Unhappy With My Doctor Appointment

Oh dear, today was NOT a good doctor appointment by any means. 

In 6 months I have PUT ON 12lbs ... how - when I eat less now than before and have actually been trying to move more with my walker - I don't know! Suffice to say, neither she, nor I, were very happy about it.

Nurse Chris made the mistake of telling me I had to have labs done, before she did my blood pressure, and it was high. Then the next attempt it was even higher. Not good! I hate being so cowardly about lab work.

I was right about my issues being a hiatus hernia. She and I discussed it and everything I've been doing is good and on the right track, but I do need to lose the weight (which she admits is going to be extremely hard for me being so physically immobile). My heart and lungs are great, she said.

Hubby's hip issues are actually better than we hoped, although no less painful. Thankfully, it's NOT his hip. Unfortunately, its sciatica. But he had also lost another 10lbs, lucky man! He walks miles doing his job though, so is constantly getting exercise.

I so wish I had a lap pool in my yard, I'd be in it every day, just gravity is my biggest enemy. In water, I can walk, jog, swim and exercise. Need to win the lottery I guess and then I'll be able to.

Meanwhile, have to toy with my diet and see how I can get as many nutrients as possible into 800 calories, and try to alternate that with 1200, a the same time as keeping to mainly alkaline foods.

She did say (as she always does) that for 2 people who are so chronically ill with issues, we are remarkably healthy. LOL. My one claim to fame. 

WOW I am now so tired!

Hi everyone, boy, what a day!!! I have been soooo busy! AVON started a new program today, and I was trying to work for all my people, to give them a headstart as it gets underway. I have been advertising and networking with people, talking to new team members and updating documents and communities, since 6am this morning. I have been so busy, I kept giving myself a headache trying to keep straight on what I'd done and for whom, and what I still need to do. 

However, I have had a blast and feel so satisfied with all I've done. I have more to do tomorrow, but everything I've completed today has been amazing.

Hubby is at PepBoys getting a bushing replaced in our vehicle, which I'm hoping will eliminate the whining hum that we kept hearing. While hubby keeps getting overtime, we're trying to get all the stuff taken care of. We've had the rear struts replaced, we still need to get the transmission flushed and serviced, and then we have the front struts to replace, but we're thankful to be able to be moving on and getting them done.

Looking forward to him coming home though, he's bringing dinner - ribs from Little Pigs BBQ in Mauldin.  Nice way to start the weekend!

Have a lovely evening, my friends!

Beautiful Day

Another  gorgeous day here in "sunny SC" but just a tad bit cooler, and with the promise that Fall is on its way. Hope you are all enjoying it, seems perfect outside!

Seems the other day may have reawakened my poetic muse a little. I was doing some work online earlier (AVON advertising, so nothing that one would expect to be bringing ponderings to mind) and the first couple of lines of this poem came to mind. I immediately took them down, and as more followed, this little piece evolved. Hope you enjoy!

WHEN I SHOULD DIE

When I should die

think only this of me:

That I lived, my life was full;

That I loved wholeheartedly, and was loved in return;

That I suffered, yet many bore worse;

That I was blessed, in oh so many ways

from my birth until the ending of my days;

That I had regrets but would change nothing, given that chance,

for to do so would mean also losing good along with the bed;

That I made enemies

yet found the peace of forgiving;

and through it all,

I found the joy of living!

Rose Dempsey

Sept 15th 2016

I am quite happy with its simplicity. Short and sweet!

Today I am busy. My granddaughter, Jel, stopped by earlier, she'd needed some stuff printed out to enable her to enroll my great-grandson in a pre-school class. I'm proud of her, she is still pursuing her dream of becoming a lawyer, scored an A in her last History class this week, a mum of 2 and works weekends!

Meanwhile, I've been sharing today's AVON freebie (with a $45 order) for direct delivery customers on my website: www.youravon.com/rosemarydempsey simply by using code: DAY4 at the checkout.

I love sharing the website offers as I know it helps people get more for their money ... and we all need to be able to do that!

I'm also gearing up for tomorrow when AVON launches 3 new kits and enrollments will change to $25, $50 and $100 depending on kit chosen, based on why the person is coming to us and what their goals are. It's exciting as there will be new tv ads, all kids of team building events and things happening all week. Today being the last day that people can join with us for only $15, I have been getting the word out.

If you want to join my Dream Team today, just use my referral code "rosemarydempsey" at www.startavon.com. 

I can't imagine my life without my AVON income especially since there are no other options open to me to make money. It's not as though I can pick up a job flipping hamburgers, working in a laundry or as a CNA (when I now about need one myself, really!) when I am in bed most of the day and my walking is painful, and very poor now.

