Sick of Being Sick

Just after Thanksgiving, I started having some sinus problems. I attributed it to the inversion going on in Utah at the time. When it's really cold and no storms or wind are blowing through, the pollution in the air gets trapped down low and it can cause health problems. I tried toughing it out, but my sinuses were miserable.  Next came sneezing and then some horrible coughing. I finally gave in and saw a doctor. He determined I had bronchitis and a sinus infection. Antibiotics in hand, I was happy to have a long Christmas vacation to try to tackle and get rid of this illness.

My vacation was not as much fun since I was sick, but it seemed like I was starting to get better. New Year's Eve and New Year's Day found me getting sicker, however, and I was back at Instacare. Lungs and ears were clear and I tested negative for strep. The doctor pronounced it a virus. All she could do was give me cough medicine to relieve the symptoms. The inversion had gone away with various Christmas snow storms, but it returned for the beginning of the new year. The bad hair definitely didn't help!

It's bad enough feeling the way I do and going through boxes and boxes of tissues. Add to that the tasks and responsibilities that need to get done around the house. Our beagles have had to stay inside more because of the bitter cold. If I don't make sure they get enough potty breaks outside, I will be stuck cleaning up their kennels. The house doesn't clean itself and my family hopes to eat dinner every once in a while.

Everyone likes to share their recommendations for how to overcome an illness.  I've inhaled steam (fairly sucessful), used a neti pot (didn't work at all this time), and put a heating pad on my forehead (soothing). My brother suggested humming at a particular frequency to break up the sinus congestion. Many, many people recommended doTerra oils - it's very popular here in Utah, but I don't have any of the oils. As a kid, my dad used to insist on hot lemon juice with honey as a magic remedy. I hated lemon at the time so I refused to try it. Vick's Vaporub is mentioned a lot, too. I've applied it to my chest, under my nose, and even in my nose. I also tried applying it to the bottom of my feet (a Facebook friend suggestion).

I sacrificed the majority of my day today to trying to get more sleep in hopes that I can handle the week ahead. Feel free to share your own recommendations in case I haven't tried them yet.

Walgreen's Almost Killed My Husband

If you have any sort of medical condition that requires regular prescription medication, you've probably fallen into the same rut we have. You pick up your prescriptions and start filling your little pill minder so you remember to take those daily meds. Do you read the label on your prescriptions every time you refill them? 

We made a horrifying discovery in September as we went to refill one of my husband's medications. I have a cute little app on my iPhone that lets me scan in the refills - quick, easy, painless.  When we went to pick up the medication, one prescription was missing.  They said they didn't receive the refill request.  After a brief wait, the missing prescription was refilled and we went home. As my hubby looked over his prescription bottles, he noticed that the one we had the refill glitch with was a prescription for someone else. Instead of his crucial diabetes medication, we discovered he had been taking a prescription analgesic over the past month. 

How on earth did someone else's prescription end up in our possession? Our local Walgreens bags multiple prescriptions for the same person after they are filled/refilled and then place the bag on the shelf until the patient comes to pick it up. When you show up to claim your medications, the pharmacy tech finds the bag with your name on it, processes your insurance and payment, and then hands it over. The bags are stapled shut with the information and receipt stapled to the front and nobody bothers to doublecheck the contents.

We immediately returned to Walgreens and asked to talk to the pharmacist. This was a huge error! My husband was without a crucial medication for a month, putting his life in danger.  In addition, some person out there had been given a medication that would lower her blood sugar and could have killed her.  The pharmacist took the prescription bottle from us and promised us that the head pharmacist (Jeremy) would research the situation and would contact us.  Someone named David called from Walgreens on September 30 to ask a few more questions and to say that Jeremy would contact us.  Unfortunately, that was the last we heard from "The Pharmacy America Trusts."

A pharmacy error endangered the lives of two different people and Walgreens has done nothing about it. Did they even fill out the required paperwork?  Did they try to contact the person who received my husband's prescription? We, along with our insurance, paid for a medication that was never received.  Isn't that fraud?  

