What's Happenin'

[sly4626]

I agree Jo - you are all loved!!!! And important. And thought of!!

Again I'm away and back. I wish I could be more consistent.

Sending all my love and prayers to you all. I'm hanging in there - I posted in the Hola thread. Just dealing you know? Living in the moment as much as possible.

My sweet precious 16-year old is almost done with football season. Well the regular season. His team is in the playoffs!!! 1st game Friday! His picture has been in the paper 3 times and he's got some good yardage as a running back and a wide receiver. I am SO GRATEFUL and happy for him. So proud. Grateful.

Love to all,
Sly

[tic chick]

hey everyone !

i went out into my backyard last week and took some pics of a few blooms that were left in my yard. there were 2 days of frost last week, although it has warmed up a bit. a lot of these plants are the ones that i planted this year. i'll put the pics up and then describe them in order.

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pic 1: the yarrow plant. i love the feathery/ferny leaves.
pic 2: the plumbago. it's blue flowers turn into those reddish flowers after they fade.
pic 3: the guara bush. the bush will grow to about 2' X 2', and the flowers are on long stems, so they dance in any breeze.
pic 4: my carnation that my daughter gave me for mother's day. it's still blooming today! i keep pinching off the dead flowers and it keeps on going.
pic 5: a couple echinacea's that were closed when i bought them, but bloomed after i planted them last month.
pic 6: a close up of one of my roses. there was a light drizzle when i took these pics and the spots on the rose are rain.
pic 7: my rose bush, still with a few blooms left, even today too! it's almost 6 ft. high and 4 ft. wide.
pic 8: a weigela bush. it will have clusters of those bright red flowers with the white stamens in the center in the spring. it grows about 6ft. high by 6 ft. wide. i got it for $1.86!!!!
pic 9: my rhododendron bush turning colors. i had 3 hodo's, one died of a fungus this summer, so i planted the weigela bush between the other 2 left.
pic 10: something called chocolate joe pye weed. it has brown stems with clusters of little white flowers. it blooms in the fall.
pic 11: my purple sand leaf cherry this fall...see how much it's grown since...
pic 12: the purple sand leaf cherry in bloom this spring.
pic 13: what i did this summer: i did that half circle in front of my patio and made a connection of plants to the full cirle of plants. i rake leaves now and i have them in a pile so i can mulch them and spread the mulch around the garden later this fall.
pic 14: the back of my patio. i planted two dogwood bushes on either side of the walkway of the patio. they'll grow to 5 ft. x 5 ft. and have white and green leaves and white flowers. the stems of the dogwood are red now and through the winter. the gate is temporary, so the dogs don't go in the garden, i'll put up a biiger, regular garden gate there next year.
pic 15: what was there in march 2011.
pic 16: this is a bloom on my butterfly bush which will grow about 4 ft. high by 4 ft. wide. the bloom is a blackish purple.

some of you, depending on your computer, can click on the first pic and then view all the pics in a row. some will have to click on each pic to see it bigger. to get back to this post and see the next pic, if you are viewing each one at a time, just click your mouse anywhere in the black area around the pic. if you see something that says "Attachment 1006", then just click on each individual number, and it will show you the pic.

thank you for sharing and caring.
jeannie

[tic chick]

hey everyone !

i just wrote in the alzheimer's forum and so i have less to say here !

the switching back an hour in time starts my winter blues. i have been feeling icky the past 2 weeks, edgy and a bit afraid. i will get used to it, though and just settle down into feeling blue for the next 3 months or so.

i had a cyst on the inner part of my left thumb. i am sure that all the gardening i have done the last three years started it growing. the doctor said it's cause by arthritis, but she said i only had mild arthritis in my thumb. what happens is that the lining of the joing starts leaking synovial fluid, which is the fluid that lubricates your joints. the fluid pushes a tunnel through from your joint to the outer part of your skin and the fluid builds up and causes a lump. the lump is hard because the skin on your thumb is tight and it's not a big space. the cyst was covering about 1/3 of my thumb at the knuckle. i didn't want it to go into my nail bed, cause that would be painful. this cyst was causing me no pain, it just looked gross.

