Christmas snow

This is the first time we had snow on Christmas since we moved here more than 20 years ago.  It's been 17 years since there has been snow on Christmas anywhere in Georgia and that was probably in the north Georgia mountains.  My poor roses still have buds on them.  I think maybe they are a little confused.  I wanted to post these yesterday, however I spent most of my day in the ER.  I guess I have been pushing too much and my knee swelled up and hurt BIG time.  The doctor had told me to have my knee checked whenever the pain was different or much worse so down to the ER I went.  No breaks, a big worry with the vitamin D deficiency, nothing wrong with the implant, just lots of fluid on my knee for unknown reasons.  Tomorrow I go to the orthopedist and see if he has any reasons or suggestions to stop this from happening again.  Oh well.  The snow has kept Laura from coming down from Virginia, but she and the boys will be here tomorrow.  Hooray, I' looking forward to having more family around.  I thought it was kind of neat to have snow on Christmas, where we lived before we moved here the kids went Trick-or-Treating in the snow and it was usually knee high by Thanksgiving.  Sometimes I miss it, but the snow on Christmas night with the streets for the most part clear the next morning was almost perfect, kind of magical.

 Enjoy  Johnina  ☺☺☺☺

Happy Holidays 2010

Happy Holidays

Enjoy Your Day!

Johnina ☺☺☺

Dreams

“Dreams are like the paints of a great artist. Your dreams are your paints, the world is your canvas. Believing, is the brush that converts your dreams into a masterpiece of reality.”

Last nights full moon as it painted the sky.

 Johnina ☺☺☺

Love and Happiness

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

 Herman Cain quotes (American business man, author and speaker)

 I love my hobby of photography and it does bring great happiness into my life.  I feel like I have made great strides in the quality of my photos which does indeed lift my spirits and brings me joy and someday maybe I can have enough success to turn it into a business.  But even if the business never materializes the joy is still there.

Johnina :^A

Fear of melting

When the kids were little and didn't want to go out in the rain or have me go out into the rain, I would tell them that the last time I looked I was not the wicked witch of the west so I wouldn't melt.  This past week I'm not so sure and since it has been cold and kind of rainy outside it has only made it worse.  CRANKY, CRANKY, CRANKY.  I just want to be just plain nasty to the world;  I'm seeing the injustices instead of the beauty and I am incredibly tense from holding back my tongue.  Apparently I am doing a good job of keeping up a good front because Tom said he hadn't noticed any change in my behavior, but it is making me feel like I could just explode from frustration.  I haven't felt this way in a long time and this intensity of negative feelings have usually come from medications.

I think however this is from cleaning out my system and all that medicine that got stored is coming out.  In searching for the reason for the calcium deposits in my muscles, it was discovered that I have aluminum poisoning and I was put on a detox regime.  I have found in the past when I lost a lot of weight quickly that I would get the side effects of some of the meds I had taken in the past even if I was no longer taking the medicine.  The doctors supposed that I was releasing some meds stored in the fat; there is no proof of that but that's what they suppose is happening.  Unfortunately one of the side effects is seizures and like most people who have seizures they wipe me out completely for a day or two and then have to recoup for another day or two.  The detox has done this to me too.  I'm working with the neurologist in knowing how to handle this and when I need the ER.  Now the commercials for this medicine have a warning about the muscle tremors, seizures and anxiety attacks, but when I took it there was no such warnings.  I was treated as having purely psychological problems as the effects got worse and worse, until I saw this neurologist who recognized it as a drug reaction and took me off the medicine.  Fortunately the seizures stopped and only appear now when I lose weight or detox.  For some the seizures become permanent. 
The anxiety attacks have become bad enough that even if Tom has not noticed Rascal has.  I can't take pictures while walking him; he is skittish and pulls on the leash, no more walking nice and waiting for me to take a picture.  This does not help with the crankiness as I am missing a lot of cool pics AND getting my arm jerked on.  So for now I am Wicked Witch of the West and I have to watch so I don't melt.

I have found with my multiple medical problems and one of the reasons for the multiple medical problems is that there is no such thing as a medicine without side effects.  The fact that the medicine works is a 'side effect' and quite often new medicine breakthroughs come about because in studies 'side effects' show up with such regularity that the medicine gets used and marketed for the 'side effects' and not the original intention.  Right now even though I am suffering from the meds I know that sometimes they are necessary and are worth the trade-off in fact some of my meds keep me alive.  I have one medicine that if I go without it for about 24 hours, I will die.  Not feel so bad I feel like dying; I mean dead as in put me in a coffin and bury me six feet under dead.
I am doing my best to keep up my spirits and the seizures seem to be subsiding so I'm back at least a little bit and so here is a sample of my last zen-doodle that I did to chill out.
Enjoy  Johnina  ☺☺☺☺

Good Morning ☺☺☺

Good morning to you,

Good morning to you,

Good morning to everyone

Good morning to you! 

 “Remember today, for it is the beginning of always. Today marks the start of a brave new future filled with all your dreams can hold. Think truly to the future and make those dreams come true.”

Winds of Change 2

I redid the video, I had a hard time downloading last time.  It took forever and when it it did download it was so much more fuzzy than what I started with.  My signature was even fuzzy and even though my photos may not have been tack sharp due to my learning to use my new camera there was no reason for the signature to be fuzzy.  I also realized that it would be so much better with more photos so yesterday morning; another bright sunny cold morning I took more pictures and edited them.  I had a lot of fun editing them doing both standard edits and art edits.  I hope you will take another look as it almost a completely different video.  I am learning.

ENJOY☺☺☺

Johnina  :^A

~~~Sorry still fuzzy from download-any suggestions~~~

Winds of Change

I got up this morning and when I went out it was a beautiful, bright, sunny but cold day.  The frost was thick on the ground but where the sun had hit the ground the frost had already melted.  So wonderful with the sparkling frost and the still bright colors of the leaves.  However the temperature sure let me know that change was in the air.  Winter is on the way.
All the photos on the video were taken this morning using my new camera.  A couple of weeks ago my camera broke again and I had to take it in to have it fixed and a plug for Best Buy, since I had insurance and it had been fixed 3 times already; they replaced it.  Since Nikon no longer makes my old camera and they did not have a comparable camera they gave me what I paid not what it was worth toward a new camera.  Since it was Black Friday weekend they had really good deals and I was able  to upgrade big time for only $20.  I was so excited to try it out.  I haven't quite got all my photos tack sharp, but I'm learning.
The music I used on the video is from the album 'Return of the Gaurdians' by David Arkenstone.  I really enjoy his music and have 4 of his albums.  Apparently lots of people like his music.  He has been around at least 15 years and has 169 listings on Amazon.

I haven't done very many videos and I hope you enjoy it.  Most of it was done in the Doctors office today as I was having my neurological tests done on my hands.  No good news there; just what the Doctor expected.  Sigh!  Anyway ENJOY   Johnina  :^A