Week in Review 11/13/16

One the hardest things for me about growing older is the fact that my eyes have betrayed me.  My eyes were perfect most of my life, but one day I woke up realizing that I was spending a lot of time with my arm tromboning  in order to try to bring small print into focus.  Each year my eyes get a little worse until reading without glass became impossible.  Now I notice that I am straining to read even with my glasses so I decided it was finally time to visit my friendly eye doctor.  When I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my eye doctor was in fact my backyard neighbor!  His family recently moved into our neighborhood but I didn't recognize him as the eye doctor that I had seen a few years ago.  Whew - I'm sure glad that I have only said nice things about him!  He confirmed the need for stronger bifocals - Dang!  Soon I was trying on new eyeglass styles and picked out a new pair.  They are a little bolder than I usually choose, but I think I like them.

After my appointment our usual Monday Magnificent Ladies decided to try out the Rusted Spoon Lunch.  Ash had a Monte Cristo sandwich that was very tasty.  I have never had one before, but I'm pretty sure that I will try one next time!  Robin and I got omelets that were good, but a little pricey.  We had a discussion on the benefits vs the drawbacks of the upcoming holiday.  We discussed a large Thanksgiving gathering that is held in a church because there are so many people versus having a small, intimate dinner.  We also discussed the pros and cons of Black Friday shopping.  Most everyone knows that I have been an avid Black Friday shopper for many, many years.  However I have become less interested the last few years, especially when they started having Black Friday start on Thanksgiving.  It has made me realize how much I treasure spending time with my family and I miss the Thanksgivings of old where the entire day was spent visiting, playing games, and watching movies together.  Consequently my opinion differed from some of the others - which is fine.  I feel that everyone has the right to their opinion.  The bottom line is that we had a lot of fun (and maybe just a little quarreling) talking about what is important to each of us regarding Thanksgiving.

Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment.  This year I have really struggled with allergies.  I usually have allergies in the spring, but this year it seems like I have had hay fever all year long!  I also have been experiencing some shortness of breath with even small amounts of exertion such as walking up a flight of stairs . I wanted to know if I was just terribly out of shape and if it was safe to exercise.  I have been thinking about starting to swim again and I'll admit that I still get extremely nervous about swimming since BJ died.   The doctor did something that I have never had a doctor do before. . . she looked up my nose!  She said that I have nasal polyps from chronic rhinitis.  Well, that certainly makes sense!  Hopefully the medicine will help me get rid of these darn sniffles and stuffy nose.  Since I haven't seen a cardiologist for 14 years, she recommended that I see one just to make sure that my shortness of breath isn't related to my heart and also to do a follow up on the Long QT I have.  I will see the cardiologist next week.  I'm really hoping that he gives me a clean bill of health so that I can start exercising a little.

Wednesday I dropped my car off for a regular service and caught a ride with the dealer's shuttle into work.  The driver was so fun!  You could really tell that he enjoyed his job.  During the drive we talked about our aging parents and compared notes on helping them.  After work I caught a ride with Shandra back to the dealership to pick up my car.  I put a lot of miles on my car, and I really want it to last at least 300,000 miles so I am trying to make sure that it is well taken care of.  Unfortunately, there is a very LARGE price tag in routine maintenance!  I'm glad that I got the work done, but I spent all of my Christmas money on that service!  I sure hope that it is worth it!  It is a good thing that I had already decided to scale way down on Christmas this year!

When I got home that evening I noticed this one lone daisy in my flower garden.

It is NOVEMBER!  Daisies are not known as flowers that bloom in the winter!  As I looked at it, I thought of several life lessons that could relate to this daisy.

• It is okay to be different and do things on your own time schedule.
•  Beauty can be found even when things are dying.
•  One beautiful flower can make a difference in the world.

That little daisy made me very happy!

Thursday I taught a class on the musculoskeletal system.  I have been researching and trying to learn better ways to involve the students to help them better  retain the information that they learn.  I started off the lesson by having them play a game of "Musculoskeletal Squares" a game very similar to the old television game, "Hollywood Squares".  They seemed to have a good time playing it.  Later in the class I had them break up into groups, study a couple of conditions or diseases and then compare and contrast them, and then teach them to the rest of the class.  I then gave half of the class a scenario of a patient with a musculoskeletal problem, the other half of the class had to assess them and come up with nursing care plans on how to treat the patient.  I think that the class enjoyed participating more during the class than when they are just observers to a PowerPoint lecture.  Through research I have learned the importance of bringing clinical experiences into the classroom to help the transition from book learning to working in the clinical setting.  I felt really good about the way the class turned out.  My co-teacher, Sue, complimented me on the lesson.  I think I will continue trying to involve all of my students more - even though it is more comfortable for me to just lecture with PowerPoint.  I think it is important not to get too comfortable, that we can always try to do things a little better so that the students can have every opportunity to learn and retain the information they are getting.