so yesterday i went to the hand surgeon and she numbed my thumb and put a needle in it and sucked out the fluid. i hope you guys aren't eating yet *. there is a 50/50 chance the cyst will come back, but she hopes scar tissue will cover the tunnel from the joint and stop fluid from moving. if it doesn't work, she has to so surgery to close up that tunnel. so, i have a big bandage over my thumb. i can take it off this afternoon and put a regular bandaid on it. my thumb was still numb (lol...rhymes) when i went to bed last night, although i had some feeling on the tip of it.

i still have leaves to shred this weekend and that will be it for this season. i am already thinking of thanksgiving! i've been keeping up with the posts in the other threads and it's good to see y'all have been doing pretty good, except for julia's still present pneumonia, which i hope responds to the different antibiotics!!

thank you for sharing and caring ,
jeannie

jeannie

[dawnmn]

Jeannie, your flowers are beautiful. I wish I had the sun to grow flowers. We have many trees. Which brings me to my complain. I hate picking up the leaves this fall. It seems like every weekend until it snows we are out there getting the leaves picked up.

Next house is going to have no trees. Boring but worth it just to not have to rake leaves.

[joy]

i hope that Jeannie your hand is healed and dawn so nice to see posts from you. i have been sorta doing nothing much latgely and had an aunt die, just have one left now and she was the twin to one that died. so much else going on and i do not stay on one thing long enough to finish before my mind is off to something else. take cate all.

[tic chick]

hey everyone !

one of my best friends of 28 years and her family is having a sad event happening. their daughter is dying of end stage liver disease due to cirrhosis. this young lady has fought anorexia (not eating enough) and alcoholism for the past 19 years. she seemed to be fighting the anorexia somewhat better, but not the alcoholism. she was in several in-house programs for alcohol abuse and once quit drinking for about 6 months for the longest. she was in the hospital intensive care unit for the last month, but the hospital has discharged her because there is nothing more they can do for her. the family has put her in hospice. this young lady is 31, will soon be 32 if she lives a few more weeks. i used to babysit for her and her brother and sister for a half an hour after they walked home with my children from school while their mom picked up the youngest child from day care after her day as a teacher. i can see my kids and her kids walking down the street to my house as i watched for them on the porch. the 5 of them were all within 4 years in age, from the oldest to the youngest.

i spent several hours friday evening moving my friend's furniture around and vacuuming so the home care company could bring in the stuff she needed, like a bed, an oxygen tank, a hoist, a wheelchair, etc. yesterday i picked uo some xl twin sheets and a few other things for her. i brought the stuff to her house at 2pm and stayed until 8. i listened to my friend talk to the nurse about the meds her daughter needs and what they're for and how often she can give them. my friend was confused as to why she wasn't going to get certain meds and the nurse was telling her that the doctor didn't think they would be helpful anymore. i took my girlfriend aside and held her and told her these meds cause more probs than they help and they are considered non-comfort meds...she has to be given shots for one of the meds. i said to my friend that they are just treating symptoms as they arise, not doing anymore tests or pokes or trying to cure. i told my friend this is what hospice does when someone has come home to die. i told my friend there is always hope, but the signs were that she was going to die. i think she can deal with this rather than hope that something is going to help her survive. i didn't want to be hurtful, i just wanted her to be prepared, because i think she can handle the truth better than wondering why the doctor isn't doing something.

this young lady's liver is entirely scarred, non-functioning. she has impaired brain function because the liver cannot clear toxins from her body and they are affecting her brain function. she is jaundiced, she has a tube draining her gallbladder sludge, she is trembling constantly. she weighs maybe 100 pounds with prolly 10 of it being excess fluid build-up because her kidneys are also working poorly. i told my girlfriend that her and her family can do this however they want. they can give her extra meds if they see she is having any kind of prob. she had some leg cramps yesterday and i showed my friend's son how to pull a cramp out of a calf. i think they are kind of afraid to move her much because she hurts, but the nurse said to give her a little morphine before they do anything too strenuous with her, so it will calm her.

i am committed to helping my friend and her family through this time. they trust me because 2 members of my family are alcoholics and i am trying to help them stop blaming themselves and to focus on spending these last days with their daughter in love and positive thoughts.

then i came home yesterday and cried by myself.

please pray or send out good thoughts that this young lady will die peacefully.

thank you for sharing and caring,
jeannie

[Jo6]

Jeannie, you have a heart of pure gold! I will remember the family in my prayers and will also remember you and your family.

