October 28, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

I do wonder sometimes if I am ever going to feel like I did before cancer invaded my life--lol!  One step forward, two steps back...best laid plans and all that...

I wasn't feeling very good on Monday.  Even got so nauseous I really thought I was going to start throwing up.  Carrying a small bucket with me everywhere I went.  (Never did but felt like it for almost three days.)  Had to let Dagan and Leah know so they could ask her brother, Aaron, if he could watch the boys Tuesday night.  He said yes.

All week I slowly worked on making food of some kind every day.  I had used everything up after being out of commission in a different way previously--lol!  I really need pre-made things I can heat and eat or I live on toast and cheese sticks--lol!  By Friday I finally felt good enough to catch up with laundry and make the final food item...my beef stew.  (Perfect chilly weather for it!)  

Saturday I worked on the card front coloring...and FINISHED!  Good grief!  I don't know that it has ever taken me this long to make a set of 50-some cards.  And I am not done yet.  Life keeps getting in the way--lol!

I keep putting out seed.  Might have enough to last me till I move if the partridges don't show up.  These little ones with black and white stripes on their heads are so cute!  But skittish.  Just passing through, I think.  There were a bunch of them out there, but they'd come in one at a time from either side of the patio, grab some seed and run back out of sight.  They were sitting in the bushes on the sides of the patio, I think.  Really cute little birds. 

Anyways, I was soooo glad to finally be finished with the coloring of the crazy cat cards.

Now I need to crease the card bases and fold them all.

Then attach the card fronts to the base.

Using my preferred method of double-sided tape would take sooo much more time.  I decided to dig out all the old tape runners I have and use them up first.  So much easier and quicker.  But I'm not sure they will stick as well.  Sorry if any of you get a card next year that is coming apart--lol!  I'll do my best to double-check before I mail them.

Here's Allie getting a drink one day after a very long nap.

So, it was a setback week on the one hand, but I still managed to stock up on meals and get the laundry done and finish coloring the crazy cats.  :)  This week Dagan is out of town for work Monday through Wednesday.  I plan to go over every afternoon to stay with the boys...and finally check out the new chair!  Leah worried it would be too much for me, but soon I will be there all the time, right?  And if the boys want to just play video games (which they do often after school when they are tired), I bring with things to work on (cards/letters) and my laptop so I can keep busy.  I'll have Henry Winkler's book to read to them and I will get to go see the apartment myself.  

The plumbers were there Monday and Tuesday.  Parts are needed so they will be back to finish up with everything, but I haven't heard when.  Leah may not have heard from them yet, either.  Since I was mystery-sick she sent me videos!  I was so curious about my new sinks with the sprayers.  

Kitchen sink with spray and super-spray--lol! 

Bathroom sink.  YouTube won't let me pick the thumbnail like it used to so sorry to those of you who didn't want to see a closer shot of my new toilet with the bidet seat--ROFL!  (Never used one before!)

The blue tape on the back wall of the shower is for where another bar will go.  Had to be ordered.  Still need a shower curtain bar, too.  But Leah will install that, she said.

I like that I could have the regular shower head on one side...

...and a hand-held shower wand on the other side. 

 I am pretty darn short (and getting shorter) so when they are combined I have a hell-of-a-time getting the shower head back up so high or to move it when it is not spraying the best direction (after the cleaning girl).  Going to be heaven!  Tippy-toeing in a wet shower is not the safest thing to do. 

They were able to scoot the water softener out from the wall so the cats can get in and out of my apartment much easier.

I don't really care that the floor isn't painted back there in the maintenance part of the room.  Nice!

The boys went to several Fall/Halloween type events--the pumpkin maze, a family dance at school, and then another straw bale maze.  Gramma has probably 50 more pictures--lol!  But here's a smattering of them to scroll through.  Looks like they had a wonderful time.

Looks like green and purple in Ian's hair.

Liam and Daddy.

The whole family in a shoe house.

Aren't these beautiful horses!

Wonderful sunny chilly fall days!  Perfect weather for all these events.

Well, this week is going to be busy.  Like I said I plan to go over and spend time with the boys Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoon.  Then Thursday I have a lady coming at 11am to do some very late paperwork for me to retain my cleaning girl.  Keanna can't come anymore.  They give a month's grace period and have been calling this Tammy many times but she hasn't called back?  So, I got the number and called and left a message, too.  Surprise!  Tammy called me back in a couple of hours!

She claimed she'd been calling me over and over...but had one of the numbers wrong on my phone number.  ???  Okay.  Well, my phone number has been the same all the years she's been calling?  Anyways, I said maybe it isn't practical to renew because I will be moving in a month or two.  I'd called because Keanna's boss, Pam, asked me to.  Well, turns out I can keep having Keanna come to clean after I move.  Keanna was happy about that. :)  

So Thursday morning Tammy will come with the paperwork that was due in August--lol!  (Turned out Keanna wasn't even supposed to come here in September or October at all.)  Always something, eh?  Tammy is genuinely a really nice lady, but she has a big caseload, I guess.  (Or could be a bit scattery?)  Anyways, I guess I will still have Keanna come to clean for an hour and 15 minutes every two weeks.  She'll get to see my new place! :)

So that's it for this week.  I will be glad when the election is over with.  Have even wondered if the stress is more than I think it is with me getting sick like this over and over?  Stress is terrible for fibro...as with so many other chronic diseases.  We need more joy and some peace in our days.  (If that doesn't happen somehow...I will be totally devastated...as will many.)  So, thinking positive.  Voted weeks ago.  Feeling buoyed up by my faith in humanity's goodness.  Love and kindness can conquer fear and hatred.  I believe there are more loving, kind people in this world.  We are the silent majority.  I do truly believe that.  We just need to speak up.  We need to vote.  Till next week, my friends.

