2013 in Review.

Well, it's time to review 2013 and look forward to a new year:  2014!!   Let's see how I did on all the things I wanted to accomplish this year before I set my goals for 2014!!

I started off January 2013 by seeing Alyssa back off to Japan after her holiday visit (first time home in over 3 years!), crying all the way home from the airport. Steve quickly planned a little get-a-way for us in Atlanta, so that I would have something to look forward to. He went to a public speaking class during the days and I went shopping at Lennox Square and met up with some long-lost friends from high school and even took Marta into town and walked around for miles on my own, visiting the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

February brought Sophie's 2nd birthday and we celebrated that with new chew-toys and a giant bone and lots of tummy rubs and we celebrated our 27th Wedding Anniversary on Valentine's Day with a quiet dinner that I cooked for Steve at home - a fancy dinner complete with a chocolate lava-cake for dessert!

March came in like a lion with a 2 inch snow on 3-2-13!!  The weather started warming up after that and we bundled up and took a motorcycle ride along the Natchez Trail and toted along a picnic that we enjoyed beside a babbling brook.  After we ate our picnic lunch, we skipped stones across the water and did a little hiking.

April brought spring-time and the world started to green-up again.  I really enjoyed the cherry blossoms this year!  I planted my garden in the keyhole style in the back yard (we aren't allowed to have a traditional "garden" in our neighborhood - so I had to make it look "decorative").    Jaron got his new job at Hooters as an assistant manager.    We had a cookout for my work friends and it was a big success!  We grilled hotdogs with all the fixins! I took a painting class with my friends and we painted pears!  Mine actually ended up looking like pears and we hung it in the hallway by the kitchen!

In May, my promotion to Executive Director of the Franklin Office of Guardian Home Care became official and I flew out to Dallas for a week of training and came back to the office ready to try to make an impact.  At the end of the month, we took our long awaited trip to New England!  We flew into Boston and then drove up the coast of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine to Portland.  We stayed at an old Victorian Bed and Breakfast and enjoyed exploring the coastline, the lighthouses, and eating lots of fresh Maine Lobster!  I also tried clams and found them to be DELICIOUS!!  We spent a day in Boston, visited Salem, Mass (home of the 1600's Witch Trials), explored Portland on foot, and visited the LL Bean flagship store.   It was a very lovely trip!

In July, we celebrated Jaron's 22nd birthday with a birthday shrimp boil here at the house.....followed by a weekend trip to Hanabi for sushi (his favorite place).   Then came July 4th and I kept my Mamaw's family tradition alive:  chocolate cake and lemonade.  We took a trip to Lebanon to the drive-in movies!  Which turned out to be a bust due to bugs, rednecks, and a thunderstorm.   Steve's birthday was celebrated with a nice dinner out.

The first week of August heralded my birthday....and we celebrated by going to a local farm to do some hiking.  Steve bought me a beautiful strand of pearls (since I had broken mine earlier this year and was heart-broken over it).  Pearls are my all-time favorite jewelry...I just think they are classic and never go out of style. My friends at work celebrated my special day with a dozen Gigi Cupcakes!  They made me feel like a princess! Later in the month, we went to another painting class and ATTEMPTED to paint the Nashville Skyline as Van Gogh's Starry Night. My batman building turned out a bit wonky, but we laughed and laughed and had a very good girl's night out!

September slowly brought in a little cooler weather and I was able to harvest and preserve some of my garden bounty.  I ended up with about 200 green peppers!!  I diced them and flash-froze them and they turned out perfectly!  I put up 10 bags of fresh pumpkin in the freezer for pies and other recipes!  And I made fig preserves from figs that we picked from my Papaw's fig tree.  I also planted 7 fig trees by cutting off branches from his tree and rooting them in dirt.  I called them my "fig-sticks!"   We got all dressed up one evening and met my friends Kim and Angie at the Nashville Tippler - which was a Speakeasy joint!  The food was some of the best I've ever eaten and we had so much fun!

