I'm here! I'm back!

Well, you found me, Janet and friends. I haven’t really been gone, just an occasional observer. I just looked and it’s been exactly a year since I posted on What’s New. I’ve been checking in now and then with all of you on the board, but I’ve been SO busy and had so much to tell that I just decided I didn’t have enough time to fill you all in as things occurred.  

 

Anyway, looking at my last post that I can find, I was still waiting for them to dig the foundation for my new house. I’m pleased to report they began digging on Jun 30, I closed on Nov 1 and have been very happy in my McMansion! LOL. It was so stressful last summer with building, living in temporary housing, starting the new job, and trying to sell the old house. I’m sad to say I’m still not unpacked and have almost no rooms completely done yet, but I’m getting there. I have had many of the 1^st floor rooms, loft and master bedroom painted. And my carpenter just finished all the crown moldings, chair rails, picture rails, and overmantel. So now the painters will start Phase 2, essentially painting all the other rooms except the 2 bedrooms I use for storage, my office and the sewing room. Those I can paint myself when I’m ready. All the landscaping is in and the talk of the neighborhood! Even the FedEx man wanted to know who did the landscaping. The builder’s super called it ‘awesome’. And the subdivision sales manager is always questioned about ‘that house on the corner’.

How’s your house coming along, Karen C?

It took almost exactly 6 months to sell my old house. I lowered the price once which was no problem to me since I thought it was listed too high for the market anyway. I was the one to suggest we lower it. It had over 60 showings since it was a relo. The buyer had to have the $ and could not base the offer on the contingency of selling their house so we didn’t have open houses. All by appointment. Although I had visions of double mortgage payments not to mention double heating bills, God was with me. No 2 weeks after closing I received a very fair offer, given the house was now empty so buyers knew they had a ‘motivated’ seller. And he wanted to close within 2-3 weeks so I was fedexing signatures, etc over Thanksgiving so as not to lose him. The offer was on Nov 15 and he closed Dec 4. So I had NO double payments and a great relief to have it sold even though I loved that house so, as you all know. And I got about $25K more than I really ‘needed’ to get so I was able to do window treatments, Calif Closets, etc for the critical areas early on.

My puppy Sadie is now 15 months old and 63 lbs! She was 25 lbs at last post. She is a dear, except for a brief taste for wood a few weeks back – she ate my new rattan sunroom chair and table and 2 window sills! You see, her room has been the sunroom which was unfurnished except for her puppy house [crate] all this time. I finally got new furniture and figured she wasn’t using her puppy house anymore since I hadn’t been putting her in it since Dec when she outgrew it. I was just gating her in the sunroom. WELL, she had a nervous breakdown, I guess. The first day she was gated in the room with the new furniture and no puppy house she ate the new furniture! Then I gated them off and 2 days later she gnawed 2 window sills, leaving splinters on the floor and the corners missing! Needless to say the puppy house is back, but she cannot have access right now to the windows she loves so dearly – she just loves looking out at the yard and the neighborhood to see what’s happening. Anyway, hopefully it was a brief 4 day behavior exception. She is just a joy and SO DARN CUTE!

Healthwise, I’m doing OK. Maintaining well, in the mid 130s for almost 6 months, being 2½ years out now. Weight bottomed out in the 120s last Oct due to stress of closing on the new house, the old house not sold yet, the new job having problems, general fatigue having to get up at 4:30 am for work, and being hospitalized to rule out a stroke! I had an unconscious episode, out for about 5 hours, awoke not able to stand or walk and with slurred speech. I had had 2 symptomatic hypoglycemic episodes previously that day. Brain MRI and CT and carotid ultrasound didn’t show any blockage so stroke was ruled out, although they could not rule out a transient ischemic attack [TIA]. The attending and my endocrinologist suspect it was a severe hypo episode. I have had 2 other episodes, one just like the 1^st except I was only out a few hours, not 5 hrs, but still had the leg weakness and slurred speech; recovered after glucose administration. The other was right at the dinner table on Thanksgiving in front of the family so I wasn’t out very long. SIL is a nurse so she tested me; blood sugar was 34 so we treated it. I just have to be very careful now since my hypo episodes have different symptoms than before surgery, and I guess I can pass out with very few symptoms. So I’ve gained a few lbs back PER DOCTOR’s ORDERS. In Nov both my endo and my surgeon insisted I gain some weight. At my appt last month, it was so different having my doc be happy that I gained, not much, mind you, but no one used to praise me for gaining before. LOL. Usually high weight and gaining more was the issue, not low weight and being happy if I gained. I really looked skeletal in the 120s; the mid 130s are a good spot for me, even though MY goal was 150 and doc’s goal was 160! He thought that would be a good maintenance weight for me. I eat well, am not hungry, and stay away with no problem from my old trigger snack foods. My snacks are sf pudding, cheese, and fruit. Don’t really exercise, though; that’s always been the main challenge for me. Still struggling with the foot ulcer I’ve had a year already. But at least it is getting smaller and smaller and is not infected anymore.

