Living With Pickle Relish Flying Through The Air

If any of you or if you know any one that has M.S. you will realize that the signs and symptoms of this dreaded disease is different for everyone. Each person falls into the same category of “difficult to diagnose.” I was a very special person that was easy to diagnose, but only after years and years of symptoms. I can remember they looked for chemical poisoning, Lyme disease, weeks of testing and finally came up with the flu. I was in a wheel chair and had excruciating pain, Charlie horses that drew my hands and toes up with no way to use them. Any way, I am not complaining. I am living with symptoms but not the horrible pain I used to have. I am not using a walker and a cane just occasionally.

I can read again, I can play the piano, and of course, I can play Wii games, but not today. HOWEVER, occasionally these symptoms come back with a vengeance. Today, I cannot hold on to things in the kitchen; I am dropping things, so I walked out of the kitchen. I dropped something that did not break and I am so glad I was very attached to that spoon holder. I broke a sauce dish of my sister’s. I have 2 sauce dishes of a whole set she used to have. Again just nostalgia, then a jar of pickle relish went flying in the air. For some reason I caught the jar and the only thing that went flying was the lid. Friday was a horrible day because my eyesight was so bad I had to have Fran look for things for me and finish sentences for me.

I have had a card for Fran’s new great grandson for almost two months. I have lost the address four times. I am sure it is difficult for people to understand. I finally found out why I lost it. I didn’t click on “save” on the computer. Two days ago I found that the address was incomplete. What a time. I think I finally have it right. These little things I try to find with a sense of humor which helps a lot and I also tell myself how very fortunate I am, which I am. There are some days like today where I walk silently out of the kitchen and whisper my secrets to you.

Wii Fitness I Am Not!

Last story, I promise about the Wii in our household. Wii Fit Plus says that Fran is obese and I am overweight. Well good grief, we knew that already. Then it assigned us a trainer , but did give us an opportunity to choose the exercises that we wanted to do. We had also chosen our goal to lose the weight we wanted as well as the inches.

I worked on the exercises for about 4 minutes. I probably won’t be able to walk tomorrow. I am not kidding

First of all I have not done the hula hoop since I was twelve. I did twenty one swings at that with my hips and Fran did nine. I bragged. I will not be able to walk with out groaning and moaning tomorrow.

I also did Yoga today. I have always been given that Yoga and meditation go together. NOT! There was an animated trainer that said to me, “ Evidently you are not taking exercising seriously, I know that you quit.” How did he know that I quit? I cannot believe that he and I will ever be friends.

Fran says he needs more music to make it more fun. Hmm, I just don’t know if it will ever be fun, but surely if I keep looking at different exercises I might find something I like and even something that HE does not know if I don’t do it. lol

Faith 'n' Begorra

Once and for all my brother has discovered our ancestry and or heritage on our father’s side. It was pretty much a Hodge Podge of things our dad told us with a few ahems and clearing of throat and tilting of his head. Generally we knew dad didn’t have a clue. Keith had been looking and deciphering and finally found that some of our ancestors did come from Ireland. Can you even believe it? I know my brother desperately wanted to be Irish. I could have cared less.

Well I decided that I would get him some table decorations with an Irish flavor for his visit. Not to be had in our little town, but they did have a great big chocolate chip cookie frosted with wonderfully delicious frosting. In the middle it said, “Kiss Me I’m Irish.” Keith was thrilled and we had all kinds of pictures taken celebrating our wonderful ancestors.

It is a nice comfy feeling to know that once a long time ago one of my ancestors had an Irish brogue and maybe was a bit of a fun person that might have liked to dance an Irish jig after tipping a drop of Irish whiskey. But most of all I hope they were full of fun like Keith and I are. I always wondered where we got our sense of humor. Now where is the pot of gold? Hmm, maybe Keith has this wrong!

Wii And We

As some of you know until October I had not seen my brother for over three years and my sister-in-law for over five years. They came to visit in October and we had a ball. We played a card game called thirty one and my sister in law won all of the games. There is much screaming and yelling when you play this game because there are quarters involved.

We did reminiscing and laughing and teasing each other. They met my new husband and treated him like they had known him for years.

We had a surprise a few days ago and it was my brother and he asked if we were going to be home this week end because they were going to be within an hour of our house. Are you kidding? Of course, we would be home. Again what fun we had! This time though it was just for a few hours, but we made the most of the time we had together. We went to visit a friend, we went on a tour of our lake and camp ground, and then we had some snacks while we were waiting and waiting and waiting for supper to get done. It’s a good thing that I planned an oven supper so I didn’t have to mess with it while we were visiting, however, it got put in the oven late. That’s okay it turned out good, thank goodness for a lot of cheese and crackers and salami and dip and chips.

