ANOTHER CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH....

Went to see Dr. Kenisberg for my annual check up last week.  It's becoming tiresome to hear I am in "EXCELLENT HEALTH".  I would like to hear, "You should be taking it easy at your age!"

I don't FEEL like I am in excellent health.  I am tired.  I am lazy.  I don't want to do anything.  I will make the slightest excuse not to do the items on my "to-do" list.  I will dawdle in bed instead of jumping out and getting a start on the day.  I skip doing my exercises sometimes, and I don't always walk at least 10,000 steps (My new pedometer only registers the length of stride that was put into the little machine, so the housework and the yard work and walking through stores and parking waaaaay out at the end of parking lots to get more steps, and the movement at Curves don't count any  more.)  There is very little that motivates me anymore.

STILL....I am Dr. Kenisberg's healthiest OLD patient.  There is one other woman kind of close, he said, but she takes a prescription medication. So, I win!  But for what?  Somedays I would just like to sit and do nothing, not be expected to do anything, and just loaf.  Guess that isn't what life is all about.  It's about accomplishing, doing, performing, excelling.  I can tell you, all that's not what it's cracked up to be.  Been there. Done that.  I am tired.

However, numbers don't lie.  Supposedly neither do test results.  So here you have it.


Height--5 ft. 3 1/2 in...at least I haven't shrunk more than that initial half inch
Weight--139  (I HATE that.... 10+ pounds in 16 years.  Not good.  No not good at all!)
Blood pressure--120/73  not bad for an old woman
Colonoscopy--normal
Mammogram--normal
Hearing--sub par but I can still function without hearing aids, though they CAN help sometimes
Vision--still no glaucoma, glasses prescription hasn't changed for two years, no sign  of cataracts
EKG--normal with all the peaks and valleys just perfectly aligned
Kidneys, liver, diabetes--normal tests
Cholesterol--the doctor said all normal.  Not going to complain because the good stuff is off the charts.  Better by far than in May 2015 shown  in ( )  Guess that daily fish oil helps.
        OVERALL  197 (220)  should be under 200 
        LDL  114 (149)  should be under 100
        HDL  131 ( 135)  should be under 130

Had a flu shot and the second in a double round of Pneumonia vaccine.  All set with Typhoid, Diptheria, Tetanus, etc.  No sense getting the Shingles vaccine now that I already have had Shingles, since it is the one thing for which I can legally stay home from work.

So, I guess I am doomed to another year of good health and fitness. How uncool is that?

Just once I would like a reason for the lethargy I feel. 

Please don't tell me it's just me laying down on the job .....

Just kidding!  I know the real reason for my good health.  And I have shared it before.
It is compensation from a loving Heavenly Father for a couple of really crappy things that have happened to me in my life. 

I count my blessings!

HONEST....OR NOT?

The Relief Society always emails a little advertisement of the next week's lesson along with questions the instructor would like the sisters to think about before coming to class.  I read one of those blurbs the other night for yesterday's Relief Society lesson.  It was from Howard W. Hunter's teachings about honesty.  The teacher wrote the following to generate some thought before Sunday.

President Hunter teaches us "If we are sensitive to our relationship to the Savior we must be honest in the little things as well as the big."

Some questions to ponder as you study this chapter-

What does it mean to be honest with ourselves?

How can we make our religion a part of everything we do in our daily life?

What is integrity?

How can we develop integrity?

How have you been blessed when you have lived true to the Lord's standards?

I had a stupid little experience recently, but it weighed heavy on me when it happened.  So I decided to respond to the teacher even though I am not currently attending Relief Society because of my calling as Primary president.  I told her it was just an FYI so she would know I am still keeping up with our class study.

HERE IS WHAT I WROTE:

I was on a layover in Orange County recently and went into a Wal-Mart along my walk to buy some postcards.  I also picked up some other items and went to the self check aisle to pay. 

One item was something small I picked up to go with my grand boy's birthday present for next month's celebration. But the bar code was so small I didn't think it had scanned when I passed it over the machine. So I set it aside and scanned the other items including four postcards. Each card beeped that it had been read and I dropped each into the bag.  But the screen kept giving an error message:an unknown object was in the way.

I kept moving everything I could think of out of the way and finally I called for the clerk to help and to have her scan the birthday item as well. Turned out the item HAD scanned in the very beginning so I called her back to remove the double charge. She did. 

Time was running short for the two mile walk back to my hotel so I could shower and get on the shuttle to go to the airport.  I thanked the clerk for her help and practically jogged to the hotel.

It wasn't until I was back in my room when I took the items out of the bag to pack them and put the sales slip into my wallet that I realized that even though the post cards had beeped, the price never registered.  THAT was the unknown object! 

It upset me that I had taken four post cards that hadn't been paid for-- and had even called the clerk over to help me. It was too late to go back.  And I never know when I might have the same layover again. 

I tried to rationalize that I had TRIED to pay for them; that it was just four little post cards; that it wasn't really stealing. And why didn't the clerk notice the discrepancy?

