Category: Uncategorized

Okay, this was Leia’s first winter of her little life.The rescue we got her from could not tell me her actual birthdate. This picture was her first attempt to maneuver through the big snowfall we got:

It was too deep for her to get through successfully so that is why my Mom shoveled her a trail.

The “March Meltdown” has come sooner this year and this is what my yard looks like now:

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Leia likes to sunbathe so my Mom put her outside bed in the yard next to a mat left behind from the previous homeowners to give her a choice to be on them while the sun was shining.

My Mom set her bed up to let her enjoy the sun and she watched her through the kitchen window. But, Leia was NOT laying on either one of those things but instead was laying on the muddy grass. My Mom opened the back door and called her in by telling her to, “Get in here! Oh, you nasty girl!“ Hearing her say this, I immediately thought of this song:

The saddest thing about it being so muddy was that she could not play with her friend, Sado:

After watching Ben-Hir yesterday, I felt very much into the Lenten season. So much so, I thought I would watch Jesus Christ Superstar. I started watching it this morning before my Mom washed my hair. Once this song came on though, my thoughts shifted and I was reminded of auditioning for a play in high school. I was in the A-B rooms just above the gym and I was going to sing for the Director. There was a piano in that large room with two doorways.

When I was in high school, I did not know all of the words but I knew most of them so I sang The ones that I knew and just kind of sang, “La, la, la” to the melody. As I listened to this song, I got lost in my memories of being in high school so I had to stop before my Mom washed my hair.

After my hair was washed and dried, I continued watching the movie. It was the passion of the Christ and I was reminded of taking Sean with me to Stations of the Cross at DC. He was in grade school and he went with me every Friday during lent even though he went during school. He knew that Stations meant something to me so he just went with it. I remember being on crutches for most of those but I think I did go a couple of years in my wheelchair.

As my strength and mobility worsened, I was not able to go and now that I have pretty much been excluded from my church (because of my health) I have not gone to Stations but I consciously thought of going there and taking young Sean with me every week.

Over the years, it has worked out that I have purchased both movies that I have watched since it is Lent. I think I will have to watch it again, maybe in Lou of going to Stations of the Cross. I don’t think I can hear Mary Magdalene’s first song without first thinking of high school but I think that God will understand.

Okay, I first need to preface this post by saying that I have WONDERFUL neighbors, and I am reminded of this every single winter I have lived here! My neighbor around the corner (we share a fence) will bring his snowblower around the corner and snow blow my walkway and if he does not do that, my next-door neighbor will come over and shovel the walkway for me! Sean will come over before or after work to shovel as well.

So, since my Mom does not need to shovel, she has done some thing for Leia now that it is so cold outside and she doesn’t take her for walks because it’s too cold and it can be icy if someone doesn’t shovel and salt and Leia’s paws is NOT good. So this is what my Mom did after she saw Leah’s attempt at playing in the yard. Her little body couldn’t Was too little to get through the snow. My Mom decided to make a track for her around the perimeter of my yard. Leia likes to do her business on the Fenceline. So she dug a trench in the entire perimeter of my yard. In the morning, she goes out and will pick up any of her business that she leaves there.

My Mom took a video to show me what the trench looks like and I think it’s adorable! The things you do for love! And my Mom loves her! We all do! I will post that video on Twitter as well as Facebook. There are actually two videos. The first video was too long so I was able to post the second one that shows Leia Liking it. My Mom says that sometimes Leia will run around in circles really fast for a while.

Based on so many of my Facebook friends telling me to watch Bridgerton, I finally started watching it late Wednesday night. My Mom is not a fan of series and I didn’t want to take over the TV. I just watched it on my phone in my bed.

I posted on Facebook when I would see an episode and people told me that they couldn’t believe how disciplined I was just to watch one episode a day. I was told that they had binged it in one day.

I am a huge fan of and have done a few, “#SuperBinges” of my own! Game of Thrones in 10 days was a lot and the first 13 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy and one summer was also a lot. I just really didn’t want to binge this in front of my Mom.

Well, I saw episode three the night before last and my Mom took Leia for a walk, so I watched episode four on my phone in my wheelchair in the living room. Many of my Facebook friends had talked about the Duke as being so attractive but I really wasn’t feeling that until three episodes in.

After I was ready for the day, I put my glasses on and told myself I was just going to watch episode five. NOT a GREAT episode to watch with your mother in the next room! But then I was hooked and HAD to complete my, “#SuperBinge!” So, yeah, these scenes were uncomfortable to watch knowing that my Mom could hear them but I lowered the volume but completely got swept away with the storyline!

So, now I have to wait for season two to come out but I think I may have to forgo sleep one night to binge it without inconveniencing my Mom or making me uncomfortable!

I DEFINITELY would recommend the show but be sure to be mindful of who you watch it around. Even at 38, it was a little uncomfortable to know that my Mom knew that I was watching it! AND I am DEFINITELY into the Duke now!!!

I told Larry Foote years ago at Barwis that I was a Lions fan and a postseason Packers fan when we discussed his Super Bowl versus the Packers. Because of finding out about Matthew Stafford yesterday, I am just sad!

