My Pretty Prairie Flower

I LOVE the prairie; guess it's the romantic in me, but I have always been infatuated with the idea of the prairie since I was a little girl and read/watched the "Little House on the Prairie" books and t.v. series. :) Growing up in Illinois and living there and in Iowa for the past few years, I could just picture the open miles of rolling grasslands and wildflowers, butterflies, bison, deer, birds, prairie dogs... all as they used to be centuries ago.

About a year before we moved out here to N.C., I asked Rob to "humor" me and we all went to a natural wildlife prairie reserve in central Iowa. It's not that big, relatively speaking, but it was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!! It was all I dreamed it would be (although being summer, it was almost unbearably hot!).

Being the romantic prairie-loving Midwest girl I am, I, naturally, love these echinacea flowers! So when I moved here to Greensboro, I planted myself one just to have a bit of home to remember my native Midwest by. They made it through the "bitter" winter here (ha, ha, ha) and are blooming away again this year. In fact, they're so heavy with blooms this year, that I had to stake them up with a dowel rod!

So now in the wooded Southeast, I have my prairie corner to enjoy every day for these hot days of summer. And until I can go west and see it again, with my own eyes, I will have this reminder of home.

The Ones I Love- well most of them, but not all!

Just playing around and trying to learn something new today. These are some of the people I love most in this world!!!!!!!!

Allergies or not, that is the ?.

Dr. says I have allergies. He's not the first Dr. to tell me this. This Dr. says my nose is one of the worst he's ever seen & orders allergy tests for me. I've been on allergy medicine off and on for over a year now and on this round of medicines since late February. So what do the tests show? No allergies. Which is fine- great no allergies- I'm thrilled! No more allergy medicine or problems. I've been healed!

Except why I am I having a sinus headache and pressure for three days since I quit taking the medicine? Maybe I'm just a hypochondriac or something. Maybe I just want to get attention or something and just don't realize it or can't admit it. Maybe I'm just mental.

So I am going to go back to just whatever happens, happens, and shut my mouth. Dr. wants to just treat the ear disease and follow up if I need it. Well, I won't need it! If others can put up with health issues and not complain then I can too. But I wish I understood why I have "a bad allergic nose" as the Dr. puts it (even on medicine) if I'm not allergic to anything!

I'm so aggravated and confused about myself! But, then again, what's new! :) Ha! Got to love myself sometimes! For now, I'm off to walk and keep on working on the "fat" part of me. That I can do something about, I hope!