Mom and I always give flowers to each other on our birthdays.
Brian suggested that I give her a sampling of the flowers I grew.
It makes it a little more personal for sure. I hope they look good
in the morning for her birthday. I love the flowers that look
like orchids. I was trying to find the tag, but it’s gone. The
little statue is one she gave me and I thought it looked pretty
next to the flowers.
….only if you have shingles! Man, I am way pooped today from doing stuff around my mom’s house. I went into her house with really good take out from the Concordville Inn (they just opened a ‘to go’ service). I got her shrimp salad and me chicken salad. I walked in to find her in a fairly warm and smelly living room with her eyes almost rolled back! No joke! It scared the sh#@ out of me. Her ‘baby boy’ dog had perfumed himself in some other doggie’s release. Darn him. Mom ‘came to’ and I told her about her lunch which she wasn’t hungry for yet. She looks like sh#@ too. She’s lost weight again and had raccoon circles around her eyes. Her lesions from the shingles are drying up. Yeck, what a wicked thing. Anyway, no way did I have an appetite, so I ate half my lunch and debated to clean inside or do stuff outside. I did the same thing I would do here, I went outside! It was too nice not to. I got the weed whacker out and went to town in the shady part of the yard first. My ‘trigger’ finger can’t hardly bend today from weed whacking. I moved hanging plants and statuary around. I cleaned up trash and things around her yard. I knocked down weeds. I did good. Mom came out later and said ‘what about those weeds over near the shed’ (Brian does this to me also). I said some other time. I even had Sean drive me up to a store to get more cord for her weed whacker. And I did grocery shopping inbetween the yardwork. Mom said ‘I hate to remind you, but I need some groceries’. So I took her Sable up to the Acme (Thursday is a good day to go) and got what she wanted (she requested pumpkin pie too!)
My brother and his kids were there when Sean and I got back from getting the cording. We hardly recognized Kenny as he’s getting so tall. My brother cuts the grass for mom every week. The kids love Sean and were following him around. Sean showed Ken the bumper and Ken thinks he needs a new one. We can’t seem to get the State Police to give us the address of the lady who ran into Sean. (Brian is probably going to stop at the barracks today to see if ‘face to face’ will make a difference.) Ken and the family are going to Ocean City, MD this week coming up. That reminds me, I need to make arrangements for our OC trip next month.
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BTW, I didn’t go to the doctor today. I figured out what my problem was from past experience.
Today I am going to the hair salon. I need to go and get ‘spruced up’.
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My pond’s pump in a pita this week. It fell over now about 4 times and leaked all the water out of the pond. Some of that stringy algae got in the motor and it wouldn’t work. I got it taped up and fixed (I have to tape the fountain head on to the newer pump), so I hope it won’t fall over again. It makes the new resident ‘Kermit’ upset!
…I felt like I had menstrual cramps from the early evening until about 3 am when the Tylenol and heating pad helped me to fall asleep. The thing is I just went through ‘all that’ less than 2 weeks ago. I made an appt with the gyn for Friday because I didn’t like how I was feeling. I just looked at a few pages on uterine fibroids (I had to refresh my knowledge about them). I think they are acting up and I don’t know whether to wait until my yearly exam on 8/23 or to actually go on Friday. I depends on how well I sleep the next few nights.
I still haven’t been down to see my mom and it will be 2 weeks tomorrow. I was telling her about the above problems and she said she ‘needed milk’. Sometimes people who are in a fog of pain can’t see beyond their own needs. I want to help her, really I do, but I wish she had gotten my sister-in-law to grab her a few groceries when she asked.
I want to join a ‘Curves’ or a similar establishment, but my cycle and fibroids rule my life. I guess I have to either live with them until menopause or try to seek relief by the doctor’s suggestions. I have never had the doctor examine me, only the mid-wives. The doc looks like the carpenter on the TLC show ‘While you are out’-Andrew Dan-Jumbo. Hmm…. wish me luck. I need a nap. (BTW, it’s still really hot here).
Sean was involved in a fender bender yesterday with him being the filling in the sandwich between the three vehicles involved. He’s fine, a little shook up though. A lady in her 30s was right near where she was going to turn and she plowed into Sean. The paint on half his bumper crackled. The front of his car that went into a van and caused damage to it isn’t hurt at all. The poor kid had to stand in the heat for an hour while the police came. He was happy to tell us that he is moving into a higher math class. You know, this and my mom surely would cause me stress and screw with my insides. Geez.
You know what rhizomes are, don’t you? Sounds biological, but it’s just growing irises-the flower! They don’t have bulbs, they have rhizomes. I was out planting some rhizomes that I purchased on eBay. I was talking to myself (in my head) and I thought, if I could grow all these neat varieties on our acre of land that we don’t really use, I could sell them and make a mint! I paid roughly $3-4 each for them. If I only sold 10 a week, that could be an easy $40!!! It’s definitely something we could think about. I’ll have to Google iris growers/growing. I grew them in the past and they were gorgeous.
I didn’t go to my Mom’s today. She suggested tomorrow, just in case she needs to go to the doctor. She had a rough night last night. I still say she should put calomine lotion on the lesions, but the doctor said not to. I read in a number of places where it is okay. She is popping pain pills like crazy. Damn shingles.
I’m only saying that because I got the 4th crown in my mouth today. Not a pleasant experience as the dentist had to put it in and take it out of my mouth about 6 times. I know the dentist would love to close the gap in my front teeth someday. He mentioned it years ago when I first started going to him. I told him I didn’t want to look like Bugs Bunny with huge front teeth. The gap is me, it fits me. I also have a mole on my left cheek. That’s me too. But what would I change about myself? The Extreme Makeover show was just on. I would get a nose job, a tummy tuck and liposuction to start off with! I would love to be able to wear a smaller size pant and skirt, without elastic waistbands. I don’t think it will happen, but I think it would help my appearance tremendously.
