable range Fat %: 23-24%

I am convinced that eating correctly is the key to my getting healthier and building more lean body muscle which in turns burns more calories even as your sleeping. Dave insisted that I purchase a book called "The Clean Eating Diet" by Tosca Reno. This book is EXACTLY what the 89th section of the D & C is all about, in an easy to follow way for lamebrains such as me and dad.

Well, today was my last day officially training with Dave, but Dad has taken my place and is going to purchase 10 sessions. Dad has been walking on his own for about 2 weeks now and eating clean with me. We both are feeling much better and stronger and have a clearer mind. My ability to multi-task is slowly coming back. I also don't have to take excedrin in the morning to wake up! I wake up on my own about 6:30 am and I am anxious to go walking which has turned out to be 6 days a week for 1 hour each day. I even climb up Wildcat way during my walk. By the way, don't anyone in my family go and purchase the clean eating book, you are all getting it for Christmas!

Our Vacation from Sweetc's viewpoint

First of all, THANK YOU to my sweet daughter, Girly for making my blog so cute!

Now, if you have looked at Dad's blog, you can see all the wonderful and marvelous things we saw and did. What dad forgot to tell everyone is that I got a sunburn that has blistered and the really, really scary part is that I didn't ever 'lay out'! We walked around some on one of the days in our bathing suits, like from one pool to the next to go down a slide, and I snorkled, but I didn't do anything that should have resulted in the severe sunburn I got. I actually have a thousand small blisters on the top of my shoulders and my back! Ow, it hurts. Now, it you think that is all, think again! One our way home, dad dropped me off at the airport check in while he went to park the car. This was 8 hours before we got on the plane, we thought it would be a good idea to check in the luggage and then go see the Maui Volcano Crater. So, he hands me the tickets and I get out my driver's license and then some guy says that I have to put our checked bags through some agricultureal screening machine. OF COURSE, the men that are scanning aren't allowed to help you pick up your bags, no, every little old woman must lift her own bags. Well, I finally got them into the scanning machine and then went 10 feet to the other side of the machine and retrieved our 2 bags. Then I went another 10 feet to the check in kiosk where I proceeded to read the complicated touch screen check in menu. Right then, dad walks up and says good job, as I hand him back our boarding pass tickets, I noticed I only have the 2 papers in my hand, WHERE IS MY DRIVERS LICENSE???????????? It's GONE! No Joke! Dad and I started backtracking our 20 feet from the curb and asking everyone if they saw a driver's license? We too over and hour looking and talking to security and everyone who would listen. The bottom line is My Drivers License is Gone! I don't know if someone saw it and picked it up on purpose to steal my identity or if someone picked it up accidently to return it. So, now its another unscheduled trip to somewhere I didn't need to go. UGH!

On the Go again

Well as you can see, we did Knotts Berry Farm with Lisa, John, Caleb, Davis and Beckham! We also had a sort of Family Reunion for Ashlynn Marie Rober's Baptism Day, it was wonderful

Sometime during the Weekend Grandpa found time to wrestle with all the boys!

And then we got to take them all to the park, where we had a grand time!

Just in case you haven't been informed, Caroline (Me) now has a personal trainer and is using a book called the "Eating Clean Diet". I have lost 2 pounds and 2% body fat! I use weights when I walk and I am feeling better than I did at 30!

Now Larry and I are on our way to Maui, so see you all later!

4th of July Photo's

This is Davis! Love that smile

This is Caleb and Beckham, you can tell their brothers, good lookers too.

This is Lisa and Kamden

This is Mark and Kamden

This is 3 of my grandsons have a ball in the jacuzzi: Caleb, Kameden & Davis

I love Sundays

Today I had a 4 hour nap. That was after I organized Sharing Time for Primary and got my Lesson ready for my class. It was after that when I just zonked out. Our Sacremant meeting was about keeping the Sabath Day Holy and Naps fit right into the schedule. I think the Lord is wise to (suggest/command) us to take a day off. Some of us would just keep going until we burn out completely. Hope you all who read this blog will take advantage (if you can) to do the same thing.

