What's Happenin' (Part 2)

[clouds z]

mlk day --im sort of tired

[jingle]

mlk day --im sort of tired

Me too, me too. Last night I got a phone call with very bad news for the family. I don't know what to do.

[clouds z]

sleeping all day it seems

[clouds z]

what was the news?

[tic chick]

hey everyone!

jingle, i'm sorry something has happened to someone in your family. i hope you have found out if there is anything you can do. sometimes there is nothing you can do and you have to let it go.

i've been tracking plane fares for a little vacation to florida to catch some sun and warmth and to get out of my muddy backyard. i'm planning to go around mid-february. about 12 years ago, there used to be this handy guide that would tell you if ticket prices were stable or if they were going up or down. i used to book a flight for my daughter to come home for Christmas. then she started doing it. now that handy guide is gone and you have to check ticket prices twice a day in hopes of finding a deal. now some airlines charge baggage fees for your departing and returning flights! thay also charge a small fee for letting you choose your seat if you want to sit next to someone you know or your family. really. used to be airlines would be accomodating to those things, now they're just finding ways to take your money. but, we did find a deal and i'm happy with it.

hope y'all are feeling okay and waiting for some nice weather in spring!

thank you for sharing and caring,
jeannie

[houghchrst]

well I'm back. Jeannie I did what you suggested and hand to god I could only come up with five days something good happened and a couple of days I had to stretch. The highlight of my weeks is going to a couple of clubs I have joined and made so many new friends. I have more friends, people who would do just about anything for me, than I have ever had. I am thankful for that.

Still smoking but I think I am going to work on that after my son has moved out. Now is not the time. My house is a disaster I am waiting on that for a thorough cleaning also.

Jared's birthday is today. I'm so broke I don't know what I'm going to do. His dad has been keeping me in money and food and supplies. He's been wonderful. I've gotten over him. Was a time I didn't think I would but in the back of my mind I knew I was over him. I look so forward to being alone. At the rate J is going I don't know if that will happen.

J got recommended for truancy court again. He is just not going. I could take him out if things get too stressful but he can't ged until he is eighteen which sucks.. Starting Monday they will be watching him and he has regular visits to the court, I feel like I'm being punishesd. In a way I guess I am, after all I am his mother. But Monday he has promised to follow his 504 but he has to go.

I am in constant pain but thanks to a MMJ tincture I found I can take a dropper full every 4-6 hours and it keeps it at a low level, no high. MY primary actually wrote me for pain meds but I am saving those for those level 10 days or moments. Kind of hoarding them for those days when I really need them.

Will be seeing a new back specialist, hoping to find what is causing nerve damage. I looked up to see if it was possible to get nerve damage from getting back injections and chances are very slim. All I know is I hurt and I'm sick of it.

cj's mom still my pseudo exMIL just found out that her spine is crumbling around the cage in her back and in the back of her neck. Nothing they can do for her except make her comfortable. They recommended MMJ to her to try some different things. I'm heartbroken. Jareds grandpa just died, his grandma is gone, my mom. I have this visceral need to make sure that he knows his family. I don't want him to feel as disconnected as I feel. I rarely see or hear from my brothers, we did go camping at my cousins up north. Twice last year. Once with my brothers family. It was great. My family, a force to be reckoned with when we are together.

cj's family has made it quite clear that I am not to be let go so easily just because we aren't together. So I am close to them. Jared needs to be kept in contact with them.

I have been to four funerals this year three family one close friend. There are two more that I didn't make it to. Not real promising lol.

I think I broke my right pinky toe kicking my exercise machine in the night during a bathroom trip. It's way at getting back at me by reminding me it's there.

for those of you that enjoy getting snail mail still or a card. PM me your addy and I'll write to you. I lost all of the addy I had from here. Jeannie I have yours and Julia I have yours but everyone else's has disappeared. Pm me we can write.

Love all yous, talk to you soon

[joy]

so gad to see some people have been here,lol. always makes me smile to know that folks still check in. Jeannie I hope you get that trip to FL and enjoy nice weather the whole time.

and Christina so glad that jared's family still let you know visits are welcome and especially letting you know that they still care for you. awesome. I kinda think of you as someone easily loved and glad to see others feel the same way.
you will enjoy being alson with your youngest and i'm hoping it will be better for him as well. I know how grown-up my granddaughter seems (at 17) but seems is all it is. truthfully she still is a kid at eart struggling to grow up. darned glad I do not have to go through all that again myself, llol

well gotta get up and get busy the sun is shining and i want to look out of my windows and enjoy the scenery for awhile. take care all

[tic chick]

hey everyone !

well I'm back. Jeannie I did what you suggested and hand to god I could only come up with five days something good happened and a couple of days I had to stretch.

some days all we can do is stretch. i have a very easy gratitude for days when things aren't going well. i say, "i still have the capacity to love." and that's all that matters some days. a person cannot share a block of years with one person and not care for them after they are gone. caring or loving someone doesn't mean you can live with them, it just means you can recognize that at the time, yes you loved this person.

