The End

After some thought I've decided to end Yada Yada Yada.  Journaling has become more of a chore and less of a joy lately so I figure now is as good a time as any to hang it up.

I will continue to keep :

http://journals.aol.com/kaydeejay5449/ALittleLeftofCenter/

Where I do photo challenges and entries on less personal things.

Thanks to all who stop by and leave such warm, friendly comments.  You have made such a wonderful impact on my life over the past few years.  I will continue to stop by your journals to keep up on your adventures.  I would miss you too much if I didn't.

Hugs and Love,

Kathy

If you haven't had your share of cute today:

If you are looking for something really cute to put you in a great frame of mind, go to:

http://www.godtube.com/view_video?viewkey=9e7c4b40cf5a13cea6ca

and enjoy this little girl reciting the 23rd Psalm.  ADORABLE.

Things I haven't written about....................

I haven't been in a writing mood lately.  A lot has been going on - good stuff, too - but when I sit down to write about it, I just can't muster the energy to type it all out.  After going back and reading some of my earlier entries, I decided that there are a few things that have happened recently that I want to journal so I don't forget them.  I also want them included in the printed edition at the end of the year so I HAVE to include them.

The most fun thing that happened recently was Dennis and I took Megan, Nathan and Andrew to the Circus.  What a FUN morning.  I picked the kids up on Friday afternoon so they could spend the night and we could get an early start on Saturday morning.  The show started at 11:30 on Aug. 4 but if we got their early, the kids could go down on the floor and see, close up, some of the acts, the clowns, and get a feel for the excitement of the event.  We thought, too, that they would let us take the kids to see the animals before the show, too, but for some reason that section was not open that early.  They did get to see the elephants being bathed and blown dry with leaf blowers which they thought was so funny.

  We found our way down to the floor.  Andrew wanted Papa to carry him.  It was way too much for him.  All the noise and confusion was pretty scary for the little guy.  Megan was enchanted with the costumes and all the activity.  Nathan liked it but did not want any of the clowns to come near him.  I told him I could totally understand how he felt about that.  When I was his age, they scared me, too.

Luckily, we found a great spot at the far  end of the arena and settled in right by the rope so the kids had front 'row' standing space.  They got to see a tumbling act from Asia, a clown trampoline act that was really funny, a cute dog act from Argentina, two guys on stilts, and finally an elephant who painted a picture.

When the elephant came in thru the curtain, little Andrew was standing right at the rope. It was so cute to see his head move as he sized her up from side to side and then from her feet to the top of her head.  After he finished giving her a good look/see, he turned around with big eyes and said, "Big Elephant!" 

Dennis and I couldn't help but laugh.  We could just see in his expression that he had never seen anything so big in his whole life.  The announcer said she weighed around 8000 pounds so you can imagine how big she was.  To a little 2 1/2 year old boy, she must have seemed as big as a mountain. 

Before we knew it, he was walking back to us pinching his nose, "Stinky elephant." 

He was right about that, too!  The other two followed him with their noses pinched, too.  "Let's get out of here!"  Nathan suggested firmly.

We agreed and took them to their seats.  It was great timing because as we got off the elevator and found our seats, the announcer was telling everyone to go to their seats.  We missed the big rush.

The kids enjoyed the show so much.  Megan and Nathan sat on the edge of their seats the whole time.  Andrew sat in his seat next to me.  Everytime I looked over at him, his eyes were glued to whatever act was going on.  I was really proud of him for being able to pay attention for that long.  He did get a little restless during the last 40 minutes but he was getting tired.  Believe it or not, with all the noise and activities going on, he fell asleep the last 15 minutes.  I don't know how but he was OUT. 

Megan's favorite act was the tigers.  They were beautiful and I can see why she liked them so much.  Nathan liked the high wire act and there was a guy who did tricks on a bicycle that he really liked, too.  Andrew loved the elephants.  That seemed to make the biggest impact on him.  His dad told me that the next day he went to Sunday school and the first thing he told his teacher was, "I went to circus yesterday!"  He was really happy to share that with her.

This past weekend, I went to Avila Beach to meet my sister for a few days.  We stayed at her friend's condo which was quiet and relaxing.  We spent the time working on the program for the weekend retreat we are going to be leading.  WOW, we got a lot done and much was revealed to us about things we need to do in our own lives to prepare for the event.

