Good morning everyone. Sorry - Life has been crazy busy this past week. I thought I had posted something last week, but alas, I see nothing.

Saw the doc yesterday for my toe. It's healing. Still feels like something is healing or there, but he's assured me I'm healing and healing well. Our weather jumped from 95-100 to the low 70's overnight. I love the chill in the air. We only get it for a few months, so I will enjoy it. Tomorrow I leave to meet my friend in Oceanside for the weekend. Sea World on Friday and possibly some wineries or easy sight seeing on Saturday. Sunday morning I'll head north and meet my husband at......wait for it..... you have no idea - right? Well his weekend plans changed so he booked a flight to Orange County and will be at Disneyland Sat and Sun. So I'll meet him there for a quick park visit and then we'll drive home together. I'm not confident my toe is up to that much walking yet. HOWEVER, when I get home I begin PT in earnest on Tues/Thurs am so hopefully I can get everything else stronger. And I plan on some walks early evenings. I hate that it's so dark now.

So my trip to Cali - totally spaced on NOVEMBER Daylight Savings time and me who can't drive past dusk in any new areas.... so I'm leaving here at 7isham to get to my hotel for check in just before 3. I'll pick up some dinner on the way in as my friends don't arrive until after 7/8 and will probably have dinner with her parents when they pick them up at the airport. So I'll have my laptop to do "stuff". But yeah, I initially had the idea I could go to my childhood neighborhood and visit my older neighbors, but that would put me into Oceanside well into darkness and Oceanside does not have a lot of streetlights. So, I had to change my plans a little. Ah well. AZ doesn't change for DST, but it's still so dark so early.

Had a great time Halloween trick or treating with Rhea. Their neighborhood has a few really decked out streets. It's fun to just go and walk the streets. Rhea was more excited about the pencils and toy items than the candy. We walked about 1.5miles and got to their house exhausted. According to my son's ring camera, they only had a handful of people. Sadly, one of those handfuls cleaned out the extra large bowl of candy so there was none left for us to hand out. Not sure why son put ALL of the candy out, but he did and Rhea had a small pumpkin and really didn't take much candy. She said no thank you to anything with nuts. Which, she is well aware to stay away from nuts. We had a small scare a week or so ago at after care. She took a bit of snickers and immediately alerted her coach that her tongue felt funny. So they started with Benadryl and then had her epi pen at the ready. Fortunately she only took a small bite and not the whole fun size. What's scary is that peanuts are her most tolerated of nuts. And she had such a quick reaction. Almonds and cashews are the worst for her. That experience was fresh in her brain as she was picking her candy. She did pick a couple of peanut M&Ms for her grandpa. She gave them to me to bring home to him. She's super thoughtful.

Kelly - glad Ella's surgery is scheduled. Then the recovery can begin. And that recovery timeline is pretty accurate and one of the main reasons I am not proceeding with ACL replacement for me. It's gonna be tough but she can have a full recovery as long as she puts in the effort. She's lucky to have such a supportive family. And girlfriend??? What??? Yeah good luck there. Remember to take some time for you as well.

Sarah - I'm with you. Didn't sleep well last night. I had the windows open for the cool fresh air and normally I sleep really well that way. I'm tired today. I'm glad you were able to schedule your appointments. I've done the same. Glad the fire was contained so quickly. Because I work from home, I do have a back up internet device at the ready. So I am never really unplugged. Even at Disney I'm on the phone ordering things or scheduling a ride.

Sheesh - good news on your side. Hoping all is still going well.

I'll have to ask the chef how she prepares the salmon. I know for the sweet potatoes she slices them and then bakes them with olive oil, salt & pepper and oven roasts the zucchini. It's the salmon I have no idea - I see her take it out of the oven though. It is quite tasty. That's my monday/tuesday meal every other week.

OK reports are done running so I gotta get back to work. Wrap everything up today to be gone for a while!!! and two of my three meetings have gotten cancelled. YAY! I'll check back when I can. Be well everyone.

I really haven't been able to find my groove these past months/year. I'm in a funk and just can't seem to escape for longer than a day or 2. I know I NEED to exercise, I know I NEED to eat better, I know I NEED to drink more water and I know I NEED to get better sleep.. but finding the energy to do all of that is overwhelming most days. I'm still not over my cold either. This lingering cough is super annoying. But I know I need to be better. My clothes aren't fitting and I saw a picture of myself recently that I really didn't like... so I just need to do something... even if I'm tired.. my knee is sore.. and I have a cold. Excuses excuses. I either want it or I don't... right?! I just need to get off my butt more.

The football game was fun and the trip was great with Hubby. Nice to get away... but we are definitely home people now. People are annoying lol And we missed our dog a lot while we were gone.

Sheesh - My MIL is doing well. She's back to living on her own and her arm has mostly healed. Shawn checks on her lots. It helps that she's on Facebook messenger, cause we can see when she was active last. I believe his sister still wants to get her a Victoria Lifeline device (medical alert style device in Canada)... since she doesn't use a cell phone nor does she want one. It's a good idea, but just one more thing to deal with and pay for... if you know what I mean.

