This Thanksgiving

Ah, doesn't it feel good to have Thanksgiving over and done with?  I mean, I love it as a holiday but there is just so much involved to do with it.  Shop the for the meal, take it home, unpack it, cook it and put it on the plate for everyone to devour it in under 4 minutes flat.  All your hard work down the gullet in less of that a heartbeat!!

We had a good Thanksgiving, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were here and we had a delicious meal of ham, sweet potato casserole, green beans, cranberry sauce, sweet pickles and so much more than my tired mind can remember at the moment.  We will be having Christmas at my sis-in-law's place when my grandma will be here, too.  She can see Barbara's new kitchen that is so fancy.  And that it is!  She has so much more counter space than ever before.  I had to end the meal a little early because my neuropathy and ridulopathy were getting the best of me.  I'm on 10 mg. of Predisone right now and I plan and staying on that until a week before my surgery.  I am so miserable and I can barely move!  But I'm doing this to ultimately feel better again in the long run.  If I keep telling myself, I will get through this.  I'm a fighter(I think!)  Mornings are the worst for me on all accounts.  I just get up for a brief moment, take my morphine, and go back and snuggle under my covers with Jack.  I'd say it's been really cold here, but nobody would sympathize with me!  Here's some pics I took of yesterday's festivities:

            Here's my brother-in-law, Jay, all stretched out after a long, hard week.

 This is my mother-in-law, Carol getting a head start on the festivities.  Too bad Jay and Barbara couldn't enjoy it, too, but they are on that Adkin's Diet and can't have certain types of food or drink.

Here is my sweet hubby.  He's been having problems with his stomach again. The vomiting has returned and we don't know why.  Luckily he has a doctor's appointment coming up not too far away.  Hopefully he has some insight as to why this is happening again.  I'm at my wits end!!!

This is my sister-in-law, Barbara.  She is one of the BEST sisters a girl could ever have.  I'd always wanted one while growing up, but I'm just fortunate she is in my life now.  She is very easy to talk to (and Jay, too!) and supports me like part of the family.  It also doesn't hurt that she makes the absolute BEST creme brulee!!!

 Our Thanksgiving ham.  We are saving the turkey for when my grandma comes and we will have it in Barb and Jay's new kitchen.

 

Ah, time to dig in!!!  The long waited for meal is finally complete and the only thing heard at the table is the clacking of silverware and "please pass the pickles; please pass the ham) and everything is good again in the world!!!

Unfortunately, I couldn't keep my eyes open after dinner and kept falling asleep.  So did Frankie.  So I went and laid down for awhile and called it a night.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  I will be doing a product review soon, I just have to verify some facts with the manufacturer.  It also involves a real giveaway!!  So be on the look out for that.  I'm so excited!!

God bless you all!

Until next post,

Thanksgiving Memories

Howdy, everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving!

I sure do miss my mom more than ever today.  She just ADORED Thanksgiving and was always so proud on how she would get up early, watch the "Macy's Thanksgiving Parade" on TV and then start in on the turkey.  When she would be done with it, it looked too good to eat.  Of course, I've never been a turkey fan, but if you cover it with gravy then it's not tooooo bad.  This coming from years of experience!!  Or, you can cover it with a dollop of potatoes AND the gravy on top of the turkey and it is so good.  My mom could never understand why I didn't like turkey too much.  "It's an American tradition!" she would always exclaim.  Yeah, well, some people aren't too much into THAT tradition!!

I remember one Thanksgiving in Michigan where we spent it with a few friends of ours, Roger and Marie.  He was responsible for cooking the turkey.  Mom made the side dishes and I think Marie brought over the pie.  Anyway, Roger lived in the same complex that we did, so we went down at almost the time the bird was ready to come from the oven.  We knocked on the door and Roger opened it up and he was dressed (if you could call it that!)  in a quilt.  He had a horrible toothache, he said, but he did get the turkey into the oven on time.  We went into the apartment and he went to change in his bedroom. You couldn't smell the aroma of cooking turkey, which we thought was strange.

Roger came out of the bedroom and we followed him in to the kitchen.  We peered into the oven and what we saw was frozen turkey from a malfunctioning oven!  Of all the days for the oven to poop out, it had to be now!!!  Roger had the brilliant idea to microwave what we would eat of it.  It would turn out almost the same way.  So that was the Thanksgiving that we ate turkey by microwave.  At least the sides were good, as was Marie's pie.  Roger still was having a time with his tooth, but he is like me and actually has to be FORCED into the dentist.  He did go some time last week, the tooth was abscessed so they gave him antibiotics to take and when he started feeling better, he saw no need to return.  That decision burned him in the butt....or shall I say mouth?

