I Am So Far Behind!!!!

I will try to catch up.

Labor Day Weekend

My daughter and her hubby had planned to come up early Friday, but family business came up. My hubby worked a short shift (eight hours) so he was coming home at 9pm. It worked out perfectly because my daughter and hubby arrived about 9:40pm. We brainstormed plans for the weekend while they snacked on some cheese. They didn't stay late because we decided on an early-ish start on Saturday.

West of the Lake Gardens

The Plan...Saturday, antiquing, this time in Manitowoc. Spontaneous stop......West of the Lake Gardens, which was a big hit. Sunday was set aside for the Wade House in Greenbush, Wisconsin, which was amazing. We paid for our tickets at the visitor center, and the guy behind the desk called someone on a walkie-talkie. 

"Your ride will be here shortly" he told us. "Go outside and wait under that window" (pointing to a large stained glass window on the other side of the room).

As soon as we got outside, a wagon drawn by two beautiful horses pulled up. Let me repeat A WAGON PULLED BY HORSES was our ride!!!!! I wanted to jump up and down and squeal like a kid but I restrained myself. 

Here are some pictures from our visit. Our Ride!

The Sawmill

The Wade House (picture from Wiki commons)

The Blacksmith Shop

The Carriage Museum

After Wade House, my hubby wanted to drive us up to Door County. We stopped in Sturgeon Bay and then drove up to Egg Harbor to eat. We were having so much fun we decided to spend the night....somewhere.....on a holiday weekend. My daughter started making phone calls. The only rooms available were $300 for the night, and we needed 2 rooms. We kept looking. We finally found a house for rent with two bedrooms, $310 for the night, in Sturgeon Bay. We stopped at a drugstore and grabbed some things, since we didn't pack anything, and drove to the house. It was good. Buggy outside (Northwoods bugs) but clean inside. We decided to go out and found an Irish bar. We had a good time.

We set off early Monday, got some breakfast, and headed north. We drove all the way to Ellison Bay which is near Gills Rock, because...family name. Unfortunately we had to head back because my daughter and her hubby had to drive all the way back to Indiana that night. 

Sunrise in Sturgeon Bay. I don't see many sunrises because our apartment faces west

The house we rented

Sister Bay, Door County

Walking around Sister Bay

The goats on the roof, Sister Bay

Gnomes, Sister Bay

Ellison Bay

Ellison Bay

Inside a gift shop, flowers and pots

Technically we didn't make it all the way to Gills Rock but we visited all the gift shops that sold Gills Rock merch. We were short of time and faced with a long drive back.

Note to ourselves...plan better next time. Spend more time in Door County. Reserve a room. Leave some time to visit downtown Ripon. There are not enough hours in a day. nor days in a weekend.

Done

 It needs to finish drying and then I need to press it flat. I worked forever on this and it has lots of mistakes.  First portrait I ever painted.

The ripple effect is because it's still damp. That's why it looks like it has weird shadows. It was really hard but I want to paint more. I know one thing for sure. I need real watercolor paint, the kind that costs a lot. And better paper.

UPDATE here it is when dry. I still don't like this paper AT ALL. It doesn't look any different. I also found out it is pulp paper and not cotton. It should be 100% cotton for watercolor. 

I'm Rusty at Painting

 I'm determined to have a painting or two done to give to my daughter when she and her hubby visit this weekend. It was her birthday recently so this will be a belated present. Today I was working on a painting of a building. Perspective is challenging. I haven't worked with it in ages. I hope to be done with the drawing soon so I can start painting tomorrow. 

I took a 2 day break from the statin. Too much pain. The pain was gone after 2 days, so I'm back on it now.

We are having a thunderstorm with lots of rain right now. I'm glad hubby is home because he didn't have his rain coat with him.

Here are a couple pictures and then I'm going to bed.

Heavy duty paper and a gum eraser. Maybe I'll ace it soon.

Purple Lightening

Doctor Visit

 It went well. We talked about what happened. She was concerned, why did my numbers go off all of a sudden.