When we got up in the morning I had a plan to show off to my brother my skills on the Wii bowling game. NOT!! He had never played, but his old bowling form remained in tact and he beat me! I cannot believe he beat me. He really enjoyed it and come to think of it so did Fran.

Lots of fun to be remembered with smiles until the next time we can visit. Oh I can’t wait.

I Didn't and Still Don't Like To fish

I didn’t go fishing mainly because I wasn’t asked. I WAS asked to cook the fish. It wasn’t a big deal to me because I really didn’t want to fish. When the kids were little, the guys went fishing and the girls stayed in camp and gossiped and giggled and watched our kids and had a really good time.

When the kids were grown and gone and another husband and a new boat (refer to past post) all of a sudden I wanted to fish. No not the kind of fishing where you actually put a live squirmy worm on a hook after you pull it apart first. There is absolutely nothing barbaric about that is there?

As long as I went with my guy fishing he was completely content as was I armed with my girlie magazines or anovel.

I remember one day we had pulled into a cove about a mile or two away from our lake home. At this time it really doesn’t make any difference how far away it was to the house, but that day it could have been the difference between life and death. He was having a wonderful time catching great big fish that were not fit to eat. Carp, drum, gar in my opinion were thrown back in the lake but lots of fun to catch because for one thing they are so big.

People that know me well know that when I read a really good book or story I am lost into the moment or hour as it is or was. I can remember to this day, I was gently but with some urgency told to put my book away and get my life jacket on. I did that, but really didn’t like it because it was hot. He backed out into the lake and at that point I saw the clouds. They were black as coal the wind was howling, and we were racing across the lake as fast as we were able. We were “cutting” through the waves for a smoother trip if that was even possible. I just couldn’t understand this horrible storm that was brewing. It was so calm and cool in the cove that was protected by trees and tall lake reeds.

As we were getting closer to the house I started screaming wanting to know if we were going to capsize. He said, “no everything will be alright.” When we got back to the house we were drenched by the torrential rain and huge waves. It took both of us to get the boat into the boat lift and secure it. We raced into the lower level of the house and proceeded to down a rum and coke in two gulps. I then asked if he had been lying about the boat capsizing. He said, “Absolutely.”

Interesting about life’s memories isn’t it, a person just wonders and shakes their head thinking only by God’s mercy and loving care am I here today.

"Elderly" Is A Relative Word!

I have been talking about our lake home in South Dakota. The basement or lower level, was not finished. The walls and floor were cement. I wanted everything painted. Oh my goodness gracious. I had never painted cement block before. I did the walls in two week ends and thought my right arm would fall off. Getting the paint to go into the little bitty holes in those takes forever. You have to roll the paint especially made for basements and then you have to brush the paint into the holes. THEN you have to give it a second coat to get what you missed the first time. There were several times when I wondered out loud since I was there by myself, if this was necessary.

When the walls were done, they looked so nice the floor was next. Once again a big job, but the floor was smooth and therefore, the roller did a good job. The walls were a nice blue and floor was a brown. I really didn’t want a carpet on the floor because of the moisture. We ran a dehumidifier all the time in the summer just because of that.

Because my mother was elderly and a little unsteady we put up a outside railing for her to get into the house from the outside, and another one for her to get downstairs.

I think her favorite place was the upstairs deck. I can remember fixing her coffee and cinnamon toast and putting it on a tray. I would not have to look for her. She always looked like she was just soaking up the sunshine. I was just sitting here thinking, “Awk!” she was only five years older than I am now. Oh, I miss those days! I would have been so much happier if I hadn’t turned that picture over and saw the date.!

Hello, Guess What?

I tended to be independent when I was about forty, or thirty, or twenty or even about fifteen. Any way one day I saw an ad for a lake house at an extraordinarily good price so I bought it. When my husband called he said like always, “so what’s been going on?” So I said, “Well, I bought a lake house today.” He calmly said, What?? Okay. We laughed about that for years. Except on the day that he left it wasn’t mentioned.

Of course, we loved the lake and the house, but we didn’t have a boat. There sat the dock just as nice as can be, but no boat. Once again I found myself looking in the want ads. You have to understand that I knew nothing about boats, motors, trailers etc. But I called about it and I even negotiated the price. I told them I would have to talk to my husband about it. I was told that they needed a check that day or lose it. Well, you guess it, I bought it. Once again, the familiar voice saying, “so what’s going on?” This time my voice was a little tremulous when I said, “Welllll, I bought a boat today.” This time there was silence. He quietly asked me what I bought, if I had the money in the bank etc. Then again he quietly asked me if I would PLEASE not buy anything else until he got home. I assured him that I would not. You know that has been so long ago I don’t remember if I kept that promise or not.