Anyway, what I learned that Thanksgiving is even if things to turn out differently than you planned, you can still laugh and have fun anyway.  And we did our plenty of share of that!!

I also remember my first Thanksgiving with my in-laws.  It was in 2002.  Here are some photos I took:

Ummm.....our Thanksgiving spread!!  Almost done, just waiting on the turkey.  I love Thanksgiving with all the treats and spending time with family.  I just wished my folks could have made it, too.

The chefs, hard at work.  I loved watching my in-laws in the kitchen. They always fought over something....the oven, how something was prepared, too much salt...you name it, chances are they fought over it!!!

The turkey coming out of the oven.  My husband standing around and watching his dad pull the bird out of the oven.

Ahhhhh....time to eat!  And eat we did, until our sides were stuffed.  We had a great Thanksgiving with my new in-laws that year.

This year we are doing a ham and Frankie's brother-in-law and sister will be over to join in the festivities.  We always have such a hoot of a time with them.  They are so fun to be with and we all love hearing their stories of their work and play time!

We are saving the the turkey for Christmas when Jay and Barbara (brother-in-law and Frankie's sister) and my grandma are here.  That will be an even LARGER fare...but one we are all looking forward to.

The weather here has been totally radical.  I wish I felt better.  I'm so exhausted all the time and my leg is just absolutely killing me with either sharp, aching pains or that burning electrical type of pain.  I can't do much to help because I can't stand for more than a minute now (I kid you NOT!) so I feel so bad that my mother-in-law is working her butt off and she hurts like hell, too.  The only difference between her and me is I've got all this weight on my bones and she doesn't.  So she can move a lot better then me at this point.  I just hope and pray that NEXT YEAR will be a different story.  I'll be post surgery and on my way to weight loss bliss!!  AND, I can help out where needed again.  I can't wait!!

I hope you all have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.  Make lots of memories with your family and friends....you never know how long you will have to do that.  I learned that valuable lesson from my mom and her untimely death.

Blessings to you and your family!!!
Until next time,

Land Ho, Matey!

Here is my photo for "Wordless Wednesday."  It is a picture of my grandma looking through the telescope in one of our glitzy hotels in La Jolla.  They have a telescope in EACH room!  How cool is that?  Ha!

I hope each and every one of you have a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday.  Eat lots of good food!!  And take lots of pictures so we can show them off on Friday.  :0)
Big hugs,

Insurance Woes!

Howdy, everyone!

Just thought I'd vent a little bit and tell you about my day.  It started out with me calling my doctor's gal that handles referrals and she started out by telling me that Care 1st (my insurance) does NOT cover the psychiatric doctor that I have an appointment with in one week!  When were they going to tell me this?  I then proceeded to tell her that when I called the doctor's office LAST WEEK that they were working on getting on the authorization code from the insurance company so I can go to my appointment.  I figured it was in their hands and didn't worry any more about it.

Today, however, I find out differently and that my insurance doesn't cover it.  Here we go again!!  I was just in a panic by this point.  What am I going to do?  The psychiatric evaluation alone cost $400.00.  We can't afford that!!  I didn't have time to work on it by making phone calls, because it was almost time for my hubby's psychiatric appointment so we had to go to that.  If you are late or a "no show" they charge you $75.00!!  So we go to that.  He tells me on the way there that he thinks his skin picking is worse than BEFORE seeing the doctor.  He has four new open sores on his left hand.  As if we didn't have enough problems!!!!  Grrrr......

After the doctor's appointment (which he has referred him to a psychologist, which I wanted in the first place so Frankie can try to figure out WHY he does this!), we go put his prescriptions in at the pharmacy and they call on the cell phone that one is too soon and the other requires a doctor authorization, which they have already started the process on.  Thank God for small wonders!!
We then go to the grocery store to stock up on drinks for preparation for Thanksgiving.  Frankie now has to get one of the store carts now as my legs are sooo bad and I can barely stand to stand on one of them for a few seconds.  The other leg is just as bad.  The neuropathy is sure at its max with the burny, fiery pain in both legs.  The were very helpful in Fry's though.  People holding doors for me and at the checkout the employee helped us checkout!  Then, when we were at the car, another employee helped by loading our groceries into the trunk for us.   He even returned the cart for us.  I couldn't believe it!

