Updates and The Fine Line of Negotiations Within a Marriage...

I finally discovered the problem I was having with my CPAP sleep apnea mask...I had the nasal pillows in backwards.  No wonder they didn't fit right!  Since turning them around I have slept like a baby the past three nights!  I plan on taking it with me this weekend when I go visit the grand kids and my two daughters...

I adjusted the mask, removing the hose going between my eyes and fastening on top of my head,  to allow it to swing freely from the bottom of the nasal pillows.  I find it much easier to read at night and it still stays out of my way when I sleep...

We plan on visiting family this weekend, so I know the 8 year old and the 6 year old grand sons will get a good laugh when they come to wake me early to make them their special french toast...I will tell them it is similar to the masks worn by the jet pilots...then they will think it is cool....

 Well...it kinda' looks like one....

My husband and I are... shall I say,  STILL "negotiating" about which bills to cut back on.  He has no problem with reducing the services on the phone...but our DISH channels and learning to use the "timer" to automatically turn off the TV, saving electricity when he falls asleep, is a whole different situation!

We have always had a "difference of opinion" on the subject of thriftiness and decorating:

His definition of thriftiness:  Find what you like and pay whatever it costs. He does not believe in "second hand" anything. Spend less money driving around to find the best price.

My definition of thriftiness:  Take the time to do my research.  Check various stores websites, newspaper for "gently used" furniture options, check out stores to see the items in person, measure, and decide on what we like and best bargain.

In all my life, I have NEVER had a man care about sticking his two cents in on what furniture I buy, where I put it, or how often I want to move it...until, I married my husband!  When we went to buy furniture for our house, we left early in the morning and arrived at a particular store (who will be nameless, and it no longer in business by the way...) and began to look.... (course, being a man, he was "on the hunt"...)

I must admit, the prices were good, but I did not want to get the first thing we saw... HE found our bedroom set, - Queen sized bed, frame, dresser with mirror and two side tables, all in oak, dining room set - dining room table with leaf, six chairs and double hutch, family room set - love seat, couch with double recliner, coffee table and end tables.

When I said I wanted to look some more...else where, he promptly sat down and began to pontificate on why this was such a good "deal", we did not need to look further and why didn't I like it...

We had been in the store since it opened.  It was way past lunch and I was starving to death and very thirsty.  He knew that, it was part of his strategy.  Wear me down, get me good and hungry, and I will agree to anything...

So that is how we got all our furniture...  

Just hanging pictures was another "discussion"...

I am very creative with arranging a collage of photos...but he believes there should only be one framed picture or painting per wall.  By this time, I was wise to his plan, so after a couple of hours of "fake fighting", I relented, let him hang everything where he wanted it and then when he went to work, I changed it to how I liked it.

When he came home, of course he was upset, he pouted, he threatened to sell the house...(yes, that is what he said....LOL), I quietly, sadly, looked at him with my big blue eyes and asked why he did not like my decorating talents... after all, I just wanted to make a cozy home for us...(sniff, sniff)... If he really didn't like it, he could help me fill in all the holes, and I would change it back...

And that is how THAT battle was won... (big, huge, proud, female smile...)

I May Have Spoken Too Soon...

The past two nights, I have awoke with either sore hips or sore shoulders and both nights, my lower back.  It appears, since I learned to be a side sleeper, I wake up when one side is sore from lying on it so long, and flip over to the other.  When that side is sore, I flip to my former sleeping style, on my back.  When I sleep on my back, I snore as loud as a freight train in the middle of the night...I literally suck the paint off the walls (as my husband says).

So the past two days I have been dragging around with zero energy, yet I don't take naps, like my husband does...

When I made up the beds, my husband asked me not to put the egg crate foam on top of the mattress.  I know it sounds ridiculous, but the indentations of the in sewn patterns on top of the mattress, hurt me.  I need something between me and those patterns.  My husband insisted I would not need it.  Suffice it to say, he is out running some errands, and I am putting it on the bed.

Wish me luck...this quest for a good nights sleep is beginning to look futile...I must wait until Monday to request my doctor to send my two sleep studies and script for the CPAP machine to my new HMO. 

Ironically, since sleeping in the new bed, I have not had any trouble with my legs feeling numb and needing to thrash about. The sore hips and shoulders is new...I used to have it in our old bed, but solved it with a pillow top mattress pad about four inches thick.... It is still on our old bed which is now in the guest bedroom... I hope we don't have to start sleeping in separate rooms....