Enough about me. I am sick myself over my mom having shingles. I was reading up on it today. She has like a 1 in 4 chance of the pain staying with her after the lesions go away because she is in that age group. She’s suffered with sciatica since ’03 and right now that isn’t bothering her. Big surprise right? I don’t know how she will live with that and be able to run a household. I don’t think her future looks like rose gardens and tea parties. It just doesn’t seen fair that my mom has to suffer like this.
I’m sitting here with a cat behind my back. I didn’t want him on my lap as I am wearing shorts and he kneads me with his claws on bare skin. He is purring like crazy. By the way, I have a blog just for my cat because Cos is such a character. I think it’s pretty funny what he is doing right now.
I have so much to do both inside and outside. The inside tends to get neglected when I garden. I have a storage problem on the main floor with the basement area bursting at the seams. My younger brother and his wife really work well together to keep their home in order. I wish Bri and Sean would help me more with our house. For instance, I misplaced a large box with a fairy birdbath in it that goes in my little garden. It’s about 3 feet tall and I can’t find it. So frustrating. I know it was probably moved when ‘I’ was cleaning up for the new dryer last fall.
We have spent quite a bit of flowers and veggies. I thought Brian would have given up on the tomatoes and green peppers as deer and groundhogs are getting in the garden and munching everything. I refuse to plant in the veggie garden as it’s backbreaking work for nothing. So what if they eat a few flowers? I haven’t had problems with that lately. Bunnies were seen eating flowers a few years back. So I need to get out and finish up the planting my annuals. I always love seeing flowers like Sweet William make an encore appearance the next year. I have a lot of them out in the various beds. Sean even planted marigolds in his garden. He’s had one for many years. Originally I dug up a spot for herbs, but gave it to Sean when he showed an interest in planting things.
Mom is off to the doctor as she hasn’t been there since January. She takes pain pills for her sciatica daily. I am hoping he tries something that isn’t a narcotic. I told her to try some arch supports in her shoes. I bought them for our Florida trip and I believe they saved me in the long run. Yesterday I wore flip flops and my feet were hurting in the evening.
My 20 yr old nephew is getting tested for Crohn’s Disease today. He is a tall 6’8″ and we hope this isn’t the beginning of medical problems for him.
I better go get busy doing something constructive. I can’t go anywhere as Sean is taking the van two days a week until the end of the school year. It keeps his mind off getting a car for a few weeks at least.
I just wanted you to know that I am talking to my mom again. Things are fine. She just read the email I sent her last Thursday and replied with this: message read – point(s) taken and considered – over and out Mom. All that bull crap over a used shirt. Geez.
Mom’s talking about going up to ‘Shady Maple’ an area in Lancaster with a food store, restaurant and retail store that sells lovely plants which would be the reason for the trip. I didn’t get up there last year, so it’s a possibility that I may go. Not sure if it will be this week or when we get home from Florida.
I have to admit, this was the best I’ve made in a while. I make stew at least twice a month in the cooler weather. No way was I going to make it in 80 degree weather yesterday. It was in the 60s today, so I made it. I swear, the turnips and parsnips make the world of different flavor-wise. I like a bit of rosemary and parsley with a splash of Worchestershire sauce. I made some ‘packaged’ lemon squares for a treat. My son Sean has a terrible sweet tooth. He’s practically eaten 4 packages of cookies in less than a week. Half the tray of lemon squares are gone too. And look ma, no cavities and he’s ‘just right’ with his build.
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I did weed whacking instead of food shopping. I have a lot of pent up anger in me from my phone conversation with mom. I did almost the entire front yard! Mom even involved my uncle in this spat. He called and was very cool with me. I don’t know when all this will end, but I really hate it because I feel like a heel and I don’t want not to like myself when I didn’t really do anything so horrific.
Oh how I hate silent treatments. My mom is giving me one now. She was mad at me for making fun of a shirt she bought for Brian at the Goodwill. Now I don’t know what possessed her to buy this shirt as it is at least from the 80s with a fitted waistband for him and it’s faded. Brian just had a birthday and got new shirts. Mom hung up on me last night and said she’d never buy us another thing (promise?). My brother has her all stirred up because he wants her to get her house cleaned up and in shape. She’s hoarded so much. She was going through bedsheets and I saw a fitted sheet in the pile that I used as a teenager, so that was 25+ yrs old.
I am curious to see how long she can hold out. I love her, but man, I don’t miss the complaining and all.
Update 4-21
I’m not going to do another long post about this. I tried to make amends with mom to no avail this morning. It turned into a shouting match. All the stuff I was thinking about that was negative concerning her boiled over. Mom said that maybe we shouldn’t call each other anymore. Told me my family was dysfunctional(not sure what she means). I almost threw the phone and was in tears. She just tried to call about 45 minutes later and I didn’t answer. We need more of a break from one another. Family issues suck.
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For dinner tonight we had chicken tenders spread with a mixture of mayo and parmesan cheese. On top of that you shake on some bread crumbs. You bake it for about 20 minutes at 425. I cooked them in the toaster oven and put the broiler on them to make them nice and brown. I went to a produce place looking for broccoli rabe (which they didn’t have) and got some ‘homegrown in our town’ spinach. Sean likes it raw, so I saved him some. I followed a recipe on the bag-heat olive oil, brown some garlic in it. Take the pan off the heat, drop in the bag of spinach. Put a lid on the pan and cook for 6 minutes. Add lemon juice. I threw in some cooked bacon and it was so tasty. Try it as it’s so good for you too.
Collages & Creative Goodness 