Today was my doctor appointment with Dr. Layne to check my finger’s healing progress. He was supposed to take out my stitches. Due to the finger is still draining; he didn’t want to take out the stitches till next Wednesday. So this means another office visit and the additional medical cost. I teased that I must be helping pay for the new addition to their huge office and examination rooms. When I went to go to the checkout counter and make my next appointment, I had to follow the exit signs to get there. It was confusing being in the new section for the first time.

I have been wanting to get a more economical car for some time. My 20 year old van is getting more costly to repair or find replacement parts due to its age. My housemate’s truck the engine blew last night. We went and rented a car this morning till Monday morning. That is another expense we had not counted on. Now I will not be able to get myself another vehicle for quite some time. I will have to spend extra money repairing the front end and getting some new tires, costing around $700 – $800. I am starting to feel depressed this morning with this situation. My housemate is not one to be responsible at saving money for unexpected expenses. He is one to waste money on junk. I am so tired of being the one to pinch and save money and do without even necessity. I feel it is unfair to always be the one to keep the household finances a float. I have tried repeatedly to get him trained to handle his finances in case I am in the hospital or unable to be here to deal with it. I feel by the time a person is 50 years old they should be able to be mature enough to handle their finances, however not in my situation with the housemate. This adds extra stress on me and is not good for my diabetes.

When I was a young child, I remember going to my Aunt Jean and Uncle Fred’s house. My Uncle Fred was definitely Italian. His last name was Morganti. My aunt loved to cook something special for us every time we visited. She taught me to love Italian foods.

One of my favorites is lasagna. Some of my family members do not like it with ricotta. I have been looking through Italian recipes for different variations for making lasagna. I have found one that uses low fat or reduced fat cheeses in it and no ricotta and ground turkey and whole wheat lasagna noodles. This recipe would be a healthier choice for my family and also beneficial to my diabetes.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. My neighbor has been a little eccentric as she is getting older. The beautiful colors of the fall leaves and the covering of our yards for the past few days as they drop, has been driving her nuts she says. She doesn’t like anything landing on her yard. She is a nice lady, but so odd sometimes in her thinking. She called her lawnman to come cut the leaves and the non-needing-to-be-cut yard today at 8 AM, he came. His very noisy, smoking lawn mower attempted to cut up all the leaves. I had told him we had a very powerful leaf blower they could use. I had told my neighbor the day before we were going to blow the leaves, but she couldn’t wait.

I see the fall leaves as beautiful. The squirrels running through them. Small sparrows flying down to get the seeds that have fallen under the leaves. The cooler temperatures we have gotten. So pleasant to sit out in the fall season. Sure wish my neighbor could enjoy the fall season. In the past her husband when he was alive use to cut the yard as fast as the leaves hit the ground. We like to mulch the leaves and use in my flower beds as a natural cover for the winter months.

We were sitting outside on the front porch watching the baby birds go to our bird feeder. We also put sunflower seeds in the feed to attract cardinals. I noticed in the past fall season both male and female cardinals come to our feeder. The male cardinals being bright red and a black bill are easy to see, however the females are harder to see due to their light gray color with pinkish bill. Having Nikon binoculars really is helpful is spotting these lovely birds.

I love going out to the state park near our home to watch other birds that migrate here before winter sets in. This is a wonderful way to have a stress free time for myself which helps my diabetes.

I am a huge fan of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I love the way Ty Pennington and his team help so many deserving families. Some of the unique ways they have built cabinetry is gorgeous. I saw on one of the shows a tv lift cabinet. It was so cool the way the tv glided up and down into the cabinet to save space in the room. I sure wish I owned one of these cabinets.

My apologizes to my readers for the delay in writing posts. I have been in the hospital since last week. My birthday was on Monday, Oct. 6 and had a fun filled day, ending with going to a fine dining restaurant. I received wonderful gifts from family members and a friend. On Tuesday, it started off like any day in my life except a little different. First, housemate had put a butter cream birthday cake in the oven the day before and forgot to tell me. We had been given a cake at the restaurant also. Anyway, I turned on the oven to bake biscuits for the morning breakfast and ended smelling something very sugary burning in the oven. I managed to get the melting mess out of the oven after burning my left index finger. What a mess I had to clean up!!

Later on in the day, my youngest cat, Noel, had a seizure. It was the second seizure she has had in 2 months. This time as she was coming out of the seizure, she started to droll out of her mouth. I started to reach for a paper towel and all of a sudden she swung her head around so fast and bite down on my right index finger. The main problem was she bite down to the knuckle joint and locked jawed on it. I did manage to use my left index finger with the big water blister from the burn and get her mouth unlocked and lay her on the kitchen floor. I washed my hands and the finger with antibacterial soap immediately. Then ran upstairs and cleaned out the wounds with hydro peroxide, then bandaged with clean gauze and Neosporine. I thought I had done everything right.

I went back downstairs to check on Noel and she was fine and walking around meowing like she was fine again. Soon playing with the other cats.

The next day, I observed my finger and part of my hand was swollen and very sore. I called my regular doctor’s office and it was closed. I had to go to a funeral service of one my church members and then I would go to the emergency room. The emergency room doctor told me that he would probably be calling in a consultant. I told him I just needed a tetanus shot and antibiotics. He shook his head and told me that he needed an xray to determine if my cat had broke off a tooth in my hand. There were other test run as well. The nurse took a swab of the wound to send for a culture. Then the lab took blood to do a CBC and other lab test. It seemed every few minutes someone was coming in to do something on me or to me. I half expected a colon cleanser to be done too with all else that had been done. A orthopedic surgeon came in and told me that I was going to be admitted to the hospital and have surgery. I was in disbelief over all that had happened in 24 hours to me. Both doctors praised me for not waiting any longer than I had. Both told me that I would have lost my right index finger the next day if I had waited any longer.

So if you get bite by an animal whether it is your pet or not, please do not delay go to your doctor or an emergency room immediately to be properly treated. It can be a matter of life or death.

One of my youngest daughter’s friends is going to have a baby in May of 2009. My daughter wants to hold a baby shower for her friend in April of 2009. One of the items the mother to be wants is a Ju Ju Be diaper bag. I like the changing pad built into the bag.

There is a lot of planning for this baby shower. What kind of food to serve, types of games to play and getting the mother to be to do a gift registry. I made suggestions on the foods and punch, and the games to my daughter. Baby showers are so much fun. I remember the fun at both of my baby showers.

With the cooler weather in the evening down in the 40s, I have wanted to make potato soup. One of the problems I have when I go to make this soup is filling my large stock pot with water. I looked at purchasing bar faucets, because of the height of the arch at the top so my stock pot can fit under it. I have had to use a pitcher and fill it around 6 times to fill my stock pot with enough water to boil the potatoes. I like cooking enough to make several batches. My favorite potato soup is with bacon and onions in it.

Since the Fall season has started, it has been very nice temperatures till yesterday. Yesterday after two cold fronts went through, the temperatures went down in the 40s. Today it finally got up to 57. After being in the 70s for over a month, the sudden drop in temperature is making my body ache and my hands hurt. Having arthritis and Raynaud’s Phenomenon is a struggle for me when the weather is cold. My hands turn extreme white and the pain I experience in my fingers is too painful. I even got my winter gloves out to wear around the house in the evening. I don’t wish this condition on anyone. It is hard for me to type even this short post to you.

I really don’t want to turn on the heater yet due to the cost of heating fuel and winter hasn’t really started. However if these 40 degree temperatures at night continue, it will leave me no choice but to turn the heater on to help the Raynaud’s Phenomenon.