Today is my best friend Vicki's birthday. I was blessed to meet her in 2004 and we have been thick as thieves ever since. She is the most beautiful, thoughtful, warm and funny person I know. I am so blessed to have her in my life and to call her my friend. The best part is.....there are only 13 more sleeps until I get to see her....at my house....for 3 nights and 4 days....I CANNOT wait!!!!! Luv ya bunches Vicki!! Have a very Happy Birthday. Chow for now,
I like the music that Justin Moore sings. I came across this new video for one of his new songs and I really like the song and I love the video. Hope you enjoy it. Chow for now, Jacqui
Last weekend we were in London watching Joel play volleyball for his high school team. They played well some of the time...but not all of the time....so we didn't move on into the play offs and were done at a reasonable time. We decided to try Mary Brown's chicken for lunch. It was VERY VERY tasty. Numerous times when we have gone out for lunch or out for a bite after a volleyball game, Joel and his buddy Matt, or just Joel has made comments like "sometime I want to go in and order like a double triple baconator or something like that and see how big the burger is and the look on the cashiers face". Well on Saturday we were sitting in Mary Brown's and these 2 fellas come in with coolers and they go up to the counter and ask for 120 pieces of chicken. It was actually quite funny cause of the comments that Joel has made in the past. Anyhow....if you know me or my husband...you know that we certainly couldn't hear someone ask for 120 pieces of chicken and not find out what it was for. Anyhow, they were having some big event and they had called ahead and let the guy know...but clearly he hadn't told his front desk cashier cause her little Asian eyes almost popped out of her head when he said 120 pieces of chicken! Really the boss should have told her. We ate up our food and were heading out of the parking lot. As I was driving out of the parking lot I came to the little down slope that goes from the parking lot to the road. I was on this little down slope because the car that was coming had their blinker on to turn into the plaza. I inched forward a little bit - still not on the road, but closer than I was before, but there was a car right on the ass of the car that was turning and I could not see if they had their blinker on or not. This is not the car...but that is how bloody close he was to the car in front of him. Once I saw that they were not turning, I did not move any farther ahead and waited for them to pass by before turning out onto the road. But did they pass by? No....the proceeded to honk at me. I had my windows down and I just said "move along" and so they stopped in front of my car (which clearly wasn't on the road or they wouldn't have been able to stop in front of my car....) and they yelled at me "get your (insert F-bomb here) car off the road you stupid old cow". Well... Joe rolled down his window and said there's no need to be talking like that just carry on. Then Joel was in the back seat saying "can I get out and punch him"...let's just say the testosterone was flying around in my little car. It's nice that my boys want to stick up for me and protect me...but I really didn't want an altercation. Joe said if they turn into the next parking lot follow them......well...I was NOT going to do that. I really didn't need a scene. But....as we carried on Joel said "you should have followed him Mum, he flicked a lit cigarette into the back seat of my car at my son, which landed on his arm and then landed on my coat, burning his arm a bit and my coat before Joel got it and threw it out the window. I didn't realize this at the time, or I might have pulled in behind them in the next parking lot.....and then the Mother Bear would have come roaring out. You can call me a stupid old cow....but flick a lit cigarette at my kid.....NOT COOL. But we took the high road and carried on our way. Then we were at the stop light and we got an advanced green. I started going forward to turn and the guy behind me is honking like a jack ass....apparently I wasn't screaming around the corner fast enough for him......as he is on his cell phone. Why are people so darn angry? I don't get it. People just need to chill out. But......as we were driving home, I stopped by Scrappin' Great Deals in Kilworth to pick up my prize!!!! They called me last week to tell me that I had won a prize!!! How cool was that? I won an awesome scrapbooking kit! Look at all the sweet paper and embellishments.
So stopping there balanced out the "bad" with some "good". Chow for now Jacqui
Who can ya laugh at??? Have I got a story for you....
