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Hi ladies
After yesterday's trip to Yellowstone I stayed pretty quiet today. The landlord's 3 sons washed my car and vacuumed John's truck late this morning. I cooked lunch then went to Walmart to get some fresh veggies and stuff. I am so glad there are kids living in front of me. I love bananas but with all the trips we are taking some of them get overripe. I get to make banana bread and give most of it away. The boys love it and I don't over eat it. win win. Tonight we are going to a play.
Breakfast - oatmeal with blueberries and bananas
lunch - pasta with tomato sauce
snack - grapes
dinner - green beans, beets, and a baked sweet potato
Julia and Jeannie - My pastor from my childhood died with ALS. It is a horrible disease. Julia hope you friend gets the help she needs.
Dear Eileen..
I am SO enjoying your stories...imagine all of the lives that you have affected
in such a positive way!
Don't EVER forget that! *hugs*
Hello, everyone:
My life has been rather strange lately. I have A LOT of artwork to do but I have reached a high pain phase...they usually last about ten days..I am on day 8...and I just do not feel like doing anything. I am so disappointed in myself for being so non-productive while I have so many jobs that must be done and I now have yet another client for a children's book so I have to get an attitude adjustment really soon...when I get like this, I tend to isolate, including not posting.
Having said all of that, EATING is NOT an issue. I have to laugh about this..so ironic having been an emotional eater all of my life.Instead, I struggle to eat enough. I have to gather up my craft supplies as little Kaylee (10) has asked for a CRAFT DAY...so we are making SUN CATCHERS with glass globs of many colours and perhaps Kristen who just turned 14, might prefer to cover glass jars with the glass globs to hold her drawing pens. Either way, we will have a nice afternoon and Jen (their mother) gets to have a quiet timeout or a nap.
Before I drive there, I have to stop in next door where my son Derek lives and drop off some colouring books and a cheesecake. He has a lady and her two teen daughters visiting for the afternoon...they are visiting from ENGLAND and Rachel (the mother) and Derek are old facebook friends for many years. Derek is BBQ'ing their lunch so I am providing a chocolate caramel cheesecake....funny how I have NO craving for it at all. In fact, I find that most desserts are so SWEET that they make me nauseous. WHODDA ever thunk it!?
My weight still wavers over five pounds- naturally affected when I cannot take my water retention pills for my legs when I have to go out. I look forward to seeing my SLEEP doctor (annual appointment since I still use my C-Pap) because I have lost over 40 pounds in the last year! He will be SO surprised!
My family doctor didn't really notice last week (after three months****il I lifted my top to show him my waist...THEN he just grinned and shouted WOW! I still tend to wear roomy clothes...everything is too big now...again..after I bought all new clothes over the Spring. Today I took in a pair of knit pants...six inches off the waist! I just wish that I could see the difference...I need new eyes or a new brain....lolol.
Wed.Breakfast: hot chocolate protein drink
Snack: yogurt cup
Lunch: hard cheddar and one hard cooked egg
Snack: peach
Dinner: small piece of diced steak, cooked beets and steamed bok choy
Bedtime snack: fresh pineapple
Julia,
Back in the mid eighties, I had a friend whose husband had ALS and he was diagnosed with ALS a month after my friend was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. They were in their mid 30s, a little older than I, at the time, had no children, and the only family they had was their friends. He worked for the railroad, so they had excellent insurance, so another friend and I began managing their home health care. We were able to keep round the clock nurses for both of them and physical therapist came and we were able to get a van equipped to lift their wheel chairs up and down so that we could take them back and forth to the doctors. The wife died first. Her nurse called me and said her end was nearing and since I had no one to watch my children, (toddlers), I took them with me and put them on the sofa to sleep, thankfully they did, and I made her nurse move her hospital bed next to his and I put their hands close and he sort of held her hand while she died. After her death, he lived six more years and maxed out his insurance but another friend, who was his friend (I was her friend), also worked for the railroad and she married him so that he could immediately get her insurance benefits and thus began his final stages of ALS. He eventually was unable to move anything but his eyebrows and he had a trach connected to a ventilator, a tube feeding coming out of his stomach in which the nurses gave him feedings, water, and medication. The night he died, he had appealed to a court to allow him to end his life or take away the feedings and respirator. Finally, a judge granted permission to remove all life support and we all gathered. He clicked and raised his eyebrows and tears flowed down from his eyes past his ears and onto the bed and he lasted six minutes. He had very loyal nurses, friends, and doctors over those years but he knew there was no cure and he was so tired of fighting. I hope your friend's suffering doesn't last as long because it can be pretty bad. You are a good friend.