By the time October rolled around, fall was finally in full swing!  We took a trip to Helen, Georgia!  Just like we used to every year!  We were a bit disappointed that the leaves weren't fully in color yet....but that was the only thing disappointing!  We visited and toured the Yohna Mountain Winery, which was lovely!  We visited a covered bridge, old-timey stores, walked the streets of Helen and had some wonderful BBQ while listening to Johnny Cash! It was the perfect weekend get-away! For Boss's Day, my crew surprised me with a breakfast and a gift card for Massage Envy and flowers and a nice card.  I have never felt so loved and honored!  On Halloween, we were invited to a Halloween party, where we dressed up like Zombies.  Steve did the eyeball trick with an added "zipper flesh" for the extra yuck-gore factor.  We had a blast doing the make-up.  I went as Little Dead Riding Hood - wearing a red cape and some zombie makeup on my face. We actually left the party early and got kicked out of the Mall in Cool Springs!  It was hilarious!

In November, we had an official "funeral" for Cerner, our old soft-ware system that we hated.   It was just an excuse for a party.  We also went painting again - this time we painted Christmas trees in the snow.  Mine turned out....well, it was kindda like trees in snow and more like a hot mess!  But we had fun creating! The best part of November was our 10 day cruise!!!  We visited Princess Cays in the Bahamas, St. Thomas, Aruba, Grenada, Dominica, and Bon Aire! I visited Meghan's Bay in St. Thomas and Blackbeard's Castle!  In Dominica we went river-tubing in the rain forest!  In Grenada, we took a tour of a spice plantation and got to visit a Nutmeg processing plantation! We met some amazing folks and formed friendships that I hope last a lifetime!  It was one wonderful trip!  We got back the day after Thanksgiving and celebrated my Mom's birthday!

This brings us to December.....which seems to have flown by in a whirlwind!!  Steve had to travel out of town much of the first part of the month - so it was a bit lonely.  I did manage to get up the Christmas decorations, plan our office Christmas party and bake 4 cheesecakes!  I got all of the Christmas shopping done between the end of our cruise and Christmas day.....which was no easy feat.  Steve breaks out in hives at the mention of visiting a retail establishment in the month of December, as he hates the crowds....so I mostly had to sneak in shopping time while he was out of town or busy with other things.   We celebrated Christmas Eve by attending the candlelight communion service at World Outreach Church and then Jaron came over to spend the night with us!  We enjoyed a 2 hour Skype session with Alyssa as an intact family unit and it did my heart a world of good!  We loaded up in the car Christmas morning and drove to Fort Oglethorpe to spend Christmas Day with family.  We had lunch with my Mom, Sister and the girls and then drove down to Dalton to see Steve's Uncle John, Aunt Betty and their family.  It is always good to spend time with family!!

It's been an amazing year!! I have been blessed with so many, many experiences!!!! I can't wait to see what 2014 brings my way!

Now to review the goals I set the last week of December 2012......the hopes, plans, and dreams I had for 2013!

1.  I want to continue our weekend trips, exploring the local areas and finding cool places to visit!!  This one, we did!   Almost every weekend, we tried to find a new place to visit, a new place to hike, or a new place to eat!  This is one of the goals I want to continue in 2014!!! 

2.  I want to continue to exercise and be physically active!  I really DO feel better when I exercise regularly and it's now become a habit!!  Yay!!!  I achieved this one too!  Walking, elliptical.....I do feel better being more active!  Will continue this goal into 2014 as well! 

3.  I want to learn to take better pictures....hone my photography skills! I want to learn to do creative pictures and maybe even frame a few shots for my office.  Well, I certainly took a few hundred thousand pictures this year!  I didn't frame any of them (yet!) but I did have about 200 of them printed and I'm working on a travel scrapbook! :)  Will also continue this goal into 2014! 