We get home and while waiting for our lunch to cook, the phone rings.  It's Banner Bariatrics and they were returning my call.  I told her what happened with the other phone calls and she was very surprised by it.  She stated, "I've worked at this for 10 years and Care 1st DOES accept your insurance.  They obviously didn't put the right diagnosis codes in.  I'll talk care of it myself!!"  I thanked her profusely for helping me.  She gave me the number to cancel the psychiatrist appointment, because unfortunately, the authorization may not be done by that time.  So I called up the psychiatrist and canceled and rescheduled the appointment.  I told her the situation and she said that the earliest appointment was December 29th.  I took it!!!    Hopefully things will continue to work out OK for me!!!  Although I have to wait another month!!

Hope your day has gone great and are excited about Thanksgiving.  It'll be great to have friends and family over to celebrate.  And my grandma is coming in December!!!  I'm so excited!! :0)  I've missed her so much and we'll have so much to catch up on.  :)

One more piece of exciting news:  Gina from the blog "My Life in a blog" has given me a blogger award!!  Isn't that sweet?  I'm just beyond words right now.  The award is profiled in the left sidebar of the blog.  Thank you so much, Gina!! I love it!!

Alright, I hope this post finds you all in good health and happy spirits.  I'll write again soon!!!

God bless you all!!
Until next post,

 
                                                      

My Dad's Family

Howdy, fine friends!

I hope all is going well for you.  Hard to believe it's almost Thanksgiving!!!   These years are going by so fast it's so hard to keep track of them anymore.  I was just looking at pictures of my family and especially the children, have grown so fast into young adults.  Where does the time go?  


Speaking of families, I've done so much talking about my mother's side of the family, it's time I be fair and tell you a little about my dad's side of the family.  After all, I wouldn't be ME if it weren't for my dads influence, now would it?  LOL!!

This is my dad's childhood home that he lived in until he joined the Army.  And then when he came home from the Army.  He and my mom lived here for short stint after they were married.  My mom said it was horrible, Dad had to hide his pay check in a tire in the trunk or his mom would take it.  They where saving it to move out on their own.  Can you blame them??

My dad was born in 1947, number 2 of 5 children that my grandmother Krauchunas (pictured above) had.  I wish I had a baby picture of him to show here, but I have so few (as in NONE) from his baby/youth period.  He joined the Army for awhile to get away from home (there are so many stories I could tell you that he told me, but there isn't enough time in the day to go into it).  One of the stories was he never had his own room and he had to  wash his own clothes.  When he got out of the service, he met my mom in 1968.  They married March 1st, 1969.  My grandfather Krauchunas died in July of 1968 of a pulmonary embolis -( blood clot to the lungs) and was only 47 years old.  My aunt Shelly was born into the family May 13, 1968.  She never really knew her father.













The photo to the left is my dad's dad,  Joseph..  The picture on the right is from my parent's wedding.  Doesn't my father look uncannily like his father?  I thought so, to!!!

We moved from Michigan (I came down in 1993 and my parents came April of 1994).  We thought it best to separate from the family for while as they kept coming to us to solve their problems.  Shelly was in trouble a lot and needed bailing out.  My Uncle John was also in trouble and needed help too.   There's only so much you can do for someone and then it starts to wear you down.  I think that is what has happened to my dad.  Grandma K and Shelly came to visit for two weeks in 1995 and we were so glad to have them leave.  Here's some pics of their visit:

 

My dad and Grandma K

My dad and his sister, Shelly.

My dad, Shelley and Mom taking a road-side smoke break.

Shelly, Grandma K & Me

My Aunt Shelly in the tree at the dunes outside of Yuma.

Now I'll show the pictures I received from my Uncle Joe at Thanksgiving 2004.  I hadn't seen these people since 1993, so believe me, I was in for quite a shock!!

From L to R: Shelly's boyfriend, Dave; Shelly: Grandma K's husband Guy; Katie (Shelly's daughter) and Grandma K.

Guy, my late Uncle John, Katie & Grandma K.

Shelly, Uncle Joey, Katie & Grandma K.

 

Troy (Shelly's son), Grandma K, and Katie

I've learned since my mom's death in July 2008 due to acute kidney failure and now my Uncle John's death in July 2009 due to metastatic lung cancer, you only have your family around ONCE, through the good times and through the bad times.  So what may have happened in the past, keep it in the past.  If the person has apologized for it, accept the apology and move on.  Life is just too short to hold grudges.

ALL the Karchunas's have been exceptionally nice since my mom died.  They have helped out my dad and gave him shelter and food when he needed it.  With that alone, I thank Shelly for opening her home not just once, but TWICE.  Thank you.  You are a great sister!

