Category Archives: Carrie Mattern

MAY ALREADY

This year is over one quarter over and the month of May is now here.

Working on multiple Udemy, Lynda.com and Brilliant.org courses at the same time and things are working out.

I was looking at tickets for Carrie in September and the prices were in the mid to low 500 dollar ranges. This sounds great, I also checked the boxes for about a two month, 60 day stay. This would be almost 25 days longer than her last stay. Now time to figure out if she will be flying into Orlando for a trip to Disney World then drive up here or come here first. Another thing to discuss.

Love you Carrie

NEW PROCESS FOR POSTS AMONG OTHER THINGS

The one thing I have noticed with Carrie gone is I have more time to get some of my learning (Programming, Modeling (Blender), Modeling (Engineering) accomplished. New toy to purchase soon will be a 3D printer. Then start selling models for 3D printing. Could become a new hobby.

The new posting process I referred to is to create multiple posts and schedule them for future posting. This way I will be able to go through the entire year without missing a post on Monday. Last year was quite good and only missed four or five.

CARRIE LEFT LAST WEEK

This week has been very hard.

I wrote that two weeks before she left and the statement is so very true.

We both were sick Tuesday and Wednesday, me on Wednesday more than her. At first I thought it was the Chili from the night before but I had another bowl Wednesday for dinner and I was fine. I woke up late on Thursday but that was because I was up almost the entire night with Tornado warnings and sirens going off on my phone. There was a lot of them going off, not just a tornado watch but a warning. Those are the most severe and when you get one of those it means the threat is real and to take cover.

I spent the rest of the week cleaning up the apartment and getting the counter tops cleaned off. They got pretty messy for my tastes while she was here but we had so much going on. She did not like me doing all the dishes after dinner but that is just me.

CARRIE’S WEEK FIVE

Today is Carrie’s last day. This has been the best month of my life. With Carrie here and living with me it has been like we were never apart.

Because it was her last day I stayed home today in order to spend as much time with her as I could.

We watched movies and we had the chili she had made the day before along with steamed asparagus which was awesome! All I can say about the last five weeks with her is that it has been the move perfect of times. I don’t know any other way to describe the feelings I have for her.

CARRIE’S WEEK FOUR

Carrie’s vacation has been so good for her. He has had very few flair ups with her Fibro, and her hands don’t act up as much at all. In the last four weeks she has had only two panic attacks and both of those were easy to talk her down from.

She is enjoying shopping very much but we have much too much candy and cookies around the apartment.

Weight his coming off but this week it took a break, meaning I didn’t loose any weight or gain any. I just remained steady at 268 – 269 pounds which equates to a 23 – 24 pound weight loss. This is good but I need those pounds to keep coming off.

Next week is her last week here and I want to make the most of it. I will be missing her so much after she leaves. This weekend and all of next week I will be trying to get as much video footage as I can of her.

CARRIE’S WEEK THREE

This last week was great. No panic attacks at all and she seems to be having a great time.

On Tuesday she went to the Thomasville Library to see a professor talk about join issues and the treatment of them using alternative medicine and she had a great time. Then we walked around the town for a little while until Daryl came and picked us up.

We also walked over to Publix on Saturday for a little exercise and see what type of walk it was and how far. It was a very easy walk and that store is remarkable. Clean and their meats were wonderful. It was storming pretty hard and Daryl came over and brought us home. He was close by and it was raining pretty freaking hard.

Sunday we took another trip to Publix and spent a good two hours shopping and picked up a lot of things. I’ll be doing this quite a bit in the future because having all the stuff we purchased delivered would have cost an arm and a leg and would not have been able to place it on EBT.

Her visit here has been everything I ever hoped being with her would be and so much more. I experienced a little of what I can expect when she leaves on Sunday. She was wearing a little black skirt and was twirling around and I told her how it flared out and looked nice. She did it again and I took a video of her twirling and afterwards when she was outside coloring I looked at the video and started crying. As I type this I started crying again. It’s the only things I will have when she leaves in two weeks. But, think about that. She is still here for another two weeks.

I love her so very much.

CARRIE’S FIRST TWO WEEKS

The first two weeks, two weeks after tomorrow have gone fantastic. We have had only one hiccup and that was last Tuesday when she woke up after only sleeping an hour and was crying. She did not know why and ended up getting out of bed and going to the couch for a bit. She at times will toss and turn when we first go to bed and will get up because she does not want to wake me and I keep telling her she won’t but she keeps doing it. I’ll learn to live with this because I love her so very much.

We went to first Friday here in Thomasville and had a great time. Stopped at multiple shops and bought some great treats we have been munching on for the last week. We did some shots of Fireball before we left and the evening ended with dinner at the Bistro in the Marriott Hotel where I was living for the first two months.

Back to that crying bit. When she got up for the day she was having a lot of anxiety and needed to talk to Cat and Ricky for a bit. They calmed her down to a point but when I got home we worked through her problem and she took some medication. I/we don’t like her to take those but we limited it to 1/2 a pill and that seemed to work great. Since then everything has been great.

We have been doing a lot of shopping to make this apartment a home away from home for her and I think things are looking really good and she is liking it even though it is costing money.

I’m pretty sure she is going to be doing really well for the rest of her time here and I will not be very happy when she leaves. As a matter of fact I will hate it and most likely be crying a bit when she does.

CARRIE’S DAY OF ARRIVAL

Carrie missed her flight from Seattle. She was devastated and didn’t think she would get here.

Let’s start from the beginning . I asked her the night before if she was packed. She said she had everything ready and just needed to close the suitcases when she was ready to go in the morning. Things were not ready enough and she needed to switch things up and have two checked bags. Trying to pack at the last minute when you are not ready with the addition of not having travelled much (three times) she ended up forgetting a lot.

At the airport she checked in curbside which is fine but something I never do and was asked if she wanted a wheelchair. She said yes and they took her through security and onto the gate, which was great. Now things started to go sideways. She needed to go to the bathroom. In the bathroom she took some pictures, sent them to me, and finished. When she left the bathroom, she decided she wanted some cash, so she went to the ATM and after that turned around and the gate was empty. They had already boarded the plane and the aircraft had pushed back and left. This all stems from the fact she didn’t know the plane started boarding 30 minutes prior to departure and the doors shut 15 minutes after that. She went to the gate and asked if they had boarded yet and was told that the plane had left. She immediately started crying and needed to call me. Thank God the Delta personnel was there and took control of the mistake and reticketed her for other flights. This meant she had a couple more hours in Seattle, a five plus hour layover in Atlanta and would arrive in Tallahassee at midnight giving me lots of time before Daryl and I had to pick her up.

She was escorted to the new gate via wheelchair in Seattle and was met at the gate by a Delta employee in Atlanta waiting to take her to the next gate. After missing her flight in Seattle there was no way she was going to drink or eat anything and just stay put at the gate until her flight which is over four hours away. I called her after she arrived in Atlanta and after talking to her for a bit asked if her gate had changed because they frequently do. When she made the inquiry, her gate had in fact changed and the Delta personnel were upset that she had been left there for so long and wasn’t taken to the new gate. This was resolved and I got off the phone with her because I was about to leave and pick her up.

To finish, her flight arrived at 11:36 and by 11:50 she was letting me know she had her bags and was outside waiting. I had told her to text me when she arrived so I could meet her at baggage claim, but things were happening fast. I found her immediately putting her luggage in the car, stopped so she could go to the bathroom along with Daryl and then on to Whataburger where she got a chicken sandwich meal. Remarking that the sandwich was too big, and I could have some. She finished the fries and the sandwich, obviously she was hungry.

We arrived home at 1:00am on Wednesday morning and didn’t get to sleep till about 6:30am. We were both up by 1:00pm doing nothing for the rest of the day. Ordered pizza for dinner and went to bed at 9:00pm.

It was a remarkably busy day for her, and everything worked out perfectly. The road is no longer broken.

Carrie will be here tomorrow!

Yes, her panic attacks aside Carrie will be flying in tomorrow. I will meet her at the airport and stay home the next day as well just so she gets used to being here and I just might kiss her a little bit.

Had to do a little cleanup during the weekend because of this freaking cold or whatever it is.

Quick edit here. Carrie is on her way. I finished cleaning up in the this morning, it is now Tuesday and have things pretty much ready. She called me a bit ago and she missed her flight. I am quite sure this has her completely frazzled! She will be just fine. She knows I’ll be there when she arrives. She won’t be here till midnight now, five hours later than she should be but all will be ok.