Month: September 2019

Sean wrote the mailing addresses on my package for my nephew and I got to put on the stickers! I felt like a little girl with a brand new sticker book! My niece texted me and wrote in part that, “the lady at the front desk asked if you knew i didn’t go to u of m😂❤️.” I sent her three laughing faces in response. I HAVE to rep my school! Her package looked like this:

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I just got my nephew’s address and his package looks like this:

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Consistency is key except my nephew lives on campus where my niece lives in off-campus housing so I think it might be a little bit different! I told them both that they were dead to me when they told me they were going to Michigan State but I said I would still send them packages but I would put tons of Michigan stickers on their packages.

I really enjoy sending care packages to colleges. It reminds me of the care packages I received from my Mom when I was at WMU. I made sure to enclose the specific things they asked for but I wonder how my nephew will receive his package given that he is a freshman and he lives on campus. Well, consistency IS key and I had a lot of fun packing the care package and putting the stickers on!

I started working with my, “Fuddy Putty” (it’s really called Therapy Putty) when it arrived to my house on August 2nd. Another member in one of my MS groups suggested it. She told me to work with one color until it gets easy. I started off with extra, extra soft which was extremely difficult!

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It burned in my wrists every time I squeezed it because my hand strength wasn’t very good at the time. I continued absentmindedly squeezing it from hand to hand as I watched TV. Ashley told me it would get easier and I didn’t believe her, that is until it actually DID get easier!

It took 10 days of working with it but on August 12, it actually got easier and I leveled up to the extra soft.

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It didn’t burn my wrists like a hot poker but I felt my forearm muscles working. I’ve worked with that one until August 24th. The next level was just soft.

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Well, yesterday, I texted Sean in the morning. I texted him this:

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In a little over a month, I have moved up to medium. It is SO difficult! It’s going to be a while before it gets soft but I continue to work with it knowing that it will get easier eventually.

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I can certainly squeeze it multiple times all day long and shift it from hand to hand. Sean says that I will be, “Tearing phonebooks in half in no time!“ The whole reason I started doing this was because it was getting increasingly difficult to brush my teeth and I was wearing my toothbrush out way too fast! Now, after all this constant work, it’s WAY easier to brush my teeth!

It’s all about simple pleasures because I can’t seem to stay awake during the day but when I am awake, I squeeze my, ”Fuddy Putty” and train for my phonebook tearing. It’s going to be a while before I finish with all six levels of Therapy Putty but, “Little by little, a little becomes A LOT.” I constantly told myself that Tanzanian proverb as encouragement while I was working out on “Walking Wednesdays” at Barwis. MAN, I miss that place so much and all of the WONDERFUL people I met there!

Yesterday morning, I received a knock on my door and two guys were on my porch. They were here from K&B Energy Solutions:

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to install a new generator!

With lots of scrimping and saving, I was able to get one! One that works! For me, it is a medical necessity! I’ve had three power outages in the past three years and the last outage lasted six days with four different hotels stays which NONE were properly handicapped accessible! Well, it looks like I won’t need to worry about that anymore! At least, in the next few days, I won’t have to worry about it anymore!

The guys who came in were named Nick and Scott and then a third young man came and he was also named Nick. I told Scott that it was, “A Scott sandwich with Nick bread” and he laughed and agreed!

I thought it was cool that he laughed and it reminded me of telling Mike Rhoades that it was a, “Jen sandwich with Mike bread” when he and an intern named Mike helped me stand at Barwis. That was before I called Michael Rhoades, “Michael” instead of “Mike.”

As they were in my basement, installing, my Mom and I left my house to get some lunch. We, “Walked” to subway a couple blocks away because they needed to cut my power off to install it. I learned a couple things on my, “Maiden Voyage!” The first thing is that it is NOT comfortable! It WAS possible for my motorized chair to make it to Subway but it was impossible to , “Walk” next to my Mom in the process. I sped to the end of the block and waited there for my Mom to walk there. There was a breeze so I wore my winter coat and a zippy. It was cold! What can I say?! I can’t control my body temperature anymore!