That is my Thanksgiving message for this year.  I hope you each have a great holiday and appreciate being with your family.  They may irritate you at times, but they are your ONLY family.  And as the old saying goes......

BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER!!

God bless you all!

Until next post,

Singin' The Prednisone Blues

Hello, everyone!!!

As the title post says, I am definitely singing the predensione blues.  This week I'm on 10mg a day, which is half of the 20 mg I was on before.  It takes me about one hour to get from the bedroom to the bathroom in the morning, right when I first get up.  Thank God for the narrow hallways, as I hold on to both sides to give me support down the hall.  Then in the sink I lean on that to wash my face and brush my teeth.  What is so amazing to think about was I was on 10mg a day about 3 years ago and felt fine!  But then I started gaining weight and that is what really put added strain on my bones and joints.  I have no one to blame but ME!!  I wish I could go back in time and not have gained that weight.  But as they say, hind sight is ALWAYS 20/20.  How true!!
I guess I'm "paying the piper" like my dad always said!!  And what a piper to play!!

As you all may know, I recently received "The Sylish Blogger Award."  Here are some of the lucky blogs I blessed the award with.  Some have chosen to receive it and put it on their blog, and others have not.  It's their choice.  Please stop by their sites and show their blog some love!! :0)  Here's the list:

My Life In A Blog  This is one of my favorite blogs.  Not because Gina is my dad's girlfriend, but because I like her as a person and her blog shows her hard work!  :0)

Looney Life - My Life As A Housewife and Mom
This is one of my dearest childhood friends that we found each other on Facebook and then on Blogger!  She has such a beautifully decorated blog, you should stop and see it.  She already decorated for Christmas, which is her (and mine!) favorite time of the year!!

A Real (Upstate) NY Housewife  This, too, is one of my favorite blogs.  Martha really says it like it is and I LOVE that in a person.  She is involved now in a campaign where you write a post a month for November and combining that with a letter campaign where you write letters to your parents, ex boyfriend/husband, to a stranger, ect.  The letters are very good!!  Stop by and see for yourself!!

Life And Fibromyalagia   I just love this blog by Heather!  She puts her whole heart and body into it and it shows!  She just recently had her mother die from complications of Alzheimer's disease was taking care of her at her childhood home.  And what a fine job Heather did considering she, herself, suffers from fibromyalgia.  All mother's should be as lucky to have such a devoted and caring daughter.  When you have a moment, stop by her site.

When Hello Means Goodbye
This is a cute site featuring Grayden, a precocious 2 year old that has completely filled the hearts of his adopted mom and dad.  The adoptive parents went through a horrible nightmare of losing an infant just moments after he was born.  Very sad story, but incredible blog.

OK, that is it for the award round-up, I will be giving out more soon to those sites I find adorable and educational!!  So watch out, I may be surprising you with the award!!

Now for the beautiful scenic picture.  Here goes:

This was taken when my mom, dad, me and Frankie went to the Wild Animal Park in Escondido, California.  We had so much fun on that trip and took so many pictures.  I love pictures - in case you didn't know that...LOL!!!!!!

Here's the poem I selected for this post.  I hope you like it:

The Conch          

I first saw the conch
When I was walking on the beach.
Just walking,
It came from nowhere
Going absolutely anywhere.
I looked and it was there.
I leaped forward
As I had never seen one before.
It was so beautiful,
And curved with an angels touch
I just knew it's sound would be perfect.
Calling anywhere to anyone,
Calling them to come join me
To make me happy,
To lessen my sorrow.
Yes, I wanted to hear it
So bad that it ached the
Edges of my heart.
I have called others before
But they are close
But yet far away.
Never there when I need them
But always home.
I need that conch
To reach a lonely heart
That matches my heart.
It will call far
And I will have a new and better chance.
As I reach down for the conch,
I am just brushing sand     
With fingertips.
It is like there was no conch
Only my silly dreams and
It is like I imagined it.
I stand up,
Heart broken for a moment
While a new wish fills my heart.
Someday I will have that conch
And it will bring me a love so deep
I never could have imagined.

Hope everyone has a great Saturday and Sunday.  Geez, it's so hard for me to think today what with having fibro fog and all.  And I just used some of my Polar Frost gel and got some of it in my eye!  Aye Carumba!!!!!  That BURNS!!

Have a great weekend!
God bless!

I Do!