So Monday, I got up and got my clothes ready for work. I decided on my black pants and my new (well new to me) sweater. It's a soft chenille material and kind of long, which I like cause it covers my belly!! In the morning I went into one
of the cubicles to chat to one of the fellas I work with and I leaned on
his desk. It felt kind of chilly so I though maybe I sat in water I
looked but no water. Okay, no problem so I carried on with my day. We had a departmental meeting so I had to go across to the main hospital up to the big auditorium. Then I didn't have time to make my lunch the night before so I zipped out and grabbed a sub from Quizno's....after standing in line at the post office for about 20 minutes and the line did not move at all, so I decided I would go to a different post office after work. So after work I had to zip over to Strathroy to drop off some forms at the physio clinic for Jade. It's right beside a Shopper's Drug Mart, so I zipped in there to send my letter. Then I headed home. I let Charlie out for a pee real quick cause I had a hair appointment at 3:30. I changed from my fuzzy sweater to a T-shirt cause I didn't want all the little hairs to get in my sweater and off to the hair dresser I go. I get to the hair dressers and she was fixing up another customer so I sat down on her wooden chair and waited. When I sat, I thought wow that chair is chilly - but it was quite chilly Monday, so what the heck. I get my hair cut then out the door I go. You know how sometimes when you get out of your car the seat belt doesn't slide back in the little seat belt thingy, well that is what mine did, so when I sat on the seat, I sat on the shiny silver part and man that was chilly. So I reach down to get the seat belt when much to my surprise, I find that THE ASS OF MY PANTS WAS RIPPED FROM
THE TOP OF MY POCKET TO THE BOTTOM - so things were chilly cause MY BARE
ASS was hanging out and touching them - OMG!! How many people saw my bare ass during the day?????? Okay this is not me...but that is basically how much was ripped - except on the other side and I didn't have fancy gitch underneath like this girl! So yesterday when I came to work I asked the 3 guys I work with...."okay..I need to know...did any of you notice that my bare ass was hanging out of my pants all day yesterday?". They all said no....which I hope they were telling the truth....and I am thankful I wore a long sweater that day. My poor hair dresser, I hope she didn't look too close as I was walking out the door. Good thing I put on clean underwear in the morning!!! Hope that gave you a good chuckle for today..... Chow for now,
Well as most of you know, back in May, Jade had a car accident. At the time of the accident her neck was sore, so they put her on the back board and did x-rays at the hospital and told her everything looked okay. She didn't think she had bumped her head, but the next day she had a big goose egg, so clearly she did bump it. She was stiff and sore for a couple of days, but things seemed to be getting better. Then summer came and she was off to Woodstock to work. She continued to get headaches, but she has been getting them for some time now....migraine sufferer like her Mum...... but when she came home in August, she was experiencing a great deal of pain and discomfort, just sitting. She went to see the doctor and he referred her to the Active Joint Physiotherapy clinic in Strathroy. She had a couple of sessions with them before we moved her to Windsor for school. The Active Joint place determined that she had some damage, so she would need physio for an extended period of time. When she moved to Windsor she found another physio clinic to continue on with her healing. They diagnosed her there with severe whiplash and she has some damage to joints and tendons in her neck. A couple of weekends ago, I was chatting with her and she had been feeling not so great. She mentioned that a couple of times she had rolled over and threw up, which was weird. She was not feeling nauseous, she just rolled over in bed and up it came. I thought maybe she just ate something that had disagreed with her, but she said she didn't have any stomach pains or anything that goes hand in hand with eating something bad. Then this weekend when I was chatting with her, she said that it hurt to move her eyes, it hurt to even touch her head and she was dizzy. I encouraged her to go to emerg. She tried to find someone to give her a ride to the hospital cause she didn't know where it was. She couldn't find anyone to take her or anyone to go with her so she decided to wait another day. Her dad called her and made her promise to go to the hospital if it was any worse the next day. She texted me the next day and said that she was so dizzy she almost fell off her chair in class. This did not sound normal. So she called her physio people and they told her to go to the urgent care walk in clinic. So she took a cab and went there. The doctor there did some tests and diagnosed her with Occipital Tendonitis - which is the result of the whiplash. This bit I found on the web kind of explains it better than I can.... * Stiffness and pain when moving the neck/head
The whiplash/tendinitis dynamic causes your muscles to tighten up to 'protect' you from further damage.
After long enough time, the nervous system resets itself to this shortened length as the new 'normal' length. This means 'too short and too tight' is now normal.
Then, connective tissue starts shrink wrapping your muscles. So even if they could relax, they have no where to go because they are tightly wrapped.
* Headaches
The Sub-Occipital muscles at the back of the base of your skull sit on top of the Vertebral Arteries. When these muscles get tight, which they do for many many reasons including your neck tendonitis, they shut off some of the blood supply to the brain.
Hello Headache!
