I am home sick today. On a Sunday. Missing church. I hate it. Friday night I woke up in the middle of the night, my chest pounding very fast, and my head felt like it was going to explode. So I took my blood pressure, and it was 167 over 97...with a pulse of 104. Very, very high. (Anything over 120 over 80 is supposedly bad). I don't know what to do about it. I have been to the doctor 3 times about it, had my medicine changed once, I've lost weight, I've cut things out of my diet, and no improvement. I have been dealing with this for over a year now. I've had blood drawn, EKGs done, and the doctors want to run more tests that my bank account can't cover, but so far they have not figured out the source of the problem. High blood pressure runs in my family, but they ALL developed it in their 40's or older. I am 24!!! The thoughts of having a stroke terrifies me. I only got 4 hours of sleep Friday night. I was all mixed up about my decision to go back to school, and needed to talk to SOMEONE about it, so I went to my sister-in-law's (Terri's) house around the corner and talked to her for awhile. She's always up late, lives alone, so she enjoyed the company. She is like the sister I never had. I have a sister, but I can't get as much wisdom from my sister as I can from my sister-in-law. My sister-in-law is quite a bit older and has been through A LOT, plus I can't just drive over to my sister's house at 10:30 at night and sit and talk to her for 3 hours. So I went over to Terri's about 10:30 Friday night and didn't come home 'til almost 1:30 a.m. She put a lot of things into perspective for me on a lot of things and it helped me with my decision (I will go more into that later). I went home only when Michael called, worried about me. Terri and I had totally lost track of time. OOPS!

So Saturday morning we had to get up early to be at my parent's house by 8:30 a.m. to follow my Dad to his place of employment for the last 30 years...the Tennessee Air National Guard. They were having an airplane dedication ceremony...they just got new planes...traded in the 141's for C-5's...HUGE planes. Anyone that wanted to could go inside the planes, and we got to sit in the cockpit...very cool. They also had free food and lots of activities for the kids...THAT was their "Fair" and much cheaper too, I might add. It really meant a lot to my Dad for us to come out. My sister and her kids came, too. My Dad is retiring the end of this year after being in the Guard full time for 30 years. It was kind of sad for me, in a way. I made many trips to the base as a little girl and watched my Dad get on planes and leave for far away places, where'd he be gone for months at a time sometimes. That was the last time I'd ever get to see my Dad in his uniform, except for maybe a retirement ceremony. It's really strange the things you take for granted that you never realize would mean something to you later on. I was always proud of my Dad and the work he did.

After we left, we headed to the Liberty Bowl for the football game...with BOTH kids. I will put it this way...it is an experience I don't want to repeat, at least not until Jacob gets older. Plus, with the Fair going on, we had to park waaaay off at the Board of Education. We had the little stroller with us...the one that folds up. Jacob rode in that, but they wouldn't let us take it into the stadium, and we had to go back around to a different gate and check it in and leave it at the stadium office. Would have been nice to know that. All of this wore me out immensely. We ended up leaving as soon as half time was over, and I came home and went to bed and slept for 3 hours. Then Michael's parents brought us some supper and took our kids home with them for a few hours. Then I went to bed again around 10:30 and slept 'til 10:00 this morning. My blood pressure wasn't AS high this morning, but I still don't feel right. At times, my head hurts so bad I can't open my eyes. I felt so bad about missing church this morning, but I feel like I've been overdoing everything lately. I am too young to be having these kinds of health problems!!!

Michael is on his way home with some lunch, so I shall return later.