Quote

"Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands."

-Seneca

Good evening!

The last two days I have been a bit “off” on my study schedule. Yesterday I completed my studies at 9 p.m. which is later than I normally study.

I was relieved to learn in the student forums that I was going about my studies wrong. I had been typing endless exercises in Keyboard Kinetics for a few days now because I read you were supposed to do the modules in order. It turns out, I can just move onto the next module and study the keyboard kinetics daily just a little while at a time.

I am seriously happy I will not be typing those drills my whole study time. Imagine five hours a day of jnjnjnjnjnjnjn hnhnhnhnhnhnhnh etc (laugh)

This evening I start on the Medical Word Building module.

I will not attain five hours of study today as usual because my schedule will be different today and tomorrow.

I attended a work at home meeting this morning which was informative. I actually saw a girl I went to high school with at the meeting. It is a small world!

Thank you very much for the sweet comments about my crochet. You made me feel good.

I am off for a coffee and some studying.

Have a great evening!

My Latest Crochet Creations

Tiny Teddy

Blue and Red Crochet Purse

Sunflowers

Isn’t this sunflower pretty?

Upon returning home one day, we noticed a bunch

of sunflowers and a watermelon on our porch. It was a very sweet surprise.

Sunflowers are my favorite flower.

 

I think my cousins probably left them. They came while we were out grocery

shopping. The watermelon was delicious and the sunflowers in vases around

our house made my week brighter!

Today was my first day

I did the Career Step Orientation over the weekend.

Today was my first day studying and I am happy that I met my five hour study goal.

Last night I crocheted a purse and stayed up later than I should have so tonight it is early to bed!

Here is a song for you.

Night Night!

Pretty

Catching Up

I had two doctor’s appointments on Thursday. One revealed I have lost weight and more than I imagined.

Armando helped me. He weighed first on the scales and then kindly picked me up so we could do my weight on the stand-up doctor’s office scale. Being a paraplegic can sometimes offer plenty of complications in basic life functions. Thank goodness for creativity and problem solving!

I had a few lectures on eating high proteins and eating more. I was honest and just said I have not had an appetite lately. I love to eat in normal circumstances but I usually eat small amounts and often.

Actually, I am quite thankful Armando mentioned getting a weight because even though I knew my pants were not fitting, I never would have guessed my weight had gone down that much. When you know about a problem you can fix it, before it gets to be a big problem. So, now I am trying to gain weight and snack and eat high protein foods to help myself heal.

I got my student ID on Friday so Monday I will start studying at the Career Step Medical Transcription program. I am so excited about this! I can start studying online now while I await my textbooks to arrive in the mail.

Last week I cleaned out part of my closets and gave away two bags of clothes. We feel much better having more space in our closets. I had so many clothes that did not fit anymore and outfits that I did not wear that were just getting in the way. Now our closets have more space and that makes life easier.

This evening we are treating ourselves out to a movie. We are going to see The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I watched a documentary on China’s First Emperor the other night that was interesting. This movie looks very action packed. I think we will enjoy it.

If you enjoy crocheting and like color, The September/October issue of Crochet Today! magazine has some really beautiful patterns.

See below for a few of my favorites in this issue:

 

I hope you have a great weekend!

Funding YAY!

Monday I register for classes at Career Step!

So soon I will be a student again. I have not been a student since 1994. Yikes! It is amazing how fast time flies. I am very happy though and looking forward to the experience. I have met a few other people on a message board for Medical Transcriptionist’s that are Career Step students so it will be nice to be in touch with classmates.

I have been doing several things lately. Including studying in the Medical transcription manual, helping my Aunt organize a bridal shower, advertising for our wedding photography business, helping my sister sell her antique snooker table, (Does anybody need one? She lives in Birmingham, Alabama, it is a 1920’s Brunswick ) and working on the Craftissima craft projects.

I have been using Microsoft Office Access and learning how to use it for our contacts and that is a very nice program. I would recommend it if you need a database system.

It is a stormy day here and I slept way too late. But it felt good and I know I won’t get to do that as often when I start studying. I am having a lazy day today and the cats are as well. Chochi and her baby Fluffy are curled up sleeping in my lap as I write this.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Early Morning Ramblings

Saturday was Armando’s Birthday. I made him a traditional Chileno dish. It was called Pastel de Choclo (Corn and Meat Pie), with Ensalada de Chilena (Chileno Salad) and we enjoyed a glass of wine. I made him Boston Cream cupcakes and put sprinkles with candles on them. It was my first time making Pastel de Choclo and I enjoyed preparing it. I had tasted that dish made by his Mom and Sister and I was only hoping mine met up to Armando’s expectations and gave him a little taste of home.

Here are some pictures I found showing:

 

A traditional Pastel de Choclo cooked in clay dish.

Ensalada de Chilena

 

In the evening we rented and watched a movie and that was fun. We had not done that in a long time.

I crocheted Armando a little bear. Armando and I both like the amigurumi crochet animals. So it was enjoyable to try a new pattern. I will show you a picture of the bear later. The next thing I want to make for Armando is a crochet dragon.

I am having a few issues with wounds again. Only this time I have three. One I have is the same wound on my ribcage that I had previously. I went to see the wound nurse and she said it was pressure from the bone on the inside. I do not have a lot of fatty tissue to pad in that area and surgery is out completely to shave the bone because it would mess up my seating alignment which is already compromised from past surgeries and scoliosis. Arrgh.

