If You Want Me To

What inspires you to write, to share life's struggles? For me it's pain ~ pain~pain~pain.  For reasons I can't explain, I keep coming back to the same crossroad. For two weeks now I've been plagued with crushing Chiari headaches. The yo-yoing barometric pressure is mostly to blame along with stress of life. 

But what's the solution?  Unfortunately, there is no grand cure-all solution for me as a Chiarian. I'm still not convinced that a fusion surgery is the way to go either. Entertaining the idea of going to see a local neuro-surgeon to discuss the options of shunt surgery to relieve CSF pressure in me head...if you want me to...

The Bison ~ Are Back ~ And Ready To Compete

It's that time of year ~ again. Hannah's cheer squad is competing in the Eastern Regional competition on Saturday morning. The team has improved 500% from last year and have really kicked it up a notch in their routine. I am so very proud of Hannah! She has worked really hard to perfect her cheers and routine and it really shows! Her team will be competing against 14 other squads ~ reaching for a team invitation to the national competition at Walt Disney World in a couple of weeks. They will only take two teams to move on to the final competition.

Did I mention that WHEN they go to Disney and compete ~ December 8th ~ there's a huge chance that I will still be in the hospital recovering! What are the odds? Well last time I was connected to a morphine pump the GIANTS won the Super Bowl! Wish us luck ~ it's going to be a big day ~ I can feel it! GO BISON!

The Great Outdoors

This past weekend we all went on a hike in Woodstock, NY ~ in the Catskills Mountains. When I picked our hike location I knew it would be a bit of a challenge for the girls (5 miles round trip), but there's no time like the present to get them accustomed to longer, more challenging hikes. We chose to hike Overlook Mountain ~ one of the big perks of the hike is that about halfway up the mountain you will encounter the Mountain House ruins.

The Mountain House opened in 1871 and could accommodate about 300 guests back in the day. The hotel ruins are located at 2,920' ~ here's a link of photos someone has snapped on a foggy day up on the mountain. Apparently the hotel burned down twice ~ rebuilt ~ then fell prey to the stock market crash. in the 1920's.

We couldn't have picked a more perfect day for a walk in the woods. The temps were in the mid 60's with sun peaking out from behind the clouds now and again. We all made it to the summit and enjoyed some amazing views ~ and a yummy lunch. After we were refueled, Skyler proceeded to skip down the mountain with her walking stick ~ leading us the whole way down to the trail head.

I know ~ some of you are probably rolling your eyes and yelling at me for going on a 5 mile hike not even four months after my detethering ~ but truthfully ~ the adrenaline is the best drug out there. I have been plagued with headaches and neck pain for a couple of weeks straight now ~ it's really breaking me down again. But ~ that said~ my focus in on getting stronger ~ living stronger. The sermon in church yesterday was speaking directly to me ~ again ~ wait on God and his direction for your life ~ oi! Why is that so hard to do?

Project Slimdown for Miss Kittenbritches

I found the LOLCats website last year and some of the pictures were priceless. The one on the left with the 'FAIL' caption had me laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face and my co-workers seriously thought about committing me to the crazy farm!

So, being the curious creature that I am, I wanted to see if I could replicate the picture with my cat ~ seems easy enough ~ unwrap some cheese and drop it on the head of an innocent four legged bystander. To my surprise, Miss Kittenbritches just stat there and posed just long enough for the 'PASS' photo shoot!

Now that you have seen that my cat is up for new and exciting things ~ we have strict marching orders from the vet to trim THREE pounds off of her in six months time. The conundrum here is that unless there is fresh food in her bowl at all times she sulks around the house meowing and making all kinds of noises. This is particularly annoying since I am home all day with her. Anyone out there have any suggestions on how to make this dieting thing more of a game and less of a long drawn out starvation march????

I am hoping that once the snow melts that she will remember how fun it is to chase butterflies and chatter with the crunchable birds. Of course, a kitty tread mill would solve all of our problems ~ I will keep you posted on her progress ~ 16 pounds ~ looking for that 13 pound trimmer version of herself. Goodness ~ I think she weighs more than my 10 month old nephew!