Titles are hard!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted - there literally has been very little going on, which means nothing really worth posting about.

Most important - We're all happy & healthy(ish)!

So let's see.  Looking back (I didn't mention this in my last post) - in addition to my AFib diagnosis, I went into the dentist for what I thought was a cleaning & found out it was for a crown!  Grrr.  I knew we'd talked about waiting until the beginning of the year (insurance reasons) for the crown, but didn't realize that was what this appointment was for!  

So I got my crown and was back in less than a week later for a root canal on the opposite side of my mouth!  Woot!  And then it got infected. 

I can't win.  My cleaning is March 3.  I don't want to go!  

Not my favorite view. 

My little pharmacy.   

There's 2 fewer now since I haven't needed any pain relief for a week now. Which I am happy about because the stuff he gave me was supposed to last 6-8 hours and barely lasted 3 before wearing off!

Random funny stuff we get at work. 

We haven't had any exciting search & rescue stuff going on since the assist last month.  We have a CPR recertification with the sheriff's department next week and next Saturday is an all day class on search & rescue initial actions (SARIA).   I'm not sure what it's about, but the book we'll be using is called Lost Person Behavior, so is will be interesting.

One of my coworkers is going up north this weekend to go snowmobiling with some buddies and I told him to be careful, that I don't want to get called out to look for him! 

We did watch the SuperBowl - mainly for the halftime show and the commercials.  We didn't have very high expectations for either this year.  We were entertained by the halftime show, even with the jock-strap looking masks.  And the commercial for the GM electric batteries with Will Farrell was hilarious!  The office manager at work went around selling squares - and our stereotypical nerdy IT guy, who didn't know how squares work or even watch the game - won 3 quarters!   The bastard.  He could have at least bought lunch for the office. 

So I've been enjoying the day today.  The Spouse went to go hang out with one of his buddies and the Spawn & BabyBoy are out with her male interest.  She should be coming home soon, so I'll have to go out & shovel the snow before they pull into the driveway.  That's the Spouse's major pet-peeve!   

After my last training with the SAR K9 team, I bought a pair of snowpants since my thighs tend to get cold for some odd reason.   Those things are WARM!  I haven't worn them for training yet, but I sure worked up a sweat in 18* while shovelling snow!

Because I need to sign off with adorable-ness...

BabyBoy is now 13 1/2 months old!  

He measured 25.5 lbs and 32 inches tall at his checkup and wears size 18 months!

Later!

Words of wisdom from a drag queen.....

   

Happy New Year (a bit late)!

Happy 2021!  

Holy Crap.  What happened to 2020?  What happened to January that it's over halfway over??

It was like a whirlwind of a dumpster fire!  

Christmas Eve

We ate snacky finger foods, enjoyed some adult beverages and exchanged gifts.  Thankfully we started with the youngest opening their gift first, since Spawn had drawn my Mom's name and decided to mess with her!  Mom loves the dollar store (don't ask - I don't know why!!) so she got a dollar tree gift card, put it in a fancy gift card box.  Put that inside another box, and then another box.  Then a gift bag and another box. then a bunch of grocery bags and then one last box!  Each box was wrapped in different paper and stuffed with different things - we had a good laugh about the whole thing.  So yeah - glad Mom was last! 

Spawn & BabyBoy!

None of the Timmy's around us had ornaments this year, but the Spouse was able to find one probably on ebay and bought it for me - hooray!

Oooooooo!  Stuff he was finally allowed to get into!

We woke up Christmas Day to about 4 inches of snow, so the Spouse spent most of the afternoon clearing the driveway, which meant he didn't get packed for his trip to Arkansas.  So he left on the 27th.  

FYI - if you're motivated, you can make it (driving) from Metro Detroit to Hot Springs in about 14 hours. 

I thought I'd get to sleep in that weekend the Spouse left, but apparently this squirrel felt the need to tell me the bird feeder was empty!  This was right above my head and woke me up out of a nice nap!

So I offered to babysit so Spawn could go out on New Year's Eve.  Since I couldn't tell if I was hearing fireworks or gunshots, I opted not to put BabyBoy in his crib in the front corner of the house.   So I made a nice little nest in bed with me and Rusty snuggled in, too. 

January 2 was BabyBoy's 1st birthday!  

He clearly enjoyed his cake. 

It's been a long time since I sat down and did some arts & crafts!  I wanted to do something and then remembered that I'd gotten these 6 plain wooden nutcrackers from a secret Santa a couple years ago - so I got them out and painted them as zombies!  