Only thing to do is eat well and get protein which doesn’t bother me, (because I enjoy food) treat the wounds and try to be very aware of positioning to prevent pressure points. I wish I could prevent these skin problems but I cannot. I had to have reconstructive surgery years ago on my back so these are just problems that could not be fixed and the aftermath. Just so you understand why this happens to me from time to time. I do not think I ever mentioned that about myself before on my blog although I know I have mentioned wound problems before.

I hope you have a good rest of the weekend!

I am off to bed. Night Night. :)

Announcing Armando Loyola Photography website

We just opened the Armando Loyola Photography website and are ready to start in the Alabama Wedding Photography Business.

 

The website is also in Spanish since Armando  speaks Spanish and I can speak Spanish (some) too.

Please take a look and let us know what you think about it. We tried to make it elegant yet easy to navigate.

Thank you!

Sunday fun

I went with my parents early Sunday morning to a flea market. I emptied the monkey piggy bank of some change so I did not have to feel guilty for spending anything other than change.

I got four pens for 50 cents each

A big pack of post it notes for $5.00

A new in the package pink apron with strawberries, a pot holder and oven mitt for $1.00

A small ovenware dish for $1.00

A hand painted black floral trinket box for $1.00

My favorite things were a small and a medium size domed glass covered plates (similar to the one below  but mine are not pedestal type) for 50 cents each! The small one has an etched glass cover.

I put my shell collection in the smallest one and the other one is on the table for cookies,etc.

In the evening my Aunt Elizabeth invited us over for dinner. We discussed an upcoming bridal shower that we are hosting. I will make the invitations out and send them. I came home and looked up some party games.

I love parties! One of these days when we are in our own house with a more accessible kitchen, I want to start back decorating cakes again. My Aunt used to run her own catering business and she kindly taught me the basics. I admire her work. I would like to take more classes and learn how to do more advanced techniques. I have only done Christmas cakes and Birthday cakes mostly.

It was always so rewarding making cakes for little children!

Ryan's Monkey

I just completed a monkey for my nephew Ryan.

I free-handed the pattern on paper and cut it out. Then, I hand-sewed the monkey in felt so it would be very soft.

I finished by crocheting him a scarf.

I call it "Monkey Face". (laugh)

Weekend of Family & Nature

On Saturday some of our family from Ohio visited us. We visited this creek was that my cousins enjoyed playing in as children and wanted to revisit.

Later that evening Armando and I tried to find our first geocache but didn't find anything.

Look at Armando's blog for a picture of that area.

Sunday was spent at Noccalula Falls Park in Gadsden, Alabama for a family reunion.

We enjoyed the park area with animals. We got to ride the train.

 

Me riding the train.

Picture I took of Armando at one of the historic buildings.

I got my first ever deer "kiss". :)

Sick

I was awake at around 2 a.m. nauseated and then sick. At 9 a.m. I was sick again. I took medicine. I feel somewhat better now.

Armando is so comforting when I do not feel well. I am glad I have him in my life. :)

Our Day & Geocaching

We went to Huntsville to get an item from FedEx because two days in a row they could not find our house and we had a feeling the third time would be no different!

Then since I am crazy for Mexican food, we stopped by Taco Bell. I had a Chicken Chalupa and Nachos. Yum. Yum. Armando is not so crazy about Mexican food so he had something else.

We stopped by the office store and bookstore and had a yummy coffee.

The other night I signed us up at

http://www.geocaching.com

I thought it would be something fun for Armando and I to do on the weekends.

You basically search using your GPS unit and have coordinates for caches or “hidden packages”. I am still reading on how it works. But, so far I think you sign a logbook inside the cache and take something from the cache and leave something in the cache. Cool, a treasure hunt. I will let you know how it goes in the future. :)

Spoiled cats

We do not know how this happened but… the two kittens are very spoiled. They climb into our laps and give the most pitiful cries when they come near wanting to be picked up and held until they inevitably fall asleep and when you lay them into their beds, they cry wanting to be back in your lap again!

Fluffy is asleep in my lap right now.

Random Pictures

That I took at my cousin's Lake House on the 4th of July.

 

 

R-E-L-I-E-F!

All the people who gave me the tests felt like I was a good candidate for Medical Transcription so I am relieved and happy.

Now, I wait for some reports to come back to my counselor, chart out a plan with my counselor and then await authorization and funding.

 

Happy Independence Weekend To All!

Photo taken by me July 4, 2004 at Lake Guntersville, AL

Sarah Brightman Deliver Me

A Leaking Coffee Pot

Yesterday I noticed that our coffee pot seemed to be leaking. Yep, it had broken. So today had us looking for a new coffee pot, but not a complete new coffee maker because our coffee maker works ok. Wow! It is amazing how much they charge just for the glass pot. We could not find our exact model (Black and Decker Versabrew)

 

 

and did not want to buy a whole new coffee maker. I like our coffee pot because it is programmable and has an automatic shutoff which is a good thing for forgettable me! We ended up buying a replacement glass coffee pot and crossing our fingers that it worked for our coffee maker.

Sure enough, it did work! Yay! It was the cheapest one we saw at $9.97.

We had a fresh pot of coffee when we got home. I cannot imagine our days without coffee. We are both big coffee lovers.

We also have our own favorite cups. I like a big cup with frogs on it that my sister bought for me and Armando likes his Waffle House cup or Dunkin’ Donuts cup. Armando likes two spoons of sugar in his coffee whereas I am a cream only coffee person.  I love French vanilla and hazelnut coffee but only buy it as a treat because it is rather expensive.