Had the best visit with Michael's sister Mary last Monday. She is the most wonderful woman and friend. I was sorry the visit was so short. A week ago this last Fri. I woke up with a sore throat. As each day came along I felt a little worse. By Tuesday I had a cough and my chest started to burn and feel heavy. By Thursday I was really coughing a lot. On this last Friday I was thinking that I would go to the Dr. on Monday if I wasn't feeling any better but as the day wore on I just felt worse so I decided to go to the Dr. I called and got an afternoon appt. They tested me for strep and checked my oxygen level. She couldn't hear any breath sounds in my right lung so she ordered an xray and a breathing treatment. It turns out I have pneumonia in both lungs. She gave me an rx for 2 inhalers (different), an antibiotic and some prednisone.  Today is Sunday and I don't feel any better yet. I don't go back to see her until Wednesday.  Michael keeps asking me if I need to go to the hospital. I'm just going to wait until my appt.  Hopefully I will be feeling better by then.

True joy comes from recognizing the power within each one of us to make this life a happy one despite our trials.

I am so excited! Michael's sister, Mary is coming today. She is my very best friend. I love her so much. She is just like a real sister to me. She has been back in Illinois getting things packed in the van to bring out here from Mom's things. She has things for the girls, Brian and us. I'm sure it will be emotional for Michael. Maybe even for the rest of us too.  I wish Stacey were here with us. I miss her so much.

Water aerobics is going very well. I quite enjoy it. I will only be going for 3 days a week because I will be working in the Temple on Thurs. and Fri. mornings. I talked to Evelyn about going to a class on Thurs nights but the class does conditioning and pool laps. I found out today I can't swim very well. I SINK!!!  Soooo, we will not be doing that.

Michael and I have a new calling in the Church. We are the new Shepherding Couple.  We will be keeping in touch with those who are between the ages of 18 and 30 that live in the ward boundaries. Just seeing how they are doing and seeing if they are interested in attending the Young Single Adult ward.  It should be interesting.

True joy comes from recognizing the power within each one of us to make this life a happy one despite our trials.

Today I went and did water aerobics with Evelyn. I thought it was the first time I had ever done it but Stacey told me I had done it years before and almost drowned. This was in the middle of my full blown illness.  I was very unsteady on my feet and couldn't stand or walk straight. Anyway, I had a blast and will be doing it every Mon., Tues., and Wed. for the rest of the summer. It was harder than I thought it would be but then again I'm not in very good shape.

It has really been a very busy week and I am tired. I'm just vegging this afternoon.

True joy comes from recognizing the power within each one of us to make this life a happy one despite our trials.

Yesterday I worked as a poll judge for our primary election. What a long day! It went from 6 in the morning to 8:45 at night. It was an interesting experience and one that I enjoyed. Unfortunately, there were only 335 voters out of 6 precincts and 30 of those were just Vote-by-Mail envelopes that were brought in. I will work the November election and because that is a Presidential election it will be much busier.

I was sure tired by the time I got home and my back was killing me. The chairs were not that comfortable. However, it was a blessing that it didn't bother me until I got home.

Went for an interview at the Temple this morning and I will be volunteering in the Baptistry on Thurs. and Fri. mornings starting next week. I am so excited!

My dear friend, Evelyn, and I will be starting water areobics tomorrow. I've never done it before but it should be fun. It is simply too hot to walk right now.

True joy comes from recognizing the power within each one of us to make this life a happy one despite our trials.

Tonight I go to setup the voting place. Tomorrow I will be working the polls for 7 precincts. It will be a very long day. I am interested in seeing in more detail just how the voting process works. I will work from 6am to 9pm. It will be a challenge for me. My brain still gets confused at times when there is a lot of input going on. But, I will do my best. I wish I was working in a precinct in Riverton, but, I was assigned a precinct in Herriman. My very dear friend, Pam, will be taking me in the morning. I feel it is quite a sacrifice for her to get up so early to take me. I am so grateful for her willingness to help me.

I am working on painting a beehive with 2 little bees attached to hang on my front door. It looks cute so far. I'm not a big crafter but my daughter always helps me when I need advice on what to do next.

I sure do miss my grandkids. I haven't seen my sons kids in over a week. They are on a camping trip with their other grandparents. They are so cute and fun to be around. They love to come over and help me to feed the chickens and get the eggs. We have 7 chickens that we purchased in  2011 for Easter for the grandkids. It has been fun to see them grow. We had 8 but one of them fell head first into their water bucket and drowned. Dumb chicken!! lol

True joy comes from recognizing the power within each one of us to make this life a happy one despite our trials. 

I accidentally deleted a previous entry from today so I will try to remember what I wrote. I looked over my posts and found a blog that I very first started with on May 11, 2006. This is what I entered: "I've never done this before so it will probably read in a rather strange way for awhile. I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and am having a hard time focusing. Maybe this will help me work through the voices and visions."

That was the only entry until I started this blog in 2007.  Now that I am doing much better, I will be making entries on a regular basis. I sometimes wish I could remember things from the past 6 years but then again I don't know if it would help me or not. So, I will just go on from here and if flashes of memory come to me, I'll probably mention them.

True joy comes from recognizing the power within each one of us to make this life a happy one despite our trials.

I am wishing I were living in Alaska right now! The weather is soooo hot! The change in my medication is helping. Yipee! I am feeling much less depressed and have a better outlook on life. I am so grateful. The anxiety is still there but I can live with that.  I saw a note on my fridge that my daughter came up with. I was in a very bad place, mentally, at the time. I thought I was doing well enough and didn't need my medications anymore. She was trying to help me see that the meds were what was helping me and I couldn't stop taking them. The note said: "If it's raining and you're under an umbrella; does that mean it's not raining anymore? No; it just means you're less effected by the rain because of the umbrella."  We believe that the inspiration for this quote came from our Heavenly Father. She helped me to see the wisdom in continuing with my treatment and to keep following my doctors instruction. The last 6 years have been so difficult. My memory of them is mostly gone. But, now, hopefully, I will continue to be better and live a more productive life as I did before I got sick.