yes, joy, i will go to florida! we got a good deal and i'm happy. i wish i could spent maybe one or 2 days more, but i have my dogs to take care of. my son will watch the dogs on the weekend and then my daughter will pick them up and take them to her house for 2 and a half days. so you see how many hoops i have to jump through just to get a little break.

i am helping my bf wash the walls and doing some other cleaning in his house. he wants to put it up for sale in the spring, but he lacks impetus to get moving. so i cleaned out 2 rooms for him and washed walls and he's going to shampoo his carpeting . it seems if i'm there working with him, he cankeep on track. i know some men hate to clean, but you have to do it.

joy! it's so nice to hear from you. i miss julia and i am afraid she is not doing very well (i don't know for sure, but i suspect). all this nostalgia for days gone by when we were a vibrant forum here and in the alzheimer's forum where all of you popped in regularly or when you could. i will never forget the support i received and i do not regret one word i said because it came from my heart. this is why i think this forum is so important. you are connecting with people you know, who know your probs, who care enough to write you encouraging words. you can't do this on facebook like you can here. there is no pressure to keep up appearances or pretense of things beig better than they are. you can just vent here and no one thinksyou a worse person because we have all been in your shoes or in similar shoes at one time.

chris, you can't drag your son to school. perhaps if you show them his test scores or letters from his teachers that he is an exceptional student, he will get a bit more leniency, i dunno. but, you are not a bad mom!

and i always thank y'all for sharing your world and caring about mine,
jeannie

[houghchrst]

Jeannie shortcake has been told by his principal and the others in the school staff how smart he is, how capable he is that he is genius material and I think a lot of it has gone to his head. As of last Thursday the truancy court is becoming involved again we had a meet with his favorite principal and biggest fan and he wants J to understand that there are consequences but we did this in 8th grade of school and because of his medical they threw it out. His dad and I have a couple tricks up our sleeve that I should have allowed to be used. His phone, his PS4, and his puter. So we will see how this semester goes. His last chance this year to save some credits.

We spent the first part of this semester doing a bowel clean out using Mirilax. Things were pretty bad with his enco. All bound up and fist sized feces trying to come out at once. His belly has even gone down. Go see the gastro again on Monday.

Brennifer and fam are still here. They are collecting boxes for moving lol. It makes me laugh for some reason. Like they are putting on a show, it strikes me that way. I am heartbroken that their cat disappeared. I pray that someone took her in and that she didn't get taken on by a raccoon or coyote. She was just a slip of a thing. I keep picturing her injured in the woods in the cold. Brings tears to my eyes.

I joined two social clubs. I have made so many friends. Good friends. Do just about anything for ya type of people. I love it. I try to get out at least twice a week. Some would approve some wouldn't don't much care.

I forgot, my partial was approved, that was in there Jeannie and I didn't even think of it. I get molded on the 13th. Taking forever and it is embarrassing going out but thank God you can't hardly tell. Unless I open my big mouth standing right in front of you which I usually am LOL.

Im frantic trying to find Julia's addy. I had an address book that had everyone's written down in it even Mr. Jeff's for those that remember him, well my house has eaten it. I suspect my son's den has eaten it. And while it has been cleaned many times I still suspect it of having eaten it. JULIA please PM me your addy if you get in here. I will continue to look for things. I know I have got to have an envelope some where.

Jeannie I am so glad you get to go to Florida. You deserve it and the new love.

I am so over love. Having a companion might be nice to do things with but sex just does not interest me so as for a relationship I don;t see that happening. Sex is just about all men think about I said just about not all. And for some reason I am not attracted to men closer to my age. They have baggage and exes and grown children. When I think about it I do not feel my age, okay the body feels ninety, but I don't feel 51 anybody getting what I mean. I still giggle and blush and laugh at fart jokes. I guess maybe I thought I would be more stodgy. Maybe that was the picture my mind created when I was younger. Does anybody older than me still laugh at potty jokes? Prolly not lol.

[clouds z]

havent kept up here reading

[clouds z]

where the hell did every one go?

[jingle]

I've wondered that too ... and wished to hear from someone.
So - boring as usual - I'll talk. Here I am on my little machine when I should be working - doing something, anything constructive.
I need to make some of those Mexican cookies. So I'm chopping pecans - well, I'm supposed to be chopping pecans.
Baking cookies is a positive effort and I feel good about it. Every holiday - even a "holiday" like Valentines Day, I take cookies to the
local police station. Every Sunday I take cookies to two little Sunday School classes. I always have LOTS of cookies and candies in the
freezer - ready to go for any special occasion.

