Wake Up Call

A friend's father died last week. I emailed all our mutual buds; co-workers we used to work with about the memorial service held last Thursday evening. Only Rhett, Bob O., Jimmy & I showed up from that group. Jimmy and I are faithful friends to the end. I am thankful I got to see old friends I had not seen in years as well as my cousin Reba who caught me up on Daddy's side of the family. Ila Bristow passed away a few weeks ago which was sad to hear. No one called Daddy, but they probably figured he wasn't able to attend the funeral anyway. I always enjoy talking to Reba. Seeing her reminded me I still have not gotten her the photos from the Bristow Barbecue a few years ago which made me feel bad, but she said she had forgotten all about it. It was so good to see David, Kelly & Teresa again, but not under these circumstances. I am always thankful to see old friends.

After the memorial, I still had to go to the store for my folks. I don't know if it was all the excitement of seeing everyone or what, but I had a bad hot flash at mom's. She told me to stick my head in the freezer! LOL Then I felt really just plain weird. I was thankful we arrived home safely. When we got home, I was still hot flashing, so I was disrobing, changing clothes and getting ready for bed. Lately I'd noticed my feet were swelling. I blamed it on the hot weather. The next morning, I got my blood pressure checked at work and it was up. The bottom # was 100. I am thankful we have such sweet nurses at work. I admit I was concerned about myself. Others were as well and were praying for me. We ate at mom's Friday night, but I was exhausted afterwards and still not feeling up to par. I decided against doing Market Days. Instead I stayed home and slept late. I figured I needed the rest.

Rhett & I had an art class on Saturday. We ran late, but had not missed anything. I felt drained of energy. Ms June told me to have some of her fruit at the pot luck; that it would lower my bp. I'd taken some of my photos to give to Cindy & Ms June. Instead of doing what Cindy wanted to do, I cut my photo images out making collages & taking pics of them. Cindy played with paints while Ms June made mini art for our upcoming mini art show, taking pics as she went. I think Ms June had more fun than we did! LOL My camera battery died. We found where the oil painters had thrown away some of their oils on scrap paper. We took pics of their thrown away scraps. There was still some wet oil underneath so we played with that. I wanted to finger paint whereas Ms June wanted to run sharp objects through it. We had fun. Then it rained so hard we couldn't leave.

Sunday was the beginning of our Vacation Bible School. I spent the entire day at the church not leaving until after 9 pm. Thank goodness we had dinner at church that day. VBS went well. We had 9 kids in our class. One little boy kept saying he wasn't coming back! He was a bugger but my BFF church friend Nancy can handle him. She doesn't play around. I was so tired that night when I laid down, I just moaned.

My bp was better on Monday, but it was slightly elevated on Tuesday. The nurse said it was ok, but I felt I should go to the dr. I saw Kelly again who told me David had a bout with kidney stones. Probably due to the stress of his dad's death. I saw the PA who told me there could be a number of factors for my elevated bp. Stress, the heat, water retention, stress, etc. Did I mention stress? She did not have a problem upping my dosage which is what I figured she would do. Now I have to take my bp twice daily. She gave me some guidelines to go by. If I am near those numbers, I don't have to take the 2nd dose that night so it won't get too low. I did not have to take it last night.

I realized this is a wake up call for me. Everyone is telling me that I need to take care of myself. I know I have to do this especially since I have so many people depending on me. I felt I did just that this weekend and by going to bed earlier. Life should slow down some after VBS, but something else will probably come up. I am still up in the air if I will do Market Days this Saturday.

We are going to a special retirement party Saturday for my friend Mike. Rhett gets to go to this one and he is so excited. He will get to do flight simulations and a mission. Hopefully I will get to see my friend Anne.

VBS has gone well all week and we are thankful. Jonathan, the little bugger who said he wouldn't be back has been there every night. We have had so much fun, but we usually do. We leave after 9 each night and I go to bed. Tonight is the last night. We will have hot dogs and ice cream. Looking forward to the weekend.

Our plans in life keep changing, but we keep on trucking along life's highway coping with whatever life throws at us. These change of plans work out far better for me. What am I thankful for this week? My health I have probably taken for granted. I am thankful I am feeling better. What are you thankful for? Care to share with us at Thankful Thursday? Then please join us at the following....
http://www.eph2810.com/