I'm glad you were able to get some questions answered! I'm a car-sitter too. When Wade goes into a store, I can't do that much walking anymore, so I sit in the car. We just enjoy spending the travel together.

I have my MRI today, 4PM (eastern). It's on my spine, so I'm hoping they will go all the way to the end where my arthritis is, and possibly get at least part of both SI joints. Today the right SI is hurting and my leg is awful. I get a very sharp and bad pain in that crease between my leg and my tummy and sometimes it goes up into my abdomen. I hope that this MRI gives us a clue on what is happening, otherwise another MRI will need to be done lower. I wouldn't mind if it also got my knees!

Hope you stay doing well, Connie! Hope everyone is fine as well. Love y'all.

I had a Lenovo years ago, I think it was my first lap top, and I really liked it. I have an Acer now and I love it. It has been worry free. I occasionally have a glitch, but I think that has more to do with the AVG security I have on it than the computer. I have a VPN and I have it set for Dallas, so I can't look at local weather on here, it takes me to Dallas weather! I also use Brave and sometimes it won't let me into a site - other than those things I haven't had any trouble. Oh, when I had my Dell, I often ran into trouble because my drives weren't updated, so I got the Drive Downloader through AVG too and I think that's helped a bunch! I've thought about going with something other than a Fire too, they only last me two, maybe three years before they start getting glitchy. I just think something else would last longer. It may be more money initially, but over time I think it would be saving me. I have one Fire that I often get the message that I'm out of space, but I have no idea what it's talking about. I unload a book when I am done with it and I had just five or six games on it, and I took two of those off and it still didn't have room! I sent that one back to get a discount on my newest one. I wish the would take more than one old Fire back, I'd have five or six of them to send back for discounts! LOL! Now they ask you if it's usable before you send it back.

Please continue to pray for my leg, the pain is migrating to the right side now and into my knee. I am getting more unstable as well. Thanks y'all. Love you

Thank you for your prayers. I have some good periods of time, but I still don't feel stable enough to walk without a cane! Your prayers are much appreciated!

I have a follow up appointment on the 17th. I don't think it will show anything that I don't already know so I don't expect them to get in contact with me before then. I did send them a note today and told her that I really needed her to have some answers for me at this appointment. I need to know how we are going to deal with the pain and how we are going to figure out what is causing it. If she can't give me those I am going to go to the emergency room at a hospital we really like and let them figure it out!

I can relate, even though my house isn't toasty! We needed to go out to get some medication and it was cold (in the low 40's). I encouraged the car engine to warm up so it could warm me up!

My leg is doing pretty good today. I've been able to put up the cane the past two days. I talked to my NP (tele-visit) yesterday afternoon and told her what has been going on with the pain. She is setting up another MRI where the pain actually is and also an appointment with an orthopedist. She has started me on Gabapentin (which I took many years ago and don't remember anything adverse in taking it, it just didn't do what I needed it to do.) We're hoping it will help alleviate the pain at night when I'm trying to sleep, and then make me sleepy so I won't keep waking up every time I move. I may take the Tramadol during the day so I can get around with the pain and the gabapentin at night. Lord willing it will help.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

Praying for Bill's sister and family, Connie! Praying for you and Bill too. It's such a blessing to watch a loved one's reaction to certain people. I was reading Ezekiel's vision of God and started to think about Mom - she's seen that glorious sight, the four beings with the different faces and the wheel within a wheel, the crystal sea beneath the throne! Wow! When I think of her in heaven I just see a street of gold with smiling and happy people going about whatever work God has for them to do, and Mom in their midst, but when I read that passage I thought of the wonders that she is also getting to experience! I wouldn't want her back here for anything even though I miss her terribly!

I took my gabapentin last night and for the first time in a long time slept deeply through the night! I don't know if I changed position or not, but I fell asleep and woke up 8 hours and 45 minutes later!
Sad thing is, I'm still tired. I didn't have any reaction to the gabapentin and it did what we were hoping it would. I feel for Bill, but praise the Lord his pain is but for a moment when he is getting up and whatever he is taking helps the rest. I wish I could take any kind of anti-inflammatory or arthritis med, but it just hurts my stomach worse than the arthritis pain.

We have a cloudy day today, but it is warm. All the windows were cloudy on the outside when we got up this morning. It's 69 degrees at 10:30! I can sit on the back porch and watch the chickens today. That's fun, they are a riot sometimes. When I walk over to them, they all come running to me - I know they are expecting me to give them something, but I just chat with them for a minute and then go back home!

I can't believe that my Christmas cactus just now has it's last flower. It's been giving me flower since one week before Christmas! So happy.

I hope that y'all have a wonderful day. You are in my thoughts and prayers.

It's like Tramadol. Two family members who were on it hated it because it made them have different kinds of side effects. I can take it just fine, I have for around 16 years. The Gabapentin doesn't seem to have side effects for me, but I found last night it didn't work without the tramadol beforehand. You aren't supposed to take the two together, but you can if you take them at least two hours apart, which I did the first night. Last night I didn't take the tramadol and it didn't work at all. It didn't really accomplish what I needed it to accomplish the first time I took it years ago, but right now I'll try anything to be done with the pain and be able to get some solid sleep. I don't blame you for not wanting to give it to Bill!