[tic chick]

hey all !

lol...at clouds post.

well, i was in florida from saturday, feb.11 to wednesday, feb. 15. a week ago today, i was basking in 81 degree heat at daytona beach and walking out and letting the waves of the atlantic crash into me. i can't swim, so i don't go out far and i got caught just right in a wave and it knocked me on my butt. and i am not a lightweight, well lighter than i used to be, but still solid . me and the bf stayed with his brother and wife. they live in a retirement community and people get up at 6 and go to dinner at 4. so, i was going to bed earlier and getting up earlier, but i did so much that i was tired by 11pm.

then i came home to reality. my daughter was watching my dogs and one of them, nora, slipped a little getting into my daughter's car. she didn't yelp, but she must have bitten her lip and there was some blood. well, 4 hours later and it still is bleeding, so my daughter takes her to the emergency vet who finds an ulcerated mass right under the part of her lip that hangs down because nora has those droopy side lips. so the next day, i take the dog to my own vet and he says it should be removed because it is about an inch big and it might bleed more. no problem with me and i tell the vet to clean her teeth while she's under anesthesia, too. so, she had her surgery friday and by the time i picked her up at 5pm that day, she was moving around well and she was hungry.

so, i am giving her pain pills since then. i will cut it down to one tonight and then nothing tomorrow and i will give her dry food instead of the canned i have been given her. the stitches in her mouth should dissolve or fall out in under 2 months. i didn't biopsy the mass. nora is 15 and in great shape and i will not put her through chemotherapy for a few extra months of life. i think the mass was prolly benign, though *fingers crossed.

nice weather in detroit. it was 70 yesterday and in the 50's the rest of this week and then possibly some snow on saturday.

i love to bake, too, jingle. i don't have anyone to give my stuff to, though. and if i ate it, i would balloon up again. mostly i put my creativity into meals. i love to cook vegetarian and thai plus i have my winter staples of mac and cheese and meatloaf and baked chicken. when warm weather comes, i eat more fish, salads, fruit. i'm sure all the people who are lucky to get your baked goodies really enjoy them and it's nice you give them to our first responders.

so, i will be back. i have some work to catch up on in the house. sorry i didn't post while in florida, but there is so much sun and so little time !

thank you for sharing and caring,
jeannie

my dogs: nick is the black dog and nora is the other one (click on the pic to see it larger):

my dogs.jpg

[jingle]

Oh, thank you for the precious photo of you dogs! Aren't we blessed to have such precious creatures?
I don't know what I would or could do without my cats.
Did I ever tell you how/why I have these two beloved animals? I was going to a domestic abuse clinic and one day my counselor said that she was suggesting, not telling, just suggesting that I go to the humane society and look at the cats -- not get one - just look. On my next visit to her I was babbling about the two cats I had chosen. She said, "You've been coming here for a year and I have never heard you laugh. In the group meetings you will smile a little bit, once in a while, but never laugh. Today you sit there smiling and laughing and HAPPY".

[tic chick]

hey jingle!

you're welcome for the pics of my dogs. in the summer i post pics of my garden. its 55 ft. long and 24 ft. wide and it has perennial flowers, grasses and bushes in it. i had a sewer break in 2010 and my yard had to be dug up to 70 ft. long and 6 ft. wide to get to the main sewer line. it looked like a swamp for 2 years. then i started bringing in dirt and more dirt and more dirt until it was more or less even. there are still spots that collect a lot of water when it rains hard.

i wanted to be busy outside. the dogs would sniff around and then chill in their favorite spots when i gardened from 5pm until dark. i played fetch with them sometimes and nora loves being squirted with the hose on a hot day. nicky hates it. i really didn't want any more dogs after my dalmatian, pepper, died. my ex and my daughter blackmailed me into getting nora. she was a handful, very energetic. still is. of course i potty trained her and took care of her when everybody went to work. nick came into our backyard on a stormy morning when nora was about 2 years old. we kept him when we couldn't find his owner. nora got on so well with nick.

it gets harder to lose dogs when you get older, which is why i didn't want anymore. nora and nick are both around 15 years and they have been my constant companions in the back yard for the past 7 years. my mom was in the nursing home since january 2009 and i was her medical power of attorney, so i made all decisions for her because she had dementia. my 25+ year marriage was tanking the last 7 years, also, the garden and the dogs were my escape. i found my peace in the yard.

the dogs make me laugh, too. i'm glad you opened up your mind and heart to taking in cats. i like cats, also, but dogs are more my type. all animals are precious and we have them for a short time, it seems. i don't know how much longer i will have nick and nora and i am not looking forward to the day they are gone. the joy they have given me these last 7 hard years has been immense. i was alone, (except for when my son came home from work, but he has his own life), for 2 and a half years after my ex moved, just working in my garden until i met my boyfriend in december 2014, 4 months after my mom died.

i'm glad your cats give you joy and companionship. sometimes, i miss being alone with the dogs and working in the garden alone, but when i need time alone, my bf is okay with that because he knows it makes me happy and then i am a better person when i am with him.

thank you for sharing and caring, jingle.
jeannie