How did we get into October already?? SERIOUSLY!
Most of us have a Facebook page in which we share information in our day to day lives. Some of us know or are ourselves the over-sharing Facebookers. You know what I'm talking, about every minute of a persons day, every meal, every injury, shared with every friend, former classmate, co-worker and sometimes stranger across the internet. Don't misunderstand, I'm not judging, I've been and am about to be that cliche FaceBook over-sharer. Except I'm doing it across the blogoverse, which may or may not be a terrible idea. The events of my past several months have been eventful and I hope the ends of this blog justify the means, because all of the events have led me to some useful (to me anyway) conclusions about life in general. I also plan to use pictures to tell my story, so that I don't lose you all before we even start! :)
When we last chatted...or when I last chatted at you, I was finishing school. You will all be glad to know that I have since finished my coursework, and will no longer write long winded blogs about how much I hate doing homework, and I wish it were over....wish was granted, and it is over!!!
Witness Exhibit A:
I was going to post a picture of my diploma, but they haven't sent it to me yet. Maybe in the next blog.
So that was very exciting and in celebration I visited my wonderful family and enjoyed (and I really mean I enjoyed) the 107 degree heat in the Valley of the sun!
I got to visit my undergrad alma mater and show Josh around the campus. We told my niece that we were going to go to campus. And she was so confused after we left the campus, she kept saying, "we still have to visit, Camas. Are we going to see Camas now?" Apparently, she thought that campus was a person and she was very worried that we had not yet seen him/her. She's pretty much the cutest thing ever.
Exhibit B
I also got to meet my newest niece, go to a Diamondback's game and of course drink some beer...sometimes all at once (the picture isn't as bad as it looks I was holding the beer for my hubby who was in the little boys room):
Exhibit B-1
We came back from Arizona and I got to revisit one of my lifelong passions, the stage! I sang and danced in a production of, "A Chorus Line" as a part of a fund raising event for a local high school drama department. Not only did I sing and dance in the chorus, but I sang a solo....in front of people....for the first time in my entire life! It was exhilarating. Dancing 4 hours a night for many weeks also allowed me to wear the final number costume with confidence as I had lost a noticeable amount of my waistline.
Witness Exhibit C:
and C-1 (Most of the wonderful cast, plus the amazing A.H-A., who so kindly brought me into this wonderful mayhem!
Throughout all of this there was also some amazing road trips with the hunny....
Crater Lake
Mt. St. Helen's
I also had several awesome visits from friends and family. My step-babies were here for half of the summer, my parents came out to celebrate the youngest's birthday and most recently one of my long time, known me forever, knows all my secrets and still loves me BFF's came out to visit. She also brought the spirit of the third member of our triumvirate, since she could not make the trip herself. Rebecca, myself and Vacation Tiffy traipsed all over Western Washington.
And then just over a month ago, I bent over pain shot through my back after which I fell face first onto the floor. I couldn't move for about 15 minutes. I try not to be a wuss about pain, I tend to think that there isn't any pain that I can't get through or move through. This was like nothing I have ever been through, the pain was so excruciating that I it felt like if I even moved an inch I would shatter and die. It was scary, especially since I was home alone, my cell phone was out of reach and I was lying on the bathroom floor. When I was able to move again, I settled down to rest for a few hours and was feeling better, then out of nowhere, it happened again, and lasted for 30 minutes and again my cell phone was out of reach. Thanks to the smart thinking of a certain step-tween who called 911, I was in the hospital, which turned into another adventure, which included being taken out of one hospital and to the military hospital, 30 minutes face down on the floor of the hospital, waiting for someone, anyone to come and check on me, it wasn't until my husband arrived that he was able to call for help into the room to get me up. By then I was so upset and in so much pain they had to give me to two rounds of meds just to be able to get me up on the bed again. That sucked, but on the other hand I did a whole lot of deep sleeping for the next several days!
Since then I've been to the doctor, the acupuncturist, the physical therapist (who totally rocks), in an MRI machine and had several trips to the pharmacy. Diagnosis: I'm not really sure.
Why am I over-sharing this drama with the blogoverse? Because I learned something. I was pretty angry about all of this pain and limitation. I had pretty much recovered from the last injury I was dancing, walking hiking, traveling, just trying to enjoy a lot of things I hadn't been able to enjoy for several months. Then out of nowhere I just got cut back, relegated to the couch, barely able to walk or stand, I'm really not kidding when I say I pretty much had the mobility of an infant. I would wake up and there would a split second after I opened my eyes when I thought, I feel perfect, but it didn't last and before I knew it the pain would come spiking back and it was so disappointing I wanted to scream.
Where's the lesson?
It was a few weeks later when I was able to go into my garden and I noticed that several plants needed to be cut back so that they would be more abundant next summer that I had a light-bulb moment. I thought maybe I could be like my roses, maybe I just needed to be cut down a little so that I could blossom more fully in the future. Maybe all of this pain was keeping me down because I needed to come back to my roots, so that I could blossom with more color and branch in more directions. I don't know yet, I'm still limited in my mobility, but wonderful things have come out of this. One of my best friends has come to stay with me and help me out for the last several weeks and it's been so amazing to have her here. She came here on her own dime and she has been cook and maid to my family and super friend to me. Both Josh and I are so grateful to have had her here with us. He's mentioned several times, what are we going to do when Rebecca leaves?
I felt set back by the pain, but when I step back and see the situation from another angle, somehow I know that I am better and that I will be better as a result. It turns out growing pains don't end with puberty and sometimes they hurt a lot worse than you expect. Ultimately, they're necessary,neverending and somehow we're more beautiful, stronger and better rounded because of it!