That evening Ash, Marilyn and I planned to go to Ace Hardware's ladies night.  It sounded really fun!  Crafts, food, and demonstrations.  I was really looking forward to it, but when we arrived we found that hundreds of other ladies had the same idea!  There was absolutely nowhere to park!  We finally found a place across and down the street and made our way to the line.  As we stood there we watched the line grow longer and longer!  

This pic shows the line after many people had already gone in.
The line behind us wrapped all around the parking lot.

After waiting in line for about 1/2 hour and not moving much we decided that we would rather go to dinner and get ice cream than be crammed in the building, so we left and went to Dairy Queen.

Even though I really enjoy my new visiting teachers, Ash and I sorely miss our lunches with Karen, so we planned to meet Friday.  I went into work really early so that I could leave for the lunch.  It was so fun to visit and catch up with her!  It was just like old times.  I really am so fortunate to have so many great friends!

Later that evening Kim and I attended Dave Bott's viewing with Dave & Alicia and Mont & Marilyn.  Dave was very well liked and his wife, Pat is just amazing!  Therefore there were tons of people there to pay their respects.  Pat has such a sweet spirit and has such an amazing testimony of the plan of salvation that she almost seemed to glow as she greeted each of us.  I know she will have some hard times without her husband, but she will make it!   I had clinicals Saturday, but I heard the funeral was very nice - and then another great tribute was paid to Dave and Pat.  The Bott are two of the world's greatest scouters.  Pauline Dickey put out a call for all of the cub scouts in the area to line up on both sides of the street as the hearse entered the cemetery.   All of the scouts and leaders stood at attention, holding a flag, and gave a final salute.  Ash took Tristan there and said that it sent chills up her spine!

After the viewing, we headed to the Frozen Udder for ice cream.  I had never been there before - but I will go again!  It was really good!  I really liked their hot fudge.  Dave REALLY likes ice cream so he decided to order "THE BUCKET"  Holy Smokes!  That was about the biggest dish of ice cream that I have ever seen!

Today was our ward Primary program in Sacrament meeting.  I was disappointed that Rae was at her mom's so she wouldn't be able to participate, but I was thrilled when I saw Kalel come walking in with his dad.  I really appreciate that Tony made the effort not only to bring Kalel, but he also brought his wife, Kasey, son, Connor, and his mother, Marie to watch.  Before the meeting started I stepped  back to tell them how much I appreciated them being there, but just as I got to there bench Connor threw up!  Quickly Kasey escorted him out to the bathroom and I ran to get some paper towels.  However, everyone knows that it is dangerous for me to clean up vomit so Kim and Tony did the deed.  I did run to the cleaning closet and got some anti-bacterial spray after it was all cleaned up!

Anyway, the program was wonderful.  There is just something special about having the young kids sing and speak.  I'm sure that I am biased, but I thought Kalel was wonderful!  He was right on the front row and sang every song.  This grandma was very proud!

Another great thing in the meeting today was that a couple who live in our neighborhood was confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ and given the gift of the Holy Ghost.  They had been baptized the day before.  For some reason I was really touched by their desire to be baptized and confirmed.  I decided that it would be nice to attend the Gospel Principles class with them in Sunday School.  The Gospel Principles class is a class where the basic principles of the gospel are taught.  It is geared towards people who are newly baptized or those who have not had a lot of gospel education.  I used to teach the class, and I loved it.  Anyway, I'm so glad that I decided to attend.  I could feel the spirit very strong. I felt inspired to make a couple of comments during the class, and the new members hugged me after the class thanking me for my comments.  I am so very grateful for times like this when the Lord gives me such a fantastic feeling of peace and happiness!  The times when you know without a shadow of a doubt that God knows and loves you personally, and cares enough go inspire you to say something that is meaningful to someone else.

THIS WEEK I AM GRATEFUL FOR:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints