Thoughts from the T-Shirt Lady

Want to learn how to get better sleep? Buy a new bed! Oh, wait - did I say get better sleep? Maybe I was mistaken.

A little history. Right before my DH and I got married, we both had water-beds. They were both wave-less, and had a box spring. I guess you call that soft sided.

Once we got married we decided to change a little, and went with a water-bed, again with a box spring, but this time, with water tubes. Ah… you can have your amount of water and firmness, instead of having to put up with a firmness or softness that you don’t like. Great idea!

Over the years, of using the tubes, it’s worked fine, except that I like a lot of water and firmness in the tubes on my side of the bed, and my husband likes a lot less. Picture this if you will - a nice half of the bed, level and firm, and the other half, a much lower, softer feel. If you looked at it from the end of the bed, there was a definite dip in the center. Now what fun if you rolled over the center at nite - you feel like you are going over a waterfall. I kid you not!

Add to that, we were sleeping on wedges that took up almost the whole bed - one for each of us - this is what you have to do as you get up in age, to prevent acid reflux!!

Making the bed was a pain - because not only did I have to change the bottom sheet on the bed, I had to change the cases on the wedges too. I had made what looked like pillow cases for the wedges, to keep them from becoming uncovered as you slept on them. My DH is a very restless sleeper. Not only that, but the bed was so low to the ground, even with the box-spring - that I had to bend down to do anything with the bed.

Enough!! We decided once we got our tax refund this year, we would go out and look for a regular bed. We went shopping at our local Mattress Discounters, and must have laid down on every bed in the store. We were really hoping to get a temper pedic - but it was so expensive… we decided on a pillow-top, firm Sterns and Foster. It was a little high to get up into, but I wanted the extra height.

It was delivered the next day - and it was even higher than it was in the store. I think the difference was the fact that the frame they were using in the store didn’t have wheels, and ours does. So you almost need a step stool to get into bed.  No problem! Now for a good nites sleep.

On our water-bed, I found that I would wake up at 3am, 4am, and 5am or so every nite - can’t figure that one out, I don’t have to go to work in the am, so why would I care what time it was?

Well, as you can imagine, we needed a few nites to get aclimated to the new bed, so I fully expected not to be able sleep well for awhile. We’ve had the bed for more than 2 weeks now, and guess what? I’m still waking up at 3am, 4am, 5am…. but at least the bed is higher, I don’t have to bend down to make the bed, nor have to stand up from the bed in the morning when I get up. Now I just slide off the bed and I’m upright! Anything to help me in my ‘old age’!

Sandi

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Yesterday morning - about 4:30am, I woke up and was laying in bed trying to decide if I wanted to go back to sleep, or get up to start my day.

As I was laying there - I heard someone whispering, and a light went off.

Normally, my DH gets up before me, so I assumed it was him, whispering to the cats, and then turning the hall light off as he went into the livingroom.

Ok, that’s alright - I can sleep a little longer if I want. Remember, I am retired, so I don’t have to get up to go to work!

The next noise I hear, is my DH snoring - wait a minute - didn’t I just hear him whispering…

I shook him awake and told him what I heard and saw - you never saw anyone jump out of bed so fast!

After looking all over the house, we found nothing and no one that wasn’t supposed to be there. What - did I dream it all! Sure took a few years off of my life!

Sandi

What a nightmare! I’ve started my spring cleaning in January.

Here’s how it happened…

I took down the garland and artificial wreaths from our Christmas decorations on the front porch. (Well it’s not actually a porch - but that’s another story!)

Found pillow cases large enough for the artificial wreaths - actually they had been under the bed with no covering for the past few years. Figured it was time to put them in something to protect from the dust. You should have seen the layer of dust on one of them. Will probably never look like it did when I bought it

Anyway - figured there was too much stuff in the bathroom closet and wanted to use the top shelf for these decorations. So proceeded to take everything off the top shelf and on the floor - since I was in the re-organizing mood.

Well - everything on the floor was wet! Quel nightmare (I love that phrase - it was used in You’ve got mail.

Actually the sections of the items that were wet had been up against the back wall - which is an outside wall. And the wall was still wet - you could actually see the water back there.

I called my DH immediately. Of course he was out hunting - but water on the wall? Panic time. ‘Its condensation’ He’s so smart and has an answer for everything.

Now we have a big fan going to try and dry the wall, don’t know how long it will take all the ’stuff’ to dry - and that’s why I’m re-organizing - moving stuff from the bathroom closet to the bedroom closet (only those items not wet).

And of course I needed to re-organize the bedroom closet to make room for the moved ’stuff’!

At least my Christmas decorations are now on the top shelf in the bathroom closet… the main objective - no more under the bed with all the dust bunnies, etc….

Sandi