I believe in vaccinations

 

Christmas is Coming!

 

I have been recovering from my knee surgery.   I knew it would be bad and I was right.  The early days were really rough, but now I am able to walk .   

I have slept in a recliner since I got home except for the firt night.   Last night I decided to try sleeping in the bed again.   It was scary worried that I would twist my knee and hurt myself.    I did manage to sleep about two hours before I made my way back to the recliner.  Maybe tonight I will be brave and sleep in our bedrooom upatairs.

While Nick travelled, Carol spent the last two weeks here.  It's been like a girls trip.  I don't think we have ever spent this much time together just hanging out.  We've watched some good movies and TV shows.

Nick's been on a cruise the past could of weeks,which is why Carol has been babysitting for me. He's been sending my emaisl every day which is nice.   But he is also keeping meup to date on his stomach Issues.   I just hope that he is not too wiped out for Christmas decoration when he gets back.  Just a couple more days.It is sure to be a total, chaotic Christmas this year!  All five kids, spouses and partners and the baby!

Recovery

 I knew before I had this knee replacement surgery that the recovery was hard.  And painful.   

I am a month out from getting my new knee.   The first weeks the pain was terrible.  I was taking pain medications every time I was eligible.   I have been sleeping in a recliner eversince gettinghome from the hospital with one exception.  The first night home I slept in the bed with Nick.  That night I woke up in pain and needing to go to the bathroom.  I wet the bed and myself.  

It was really unbelievable how much my bladder holds.   The first two plus weeks I had to sleep with a depends and on top of a water proof pad.   Now all is well and I am sleeping better and rarely wetting myself!  

I wake up with a stiff knee. I have to move slow to avoid too much pain.   I wonder when I will be alright to drive again?

Nick is heading out tomorrow to go to the UK and then take a transatlantic cruise.   He will be gone for two weeks.   The plan is fop Austin to join him in England, so, fingers crossed they will connect and cruise back together.

Carol is staying with me while Nick is away.   So my 77 year old sister will be babysitting 70 year old me!

The plan is to watch a lot of TV!    Carol can drive me to my physical therapy twice a week while Nick is away.

Then, 🎅 Christmas!   We will have a full house!  More on that later.

One month out!

Let us give thanks

  Let Us Give Thanks

By the Rev. Max Coots

Let us give thanks for the bounty of people:

For children who are our second planting, and, though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are.

Let us give thanks:

For generous friends....with hearts...and smiles as bright as their blossoms.

For feisty friends as tart as apples.

For continuous friends, who like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we've had them;

For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes, and serious friends as complex as cauliflower and as intricate as onions;

For friends as unpretentious as cabbages. as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini and who, like parsnips , can be counted on to see you through the winter;

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening time, and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;

And finally , for those friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, and who fed us in their times that we might have life  thereafter.

For all these we give thanks.

Something I wrote on Facebook today

 

La Leche League has been a huge part of my life since I became a LLL Leader in 1979.

My husband is retired from the US Foreign Service, so we have moved and live in a lot of different places. In 1983 we bought a house in Reston, Virginia that would be our home base when we were back in the States.

In 1986 we moved back to Virginia and I got involved in Leading the LLL Group in Sterling, VA. Over time, two of the Group moms became LLL Leaders and one mom stayed close to the rest of us.

These are the moms who took care of me when I came home from China with my sick, preemie and my three year old. One of these moms was a milk donor for my (now 33 year old) baby.

Fast forward. I am the only one who is still a Leader, but we zoom together on a regular basis.

On Saturday we got a great text from Joanne Kyreakakis Simeon announcing the birth of her granddaughter. Shortly after that we got a text from Mariellen McCarthy Hagy announcing the birth of her grandson almost 12 hours earlier.

Thank you La Leche League for bringing these wonderful friends into my life!

PS my first grandchild was born 5 months ago!

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Progress

I got my staples removed.  Don't really feel a lot different but I guess it's progress.

I am feeling more mobile though I still need pain medication and I still need to use my walker.   And I am still sleeping in the recliner.  I tried lying down in the bed this evening but the potential for really hurting my knee/ leg is too scary.

I am feeling very discombobulated about the election.  I was so sure Kamala would win.  I am blown away that she didn't.  Trump is a creep and an all together bad guy.   Enough said.

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I am feeling very sad about my dear sweet, wonderful friend Shannon.   Shannon was diagnosed with lymphoma more than two years ago. She's gone though so much.  Chemo, surgeries of a variety of types.  Strokes.   She has not been about to walk for most of the time she has been sick.

And now, it looks like the end is getting closer. Her cancer has become very aggressive and is in her brain.   She might live another 2 months.

I have tried to visit Shannon as much as possible- which is not enough in my opinion.  Friends have gone with me to visit her with me as has my sister.

While I am recovering from my knee surgery I cannot make the long drive to visit Shannon.   I don't think she would know if I was there, but I wold like to sit a while with her.  