Most of us have a Facebook page in which we share information in our day to day lives. Some of us know or are ourselves the over-sharing Facebookers. You know what I'm talking, about every minute of a persons day, every meal, every injury, shared with every friend, former classmate, co-worker and sometimes stranger across the internet. Don't misunderstand, I'm not judging, I've been and am about to be that cliche FaceBook over-sharer. Except I'm doing it across the blogoverse, which may or may not be a terrible idea. The events of my past several months have been eventful and I hope the ends of this blog justify the means, because all of the events have led me to some useful (to me anyway) conclusions about life in general. I also plan to use pictures to tell my story, so that I don't lose you all before we even start! :)
When we last chatted...or when I last chatted at you, I was finishing school. You will all be glad to know that I have since finished my coursework, and will no longer write long winded blogs about how much I hate doing homework, and I wish it were over....wish was granted, and it is over!!!
Witness Exhibit A:
I was going to post a picture of my diploma, but they haven't sent it to me yet. Maybe in the next blog.
So that was very exciting and in celebration I visited my wonderful family and enjoyed (and I really mean I enjoyed) the 107 degree heat in the Valley of the sun!
I got to visit my undergrad alma mater and show Josh around the campus. We told my niece that we were going to go to campus. And she was so confused after we left the campus, she kept saying, "we still have to visit, Camas. Are we going to see Camas now?" Apparently, she thought that campus was a person and she was very worried that we had not yet seen him/her. She's pretty much the cutest thing ever.
Exhibit B
I also got to meet my newest niece, go to a Diamondback's game and of course drink some beer...sometimes all at once (the picture isn't as bad as it looks I was holding the beer for my hubby who was in the little boys room):
Exhibit B-1
We came back from Arizona and I got to revisit one of my lifelong passions, the stage! I sang and danced in a production of, "A Chorus Line" as a part of a fund raising event for a local high school drama department. Not only did I sing and dance in the chorus, but I sang a solo....in front of people....for the first time in my entire life! It was exhilarating. Dancing 4 hours a night for many weeks also allowed me to wear the final number costume with confidence as I had lost a noticeable amount of my waistline.
Witness Exhibit C:
and C-1 (Most of the wonderful cast, plus the amazing A.H-A., who so kindly brought me into this wonderful mayhem!
Throughout all of this there was also some amazing road trips with the hunny....
Crater Lake
Mt. St. Helen's
I also had several awesome visits from friends and family. My step-babies were here for half of the summer, my parents came out to celebrate the youngest's birthday and most recently one of my long time, known me forever, knows all my secrets and still loves me BFF's came out to visit. She also brought the spirit of the third member of our triumvirate, since she could not make the trip herself. Rebecca, myself and Vacation Tiffy traipsed all over Western Washington.
And then just over a month ago, I bent over pain shot through my back after which I fell face first onto the floor. I couldn't move for about 15 minutes. I try not to be a wuss about pain, I tend to think that there isn't any pain that I can't get through or move through. This was like nothing I have ever been through, the pain was so excruciating that I it felt like if I even moved an inch I would shatter and die. It was scary, especially since I was home alone, my cell phone was out of reach and I was lying on the bathroom floor. When I was able to move again, I settled down to rest for a few hours and was feeling better, then out of nowhere, it happened again, and lasted for 30 minutes and again my cell phone was out of reach. Thanks to the smart thinking of a certain step-tween who called 911, I was in the hospital, which turned into another adventure, which included being taken out of one hospital and to the military hospital, 30 minutes face down on the floor of the hospital, waiting for someone, anyone to come and check on me, it wasn't until my husband arrived that he was able to call for help into the room to get me up. By then I was so upset and in so much pain they had to give me to two rounds of meds just to be able to get me up on the bed again. That sucked, but on the other hand I did a whole lot of deep sleeping for the next several days!
Since then I've been to the doctor, the acupuncturist, the physical therapist (who totally rocks), in an MRI machine and had several trips to the pharmacy. Diagnosis: I'm not really sure.
Why am I over-sharing this drama with the blogoverse? Because I learned something. I was pretty angry about all of this pain and limitation. I had pretty much recovered from the last injury I was dancing, walking hiking, traveling, just trying to enjoy a lot of things I hadn't been able to enjoy for several months. Then out of nowhere I just got cut back, relegated to the couch, barely able to walk or stand, I'm really not kidding when I say I pretty much had the mobility of an infant. I would wake up and there would a split second after I opened my eyes when I thought, I feel perfect, but it didn't last and before I knew it the pain would come spiking back and it was so disappointing I wanted to scream.
Where's the lesson?
It was a few weeks later when I was able to go into my garden and I noticed that several plants needed to be cut back so that they would be more abundant next summer that I had a light-bulb moment. I thought maybe I could be like my roses, maybe I just needed to be cut down a little so that I could blossom more fully in the future. Maybe all of this pain was keeping me down because I needed to come back to my roots, so that I could blossom with more color and branch in more directions. I don't know yet, I'm still limited in my mobility, but wonderful things have come out of this. One of my best friends has come to stay with me and help me out for the last several weeks and it's been so amazing to have her here. She came here on her own dime and she has been cook and maid to my family and super friend to me. Both Josh and I are so grateful to have had her here with us. He's mentioned several times, what are we going to do when Rebecca leaves?
I felt set back by the pain, but when I step back and see the situation from another angle, somehow I know that I am better and that I will be better as a result. It turns out growing pains don't end with puberty and sometimes they hurt a lot worse than you expect. Ultimately, they're necessary,neverending and somehow we're more beautiful, stronger and better rounded because of it!
Many of life's lessons are waiting to be discovered in a garden or landscape. . . We, like plants need to be rejuvenated periodically to blossom. Bloom and blossom :)
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