A Ruling for the Atheists

In Florida, an atheist created a case against the Upcoming Easter and Passover days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, Jews and observances of their holy days. The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized days. The case was brought before a judge.. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring,"Case dismissed!"

The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the Ruling , "Your honor,how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays."
The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do. Your client, counsel, is woefully ignorant."

The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or
holiday for atheists."

The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day. Psalm 14:1
states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned.

You gotta love a Judge that knows his scripture!

Back to Work

Yep, summer is over for me. I spent 4 solid hours going to get a DC at the Norwalk Office of Records for LA County for a client of mine. There is nothing easy in So Cal to get or do!

Organizing Mania

No Joke. I have been super busy this past month with vacation and organizing. First off, Lisa and John finally took out the Tent Trailor, which started a two week project of cleaning out, getting rid of, organizing and re-configuring our garage. It's a thing of beauty and we can get a car into it- finally after 35 years of marriage and 3 houses later.

Then, my poor father got moved (by my sister) into a beautiful facility, but he is in the lock down unit for his own safety. Meanwhile, I get a ton of boxes that mush be gone through that Pam and Rick just threw together. Some I could use, some is e-bay material and some went to DI. Now, that is finally finished. We got Dads whole CD collection, about 4o0 music CD's. That had to be organized and gone through, so that precipated reorganizing the family room too. The best part about what we got from my dad was a coffee table that lifts up into a table!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so jazzed to be able to set my new laptop on it and type away while in front of the Boob Toob.

New Computer

My dear old laptop computer was having issues. Serious issues. It was driving me crazy. So, my dear, sweet, adorable, handsome, patient, honey of a husband took it in to the laptop Dr. Meanwhile, he freely shared his laptop with me. My man is quite a man. While there, he saw this beautiful laptop computer for about only $200 more than it would have been to get my clunker laptop fixed. And, he bought it for me. Now, I am enjoying loading it with everthing I desire and meanwhile, honey sits down at it and makes it more interesting by makeing it so I can see my desktop computer documents on my laptop computer here or anywhere else I want to be. So, no transferring of files, just go and get em!

On another note: I just spent 2 days child sitting Kamden while Lisa and Mark went to a concert. It was an enjoyable couple of days! Kam is learning so much and is the sweetest child I have ever known besides his father. I would go out anytime they asked me.

Lost in the Redwoods

Today we hiked through Jedidiah Smith National Park. We did really well for old foggys, but at one point I asked Larry, "Where are we, are we lost?", he answered without even a lost beat saying, "were not lost, I just don't know where we are yet". That is a classic! We had a great time!

It was an interesting de ja vu without kids to constantly be guiding throught the woods, answering questions an saying "come on Mark, keep up honey".

OUr 4th of July Weekend

It was so fun having Lisa, John, Caleb, Davis, Beckham, Mark, Lisa and Kamden here with us to swim, and just hang out. I know I should put up a picture, but if you look at Dads blog you will see all you need to see. The kids were darling and so good. Kam is doing really well and is interacting with his cousins so much more! Beckham kept looking at me and smiling, he must think I'm funny looking.

Lisa and John took the tent trailer out of our garage, and so for the past 3 days, I have been cleaning it out from top to bottom. Every cupboard, box, nook and cranny, the lights fixtures, the fridge and everything else in there is getting a good clean out. I even took inventory of our Food storage situation and we're pretty good, as long as the Garage stays standing. If not, well, we have a few granola bars in our back packs.

As usual, Lisa 'forgot' a few things, so now all I have to find are her tweezers. I found the lens cap, underware, childs shirt, brush, and sleeping bag, so I will get a box and mail it in the next few days. Lisa and Mark left one of Lisa's Garment tops too. I'll mail that also.

Well, got to go get back to work. Forgot to mention that we have made 4 trips to the DI bin already, and tomorrow isn't here yet!