Last week, we got a message from "Sgt Sarah" who is now in charge of the search & rescue team, asking who was available to go to Alpena County in northern Michigan to assist in a search for a person who had been missing since New Year's Day.  

I was going to leave Chuck in my car, but the lady I rode with saw him and asked if he was coming!

We met Friday night and several of us carpooled, since it was a 3 hour drive from the sheriff's department.   The motel we stayed at had several other teams there, too.   

This was a multi-agency search.  The stats said 10 K9s (and handlers), 13 horses (and riders), 40 ground pounders and 8 people doing operations.  

Multiple local sheriff & FDs were there, the DNR and people from 9 different SAR teams.  

Because a dog trained to search out human remains should look like a werewolf!

We called this our party bus - taking us out to the 12 acre sector we were assigned to search. 

That's me waving.

It was tough searching, since there was 3-4 inches of snow on the ground, sitting on top of pockets of long grass.  So honestly, we could have easily walked right over a person and think it was just a log. 

I don't know what kind of adventures the other ground teams had, but 2 of us in my unit found water.   One girl tripped and landed in a large puddle.  I went down on my knees and while they stayed dry - water soaked into my boots.  Luckily we were almost done with our sector so we just toughed it out until we got back to staging to change.  

We were expecting to stay out until 8pm searching, but at 3:30, the Alpena County Sheriff called it off.  We didn't find the person, but the local teams will continue searching areas of interest.   There's a 99.9998% chance it won't be good news when they do find him, but it'll help the family with closure. 

Anyhooo.  

Random cuteness....

He's still not walking, but can stand up from the floor and wave a toy around, so it'll be any day.  And his 6th tooth is ready to pop thru, if it hasn't already!   Thanks to the 'Rona, he's a couple weeks behind on his checkups, so we'll find out how tall he is in 2 weeks. 

I almost died laughing at work when I saw this on some paperwork!  

AKA "Mr." Asshole!

So I recently had a mild health scare.  I've been having regular "spells" since July where my heart will start pounding erratically and I'm out of breath just walking from one room to another.  They average about every 2 weeks and last a couple hours.  I've been keeping track of what I ate the day before and other little oddities.  I had a bad one right before Christmas where I got light headed and almost blacked out!  The Spouse has a little portable blood pressure machine, so he took it for me a couple times over a several hours and it was fluctuating wildly.  Then I woke up during the night on January 4 having one, so I decided to call my doctor when the office opened.  Of course when I went in, 2 days later...everything was fine!  They did an ekg and drew blood.  Nothing.  So he referred me to a cardiologist for a stress test and an echocardiogram.  And wouldn't you know... the day I was scheduled to go in for my testing I had a spell??  

Kinda perfect, actually - since they got to see what was happening.  The little tech girl had hooked me up to the ekg, getting ready to do my stress test when she looked at the machine and said "hmm.  I don't think we're going to do this test today - I'm going to step out and grab a nurse!"   The nurse came in and asked a bunch of questions and said she was going to talk to the cardiologist on call and if he couldn't see me that same day, they would send me to the ER!  My heart was going 160 bpm while at rest.  Luckily, he had a cancellation and I was able to see him right away.   And that nurse never left my side until he came in the room! 

So yeah.  I have AFib or "atrial fibrillation",  Basically the upper chambers of my heart beat different than the lower chambers, causing palpitations (yup, I could feel them), shortness of breath (yup) and fatigue (yup - but I thought that was just from not sleeping well on our lumpy old mattress)  so the cardiologist started me on a baby aspirin regimen and beta blockers - which are supposed to slow the heart beat and reduce blood pressure, easing the workload on my heart.  

So I'm feeling some kind of way about this.  I've never been a dainty, helpless little flower, and because I'm not small or delicate in any way - I have always felt like I had to be strong and capable and sort of unfeminine.  Which is funny, since I know big girls who are very feminine!  When I went in for my hysterectomy a few years ago - I had no issues with my parts being removed (in fact I was happy about that!), but I kept thinking the Spouse is sitting there while I'm recovering and thinking I'm a weakling and a burden.  And now he's a 1000 miles away and he doesn't have to deal with me for a couple more weeks.  

So there are a lot of mixed emotions churning around inside right now.  I'm glad I found out what was going on and am taking steps to help.  But the fact that there's no heart disease in my family....?  and the fact that this won't go away?  I'm only 47 and will be on meds the rest of my life??  

