Say anything twice, just don’t yell…

There’s not a whole lot to say.. just hang in there.. I am sure, you will get a handle on it. And I am crossing my fingers for you, so that things may go as you hope !!!

Not much  new here. Oh, well, maybe there is..

Jan had (what they thought at the time was..) a mild stroke at work just two weeks ago. He couldn’t walk straight, kept bumping into everything on his left, had a bad headache and couldn’t talk right. So they immediately took him to the hospital, which he left 6 hours later (against doctor’s recommendations).

He came home early, up to this point no-one had contacted me. I couldn’t believe it when he told me. I was very upset with him for leaving the hospital (AND for not having anyone contact me)!

He has been on convalescent (spelling?) leave this past week. He has also had two MRI’s, but nothing showing other than the left arterie in his head is way smaller than the right one. He is back to work as of today… Can you believe it??? Why did I go for a younger guy again??? He is only 30!

My blood pressure seems fine now. Still a bit high, but I am happy with it. I take one to 1 1/2 pills a day. Not bad.

I don’t notice a big change (other than having warm feet more often).

I hope you get a handle on your anxiety attacks. I think I may have had that, when I was going through that (somewhat) tough time with Dad… but I never had it checked. I am sure, it didn’t do anything for my blood pressure either, though… Take the pill, already!

It has really gotten cold here, too Penny. We are way below freezing, even during the day. It sucks.

Oh.. one piece of good news… small piece but nonetheless…

I have joined the huge community of ebay and actually bid on a shoe cabinet. I got it for one Euro! *lol* Now I am looking for a clothes closet-thingy-me-bob… (Kleiderschrank).. But so far my bid always gets beat at the end of the auction… Oh well, I am on it, though.

The post below is password protected, also (assuming it worked out). It should be the same password as Penny’s post.

Well, hang in there, Penny.

HEAL

Doc says, that I have high blood pressure. The 24-hour test showed, that I pretty much around 160:100 all the time… So now I have one pill a day… no biggie, since that’s not the only pill I am taking *lol*

I haven’t finished all the tests, yet, though.. Today is the day (and I am sorry if this grosses you out)… I get to take a 24-hour urine test.. yep.. It’s as gross as it sounds.. I have to pee in a cup until tomorrow morning.. then pour it into this big jar.. and take it back to the dr tomorrow.. great isn’t it? Yet another day, where I won’t leave the house for long…

What’s worse, yet, is that I wasn’t allowed to drink coffee, black tea, eat bananas or oranges three days before today.. Well, the tea and fruit, I can handle.. but no coffee since Sunday ???? That’s rough! I drink peppermint tea in the morning.. somehow that doesn’t really wake me up

Went swimming this morning, well more like noon, but anyway. That was nice. Still have water in my ear, though

Other than that not much going on. Jan works long hours. My work is going well, too – except this short work. I am starting to get used to it. We will be off from December 23rd, until January 13th. Then we have to work a regular 5-day work week for the rest of the month… How am I going to deal with that ???? *lol*

Penny, hang in there with school.. You are doing it for yourself! Remember that!

Well, good to hear that everyone is still alive

HEAL

I have high blood pressure… !

Yep.. after my gynacologist kept telling me that it was high (“you’re probably just a little excited now!”) for the past .. oh I don’t know… years… and now the doc at work told me also.. I went to my doctor. And yes.. I have high blood pressure. For now she gave me pills (’cause she didn’t want me to go on and wait until all the tests are finished). I will go in for more tests this thursday (one of the tests will be a blood pressure-thingy to wear for 24 hours…). I am taking half a pill right now in the mornings.. but she said, that that will prolly not be enough.. oh well… we’ll see.

Not much happening here. Weather is icky and cold. Jan works long hours and usually just has Sunday off.

I am finding all kinds of excuses not to exercise (too cold, too wet, too crowded (the pool))..

Everyone take care!

Not much, since I am not doing much lately.

Penny, I am so proud of you, with your running, school etc. Great work! Hope the second grade was just as good!

Here, things are pretty much calmed down. We have running warm water in the kitchen now. But the dishwasher has given up, the microwave blew the other day (still works, but I don’t trust it – the inside has a big crack in it), the oven is acting funny (you turn one burner on 1 and it fires up all the way, when you turn on a second burner, they take turns being hot – funny), the fridge is always wet… so to sum it up, I think all of our kitchen appliances will not survive the move in the long run… Oh well.. my first priority is a dishwasher. Doing dishes by hand sucks major time!

It has gotten really cold here. But aside from that one day of snow it’s just been freezing. I’ve had to scrape the windows on my car the last couple of days.

Today is Thursday… and after a long week of work, it’s finally weekend for me

I can really get used to this three-day work-week. On the other hand- mondays everyone is stumbling through the mess on their desks (which pile up during the days, you’re not there), tuesdays are ok, by wednesday things are smooth again. Then you pack up to go home, knowing you won’t be back ’til monday and the whole thing starts again..

But it could be worse… I could be out of a job. And I really like my job – so.. I am not complaining.. Just stating

Oh… I just remembered.. I had a picture taken of me at work.. It was a fun session.. (almost) Everyone has a pic of themselves in the Intranet at work. So I wanted mine in there, too.. It looks like a snapshot (that was the point), but it took quite a while to get it right Here it is :

Perfection, though it looks so easy, is sometimes hard work )

HEAL

Seems like you guys had a good time

Things are good here. As you have heard, I finally got an unlimited contract with the company that I have been working for the last 4 months.