 

  Shannon and other La Leche League Friends 2006

 

Coming Out the Other Side

 I am a week an a half  out from my knee replacement surgery.  It's every bit as awful and painful as I remembered it!

 I started physical therapy before my surgery which is what I did last time. Then, when I had to go to my first post op PT, I was afraid I couldn't make it.  Nick went in and got a wheel chair for me so I was able to get into the place.     Geeze, getting into and out of the car is so hard!

 My doctor prescribed this exercise bike that is programed to give me an optimal PT session in my house.   I'll have it for a couple of weeks and then the company will pick it up.

    I signed up to do a knitting for cancer fundraiser.   I am not sure how to post the info here, but this is what I am currently working on. A little red hat for my grandson.

 

I am very disappointing in the outcome of the election.  I was so sure Kamala would win and when she didn't I just was stunned.

I find it uncomfortable to sit in my office chair for long because my leg hurts.  So that's all for now.
 

Feeling old?

 Every time I go through this particular intersection I chuckle to myself.   Morgan was a fairly new driver of 17, and he and Darcy were driving in Herndon.  The manager of a carpet store told the boys that they could take carpet remnants from the dumpster behind the store.  They were fixing up a space in our unfinished basement that they called "the comfort zone".   

The were heading home when they decided to go back and get some more carpet pieces.  They were at the light right where this no u-turn sign is and they made the turn anyway. And wouldn't you know if, I police car was right behind them!  The police man must have been amused.  He told them that if they were going to break the law they really should not do it right in front of a cop!  I don't remember if Morgan got a ticket or not.  But I think he's been more careful since then!

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The feeling old that I put in the subject line is what I am feeling right now as I anticipate my knee replacement surgery.  I am scheduled for one week from today.  

I feel "old".  I have trouble walking without a cane.   I am depressed at how much mobility I have lost.   I am scared, knowing how painful the surgery is going to be. 

I am trying to remind myself how badly I need this surgery and how I will be so much more mobile I will be in a few months.

A lot of things are on my mind.  I care so much about La Leche League and my group, but it is almost a failure.  I do show up every month an my co-Leader tries to show up too.  But there are very few moms who come.  I want to put energy into revitalizing the group but I just can't right now.  

I think about my friend Shannon a lot.   I am pretty sure I have written about her.  She has been so sick for so long.   For most of the last 2 years or so she and I have exchanged emails almost daily.  When she is having a bad spell she cannot write.  Sometimes I write to her husband and he lets me know how Shannon is doing.

Shannon was hospitalized for 6 weeks recently. She had a rough time including brain surgery and surgery to place a feeding tube   I went to visit Shannon just after she got our of the hospital.   I have been hoping to visit again before my surgery but I cannot at this point.  I am not sure she is up for having visitors anyway.

 

And here's more of the "old" I am feeling.  I am 70.  When my mom was 70 she had been disabled for more than five years.  My mom. my sister and I went to Detroit to visit family.   We were staying at my aunt and uncles house when Carol and I heard our mother yell out.  She had fallen trying to get out of bed to go to the bathroom.   She ended up going by ambulance to the hospital and we learned that she had broken her arm.   

Seeing my mother in that hospital emergency room with her broken arm made he seem so old and frail.  And now I am that same age.  Do I seem old and frail to my kids?   Maybe.

Buddy is getting old too!

 

Yes, I am Batman's Grandmother!

Darcy sent these adorable pictures of Galileo in his Batman outfit.  What a beautiful little boy!

We'll see him at Christmas which I hope comes soon! 

 

Look at those chubby wrists!

He

 He's started to laugh!  There is nothing better than the sound of a baby's laughter!

 

Lettuce Pray

 

Oh Deer!

Sitting at a desk working on my laptop and look what I saw.  This sweet little deer looks like he is looking right at me!   Since I was inside and behind a window I doubt that the deer saw me, but it looks like it maybe was,

What a sweet face and a nice touch of the wild in my own domestic, suburban back yard.

 
 

Baby and Bird and Knees, oh my!

 

 

 

 

I knitted a pumpkin hat for Galileo and here he is modeling it!  He is not very fond of hats, but he let his picture be taken before he complained about it too much!

 

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Then there's this picture of a blue jay.   I am not crazy about blue jays, but this one was on our deck and was so pretty that I had to take this picture!

        

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And last but not least, my knees.  I had total knee replacement surgery done on my left knee in 2019.  I know it's been a while. but I am finally getting my right knee replacement surgery at the end of this month.   

 

I have so much pain right now that I can't wait to get it over with.  But, I remember how hard the recovery was last time and I am not looking forward to that.  So much to think about!

 

Here's an x-ray of my knees.  You can see the hardware in my left knee and the bone on bone arthritis in my right knee.  Getting older is not a lot of fun sometimes!

 

 

 

Jimmy Carter is 100 years old

 In my lifetime the two best US presidents have been:  Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.

 

Eisenhower

Nixon

Gerald Ford

Jimmy Carter

Ronald Reagan

George Bush

Bill Clinton

Barack Obama

Donald Trump

Joe Bidden