More Fun & Adventure

Well, I havent posted for the last few days since things have been slightly crazy...

A couple of days ago I got a phone call from our neighbor across the street - which isnt unusual, except she was calling me from the hospital! In January she was bitten by a brown recluse spider, and ever since then she has had one challenge after another, never quite taking care of complete healing. Apparently she had been having more pain, she went into the ER in the middle of the night - and they made her stay. She had to have her toe amputated and they had to stitch up where the skin had broken open again clear to the tendon - she showed me picts she took on her cell phone - quite gruesome.
I arranged with her husband to run over to the hospital with him. When I got there, the nurses were in and out and pumping her full of a zillion things, still trying to neutralize the infection and trying to help her manage the pain. It was crazy to see how much stuff they were giving her. Her diabetes is also causing tons of challenges. Her blood sugar is so low that she is eating choc bars and soda to try to get her numbers back up. The hospital staff are completely baffled and havent been able to help her. She also ended up with a blood transfusion yesterday too. It has been totally crazy for her. She is going stir crazy, because being a health care nurse herself, and never one to sit for long, she is really struggling with the rules to stay in bed. The kids made her cards and cookies, and we are hoping to go visit her again since she will probably be in the hospital most of this next week still. We had her husband over for dinner last night. he has not been doing so good with her gone, and he has such a sensitive disposition that he is not handling her being away and being so sick still. I am working with our other neighbors to get meals and things in place for him and for them both when the hospital finally lets her come home.

I finally got good news from the local computer guy - sounds like all data has been safely recovered. He was able to pick up a new hard drive for us, too, and it will be better/safer way to hold onto things. When Preston can sit down with me, we are also going to get an online storage of some kind set up. I will be going in probably some time next week to make sure everything is good, and help go through the data before I bring the new drive/data home. Apparently, the old hard drive double copied some info to the new hard drive, but the computer guy is not sure what may be doubled. I am so thankful that prayers have been answered and that all is well. This has been a not so fun learning experience, and I am hoping to never have something like this happen again. We will do our best to make things more secure in the future.
I am anxious to get everything back up and running. It has been so hard to know I have things needing to be completed for clients, plus have my personal stuff that will need to be updated/re-installed. I havent been able to do any Quicken or other personal stuff because it is all with the data on the hard drive...will spend next week re-loading and updating all of my software and editing programs...
On the other computer side of things, my neighbor (who is a web designer) almost has my new work website up and running. It is amazingly beautiful, and I will have my very own dot com address on the web! It is very exciting, something I have been wanting to do for the last year. It will be a great way to let everyone know where I am and what my work is all about. I will be sure to post and let everyone know when it is up and running.

Another fun work opportunity is that I am about 2 steps away from joining a local small business association. I was sure I was not going to be able to meet the requirements or keep up with the membership obligations. I have been doing a lot of praying and thinking on things and have not been able to get it off my brain. I have had thoughts and ideas just pop into my head, and an excited, good feeling about pursuing this. I will attend one more meeting this week and we are still working hard to put the membership fee part in place. It will be a huge step for my business though if everything falls into place. I will be given a small business training as part of joining the group - and about 35+ business owners who will recommend only me to their clients and customers. Pretty amazing. I will be sure to post when everything is finalized and ready to roll.

Training has been interesting this week. I went to Wendy/Drew and had them both "beat" on me. I was still having a lot of back pain though, so I went to see Wendy a 2nd time in just a few days. Found out that I most likely have a bulged disk in my back - all from sneezing a couple of weeks ago. It was really good that I had seen Drew & Wendy a couple of times, or things may be much worse than they are. Wendy gave me suggestions for toning down training and using oils and massage to keep things moving towards healing. I have just been spending time in the resistance pool and hot tub with mild exercises and walking. No biking until next week - hoping that will give enough time for rest before I get on my bike again. I woke up in alot of pain this morning - almost to the point of tears. Walking was really hard, but swimming and walking in the "river" pool really helped relieve the pain and I have been feeling much better today.

We got a fun invite from the Jeffries to go watch the kids' movie that they have been working on the last few weeks. It was really wonderful. JaNay is becoming quite the videographer. She had worked hard on editing and adding all sorts of special effects - even including a bloopers reel to the end. The kids were thrilled to get a copy of their own to keep. We are starting quite the collection of original JaNay Jeffries movies. It is so fun for the kids to have keepsakes of their special times together.

I am looking forward to a fun night out with friends. A family in our ward has almost all of their children in different wards in the stake - including 2 in our own ward. The sons of this family have amazing musical talents and have put a band together. They have performed for years together - and one son even has music professionally produced and is on the radio. They do lots of local concerts and are performing tonight at a local restaurant. I was excited to be included on the invite list. I have been missing Preston terribly, and it will be good to get out with other adults - esp with the gals from our ward - they are young and wonderful and so sweet to include me even though I am a chunk older than they are. Wish Preston was here to go with me, but it will be fun to have something to share with him as we continue to swap posts to let each other know how we are doing while he is away.

Still counting down the days until Preston is back home with us. I know things are going to be crazy busy for him with work and drills before he leaves for TX with military again in a couple of weeks. At least I will know he is close by, and home every night. Having him be gone, and not being able to even talk to him has been really hard. It has given me a small taste, and a much better appreciation for those military spouses who have loved ones very far away, for even longer. It has been much more difficult for me than I thought it would be, and I can now empathize with others who have had to endure so much more. I am very thankful that he is being watched over and protected while he is away. We are counting down the days until he is home with us again.