Maybe, just maybe

we have discovered why I have been so sick since July.

Yesterday when I used a little used bathroom in the downstairs I noticed what looks like mold under the flooring. I actually knew something was there, but it is growing and spreading across the floor. It is between the flooring and the cement, but it is discoloring the flooring. Lights snapped on in my brain and a connection was made.

Stan and I both remembered a time the toilet overflowed down there. Water must have seeped in between the floor and the cement at that time. It also flowed into the family room. Now we thought we had cleaned it up well enough, but perhaps we didn't. I spend many hours each week down there. It is where the tv is and I do much of my knitting down there.

Time to tear up the flooring and perhaps the carpet. We had purchased tile for the bathroom earlier this year, just had not taken the time to install it. The plan has been to tile the bathroom, entry into the house, hallway to the family room and the laundry room. Now it looks like carpet may be on the agenda also. Not that I wouldn't mind new carpet. Stan chose the carpet we have down there without consulting me. But the $$$ that I see in this project (carpet) that we had not planned on spending.

Oh to feel normal again.

He is a man of few words

I should be used to it since I have known him for 47 years and have been married to him for 44 of those years, but sometimes you just forget until something happens.

I have not been well for two months now. Actually I am feeling much better, but it has been a very long 2 months. I finally gave in about three weeks ago and went to the Dr. One possibility the Dr. suggested is asthma. In thinking back, I have had three bouts with whatever this is in the past year. Beginning at about the time I started caring for my mother. Her home is, very old and not so clean. There is mold growing in the windows and probably other places that are as of yet undetermined. She also heats her home with wood. My dear husband made the connection to the mold and being at mothers so often. Once he made the connection for me, I am able to put it together and realize that I get clogged up as soon as I go there. It is worse when she has a fire in the stove, which she does even if it is 90 outside cause she is cold.

So what does this man of few words do?

Another part of the story is that I have wanted to replace my bedroom carpet with hardwoods for the past 6 years at least. I come home with the suggested diagnosis and the next week he tells me we are replacing the carpet with the hardwoods!!! See post below.

Now the house is toxic and full of chemical smell because we did not use prefinished woods. It matches what we put in the living, dining, kitchen and hallway about 6 years ago. I have been gagging and choking whenever I have to go into our bedroom, but it is getting better. Fortunately, we have a bedroom downstairs, away from the fumes where we can sleep.

Since we could not be at home while the installation was being done, we took a mini vacation to Eastern Washington. We went to a small rodeo in a town called Waterville which is just east of Wenatchee. Fun times!! They had rodeo and horse racing running simultaneous to one another.

A rodeo event, then a race. We took our grandson Brystan #2310 with us. He had a blast too. I gave him my camera and he took pictures until there was no more space on my card and we had to delete some so he could take more.

We spent the night in Wenatchee and headed home on Sunday. On the way, we stopped at the Pinnacles between Wenatchee and Leavenworth, where Brystan and Papa climbed to the top.

I waited in the car cause my knees were hurting from the day previous. Again, Bry took my camera with him and loaded the card up with pictures.

I think we can say, it was a very fun and productive weekend for all involved.

There was Bronc riding,

Bull riding,

Horse Racing,

A bull that did not want to go back to the corral,

A happy boyA long climb

To the topAnd a view to the valley below.

Smudges on the picture are because DH does not know he should keep his finger off of the lens
I am thinking that instead of worrying about what he does not say, be more attuned to how he says it.
Thanks Stan.