Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday to the Hubs!

Let's take a little walk down memory lane in celebration...
well at his age, it's a LONG walk :)

This was actually just a random group of pictures hanging out in my blog archive.
His complete picture history is stored on the laptop that melted down.
Shayla assures me she will rescue all the pictures on it when she gets home.
So, in the meantime  enjoy...

Cutie!

Prom Date!
Rocking the quintessential 70's powder-blue Tux...



Handsome Scholarship Recipient!

Missionary!

Missionary on P-day!

Missionary serving as best man at a wedding!





Engaged to the woman of his dreams!
(Right honey?)

BYU Graduate!


MBA Graduate!





Business Man!

Husband, Dad, PopPop...

We love you!

My Heart Will Go On

I'm sure you have all been waiting on the edge of your seats to get the heart diagnosis and since I am officially an old lady, my birthday is a perfect day to bore you with riveting stories of my health.

So, after an echo-cardiogram and stress test I sat down with my cardiologist to discuss some matters of the heart. Just a side note, watching the live video of my heart beating and the valves opening and closing was pretty fascinating. I wish I could get a copy of the video for my blog. It would make a great anniversary post "My heart beats for you dear..." 

 But I digress. 

Oh wait, one more thing. My cardiologist looks like this guy:

The actor William Daniels  who won two Emmy awards playing Dr. Craig on a series called St. Elsewhere which I used to watch on Tuesdays while I was waiting for the hubs to get home from his MBA night class back in our trailer house/early poverty days. (That show also starred Denzel Washington and Howie Mandel. Oh the early 80's....)

 And I did it again--off on another tangent! That's what happens when you get old. Bear with me here, I will get to the point eventually.

Where was I? Oh! The diagnosis. 

Left Ventricular Hypertrophy

Let's read what the Mayo Clinic has to say about it:

Left ventricular hypertrophy is enlargement (hypertrophy) of the muscle tissue that makes up the wall of your heart's main pumping chamber (left ventricle).

Left ventricular hypertrophy develops in response to some factor, such as high blood pressure, that requires the left ventricle to work harder. As the workload increases, the walls of the chamber grow thicker, lose elasticity and eventually may fail to pump with as much force as that of a healthy heart.

This explains a few things. Such as, why I feel like I am going to suffocate if I try to run uphill. The left ventricle takes the oxygenated blood from the lungs to send it off through the arteries to bring that life-giving oxygen to the rest of the body. So less oxygenated blood moving means less oxygen means suffocation.  I have trained my heart out (bad pun) and still could not build the stamina for a real long-distance or strenuous run. I can walk all day and hike 'til the cows come home. I just can't do that at a running pace. It turns out my body requires large amounts of oxygen to run like that and my poor heart was working hard but falling short in the oxygen delivery department. 

I come by my heart damage through high blood pressure and I come by my high blood pressure thanks to the genetic lottery of having both parents with it. As I have said before, when it comes to genetics, you win some, you lose some. At this point I suppose I would trade a few gray hairs for lower blood pressure. But I didn't get to choose, so with what I am saving on hair dye I can now spend on blood pressure medication.

The good news: it's reversible. I am on blood pressure medication and in a desperate effort to avoid a second medication, I am following this eating plan:

Dr. Gundry's Evolution Diet

 Not that I was a slothful glutton as it was, but there is definitely room for improvement. Here's a good place for a shout-out for the

Word of Wisdom

My cardiologist pointed out that the reason my heart is doing so well under such adverse conditions is because of my lifetime of no smoking, no drinking, no coffee, no caffeine (I KNOW THAT'S NOT IN THE WORD OF WISDOM AND THE BRETHREN OK'd ALL THAT DEVIL DRINK LIKE COKE AND WHAT NOT BUT IT'S IN MY OWN PERSONAL WORD OF WISDOM SO... CARRY ON).
 As for that promise of "Run and not be weary" my promise is really "Run and not drop dead" which, you know, works for me. Or maybe "Walk at a vigorous pace but slow down on the hills and not be weary."
 Hopefully my enlarged, overworked heart will shrink three sizes (a reverse Grinch--ha!) and maybe learn to work smarter not harder. 

In the meantime, I won't be running any marathons and that's fine by me. I think I was meant for walking and hiking at a pace that allows for taking in the vistas and the scenery. It seems my heart is telling me to stop and smell the roses. 

Five-OH MY GOODNESS!

Gentle Reader,
Hello! How have you been? Just the usual around here...

I got old. 

Well, older.

This was a very thoughtful gift from my husband....

and all of you who contributed to make an old

woman cry at each turn of the page.

Truly, your kind thoughts touched my heart and made me laugh and cry and remember

so many good things about all of the people and places that have been a part of 

these past joyous 50 years of mortal existence.

It makes me truly happy that these associations can be eternal.

And a word to the wise: if the 90's craze of Glamour Shots makes a comeback...

Just say no.

This picture will haunt me unto the end of my days. 

But my sweet husband loves it, so there you have it.

Life Lately

Here's a quick re-cap of the ongoing adventures of the Gale gang...

First, an adorable picture of that sweet baby June:

Miss June on her Blessing Day

Andy and I celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary--hard to believe it has been that long. We enjoyed some time in New York City--and that deserves a post of it's own...so stay tuned! While we were
there--during the intermission of "Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark" in fact--we found out Sam was accepted to BYU Provo. There was some mad texting going on between Sam--who was at the Manhattan Temple on a youth temple trip (he was actually walking back from Chipotle with the Bishop at the time; so don't worry--no texting was going on IN the temple!) and Shayla and me. Shayla looked it up for us and announced the good news to Sam and he told me. Perfect timing and much rejoicing. Sam applied a year early and without a high school diploma so we were holding our breath and hoping. He will get a year of college at BYU before his mission which will be good preparation for him.