4.  I want to decorate my office at work.  It's a disorganized messy mess right now. I think I could be much more productive and positive at work if my environment was neat and pretty!!  Well, I'd say this one was about 50% met??   Better than it was, but still a long way to go! :)   I have some ideas, I just need to execute!  This one will carry over as well. 

5.  I want to dress more professionally....and less frumpily.  I have a few new things in my closet now that actually fit me...I just need to learn how to put things together to look less "Aunt Bea" and more pulled-together.   I did try a few new fashions this year!  Not sure I achieved any less frumpiness, but I was comfortable with my choices and felt better about how I looked. 

6.  I want to celebrate.  EVERYTHING!  Big things, little things....all things.  I am so blessed...I need to exude more of an attitude of gratitude!!! Be more mindful of the blessings, and complain much less.  I have tried my best to be more mindful of the blessings and be more thankful.   It certainly helps with my frame of mind!  I will continue this goal as well. 

7.  I want to take some more painting classes...maybe some writing classes? Pottery classes?  I just want to flex some creative muscle and learn!!!  I did take 3 painting classes and an online writing class, an online photography class and a wine appreciation class!  We took a glass blowing class too!  This is another goal I want to continue!  The more I learn, the more interesting my life becomes! 

8.  I want to make use of my new craft-room and be crafty!!  I did make use of my craft room more...but still not as much as I had hoped.  Will carry this one over. 

9.  Trips for the year?  This year, we are planning a trip up the New England coast to see as many light-houses as possible....and perhaps in the fall....a trip out to Nevada to the Grand Canyon and to Las Vegas. I made it to the airport in Vegas this year...but was only passing through.  I don't care one bit about gambling....totally not my thing...but I do want to see the magnificent hotels and sights in Vegas!  We were thinking about a trip to Europe this year....but maybe not....maybe we will see more the the US and tackle Europe next year.   Well, we made it to New England and the lighthouses (and it was more amazing than I had dreamed!)  We didn't make it to Vegas or the Grand Canyon.....but we did take a cruise to the Southern Caribbean where I visited 6 countries I'd never been to before and I did several things I would have never dreamed of doing.....like river-tubing in the rain forest and touring a spice plantation!  The Trip goal will continue!  I want to see the WORLD!!!! 

10.  I want to continue motorcycle trips with Steve...SO much fun!!!  Oh yeah!  When the weather is nice, we try to take at least one ride a week........the world just looks different from the back of that motorcycle!  I enjoy riding through the countryside so very, very much! 

11.  I want to become an encourager.....to reach out to at least one person per month who is struggling and lighten their load....either spiritually, emotionally or physically.   I have made a very strong effort to be more encouraging.....extending mercy and offering support.  I am not where I should be, but I'm on my way! 

12.  I want to learn to take time for myself without feeling guilty.  Maybe set aside one night a week to do something I enjoy instead of working:  a bubble bath, coloring in my coloring books, snuggling with my puppy, watching a show with my husband....the activity doesn't matter....the fact that I just take some time off and DO it and not feel guilty for doing it is the important thing.   I have done more of this....to a degree.  There have been some bubble baths, some coloring, lots of reading, some art work, some creative cooking.....it's still something that requires more work on my part. 

13.  I want to learn how to effectively parent my adult children. It's hard being hands-off and so far away from them.  The last 25 years of my life I've spent focusing on being their Mommy.  Now I need to learn to step back and let them be their own selves...even when I don't agree with their life-choices, their circumstances or values.  My prayer is (as it has been the last 25 years)....."Lord, Just let them know how much I dearly love them...even when I don't get it right."   Well, this has been a very interesting journey this year....full of twists and turns- more than I can publicly share.   Did I manage it?  Well, they are still speaking to me....which is something, I suppose.   I still struggle in this area. 

14.  I want to write more.  I have good intentions....but not so good follow-through.  And writing is SUCH good therapy!!!  I definitely need to write more.  I just don't take the time.

15.  I want to go horseback riding!  I've lost 94 pounds so far....so it won't be as unfair to the horse now...maybe in the spring time?  I still haven't managed to go horseback riding!   It will have to be a carry-over to next year. 