My MRI is scheduled for the 25th of this month. Now that that is scheduled they will schedule me with an orthopedist. I hope this MRI will show more than the x-ray showed. I don't really trust x-rays. When I had my gall bladder trouble I had an x-ray and they said that it looked like I had a stone or two; my gall bladder was filled with stones. When I had pneumonia recently, the x-ray didn't show it at all. The x-ray of my hip said I had some mild arthritis in there, but I have a feeling it isn't mild at all because there is just too much pain there for just a wee bit of arthritis. We'll see! God is my Great Physician and He will give me whatever I need to see this through. I really appreciate everyone's prayers.

Love y'all, truly!

Praise the Lord, that is such good news! Yay, Bill!

I've been sick for what seems like the longest time - not Covid, thankfully - probably my normal cold/sinus stuff. It's so good to finally feel better and be back with you. Life here in east Tennessee has been pretty routine otherwise. Winter storms have come close, but gone around us for the most part. However, cold weather is predicted this coming week, including snow.

Beth took me out to a steak restaurant last night for Valentine's - kind of a girl's night out. It was a good way to make new memories. Have a great Sunday. Love you all!

I'm so glad you were able to figure it out, Connie! It's amazing what you can learn on YouTube. When my dryer started making loud noises a few months ago, our retired pastor said to let him try repairing it rather than calling someone. When I walked by to see if he needed anything, he was watching a YouTube video. And he was able to fix it, saving us who knows how much money.

Are you having a good bit of snow? I'm expecting heavy rain while driving to church in the morning.

I thought these were cute:

I was watching the weather on YouTube and saw how cold and snowy it was going to be in your neck of the woods - praying y'all stay warm and safe!

Here are some verses that spoke to my heart this morning:
Col 1:9  For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 
10  so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 
11  strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 
12  giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 
13  For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 
14  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 

Love y'all. Stay safe and stay near to the heart of God.

My husband loves asparagus but I just don't like it! Well, what do you expect, it's a green veggie. I think peas are the only green veggie I actually like, broccoli can be masked! LOL! I use my Mom's meatloaf recipe - it's at least 60 years old! She used bread crumbs. I think she toasted the bread and then broke it into pieces, but Wade and I use store bought bread crumbs, much easier and faster and still very good. Wade's Mom used oatmeal. I love the little burned edges of a meatloaf! I thought those Valentines Cards were so clever! One of the author's that I follow had them in her e-mail.

I'm not sure what we are going to get in this cold front. We looked like we were just East of the snow line, but when she showed the ice line, well, we were in there, so I have no idea. I hope that the ice doesn't reach us.

Stay warm. Love y'all. You are in my prayers as you face this bad weather. May God be your protection.

Cheese and butter! That's the mask that helps me eat it. Oh, and I have a recipe for broccoli salad that I really like and it masks the flavor really well. I do cut it up very small and don't use the stems, just the bunchy tops. I like raw spinach, but the texture of cooked spinach is off-putting to me. Spinach is a good addition to smoothies, it can't really be tasted. I had been adding okra to smoothies, but I found that even though I couldn't taste it, there was a slimy feeling to the smoothie that I didn't like. Brussel Sprouts cooked in bacon grease and then covered in honey are very good. We heard that cabbage is really good for you. We started eating more sauerkraut (kielbasa, sauerkraut, and apple - so good). We found some cabbages the size of bowling balls at a food give away center. It's a good thing it doesn't go bad very quickly! The thrift store we like to go to often has fresh food to give away. They will advertise when it will be there a day ahead of time.

Wade eats his green beans that way, Cindy! I only ate Mom's green beans, but they probably didn't have any nutrition. She used to make them with a hunk of fatback in them, but started using beef bouillon and then boiling them 'til there wasn't anymore water in the pot! So good, but probably not as good for me. I don't eat them at all now that she is gone. I could cook them like she did, but I'd rather get the nutrition from my green powder! I looked for a cheaper version today, but they all had too many added ingredients. The one I have uses blueberries for flavor and agave for sweetening, that's it! Oh, I'm with you on the stems. We pretty much just use curly green leaf lettuce, it's really sweet and mild. The baby spinach seems to go bad too quickly so we quit buying that.

I hope all of you have fared well in these storms. We are cold and wet today with a chance of some snow flurries, but nothing bad. The gas stove is doing a really good job of keeping the house warm, and the little Dr Heaters in the other rooms keep us almost toasty while we are in there! We tried the HVac, but it just made a sound like it was trying to rev up but never could connect, so it's off!

Wade made some tasty "cookies" last night. Banana, peanut butter, unsweet coconut, pecans were the main ingredients. They were baked so I'm not sure what the ingredient was to hold it all together. They were pretty good, very strong banana flavor. I ate one while it was hot - not as good as the cold one I had this morning!

Well, be safe and warm and cuddle up with Jesus. Love you