A New Generation To Mother

When I got home from one of my visits to TB in the hospital, I found this:



There was a burned smell in the air. Did I panic? What, over something so insignificant as a trashed sink and burning whatever after everything else that's been going on? Of course not. I knew my kids had it under control.


"This is the ugliest cake I ever made!" Kristin exclaimed. Part of one layer had burned and so she made another layer which would have been fine. She put the good half third layer on top of the cake and it still looked fine to me and her brother, just, you know, big.

With all the weight issues we have a two layer cake would have been more than enough but I didn't say anything because it's just this once and that third layer sure added character.

This so called ugly cake is enough to find an entire army!

Even the slopy side cleaned up nicely although Kristin continues to call it the worst cake ever. It wasn't. It was delicious and it had a lot of love in it. And there's a lot of it left to go around again.



Just as we were lighting the candles, we called TB and put him on speaker phone so that he could join in and sing "Happy Birthday" to Bill. It was too weird not to have TB here at all and having him on the phone was better than not at all.

The edema in his legs has gone down and the redness seems to be fading. A doctor specializing in infections came to examine him yesterday and said maybe it's not cellulitis at all but phlebitis. Still they are going to continue the IV antibiotics and recommend that TB see a special physical therapist who will work with him to keep his legs "thin"--meaning keep the fluid out of there. Maybe we can get a two-fer deal as I'd like to do that with my legs! So if all continues to go well, we can have our TB home again tomorrow hopefully!

Now, if I thought the days of waking up early to be the food provider of dependents ended when Kristin was old enough to make her own breakfast, I was mistaken. Yes, first there was my grandson who would get up early before his mother and I would get him breakfast. It's Mother's Day and I'm going to try to be nice and not even go in the direction of how could a mom sleep through her hungry child's need for breakfast. Let's just say that isn't an issue anymore.

Now, though, there's a new breed of dependent that says, "Ma, we know what an old softy you are and we're not waiting for you to wake up and give us breakfast when we are sooooooo hungry!"


I was going to take pictures of them twining around my legs and call it "The Swarm II" but then I was afeared :D and figured I ought to just feed the darlings.




Soon I'm going back to the hospital to see TB so I probably won't have a chance to get around and visit but for others who would like more cat blogging on Mother's Day:

Weekend Cat Blogging at What Did You Eat?

Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos at Sleeping Mommy

Carnival of the Cats at Bad Kitty Cats Journal

and Blogging Cat Noos for all the latest!

Happy Birthday, Son

Today Bill is 21 years old! I had totally different plans in mind for the day considering what a special blessing he is. But as the John Lennon saying goes, "Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans." Before I get to that, I wrote a blog entry about my son's birth for a really cool meme called A Slice Of Life. Since I had so many pictures to go with it, I posted it at Snapshot Memories. You can read all about Bill's special birth day there if you like.

Traditionally, I liked to take the kids out for their "special" birthdays and so we'd go to TGIFriday's or Fuddrucker's etc. This year, since TB and I have been struggling so financially, the fall back is what would you like us to make you for dinner? And Bill, great kid that he is, named a childhood favorite. Not steak or chicken but hotdogs, baked beans and macaroni and cheese. He is one special young man.

We got him a gift certificate for Borders'. I know he'll like that; he loves to read. I wish it was more.

I have to try and coordinate who is going to where when so I can figure out when to have dinner and cake and gifts.

The monkey in the wrench is that TB's in the hospital. He just wasn't responding to the antibiotics prescribed and so the doctor said it was time to go to the ER. This is a very very difficult thing for us both because of what we went through with our first spouses. It's kicking up all kinds of memories, particularly for the kids and me. Rich died on May 23, 2001 and that anniversary is approaching.

TB's on IV antibiotics (ancef, I think) until the infection clears up enough that the hospital will feel confident to send him home. Unfortunately, that may be more than the 72 hours they originally guessed because he just hadn't started responding to the oral medications at all. Sometimes you just get to a point where you are scared and discouraged and wonder if it's too late to start making positive changes...I don't want to think that. I want to think it's never too late.

This infection, cellulitis, probably came about because of water retention and that is a result of weight and diabetes. The wake up calls have been ringing loudly for some time now and we've been working hard on these issues.

