6 pounds, no photos

I mentioned that my doctor was concerned that I had gained 5 pounds since I last saw her. I have been eating more realistically and trying to exercise regularly in the last couple of weeks. After spending a long weekend with Victoria's kids, I returned home and found myself getting up numerous times after only a few hours of sleep. I have gotten some kind of intestinal bug. Russ has been very caring today. I spent most of the day in bed between going to the bathroom. I weighed myself out of curiosity and found that I am 6 pounds less than the day I went to the doctor. Easy come, easy go...............
Before we left for Germany, Russ tried to fix a couple of things that recently broke down. Our laptop computer got knocked off the table breaking the screen. He found a source for a new screen on the internet (after getting repair estimates at a couple of places both over $500) for $100. It arrived okay but didn't work. Our dryer is one of those new-fangled computer type dryers and it has had some problems working occasionally but finally quit altogether. Russ again got on the internet and ordered a new computer board for it, $200, again after receiving a local repair estimate of nearly that much just for looking at it. The board arrived and Russ got it properly installed but the problem persisted. More money down the tubes and items still not working. (We ended up picking up a used dryer locally that we found on Craigslist for $75.) Happily, our camera that we have had for many years, worked well for our whole trip to Germany. However, we wanted photos of the recent surprise birthday party Angela went to great lengths to plan for Scott, and our camera would not work. Changing batteries and everything we could think of didn't make a difference. So far I have had 2 track (?) phones so I have a way of contacting people when I am on the road so much. They have both disappeared. We have looked everywhere in clothing, the car, the house, and asked others. No luck.. People living a hundred years ago didn't even have a computer, electric dryer, or electronic camera.........or microwave oven, or cell phone, or stereo, vcr, dvd player, or any of the many devices we all consider almost a necessity. Their lives went on just fine without them. For us, not having them causes major stress! They are really wonderful devices but they are also a great source of frustration to have and then not have. The classic advice when feeling stress is to set priorities. Somehow that doesn't work when the everyday things in life change. You think you've got a plan and are ready to go with it, then suddenly, you don't have what you thought you had and relied on. I guess about the only important thing in life (including friends and family that can move away, change drastically, or even die) that doesn't disappear is God. All I have to do is call on Him (prayer) and believe He loves me and will help me (faith) and try to learn how to be as wise as He is so I don't sweat the "small stuff" so much (study). I'm working on it-- just not there yet.