Home Again

I spent the last 2 nights in the hospital. I went in with pain in my back so severe I couldn't walk. Ray tried to walk me to the car to take me to the hospital but I could only scream and cry. Felt like my lower spine was compressed together and that when I tried to walk knives were being jammed in there. Got to the hospital and they weren't too worried about my back but my O2 levels were really low. I had to stay in the hospital for 2 nights and have some respiratory therapy because I now have COPD.

Lessons learned:

• Should not have started smoking in my late teens (or ever) to be defiant or to be "cool."
• Can spend the money on better, more fun things than cigarettes.
• Most important is that COPD is not curable but rather controllable.  I took my health too much for granted in my younger years and now I have numerous health issues that I might never have had if I had taken better care of myself by eating better and not started smoking.

I hope to be back here in a day or 2 with a more upbeat post.

Take care everyone and I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Hugs,

Sharon

Thanksgiving Greetings

Wishing you all a blessed Thanksgiving.

A Thanksgiving Prayer by Linus

May you have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving Day.

Here's a Glimpse at Our Thanksgiving

We have a small family. Just dh, mil, the 2 grown sons (one married) and me. The 2 sons and our dil worked on Thanksgiving--they work retail jobs. So with it just being dh, his mom and me, mil decided we should go to Churchill Downs for the buffet and races.

The temperatures were chilly yesterday but not as cold as we had been anticipating. I felt so sorry for the poor horses running in mud and ankle-deep water on the track. They were supposed to race in the turf but because of the track conditions they ran in the mud or as they say at the track "sloppy track."

Here's some pictures. Sorry that the quality isn't too great but it was a rainy, dreary day.

A row of these jockies greeted visitors

We dined at a nice buffet on Millionaire Row 

DH at our table (in the striped sweater). We were seated at a table with people we didn't know when we first got there. That seemed strange to me but we chatted during the day and they were nice people.

Time to place your bets! 

Getting a little libation! 

And here's the gang: Philip, Ray, Me and MIL standing

Horribly wet track! 

Hoof-pocked track. 

Told DH that we needed to bet on this horse because he worked in the ship's engine room when he was in the navy. He told me I couldn't bet on it because he was going to and lo and behold Engine Room won!

It was a nice time at the track but I don't think I'd like to do this again on a holiday. Maybe I'll sweet-talk DH into a nice dinner at a restaurant and then home for some pie later on. It seemed kind of "cheesy" to be gambling on horses on a holiday. Sorry, folks from Kentucky--I'm just a darned yankee unwillingly transplanted here lol! 

Thanksgiving Day...

Praying for peace and a blessed day for all...

What I've Been Up To...

Sometimes I can be quite spacey.  The week before Thanksgiving, dh and I went to visit a friend of mine from long ago when I was in the navy.  We hadn't seen each other since March 1986!  The visit went great!  There are some people that were just meant to be friends.  After not seeing her for 23 years, it was just like I had seen her the week before, I mean there wasn't a sense of unease or anything.  I brought my camera with me but as I mentioned earlier, I'm spacey at times and the camera stayed packed away.  I brought her and her husband slippers I crocheted and usually I take pictures of all my crochet projects but these slipped by; did I mention that I can be spacey? lol....
Thanksgiving was great.  Unfortunately my dil had to work and wasn't able to have the meal with us.  I had son take a plate to her so at least she was able to have some of the food.  Both of my sons, the ggd and dh's mom shared a pretty good meal (if I may say so myself :) ) with dh and me.  I didn't stress about fixing the food this year.  I started baking pies and making side dishes earlier in the week and popped them into the freezer until Thanksgiving morning.  We had  our meal a bit later in the day, 5 p.m., and that helped out a lot too.  Also, I trimmed a few extra dishes off the menu.  For years, I had tried to replicate the Thanksgiving meals of my childhood even though those meals were put together by numerous ladies in the family and not just one person (me).
I'm still crocheting.  My focus is on the traditional slippers I make for most family  members and friends every Christmas.  Instead of taking a picture of each pair, I'm going to wait until they're all finished and then take a picture of the entire batch of 'em. I'm also making a mat out of scrap yarn for the dogs to lay on the floor with to keep warm.
I hope that all of you had a great Thanksgiving.  Best wishes to all.  Hugs....

Thanksgiving Greeting

Best wishes to everyone on this special day.

George Washington and Thanksgiving

On this day in 1789 President George Washington proclaimed this date (Thursday 26 November) to be the first national Thanksgiving Day holiday. Over time, National Thanksgiving days were periodically proclaimed by presidents, until in 1863 Abraham Lincoln inaugurated the practice of annually setting the fourth Thursday in November aside for Thanksgiving Day. To see Washington's proclamtion click here . To read a little more about the establishment of an "official" day of thanksgiving go to this page. To read about the year there were 2 Thanksgivings, visit this page.

Entry for September 26, 2006

On this date in 1960--The first televised presidential debate occurred between presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. To read transcripts of this debate or to listen to it, go to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum page at http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/Speeches/JFK/JFK+Pre-Pres/Senator+John+F.+Kennedy+and+Vice+President+Richard+M.+Nixon+First+Joint+Radio-Television+Broadcast.htm .
To read a historian's perspective on the debates go to--
http://www.historynow.org/historian2.html
The following links are for Thanksgiving related crochet patterns
http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/thanksgiving.php
http://crochet.about.com/library/blpumpkn3.htm
http://www.crochetmemories.com/archive/seasonal4.html
http://www.crochetmemories.com/archive/november5.html
http://www.marloscrochetcorner.com/pumpkin%20hot%20pad.html
http://home.inreach.com/marthac/thanks.html
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/bythehook/turkeyscrunchie.html
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art6684.asp
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art13903.asp
http://www.craftown.com/crochet/pat32.htm
http://www.medidit.com/free/thank.html
http://www.sarahanns.com/crochetworks/holiday.html
(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)