While we sat in Subway to eat our food, I had Sun Chips. I think the last time I ate them, I was in high school. Country music played in the background and it reminded me of high school because I could barely hear the words.

They were finishing up as we got home and they ran a test of the generator so I could see what would happen when my power went out. The power would go out for 30 seconds before it came back on and it sounded like a lawnmower was running in my backyard. I told Scott that I was surprised it was so loud but he told me that it, “Sounds like heaven when the power goes out!”

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Two different inspectors came to my house from the city this morning to inspect it. It passed the mechanical inspection but failed the electrical inspection. Scott told me they were pretty picky. The younger Nick came to change something on the generator and he knew what they were talking about to make me NOT pass. Once that is all figured out, he will inspect my generator again in six months and then a year from yesterday.

It’s kind of crazy that I will NOT be affected by the power outages in my neighborhood any longer. It’s actually really cool!

This evening, I attended my first senior parent meeting. I’m not going to lie, it was kind of surreal! I was telling Sean as he drove us to get some ice cream afterward that I can still remember him and his Divine Child Preschool Sunday School bag. He accompanied me because I had to go in my manual chair and my speech and my vision were wonky.

One of the presenters talked about the Senior Lock In that will take place right after graduation until 5 AM the next morning. She told us it will be the last time the kids will be together as Divine Child High School students and the first time they are together as alumni. I begin to tear up at that and Sean began to laugh at me.

It was really nice to be back in the Divine Child auditorium. I appreciated all the hugs I received from people because I haven’t seen anyone there in so long. So many of them have been DC parents with me for so long! Because I was in my manual chair, toward the end, my knee began to throb. The baby blizzard I had helped with the pain though. That campus is so familiar to me and it has been for so long that it’s kind of crazy how Sean will not be a student there next year.

I am sitting in my chair, listening to Gavin DeGraw, and trying to find balance. I can’t really find it today. I think I’m really bummed out because I have the MOST vivid memories hearing these songs! They remind me of living in my apartments! I was more, “able” back then. I guess I’m just really bummed that I am NOT that way anymore! I guess it’s like those Memes you see where they say that you wish you were as, “fat” as you were 20 years ago because you really weren’t, “fat” at all back then.

I am just wishing today that I was as, “disabled” as I was back then, 12 or 13 years ago. I was still walking on crutches and driving back then. Progression was slow and my knee didn’t hurt like it does all day, every day now! I think about that school has to be starting now. This is my third school year of NOT teaching. I think that I am thinking about that and it is pretty much unbearable, at least it is today.

Memories of these songs go from my apartments to working out at Barwis with Jesse and/or Adam. I hope to get back there one day but I can’t really see it. My knee hurts so much! It’s been almost 3 years since my injury and subsequent surgery and my body just doesn’t seem to want to bounce back from it.

I realized something last night as my Mom was over and we watched Aquaman. I’m not very familiar with this movie but it was almost over and Jason Momoa had just kissed the chick with the red hair. She commented that it was like my Dad.

Not too long ago, she caught the end of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley and she also said that Mr. Darcy was also, “Just like [my] Dad.” I appreciate that I can see a faraway look of fondness in my Mom’s eyes when she says things like that. I think it was just about the end of the movie when I asked her why she always says that the leading man looks or acts like my Dad.

She thought for a moment as the movie ended and her answer was clear and concise. She told me, “Only the handsome ones.” Things have changed for me now that I am a woman and I can see how much my Mom and Dad loved each other. I never thought of that when I was young because they were, “Just my Parents.” Now, I see things in a different light and I really liked that my Mom did not deny what I said to her but just explained that it was, “Only the Handsome ones.” I think it is crazy that she thought and thinks that my Dad was handsome but… they DID have five kids.