Sunday's jabber

Lots to talk about today. Well its been a few days so I can, right? First off, I got a phone call from my doctor's office late friday afternoon. It seems the blood work that they did on Monday shows that I have elevated levels of ANA(autoantibodies), thus indicating that I have Rheumatoid arthritus. So they will be setting me up with a Rheumatologist. I kind of felt that this was the case all along but wasn't for sure about it. But what I have researched online sounds like what I have been going through. I know its not very severe yet and I am hoping they will be able to give me meds to control it. The good thing is it has shook me up enough that I am following the recommendations I have read about what to eat to keep the Gout from flaring up again. So, I think I have lost a few pounds through all of this. I am still hurting some but not as bad. The below normal temps we have been having hasn't helped it at all.
So,,I will deal with it and try to do what I can to keep it from progressing.
On to happier notes. Yesterday my sweet niece came to vist my Mom and I. She is like a daughter to me and I use to babysit her all the time when she was little. Her husband and her have been married for about 9 years. They always said they were not going to have children, but guess what? Yep,,she's pregnant and her delivery date is next month. We are all so excited and can't wait to have "Little Samuel" join our family. We haven't had a baby in our family for many years, every since my children were little, which was 21 years ago.
We had a great visit and my step-bro prepared a great lunch for us all. It was very Christmassy looking with Mom's Christmas plates and decorations up in the kitchen.
Here is a pic of Mom and Emily at the table. Of course I didn't notice that the ceiling fan chains were in the way when I snapped it,,duh.
Emily is very petite and she has only gained 15 lbs during her pregnancy. But that is all baby fat. I think its wonderful since I gain way too much weight each time I was expecting. We also had some baby presents for her and her hubby to open while they were here.
She is such a sweetie. And they both are so excited about the new addition.
I had to snap a funny picture of my step-dad. Between my parents and my step-bro, they have 2 Bichon Frise dogs. Well, my step-bro's dog seems to think that it is her duty to keep my step-dad's scalp cleaned and washed very day.
Ha,,now that would drive me bonkers, but dad is so laid back that he jus sits there and lets her go to town. According to Mom and Bro he gets a good "shampoo" every day. And Sugar gets pretty spoiled by him in return.
So, today I am going to bring Mom over to my house and we are going to do a little Artsy stuff,,and watch our Football team, the almighty Titans, whip Cleveland.
Its still very cold here today and the high will only be 37 degrees. Our December has been way below normal in temps so far. And I think we will get a good snow before January. I hope it happens on Christmas day.
OH,,and great news. My stepdaughter and her boyfriend will be flying in from Idaho on the 18th to spend two weeks with us. We can't wait as we haven't seen her in almost 2 years. Its going to be so much fun having them here.
Today I am going to take some pictures of my Christmas deco and will post them this coming week.
I hope everyone is having a great week-end! I am leaving you with pictures of our "mini snowfall" that we had on Monday. It was just a trace and melted pretty quickly, but we usually do not get snow here till January.






xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxoxo