catching up

Well I finally found time to sit down and write a post to catch up on whats happening here. Its been kinda crazy here the last couple of weeks. Things are finally starting to return to normal around here.

First of all we had a bad storm here Thursday nite Feb 25. The winds were horrible and toppled lots of trees in our neighborhood causing us to lose power. Also we had some flooding in our town due to all the rain and snow. When we awoke on Friday morning it looked like a tornado had hit. We were fortunate that we did not have any damage to our house but some neighbors were not as lucky. Our only misfortune was that when we went to hook up our generator it would not work. Now here's the thing, last year with the huge ice storm we had here we were without power for 7 days and it was freezing cold temps outside and my family was visiting from Alabama at the time. We have a gas fire log heater in our family room so we were able to keep warm as long as we all stayed in there with the door shut but otherwise it was cold. So to say the least that was not fun with all of us trying to camp out in there in order to stay warm. At the time of all of this there were no generators within 300 miles of us to be had. So shortly after that storm we purchased a generator. We had our electrician come to hook it all up to the gen tran system that was already in place here and we thought we were all set. Until....Friday morning after the bad storm. We went to hook it up because from the looks of the damage in our area we were going to be out of power for awhile and when we turned it on it did not work. The generator itself ran but the power kept going off and on in the house. So we placed a call to our electrician who had helped us get it hooked up before and told him what was happening he stated that he would be coming to check it out shortly but it sounded like it was a bad generator. Well after hanging up I started to panic and get very angry because as always our one year warranty on it had ran out in Jan. Talk about pissed off... that I was. Well thankfully he arrived about 1 1/2 hours later and found the problem to be a short in the gen tran box and fixed it quickly and had us up and running. Got my blood pressure up for no reason. This baby became a life saver for us all since we were without power for 6 days. Our friends that live in the area came to stay with us for couple of nights with there dog and another friend of ours were out of town on a ski trip and had left their dog with some people who also lost power and had to go to a hotel so we ended taking in there dog as well (she's a sweetheart and no trouble at all).

Here are some pics from the storm:
This past week our good friend lost her mother to cancer. She had been battling cancer of the lung and brain for a little over a year now. She was a sweetheart. Such a kind, caring, loving person. She helped so many people and touched so many lives. I have fond memories of her stopping by our house when she would be out for one of her morning drives we her sister that she took care of for a long time that had Alzheimer's disease. She would be driving by our house and would see me outside with the dogs and stop by to say hello. Sophie our dog just loved it and would always jump into the car right onto her sisters lap and start to give her kisses which she always loved. We attended her wake and memorial services this past weekend. Goodbye Betsy you will be missed.

Hopefully I will be starting Ivf in May if all works out as far as insurance goes. The weight loss has gone well a total of 32 pounds since Dec 22. I am very proud of myself for this accomplishment and with the healthier diet and proper nutrition I am feeling much better. I will continue it and hopefully lose lots more weight before May. I really want to to be healthy for the pregnancy.

We are going on a much needed vacation soon. Warmer weather and some relaxation time is well needed right now. Can't wait.

random thoughts

I finally got a day off today after working 6 days in a row. We had our annual training classes last week and I was off my schedule all week due to this. Getting up at 5:15 am every morning is hard when you have worked evening for so many years. It has totally threw my body off schedule. So today I am happy to be off and enjoy my day at home to clean, rest, and to catch up with blogging.

I see that the DC area got blasted with snow this weekend...wow 3 feet. Thats insane esp for that area. I cant believe we have not had much snow here. I think we are suppose to get a storm on Wed.

In other news, I was talking to my friend A last week and he was pretty upset. For the past few years he has been living in the USA from Denmark on a student visa. While here he met G and they became a couple and have been together now 7 years. Well the delimea with this is that A and G are a gay couple and since the federal gov does not recognize gay marriage then A has no rights to be able to stay here in this country once his student visa expires. Now A's whole plan, as instructed by a imigration lawyer was to get a degree in healthcare so that when he finished he would be able to remain here on a work visa since healthcare has a shortage and most likely would be able to employ him in that area. Well A completed a degree as a xray technologist a year ago and was told that he would not be able to get employment in that area since the economy had turned bad and the fact that the xray tech field had become saturated since he had completed his degree. So he went back to talk to the imigration lawyer and some large hospitals in the Boston area to find out what his options are now and what would be best for him. They told him his best option would be nursing...so he started school to get a BSN degree. Well he is in his 2nd year of the 3 year program and he talked to the imigration lawyer the other day and he said his hopes for him to get a job in nursing is slim due to the economy and the fact that no one is hiring right now and when they start hiring again there will not be a need in the country for imigrants to come work since there will not be a shortage of nurses here. He advised him to start looking at other options from him and G so that they can remain together but not here in the USA. So he basically has to start looking to leave here and for them to go live in Canada or back to Denmark. It makes him very upset at the fact that he has to leave a country that he has made a home in and loves because he is gay and that is what it all comes down to. I am sad for him and G because I see how much they love one another and how they have made a life and home together here and the fact that it is not fair. We can only hope that in the year or two that he has left here that things change and DOMA is overturned so that he can possibly stay. Its been a long road of fighting for our rights as gay people and things are starting to turn around but we still have a long way to go. Obama did speak about these issues briefly in his state of the union address so we can only hope that some things change while he is in office.

Congrats to Teaberry and her partner Julie on the birth of their new son Lucas. He is a cutie.

I feel like I am really starting to get the winter blues. I need to re-focus and to start some new projects to keep me busy this winter. We have been planning to get out more and do some snowshoeing on the trails around here but is has been really cold on the days that we were available to go. I want to start some new scrapbooking projects and to get most of cd's downloaded onto my ipod. Keeping busy is the best way for me to fight off the winter blues.

We have a vacation planned in April to get away to some warm weather. We will be heading down to AL to meet up with my parents, then we will all be heading to Myrtle Beach, SC to stay for a week. Can't wait for this. It should break up the winter a little bit since April can still be very unpredictable here in NH.

This weekend J's mom is coming up to visit. We plan to celebrate her birthday Sat by taking her to dinner and a movie. Sunday we hope to do some snowshoeing and to enjoy the day together since it is valentines.