I cannot believe I have not posted a blog since January 1. That is just unacceptable! hmmm…. what has happened in the last month? Let’s see…. Well? The company I have worked for, for 20+ years was purchased (finally!) and I am now changing over to this new company. I am starting a new job in a of couple weeks. Trust me, there has been a lot of stress working up to these days. That’s one MAJOR change. What else? Oh yeah, I started my Level II Pain Program at Kaiser… that’s another MAJOR change. That alone is a whole other blog! What else? Oh, I went to the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) Show  in Anaheim for five days. You heard me right… FIVE DAYS! What else did I do in this past month… I also worked on two memorial collages and oh yeah I’m still working full-time and dealing with this wonderful condition we love to call FMS. So, I guess I will give myself a break now that I see all that in writing, and say January was a pretty busy month, and I’ll do better in February to blog more.

I have been meaning to tell all of you how much joy scrapbooking has brought me in the past month. Even if I haven’t made pages for myself, just working with the paper and being around friends has ensured I don’t fall into that January funk so many of us hit after the holidays and in the foul weather. This is usually a very difficult month for me. I started with working on a memorial collage. It was very sad as a young girl had passed away that the collage was for. I am finding that although the passing is extremely said, I have found that these scrapbook albums are so treasured after they are viewed at the memorial service on the collage boards, it is a true gift to be able to design the pages and put the pictures and paper together to create the life stories people will tell as they remember their loved one. I feel blessed to do this for people. This young girl Chloe was only four years-old when she passed and in her young life, looking at her pictures was not easy as we made the pages – yet I knew when her family saw the collage at the service and received the album afterward… they would treasure it forever. Truly a gift that I felt honored to be a part of giving.

Attending CHA right after finishing that collage was a refreshing change from my day to day job and nice to get away from home with the girls. We drove down to southern California and spent those days cruising the booths, looking at and testing the new products, we took some classes and a couple of us won the Making Memories Slice die cut machine! I can tell you… I was dead by the end of day 1, by day 2 I opted out of my first class, by day 3 I had a burst of energy until later that evening. Day 4 was a very painful day and Day 5 was a good time to start on our way home. It was a great trip! I did pace myself okay, but it was hard and very frustrating at times. I missed a lot because I just could not get around or had no energy left. I kept a warming pad in the bed and I always went to sleep with my “deep sleep” app on my headphones so I would go to sleep without distraction. In addition, lots of breathing exercises and I walked with my cane. I understand, there’s always next year! CHA L.A…. Here we come!!

Back home I worked on another memorial collage, which was very relaxing hanging with my friends and just putting my heart into the pages. This time it was for an older woman who had certainly changed the world because she was a teacher in so many ways… of young children in the classroom, of people in her kitchen with cooking classes, of people in her determination to get the word out about GIST, of young children on trips to Washington DC… she traveled the world… you could see through the eyes of the pictures what a life she had. Again a blessing to be able to help in this gift to her family.

My work life is changing and I am both scared and excited for this change. I know that it’s time, just need to get my heard around it a bit more. Is this the change that God wants for me? So many questions in my head right now. There’s so much stress at work with people confused and unsure of what is happening to them. I just want to fix everything and help people, but in most cases, it’s just a matter of patiently waiting things out. Patience and ME have never really been the best of friends… When I get stressed I try to do some breathing exercises to just get my head focused. This helps to calm myself so I don’t increase my pain levels.

As you can see, doesn’t matter whether my body is working or not … the world continues to move on and I need to keep moving with it! Working to stay positive and finding things that are relaxing and help to keep the stress down are what work to keep my pain levels down. This is what is important to me.

Just thought I’d share some of my activities with you… I hope you are all having pain free days!

Thank you for reading! Stay Cool!!