In the meantime, I was surprised to find that my service was requested as president of our Relief Society. The last two times I was called to fulfill that calling, I had a clear forewarning. The Lord used to mercifully prepare me for things that He knew would overwhelm me. I was humming along enjoying my youth Sunday School class and having fun every month as Cubmaster and never even saw it coming. The Lord moves in mysterious ways. I have lived here seven months and felt at a disadvantage in choosing counselors and secretary but thank goodness for inspiration and guidance. Especially since I wasn't even there for my first Sunday on the job. I was in New Jersey...

...for June's baby blessing--rescheduled after the big storm (one of the many big storms!). We packed up the Uncles Sam and  Shane and made the drive to New Jersey. It was a fun weekend with Scott and Nicole and their sweet girls.

The Uncles with baby June

I gave the camera to Bailey and she got some great shots:

Her Mom--the always lovely and amazing Nicole

Little Sis Norah 

A window and wall composition with construction

paper balloon.

She stood up on the couch for this one.

Selfie!!

Shoe shot

Nana and Bailey shoe shot

Baby sister with Nana

That was fun!

I should mention that I have been homeschooling Shane since January. We are starting small with a couple of other kids coming here twice a week for TJYC and some history, math and science.

It was a big decision that I was putting off while I gathered information and resources. It was

hard to start over AGAIN in a new place. But there have been many tender mercies and we

are loving it. Well, I am loving it and Shane is not hating it.

 I take what I can get with the Truthist. 

Shayla has been loving BYU and will be staying for spring term. She has awesome roommates and they are moving into an apartment together after this semester. The big leap from dorm to apartment! In the meantime she has been getting her papers in for a mission. She loves her mission prep class and we talk often

about the many things BYU is doing in their wards and stakes to prepare SO MANY missionaries.

We will be awaiting the news on her call in a couple of weeks. 

And finally, Gentle Reader, 

I am going to be 50 in a couple of weeks. FIFTY YEARS OLD. And as crazy as this sounds, I can only think of the many good things that have come my way in 50 years of earth life. I don't mind the wrinkles and seriously I have only had one grey hair so far. Thank you genetics. (And no thank you genetics for the buck teeth and the greasy hair and huge pores. You win some, you lose some).

So, where was I? I'm getting old and forget what I was saying sometimes. Oh! The wrinkles and the weakening eyesight and the slower metabolism are a small price to pay for the wisdom and experience that I get to take with me For the joys of eternal family ties. The amazing blessings that come with each and every child and grandchild. The peace that comes from knowing my purpose here and having the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to guide my path. I have lived long enough to know that in the tough times, I can find comfort and that it will all work together for my good.  

My annoying optimism wins out and I keep finding Joy in the journey.

And that's why I kept this Christmas decoration up after the holidays.

The view from my window.

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

So, where have I been lately you may be thinking. Or not. Let me give a brief summary of my adventures.
Awhile back, an ongoing pain in my side finally drove me to the doctor. I don't have a problem with doctors per se, I just don't like to take time out of my busy schedule to go see one. It has to be pretty compelling for me to make the effort. At the risk of sounding like an old lady...oh wait! I am one!..."let me tell you about my aches and pains."
So, back to me and my aches and pains.  I had to get the usual rundown of my temperature and blood pressure and the cute nurse took care of that and then looked at my record on the computer. She looked  surprised for some reason and this worried me a little. She looked at me  more intently and then burst out with "I thought for sure you were 32 years old! Wow! Really, you don't look older than 32."  Now, those of you youngsters out there are going to think this is an insult. Trust me, when you are over forty (okay--pushing 50) you will look back on 32 as the prime of your life--the good old days--the PRE ache-in-your-side days. Gosh, when I was 32 I only had six kids! But I really couldn't get past the choice of number: 32? Not "early thirties? or just 30? It was kind of random, but hey I'll take it. That was a pleasant prelude.

Then, I got in to see the doctor. I was hoping for a quick diagnosis of kidney cysts. Who hopes for cysts? Someone who has had them before and been through the four hour surgery to remove them and then enjoyed a nice pain-free quality of life for a good five years. I don't mind the familiar. Better the "devil you know" as they say. But it was not to be. There was a new devil awaiting. Actually something I had been made aware of after the CT scan for my last medical adventure. During the pre-op visit the surgeon showed me my scan and pointed to my spine.

 "Hmmm", I thought. "It looks like a candy cane." 

 "You have some pretty pronounced scoliosis. Did you know that?"

 "No"

 This was news to me. I knew my children had been checked for it at every check-up and physical but that was the extent of my knowledge of scoliosis. The surgeon got back to the business at hand: the giant water balloons growing on my kidneys,  and that was the end  of that.

Until now. So apparently scoliosis lurks in the backs of unsuspecting, unchecked, people until their late forties when the spine begins to compress and bend more in the direction of the curves that are already there. This tends to press on one's innards in a way that isn't comfortable. It also twists the spine which doesn't feel so great. Then, since the backbone's connected to the other bones, they start pulling in odd ways too. It was a little redeeming to realize the reason I could never do the splits or stretch as far in ballet as the other girls. Also why my mother and grandmother's attempts at getting me to "Stand up straight" were in vain.

Nice how life has a way of keeping me humble.  I went from hearing "You look 32" to "You're going to be a hunch-backed, crumpled old woman." in one fell swoop.

PS Make sure you get checked for scoliosis. Preferably before you get old--even if you look like a 32 year old.