Country livin'

I've been out here in the country for a week and it feels like a month. I've left the house maybe three times since I got here but only because I just want to make sure that mom is OK. She is doing a lot better and recovering well. What can I say, I'm a good nurse. lol. Actually, my grandma is here also so there is not much for me to do besides a little cleaning if that.

I love it out here. I love that I have time to meditate, more importantly I cherish the "me" time (and the family time). It's weird how the pace out in the country is so different from the city. Time stands still, minutes seem like hours. It's very peaceful and you can actually take time to appreciate the beauty of it. As beautiful as it is, it has it's downfalls. My allergies and sinuses are acting up out here and my head feels so stuffy, all I wanna do is sleep. Mom takes her medication and takes a nap, I lay on the couch outside her room rolled up in a warm blanket and nap too then wake up feeling hungover because I've slept too much lol.

Mom has been getting around with a walker because her hip is still in a lot of pain. She let her dog out this morning (Troy was too comfortable behind my legs to wanna go out) and Roper, the outside dog, took her into the woods. I woke up to mom calling out to her dog. I didn't sleep much through the night and woke up very groggy to "You better get back here Mitzy". I let her yell for a couple minutes (What? I was sleepy), but as comical as it was, I had to get my lazy ass up and go look for her damn dog. I threw on my jacket and my moms crocks (No I didn't realize how cold it was. It was freezing, literally. Ice covered the ground; every leaf, twig, rock, sprig of grass was covered. The ice crunched as I scuffled through the woods half asleep. My face was so cold I couldn't even feel my nose running and double checked a few times to make sure I didn't have icicles hanging. My hands and feet were tingling too. After about twenty minutes of hollering and no dogs, I turned around and went back home, I figured they went to woods on the left side (I went to the right). I wish I had my camera at the time to capture the beauty of the morning light shining through the branches. The ice sparkled like tiny diamonds. The frost (not snow) thinly covered everything all around me. Perhaps it was because I was still half asleep, but I wanted to twirl around as the light glimmered on my face while the leaves fall down all around me. That only happens in the movies lol, and the cold air stinging my face brought me back to reality. I returned to the warmth and comfort of my home. I wanted to crawl into bed and snuggle with a warm blanket. That didn't happen.

I went into the woods yesterday and took some nice pictures. Just imagine what they would have looked like today. Well, this week is supposed to be extremely cold. I think I heard wind chill was supposed to be like 5 degrees. Maybe We'll actually get snow, that is after all, what I have been waiting for.

Flower/weed

Mushrooms on a log

Wild berries

Happy trails

The light shining through and onto the creek

Lost in the Wilderness

So I've been M.I.A. lately. I've seriously had thousands of ideas for new blogs only I've been SUPER lazy. If I hadn't updated y'all yet, I was re accepted back into the nursing program (For those that don't know, I should have graduated in October but i failed my last class with a 74 ;( and had to wait out a semester) Hopefully by the end of spring semester I will be Cyn, R.N. The holidays were great. This was the first year in a long time that I was able to spend the Christmas with both parents (not together, they're divorced, but saw them both on the same day) It was nice especially because dad's birthday is on Christmas day even though he gets really grouchy. Mom was kinda out of it when I saw her, she had to pop some pain killers due to her degenerative spine disease in C-5, C-6, and C-7 vertebrae, which has now been corrected with ACD (Anterior Cervical Discectomy surgery. In a nutshell, they removed bone from her right iliac crest (hip bone), an incision was made on her throat to gain access to the anterior (front) of the spine, moved everything aside, inserted the bone fragments into the spine to relieve severe pain and pressure, then fused with a titanium plate. Check out the link to see a quick clip of the procedure (No, that is not mom). The surgery was on Wednesday, mom was released yesterday and is now at home recovering. AMEN!!! I was literally two seconds away from an anxiety attack till we got an update from the doc saying mom was fine and on her way up to recovery. My heart was pounding and skipping beats, my hands were shaking, and I was very nauseated, I hated thinking that something might go wrong but for some reason those thoughts just popped into my head, I'm guessing it's because the last time I was at the hospital, my grammy passed away. I'm not quite sure if she'll be able to move her head back since I didn't get to talk to the doctor (all the arrangements were made with out me here so no body was able to be advocate for mom). She is in a lot of pain but being tough and walking around using a walker.

So while mom recovers and I nurse her back to health, I get to enjoy my mini vacay here at the ranch. I love coming out here. I guess you can say I'm recovering too, I have had a seriously stressful couple of months. I get to enjoy beautiful sunsets, walk the woods (which I haven't taken pictures of yet, but once I do I'll post em), and just be surrounded by my loving family. I especially miss grandpa, I haven't left him since grams passed away but my Aunt Faith is there at home with him. I miss her too! I usually leave Troy (my dog) with grandpa when I go out of town but he had a seizure the day before I left, I decided to take him with me since I was going to be gone for about three weeks. He loves it out here too, he has the freedom to run around, experience new sights, sounds, and smells. The day after mom's surgery my step dad took him out and their dog Roper took him out into the woods and left him. My step dad spent two hours looking for him. Thank God he was found! After Noah, my Maltese, disappeared I was heart broken, I don't know what I would have done if Troy was lost too.

The only thing that sucks about the area is my cell phone doesn't get reception unless I stand in one of a few spots in the house for a long time or we're in town, which is about 15 minutes away. I haven't really talked to "manfriend" much since I've been out here but he understands, and he has got some stuff of his own going on. So I actually kinda opened up to him about my feelings (I didn't exactly say the "L" word) which is completely out of character for me, at the same time I start to wonder if perhaps I said too much. I meant to say what I said, so no regrets. I just often wonder if I'm only fooling myself that we could actually be happy together since things are kind of complicated. AND NO HE IS NOT MARRIED OR WITH ANOTHER WOMAN (At least not that I know of HA! lol JK)! GEEZ! lol.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot it's officially the new year! HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful celebration. I passed out at 8:30 pm since I only got a couple hours of sleep at the hospital and the recliner was very uncomfortable. So no tequila shots or goblet of wine for me, but there was no where else I'd rather be. I have a couple new year's resolutions I think I wanna try. One of them of course is a healthy life style change. I freakin' say that every year and never go through with it. BUT I REALLY WANNA DO IT! I guess I just really want to re-evaluate my life and see what other changes I need to make. I just really want to be happy! I don't think that is too much to ask for. I think I deserve it.

OK, I guess that's it for now. I'll leave you with some beautiful pics of the ranch! Enjoy!