Today is our 17th wedding anniversary :) I've been blessed to have such a loving, caring husband. Of course as with any normal couple there are those little annoying things that may come up from time to time but there are many more times of laughing together, long conversations, fun travels and I could count on one had or less the times we may have actually argued. So I'd say it's been a pretty good 17 years!

It has been pouring down rain since we woke up this morning. But we started the day off by going to the gym and worked out together for an hour. Came home and did some laundry, dusted and made a trip to the grocery store. Doesn't everyone do that on their anniversary?

Then we went out with our umbrella and ate a nice dinner at Chili's. Jim had tacos and I had fajitas.

We got home and have since been bundled up in our jammies watching TV movies as it pours rain outside.

Can you say"confusing and wrong"?!

I had thoughts of sewing and creating little blankets ,bags, purses and other items for kids and infants and selling them. Then came the "law". This law is about pulling all items off shelves and inspecting all products that may contain lead. WHICH INCLUDED ANYTHING, ANYTHING THAT COULD BE SOLD AND USED BY CHILDREN 12 YEARS OF AGE AND YOUNGER. That includes not only toys but clothes, books, sports equipment........you name it.

I had heard about it and read other blogs of confusing information. I just saw something about it on Fox News which not only showed large retail stores being involved in this pulling items off the shelves, but also thrift stores and small resale shops ! So I found the CPSC website. I've signed up for their recall notices. I figured I'd better look into it because I have several things that I had planned to sell on Ebay some which are for children or infants. http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09115.html

It doesn't exactly say this on their website....well, at least I can't understand it if it does say it, but on Fox News it was saying that retailers have to invest in some sort of screening devices to check ALL products for lead and pull them. However, small businesses and thrift type stores may not be able to do this due to the expense of the devices and the enormous amount of second hand products and paying the extra staff to do all this work.

Now I definitely agree that products containing lead should be pulled from the shelves. BUT, I BELIEVE THEY SHOULD OF NEVER BEEN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

The agencies that are responsible to inspect products BEFORE they reach store shelves obviously have not been doing their jobs...... can anyone say peanut butter?
What are these people doing anyway? Are they all just sitting around drinking their coffee and telling jokes instead of inspecting? I don't understand how all these products can be allowed on the shelves in the first place!

So now that they , the inspection agencies, have not done their jobs the retailers, crafters, small businesses, resale shops, thrift stores,,,,,,,,,,are all getting the rotten end of the stick and the blame of having these products on their shelves. They are having to do all the work of inspecting, pulling and loosing sales and ALSO the expense of these devices which will put some of these small businesses out of business!

AND, I am still confused as to whether or not I should be selling the second hand children items I have sitting around my house on Ebay!

The Sneeze

Everyone sneezes right? You go about your daily routines and sneeze once in a while and just keep going and not even think about it. At least I use to.

Last week I was sick with a nasty head cold. It went through it's long drawn out road to recovery and I was just about over it when the big sneeze came along. I immediately knew something wasn't good because I grabbed my stomach under my ribs and yelled "ouch" ! I had sneezed hard.

So I went through the weekend being careful not to move the wrong way and allowing the area to feel better and my cold was clearing up well. Then two days later I'm relaxing watching a movie on TV and the big sneeze came again. This time I yelled enough that Jim jumped out of his chair to see if I was alright. It felt as though my rib was coming out of my skin and going back in to jab whatever was in the way!
So the next day I was still sore and since I couldn't get an appointment with my regular doctor that day decided to go to urgent care. That's always such a fun place. First of all you have to drive around in circles for 15 minutes to find a parking place. Then you get to sit in the waiting room wondering what illness you are going to catch from the others sitting in the same room. I finally get called in to see the doctor. Being in urgent care means that you see whatever doctor is on duty. So he asked me questions and had me lie on the table and poked around in all the sore spots and then said "well, you pulled a muscle".
I was relieved to not hear of hernias or things like that and a pulled muscle was pretty familiar to me.
So I paid my $10 co-pay and my $3 to park in the terrible parking garage and came home.

Before I left the clinic the nurse told me to try to brace myself if I felt a sneeze coming on. :) Ok, so as long as I'm not driving maybe I can do that.
It's one of those things that you just don't think about until you have to!

I'm feeling much , much better now and the pain is pretty much gone but I know that one of those sneezes could bring it all right back so soon after so NOW every time I feel that tiny tingle in the sinus area I have to drop whatever I'm doing and grab myself around the ribs and hold on tight!

Life goes on

Haven't had much exciting to write about lately. I've had a virus/head cold/whatever you want to call it for the past several days and that just takes it all out of me. My body just doesn't fight these things off too quickly and I drag around for days on end feeling like a slug before it finally starts to leave.
I had an out of control sinus attack on Friday and I think I broke the Guinness book of record for sneezing. I sneezed so hard that I bruised my ribcage. Of course every time I sneezed it hurt more!

I finally remembered that I had a Neti Pot stored away. I had forgotten all about having it and had never given it a try. I was at the point to try just about anything to quit sneezing and trying to breath and feeling as though I was beating myself up.
For those of you who have never heard of a Neti Pot or haven't used one yet I have to tell you it works wonders!!
It's a device to use to cleanse the sinuses and it works! I used it Friday and Saturday and I CAN BREATH NOW!! AND NO MORE SNEEZING!

So my body is now able to start healing and I'm starting to feel better and rebuilding my energy level.

It has been raining for two days now and suppose to rain more tomorrow. God is good. We really needed the rain.

Things are starting to look brighter around here.

I'm starting to feel better. No fun to have that stuffed up head that feels like your going to fall over your head weighs too much! But now just have that annoying dry cough.
I haven't been able to get to the gym with my plugged up head but I'm getting my exercise taking my many walks to the bathroom since I'm drinking so much juices and teas! lol!

It's drizzling rain right now and suppose to continue to rain over the next couple of days. I really hope it does this time because we are SOOOOO very dry and SOOOO covered in dust and dirt that it's terrible. We need the rain to wash the dust away and get some moisture in the air.

Jim started his training tonight for his new job!

Also, Conner is wearing his Spiderman underwear and doing great at using the potty chair!! No more diapers!! Yeah!!

Just dropping in to say HI. I have a headcold and feeling yucky.