I'm sure I'll come to terms with this eventually.  I've told Sis 1 since I saw her this past weekend, but haven't told anyone else in the family yet.  I'm not sure how to bring it up! 

I forget what FaceBook page I saw this on, but I think I need to order some!

Especially now.     

I'm (kinda) on vacation!

OK, so I'm ~supposed~ to have been on vacation anyway!  

(I clearly don't decorate outside for Christmas as much as I do for Halloween!)

But I like it.   After Christmas, the Santa blowmolds will be put away and the snowmen will stay out until February sometime.  January is so dark & gloomy that it's nice to see some light!

I put in for the last 2 weeks of the year way back in February, before all the 'Rona stuff started with the thought that we'd be going to Arkansas like we always do.  

Welp.  The MIL is considered high-risk since it's only been a couple years since she went thru chemo so we opted not to all pile in the car (including the Spawn & BabyBoy) and expose her to whatever we might pick up along the way.  So the Spouse had a covid test done last week when he went in for his annual physical and if it comes back negative (which it likely will) he's going to drive down the day after Christmas and stay with his Mom all thru January.   

He's been working from home since his furlough ended in July and all of his volunteer events & radio stuff that he does every year have been cancelled, so he really needed something to look forward to, even if it means sitting in his Mom's kitchen to work, instead of his own!  And he thinks that he's doing me a favor because I won't be woken up at all hours by support calls coming in.  

It's gonna be a   L - O - N - G   January!

Anyhoooo.  Since I knew I wasn't going to Arkansas (sniff - no trip to the bath house this year!) I almost forgot about having those 2 weeks off and didn't get myself all caught up & ahead of the game at work.  So I figured I'll just go in to work on Monday & Tuesday each week, and I still get nice long weekends.

Our partially-decorated tree with its stylish baby protection. 

Speaking of....  He'll be a year old in less than 2 weeks!  

Rusty is seriously the best cat ever!  Other than putting himself in reach of little baby grabby hands, he's usually pretty chill about being man-handled.  But once he's done, he's done!  BabyBoy has sported the occasional tiny scratch on his face from being told NO in feline-ese.

Mmmmmm - pasghetti. 

Last week I went to Bronner's with Mom & the sisters. 

This is an annual trip for us.  It's a lot of fun, even if I end up spending WAY too much $$.

I wish Mom would have taken her mask OFF!  

Yes - Chuck went along with us.  I made a post on my other blog about his shenanigans!

Oh - I almost forgot!  

4 generations at Thanksgiving!

I have (no exaggeration) over 100 nutcrackers and ROBERT! is the only one who made it into the house this year.   The Halloween nutcrackers are still hanging out in the living room!

OMG - how funny is this??  It's the front page of the podunk newspaper in the town I grew up in from dated December 1, 1990 - how can it be 30 years?????  A couple of us from my senior art class got to paint the window in the local post office.  That's me on the right, with my fabulous grown out perm & highlights (ala mullet), tight rolled acid washed jeans and Def Leppard t-shirt.  Doesn't that scream 1990 to you??

So in my last post, I wrote about Sis1 having to help one of her horses cross the Rainbow Bridge.  Well - I don't think she planned on getting a new horse so soon, but fate brought her Ghost! 

Poor Kisses (right) lost her buddy, then was uprooted to a boarding stable - a whole lotta change!  She did fine at first, with plenty of company, etc.  Then they moved her to a different place within the stable and she was pulled away from her newly-made pals.  That, along with different food & water - she was sad & depressed.  My poor baby!  

Meanwhile - Sis got word of an "ottb" - an off the track thoroughbred, aka former race horse, who was at a rescue.  She went to check him out and really liked him.  So right now, he's spending a 30 day trial at her house, but I doubt he'll be going anywhere. 

It's hard to tell from these pics, but both horses are super tall!  I'm 5'8" and can just barely see over Kisses' back and Ghost is taller!  Sis was joking around about how far down to the ground it is from his back.  

Their first ride at her house last weekend.

 

He needs work with manners and standing still, but he did fine under saddle.  Even out on the trail when we were behind a factory and a semi's air brakes released - all the horses jumped (a friend was with us) but he didn't try to take off or anything.  

Kisses is so much happier being back at home! 

I'll be going back out tomorrow (OK, I guess today since it's after midnight) for another ride.  

37* is cold for us, but the horses don't mind much.  A nice leisurely ride on a rail trail does us all good!