16.  I want to enjoy antiquing with my husband.  I just love browsing around, looking at vintage and old things.  There's just a certain charm about items with a history that intrigues me!  We did this!  Bell Buckle, Nolensville, etc......such a joy! 

17.  I still want to go to a drive-in movie.  Didn't get to mark that off my list last year, so it's a carry-over!   Did it!!  It wasn't all it was cracked up to be.....it's a lot more romantic in theory than in reality.  We witnessed a fight between folks in the car line waiting to get in, there were mosquitoes as big as my head, and then a thunderstorm blew up and we had to put the top up and all the windows fogged up..making it hard to even see the screen.  All in all, I'd rather watch movies in the comfort of my own home!  But we did go...and what an adventure it was!! :) 

18.  I want to go on picnics!!!  We did!!!  Along the Natchez Trace!  

19.  I want to visit an amusement park....and be more adventurous than I have been about riding the rides.  I've always been a scardey-cat.  I'm tired of being afraid of everything!  Didn't have the opportunity to visit an amusement park this year; we went to one in Old Orchard Beach in Maine, but it was closed. ....maybe next year? 

20.  I want to have a systemic way of keeping my house cleaner and clutter-free.  Hmmmm. Organization is not my strong point.  I need to research a way to stay on top of it and not let it become overwhelming.  I did better than before, but my life gets in the way of  my neatness most of the time. I tend to be messy.  

21.  I want to become a more "giving" person.  In so many ways, I'm selfish and I need to learn that there's more joy in giving then in keeping.  I have done this!   I do find more joy in giving!  Especially when nothing is expected in return.  Does my heart good! 

22.  I want to grow a kitchen garden for REAL this year.  Last year, I had a good start, but got lazy with it.  I really, really want to grow my own vegetables and herbs.   DID IT!!! My garden was SPECTACULAR this year!!  I had a bumper crop of tomatoes, okra, peppers, onions, herbs and flowers!!! I really enjoyed it too!  :) 

23.  I want to make my own soap.  I just love hand-made soaps!! I have some of my own herbs I've grown.....and I want to try my hand at making my own soap!!  :)   I actually forgot about this goal!  I still would love to explore making soap!  Maybe next year! :) 

Home Health Turkey

As I was driving up the rutted dirt driveway, I couldn't help but grin.  It was a gorgeous crisp fall morning early enough that  the frost was just begining to melt away and the trees were covered in red and orange leaves so vibrant they seems to be on fire.  A faint whiff of a spicy smokey scent permeated the air letting me know that someone had been burning leaves in the distance.  I was a home health nurse making my visits to patients for their daily nursing care.

My first destination was a trailer was about a mile up in the woods at the foot of the mountain on a narrow  and winding dirt and gravel road. It hadn't rained in weeks, and the dust rose in billowing clouds around my truck tires.   As the trailer came into sight, my first impression was that someone had discarded a old tincan on it's side and left it to rust.  The trailer had to be at least 25 years old and sagged in the middle like a sway-backed sow. There was a rusted out old jeep with no wheels and a busted out windshield propped up on crumbling cinder blocks.  The trailer sat about 3 feet off the ground with only jagged remnants of underpinning left, but there was no porch and no steps leading to the front door. The entry consisted of old half rotted 2  X 4's propped onto concrete blocks to form sort of a make-shift wheelchair ramp.  

I knocked on the delapidated  door that was dirty with years and years of being slammed on rusted hinges and heard a feeble, "Honey, come on in here!" As I pulled open the door, a gust of stale air thick with the odor of kerosene and rancid bacon grease mixed with the smell of rubbing linament assaulted my senses and stung my eyes.  

My patient was sitting in a wheelchair wearing an old cotton "duster" stained with fried egg yolk and crumbs from severeal meals. The wheelchair arms were missing upholstery exposing thick ripped yellow padding. She was watching "The Price is Right" and Bob Barker was getting ready to host the Showcase Showdown.  

