Thoughts from the T-Shirt Lady

Last week, we took a trip to see my youngest daughter and her 3 daughters. Her husband is in the army and currently in Iraq. We drove to her home which is 8 hours away, and this is the first trip we have taken since before my cancer was diagnosed.

We watched the weather for several days – the weathermen kept predicting the possibility of snow where we live, and we didn’t want to have any driving problems either part of the trip.

We finally made the decision last Tuesday to go on the trip and we are glad we did. Had so much fun with the family – haven’t seen them for almost 2 years – the last time we visited was in May of 2005 when my daughter graduated from college to become a math teacher in a local high school. We are so proud of her, taking care of her family, her home and going to school at the same time.

It was just as cold where my daughter lives as it is here at home and she’s south of us. So, since I was prepared for cold weather – driving from here – it wasn’t too bad.

I didn’t sleep all that well at night while we were gone – as the bed wasn’t that comfortable, and I kept tossing and turning. Despite that, I had enough energy to get me through the days we were visiting – I even went and exercised one day while we were there.

The only day that I had real problems with my energy level was Saturday. My dh and I drove around for awhile in the am – before everyone else was ready for the day. We walked around in the local Lowes and Wal-Mart. That was good for me.

We then drove to a local flea market and spent several hours walking around there, and finding something to eat. Afterwords, the girls decided that they wanted to go to a very large Wal-Mart to spend the money that we gave them for the weekend. Well, that was too much walking for me! I ended up sitting on a bench at the front of the store and told them all to come get me when they were done…. Really tried to do too much, I guess. Though each day, I find that I have a little more energy than the day before, if I don’t try to fit in too many errands and such.

Well, when we came home yesterday – our cat greeted us at the door with a look that said – where have you been?? He’s 16 months old and this was the first time that we had been away over night.

Now comes the fun part – my dh woke up last night about 1:30am, and the house was cold. Seems that the furnace decided to act up. We have a gas furnace, and plenty of fuel – but the temps in the house were dropping – as it was quite cold outside.

We were up about an hour while he tinkered with it – then went back to sleep. I’m so grateful that the furnace worked fine while we were gone. Could have been a disaster with busted pipes. Right now we are waiting for a repairman to come and check it out. Supposed to be in the 50’s after today – so it’s good that we find out now what’s going on, as I’m sure it will get cold again. Not spring yet

Sandi