I gave a pep talk to a friend, this morning, who is temporarily disabled by a  foot surgery. She is dealing with being unable to do for herself, and relying on others, and is trying to come to terms with all the emotions that come into play at being unable to do things for yourself, when you previously took them for granted.

I think I left her somewhat cheered, if only because she knows that I KNOW how she is feeling, having had to deal with it myself. Just had a thought, maybe it was partially that which helped prompt this morning's poem. Because my premise is always to (in the words of Monty Python ... and you may sing it if you wish, LOL) "always look on the bright side of life".

I have so many things to be thankful for and I am, every day!

What's that old hymn verse? How does it go?

"Count your blessings, 

name them one by one,

Count your many blessings

see what God has done".

Be blessed, my friends. And thank you for stopping by!

Poetry

It's been awhile since I last waxed poetic, and I hadn't realised how long until I reconnected with an old friend a few days ago and he asked "are you still writing your poetry", and I had to admit, sadly, no, not in many months.

It's kind of sad as, for many years, poetry was my outlet for an array of emotions, for pain and loss, for tribute, for joy, for faith, even some humour. I often "thought" in rhyme, even though not all of my poetry was written in that form. I often wondered whether the cockney rhyming slang of my childhood had somehow programmed my brain into that way of thinking. As I get older, I believe it must, because as I lose many cockney words from my speech, I also seem to have lost that immediate poetic reaction to everything. Occasionally it still pops up as if to say "I'm still here!" but for the most part, it lies dormant.

Some of you may not have been aware of my poetry, some may read it and dismiss it as "not quite right", but that's ok, as over the years, it has given pleasure (and in some cases, comfort) to many, and some of the sillier has just caused friends to shake their heads with a smirkish grin, and rolling eyes.

I figured today, I'd share a couple of my favourites. This first is called "Where Is The Young Girl". Others who write have critiqued it's changing cadence, mentioned that it's like 2 halves of different styles, advised me to change it. I have read this poem on the QE2, in a passenger talent show, and was feted by the audience, they loved it, as it was. As do I.

This poem "wrote itself" one night as I sat at my computer and I realised later it was about an older woman, maybe suffering from Alzheimer's or paralysed by a stroke, from the view of a caregiver.

When I look into your eyes  I see the pain from deep within,  the confusion and inner turmoil  of an active mind  in a body which frustrates it.  I catch glimpses of an earlier twinkle,  when life was good  and your manner gay;  now, in the twilight of your life,  the copper hair is silvered  and a mist falls over your eyes.  Where is the young girl who ran on the clifftops,  paddled in oceans, picked shells on the shore?  Where is the maiden who courted the young man,  resplendent in uniform, bound for the war?  He who returned to her, shell-shocked and wizened,  who took her to wife, and whose children she bore?  And where is she, that mother, who gave birth to two children,  but whose love had no boundaries, and who craved even more?  She is here, in your mind,  in the pictures that play there,  the memories of all that you've seen and you've done,  and I see her sometimes, in the looks that you give me,  with your mind ever active, and the body you shun.  I feel for your sadness, your independence long taken,  and wish I could grant you, strong limbs, straight and true .  But all I can offer, is respect and assistance  in this twilight existence, I'll stand beside you. I have a friend who has told me I need to record a reading of it, so that the intended cadences are heard, and seen to fit with one another despite appearing as though they would not. This next, I wrote in early 2004. Randy was my grandson for a few years, when his mother married my son. Sadly, we lost him in 2000, and I have written other poems about him, over the years, but this one just sticks with me as my favourite of my "missing him" ones. It's called "Possibilities". A poem about my grandson who died just after Thanksgiving in 2000. The last two lines say it all. Sometimes your memory just comes to mind  and I wonder how you'd be  if you'd been given a chance to live  to be a man of twenty three.  Maybe you'd be married  have a son to call your own,  drive a truck, maybe fly a plane  and we'd chat on the phone.  And you'd tell me all your good times,  I'd commiserate with the bad,  give you a shoulder to lean on,  and listen when you felt sad.  But this is all wishful thinking  as I'll never again see you smile,  only in the pictures  I look at once in a while.  Three years ago you left us,  in fact it's almost four,  sometimes I really miss you  and others, I miss you more.  A few years ago, a beautiful wooded area near us, was cleared and I was both saddened and angry, at the same time. I wrote this at the time. It's called,"Bemoaning The Destruction of Trees". Inspired by the sight of a beautiful woody copse destroyed to make way for a housing development. Regal trunks, strewn,  scattered like bodies on a battle field.  Once majestic providers of shade,  leafy statuesque reminders of God's power.  Gone.  Hewn down.  Forest ravaged by man and metal.  Woods no more,  just rotting limbs  and earth  and sadness.  Soon beauty will be replaced by houses,  tarmac will cover the red earth,  money will flow.  Gone the life giving oxygen  to be replaced by  destruction,  pollution.  Gone the silence of the  cool, damp shadiness.  Gone the birdsong  and woody scents.  Gone forever,  destroyed for mans greed.  Soon,  no one will remember  that once trees stood here,  majestically holding court.  Soon  there may be no more trees.  In the words of Bugs Bunny and his merry band, I'll say "That's all Folks!" and leave you to enjoy your day. I'd love to get your views on my writings. Let me know whether you like them, dislike them, whatever. They're just my thoughts, my emotions. If some like them, I'll share more.

