Sometimes I Want to Cry

Sometimes I want to  cry. I cried  for Tia Coleman, who lost nine of her family members including her husband and all her children in the duck boat accident. I cried for the teenaged girl whose grandmother died while saving her .  I cried for a sweet young lady nicknamed Bunny who is struggling with depression and anxiety. I cry for lost souls and for people who criticize us Christian wives for wanting to be our husband's greatest encourager. They somehow think we approve of bad behavior from our husbands which is simply not true.  I cry because my pain medication doesn't seem to be working.

But I cry happy tears too. Like when the newest baby at our church was born a few days ago. Or when a friend has finished her last chemo treatment for breast cancer.

Prayer requests: Pray for Tia Coleman and all the other suvivors of the duck boat accident. Pray that they will seek the Lord through this terrible tragedy.

Pray for Bunny as she struggles with her faith and that she will be encouraged and strengthened.

Pray that I can get an earlier  doctor appointment. The earliest I can be seen by the rheumatologist is August 27th. I'm planning on asking my primary doctor for either a different pain medication or a stronger strength of the gabapentin. Some of the more bothersome side affects like crankiness have subsided.

I was looking at some of my old labs  results from CA online last week and was rather surprised to see that I have tbeen testing positive for lupus since 2008 ANA levels are what is used to check for lupus and each lab report was positive. This was after my recovery from TTP. For those of you who are wondering, TTP stands for Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura.( I  honestly think someone made up that name) This is a condition in which the platelets drop to a extremely dangerous level. When I was diagnosed my platelets were 10,000. Normal is 150,000 and above.

So now I'm wondering did I actually already have lupus long  before I was diagnosed with TTP or did the TTP cause it? I guess I will never know for sure.
I'm wondering why my doctors  mentioned it to me. Maybe because I wasn't having any symptoms?

This post is longer than I met it to be. Actually  I started it yesterday but my hands hurt and today, I took several breaks from typing due to pain.
Thank you for all your prayers,  ladies.  I'm so thankful for prayer warriors like you all!

Sunset After the Storm

I wanted to share this lovely sunset picture. The storm passed a couple of hours ago and the Lord treated us to this lovely gift.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

For Today July 16th

Looking out my window.. the clouds are building up for another monsoon

I am thinking.. about phone calls to make and  paperwork from the rheumatologist to fill out.

I am thankful...  that the Lord brought this adorable cat Kirstie into our lives. She has brought us so much joy.

I am wearing... a light green floral dress and no shoes

I am hoping... that the thunderstorms predicted for today don't start until after my husband and daughter get home. 

In the kitchen...my youngest is making brownies

In my garden ... I have sweet mint growing in my teapot planter, there is also in my garden ,green beans and tomatoes.

Post script

I want to share one of my favorite place to get tea

The Republic of Tea

A moment from my day...rain from our thunderstorm that is going on now.

Closing thoughts ...

Well Tim and Shannon got caught in the thunderstorms but they are home now. I tell you, the monsoons here are very intense.

I don't like sharing about my physical pain. My hands are hurting and I noticed similar pain in my feet. But I know that my God is bigger than lupus.

I'm linking up with the July The Simple Woman Daybook

Good Morning!

Good morning girls! Thank you all for your comments in my last post regarding my lupus and Tim's  back. And I especially thank you for your prayers. They really mean alot.
So our insurance has approved for me to see a rheumatologist and I'm waiting for paperwork from them to arrive so I can fill out and return before I can get an appointment. I'm glad we don't have to go all the way Flagstaff or Phoenix. It's monsoon here and going out of town during a treacherous thunderstorm makes for a very nervous mama.

Tim will be making an appointment to get a MRI of his spine. He has sciatica and his xray showed he has bone spurs along his spine. Our doctor also recommended and referred him to a neurosurgeon. In. Flagstaff.
So we will probably end up having an appointment at the end of August because the doctors here refer their patients to Flagstaff due to the fact that he is apparently one of  top neurosurgeons around. As a result, there is a long wait for an appointment.  This actually will work because by then, the monsoons will have tapered off.

The last time, we went to Flagstaff during a monsoon was in 2016, when we first moved here and our friend who used to live in Santa Barbara wanted us to look at house that was for sale across the street from her. Being new to Arizona and not knowing that it can be 90° and sunny one moment and thunderstorms and 63° two hours later, we drove to Flagstaff.

 We got caught in  heavy thunderstorm on the way up. I must say, by the time we got to Flagstaff, we were hungry, tired and very. Very. Cranky.
It was good to see our friend and visit with the sweet lady whose house was for sale. Though the house was nice and it came with rental income due to mobile homes on the property we just weren't impressed with Flagstaff. It was just to high and though we love snow, I know we would get tired of it. We also didn't want to deal with the headache of being landlords and people with questionable morals.

I finally found out what the birds are that have a nest in our eaves. They are house finches. There is yet another set of babies coming. It seems as soon as the last babies left home, another mama showed up and has laid her eggs.
I hope to get a picture of these pretty birds but you can Google a picture to see what they look like.

Anyway, that's what's happening here. I have several books to read and review. Not quite sure how having only one or two review books to read turned into four. I also hope to post a Simple Woman's Daybook soon. I hope you all have a great weekend!