Oh, did I mention that I fell this week...

We have been drinking smoothies for lunch at the office to help with calorie intake and weight loss goals. My boss brought in a dorm refrigerator to put in the bathroom ... and put the ice machine that he bought me last year for my birthday on top of the refrigerator.

Well, Tuesday late afternoon I decided to have my smoothie--wasn't hungry at lunch time-- so went into the bathroom to retrieve the fat free yogurt and strawberries. Well the refrigerator door gets hung up on the shelves inside so it needs an extra nudge to close. Well, my hands were full, so I stuck my foot in the bathroom door to nudge the fridge door shut, and the bathroom door came back and 'grabbed' my leg/foot...and DOWN I went. I mean to tell you I hit my head HARD on the floor. My boss was out but Roger (another advisor in the office) was in and he came running around the corner and asked if I was OK. At that point I thought my head was going to burst with the pain...plus the wind had been knocked out of me. I just laid there and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed my head where it had banged on the HARD floor. I had scraped my arms, hurt my butt and really whacked my head. I finally got up and made it back to my chair. I made it to the end of the day...but really hurt. My back started to ache as well.

I woke up at 4:30am on Wednesday and could hardly move! My neck felt like I would assume it would feel if you had whiplash. I pretty much hurt all over. I didn't make it to work on time..but finally straggled in. I started popping the advil every 3 hours. When I got to the office, I told Roger and Craig (boss) that it felt like I had done 500 hundred pushups, gotten whiplash, been hit over the head with a frying pan and been kicked in the tushy!! Other than that I felt pretty good. HA HA

I kept popping pills and did leave early Wednesday. My mom was afraid that I would feel worse the next day, but actually on Thursday I felt a bit better. Still sore, but not nearly like I was on Wednesday.

Funny--when I told Russ what I'd done..his first comments was "Were you wearing slacks?" What a hoot... I said "Yes, dear, I was not wearing a skirt that flew up over my head."

Well, that should about get me caught up for this week. I may post more this weekend. I'd like to post some of the flower pics I took a few weeks ago.

Not much to post about...

It's been kind of a crazy last week or so. I went to my folks house in Perry last weekend to help Mom some more with her inventory list for the garage fire. It's amazing how many more things you think of that went up in smoke after the fact. We are still thinking of things that got bulldozed away this past week. So the garage is down and they have OK'd the foundation to build the new one upon. They came and power washed the floor, driveway and walks. Now they are ready to get moving with the building process. Hopefully, they will begin that next week.

A good family friend passed away this week. Clifford was the husband of my mom's best friend, Gldays Read. He was not quite 87 years old. He had been having a lot of health problems lately, but you're still never ready for them to leave this earth. Gladys and Cliff had been married for 58 years. She will have a tough road ahead, but there are lots of family and friends for her to lean on. They lost their son David (close to my age) in 1992 and their daughter Karen (several years younger than me) in 2005 and still have one son, Keith (a few years older than me) living in Olathe KS. We lived by them until I was 8 and we moved where my folks now live. But Mom and her have stayed friends all these years. My mom just aches for the sorrow that Gladys will feel in the days to come. Anyway, I went to Perry on Wednesday afternoon and went to the visitation that evening and stayed with the folks Wednesday night and attended the services yesterday morning. It was a hard day...but the hard days are ahead for Gladys. Please pray for her. She has great faith and she knows that Cliff is with David and Karen now and pain free.

This is the holiday weekend and Russ is down in Florida, so I will be spending it mostly alone. But that's OK, with the week I have had, I could use a little down time. Well, I hope everyone has a good holiday weekend...BE SAFE.

My boys

Here's a picture of my lazy boys relaxing on the mattress cover while I'm washing the sheets. They are so much fun to have. I'd only had one cat at a time until these two. I had Felix (the black and white one) first, then came Grayson. They really love each other and play nice--most of the time.

I would be lost if I didn't have these two boys to come home to. We also have a black lab, Garth, that toughs it out in his HUGE pen outside. His pen is probably more square footage than our house. He has a nice dog house that was built by my dad. It has double walls, so warm in the winter and it must be fairly cool in the summer, cuz I'll come home a lot of warm days to him tucked up inside. We do put swan bedding in there for him during the winter months. When we got him, we also got his brother, Will, but we had to put Will down 3 years ago on July 4. Garth adjusted well, but loves it when Russ comes home. I let him out when I mow, but he loves to hang by Russ when he's home and outside. He LOVES to be around people, but he also loves to jump up on ME...and he has wicked toenails.

Well, I just wanted to share a picture of my indoors buddies. They are my kids!

Gal Pals in Branson

Last December I used a week of my boss' time share to spend some time in Branson with two of my good friends--Deb and Connie. We were there for Deb's birthday on 12.3..and had her celebratory dinner at Shorty Smalls, a great BBQ place.