That is why people get Tension Headaches! Stress and mental strain (and physical elements) cause the muscles to tighten and cut off blood to the brain.
Also, because there is so much tightness happening in the neck if you have significant whiplash symptoms going on, that it sets up a dynamic in your system that causes headache. They have also told her that her balance organ is damaged. Now to be honest - even though I went through nursing school - I don't remember learning that we have balance organs other than our ears..... Well apparently we do ......
Rotation of your head
Your second organ of balance detects rotational movements of your head. It consists of three fluid-filled loops that are arranged at right angles to each other. Within each of these 'semicircular canals' is a receptor region called crista ampullaris. It is made of hair cells covered by a gel-like cap. When you begin to rotate your head, the fluid in the canals lags behind and moves in the opposite direction, thereby bending the gel-like cap. This stimulates your hair cells, which, in turn, fire nerve impulses along your vestibular nerve to your brain. So she is kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. She needs to continue going to physio to get her neck muscles healed....but the work they are doing on her neck, can slow the progress of this balance organ healing and can actually aggravate it into making her feel awful and dizzy. That is why when she rolled over, she threw up. Her balance organ was NOT HAPPY. The doctor wants her to be motionless for at least 5 days on bed rest, but she can't do that - she has tests and classes. So she has to be as careful as possible. No bending, no lifting, no jogging etc. She is supposed to keep her head as straight as possible......but then the physiotherapist doesn't want her head and neck in the same position for longer than 20 minutes.....it's a catch 22. He did give her some meds for the dizziness, and instructed her that if she rolls over again and throws up like before, she needs to immediately come to emerg and get on an IV. So not the greatest news for her....but I think she is glad she went to find out exactly what was going on....instead of thinking all these terrible thoughts. So hopefully she is on the mend and we are looking forward to her coming home for Thanksgiving and getting some rest hopefully.....mental note...tell Joel...NO WRESTLING!
So please send positive vibes to my kiddo - I want her healthy so she can focus on school and become a great nurse! Chow for now, Jacqui
Yesterday it was raining and on my way to work I saw all kinds of frogs on the road. I have told Jade about this before and she has never been able to see any.....I'm not sure what road she is looking at.....but whatever!!!!! I think they swarm to the warm pavement in the middle of the night - which is good for warmth....but not so good for survival!!!! So I was thinking of Jade as I was driving to work......I'm sure she is pleased to know that frogs make me think of her!!!!! That reminds me of my friend Deanna. When we were in high school, we worked at her uncles fruit farm. For a few days we had to go back to a place in Grand Bend and sort through the rotten potatoes....to this day.....when I smell a rotten potato....I think about her!!!! I told her that not too long ago..and she laughed!! It's funny how sights and sounds can remind you of things. Songs do that alot for me....every time I hear Journey's Open Arms......takes me straight back to my Grade 8 Graduation dance at East Williams Public School!! Dance with my Father Again...unfortunately takes me to my cousin Mike's funeral, Everything I Do I Do It For You...takes me to my wedding song. I could go on and on and on...but I'll spare you!!!! Just a short post today, but I had to make sure Jade knew I was thinking about her.....thanks froggy's!! Chow for now, Jacqui
Well I finished book 4 of the Game of Thrones - A Song of Fire and Ice Series. I thought there were only 5 in the series, but I was reading something the other day and I think there might be 7. Oh my...I love the story, and I am enjoying the television show on HBO as well. But man they are HUGE books. This last one was a little one...and it was 767 pages. The others have been over a thousand pages. George R.R. Martin wrote the books and I just cannot begin to wrap my head around how someone could write a book like this. There are so many characters and so much is happening now because of things that happened in "history" to the characters. It's like he's writing a book, but he has to have a whole back story so everyone understands why someone is doing what they are doing or acting a certain way. They are very good, but they are very involved as well. And I must say......they will kill anyone in those books. Some books you read and you think oh they wouldn't kill that character....and they don't....well....not so much in these books. So this should really be the book cover for all the books!!! ha ha The first book, A Game of Thrones, got me right involved with all the characters and wanting more. So on to the second book I went, which was A Clash of Kings. It too went deeper into the characters but it just kind of told more of the story. The third book A Storm of Swords - holy crap. My friend Rob was reading the book at the same time as I was, so every few days we would be talking about the book or I would text him with a "holy crap" text!! The stuff that was happening just left you wanting more