I have done something kinda crazy and impulsive, and I am so excited about it!
A few weeks ago, I was window shopping on the internet for a cheap get-away to anywhere. After looking at what was being offered, I saw some deals that I thought might actually be possible. I showed Patrick how much it would cost us for a hotel and plane tickets, and we decided to go for it!
The really crazy part is NOT us deciding to go on the spur of the moment. It is actually because of how long we are le
I love him, don't get me wrong. But I have been secretly contemplating on ways I could kill him. Okay, kill is a bit strong. Mame would work...
We are in the process of getting OUR first house. Overall this has been allot of fun, looking at what is on the market, and finding out what our tastes are, what our needs are, and what out wants are. It has been a challenging process, as Patrick and I have different ideas on what will work for us. Thankfully though, we have found our "perfect house"
I feel so down today. So does Patrick. While gathering ourselves to leave OT and go to Speech, Patrick had another mini-seizure. It only lasted two or three seconds, but it was what it was. He was sitting on the mat and just slowly slumped over on his side. I was sitting in a chair next to him in the direction he slumped, so I was able to catch him before he fell completely over. No sooner had I started to upright him than he came out of it, unaware what had just happened. He felt fine, so we de
As some of you know I have been chosen as a Top 10 finalist in the Rotel Across America recipe contest. Thousands of recipes were entered and I was one of the lucky ones selected! I need votes in order to win the prize of $2000, all you have to do is be a member of Facebook and Vote Here! I would love your support- you can vote once a day through June 30th.
I don't post often anymore, (mostly lurk these days) but I am longtime member and the caregiver to my husband, Patrick, who had a massiv
I would like to personally say thank you to Robin and Trina for responding to my very drepressed blog entry shortly after my birthday. It DID help. I had to delete it though- I just couldn't handle looking at my own irrational feelings. I wasn't able to face them.
I have always been a stiff upper lip kinda girl. I don't know. Maybe not. Maybe I developed it in elementary school when I had such a hard time fitting in. I don't often remember those early years with much happiness.
At any
Once again today, I heard the phrase that everytime someone says it to Patrick, sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me: But you're too young to have had a stroke!
I always smile, and stay positive, after all, they are merely expressing their ignorance of strokes and stroke survivors. Oh, I'm sorry- I said I 'stay positive'. What I meant to say was, they are just trying to say they are shocked someone who is not 'elderly' suffered a stroke. They mean no harm, so thats why I put on my colg
I have been working my butt off the last few weeks. The weekend before Valentines Day is always busy, and of course Valentines Day itself is nutty, and we have been short staffed. This does not make life any easier.
My last day off was last Thursday. I had to work 8 days in a row after that because I requested my days off this week to be Saturday and Sunday. I was suppose to start a vacation on Monday, so the weekend off before my vacation was stretching it out a bit longer.
Unfortuna
I didn't WANT to do it, I swear!!
Patrick and I decided to clean out the flower pots and flower bed today so that when we are ready to plant, the containers are also ready. They were full of dead plants and flowers.
The first few pots were easy, we just had to remove the dead flowers from the center of the pots, and we left the evergreen plants in there, as they are already starting to perk up for spring. We then moved on to the side of the house where the flower bed is. It is about
On Thursday, Patrick and I decided it was now or never to take a drive into the mountains and get some pictures of the Aspen trees in all their fall glory. I am so glad we did! The day was sunny and gorgeous and we were able to get some great pics.
We started up the mountain around 11am with our delicious lattes (sugar free, skinny vanilla, 1/2 the syrup...I am SO that person) and Peter Gabriel playing on the CD player. We drove the same basic route that we took last year. It starts in a qu
Patrick has been a busy bee these days! On Monday he had his first day as a volunteer at the adult day care center. This day care program is for those with Alzheimer's or dementia and is located in a neighborhood church. He is volunteering through the local hospital and there were a few hoops to jump through to get started, but Patrick did it with flying colors. His therapists personally recommended Patrick to the volunteer coodinator which was really great of them.
Patrick was adamant a
February 16th is the anniversary date of Patrick's stroke. I have never really known how to properly acknowledge this date. On the one hand I feel like it deserves to be recognized. On the other, it's not really something I want to "celebrate".
I know some of you celebrate the anniversary, Jean with her "I survived" parties for Don, and Asha combining it with her Valentines day celebration to name a few. I respect that their stroke anniversaries are remembered in a way that is right for the
"I didn't sign up for this."
This is the exact phrase that ran through my mind at one point right after Patrick's stroke. It only ran through for a moment, and I immediately pushed it aside, ashamed I'd even thought it. But it was a real thought all my own, no one else to blame. I thought it.
