12-5-12

7:35am

I got about 2.5 pounds of potatoes cubed up and 

boiling in water with a little lemon juice in it.

The house is staying warm with the pot of

water boiling on the stove creating humidity.

  Then will drain and allow to cool

before putting on the dehydrator.

Here's a few odd shaped potatoes I found.

There's a heart and a glove, lol.

I turned the heat back to 69 at 7:30am.

We're supposed to have 42 degrees for a high today.

It's 35 and feels like 32 degrees outside at the moment.

Hoping not to have to run the furnace for most of the day.

Trying my darndest to lower my gas bill this Winter.

During the coldest months my gas bill can run

from $150 to $180 a month give or take

as I'm going by an average of the last 4 years

of living here.  The house is about 932 sq. ft.

of living space with a basement of the same

square footage that is not heated.

9:10pm

Potatoes are on the dehydrator and

I got started on icing the tool cookies I baked yesterday.

The icing is pretty much powdered sugar,

corn syrup and milk.  Plus food coloring if desired.

You  outline the cookie with the icing first

then fill the insides.  It will dry hard and shiny.

So far I have only gotten the gray icing done.

Another time I will do the handles of the tools

in other colors then will go back with 

black and outline everything.

3:00pm


It's 40 and feels like 34 degrees outside.
Still have not run the furnace today since 7:30am.
Here in the next hour and a half I'll be turning
on the oven to bake some homemade lasagna.
That should help keep it a little warm in here
as the sun goes down.  Then after supper sometime will
turn the furnace back up to 73 degrees for the night.
Right now the temperature in here is 70 degrees. 
Hoping for 10.5 hours today of not running the furnace.

I've been taking note of how long I go without running

the furnace each day to keep track of it.

I know it's boring to keep reading about but it's

for my own records to do the research of what

I am doing to cut the heat back and for how many hours

and I hope it shows on my gas bill.

November 27 through December 5th.

In 9 days time I have managed to keep the

furnace off for a total of 99 hours!

That totals up to be 4.1 days worth. 

So for 9 days I should of cut my heat bill

almost in half.   That's just for furnace heat though

and does not include hot water.

Hot water runs about $25 to $30 a month.

That's according to looking at my bills for

Summer months when we don't turn the furnace on.

4:45pm

Hubby got home early today.  They send them home

early sometimes so they won't have to pay them

any overtime :0(

We got the solar air heater all hooked up.

It was reading 105 degrees at 4:15pm

which I thought was still pretty good for 

the position of the sun on it while it was setting.

With it being up against the house I will only

get about 4.5 to almost 6 hours of sun from 11-11:30am til 4:15pm.

But now it will get more direct heat being

the duct is much more shorter and not 20 foot away from the house.

Here is the heat duct feeding into the house

from the solar box.

 After that me and hubby worked on a bucket
of metal to take to the scrap place tomorrow morning.
Then will do some Christmas shopping.

And I also got the wood furniture tore apart.
My hands were red and so cold!
I removed all the cushion covers.
For now I'm going to try and wash them 
and put them back on.  I know it's gonna be a
pain getting them back on.  Eventually 
I would like to recover them with a more
updated fabric.

While I like the durability of the wood
and all it's details I'm not fond of the walnut color.
Plus some areas are showing its age with
a little discoloration. I would like to paint
this whole furniture set in a satin black finish.
(That's sunlight hitting the side.  
The wood is not that faded!  LoL) 

I didn't like the fabric on the side arms and
was able to remove it.  Now only have some
staple like things to pull out.

6:30pm


Got one thing crossed off the Christmas list
for one of my sons.  That would have been a tough one
to buy or find if it had not been for Ebay!
Microsoft Train Simulator.

This game goes for $229 new!!!
YOWZA!!  I've fallen and I can't get up!  LOL
I found one on Ebay for $19.99 with free shipping
and it was a buy it now auction.
Snatched that sucker up in a heartbeat!
I can breather easier now.


11 hours with no furnace on today!
It's 33 outside and feels like 27 degrees.
The thermostat in the house is reading at 72 degrees.

Alrighty then, time for some acetaminophin
and maybe a hot shower.
Body's starting to hurt as usual this time of the day
that I can almost set my watch to it.