My new job is, well, I just passed one year there, so I guess it’s not so new! LOL. It’s a job, I guess that’s the best I can say about it. Not too thrilled with it, but it pays the bills. I like the company, but I have a few employees who are doing their best to make it difficult for me. It’s a long commute in both time, 50-60 min each way, and $, given the price of gas these days and over $500 in tolls to Illinois this past year.

I don’t have grandbabies like most of you lucky people, but I am a proud auntie. My nephew is starting his 2^nd year of medical school, getting all As and teaching his classmates as a teaching assistant! He really likes teaching. Isn’t sure quite yet what area of medicine he’ll focus on but whatever it is, he’ll excel. He was valedictorian in high school, National Merit scholar, made Phi Beta Kappa as a junior in undergrad. He’s brilliant. And a really nice young man! And my niece is starting her junior year in college, still on a tennis scholarship, traveling a lot for matches mainly in the Midwest. And she has blossomed also academically. She did fine in high school but is really doing well in college. Was designated a university scholar-athlete this year. Now she’s looking into taking the LSATs for possibly applying to law school. OH NO. Not another lawyer! LOL. But I am so proud of the young woman she’s become. A tribute to my brother and SIL. They have 2 astounding kids. And mom and dad are celebrating their 60^th wedding anniversary this Thu, the 26^th. Totally amazing. Seems like they just had their 50^th! LOL.

Well, that’ll do it for now. I pretty much work all day long, up at 4:30 am to be on the road by 6, and home between 5 and 5:30. Play with the dog, read the mail, and have dinner. Talk with my mom, shop online for the house or ideas for the house and plan, plan, plan for painting, color schemes, accessorizing, etc. Then it’s time for bed. Not an exciting life, but I love planning things for the house. And shopping, of course.

Hope to keep in touch more often. There are so many new names and faces. That is just great. Hope I can contribute some maintenance tips as the newbies enjoy their successes and eventually enter maintenance.

Bye for now, dear OFF friends!

Kathy so great to see your face again. I dont get on very often anymore, I do read most days but when i do post it is about the same things all the time seems like , I enjoy doing those things but im sure others dont want to hear about my gardening or rehabing another house etc .lol So for the most part i dont post and when i do most people act like they could care less lol ....but really good to see a familiar face. hope to talk to you more about your new house it sounds lovely.

oh jan...we do care...at least i do-i just don't comment every  time someone posts something interesting! i love the gardening stories and pics as well as i am amazed at the things that you know how to do and can do A) as a woman and B) as a woman older than myself!!!! often there are tasks that i want to do or learn to do and michael makes me feel so inferior-a frail/dainty woman and i am NOT!

Hi Jan. I enjoy your gardening posts even more, now that I have a yard of flowers! At my old house I only used silk flowers in pots outside. LOL. I've never had much of a green thumb, indoors or outdoors. Now I've had blooms all spring long with my new landscaping. It seems every other week another plant or bush starts to bloom! We all talk about our likes and hobbies - they may not interest everyone, but what's important in sharing is these are the things that make US happy! Thanks!

kathy; i am excited that janet pulled you outta the woodwork!!!! it's great to read all of your adventures tho i am disturbed to see yet another hypoglycemic person---that whole business is very disturbing to me and it makes me cautious...you being home alone would make me worry.... please pop in more often to talk!

Hi dear Margo. Being diabetic for over 20 years, I've had a lot of hypo episodes but these lately are pretty scary because they come on so fast and not with my usual tell-tale symptoms. I can sometimes only tell if my vision starts changing, with a blue haze over everything - very soon after that it's lights out!

Hi Kathy: Glad to see you again ... when I was driving up to my brother's in Hartford last fall, I thought of you and then remembered you were no longer in Germantown. Hey, did you hear about our fall get-together in Frankenmuth ... check with Margo, she's organizing it. Would love to see you again!

Hi Eileen! Yeah, I still miss my little house in Germantown despite having a nice bigger new house in Kenosha. You can still stop by to see me on your way to Hartford - you still have to drive around Chicago and up 94! I missed the info on Frankenmuth. I had family in Grand Rapids and my folks and they used to go to Frankenmuth all the time. I think they had great Christmas shops, right? Hmmm. I'll have to find out more about the GTG.

Kathy,  Glad to see you posting.  It sounds like you're very busy.  I finally got my surgery, I got a lap band 4/14 and it's going ok, could be better, but I'm hanging in there.  Once again, it's been good hearing from you.  Take care, 

Hi Peggy. So happy to hear you had your surgery! Sometimes those early months seem to go so slow when we're so impatient after finally having the WLS. Just continue to hang in there!