We have been really careful about what we eat although it means we are fighting cravings and hunger a lot of the time.

I am thinking of dropping Abilify from the meds I take as well because not only can it (and maybe it did) wreak havoc with my sugar, it also causes weight gain. I had gained weight since taking it and didn't make the connection; I just felt miserable and down on myself that even though I was eating carefully I was still putting on weight. I thought it might be lack of exercise.

Check all possibilities, folks.

This morning I will go to visit TB but need to get back to also be here for Bill and make that hotdog dinner for him...if he needs to go to work. I kind of hope he has the day off. Wouldn't that be nice to not have to work on your birthday?

I'm not sure when I'll post again, sporadically, I'm sure, at least until TB is out of the hospital.

Playing with Our Grandson

Just Stuff From Today

This

TB's legs continue to pain and itch him but they don't feel as hot as they did. I guess TB's going with the assumption he's healing slowly. I'm not sure I agree. I'm worried about the itching and the fact that it's not all clearing up faster and got him to leave a message with the doctor.

We both went together--we travel as a team just about everywhere now--so he could apply for SSD (social security disability) and so I could meet with my DVRS (division of vocational rehabilitation services) counselor to discuss working from home for me or getting into a program to upgrade my clerical skills. We need income and we need it NOW


Thursday Challenge:

This week's challenge is "family" and here are all our grandchildren and a daughter:






That

Well, why should this be any kind of a surprise? Diabetics need to exercise and doctors tell us we should so that we can have better control of our sugar. It also does wonders for the heart and blood pressure. But too many of us don't exercise and it's not because we like being fat or have a particular death wish!

More than half of U.S. adults with diabetes also have arthritis, raising a serious obstacle for diabetic patients urged to exercise, according to a government study.

It's not that we don't want to exercise, there is too much pain and probably not enough of us can afford to join a gym with a pool.

The full article is here.

While we're speaking of diabetes, one of the foods I was afraid I'd haave to give up is fruit. I love fruit, all kinds, and it's one of the healthiest snacks I can find. These are some tips for better ways to eat fruit when you are diabetic:

* Eat fruits raw or cooked, as juice with no sugar added, canned in their own juice, or dried.
* Buy smaller pieces of fruit.
* Choose pieces of fruit more often than fruit juice. Whole fruit is more filling and has more fiber.
* Save high-sugar and high-fat fruit desserts such as peach cobbler or cherry pie for special occasions.

and the other things

Has everyone seen the sinkhole pictures in Texas? This thing has grown to the size of two football fields and is still eating vehicles, parts of buildings, telephone poles and more dirt. It could take about 2 weeks for this thing to stabilize so it could keep right on growing! I guess if there's anything good about this it's that it didn't open up in someone's neighborhood...yet.

Did you hear about the little town in Wyoming (75 people) that has all the air pollution of a big city?

I read an article but lost the link for it about all these wonderful super seeds we created to grow wonderful food to stop world hunger. Wellllll....the problem is we didn't teach anyone about fertilizer nor make it affordable, or about crop rotation and so on so that all these wonderful seeds are withering away in poor soil.

What are we doing to ourselves?

One ray of hope: after all that death and destruction in Myanmar, a baby is born.

Lost

I almost wasn't going to write anything about the show this week. I wasn't crazy about the episode. Dr. Jack was acting like a controlling freak. First he didn't trust anyone to remove his appendix but himself (huh?) but luckily Juliet and Bernard had the smarts to knock him out before that went too far; he got ugly and possessive with Kate and his ghost/zombie father was totally creepy in the episode. Now I know how Claire got separated from her baby but it makes no sense. She is supposed to raise the baby, not Jack and Kate. The whole show was just creepy to me and I was glad when the credits began rolling. I'm not a big Jack fan anyway.

Thursday Thirteen #19: Gross

Thirteen Things I Think Are Gross 1. Nose picking 2. Not bathing properly or enough 3. Maggots 4. Flies walking on food 5. Rotting or moldy food in the fridge 6. Fungus 7. Farting in enclosed places 8. buzzards picking at dead animals on the road 9. Stinky feet 19. Personally: getting my hands sticky from friend chicken, crabs, etc 11. Mushing up a meatloaf with my hands 12. Getting a ton of sand into my bathing suit 13. Having to deal with a backed up toilet!

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