7:45pm


After my shower 
I baked some chocolate chip cookies
this evening for a snack for everyone.
I cheated with Pillsbury cookie dough.
They had it on sale for $1.67 a roll at Kroger
and I couldn't pass it up.  I'm a sucker for cookies,
especially warm ones straight from the oven!
Then I decided to make breakfast burritos
for the boys for the next couple of days.
They each have an egg, cheese, ranch dressing and
sausage links on them. 

Freebies I got this week...

In the mail I got a free box of Betty Crocker Au Gratin potatoes.

Then hubby found me a butcher block with knives
and a bottle of Suavitel fabric softener at work.

 December 1-7th is National Crohn's and Colitis Awareness Week.

Hubby tonight was telling me to slow down and
take it easy.  I was up running around trying
to do 100 things at once.
I was just happy to be able to do those things even
if it was housework, cooking, cleaning etc.
I know, how can one be happy doing those things?!

I got to thinking about 1 year ago at Christmas time.
Me and hubby went out Christmas shopping.
I felt like I was literally dying and don't know how I even had
the energy to go shopping for an entire day.
I wanted in and out of the stores as quickly as possible.
I was in extreme pain, could hardly walk, 
so tired I felt like I could have slept for days
and my body was so inflamed with constant throbbing.
I felt I was on my death bed!
I was really sick and looked like something a cat
would drag home.  I slept most of my days away.
I had constant diarrhea and by constant I mean for
like 6 months straight.  I had ended up in the emergency 
room last December for dehydration and hooked
up to  to an IV for several hours I was that bad.
I had very low potassium levels and they even did a cat scan.
No one knew what was wrong with me, not even my family doctor.
The hospital recommended me to a doctor who specializes
with the digestive tract of your body.
By January/February I was seeing a digestive doctor and having lots more intricate blood work
done, so intricate my blood had to be sent to California because that was the only place in the US that did that kind of blood work.  The blood work came back abnormal, another cat scan and a colonoscopy that showed many open sores in my upper intestine but mostly in my lower intestine and colon.
That is when I found out I had Crohn's Disease.
I was put on very expensive medicine that I have to take 
daily for the rest of my life.  It has helped to stop
the diarrhea so I would have little to no more bouts of dehydration.
There is nothing out there that cures this disease.
I do get what they call flare ups and that is when
I have times of sever pain and tiredness.
Maybe a couple days of diarrhea.
It could last a couple days to a couple weeks
then I would start to feel better again
only to have it flare up again a couple weeks later.
I started going downhill again even with my medicine
right before Summer
and got right into the digestive doctor's office
to get some other medicine in me to make the
stomach and body pain stop.  I wanted to do
nothing but sleep as well.  But I guess sleep
is best to rest the body when it is inflamed.
Even the temporary new medicine my doctor
gave me was making matters worse.
It was intensifying my stomach pain and making
me sick to my stomach.  He had to stop that
medication right away.  I eventually started to feel better
and this is the longest I have gone without a 
major flare up.  Sure I have daily pain and some
tiredness but I know how much worse it can be.
This is tolerable with some acetaminophin.
I don't like the idea of having to take a couple
doses of it on a daily basis but it's the only
pain medicine the doctor allows me to be on.
He doesn't or won't give me anything else.
It's probably for the best because I don't want
to be one of those people dependent upon them.
I don't like to take any medicine as it is
but will if it keeps me out of the hospital.
I try my best and the best is what I can do.
A major flare up could be lurking around the corner
and I wouldn't know it.  I try to get things done
and work my butt off around the house
for fear of having another one and being down and
out for days or weeks or even months.  So don't tell me to slow down because who knows when I may not be able
to pick myself up again and keep going.
My doctor told me during my last visit that 
I have a 50% chance in the next 10 years
of having my colon removed.
And it increases to 80% after that.
He said more than likely I would have to have it
done sooner or later.  I opt for later!
So for now, if I am able, I will try to do the things
I enjoy doing or even the things I don't.
At least for now I am capable of doing them.
People don't get better with Crohn's,
they only get worse.  Like I said there is no cure.
Crohn's is an immune disorder.  Your body
see good cells in the body as bad and will attack itself.  
With Crohn's your body has a hard time
absorbing vitamins and minerals from food.
So I thank God I am able to run around and 
do those 101 things that need to get done,
be able to bake cookies, make a solar heater,
supper, take care of the kids and hubby
and do whatever it is I please for the time being!! 
Because I might not be able to do it tomorrow!!