30 Days of Thanks- Days 1-15

Several of my friends on Facebook have been posting something they are thankful for every day for the month of November.  I decided to write a blog about it instead.  So here are days 1-15:

November 1st:  I am thankful for my life.  I love being alive and I love my life.  Thanks for creating me Dad and Mom!

November 2nd: I am thankful that I got to know my Grandma and that she was such a big part of my life.  I miss her every day and hope she would be proud of the woman I have become.

November 3rd: I am thankful that I knew my Nana.  She had such an influence on who I am today and I miss her so much.

November 4th:  I am thankful for my awesome Dad who took on the role as sole caregiver when I was young.  He did a great job raising us and I am so proud that I got to follow in his footsteps and join the fire department.

November 5th: I am thankful for my Mom and the fact that we have a relationship despite her absence for some of my life.  I am also glad that her treatments are working and she is beating her illness!!

November 6th: I am thankful for my wonderful Fiance, D.  He is truly my best friend and I am so lucky to have him in my life.  We will be getting married in 6 months and I can't wait to be his wife!!

November 7th: I am thankful for my ferret Teddy.  He is super awesome and I love him so much. 

November 8th:  I am thankful for my ferret Grover.  He is the perfect addition to our family and quite a personality.  I love him so very much.

November 9th: I am thankful for my job.  I love what I do for a living and am blessed that I get to have so much fun at work.

November 10th: I am thankful for my sisters J and S.  I couldn't ask for two better sisters and am so lucky that I got them!!

November 11th:  I am thankful for the LVFD.  I love being a member and helping our community.  It's so much fun!!!!

November 12th:  I am thankful for my health.  I have a few medical issues but mostly they don't bother me.  I am thankful that I am able to be well enough to live my life, enjoy my hobbies, and work full time.

November 13th: I am thankful for the freedom to practice my religion freely and without persecution.

November 14th:  I am thankful for my blog and the fact that I am able to write and entertain people with my writing.

November 15th: I am thankful for my sense of humor (which apparently I got from my Dad)  :D



Stay tuned for Part 2 at the end of November.  Until then remember to BE THANKFUL!!!


Signing off 23:15.

Summer is over?

Sorry about my lack of postings lately folks.  This summer has been very eventful for Teddy, D, and I so there hasn't been much time for writing.  Hell I haven't had much time for reading either!  You know things are seriously busy when I don't have time to read.

D and I drove to Maryland to see sister S and brother in law J last weekend.  It was a very fun trip down and we had a great time goofing off in Walmart (I saw a Mennonite woman and her kids!), eating at Sonic for the very first time (that place is super fun)!  We made friends with the people in the mini van next to us when I got out of the car to take pics of D and sister S.  The folks in the car on the other side of us asked about the ferret bumper sticker I have on my car.

I told them about Sir Teddy the awesome and showed them a picture.  They complimented him on his good looks! :)  I'm a proud mama!


I'd have to say the craziest part of the trip was the drive back home.

We stopped at Antietam to see the sites and after the cannon firing demo we got caught in the worst rain storm EVER.  Downpours.....everywhere!

Poor D drove us halfway through Pennsylvania before we got ahead of it and were able to stop and take a break.  Took about 8 hours to get home after we stopped at the PA Dutch gift shop, Cabela's (bought a weather radio), and Applebee's (for dinner), and the Vince Lombardi service area in NJ for fuel (it's cheap).

Boy was Teddy glad to see us when we got home!  :)



Signing off 17:41

Hi!!!! My name is Teddy!

THIS is Teddy!

Hello! My name is Teddy! I am a 4 month old white marked ferret.  My birthday is January 29, 2012.  I weigh around 2 pounds but mommy calls me "chubs" :D

 I live with my mommy and daddy in our little gray house.  Inside our house I have a huge cage that my mommy and daddy bought me and I love it!

I have a hammock and a sleeping bag in my cage and they are very soft and comfortable.  I spend my days hanging out in my cage while mommy sleeps after work.  Nights are spent running around the living room playing with my bell balls, chew rope and plastic rollie tube.  I also like to wrestle with my daddy and sneak around trying to scare mommy and daddy by jumping out from under the couch!

My daddy told me I was born in upstate New York on the Marshall farm where they raise ferrets.  After I was big enough they sent me to a pet store to live with other ferrets and to wait for someone to take me home.  I remember the day that my mommy and daddy came into the store.  Mommy came over to the cage and started talking to me and waving at me.  I went over to the wall of the cage because I wanted to get a better look at her.  They walked away and I started to eat because I was hungry.  A little while later my mommy came back and told my daddy that she wanted to see me.  The pet store man came over and opened the cage and picked me up.  I heard daddy talking to the pet store man about me and then mommy said she wanted me.  Daddy said the cage wasn't set up yet but mommy said she didn't care.  She said I was the one.  The pet store man took me from daddy and put me in a small cardboard box.  I was scared!  I wanted to go back to my big cage!

Daddy opened the top of the box and it was very bright out.  We weren't in the store anymore!  Mommy said we were in the car and they were taking me home!  I was scared again but they were very nice...talking to me and petting me.  When we got home they closed the box and left me in it for awhile.  I tried to get out but I couldn't.  I guess I'm still too small!  Later on daddy took me out of the box and put me in the sink to give me a bath.  I didn't like that too much so I played with the drain cover in the sink and then tried to get away from them when they took me out of the sink because I was cold!!

After I was dried off they put me in the living room with some toys.  I didn't want the toys but I did want to look around and see where I was.  I ran around for a little bit and explored.  The cage they put me in after it got dark was nice but I didn't like it because it was too small.  I heard Daddy say that I would be getting a new cage in the morning so I settled down and went to sleep.

The next day we went to the pet store (I went too in my new carrier!) and got me a new cage.  Daddy calls it my mansion!  It's HUGE!!  4 floors, a hammock, sleeping bag, 3 ramps, 2 potties, food dish and water bottle.  I have tons of toys too!  One of them is a ball that makes noises.  It dooks and meows and says doo doo doo doo doo!  My favorite toy is the one on the stick that has hair on it.
Mommy says I have to go to bed now so I will write more again another time.  I will have mommy put some more pictures of me so you can see how little and cute I am!  She says I have a whole album on her facebook page (she always has the camera in my face!).  Goodnight!!

May comes in with a sneeze!

Well May certainly came in with a sneeze at our house! Bronchitis is NOT a fun illness and I developed it about a week after having one of my patients sneeze in my face.  Eww.....I just knew I was going to get sick.

Sick I did get, and Derek hauled me off to the doctor.  I always self diagnose and so far on all occasions I have been right.  Dr. S confirmed my bronchitis and sent me home with a scrip for antibiotics, Robitussin with codeine, and a doctor's note.

I took up residence on the couch later that afternoon surrounded by my medication, a pot of Vicks Vapo-Rub, a box of tissues, a trash can (Giants....of course), a bottle of water, a bottle of orange Gatorade, the tv remotes, my Blackberry, my computer, my favorite pillow, my green Snuggie, and a giant fluffy blanket.  Derek had taken Wednesday off to care for me and my Mom came by Thursday to bring me more Gatorade and some cans of Cambells chicken noodle soup.

3 days out of work and then the weekend arrived.  I was feeling somewhat better.  We had to make a day trip to CT to pick up our new electric lawn mower....Sears delivered it to the wrong address!  Visited with Derek's Dad, his brother Chad, and their new dog Belle.  We had lunch with Joe and then hit Ikea before we headed home.  We bought a new memory foam mattress pad for our bed and a new memory foam pillow for me.  The pillow seems to be helping with my headaches some which is always good news.

Sunday found us back home where we slept in, did some yard work (Derek mowed the lawn) and then we took the rest of the day off by getting lunch and then camera shopping.  I bought a new camera and we went to the beach to test it out.  It has a VERY COOL sweep panorama feature which I tested and now have to figure out how to get the pics from the camera to the computer.  All in good time....we have 3 weeks until our trip.....hope that's enough time to figure out how it works!

Back at work and so far so good.

Signing off 04:21

Fun times in Migraineland! (Migraines: Part 1)

I'm used to getting migraines by now.  They suck but usually can be dealt with by taking 2 Naproxen, drinking a ton of water and taking a nap.  Not so last night!  D came home and found me curled up in bed and not very happy. He insisted after arguing with me for 15 minutes that I go to the ER.  I was too tired, nauseous, dizzy, and in too much pain to put up a fight....so off to the ER we went.