It bothered me a lot. So when I finished my assignment a couple of days later,  I made a trip to the Wal-Mart in Loveland.  

It so happened there was a looong line at the customer service desk which gave me plenty of time to play out the scene in my head with the clerk at the customer service desk.  How was THAT going to sound?  The machine beeped for each card but there was no price registered?   Kind of sounded lame.  I was almost tempted to leave without advancing to the front of the line. But I knew I would never be able to write someone a note on those postcards.

Not surprisingly the clerk had to call a supervisor to know how to handle the fact I wanted to pay for those post cards.

I heard the exchange on the two way radio. ... at first surprised silence.  Most people go to that department asking for money back.  I wanted to GIVE them money. 

Finally the supervisor told the clerk to thank me for my honesty but because the postcards were not in their system (they say Southern California, so I guess not. ..) There was no way to complete the transaction.  Just send me on my way WITH THE CARDS.  

Apparently this is going to be one of those stories Walmart employees might share in the break room.  Of no consequence to them. Just another looney customer.

But it was of consequence to me.  It bugged me to death until I got it taken care of.

Then after I sent that little recount to the teacher, I got thinking about some other questionables in my life.  My idea of myself as being honest didn't seem to parse with some of the other stuff I have done.

For example when I couldn't get Labor Day weekend off at United for the dates Harold and Brittany and their families had planned to come so we could all go to the Fort Collins Temple open house--and to add insult to injury I was assigned our yearly requalification on that Sunday and Monday of the holiday--I called scheduling and told them I was using my Family Medical Leave for the four-day block I was supposed to be on call for Reserve. 

Was that honest?  I was denied  WOP, DAT, and GWOP  all of which adds up to "without pay", "day at a time vacation", and "gone without pay".  Those are the only avenues I have to take time off.  If those requests are rejected, what do I do? 

I used to fly whether I had been denied the time off or not.  Now I just take what time I need if there is a conflict with the reasoning that family is more important.  And that's because I have missed out on a whole heck of a lot of events and activities in the past 16 years because I was so rigid. 

Now I'm wondering again....am I really honest or not?

IMPOSSIBLY AWESOME!

Britty was here visiting recently so we could attend the Fort Collins Temple open house as a family.  (Harold et al came, too.)  Our ward's extra Relief Society meeting (what DO we call that week night meeting now after years of "Enrichment" and other indistinguishable monikers?) was held one of the evenings she was here.  I didn't think she would want to go, so I didn't mention it.  But they had made an announcement while she was in RS--and I was in Primary--and she said she would like to check it out.  Our newly called Relief Society Meeting Coordinator is just younger than I am, and she does stuff "old school"  like really making some fun announcements about what's been planned for the evening.  When she came into Primary she brought a "fairy wand" and asked the kids if their mothers were ever grouchy.  "YES!"  So, she told them to have their moms come to RS for some activities that would help soothe them and make them happier.  That might have been what Britty heard, too.

The theme was about recognizing your individual uniqueness and embracing yourself in positive ways.  The activity was a demonstration of homemade spa items with which to pamper your tired self.  There was also going to be something about different ways to prepare zucchini.  That last part was UGH for me!  But I don't often have an opportunity to attend the monthly RS meeting at night, so off we went. 

It was a short meeting from lesson, through the demonstration of how to make your own hand cream and bath fragrances, until the tasting table with several different zucchini food items including soup--which Britty sampled and declared "pretty good", though she said she was still full from supper.  Then we spent the remainder of the time visiting--which is almost unheard of in Church anymore.  The extra plus--it was all over and we were home by       8:15 PM with samples of homemade soap whose fragrance filled the whole kitchen.

The lesson was a quickie about not letting your "miraculous abilities be overshadowed by the noise of your minor imperfections".  I think it was from some Mormon woman's blog, but there were some fun statements that are worth repeating:

Be--YOU--nique!

Be--YOU--tiful!

Be careful how you talk about yourself because YOU are listening.

And my personal favorite--Nothing is impossible.  The word itself says:  I'm Possible!

The sister that was teaching emphasized that sometimes we don't give ourselves credit for the small things we do that add up to our being AWESOME.  So, she went around the room and asked each of us to tell something that we had done that day which could be considered putting a drop into our AWESOME box.  

Britty and I were sitting on the front row...no time to think of anything special.  So, I blurted out that I went on a walk.  Later I thought that I could have at least said that while on the walk I had the full expanse of the heavens above me which were a glorious manifestation of God's handiwork.  The stars were visible AND spectacular that day before dawn for the first time in weeks because the irrigation around here keeps the sky kind of hazy in the mornings during the summer.  I could have said that I fed baby Pippa while Britty went on a run.  Too bad it wasn't one of the days I wrote a post card to someone. I could have said that.  Oh, well. 

But it did make me start to think again that sometimes I DO do a little here and there to fill my AWESOME box.

So.... I concluded

                 I'm-Possibly Awesome!