This picture was taken at the Grand Village Shops. What a great time to get some Christmas shopping done. We had so much fun. I love going on trips with these gals. We ALWAYS have the best time. We laugh a lot and share great memories of a long time friendship. I have known Deb since she was a wee one. I lived next to her until we moved to a different house in Perry, and got reconnected later in life through tap dancing classes. I helped to coach Connie's daughter in the 80's and then we reconnected as well through tap dancing classes. The three of us have done a lot of traveling together. Even gone a cruise with these two fun loving gals. It's so nice to have friends like these. Everyone needs to cherish all their special times with special friends. Deb and her husband are going to Las Vegas next year to the NASCAR race. That will be a great time as well.

Busy Day

I took the day off of work and my folks came up to the farm to help Russ and I with the 'honey do' list. Boy did we get a lot done. We worked in the spare bedroom and moved the extra dresser out and put my small oak desk that Dan gave me in there. Then we pulled the wing back chair out of the computer room and put the platform rocker that was in the scrapbook room in the computer room. I need more room in the scrapbook room and also the computer room. The wing back chair took up too much space. So now I have these two extra pieces of furniture that I need to get rid of. Need to take pics and post to see if anyone wants to buy either. I may keep the low dresser...just need to get in the scrapbook room and organize and then I'll see if it's something that I can use in there. But I know the wing back chair has to go. Just no room for it.

I grilled hamburgers on my new birthday grill. It's just an inexpensive little grill but it has the dual burners and the upper warming area..that's what I was looking for. We also had some WONDERFUL sweet corn.

Then back to work. We went outside to the little shed and did a clean sweep kind of thing. Took 99% of it out...pitched and cleaned up then put back my flower pots, etc. It's so much nicer now. Russ will put the snow blower, lawn mower (walk behind one) and tiller in the old garage. Now I can do some plant potting in there.

I actually then cleaned up and went to the office for a bit in the afternoon. I told my boss that I had to come to the office to get some rest. My arms ache, my back aches and my feet hurt..but it was a good feeling to get so much done today. My folks are the best helpers.

They finally got a bid and the OK to have a new garage built..the old one had a little mishap with a HOT lawn mower. So within a couple of weeks they will have a new garage! Then they can go new car shopping. Then once we get the 'stuff' put back in the new garage, that episode will be a done deal. What a learning experience and something that I hope we don't have to go through again in my lifetime.

Russ is home

Well, Russ got home yesterday after being out for 3 weeks. I thought he had been gone longer, but he said it was actually just short of 3 weeks. Too long in my book! He really needs to hop on his John Deere and get the back 40 mowed...but of course since he's now home to do it, it rained a good part of yesterday at the farm. But today is a new day and it looks absolutely gorgeous out so he should be able to get his mowing done.

My folks are planning on coming up tomorrow to help with the big 'to do' list that I created while I was at their house in Perry this past weekend. Just lots of little things that I can't get done alone, and Mom LOVES to help me switch things around and help me toss things. Sometimes she gets too aggressive with her tossing skills..but she's getting better at asking before the final pitch in the garbage. I think I acquired my cluttering skills from my dad...he tends to save as well, because you just never know when you MIGHT need that little something.

The folks had a fire in their garage a few weeks ago so have been busy helping with the details of that whole process as well. I think they will end up with a new garage out of it. They have a guy that has bid on bulldozing, hauling away and putting up new. One guy to do it all seems the way to go, so you're not waiting on each step to get done before starting the next.

Their car also got totalled since it was in the garage. Their car insurance company didn't even look at it..just said that if it was in the garage when it caught on fire, they would total it. They came the next day and towed it away. A friend of mine bought it as a buy back option and they got a really good deal as the car only had a few bad spots on it where stuff overhead and fallen on the car. Other than that, the car is in great shape. Glad that someone will get some goodie out of it. We had thought about it ourselves..since Russ' car that he keeps at the 'truck yard' in Grand Prairie, TX has now decided to cause us big grief. Russ will have to do some used car shopping the next time he's down there for a few days. He really has enjoyed having a car down there as a lot of the time he is there for 2-3 days while the truck is being serviced and they are lining up his next route.

Well, I guess this should do it for today's post.

Something new

I've wanted to start a blog for some time now. Most of my close friends know what's up with me most days anyway, so this will be a way to keep those not living close by in touch with what is happening at the Mersman household.

This will be a short initial post, but will try to add more as ideas occur to me. I'll also try to learn how to add pictures. I took some awesome pictures yesterday of all the tiger lilies, rose of sharon bushes and my beautiful hibiscus flowers. Will try to share those in the days to come. Talk about a range of colors!