The truth is:  You can't give something you don't have.  So, in order to teach the class, both of us have to put the things we are teaching to work in our own lives.  Fair enough?  Exactly!  We have come a long way in following the plan we are sharing but we have a way to go before we will be at the place where we feel we need to be to get up in front of the women who will be attending and present the material.  Whew...that was quite a sentence.

The theme for the conference is Keys to an Open Heart.  The Keys we have chosen to speak on are: Choice * Attitude * Acceptance.   Biggies, huh?  To get to these one must take a look at what defines them as a person.  For me, I found that there are many things that define me ~ that tell me who I am.  These things that I allow to define me and to put me in a box that is labeled "KATHY" are not really my authentic self.  They are expectations, fears, insecurities, wanting to please, feeling invisible, being unworthy, being the nice girl, not being able to say no, being the good mother, being the good wife, being last, being the victim, being unable to dream, being disappointed, never asking for anything for myself........... on and on.  Those things have defined me for too long.  So now, I have to turn away from those labels and allow God to define me.  The God who created me, the God who loves me without conditions, in all my sin, with all my flaws.  The God who sees me as His blessed child, His beloved.  I must drop the negative labels and take on only what He sees in me. I must learn to rest in His love when I'm feeling alone and I'm hurting.  Humans and life will always disappoint and let us down but His love never will. 

I read the following quote this weekend and it says it all:

"Living out of the false self creates a compulsive desire to present a perfect image to the public so that everybody will admire us and nobody will know us."  Brennan Manning

I am confessing and pledging to be more real. 

 

To the Printer

  Warm Hugs!

I'm printing a copy of this journal.  I will have each year spiral bound so I can keep everything together in order.   I don't think I'll print every entry, just the ones that have things I want to be sure to remember.

I spent the morning reading the first few months of entries and realized how much had happened since I started writing.  I want to have a printed copy so I can refer back when I need to recall a specific date.

I wonder how many others print their journals.  Maybe I'm the only one who hasn't done it yet.

Insurance companies want Mastectomy surgery an outpatient proceedure

It seems like this is become a Health Watch Journal.  I have come across some important information and feel that I want to share it with as many people as possible and my journal is one way to do that.  I got the following email tonight and want to pass it on to as many women as possible.  Please snag this information and post it in your journal or email to your friends and family.  After reading this, I hope you go directly to the web site and send your message.  Your voice is heard.

From a nurse:

I'll never forget the look in my patients' eyes when I had to tell them
they had to go home with the drains, new exercises and no breast. I remember begging the Doctors to keep these women in the hospital longer, only to hear that they would, but their hands were tied by the insurance companies.

So there I sat with my patient giving them the instructions they needed to take care of themselves, knowing full well they didn't grasp half of what I was saying, because the glazed, hopeless, frightened look spoke louder than the quiet 'Thank you' they muttered.

A mastectomy is when a woman's breast is removed in order to remove cancerous breast cells/tissue. If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, you may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery.

Mastectomy Bill in Congress

It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important .. please take the time and do it really quick!

Breast Cancer Hospitalization Bill - Important legislation for all women.

Please send this to everyone in your address book.
If there was ever a time when our voices and choices should be heard, this is one of those times. If you're receiving this, it's because I think you will take the 30 seconds to go to vote on this issue and send it on to others you know who will do the same.

There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which
will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the 'drive-through mastectomy' where women a reforced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their Web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on.

PLEASE!! Sign the petition by clicking on the Web site below. You need not give more than your name and zip code number.

http://www.lifetimetv.com/breastcancer/petition/signpetition.php

This Must Be Woman's Health Day

I  received another great, informative email today about Women's Heart Attacks.  Posting it for educational purposes.  Snag and pass it on if you want.  Good information!

 

Women's heart attack info]
For the woman in your life. This is not a joke.

I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is the best description I've ever read.

Women and heart attacks (Myocardial Infarction, or "MI")

Did you know that women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have when experiencing heart attack...you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor that we see in the movies. Here is the story of one woman's
experience with a heart attack.

"I had a completely unexpected heart attack at about 10: 30 pm with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect
might've brought it on. I was sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually thinking,"A-A-h, this is the life, all
cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up." A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you've been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you've swallowed a  golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it
is most uncomfortable. You realize you shouldn't have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a
glass of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach. This was my initial sensation---the only trouble was that I hadn't taken a bite of
anything since about 5:00 p.m.

