Category: A Bit Of Randomness

So, I have figured out now that if I am really excited about something, later that day and into the next day; I “poop out.”  A prime example of this is Thursday. Sean got his braces off.

I was so excited for this to happen in the days leading up to the appointment!  My friends and my Mom warned me to not be so excited because I would, “poop out.”   Sean said that I would fall asleep on the way home. My mom came with us to drive just in case.

Well, he was right. I, “pooped out” on the way home!   I was so extremely excited to be there and my Mom and I could sit on the couch in the back to watch him get them off. My Mom sat on the couch and she just put me close to it. The tech taking his braces off was named Holly. I told her that it wasn’t this exciting when I got my braces off 23 years ago and that I was so excited! I asked her some questions about his retainer use  after his braces are off.

It wasn’t until she was finished and Sean was in the bathroom that she came over to the couch and sat next to my Mom who was sleeping.  She tapped her leg, woke her up, and handed her a clipboard and started explaining the things she needed to sign when my mom looked at her and pointed to me. My mom told her that I was the, “responsible party.”

Holly turned and looked at me and asked, “Aren’t you his sister?”  I laughed and told her that I was his mom. She gave me the paperwork to sign and I signed it. I think I was so excited about this day because his teeth have  come a very long way!

Sean didn’t want me to take these pictures but I assured him that it would be a nice comparison when his teeth are straight. In this picture, I remember telling him to, “Show me his teeth!”   I took this picture on  June 13, 2015.

This picture was taken July 20, 2015. His vampire teeth had already started to move! These are the only two pictures that he let me take. I’m sure if he was a girl, he would’ve let me take more. I wanted to make a Flipagram of the progression. I just have before and after.

He’s had braces for three years. He started seeing the Orthodontist when he was seven. He needed mouth surgery to get four teeth pulled before he got his braces on and surgery after the braces were on to expose teeth that were below his gum line on his lower jaw.

He humored me to take this one picture before he went out because I told him that as a single mom, paying for this all by myself, this moment makes me really proud! He said that he hasn’t done much to be proud of then. I told him that this was not the proudest moment I have had because of him but the proudest moment I have had because of me!

Also, I think it takes me TWO days to fully recover after I, “Poop out” now!  #MSsucks!

Everyone knows that I am a HUGE GMFB fan!!!  My weekday mornings begin with turning the TV on before I even have my contacts in. Today, it was Whiteboard Wednesday.   Peter Schrager chose Jordan Mailata as his answer so then, they would cut to his highlight reel. They have talked about him before and he is the Australian rugby player who is making the transition into the NFL. He’s super tall and his highlight reel is impressive!

Toward the end of the show, they were speaking about him and they cut to the interview with him when he was on Good Morning Football the first day of the draft.   It took a moment for me to realize that I had not seen this before because it was that morning that I went with Sean to get his braces off. I had to go with him because I am the “responsible party” for his braces and I needed to sign some things.

They showed an abridged version of the interview on the show and I was amazed! First off, he is a really big dude but then, I heard him speak! 😍😍😍

I have ALWAYS loved accents!   I remembered having a conversation with a  former colleague about 10 years ago about how much I liked accents and he asked me if there was an accent that I did NOT like. I thought for a moment and said,  “Mine.”

As I write this, I am reminded of a class I had in undergrad at U of M.  It was an English class taught by Dr. Smith. I went to U of M Dearborn so  we had smaller class-sizes.  Departments were smaller and I had Dr. Smith for a couple of classes. I decided in my first class that I had a big crush on him! It was in my second class with him that I can’t even remember why he did this but it went with the conversations we were having as a class. But, he taught the back end of the class speaking in various accents.

I remember taking notes on what he was saying but I think it was somewhere around the Irish or Scottish accent that I stopped writing, rested my chin in both of my palms, and I am sure that I had a starry eyed look in my eyes!  The classroom was small and I’m sure he saw me! I almost was embarrassed as I gathered my books at the end of class.

I didn’t need to take any of his classes the following semester, but I remember he sat in on one of my classes to evaluate the professor. He was sitting in the back of the class as I walked in and put my bag down and was talking to a friend who was already seated in the class when I heard, “Hello Jennifer.“  This must’ve happened about 15 years ago but I can still remember that my face burned as I looked at him, smiled, and with an embarrassed look, quietly said, “Hi Dr. Smith.”