I hope your Mom is not suffering. We can never tell, can we. We can only guess and I think some times we are guessing right. Many prayers for her and also for you.

I love you dear one, Julia s for Jeannie

[tic chick]

hey everyone !

my friend's daughter died this morning. my friend was up and with her when she passed and she did pass peacefully.

i was there last night until 1130pm and i helped my friend and her son change her and reposition her. she wasn't able to be roused and her breathing was labored. the family was prepared for her to die, they just didn't expect it to happen as quickly as it did.

thank you to all of you who had a positive thought or prayer for her. some prayers are answered and i am glad this young lady passed peacefully. she was 31 years old.

thank you for sharing and caring ,
jeannie

[dawnmn]

Jeannie, it was so nice of you to help your friend. My prayers are with the family and you during this time.

[joy]

Jeannie you are always a welcome presence and I am sure your friend felt better just knowing you were there. but not only there, having the insight of what needed to be done and then doing it. this is something that many people, myself included, cannot pull together and make it smother for the grieving ones.

you are a rare gem in todays' world and this does not go unnoticed.

rest up and take care of yourself during the difficult days to come.

[Jo6]

Jeannie, I do agree with Joy's kind words. We all look to you for guidance, but we aren't the only ones that count on you for help.

Our prayers and love is coming your way. Let us know if we can do anything at all to help. You take care of Jeannie, that does come first!


We all love you, Julia

[tic chick]

thank you all!

being friends with people is a 2 way street. i can be there for people hurting or grieving or having problems because i know they will be there for me when I AM going through those things.

everyone here in the emotional support forum has been here for me when i have had my probs. i know it's hard for me to be open about all my probs, but when i do mention something that i am going through, you all are here for me. i think that's the most important thing in supporting people having problems...just be there.

on the day before thanksgiving, i am thankful for all of you that have been here for me the past year. i am thankful to contribute to these forums in any way i can because we are all here at this moment in time and we all need people to be here for us...otherwise there would be no need for a forum like this.

i wish you all a happy thanksgiving with your family, friends and loved ones !

now off to bake some pies, cause for the first time in 35 years, i am not having thanksgiving here in my home. my daughter wanted to have thanksgiving at her apartment...so, i realize that things have changed since i am no longer together with my children's father. i'm going with the flow and not fighting it...at least i won't have a refrigerator crammed full of leftovers for days....that's something else to be thankful for !

thank you for sharing and caring,
jeannie

[dawnmn]

I just thought I would bring this thread up to date. It seems like we are all over the place.

I start my volunteer position on Monday. I will need to train for three days before I go on my own. It's for a food shelf supplier. I will be calling people to make sure that they are filling out their application for food stamps. I am nerves about starting I haven't trained for years.

We be taking lots of notes.

[Mal L]

I just thought I would bring this thread up to date. It seems like we are all over the place.

I start my volunteer position on Monday. I will need to train for three days before I go on my own. It's for a food shelf supplier. I will be calling people to make sure that they are filling out their application for food stamps. I am nerves about starting I haven't trained for years.

We be taking lots of notes.

Anyone with any ideas, please post. I keep checking but don't find anything. Have a good day.

[joy]

hello Mal, nice to see you are still checking in here with us. I hope everything is ok with you.

and dawn I hoped you like your job. tell us about it. it sounds promising to me and it is always nice if you have a job that is ok and the pay is never bad forf sure. beats sitting at home and not getting paid for sure. you take care and don't get so busy you forget to come back and join up with us