Good Morning to you Jeannie and those to come. I am so grateful for your loyalty to this group Jeannie. I too wish more of the lurkers would post. I have found that this new and improved format really helps me stay focused and I have lost ten pounds since we started doing this. I like hearing the newsy stuff plus I truly get ideas from some of your food lists. I am more accountable when I post and I feel supported when I fail.
I'm having a pedicure and threading today. Yesterday I spent the day with my friend that has ALS. We got a lot done...forms filled out and mailed, financial details listed, a wish list for adaptive medical supplies completed. I am trying to get her to push for having physical and occupational therapy provided in her home. Her mobility is poor and the effort involved to get to appointments wear her out. Plus I think it is better to work on making her environment work for her as long as that's possible. She knows that eventually she will have to go to a nursing home. I think that maybe she can stay in her home with adaptation. But the professionals need to evaluate this and give us clues on keeping her home as long as is possible. The day was fulfilling for me but emotionally draining.
Breakfast- protein drink
Lunch- cheese, a couple of crackers, apple slices, cranberries
Dinner- beef stew, salad.
Snacks- nuts, cheese, cranberries
Ladies,
Just so you know, it's okay to post on the daily thread. I know some of you are busy and others have been on vacation, but in order for our board to thrive, we all have to contribute. While I enjoy reading various types of posts, I think a comment here and there on the daily thread or even starting the thread would be nice.
Glad to get that off my chest. Today, I am canning some jalapeños. I don't eat the peppers, but I sure do use them to add a little flavor to various dishes. My daughter's garden was very successful this year and the peppers just keep right on growing as does the okra so I am pickling and canning every few days. I freeze the okra or make pickled okra.
Well, the real-estate agent contacted us last night and said that the seller is coming down to our offer, which wasn't really a counter offer since she countered and we stayed quiet and she just kept coming down. I contacted my retirement folks and they said when I am ready, they will start putting money in my savings so that we can buy the house and pay for renovations. I am so happy that when I set up my retirement, I had the maximum amount taken out of my check that the university would match at a 100% and then I added a couple of hundred extra so the money piled up quickly and the investment officer was wise in investing and now I am okay. Yeah...The man who is going to help with the cabinets and I talked yesterday and he drew the cabinets out and I loved it. He utilized every inch of space in that kitchen and I am going to have a ton of counter space and storage. This is the first time that I have actually designed my cabinets and I am designing on how I use my kitchen and what needs to be stored. I'm also working on my craft room. I cannot wait to get all my stuff back in order so I can start quilting again....
Okay, today I am packing some things and, of course, canning. I'm also going through our clothes and tossing **** we don't wear. My husband will never throw away anything. He has suits that he hasn't worn in twenty years so today, I am getting them ready for the salvation army, those that can be worn.
Breakfast: loaded oatmeal
Lunch: vegetables and shrimp
Dinner: potato soup....
Snacks will be watermelon of which I am tiring. My daughter has had an abundance of watermelons....
Ladies, rock on and please post. We all need support and your words may be the one thing that keeps me or one of the others on track....
I took some time on this rainy afternoon to make zucchini bread. I've always loved to bake, something I got from my dad, I think. He liked to take a recipe and tweak it, adding a little something extra. I do the same thing.
I bring up the baking love because I had a mini baking assembly line in my little house in Anaconda, manned by the neighbor kids. How this happened, I was never quite sure. But somehow all these kids were drawn to me.
Wally and Margie were quite involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters and encouraged me to get involved, too. They didn't have a kid they sponsored, but they participated in a lot of the activities. At some point, I decided I would get a little sister, because I missed the closeness I had with my nephew, Christopher, and the fun we had doing things together when I lived with him.
So after I passed the background check, I was paired with a young girl named Patty. I don't know all the problems she had in her life, but she was awfully quiet. It was difficult to know what to do with her. I had planned to take my "little" to games and such because I was always going to ballgames as a part of my job. She went, of course, but wasn't interested. We did go to movies and swimming but I didn't know we had any real connection.