I wasn't going to blog about the situation, but I think it's important for you all to be aware of the kind of dangers that exist in some of the most everyday activities. Do you trust your pharmacy?  Are you reading your medication labels?  Don't let this happen to you!

Cooking Up Some Fun

Dyllen models the same apron

Spirit Bead in her apron

 One of the cool things about blogging is that sometimes you get to sample products and tell people what you think about them.  Grandway recently offered me an opportunity to review the most adorable apron.

You would probably think that by my age I would be a decent cook. Wrong!  My mom was an amazing cook and could make the most wonderful dishes. Part of that may have been due to my dad's constant demand of high quality food. He grew up in a large family and they kept everyone fed with simple foods and lots of bread to help fill everyone up. Dad ended up rejecting foods that reminded him of his childhood and it was fairly common for our family to eat dinner around 10 p.m. since Mom worked full time and the fancier recipes took considerable time to prepare. I learned how to make a few minor dishes, but never learned to cook at my mom's level.  Want coleslaw or chocolate chip cookies? I'm your girl!

My cooking disasters are legendary and my kids practically have anxiety attacks when I say I'm trying something new in the kitchen. Just when I was getting pretty good at baking desserts, my dear husband was diagnosed with diabetes. In an interesting twist of irony both of our sons have ended up cooking professionally.  I'm going to take credit for their talent since I'm certain my cooking inspired them to learn how to do it "right."

Wearing the apron from Grandway was so exciting. It made me feel like I could actually cook! I even decided to try making candied yams without using a can opener. The results were mixed.  I didn't have enough sweet potatoes, so the sugary sauce was overly abundant. The marshmallows on top looked so amazing when I pulled the pan out of the oven.  Unfortunately, they deflated and nearly disappeared as the dish cooled down. Our extended family thought the extra "sauce" was perfect for dipping the Christmas ham into as we ate.  I love my family for finding the silver lining to my culinary catastrophies!

I recruited Dyllen, our youngest son's girlfriend, to show how the apron looks for the average sized woman.  Want an awesome apron for yourself?  I will be drawing the name of one lucky reader to receive The Lindy apron. To enter, leave a comment about your cooking memories here on this post. For a second entry, go to my post about this apron on Surviving the Etsy Madness and leave a comment there.  The drawing will be January 5, 2013.

**Disclaimer - Grandway provided me with the apron pictured in exchange for writing a review of it and sent an extra apron to give to one of my readers.  All the opinions expressed are completely my own.

The apron winner is posted on Surviving the Etsy Madness.

The Commute Gets Some New Options

There are so many things I love about my job, but the commute isn't one of them. My office is 50 miles from my house and about 90% of the journey is on the freeway. Why then does it take me 90 minutes to get to work and 90 minutes to two hours to get home?  The speed limit is 65, but traffic often crawls at 10-30 mph, especially at the bottlenecks and usual spots for wrecks.

When I first started working in Salt Lake City, I considered taking the bus to work. Unfortunately, using mass transit would have taken more than 2.5 hours. My days are long enough without adding 5 hours for the commute each day! There may finally be answer on the horizon, however.

FRONTRUNNER arrives in Provo! This is Utah's first commuter rail line and the first section connected Ogden to Salt Lake City. The section connecting Salt Lake City to Provo was completed a few months ago, but the testing and training is now done and Frontrunner service to Provo will begin on Monday, December 10. I've been watching the trains zooming along the tracks and wishing I could take a ride. This last Sunday, my wish came true.

My family and I boarded Frontrunner at the Provo station. There were lots of seats and we loved that we could sit on the main level of the car or upstairs. We chose to ride upstairs and Dyllen was even brave enough to sit facing backwards.

Dyllen and Dexter

Roughly half of the seating sections had a small table. There are even electrical outlets under those tables. Perfect for doing a little work on your computer or watching a movie!