I noticed right away that both legs had been amputated..the right one below the knee and the left one above.  The right stump was covered with a white gauze bandage with bloody yellow drainage seeping through the layers on the end where the wound just refused to heal. Her body has been ravanged by diabetes and had been whittled away bit by bit....first a toe, then another toe, then a foot, then below the knee, then above the knee....her body dying slowly inch by inch. Her blood sugars were sky high as she just couldn't really understand the concept that Little Debbies and Brown Cow icecream were killing her. 

We laughed and joked and offered our best bids on the Showcase Showdown while I changed her dressings, carefully forming a perfect figure 8 dressing around that stump. We got along well; despite her lack of teeth and obvious lack of formal education, she was a gentle and caring woman. As I was packing up my supplies and getting ready to leave her home, she put her hand on my arm and warned, "Now  watch out fer Ole Tom when you go out to yer car." 

"Tom?" I asked.  "Is Tom your dog?" Mean dogs are the bane of mailmen and visiting nurses.  

"Oh Law no, child. He's my Tom Turkey!' she beamed. 

I sighed, somewhat releived that I wasn't facing a mean slobbering Doberman or Rotweiler, only a turkey.  How bad could THAT be, afterall? It's only a bird. I waved good bye and pulled the door shut behind me, stepping out onto the wobbley planks heading down the ramp to solid ground.  When I turned from the door to watch my footing, I found myself face to face with Ole Tom. 

Ole Tom was strutting toward the foot of the ramp with his red floppy waddle jiggling obscenely back and forth. I never knew turkeys were so large! and SO UGLY!  and threatening. His beak looked razor sharp and his beady eyes rolled around in his scrawny tough wrinkled head like a mad man with a glass eye. His claws were thick and dark yellow and surprisingly sharp, like taradactyl talons from a prehistoric horror flick.   He was daring me to step off that ramp onto the ground. 

We faced off for severeal minutes. Every time I tried to move, he moved too. I was terrified. Now, I had worked in home health for years and years in the inner city and had always carried mace but never used it.  I kept it on my keychain...just in case. I slowly slid my hand into my lab coat pocket and wrapped my fingers around the small cylinder. I gathered up all my courage rushed down the planks right for the turkey and aimed straight for the turkey's face and sprayed and then without looking back, I took off running for my truck as if the hounds of hell were on my heels. I made it to my truck, slid into the seat and slammed the door before I had enough gumption to look for the turkey. 

I had never seen such a sight in my entire life as that angry-maced turkey. He kept spinning in circles, rubbing his head on the ground, stomping his death talons, flapping his wings and squalking an awful sound with unrestrained poultry rage. Not wanting to wait around for revenge when he recovered, I slammed the gears into reverse and roared down that dirt road in a could of dust.  

This happened about a month before Thanksgiving that year....and that year.....I opted to go vegetarian for my Thanksgiving meal.