After they put me in a room and put in an IV the doc came in to see me.  She ordered Zofran for the nausea and Toradol for the migraine.  After that was on board I sent D to go get himself some dinner because he hadn't eaten.  About 10 minutes after he left I started getting itchy.  After scratching for a few minutes a nurse wandered in and took a look at me and sent for the doctor.  I had hives from the Toradol!  I was given Benadryl for the hives and then (because the migraine was still persisting) I got some Morphine.  Then I took a nap.  We got home about 22:00 last night and I slept on the couch for awhile after having some soup broth and then I went to bed.

In talking with some people on line that I know through an allergy forum I was told that because I have an allergy to Ibuprofen (which we knew) that I should not have been given Toradol.  In thinking about it I already knew that.  We carry it on our ambulance and give it to our patients for pain.  I guess I was too out of it last night that when they said they were going to give me Toradol I didn't put two and two together.  D didn't know, so he didn't say anything.  So now he knows in case it happens again he can say something.

Lesson learned!  Docs aren't perfect and you and your family members should keep up on your allergies and medications.

Part 2 of the migraine story is here

Signing off 16:31

My first poem in over a year...

This is dedicated to D.


Untitled

How can you ever understand how much you mean to me?

I see you are I soar...I can do anything.

You leave and it devastates me for days.

I am truly lost without you.

I see you in the rising sun as you fill me with warmth.

I see you in the bright, full moon as you make me calm and confident.

I see you in the crashing ocean waves as you move me with your vibrant personality.

I see you in the flowers that grow as you are silent and strong in my eyes.

I love you and admire you so much yet how can I truly show you how much you mean to me?


Copyright 2011

Signing off 06:55

Him

As I have been wrapped up this week with all sorts of stuff I managed to overlook the one major thing that has happened this week (excluding Sooie's wedding). D and I have been dating for 1 month as of November 1st!

It's amazing how much my life has changed in just a month.

For those who don't know our story I will tell you.

D and I met online about 8 years ago. According to him, he did an online search for female firefighters in the tri-state area because he was interested in a female perspective on the job. Apparently I was the first listing and he contacted me on my MySpace profile page. I remember the initial message. I though it was weird that he contacted me out of the blue but I though he was cute and I was intrigued, so I answered him. We talked for awhile back and forth for several years losing touch in 2006 and then picking up again in 2007. We were both dating other people and he lived out of state so dating him really never crossed my mind I guess. We finally met face to face in 2007 when he came down to meet me and had been down here a few times after that prior to our dating. No matter what happened we always seemed to email or message and stay in touch.

This past summer when I broke up with my ex I called D because I was upset and wanted to talk to someone. He was always a good listener and was very comforting. He called me the next day to check on me and we started talking about relationships and the like. Was I shocked when he came out and told me that he has had a crush on me for the last 8 years! After much consideration and discussion we decided to give a relationship a try. We had both been in long term relationships before and understood that they took a lot of work but we were game.

Our first kiss happened at the train station when I arrived to pick him up on his first visit since we had decided to date. The gods honest truth is I have never been this comfortable with anyone before. We are very similar (which is kinda scary) but different so our relationship is interesting. He makes it very easy to love him and is very forgiving when I have a bad day and need to call him and vent.

So there is our story. Hopefully it will continue for a long time to come. :)


10/01/11

Signing off 04:56

It's been a month

Apparently since I posted anything new. A LOT has gone on in the last 34 days. I found myself single (again) at the beginning of September. I was quite upset but the break up had been several months in the making (to the shock of some of my friends). It finally took me to state the obvious to both of us (that it wasn't working) and we ended the relationship. 'Nuff said.

I had reconnected with an old friend awhile before my break up. We have been friends for around 8 years now and he confessed to me he has had a crush on me for many of those years. I was flattered and he suggested to me that when I was ready maybe we could go out sometime and see what happened. Well he came to visit at the beginning of October and we shared our first kiss. Sparks flew and now we are inseparable. It's tough dating someone who lives in another state. We talk on the phone several times a day and Skype at night when I get to work so at least we get to see each other. We get together and spend weekends together whether it's here in NY or there in CT. So far we have made it work pretty well. I love D very much and our relationship is unlike any other that I have ever been in. More to come in the months ahead.

Signing off 03:49