 Hey everybody. So we are on our way to urgent care. So I'm having some lower GI symptoms. We won't go into graphic detail more than that. I don't think it's anything serious, but my anxiety is off the chart this morning. I couldn't sleep last night. So we're going to go get it checked out. Welcome to January 9th, 1.17 pm. Happy Sunday. By the way, besides all of that, it is my sister's birthday and happy birthday Elizabeth. I love you so much. Anyway, we're going to go hurry up, get on the wait list and wait in the car. It might be an hour or more. I'll be back. Monday morning, January 10th, 8.46 am. Get excited. I've already looked. So I'm having some health challenges, I said that already. Lower digestive tract. I ended up not going to urgent care this morning after I thought about it. I thought better of it. They weren't super friendly over there to begin with and they wouldn't let me just be on the waiting list to get in because I thought I'd rather just go see my regular doctor's office anyway. So although my doctor's retired, I am seeing a new one this morning at the same office at 10 o'clock. I'm going to go work off some stress by going for a walk. It might rain a little bit, but that's okay. And yeah, pretty full. All right, I'll be back. Interesting observation about myself with you all. I used to be that person that dealt with everything in life. Good, bad, happy, sad with food, especially when things went wrong or sideways. The first thing I did was go eat all the junk food in the house. Only yesterday, I discovered that I was stressed because I'm having some possible health issues and I wasn't hungry. That's a first for me. Does that mean I really changed my mindset towards food and I eat to live rather than live to eat? God, I hope so. Cross your fingers. I mean, you know, anyway, the walk is doing me a lot of good. Art and reading yesterday also did a lot of good. And this is my sixth day without my knee brace. So that's also good, maybe? All right, that's it for the minute. I'm going to keep on my walk. I have a time schedule to keep so I can get to the doctors and all these Etsy sellers store info down below. I ordered these on New Year's Eve. They are some mini cross stitch kits that I can't really get over here, not easily anyway. She had some in her store so I ordered them. New Year's Eve, it is right now the 10th, Monday the 10th. That's quick. They came all the way from the United Kingdom. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Anyway, very quick with the postage and thank you to all the male carriers for getting it to be quick. So this is medical TMI. But you know, if something goes wrong with your medical health, go to the doctor. Don't ignore it and think it's going to go away. So I had a couple incidents recently where I found blood in my underwear. So I was pretty sure I probably knew what it was and that it wasn't really bad, but it stressed me out to the max, drove me over the edge. I stopped pretty much stopped eating yesterday until I could get to the doctor today. He's 98% confident internal hemorrhoids, but they do need to be treated and they do need to be taken care of. So I'm waiting for some lab work to come back and a call from the clinic that will do that. I might go ahead and see if they'll do a colonoscopy at the same time because I am due for one of those. And I have had polyps in the past so we might as well just bite the bullet and get it all done. A lot of things are preventable if you catch them early and why not just do that. So go see or don't be afraid to call your doctor. Get the medical attention you need and if you don't have insurance, see what you can do in the way of a free clinic or something like that. I'm sure there's a way where there's a will, there's a way to preserve this while you can for as long as possible because, you know, what's life if you aren't healthy and able to get around and do things and see the world and make art and enjoy life. Etsy shop is called Enchanted Needle and again I will put the link down below. My favorite mini cross-stitch kits are by a company called Mouseloft. Again I've mentioned it before they're a United Kingdom company and I love their Tiddlers. They're very small little cross-stitch kits. They take about maybe an hour if I take my time. They probably, I can do them less in time than that if I wanted. They're counted cross-stitch. They are 14 count ADA I think. Of course I don't have my glasses on but I think so which means they're a little bit small and I definitely need my reading glasses on but they have some cute designs. So I got this one and then I got this one and then I got these other ones which are a different, it's still Mouseloft. These are called Stitch Lips. They're a little bit different. Are they the same finished size? Let's see shown actual size. They're about the same size. I don't know why they're different. The designs are a little different I guess but I got this one and this one and this one. She has a lot of their designs on her shop. I will link it down below. If you want to do a screenshot there's her info right there. Don't focus on my face. Okay. Intanted needle. So she did a great job. She got him in the mail really quickly. Her postage wasn't too bad and yeah very very very pleased. All right that's it for the minute. I'll be back. It's just after 10 a.m. Tuesday January 11th. So this morning I got two of the three test results back and they are normal and negative which is good. The other one may take a few days but anyway I'm waiting for a call from the GI clinic to schedule my procedure. I'm hoping we can do it ASAP because one I'd like to get it over with. Two I have lots of like