My Mom (who's 70) has also been having a lot of struggles lately with her hip/leg/back to the point where she needed a walker and a cane sometimes, and had an extremely difficult time getting in to see a doctor. She finally got in and got x-rayed... then got referred to another dr where they gave her lidocane and a cortisone shot. That helped a bit, but when she got up onto the table at that appointment, she thought she pulled a muscle in her chest. When she went back to the dr this time, turns out she actually popped a floating rib! Man.. what next. So she just got another cortisone shot in her CI joint and has to probably see a chiropractor, which she doesn't want to do cause my Dad had a bad experience with one where he was almost paralyzed by a chiropractor. Poor lady. It's also in the back of my mind that I don't want to be like that when I'm 70... so I need to start putting in the movement work now.

Sarah - How did things go with the radiologist? How's Teddy doing? When you said " I'm just kind of off the beam in a lot of ways." I nodded as I was reading, because that's exactly me.

Lois - That's so great that Rhea knows not to eat stuff with nuts. Great to teach them early. Have fun at Disneyland!

Off to the cabin on Saturday night until Monday sometime with Hubby and pup. He works Saturday or we would have went tonight. Have a good weekend!

Oh my goodness. Returned from my Cali trip - EXHAUSTED doesn't define it - not even close. LOL. Drove to Oceanside Thursday morning. Got there early afternoon. Had lunch and checked into the hotel. Got a little settled then explored how to find the hotel my friends were staying. So super easy to find. Back to hotel to rest and prepare. My friends got in very late on Thursday so our plan was to meet up Friday morning. We hit Sea World. Got in 9k steps in that four plus hour adventure. We saw all of the shows and had a great time. Back to the hotel - traffic STUNK. Took us an hour to get there, but almost 2 hours to get back to hotel. Off to dinner. YUM - can't recall the name of the restaurant but it was the Mexican place at the end of Oceanside Harbor. Delicious Mahi Mahi tacos. Saturday we ventured to a town called Julian. Guess it's known for their pies. Bought two frozen take and bakes at their location before Julian. We ventured on to Julian. Not sure how to describe if you've been to Jerome, Bisbee etc. Old time antiques/replicas tchotchke shops. Not really my scene. And the line for pies was down the street past two other store fronts. I was glad to have gotten my pies earlier. Had lunch at a little place and then we left. None of us really knew what there was to do, but it was far to crowded for any of us. We stopped at the earlier location for my friend to buy their pies (which I should also have done). Back to the hotel and for dinner I just wanted to stay in. I had some oatmeal. My daughter is moving into her new house so she came by the hotel to pick up the pies. She cooked them and is enjoying them.

Saturday, hubby flew into Orange County airport and headed to Disneyland solo. He had a great time. Got on Tiana's Bayou Adventure (open only to Magic Key holders - that's us). I met up with him on Sunday and we got on it as well. They were absolutely confirming each rider was in fact a Magic Key holder. So many people got turned away. I wore my rain jacket on the ride (it was warm, but not so warm that I wanted to be soaked). Thankfully I did wear it, though I still got saturated from my waist down. The water came into the boat and splashed UP. Definitely a warm/hot weather ride for me. I attempted to get some Christmas shopping done, not successful - the items I wanted are not yet available. I'll attend to it Thanksgiving weekend. We got in 10k steps in just 4 hours and still had a six hour drive home. We arrived home about 930. We were exhausted. I had yesterday off, but I did jump on for about 3 hours. Then CRASHED on the recliner for almost three hours. I still slept last night. I am amazed at how tiring these trips can be.

My toe did not fair well over the weekend. It was quite sore all weekend. So I'm scheduling another appt with my toe doc for December to recheck it just in case. His appts fill up so quickly, I'd rather have it and cancel than to not be able to get in. OH and my left toe - where he removed it last year - I have a toothpick nail. My nails are relentless. They do not want to be contained. And it still hurts.

Kelly I'm so glad you had a great birthday trip. But I'm with you. "off the beam" seems about right. Chef was here yesterday and thankfully her food will help keep me on track this week. Now I just need to stop extra snacking. Have fun at the cabin. And it's scary but I'm only 10 years younger than your mom. I'm beginning to get worried over here.

Sarah - I'm going to keep you in my prayers that radiation goes well and you are able to keep up with your classes. It's so hard to get going again. And your radiologist sounds like my new primary. You may have to find a way to communicate that works for you to be comfy as well. I have two friends who have that personality so I handled my interaction as I do when we're together with our friend. But please get it done sooner rather than later.

Sheesh - Thanksgiving sounds fun!! I've been seeing so many games on FB that I'm thinking I might incorporate into our Christmas gathering. There were soda/drink matching, a wreath of bows and a spinner with matching cups hiding silly prizes etc.

And, in case you can't tell from the pictures, we are thoroughly enjoying our Magic Key passes. Money well spent for us.