The first "real" Monday

I don't teach Health of any biological sciences, BUT.....

I DEFINITELY can tell you where my "turbinates" are; as mine are quite painful and touchy from my day of nose-blowing yesterday. I think they are talking directly to the upper-middle of my brain too! My head has hurt all day; my nose continued giving me the daily sniffles; and I tried NOT to blow my nose as much as possible because I didn't think my head could take any more pressure!!!!!!! My students pointed out that I looked "under the weather;" my voice was "tired" .... and I can only guess that I sounded as stuffy as my head felt all day.

Yeah....exactly! Now imagine some water in that bubble, .....yup! That's the ticket! Exactly how my hearing came across today.

Despite, the day merried its way along without much of a hitch; classes were fine; students were okay; and my work-load was tolerable.

Homefront: I even have the laundry under way, dishes done, counters cleaned, supper made, homework completed, girls to bed, .... and feet up with a cup of "Sleepy Time" tea. Yum! Main ingredient: speariment, with no caffeine.

UGH! I NEEEEEED to sleep better tonight! After another 90 degree day, and 82!!!! in my classroom. Yeah, I suppose that didn't really help my mood today. I caved and turned the AC on when we got home; Paul wasn't too keen on that move (since it's supposed to plummet to 50/60s tomorrow--gotta love crazy weather patterns!), BUT.... I have faith that the AC will allow me to sleep better tonight! No windows open to let in any NASTY NASTY pollen!

I REALLLLLLLLY wanted to work on Blue-n-Gold Pride, just like I realllllly should have gotten out to run 4-5 miles tonight. Psht! I'm riding this sinus head business out; but no excuses tomorrow! I MUST run!

Design Wall - Rolling Star make way for Smith Mountain Morning!

For reasons not completely known, I simply could NOT sleep last night!!! It took forever for me to finally fall asleep (1:00 maybe????), and then toss-n-turn-n-toss-n-turn......by 3:30, I gave up and just got up!!!! I had a Diet Mt. Dew with dinner; that may have caused it since I haven't had a Dew in a while. ??? I also took an allergy pill last night around 8:00, which isn't the norm for me. My ragweed allergy started acting up on Friday....**sigh**....due to the lateness of EVERYTHING this year, when my allergies didn't show up at the normal time (usually 2nd week in August), I ALMOST had myself convinced that I was magically CURED!!!!! :\ Oh well.

Paul was outside for most of the day mowing weeds; I think that stirred up the pollen something fierce (AND we had the windows open enjoying the GORGEOUS!!!! August Wisconsin weather!!!!). So, I was getting pretty miserable as the day went on.

My actual theory for my sleeplessness is that it's a combination of the meds AND the Dew. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Regardless....I was UP at 3:30 AM. Watching news. Reading emails and blogs. By 5:00, I was ready to start something, but I didn't dare start up the machine for fear of waking Paul. And I didn't feel like loading a quilt to the frame. So....I surfed some more until Paul woke at 6:00.

At 6:00AM, I was piecing away and finished up the sixteen blue star blocks for Smith Mountain Morning. I am absolutely in love with all these fabrics from the swap; and blue-n-brown are SPECTACULAR together!!! And I think it goes without saying.....coffee is STILL a must despite having been awake for nearly 3 hours!

My Rolling Star blocks have been on the design wall for toooooo long. Let's face it; they ain't gonna see any progress any time soon; not with Smith Mountain Morning and Jamestown Landing in the works!!! Therefore.....they were neatly stacked and set aside on the shelf for NEXT year's UFO challenge!! LOL.....oh goodness! I haven't done too well on the UFO challenge this year :]

Next came trimming up the hourglass units.

And then an hour of cutting the log units for the final 28 blocks. I can't wait to tackle these nicely organized piles, but I need to be patient a little while longer. Hopefully SOON, all these blocks and units will take over the design wall!

Today has a POSSIBLE full schedule even though it's still really loose. Candace and Caitlyn need to shower with me this morning. I can't even THINK of when the last time was they had a REAL bath/shower and not just lake water or "showers" from the sprinkler. Ick, right????
Then we need to do some errands; (pick up Cassie's glasses, order a pair for myself; small grocery supply list).
We have a lunch date scheduled with my former volleyball captain and her parents. What a sweet lil' gal!! She's receiving Transitions as her belated graduation gift, and as a "good luck in college" gift.