"After that had seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE
(hind-sight, it was probably my aorta spasming), gaining speed as they continuedracing up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one
presses  rhythmically when adminis tering CPR). This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws.

"AHA!! NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening--we all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of an
MI happening, haven't we? I said aloud to myself and the cat, "Dear God, I think I'm having a heart attack !" I lowered the foot rest, dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step and fell on the
floor instead. I thought to myself "If this is a heart attack, I shouldn't be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else.......but, on the other hand, if I don't, nobody will know that I
need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to get up in moment."

"I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the next room and dialed the Paramedics... (i.e., 911) I told her I thought I was having a heart attack due to the pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws. I didn't feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts. She said she was sending the Paramedics over immediately, asked if the front door was near to me,
and if so, to unbolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they could see me when they came in.

"I then laid down on the floor as instructed and lost consciousness, as I don't remember the medics coming in, their examination, lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their ambulance, or hearing the call they made to St. Jude ER on the way, but I did briefly awaken when we
arrived and saw that the Cardiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance. He was bending over me asking questions (probably something like "Have you taken any  medications?") but I couldn't make my mind interpret what he
was saying, or form an answer, and nodded off a gain, not waking up until  the Cardiologist and partner had already threaded the teeny angiogram
balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into my heart where they installed 2 side by side stents to hold open my right coronary artery.

"I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the Paramedics, but actually it took perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and both the
fire station and St.Jude are only minutes away from my home, and my Cardiologist was already to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my heart (which had stopped somewhere between my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stents.

"Why have I written all of this to you with so much detail? Because I want all of you who are so important in my life to know what I learned first hand."

1. Be aware that something very different is happening in yo <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />ur body not the usual men's symptoms, but inexplicable things happening (until
my sternum and jaws got into the act ). It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last) MI (Myocardial Infarction)
because they didn't know they were having one, and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation,
and go to bed, hoping they'll feel better in the morning when they wake up....which doesn't happen. My female friends, your symptoms
might not be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the Paramedics if ANYTHING is unpleasantly happening that you've not felt before. It
is better to have a "false alarm" visitation than to risk your life guessing what it might be!

2. Note that I said "Call the Paramedics". Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!

Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER--you're a hazard to others on the road, and so is your panicked husband who will be speeding and
looking anxiously at what's happening with you instead of the road.
Do NOT call your doctor--he doesn't know where you live and if it's at night you won't reach him anyway, and if it's daytime, his assistants
(or answering service) will tell you to call the Paramedics. He doesn't carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved! The Paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP and a
Defibrillator. Your Dr. will be notified later.

3. Don't assume it couldn't be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count. Research has discovered that a cholesterol
elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI  (Myocardial Infarction)
(unless it's unbelievably high,and/or accompanied by high blood pressure.) MIs' are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body, which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones
into your system to sludge things up in there. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive...

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this mail sends it to 10 people, you can be sure that we'll save at least one life.

**Please be a true friend and send this article to all your friends
you care about.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

Breast Cancer Stamp

I got an Email from my cousin the other day about the Breast Cancer stamp.  I've copied and pasted it below.  With so many of our journal land friends dealing with Breast Cancer and my own friends and family also dealing with this disease, I wanted to pass the information along to as many people as possible.  I emailed it my friends and family and now I'm posting it here.  Please snag it for your journals and/or email so as many people as possible know about this and we can continue to raise money for The Cure!

 

Have you ever bought a Breast Cancer Research Stamp? I bet youhave - 773 million of them have been sold since the stamp was introduced in 1998. The net proceeds go to federal breast cancer research, and it's raised over $55.5 million for critical research work. It's the top-selling commemorative stamp in U.S.
history!

Right now, two bills in Congress could reauthorize the stamp -
or make it permanent! - but only if they pass. If the stamp
isn't reauthorized or made permanent by December 31, 2007, it
will be lost - along with its millions of dollars for breast
cancer research.

Please join me in sending a message to Congress today!

http://komenpolicy.org/campaign/breastcancerstamp?rk=-perQA91uKBqW

By going to the web site above and filling out a simple form, you can contact your Congress representative about this important issue.  If you know how his/her address send a letter or email today and ask that this stamp be reissued from now on.  Sometimes a personal note carries more weight than a form letter.

Take time.  It's important.