I found the complete interview on YouTube and had to post it here so I can watch it multiple times,  whenever I want .  I love his accent!

Then, I saw he did another interview at the draft with Rich Eisen , Charles Davis, Daniel Jeremiah, and Mike Mayock so I posted that here too.   I am not trying to be a regular season Eagles fan but I will be Jordan’s fan because I heard him speak…

During the week, I call to Sean to make sure he’s up for school. It takes me a moment for my body to,“warm up” once I open my eyes so lay in bed until after he’s out of the shower, dressed, and just about to leave for school. He helps me get out of bed. I have a big, four-poster queen sized bed.

I got this bed when Sean and I moved into our second apartment.  As my disease has progressed, I think the bed is too big for me now. The frame is too high off of the floor.  I can’t get over the fact that it’s paid for so I can’t seem to get rid of it just yet.  Because it is so high off of the floor, I need help to get me out of bed in the morning.

Sean got out of the shower Friday and he was in his room which is right next to mine so I called to him and told him the beginning of this meme that I read Friday morning:

All I said was, “I got called pretty today” and Sean responded with a somewhat indignant, “By who?!”  It’s just been Sean and me for pretty much all of his life. Then, I read the whole meme and started laughing hysterically!

He came into my room because he was just about ready to leave for school and I was still giggling as he put my shoes on and grabbed my ankles to pull them  sideways off of the bed.  Then he grabs my left hand to help me sit up. Since my knee has been hurting so badly lately, he just pulls me off of my bed, picks me up, and puts me into my wheelchair.

It takes me a minute to  move my arms so he buckles me into my chair.  I was still smiling thinking about that silly meme. He leaned  against my bedpost for a moment and said something like, “Mom,  you’re something else!”  I asked him why and he told me that, “You wake up and you are five steps behind everyone else  and here you are laughing and smiling when anybody else would be curled up in a ball and crying.

I was a little shocked to hear him say this. I kind of looked down and said quietly, “Oh, I cry!“  he leaned over,  kissed my forehead, told me to have a good day, unlocked my wheelchair, and left for school. I sit there in shack for a little while. My kid IS something else!

He’s told me before that he can’t remember a time when I wasn’t in a wheelchair which breaks my heart a little bit.  On days when my hands aren’t working too well and I can’t grasp both a fork and knife to cut my food. He will cut it up for me before we begin eating dinner. The other day, I told him to get forks for both of us and he comes back to the table with two serving forks.

I started to laugh asked why he  got them.  He just sat down and said, “They’re forks!” blessed himself and started saying Grace.  I joined in and guessed that I was eating dinner with a serving fork!   I told him that we should pretend we had shrunk or something. He  looked at me and just kind of shook his head.

I asked him last night what he meant about me being, “Five steps behind” and he told me that it’s so much harder for me to do the simple list things and takes me so much longer – but I still do them.”  I hope that he learns some kind of lesson in seeing all of this…  I will eat dinner with serving fork anytime he wants to!

I talked to my brother last Friday.  In our conversation, (I don’t even remember what we were talking about) but he told me, “”This are hard!” And I began to laugh! That statement is from what I thought was a cartoon from when we were kids.  It actually is a claymation short.   It’s titled Morris Goes To School.  It is a claymation short based on a book that we owned.

I searched for the clip with just Morris telling the teacher that, “Yhis are hard!” But I couldn’t find it.  All I found was this clip that shows that Morris isn’t very smart, that’s why he has to go to school.

The  following video is the entire 15 minute short. I don’t remember how old I was when I first saw it my 2 brothers and I understand when we say, “This are hard!“

This week has been difficult for me!   Monday was a wonky day, Tuesday evening, my left foot felt like it was going to burst out of my shoe! I had visions of taking my sock and shoe off and finding out that my foot was large, black, and needed to be amputated! I didn’t have my compression socks on for less than one day and the blood pooled in my feet from of my lack of blood flow in my lower extremities because I sit all the time.  #MSsucks!!!  It was the first time in 17 years of having MS that I was scared. I have been angry, disappointed, sad, and frustrated many times but never scared.