Finally, I hope to tackle all the school shopping today! THREE girls this year and not just two. Hmmm.....can I handle all of them at the same time? School supplies are one thing.....but clothes?!?! Oh, I don't know if I have the strength!!! Specially after a night of little sleep.

Happy Monday!

M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E -!-!-!

How invincible does one think she can be? I mean, come on, how can one tiny little plant defeat the strong, mindful (senseless) individual that suffers from allergies only ONE time a year. Having never been diagnosed with exactly which allergen is the culprit, docs and I have narrowed it down to "Common Ragweed," which comes into "bloom" in late summer (aka: usually mid-August thru early October once the first freeze comes).

The journey of allergy symptoms started around Monday this week with just a little itchy eye---nothing serious. Having been outside running on and off all week, with very little allergy problems, I figured I was "okay" to mow a little of the lawn yesterday. After an hour, and only a little sneezing while on the mower, I finished up the section I had set out to mow (mainly the front part with the girls' play area, and along the driveway). I then headed back inside to see how supper plans were coming (DH was making meatloaf and mashed potatoes). AND then....

BAM! Onslaught!!!!
Itchy eyes-----and I'm talking "can't-stop-itching-long-enough-to-see-what-food-is-going-into-my-mouth." I'm talking "running-to-the-bathroom-grabbing-a-cold-wash-cloth-inbetween-men's-marathon-commercials-and-peeking-at-the-race-every-few-seconds-because-I-don't-want-to-remove-the-cooling-refreshing-cloth-from-my-eyes." I'm talking "watery-eyes-making-it-look-like-I-was-watching-the-end-of-"Titanic"-when-Jack-disappears-under-the-water-and-Rose-is-repeating-"I'll-never-let-you-go,-Jack" I'm talking "runny-nose-taking-over-control--using-up-an-entire-kleenex-box-within-an-hour."

And the next morning???? I'm talking "matted-eyes-and-caked-nose-from-continued-onslaught-during-a-toss-n-turn-packed-night-of-attempted-sleep!"

Oh, did I fail to say that that one tiny little plant has now completely taken over our entire lawn?!?!?!?---ONLY now knowing this because I've done a google for what it looks like! Seriously, there was a HUGE batch of it along the edge of our driveway----I remember distinctly because I thought..."hmmm....weeds have really taken over here and I don't remember seeing this weed before." DUH!!!!!!!!

Upon googling the weed, I came across another fellow who clearly suffers from the same allergen. Steven's post from last season says it all.....

OK, the rain has finally fallen in Lees Summit, settling enough of the ragweed pollen to allow me to emerge from my Benadryl induced coma to resume writing on my blogs.

And I'm here to say the first presidential candidate that promises me to wipe Ragweed from the face of the earth, and means it, will have my vote. Even if it is Ron Paul or even Hillary Clinton. I'll even volunteer to pay my share of increased taxes to see it happen.

I know it's not PC to advocate the total destruction of a poor defenseless plant, but I say ragweed is far from defenseless, if it was defenseless it would have been wiped out long ago.

No, I'm not alone in my suffering, Millions of people, everywhere suffer from it's form of biological warfare, and I think that it gets worse each and every year. I dare a single environmentalists to do an ecological study and tell me what possible good ragweed does for humans, animals or even other plants.

I say we create a genetically engineered bug that will feed exclusively on ragweed plant, then release it to devastate the earths ragweed population. Once ragweed is wiped out, think of how much money will stop flowing into the coffers of the evil drug companies, doctors and klennex manufactures.

Thats right, destroying ragweed will save trees, far fewer klennex, maybe even help save the world from Global Warming. If we can cure cancer we can wipe out ragweed and end its biological war on us poor semi-defenseless humans.

Sorry everyone---I really only wanted to put in a key paragraph of his post, but I couldn't pick just one little bit. And if anyone else suffers from this ANNOYING, TROUBLESOME, BLASTED plant, then I'm sure you share mine (and Steven's) opinion!!


One final thought
Dare I say that DH warned me before hand????? As if I'm not suffering enough now, but he had to rub it in with "I told you so!."
*sigh* *grin*
I guess he's allowed to be right at least once a year :0)