things scheduled but like do not have to cancel a whole bunch of stuff and you know three I mean I'd like to not have to go check things every five minutes if you get my drift. Anyway I am up here in the art room and just kind of trying to decide what project I'm going to work on. I might add a little bit more to the painting I posted on the socials last night which is this one. I do think I need to bring some of this blue down and maybe a little bit of these warmer colors up to make it look cohesive. At the very least the blue needs to come down I think. I don't know we'll see it is dry so I might try just a little bit of bringing the blue down and if I don't like it I can wipe it off with a baby wipe so anyway it'll give me something to do right well I'm waiting for the phone to ring rather than staring at the phone waiting for it to ring because that's not accomplishing anything all right I'll be back. I think I'm good with this now it was intended to be an abstracted moody seaside sunset painting and I think that's it I kept trying to add some of the warmer colors up I didn't like it I had a darker colors down like that better I really like the way it looks I'm going to leave it alone. The inspiration photos are these three here on the top and there my painting is not meant to duplicate those those are strictly inspirations so I'm actually going to take them down and I'm going to rearrange my bulletin board of inspiration photos move everything up and we're going to leave this alone and let it dry I very much doubt I'm going to add anything else to it what do you all think let me know down in the comments below I'll be back. I go out for a walk but I came out to that what's that what's going on so I guess we'll find out I don't know what that's about all about I'm waiting for the GI clinic to call still I did send a message to the doctor to see if I can get their name and number I'll just call them in case y'all didn't know I have the patience of a nat so I'd just rather get it taken care of like yes it's a good idea I'll be now I probably overshare my health journey but I want to share it with you to let you know when you're struggling with your own journey you're not alone we all go through this we don't get out of this life alive so it's a bumpy journey between birth and the end so you know we just have to make the best of it and I'm trying hard to do that and preserve this as long as possible I've got a 90-year expiration date goal minimum minimum so anyway all right I'll be back to the former HOA president they are fixing a few spots in the road on our street our street is a private street I know background noise I'm sorry um and they're fixing what they can they can't do all of it because of the weather but they're gonna do what they can now and the rest later so all right cool she's over there eating breakfast she's been over there a few times this morning looking for food so yeah I'm gonna scare her off in a minute because I better start the car I need to go get some stuff to prep for tomorrow's appointment anyway fun times yes I'm a nervous wreck so Bob Bob's gonna go with me in the morning I finally got an appointment it took like 48 hours to like get a GI appointment but yeah I got one um anyway we're gonna go get my supplies that I'm gonna need and then I need to take all my pajama pants in because holy cow um I noticed this morning when I got up out of bed and went to go grab coffee I didn't go too far my pants started falling down like so I'm gonna take all my pajama pants in I'm not gonna buy new ones I'm just gonna take them in but they're all way too big for me so that's the thing I've got two more BMI points to go down down before I am normal average BMI so that's a big improvement from where I was which was 32 I think and I'm currently 27.6 maybe something like that so 27.4 I don't know something like that just over 27 so I got at least two more points like two point whatever so anyway all right I feel bad to disturb her but I'm gonna go get done what I need to and I'll get to Wednesday January 12th in case I forgot to say and it's just after 10 o'clock I think in the morning I'll be back I took in all my pajama pants because they were all falling off I guess that's a good thing I just bought this shirt not long ago so anybody notice how big it's already looking on me holy cow um and the pants I have on are huge too everything's too big anyway all of the tests I had done were all negative and normal I just got the last one a few minutes ago they are forwarding their referral to the proper doctor's office for tomorrow morning's visit and I don't anticipate anything going sideways yeah of course you never know right um but right so anyway that's all of that I got um some I got the sewing done today I tried to do some other sewing I just wasn't concentrating so I put it down like you gotta know when to stop I think I'm gonna sit and do some drawing I'm gonna do today's doodles about laundry working and um get the drawing done so that I can that's the washing machine so that I can focus later on other stuff maybe start on another cross stitch although I'm not exactly in the right frame of mind for that so we'll see um we'll see but I'll probably do some drawing and or pick some images for my camera's photo roll to do some other drawing in my other journal um and yeah I guess take care of the laundry I'll be back we are out getting some steps in this evening burning off some stress and energy because you know hashtag hate the doctor I'm working off stress but I'm taking care of what I need to we have a doctor visit tomorrow hopefully that will be the last of it for a while and it'll get taken care of but