My Mom came by that night to put them on for me. I cannot put them on myself. This process takes about a half hour!  My left foot was deep purple, my Mom rubbed it for a while and then put my socks on.  Wednesday, I saw A Question of Faith on Netflix at my Mom’s recommendation. I cried and cried!   I watched it three times. Maybe I just needed a reason to cry!  Today, I watched Beaches and I cried again!   I was reminded of spending the night at my neighbor Aseal‘s house with my friend Heather when I was young!  We watched that movie over 1 million times back then!

I’m not sure how my body will react tomorrow but in addition  to all of this, my knee has been hurting constantly this whole time!   I had to pay for a refill for the cream that my Mom rubs on my knee because my insurance no longer pays for it.  I still need it, so…

All I know is that, “This Are Hard!”

I read this tweet three days ago:

I tweeted Kerryon Johnson two pictures today telling him that,  “I have loved a @Lions #33 since ‘09!”  He is this year’s second round pick for the Detroit Lions.   I came across this picture is not too long ago and I became a Lions fan in 2009 because of watching pee-wee football, I needed a model for what it was supposed to look like  and not just a bunch of little kids running around bumping into each other.

It  was the year after the 0-16 season and I don’t know a Lions team without Matthew Stafford!

2009 was a great year for, “The Three Little Ones” (me, Jimmy, and David) and my health was a lot better (rather, I should say NOT as bad as it is now).

I cannot say enough how much I LOVE Good Morning Football!  Thursday, they had a HILARIOUS segment about the, “All-Royalty Team” in honor of the royal wedding that happened earlier today.   Each player on this team had a royal name and they all introduced each team member with a British accent! I LOVED it, (even though some people on Twitter did NOT!)

QB Shaun KING

RB DUKE Johnson

WR Eddie ROYAL

Jeff QUEEN (A player from the ‘70s)

CB PRINCE Amukamara

S Sammy KNIGHT

LB  LONDON Fletcher

P Marquette KING

My favorite was when Kay said that Marquette King is a, “puntuh” 😂😂😂

Friday morning, I turned the TV on (like I always do) as I put my contacts in so I just listen to it  until my contacts are in and then I make my way to the living room to watch it. I rolled into the living room to see this:

Will Selva was dancing while wearing the shirt that Nate sent him that has all of their names on it. Nate‘s first shirt had the people at the breakfast table and Hamilton and he forgot Will.   He rectified it and Kay Adams told the true fans of the show where we could buy one!  I ordered mine! OF COURSE, I ordered mine!

Check out my new shirt!:

I can’t wait for it to arrive!!!

I’ve been tearful all day long! I can’t really figure out why. My body hurts, my knee hurts, it’s warm outside, so therefore I am holed up in my house where it’s cool. I’m watching Finding Forrester. 

Is free OnDemand. This is the third time I have watched it in two days. I have seen it 1 million times and that’s a trait that I have inherited from my Mother; I can watch the same movie over and over, (just like her) 1 million times and not get tired of seeing it if I like it. I like this one! It’s got Sean Connery in it so DUH!

My Sean doesn’t so much like that that is how he got his name. I didn’t choose it, it was a tossup between two names and he didn’t have a name and he was already three days old.  I was still in the hospital. When the nurse came in to ask me what his name was, I asked her and when I gave her the option of, “Sean,” she said, “Ooh, Sean Connery is so handsome!”

That’s how he got his name! But, thinking about it,  maybe I am so   tearful because I downloaded Solitaire on my phone not too long ago.  My Dad taught me how to play Solitaire.   He always used to play it while he laid on the floor in the living room in front of the TV. First, he taught me how to play Rummy  where we both would lay on our stomachs on the floor and balanceon our elbows to play.

My Dad would lay on the floor and play Solitaire a lot and sometimes I would see him starting to cheat after a long game and I would  jokingly ask him what he was doing. He would reply simply, “Cheatin’.”  I cannot, “cheat” like he used to on my phone because I am not laying on the floor with a deck of cards. Every time I click the, “New Game” button because I have lost, (MANY TIMES) I think of him telling me that he was, “Cheatin’.”

I think it is my mindless playing of Solitaire on my phone that helps me to NOT think about the pain in my knee and the pain in my body for a short time. When I lose however, there still remains a pain in my heart.

He would be 67 on Wednesday.  In August, it will be 12 years since he’s died. This Father’s Day will be my 11th fatherless  Father’s Day. I  miss him so much!!!