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I checked the score on my phone and saw that the Packers were losing and I was glad that I was not watching the game. But then, I checked the score again and Rogers was making it a game! I decided to watch the last quarter. I didn’t even have to wear my eyepatch because I can just wear my glasses instead.

I was so happy to hear Aaron Rodgers say, “Green 19” like I have heard him say that for so long! I just love it! I think I would be more of a Packers fan if they were not in our division.

I am at a loss right now because I am not sure if I am still a Lions fan or if I have always just been a Matthew Stafford fan. I have the off-season to think about this and I don’t know what I am going to do.

Sean has been trying to cheer me up by saying that Stafford may go to the Saints and that would be a good thing! I am just at a loss right now and I can’t even be a postseason Packers fan anymore… Super Bowl was a holiday for me and Sean and this year being sheltered in place and seeing who is going to play, I just don’t know if I’m feeling it…

So my eyes were a bit wonky and while writing my blog post, my phone had a glitch and it was lost twice so I had to re-speak my writing into my phone. Now, I am still rocking an iPhone 7s and it works for me. I don’t have money to get a new phone anyway but sometimes it gets glitchy because it is so many years old. As I am laying in bed not really sleeping yet, I reread my blog post I wrote earlier to edit it. I am extremely embarrassed that there were so many errors! For that I apologize profusely!!!

One thing I did notice was that a picture I tried to insert into my post didn’t let me and I think that’s because I over-cropped it. This is the picture I wanted to insert and my previous blog post:

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Karen is standing in the front row and is the second person from the left. She is wearing the blue blouse and checkered skirt with penny loafers. She chose to wear her regular glasses (I think) and put her reading glasses? around her neck. I haven’t read this book for 30 years but I think that’s how I remember it.

I haven’t worn glasses in so long but I specifically remember this book normalizing wearing glasses and I liked it because by that time, I had glasses!

And, sorry about the errors! I truly AM embarrassed!

A couple years ago, I ordered an eyepatch because my vision has gotten pretty wonky in the past 20 years.

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My right eye was the first one affected with optic neuritis and years later, my left eye joined the party. I wear the patch watching basketball with my son or watching any fast action movie. I’ve even worn it when I go to the movies but don’t put it on until the house lights go down. Recently, I think Leia got a hold of it and frayed the strap a little bit but that didn’t bother me:

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It was during my ophthalmologist appointment last week and the four hours of testing when Dr. Skarf determined that a prism could really help me out with the vision in my right eye. He didn’t want me to get glasses at the eye care center but told my Mom to just go to, “Walmart” or a store like that to get glasses without a prescription in them. He would put the prism in once we brought him the glasses.

I got onto Amazon to order them. I had never ordered glasses online before like this so I just went with the pictures to decide if I was going to buy them or not:

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The description says that the are, “Non-prescription nerd glasses.” As my Mom took the glasses to the doctor, I thought of a book I read 30 years ago. It was from the book series, The Babysitters Club Little Sister:

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I thought of this book specifically because, Karen, the protagonist, had glasses. They were red just like mine and she gets a pair of blue glasses just before her school picture. She didn’t know which pair to wear for her picture. She ends up wearing both of them:

So, even though my glasses are neither red nor blue, I thought of this one. My Mom and I watched a movie last night and I put the glasses on. I could see clearly and when I turned my head to the right to look at my Mom during the movie, I could see just one of her which I liked. It look like the prism was helping. Here’s what that looks like:

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Back when I used to teach, I would wake up at 4:30 in the morning in order to shower before work. When I first started working, I used to be at work at 6:30 in the morning. But then as my disease progressed, I ended up getting to work later and later. I just attributed that to me being a better teacher and not having to do a lot of work before school. In retrospect, my disease was just getting worse.

I think it must have been five or six years into teaching when I got first hour prep. That was helpful and as the years went by, it proved to be extremely helpful! It seemed to take me longer and longer to get ready for the day.

I think it was my last two years of teaching when I stopped driving. The first school year that I stopped teaching, I was still in a normal routine because Sean still got up to go to high school. And I HAD to get up to watch GMFB?!

But, since the beginning of this pandemic, things have shifted. My disease has continued to progress and my days have also begun to shift. For example, I didn’t end up falling to sleep last night till after two in the morning. Therefore, I didn’t wake up until 11 and it took me a while to be in a position to get ready for the day.

Today, things are a little more painful than other days. Getting ready for the day was rough! There were A LOT more groans, grunts, and even a few tears. Today, I really feel that MS is winning. Well, I KNOW that MS is GOING TO win eventually but today is a little bit harder. I kind of want this day to end so maybe I can feel better tomorrow. Since my day has shifted, it’s going to be a while until I make it to bed. Quite honestly, I just finished drinking my protein shake for lunch so I will be up for a while. Hopefully, no more tears but the grunts are still continuing.

I took this picture of my hair on December 21st:

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My hair has grown considerably since the beginning of the lockdown:

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Some of these pictures may be out of order but my hair is a lot longer than it used to be!:

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I miss my shorthair tremendously! My birthday wish is to get a haircut and I might as well get two eyebrows and wax my face while I am at it. My birthday is not until March so the rest time still…