It’s just in time, too. They started to work short (Kurzarbeit) in October. So they employed me as of September 30th, and I am part of their staff. Short work for me means, for October anyway, I will be working Mo-Wed, then I am off Th+Fri. Can’t complain. Yes, it’s a cut in pay, but it’s still better than unemployment. And everyone is hoping that the economic situation will change soon!

We completed the move to the new apartment. Everything is pretty much where it is suppose to be. Except I don’t have running water in the kitchen yet. We need a boiler and haven’t gotten around to getting one yet. Hopefully that’ll will be taken care of this week. So far we have been getting hot water from the bathroom, I use a square plastic tub, which sits inside of my sink to do dishes… I tell myself that it’s just temporary, so it’s not too bad.

Phone number has stayed the same – which is good.

Well, other than that not much new here. Hope everyone is enjoying a great weekend.

HEAL

It looks as if I have become a victim to the numbers.

They wanted to cut all temp workers and they have. Unfortunately this means they are also letting go some really good people (me included). Unless some magic happens, the 30th will be my last day at FAUN. I know my boss would take me back as soon as he can, but that can take up to 6 months… and by then the other girl (-the apprentice, who (workwise anyway) is a huge loser) will probably handle the job.

I haven’t heard from my temp agency, but that’s probably just a matter of days (since they only have to give two weeks notice)…

Well… what can I say? My temp agency called to see if I was interested in this other job. It sounded ok (office-work), but it would have been in Schesslitz (behind Bamberg – and I just moved from there)… with us moving in two weeks, that would be a 80km way (one way) for me… And sorry, but no…

Hope y’all have a great time together

I will give updates as I can.

HEL

P.S. whooooo-hoooo on the internet Penny

… we finally found an apartment!!!

Well, ok, it we didn’t try thousands of times, but it sure felt like it.

And.. we found an apartment that fits us. It’s a one-bedroom, ground floor, huge patio, and access to the garden (without necessarily doing any work – unless we want to).

It’s a small house and the landlord lives upstairs. It’s an older turkish couple, but they seem really nice. HE takes care of the garden, and there’s everything from flowers, tomato plants, vegetables to apple and cherry trees. It’s right on a main street, but only the kitchen and bathroom face the road. Bedroom and patio are out back.

We are planning to move around the 26th of September. (’cause I don’t want to move in the middle of the week – which we would, if we moved on September 30th…)

I will let you know details (new adress, possibly a new phone number – maybe we can keep this one, and stuff) as we get it.

Time to go to bed.. Long day today, and tomorrow morning comes early

HEAL

But I have to say that they are cute!

And I remember the sounds that they make

Things are good. Weather is good (why wouldn’t it be – it’s the middle of the week). They already forecasted rain for the weekend…

Work is work. It’s still fun, but nothing new to report. Sorry.

Ummmm.. what else.. nope, nothing really.

I think of you a lot though, so I thought I would write

Your turn!

HEL

*takes the mike*

Not much new here, either. Unfortunately (sort of). I work a  lot. Yesterday (and I can’t stop mentioning that), I was at work from 7 in the morning – til’ 18:40 at night. That was one heck of a long day…

The weather has been, so la-la. We have a running joke: “how do you know it’s the weekend? — The weather is turning bad again!”

This weekend is suppose to be really nice, and I am looking forward to spending it in our back yard, in a lawn chair (yesssssss)

We have been looking for a new apartment, and have looked at some. We found one, that is fairly big (right now, we have about 100 sqm, the new one is about 70 sqm) and it has a huge yard. The yard is not exactly BY the house, but close. There’s a pond, a small river, huge trees and a small shack. It’s really nice! The apartment itself has a really nice kitchen in it (that’s a definite plus) and nice rooms. We are looking at moving towards the end of September. (so much for that)

Jan is busy at his job, too. He works hard physically and is pretty knocked out in the evening. So am I usually. There have been evenings where we went to bed at 8:30 at night. I love getting up the next day, not tired.

Other than that, we have just been living day-to-day. Nothing really worth mentioning.

(That is, unless you care that our huge ”Mirabellen”-tree (don’t know the english word for it) is FULL of fruits. There’s so many Mirabellen on it that the branches are hanging close to the ground. Every night, there’s a flock (?) of birds in it (having dinner) and it’s just raining fruits. Horrible, because I have to walk around the yard and pick them up…) Yeah, that was thrilling.

I am envious of you, Penny. For one, you have fun with the quads. And two, you still run! Hats off to you, big sis’!

Well, I will call Sam now. See what she’s up to. Her dad is coming home to her in a few days. She is really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, he will get there, the day AFTER she starts back to school. Originally, they were planning to take some time and see the country, but as it seems, that will have to wait.

Since Sam has been living with her aunt (Nanci), they have moved to a new house. Joe will rent the “old” house from his sister. So Sam will be living in the same neighborhood as before, and still go to the same school. She is very happy about that. I guess they already had the furniture delivered from the Army, and Sam got to unpack a bunch of stuff, that she hadn’t seen in a year and a half. She was pretty excited about that (“oh yeah, THAT don’t fit me anymore”)

*lol*

Well, enough blabber.

I love you all – take care