the only reason I'm telling you any part of my journey is just to encourage you all to be better about taking care of yourselves don't ignore stuff when it comes up no matter how scared you might be we've all been there go to the doctor and get it checked out if you need a family or friend person like to go with you to hold your hand get that person to go with you but yeah just make it happen and make yourself better so anyway we're out working some stress off tonight because I don't think I'm gonna get enough a lot of sleep because I gotta go to the doctor tomorrow again not my favorite place to go anyway it's still morning I think it's 10 55 a.m. Thursday January 13th so we saw the GI doctor today he says it's nothing serious he doesn't see anything wrong if I experience any more symptoms of course let him know he gave me some treatments and we will get that taken care of he does recommend because of past history that I go ahead and have my colonoscopy which I'm not really due for until next year but have it done now so I've got that scheduled they are pushed out a little bit but unless somebody deems it an emergency situation I don't have to have it pushed up and done sooner so let's hope they don't call me I did have to change my annual physical appointment with my new primary care physician and that got pushed up all the way until next week so I'm going to see the doctor who saw me Monday and he's going to be my new primary care physician so we are going to see him on Tuesday at noon it's all good and now I'm going to take a shower because I haven't done that yet and then I need to repot a couple plants because I killed another succulent but this one's had a baby so we'll just transplant the baby anyway all right that's it for the minute I'll be back the gastroenterologist doctor's summary and he says and I quote I doubt anything sinister is going on good news he does say I need to eat more fiber and he and I both think that I was eating a certain kind of protein bar that maybe that was causing the problem he doesn't think that hemorrhoid procedures warranted and I'm going to avoid eating the foods that are bothering me aka that bar so anyway so yeah it's all good all right and I made this cute little gnome I'm going to post pictures of him later till social media it's just a little but me need to like make these for a while I just found random pattern shapes on the internet and combined a few different ones but they're very basic shapes so anyway isn't he cute anyway I'm like talking to the camera and it's not on there's a youtuber's name is Cara Brandon I think and she is doing a series of videos and has a hashtag and a facebook group sharing tips and ideas and guidance for cleaning your art room I know there's a lot of videos out there about reorganizing our room unlike a lot of the other ones that I've seen she's giving guidance on what to do and how to do it and sections to tackle a little bit at a time and while I think of my art room for the most part as fairly clean and organized for the most part I have pockets of things like that that start out organized and then get to be messy and I just need incentive to clean them out and that sort of thing so I'm probably going to tackle that at some point I know it's not as messy as some things and for the most part my art room is pretty clean but I enjoy watching how other people organize things it gives me inspiration so anyway check out her channel go like it and subscribe and search the hashtag here on youtube because you're going to find a bunch of videos on different people who are doing it including von Preston is her last name white Preston white and a bunch of other youtubers anyway names I'm new to and names I'm familiar with my plan is to go down the list and subscribe to probably all of them so anyway that's it for the minute I hung the painting up moody moody sees moody sees it's the one we just finished it's in the guest room where my dad sleeps I probably made a lot of noise the husband's on a conference call oops so it is right there you go right there I'm writing out a wall space anyway I'm going to go check the mail and stuff like that and I will be back hey guys so it is Friday morning January 14th I think 8 11 a.m that I know because I'm looking at the car clock provided the car clocks right I mean you know anyway feeling okay this morning eliminating the protein bar I was eating from my diet seems to have stall solved all the lower GI problems knock on fake wood so yeah anyway I am headed over to physical therapy this morning and then I've got to pick a few things up for dinner tonight Becca and Polyas are coming over to the four kids and Lily of course and we I know I'm not going to do all the grocery shopping but I need to pick up a couple of things now will I be able to do that at one store and then come home God knows I don't know what to expect we're hearing lots of stories of shortages at shops and things so I don't know what to expect but we'll find out and that'll give us a clue when we go to the majority of the grocery shopping this weekend because we don't have any idea what we're going to run into and it might take a couple more extra stores than it has become the norm in COVID to do so yeah anyway all right that's it for the minute I'll be back it is 8 40 a.m January 15th Saturday right yeah um yeah we've only had one cup of coffee we are headed out to a little car club get-together thing that happens once a week when the weather is permitting it's a yeah it's called cars and coffee and in Sherwood um Oregon it is foggy out and it is chilly but um it's only 30 I mean well the car says 37 you know it's so warm so hot anyway we're gonna