I know this post was a little late in coming out, but on Wednesday, November 16, my hubby and I both were sicker than dogs.  We were fighting for our place in front of the toilet!  He had diarrhea and vomiting and so did I.  I don't know what we had crawled into, but it was brutul.  So, needless to say, we stayed in at home.

We are all better now, so I will do my wedding post.  We were married November 16, 1996.  We had almost a year long engagement so we could really get to know each other.  We met in an online chat group on Prodigy, which is no longer in service.  Frankie lived in Phoenix and I lived in Yuma, AZ.  It was love "at first type" so to speak.  We had our first meeting Dec. 9, 1995.  We had so much fun!  We went out to eat, drove around a bit and went to the park and spent hours laying down on the hill and talking.  Then he had to leave :(  But I knew he and I would be in communication again.  Boy, was I right!

We would talk on the phone so much that each of us had $300-400 phone bills!  And he would come to Yuma a weekend, and I would go to Phoenix the next weekend.  That year we both put a lot of mileage on our car and Frankie's Ford Ranger. And we had a blast planning for our upcoming wedding.  We chose to have it in Yuma, due to that is where all my friends from work and Frankie was real sweetie and said we would have it in Yuma, since I would be living and working in Phoenix.  I already had resigned from my job in Yuma and had a new job at Boswll Hospital in Sun City, AZ.  We figured it would be easier for ME to find work than him, since he never went to college and didn't have a lot of social skills.  Plus I wanted to live in a big city!!  I never did, so this would be a real treat for me.

My best friend in Michigan flew down for my wedding and to act as my "maid of honor."  She also was a great help to my mom with the food preparation.  That was our gift from Deb.  She would pay for and cook the food for the reception.  Great gift!!!  And the park where Grandma lived gave us use of their recreation hall for free!!  Boy, you can't ask for better gifts than that right now!!  My mom and Grandma also made my wedding dress from scraps of her own dress.  Grandma was great with a sewing machine.  Just give her a pattern and some material, and she can turn it into a master piece.  The arthritis in her hands have gotten so bad since then that she can't sew very much anymore.

OK, now on to the wedding.  The location was quite unique.  We married at the Yuma Territorial Historical park that actually was a real prison a long, long time ago.  We married on the old guard tower that was used as a real guard tower when the prison was open.  On my invitations we had fun saying we'd be "balls of chains" for life!!  We only paid, I think, $25.00 for the use of the tower and the Justice of the peace was $75.00 with a small tip.  Here's some photos of our lovely outdoor wedding:

  

  Pictured are my parents and me. (Too bad you can't see the collection of butterflies inside my stomach!)

Taken before the ceremony.  Debbie (on the left), me and my dad.

Here's comes the handsome groom!  I was so afraid he wouldn't show up!! Isn't that a fear of EVERY bride, though?

This is one of my most favorite pictures of my dad and I together.

The ring exchange.....my ring to Frankie went beautifully.  His ring to me accidently "dropped" on the tower floor, which had wooden slats that small rings can fall into.  On the ground underneath the slats was dirt and sand.  Luckily for him, it only fell on the slat and stayed there.  He picked it up and quickly jammed it on my finger!!

 

"Kiss Your Bride!"  We had NO problems following that order!!  I just was so glad to have the vow part over.  I've never been good at public speaking!!

Me, Judge Carillo and Frankie

Our Parents.  From L to R: My dad, Bob; My mom, Cindy, me, Frankie, Frankie's mom, Carol; Frankie's dad, Frank Sr.

Our wedding party: Debbie, me, Frankie and his best man (his brother), Doug.

Whew! We finally did it!!! We are officially Mr. and Mrs. Frank Schranz, Jr.  Yay!!!

We are standing at the base of the watch tower.

We are heading to our reception.  FOOD!!!  :0)

Standing by our luscious cake!!

Cuttin' the first piece of cake....

"Shove her in!" chants heard all over the rec hall.  I just couldn't do that to my nice, new husband.   :0)

He felt that way to me, too.  We were made for each other!  :0)

Starting in on the mega pile of gifts.

Someone snuck a pic of us kissing!!

Whew!  Are we done yet?  Me, enjoying my Mt. Dew and Frankie enjoying his Dr. Pepper.

We're in happily ever after wedding bliss!!

Hope you enjoyed our wedding!!  It's good to remember good times.  It makes you feel good when you aren't feeling too well (emotionally).  Frankie and I certainly have had our ups and downs over the 14 years we have been married, but I've never regretted even ONE moment of being married to him.  He's always been there for me and vice versa.  That's how marriage should be!!!

Hope you all have a great Thursday. 

God bless!

Until next post,