Me: It was the keto bread. It's made with wheat flour but is supposed to have zero carbs."

Doctor: "So you read the label. You know keto bread must be made with almond flour."

She seemed amused as I fessed up to being a carboholic. I promised to do better, and to continue taking the statin.

I also asked about the Calcium I'm taking. I took out the bottle of K2 I bought and she said, "I take that. It directs the calcium into the bones so it's not flooding the blood stream."

I was very happy to hear that my doctor understands those things. Many still do not.

I have labs ordered for a recheck. I will continue with the statin because apparently I made a big mistake and I need to fix it. 

It's really a pretty good hospital and clinic for a small town. The clinic is on the second floor of the hospital. They have a lab and an imagining department. I got my mammogram there earlier this month.

Coming Clean

Well, awhile back I mentioned that I was so happy to have found Keto bread and it didn't seem to spike my blood sugar, much. Unfortunately I was the frog in the pot of water. Lately I was noticing my ankles were swollen and my blood sugar was high every morning, like 170, when it should be 125 or lower. And I was gaining weight. I had a tummy again, and a muffin top. I was tired all . the . time. My eyes were getting blurry. My feet were swollen. It was getting hard to climb the stairs. Geeze I was old and fat all of a sudden.

It was time for my blood tests, A1C and lipid panel, all that stuff.

Well. 

I got the results online. Then my doctor's office called. I was in big trouble. My triglycerides were 500. They should be under 150. Triglycerides are from eating carbs. I should know better after participating in the Verta program for two years and understanding the low carb way of eating as a way to control blood sugar. 

But no....carbs are an addiction. I am a carb addict. Bread is yummy. Look what I did to myself, that I need to undo. And now I am on a statin, because 500 is dangerously high. I am in danger of pancreatitis, which would be a trip to the ER. My nurse told me that, the pharmacist told me that, and I'm sure my doctor will tell me that when I see her on Monday.

I threw the bread away. My morning blood sugar dropped to 130. Last Monday it was 114. I am taking the statin. I generally don't tolerate statins very well, but I am taking 200mg of Co-Q10 to counteract the side effects. I am also taking prevastatin, which is one of the easier ones, and more likely to help with the triglycerides.

In other news, I've been sad. I'm sad because of the devastating storms. I'm thankful my daughter is fine, and they never lost power at home. I'm also thankful that she is working out of the Crown Point office because the Gary location has no power. They tried running it on generators but no customers came in so I think they decided it wasn't worth it.

We have had some nicer weather here. I've been able to open the windows during the day. We are turning the air conditioner on at night because the breeze dies down and it gets hot in here. I still don't like living on the second floor. I miss having a patio full of flowers. 

There is no update on the purple orchid. The roots green up but never show any new growth. I will probably shop for a new one in the winter or spring, whenever orchids begin to show in the stores.

I found a lovely Hoya at Hy-Vee here in town. It has silver leaves. I have found Hoya very easy to keep.

I Feel Better

 I clearly was very upset yesterday. I talked to my daughter today. She says they are fine. It takes a long time to go anywhere because so many stoplights are still out. Some of my friends got their power restored. My daughter worked at the main branch in Gary today, all run by generators. She said there were only 4 customers. Her hubby is still home, no power at his work. His son is at college downstate and he is ok, not affected by the flooding.

I am still going through my stuff in the spare bedroom. I need to get rid of a lot of stuff and re-pack what I'm keeping.

I found a picture I did in high school. It's a print from a wood block I carved. I don't have the wood block anymore. I think it got damaged in storage or something. I'm going to give it to my daughter.

I've been trying to figure out the layout of the new apartments they are building in town. As far as I can tell, there are four 3 bedroom apartments on each end with one or two bedroom apartments crammed in the middle. Not sure about that. What we know for sure is we do not want to sit out on a patio or balcony in full view of everyone else.

I was hoping to have a set up like we had in Hartford, but I don't think it will happen. I will forever miss my view.

I want to end on a good note. The weather cooled off and the humidity lowered enough I was able to turn off the air conditioner and open windows! Yay!