Dwayne (hidden from view) watches movies with his dad

Dwayne watched movies while doing some origami. He even sat there and ate dinner at his little table on the return trip, but I don't think they would normally allow that.

Our trip was in the evening and we were a little disappointed that it was so difficult to see out the windows. I'm guessing that the view is a little better in the daylight hours, but the tinting on the windows is very reflective at night. You'd have to turn off the lights in the passenger car to eliminate the reflection.

Upon reaching the Salt Lake City station, we walked over to the waiting area for Trax and hopped aboard to go see the lights at Temple Square. We were in the free fare zone and the green Trax line took us to The Gateway Mall, Energy Solutions Arena, Temple Square, and City Creek.  One word of caution if you've never ridden a subway or commuter rail before - trains only stop for 30 seconds and you need to be ready to get on or off the train quickly. You can stop the doors from closing, but it takes some serious effort. I had to run interference to get Dyllen off the train without suffering any damage.

 It was so nice to arrive in Salt Lake City relaxed and ready to go. No stop-and-go traffic. No traffic jams. No parking hassles.  I worked on some tatting along the way and felt so good about accomplishing something.

The ride is pretty smooth although there are some minor lurches as you take off from each station. Between the smoothness of the ride and the gentle swaying of the train, Dexter managed to fall asleep on the ride home. I'm just glad it was him and not me since I would hate to be caught snoring in public.

I'm so excited about having another option for getting to and from work. Figuring out the way to connect from the train station to my office may be a challenge though. We will see...  I just loved feeling relaxed instead of stressed out after traveling between Provo and Salt Lake City.

Bike racks

If you want to take a preview ride, UTA is allowing people to ride Frontrunner this Saturday, December 8, if you bring a donation for the food bank. Check it out!

The Joy of Handmade Christmas Ornaments

2011 Christmas Lantern

One of the conversations I seem to have with my sister year after year is about what to do for Christmas. My side of the family has tried a variety of things over the years. We started without an overall plan and then we tried drawing names for gifts. I set up a rotating schedule to show which family was sending gifts to each family. Right now we are back to just doing what we can.

When I look back at my favorite Christmas gifts received, my sister's handmade ornaments top the list. She used to include an ornament or two that she made for us when sending the Christmas gifts. Those ornaments are carefully boxed and I enjoy personally placing each one of them on the tree each year. I couldn't tell you what gifts we received each of those years, but the ornaments keep giving to us year after year.

Tatted ornaments I made for an exchange

Part of the fun is that someone cared enough to make something for me. The other part of the fun is receiving something that I wouldn't/couldn't make myself. Inspired by my sister's example, I have joined ornament exchanges and have given ornaments as gifts in the workplace. One of my dear friends surprised me by turning the ornament I made her into a necklace. It was a tiny glass ball ornament that I had tatted over (like the one pictured here) and she added it to a neck cord.

Last year, my dear hubby put in some long hours designing and making Christmas lanterns for his fellow teachers. I enjoyed watching him figure out how to make the lanterns look like the vision in his head. He added battery operated tea lights, a wreath, and a bow. They were amazing! He mentioned to me this last week that once Thanksgiving was over, his coworkers had their little lanterns back out on their desks.

Tatted ornaments I received in an exchange

These are the truly personal gifts of Christmas. I know that not every ornament I made will be the perfect fit for every person's tree, but I know that they understand the sentiment behind it and will find a special place for it.

Here are my personal top 10 Christmas Ornaments:

1. Nativity scene in an ornament made from a hollowed out egg (one of only 3 ornaments made by my mom)
2. Hand-painted glass ornament with a picture of Santa and the names of each person in our family (made by my sister)
3. Fishing boat ornament that was part of a set we used to decorate a tree in my mom's memory for Festival of Trees
4. The baby's first Christmas ornaments for each of my kids
5. Tatted ornaments received in ornament exchanges
6. Tiny frosted angels playing musical instruments (we had these when I was growing up and I don't know what happened to them after I moved out)
7. Ornament made by one of my sons with his photo glued to an orange juice can lid
8. Crocheted snowflake ornaments that belonged to my mom
9. The chocolate ornaments we used to have on the tree as kids (we were allowed to each one each night)
10. Set of Native American made ornaments (hand crafted by students)

 What ornaments have special memories for you?

