Ready For Surgery?

Ready or not here I go...... I have been living with pain for years now, especially since I ran over myself. that's right, about 10 years ago I left my flower shop to run a quick errand to pick up pizza and all the trimmings to celebrate the birthday of one of my favorite employees. As was the way I do things, I was on the run, rushing to get back for the party. I jumped out of what then was my new Dodge Van with the Pizza box, bread sticks and two drinks stacked up. Yes, I took the keys out, so it should have been in park. I went to jump out of the van when it started to roll backwards. This was when the OP Skaggs Grocery store was open and the parking lot was full of cars. In my instant of fear and I think a flash back of Robbies accident, I did the stupidest thing, I jumped back in the van and tried to stop it. Well the door hit me, knocked me down and believe it or not the front right tire ran right up my leg and off at my knee.

For years I thought an angel from heaven had gathered me up from the parking lot, made sure I was alive and then disappeared. Since I had never seen the man and because he left so quick, I really did believe him to be an angel but 5 years or more later he came up to me on the street to ask how I got along after that ordeal!

I didn't break any bones but messed up the knee and was black and blue from my toes to the center of my back. I began to have trouble with my left knee then and was told I needed knee surgery at that time. The right knee was damaged on the day of my first and only solo flight on one water ski at Twin Lakes years earlier!

So, do I need my knees replaced? You better believe it. I have been putting this off for years, 10 at least, I just could never figure out how to run a business 6 days a week and go in for surgery and be away from the business long enough to rehab. Well..... now I have no excuses. Life is crazy how it goes. If there had not been a fire in the old OP Skaggs building I would have never closed the Flower shop, and if I had never closed the flower shop I would have never opened a full time scrapbook store, and if the gal who came to me to buy that scrapbook store had not made a fast decision to sell it at auction, I would still be putting this knee surgery off! Well, like I said, I have run out of excuses, I have retired, so I have time, I have celebrated 40 years of working, loving what I was doing, with a wonderful relaxing trip to Cancun and now it's time to take care of the knees. I selected who I believe is the best Dr. in the whole intermountain area, Dr. Calton from Ogden, Ut. He tells me I am high risk, I guess he thinks I am too old and fat but neither of those things can I change overnight, and since I am looking forward to Spring and Summer now that I am retired, the time has come to get it done. Well at least to get one of them done. So.....ready or not here I go! The date is set for next Wednesday, February 27, 2008.

Oh if you don't believe in positive thinking get this..... Anyone who knows me knows that I believe in the book The Secret and I have loved Oprah ever since I saw her as a news woman on TV while visiting my daughter when she was a nanny in New Jersery. So if Oprah says "do it", I do it! A week before my appointment with Dr. Calton, she was talking about closing your eyes and visualizing what you want has already happened. So I close my eyes and think the surgery is over and the pain is gone! Well I open my eyes but the pain is still there so I am thinking to my self what can I visualize so I close my eyes again and think pick a date for knee replacement surgery and 2-28-08 comes to me. Now keep in mind this is before Dr. Calton has even agreed to do the surgery. I never gave that date another thought until I was sitting with my friend in the Dr's office waiting for Dr. Calton to come in and I remembered the Oprah show and said to her. "Do you have a calander", She pulled one out and I said what day is the 28th and she said Thrusday and I said Oh well Dr. Calton doesn't do surgery on Thursdays so my date must be Wednesday the 27th, and I related what had happened. Well after some discussion with the doctor and after he and I came to an agreement that if he didn't do the surgery I would find a Dr who would, he said that he was about 3 months out and that I could continue losing weight before surgery. Then he said to ask his gal to schedule surgery and that I could request to be notified of any cancellations. I went directly to her desk to set up a date, she ask when I wanted it and being a smartie, I said "Oh Monday will be fine then she said; "Oh I just had a cancellation how about February 27th"? I just smiled and said great! So, once again, ready or not here I go. Am I nervous, scared and all that stuff? Of course, I have never had surgery and only been in a hospital 3 times in my life for the birth of my children. I know that "my book of life" has already been written, and I have no idea what chapter I am in, but what ever is to be, I will be happy with the end results. :-)

Preserving Memories of Cancun

I have been busy getting my Cancun photo's edited and an album completed and off to be printed. I can't believe how easy it is to do it digital. I used Memory Mixer 2 to build the album and then used LifeTimez designs. I tried something new, I used 5 different albums; Tropicana, Beaches, Island fun, Sunshine, and, Popsicles. It was so easy, I just opened each of these as if I was building an album and then when I got ready for pages I just imported them into the Tropicana album. I had a bonus of being able to use all the embellishments because I purchased the LifeTimez designs bundle.

Within just a few days I had the album of 33 pages completed and uploaded to Top-Line Creations for printing. In addition to that, I made CD's to share and added music I located on the internet called "Modern Jazz Samba" that fit Cancun was perfect. With one click the album was ready to view. I can view the jpg files as a slide show and I burned DVD's. And if all of that isn't enough, I went to slide.com, uploaded the pages and now I can share the album on my web site www.Happinessisscrapbooking.com or email it to my friends and family. What a deal.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow?

It just keeps coming and I am just lovin it! Well, maybe enough is enough? It's a darn good thing we just enjoyed a vacation in Cancun or I might not be so "Happy" about all this snow. I was just talking with my daughter last night and we decided that this is the most snow we have had since 1992 when my 1st grandaughter was born. 15 yers ago, can that be possible? They live in Ogden, Ut and have been getting 12" to 24" a day at times. As I write this, Ogden is being talked about on TV. I know it makes life harder for many people but it's like a worker at Webber State Univ. said about snow removal, "It's all in a days work".

I sure picked the best winter to retire, I can't tell you how much I enjoy just being at home watching the snow come down instead of driving our country roads in to work. This winter is making for some good scrapbooking, so Let it Snow, but I sure hope Spring is around the corner. I will love that season just as much as this one. It's called thinking positive :-)