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.