Remembering 9/11

It is a day that nobody who was old enough to comprehend what had happened, will ever forget. It brought together people from all over the country, and made them aware that terrorism was not just something that happened overseas, it could happen here too.

It was a day that made heroes out of everyday people, as they did extraordinary things. A day of sadness and loss, when many families were broken apart by the tragedy. A day when another generation lost its innocence.

It is good to remember them, but it is sad that our country has been torn apart more by division these past few years. 

Keep all those, who lost a loved one that day, in your prayers. Also keep the survivors in them too, who knows what nightmares they have every year as this date rolls around, or who feel the guilt of being alive when so many perished.

God bless them all

Almost another week over ...

Hi everyone. I guess Monday being a Holiday is why this week seems to have gone by so quickly! Plus, being homebound most of the time, the days do just meld together in a flurry of same old, same old things going on. Mostly being the ringmaster in the circus of the doggie-do-si-do where all 4 of mine connive to NEVER want to go in and out en masse, but usually 5-10 minutes after the last one ... so I am constantly trundling my trusty walker back and forth to the door to let them in and out. I am very thankful for our huge fenced front yard, so that they are able to run and hang out safely. Now that I cannot walk very well myself, trying to walk even one on a leash, let alone 4, would be a massive problem.

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Summer is trying to make a last ditch effort to stay despite Fall being just around the corner. Today we're in the 90s again and I've had to give in and run the ac ... I should have shares in the power company, I swear!

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Tuesday, I made headway on the question of my 2 year old great-grandmother, Matilda Burton,  being enrolled in school, at a time when education had to be paid for, and was not even compulsory in England for 5-11 year olds. It seems that it was more like "childminding" at that age but there were activities for the children such as singing and playing games. I was quite surprised, as in the 1970s,  when my children were young, I was heavily involved in pre-school playgroups, in England, and a somewhat radical supporter of nursery school education which was still not mainstream back then. Amazing to find that there had been pre-school activity back in Victorian England, actually within the school's framework. There were even some very forward thinkers who believed that children could be receptive to more formal learning at an earlier age. WOW! And when I was teaching my 3-4 year old son to read, 90 years later, it was STILL out of the ordinary. I just find that kind of a mix of awesome and sad, that in 90 years we were still contemplating whether kids should be formally taught anything before the age of 5.

My beliefs have always centered around the individual child, in milestones (I had 3 who all "did" things at different ages, and sometimes at extremes of the "normal" curves). I still have the playgroup mentality, as well, that learning should be "fun". Teaching toddlers and preschoolers basics of reading, numbers and sums, songs and other activities, should always be fun. 

I love that the school is still open today - as a school - 136 years after my great-grandmother was born.

I babysat for many years and did home day care, and many of "my" children learned to read and write before school, understood number values, colours, shapes etc and all because the way they learned it was part of play and fun experiences.

That was always my premise, that learning was fun!

It seems that the Victorian 2-3 year olds time spent in school was also that way, although it became sterner as they progressed through the system.

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I guess old dogs are like old people, things start to happen. We have one of our oldest (12 years old, 13 in November) who could now sleep all day, another the same age who has hip issues like me and now takes longer standing and lying down, a 10 year old who is getting stiffer, and the youngest, although also 10, who though still spry is gradually turning grey on her black face. Seems also, that their immune systems aren't as great as when they were younger, as I am getting patchy spots on their backs from hair loss and I've treated for mange, lice etc and nothings clearing it. We are having to use steroids on 2 of them, same as we have to do with one of our 13 year old cats, but I don't like doing that :( Plus it gets expensive! Hoping when the Summer disappears, so will some of whatever is aggravating them :(

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PLUS ... get ready for tomorrow ... 

September 9: FREE shipping on your order of $25 or more! Use code: TGIF Plus, pre-sale alert! 

Don't miss out on the amazing "For the Love" makeup palette.

www.youravon.com/rosemarydempsey

That's all folks !!!!

Wishing you all an awesome Labor Day

with your families and friends.

God bless, and enjoy!