and more and more. So I moved on to the fourth book, A Feast For Crows. It continued on with the story as well, but there were only a few "aha" moments in that one, so I am taking a break from them for right now. I just started Nicholas Sparks Best of Me. My mom just finished it and said it was good so I thought I would give it a read. It seems like a quick read so far. I just started it last night and I am into it pretty good so far. I have never read a Nicholas Sparks book before, but I have seen a few of the movies that were based on his books. One of my personal favourites was the Notebook. I watch it every time I see it on TV. And I cry in all the same places no matter how many times I watch that show. And I love that Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams are both Canadian and they both do FANTASTIC jobs of acting in the movie. I have also seen The Last Song which was very good as well and Dear John. I think those are all I have seen so far, although I do have A Walk to Remember and Nights in Rodanthe to watch as well. I'll see how I like this book and then maybe I'll read a few of his. I'm a little anal when it comes to reading books and I very much like to read the books in the order that the author wrote them. Some books it doesn't matter, but every once in a while, you find that even though they say it doesn't matter, there are crossover characters and to me it DOES matter! I would highly suggest reading Game of Thrones - but know that they are big books and there are a lot of characters and they are set back in the days of castles and dragons and kings and queens and war, so there are graphic scenes and terrible behavior, but they are a good read. Chow for now, Jacqui P.S....if you are wondering what the "winter is coming" title means....it's something that they say all the time in the Game of Thrones books. (and unfortunately....that season will be upon us before we know it.)
How is it possible it has been a year already since Courtney and Jason got married? The time flies by so quickly any more. I remember being a kid and thinking that summer seemed to last forever, and now, a blink of an eye and it's gone. This day last year was so fun. Diana was home and she and I had drove down to Stouffville to spend the day with Courtney (Just the sisters!!), before we had to get the rehearsal going and then the next day the wedding. Courtney and Jason planned the most beautiful wedding. I loved how it totally was part of both of them. Courtney was beautiful (like always!!) and Jason was very handsome!! The day was warm and wonderful and it was such an honor to spend the day with them. I hope you have many many many years of happiness in your marriage. This is just the start. I love you both. Happy Anniversary, Chow for now, Jacqui
Joel had volleyball practice after school today, so instead of driving all the way home and then having to drive back into Parkhill at 4:00 to pick up Joel, I just headed straight into town and went to visit Granny until I had to pick up Joel. She was in the dining room when I got there. They were having their September birthday celebration. Once a month, they have a big birthday party for all the people who celebrate their birthday that month. The birthday people get a piece of cake with a candle to blow out and everyone else gets a piece of cake as well. The activity girl was reading from some book, something about what happened in a certain year, and asking them trivia questions and stuff. As soon as I sat down, Granny leaned over and said, "I wish she'd shut up!" Gotta love her. There was another lady as well that was just as "unimpressed" as Granny was. She kept saying "what is that behind you?" (it was the tray with all the cake). Then she would say, "you should check to see if the cake is ready". It was funny. They clearly all wanted her shut up. One other lady said, "that was torture". Gotta love the ole girls for tellin' it like it is! Granny had her cake and then I wheeled her back to her room She got some mail, so I gave it to her and she opened them up. She got a letter from a woman who writes to her often and she also got a letter from Jade! She is having some problems with her eyes. One she said is "bad" and the other she thinks she just needs a new prescription. So Mom is gonna make an appointment and then I will wheel her down to the office. Here she is opening her mail. She cuts all the stamps off and keeps them for the church I think and any other little stickers that are on the letter that she likes. She is doing really well, and I just love her to pieces! Chow for now, Jacqui
This weekend a friend of mine tragically had a house fire. They lost all their belongings and their house burned to the ground. Thankfully, everyone is fine and they also found their cat Lucky. I was so shocked to hear the news, but was very thankful that everyone was okay. Friends and neighbours are taking donations of food and household items. If you can help, let me know and I can get the items to them. Sheila wears a size 8-10 pants and her shirts are a medium Mike wears an extra large Hunter wears a size 0-1 pants and her shirts are a small Hannah wears an 8-10 girls. Keep them in your prayers, Chow for now, Jacqui
She is the most beautiful, thoughtful, warm and funny person I know. I am so blessed to have her in my life and to call her my friend.
She is the most beautiful, thoughtful, warm and funny person I know. I am so blessed to have her in my life and to call her my friend.