It is very hard to explain to someone else how such a thought can even cross your mind. I tried to explain to a friend at work who had told me he admired how I was handling everything that had
It feels so incredible to be back after well over a month of NO INTERNET! UGH! It's so amazing how addicting and how much I depend on the internet for information. How many things I wanted to investigate, people to talk to....
Well here's what's we have all been up to:
We had a great trip going back to Iowa and Illinois last month. We put over 2200 miles on the car driving around to see everyone! Just call me the road warrior...
Patrick finally got his Bioness about two weeks ago and
Patrick has had an eventful autumn this year. At the end of October he started a two week study at UNC using constraint induced therapy. It was hard for him to follow the program of wearing the mitt while at home, and hard for me to fill out his daily diary of activities, as many nights of the week I was at work while he was home. We both did our best to do what was needed. There were also days where he wasn't in the mood to go in the morning (he had to work HARD!) but I was able to convince him
Things have changed since the last posting about Grandma. My step-dad made another trip to see Grandma last weekend. I sent him a few communication boards to try and use with her, and my mom had sent a music box for Dad to play for her.
He felt that when he saw her on Friday, she responded well to the music box which I believe plays "Amazing Grace". He also used a communication board her speech pathologist has given her, and he felt that while she could not POINT to the appropriate answers,
I am tired and cranky due to my work schedule this weekend (I got 4hrs sleep last night) so I apologize for the "Pity, party of 1" tonight. But I gotta say this cuz it's buggin me. Mostly, it's a continuation on Jean's thread, but I knew it was inappropriate to say this there, even though I am sure more people would actually read it there. (1/2 empty glass, today)
I am frustrated that most of my husband's family do not talk to me or ask if I'm home when they call to speak with Patrick. I
Tom is a "regular" who comes into the restaurant usually on Mondays and Fridays. He is probably in his eighties, although I have never asked. As a matter of fact, I ask very few questions of him. Usually, I listen.
He has his regular server, Angie, who waits on him. She was the first waitress he had at our restaurant after he and his wife moved here from California two or three years ago. They "got such a kick out of her" they requested her every time since. Tom even says Angie is his "adop
I have worked for a casual dining restaurant for 13 years now. Thought I'd share a few amusimg stories from when I was a server.
We have an entree that is cooked and served in a buttered parchment bag. I always offer to open the bag for the guest when I served it. This guest declined. I checked on them periodically, but I hadn't noticed until I went to remove their plates that the gentleman had eaten his bag too! I didn't want to embarrass him, so I didn't say anything, besides, everyone
Do you have my Christmas spirit, and if so, can I have some back? I keep trying to get in the mood, but it's not working.
Absolutly every aspect of it seems like a hassle: putting up the tree (okay, it's more about taking it down), buying presents for people when I have no idea WHO I am buying for let alone what they want, finding the time to buy the unknown gifts, driving the 3.5 hours to SIL's to "celebrate", taking the dog to the kennel, wrapping gifts, work...it just goes on and on.
Finally, something cool to blog about.
My mom has been named a finalist (One of 10 overall, one of five in her catergory) for the Sutter Home Build A Better Burger Contest. YEAH MOM!!!
She is a finalist in the "alternative burger" catagory, which means at least 75% of the burger must contain a meat other than beef. The grand prize is $10,000 so those are pretty good odds. She has already won the trip to Napa for 2 nights so she can compete in the cook-off, plus I think all the runners
Thinking out loud.
How do you know when it's time to face the facts so that you can begin to accept it and hopefully move on? Should you ever try to come to terms with what has been lost, or should you never accept them with the idea that if you don't, you might still be able to recover the loss? What I mean is, if for example you lost the ability to use your hand, is there a time when you should just accept that its never coming back so you can stop spending energy and time on something ho
Well, we finally made it. The move is over, the miles behind us, and a new frontier lays ahead.
It seems many of us here on Strokenet are making changes in our personal lives. I would call this, "The Summer of Change". For me, the location of where we live is the smallest of the changes I want to make this year. The real change I want to make, IS me.
I have been thinking for quite some time about my personality traits, or "character flaws" and there are some things I really want to ov
On my last blog I mentioned that Patrick and I had drove 45 minutes each way to go to the University in a neighboring town for speech therapy, but when we got there, we were told it had been canceled. They had known that Patrick's parents would be taking him to the next visit, so I had assumed that they had called me early one morning and I had simply forgot the coversation. Needless to say, I was embarrassed that we had driven all that way, and they believed that I had known it had been cancele
While getting ready for bed last night, Patrick grabbed a small photo album that sits on our dresser and began flipping through the pages. It is filled with photos my mom had taken of our rehersal dinner and our wedding day. As he was going through each page one by one, he would smile, and I could see a look of wistfulness in his eyes. He was remembering what he was like pre-stroke.
He would find a photo of interest, and show it to me, saying a word here and there to give me a clue to what