Don't Ruin My Night Out!

Things sure have changed! I find myself sounding like some miserable little old lady most days because society seems to have lost touch with polite social etiquette. The lessons my parents and grandparents taught me helped me to get along well in public, but I'm beginning to think that modern parents aren't teaching these lessons anymore.

The hubby and I went out to dinner one night and we ended up seated next to a larger table with an entire family. Their baby was in a baby carrier propped up in a high chair and soon the poor little thing was crying. I understand that babies cry, but there should be an effort made to get them to stop.

When I had my first baby, my mom and grandma took me out to eat at a restaurant and I had to deal with the baby crying in public dilemma. Not wanting to disturb the other diners, I stepped out with my precious son to try to calm him down. He just wouldn't stop crying and we ended up sitting in the car until Mom and Grandma were finished eating. They brought me a box with my leftover food and reassured me that I did the right thing. Was it an inconvenience for me? YES. But I was the one who gambled on eating out with a newborn. It was up to me to be the one to sacrifice if things didn't work out. My husband made his fair share of sacrifices with babies and was usually the one to leave the movie theater when one got noisey.

The baby we encountered in the restaurant recently cried for a good 15 minutes before they did anything. We're running into this in more and more places where people insist on bringing babies and rowdy children and are offended when you suggest they control their children or leave them home with a babysitter. If we spend our hard-earned money on going out to dinner or out to a movie, we don't want to be interrupted by screaming and crying. Maybe we need to have some restaurants and theaters with "child-free" nights.

I remember a woman at church asking me how I was able to keep my children so quiet during church services. I told her, "We don't bring toys for the kids to play with. They can have books or paper (to draw on) and they're expected to act like they're in church."  We had learned by watching other families that a child will provide noise for even the quietest of toys. I've listened to the cries of children who begged their parents for treats and watched as they trained their parents to give them what they wanted in exchange for temporary silence. Some parents even get trained to take their children out into the foyer to play every time they get noisy. By comparison, our children learned quickly that if we took them out to the foyer, they would end up sitting quietly on our laps (being hugged really tight) until they were ready to return to the meeting.

We rarely get to go out as a couple, so we appreciate those of you being parents instead of letting your children run your lives. We'll enjoy our marriage more if we can have fun date nights without the screaming babies. Thank you!

Work Craziness

I've been on a bit of a roller coaster at work recently. Don't get me wrong; I still LOVE my job. I just had no idea that organizing some of our smaller Walk MS events would prove to be so adventurous. We still have five of these very important fundraisers left in 2012. Two are in Utah and the other three are in Southern Idaho. One of the walks is in October, but the other four walks are on the same day in September. Just keeping up with registrations and sending out weekly email keeps me pretty busy.

Over the last month, we hit some obstacles with one event. The coordinator who was organizing the event in that area resigned. With another coordinator in place, we discovered that the park where we were holding the event was being used by two other events on the day we needed it. After some panicking and a frantic round of phone calls, we were able to reserve a park nearby and we began the process of announcing the new event location. I think I relaxed too soon, because we then got a phone call denying our special event permit since our walk route overlaps one of the other events at the park next door. Thankfully, the walk coordinator was able to work things out.

The other walks have had their bumps in the road, too. Add in budgeting for next year and packing to move to a new office, and it gets even more intense. This is our last week in the current office. To add to the adventure, we will be moving from walled offices to a cubicle environment.

Fortunately, I absolutely adore my job and they seem to want to keep me around. That, and knowing that the work I do helps people, helps me stay motivated. Smiles, everyone. Smiles!