I also started a business of sort with my camera. I had been taken scenic photos wherever I went, and many people liked them and wanted to buy them. So I decided to go to arts and crafts fairs during the summer and try to sell these framed photos. I put out smaller ones, too, and note cards I had made with the photos, to get people who didn't want to spend as much.
Early on, I could see these items weren't making quite as much as I had hoped. I decided to add on giant cookies. I figured I could make two or three different kinds and that could make enough to cover my booth fee.
So I started with simple chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin. And I was right, people loved them. Patty helped me make them, too, and a couple of kids from her apartment complex came around with her to help us.
The next fair, I decided to add a peanut butter cookie on a stick with a candy bar in the middle. I found the recipe in one of my cookie cookbooks. This involved a little more assembly. Patty and the girls from her apartment complex came again, and we began to make chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter with Mars bars and peanut butter with Snickers.
The cookies on a stick were a big hit. Eventually, Patty backed out of the little sister arrangement and I got a "little brother" named Earl, who joined the cookie baking and helped me at the craft fairs. He was able to help set up and carry, too.
So during the week when I had time we were baking. I swear I had flour under my fingernails most of the time. One year, it rained so hard, the Anaconda Art in the Park was forced indoors to the industrial park. The t-shirts were changed to say "Art in the Industrial Park." The good thing about that arrangement was we didn't have to set up and break down every day.
I can't tell you how much I made from my photo-cookie business during the four years I ran it. I certainly helped supplement my income (small-town journalists don't make a lot of money). I felt like the pied piper of the neighborhood kids, drawing them into my house with promises of cookies.
Earl eventually changed his name to Ray when his mom remarried. He came out with me when I moved to South Dakota, helped me settle in and then went back with the person who moved my furniture out to Aberdeen, South Dakota. The young man and I had some interesting trips along the way. We were the only Big Sister-Little Brother pairing in the state at the time. He liked going to the ballgames with me, watching sports and doing other things I liked to do. It turned out to be a good match.
I don't know why I attracted all these kids back then, but maybe it was the cookies. I'm certainly not the motherly type.
Hey All,
I am spending the day looking at Kitchen cabinets and bathroom things. I cannot wait to actually have a refrigerator that is big enough to hold more than a few items. Yesterday, I picked out tile for the kitchen floor, the backdrops, and the bathrooms....I still need to pick the flooring in the rest of the house. I am thinking of hardwood because I hate carpet....Maybe carpet in the living room and that's it.
Today's breakfast was egg and bread
Lunch will be a smoked gouda and tomato sandwich
Dinner will be vegetarian spaghetti (Imake a killer sauce).
Snack...we are still eating watermelon and fresh veggies from my daughter's garden.
Ladies, have a good day.
good morning julia
I have been up and running for 2 hours getting prepped for our day trip and I am tired already. Think I will sleep in the car.
I have washed two loads of clothes, made and packed a picnic lunch, taken out all the trash, washed the breakfast dishes and oh yeah, taken a shower and gotten dressed. I am ready for a nap. We are going to Yellowstone to finish the mammoth springs area, should be gone until late tonight. It takes 2 hours to get to the park and another hour or so to get to the springs.
breakfast - toast with peanut butter
lunch - hummus with carrots and deli chicken
dinner- don't know yet
exercise - walking and walking and walking
Hi Everyone,
I haven't been here in a few days so I need to get back. I had lunch today with some old colleagues. I miss them, but having lunch is the perfect way to stay in touch. The district is short three and a half speech therapists and they don't have any assistants to hire either. They are asking the small staff to cover schools that have no one. It's a horrible situation and if I were there I would be screaming bloody murder. They are trying to get the district to hire me to do assessments, reports, and meetings to help out, but I will only do that if they pay the rate that I was making when I retired. I have a limit also to how much I can make in a year before they start deducting from my retirement checks. We will see. The district doesn't like to do this because the process is kind of difficult but I think they need to just do what it takes. A lawsuit will be far more difficult. But whatever...
Tomorrow I will be spending several hours with my woman friend with ALS. She can't be left alone because she needs help with everything she does. Her Boyfriend
could use respite and she is hoping that he will be able to go back to his part time job a couple of days a week.
Breakfast: protein drink
Lunch: pepper cheese with a few crackers. Apple slices with cranberries
Dinner: chicken with a veggie mix
Snack: cantaloupe and nuts