Nursing On The Porch

The rain was coming down in sheets and visibility was poor as my car coasted down a narrow street lined with tar paper houses with sagging porches.  It was midmorning on a Saturday...a dark and thunderous day with humidity so thick that my skin was wet before the rain even hit it.  I checked the house number on my referral sheet and sure enough- the most dilapidated house on the block was my intended destination. I grabbed my notebook and nursing bag and decided to make a run for the front porch in the driving rain. I slung open the car door and stepped out into the sticky rust-colored mud, The yard consisted of a few stubborn tufts of weeds and a thick red clay mud.  Near the road there was a set of tractor tires that had been spray-painted white some measure of years ago and turned up on the side to form make-shift planters where brown weeds had long since died.   My white shoes squished and stuck in the mud and I stepped out of one shoe.....and my white sock was immediately full of the rain-soaked mud. I managed to slide my shoe back on only to notice that my white nursing pants were splattered in red clay as well, and the damage was more wide-spread with every step. I reached the steps of the porch, a little started by the enterege of 3 mange afflicted half-bald skinny dogs who stopped scratching their open sores long enough to check me out. I could almost literally hear the yelps of the fleas as they abandoned the emaciated dogs in favor of my juicy ankles.  If the dogs were unsettling, I certainly wasn't prepared for the next sight. There was an old couch sitting to the left of the front door, lacking ulpholstrey with exposed springs where the foam was completely worn away. it smelled worse than the poor wet dogs.  Perched on the end of this filthy furniture was my patient.  He was tall and painfully thin and blind in one eye.  His right eye was a milky white, completely devoid of all color and it rolled around his eye socket like a marble in a pinball machine. He wore overalls and a ripped and dirty long-sleeved flannel shirt and on his feet he wore canvas tennis shoes that might have once been white.... with the toes of the shoes cut out so his own toes could curl over the ends of the shoes and scrape the floor when he walked. Everything he wore was filthy and damp. As I walked across the sagging porch, I reached out my hand to shake his and introduce myself.  His first words to me were a bit too loud and cheery, "HI! WELCOME TO THE CRAZY HOUSE!" He proceeded to tell me that the house belonged to his daughter, who had kicked him out of the house because she thought his "shit bag smelt too bad." I was amused that she was able to pinpoint the source of the odor.....just judging from the glimpse of garbage strewn interior of the house I had seen through the screen door. I was dripping wet from the downpour, had a muddy sock and shoe, my white pants were likely ruined and the fleas were biting every area of exposed skin.  The dogs would periodically jump on me with muddy paws, seeing if I had a morsel of food for them and I was almost overcome with the rank odors of the wet and moldy couch, the wet dogs and the unwashed man. I knocked on the front door, such as it was: a ripped screened door sagging on rusted hinges.  I thought that perhaps I could reason with a family member and at least gain access to the bathroom to change the man's colostomy bag and wafer and to wash my hands. An elderly woman with no teeth and an oddly flat face with wide-set eyes and low set ears wearing a thin threadbare calico cotton dress with the pockets torn off came to the door and demanded, "What you want?" I presented my case in a professional manner, mentioning that I really needed access to running water to perform my duties.  she said, "NO! He ain't a comin' back in here.  That shit-bag stinks!" and with that, she slammed the door in my face. In a state of shock, I realized that I would have to regroup and it became apparent that I was going to have to complete the visit on the porch, making do with what I had. Oddly, the man did not mind the fact that the was disrobing on the porch.  The overalls were dropped around his ankles and his shirt was off before I realized and could try to protect his "modesty" He was not wearing any underwear. He was indeed filthy. The most alarming site was the amount of stool dripping from the end of the colostomy bag.  The bag was puckered and the end was open and wadded up with a rubber band loosely wrapped around the end, but not effectively. The man said, "Oh,  that thing don't work too good. I lost a piece off it and tried to fix it with that rubber band.  I guess that's what's a making it stink so bad."  So bad indeed. I cleaned him off as best I could with dry gauze 4 X 4 squares and some waterless antiseptic gel hand cleaner. It seems a losing battle.  After what seemed like hours, he was clean enough for a new bag WITH a clip. He had no clean clothes and the insides of the clothes he was wearing were covered in dry stool, but he pulled them right back up with out a second thought. He asked me for money, which I didn't have to give him.  I did have a pack of cheese crackers and an apple in my car...which he consumed eagerly.  He had slept on the couch the night before and had not eaten.  He told me that he had $16 left from his social security check and that he could always sell his pain pills and get about $4 for each pill, which should feed him for the next week or so. He told me that he planned to go stay with his son who lived across town as soon as it stopped raining. I left him sitting on the porch, eating the apple and kicking dogs away. He smiled and thanked me profusely, as if I had given him a million dollars. I climbed into my car, trying not to touch anything I didn't have to touch, and headed straight home for a hot shower and clean clothes and a call to our social worker.  Just another day of home health nursing.