go over and hang out with Becca and Polly is um and see what's up have a cup of coffee maybe a donut and then go grocery shopping so nothing too exciting I didn't film a lot yesterday um just because and I did make some gnomes and things yesterday um I started out using someone else's pattern and patterns and um looking at inspiration images and quickly developing a look of what how I wanted my gnomes to look which required me making my own pattern and my own way of sewing them together I didn't want any other video tutorials so I'm sure there's a million ways to do this but this is how I did it and um I'll put some pictures here I will be sharing the pattern in a video instructional tutorial but it's going to be on the patreon only youtube channel and the pattern will be over on patreon for them so if you want to see that and you want to see that you want the pattern go join patreon it's not too expensive and I do share like things like this often and you have your own private youtube channel so there's that all right we're going to go see some cool cars hopefully and have some coffee and I'll be back cars for cars and coffee at Langers in Sherwood I think it's almost every Saturday morning weather permitting and you have lots of cool new cars cool old cars people who just love cars yeah so it's a fun way to spend the morning have a cup of coffee with friends and yeah anyway so we're going to walk around and do that for a bit have some more of this and then I guess go grocery shopping I don't know how that's going to go I'll be back we had to go to two shops today to get everything we needed but only two so you know that's not bad we're gonna make substitution we did we had to make at least one substitution which is fine I guess I mean given COVID and everything I guess you know it's to be expected right now right anyway after that we came home we had some lunch and honestly we just been couch potatoes for a couple hours yeah we did our daily word brain puzzles and all of that but we haven't done much else so we're gonna go for a little bit of a walk down by some old rural properties that are down the street from us I'll take some video where I can because it's real pretty over there and um yeah just having a nice relaxing day which is nice change these are the kind of properties I'm talking about that are over here look at this one that's that's the garage the house is behind the trees over there like that's just the garage space all the lots are really big some of the houses have been fixed up already some haven't anyway I don't see any animals or wildlife just a random pumpkin interesting guys it is just after 10 p.m on Saturday 15th tomorrow is my dad's birthday everybody wish him happy birthday y'all are gonna ask me how old his dad um 83 I think maybe oh he's an old guy he's a cute sweet little old guy anyway it's been a roller coaster for ride lately as you all know if you're watching this come on stay okay here's your phone um but it's all good we're gonna just take it as it comes as it may one day at a time and you know the universe is constantly trying to teach us lessons about what we should be doing and not doing and this is just another lesson for me I need to be more mindful and take care of better care of myself and be mindful of what I'm eating that's a lesson here and make sure I get my preventative tests and procedures when I need to hang on all of that stuff so you know I don't like it it's not fun but who does like seriously anyway I'm putting bits and pieces away because I was downstairs making more gnomes and I filled a couple of bins from the supply closet but storage supply closet I know I'm done ask um up with some stuff so that I could do that downstairs I have an extra gnomed beard and I need to film a video for the patrons and supporters so I'm going to need this um they're going to get a copy of the pattern and how to video I don't know if I said that yet the yet on this clip I won't know until I edit but I know I posted it on social media earlier today so anyway and I did tell the patrons to support that so I got to get that done beginning of next week is going to be very busy for me because I got physical therapy I have finally have a new primary care physician so I've got a visit with him same doctor who helped me out the other day so it's just a lot of stuff a lot of stuff but we will get it done and then the back end of the week is all clear for me so yay whoa and the change in diet seems to have helped everything down there so we're all good um all right and I think that's it I hope you all had a good week I bring you on these nervous crazy journeys with me just so you can know that when you have bumps in your road you are not alone we all have them it happens to everybody and I'm squinting at the needles that my glasses on and they're not like the far away you're not alone when you have your bumps in the road everybody has them so all we can do is do what we need to to take care of ourselves make sure we have people around us to support us in that journey and that will help us do the right thing for ourselves and everyone around us anyway so that's it for this week next week I will be filming that video for the patrons and supporters and there's so many other things to do coming up I think we have another RT Trio video coming up I need my mood board from Bea Bea I need the mood board I'm going to take my dad to the airport next week that's going to be a very early morning trip but anyway that's in the next video everybody stay safe stay healthy stay creative don't forget to go out and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it you really do and I'll see you later bye guys