October 21, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

I don't have a lot of seed left in the bin, but I will at least help the little birds fatten up a bit before winter.  Haven't seen any more partridges.  I'm glad really.  Don't want them to think I will be here all winter.  The little birds are very resourceful and travel all over the neighborhood.

Well, I was out of commission for a week after the chair shopping excursion.  Was just starting to feel better by the time I had the new eye doctor appointment on Thursday.  That was a failure.  

Turned out they don't take my ND Medicaid.  And then Medicare...what a joke.  The lady told us Medicare covers the eye exams...but not the refraction part.  What is the refraction part, Leah and I asked.  Well, that's the part where they flip the lenses back and forth to see which is clearer...so they can get your prescription!  What is the point of an eye exam if they don't find out your prescription!?  The refraction would run about $80.  

I already know that even with my Medicaid coverage I wasn't covered for the glaucoma testing I had done quite a while back.  My (now retired) eye doctor was surprised because it runs in my family.  And now I have the macular puckers, have had cataract surgery, and MD runs in the family, too...so I'll need to have more tests and exams that aren't covered.

We left.

I will have to call around to find a place that takes my ND Medicaid.  Searched online and have three possible places to call this week.  Was a lesson in "never assume", right?  I just figured that if Dr. Dye transferred my records he would transfer to someone who would take my insurance.  Never assume.  lol!

I wasn't up to anything (barely regular stuff) until Saturday.  I did get laundry done and worked on coloring over the weekend.  (Yes, I've never watched Star Trek New Generation, so I am popping in now and again to watch a few episodes.)

I'm getting closer to being able to put these together and be done with the very last project I need to finish before I move.

Allie spends a lot of the day watching her CatTV--lol!  Was too chilly to have the door open until it warmed up enough and the wind died down on the weekend.

Now Leah was busy last week.  She flew to Des Moine, Iowa for work early Monday morning.

Nice room!

She flew back late Tuesday evening.  Was a good conference, she said.

Wednesday, they had to move the old rocker recliner away from the corner in the living room...

...for the delivery of the new little brown lift chair!!

Here you can see what I mean about the small piece on the end of the footrest that is curled underneath so you can't see it when the footrest is down.  Ahhhh!  Perfect!

The new chair is Blink approved! :)

Dagan and Leah were busy all weekend.  They had cat doors (actually access panels) to install and a bigger access panel on the ceiling in the maintenance room for all the cable wires they had to reinstall.

This was the cable and monitor wiring stuff...in progress.  All a baffling mystery to me.

Below that is the cat door with the cover still on (because they don't want Blink wandering through there until they get the carpet remnant installed on the floor).  That cat door is right next to where my washer and dryer will go.  And it leads through...

...to come out under the stairs where the cat boxes will be.  There will be carpet remnants cut to fit on the floor that can be replaced as needed over time.

The other cat door leads from my bathroom into the maintenance room.

It will be kind of behind and to the side of where my toilet will go.

So Allie will use this to get into the maintenance/laundry room.

Here's from the maintenance room on the other side.  The hole is behind the water softener.

We're going to have the plumbers move the water softener away from the wall farther for my chubby cat and any further chubby cats--lol!

Hopefully they can move it a few inches.  There's quite a bit of room back there.

Somebody really likes my kitchen sink--lol!

Leah took measurements and sent me a picture so we could make a decision on the bathroom mirror.

I wanted a round one with black trim.  My whole apartment will be squares and rectangles, you know?  So I went online comparison shopping and found the cheapest one I could find in town.  TaDa!  Nice!  Really like it.  Should look good!

Leah sent pictures to show me how deep the windowsills are in the living room...

...and the studio!

Plenty of room for a plant or two and for cats to sit. :)

Sunday--Dagan popped by to bring in my winter clothes bins from the garage...

...and haul out some more donations for me.  (Not my Dyson or the shoes next to the box--lol!)

It is definitely time to get my winter clothes back in the closet!  Past time, actually--lol!  Been quite nippy up here some days.  Last time there will be a long trek from the garage at the backside of the parking lot with these bins!  Nice!  They'll be in the storage area right outside my front door in the basement.  

I'm so excited that the plumbers are coming back to start all the finishing work today!  Really hope to maybe have pictures next week of my new bathroom...and maybe have sinks up and running.  When they get finished it can finally get cleaned up down there.  Get rid of all that dust everywhere! Whoohoo!  

I think the earliest I might be moved would be before Thanksgiving...but at least before Christmas.  Depends on how things go, of course...but it is getting closer.  A month or two?  Been so long it seems unreal, doesn't it?  Hard to believe it is actually going to happen pretty soon.  Another totally new chapter in my life.  Huge, huge, huge change from this hermit/monkish life!

Once all the construction is done and the appliances are all installed, I will probably do a short video tour.  And maybe another one once all the IKEA furniture is together before I move.  Can you tell I am getting excited--lol!  Leah and I have been texting more again...about things like window well covers (probably can't get before this winter), automatic blinds, my fake plants from IKEA stored in the garage, shelves for the laundry/maintenance room...all kinds of little things.  Dagan always mentions that they'll be putting down my big rug so they can start putting together IKEA furniture soon.  We're getting excited!

Tuesday I go over to watch the boys while Dagan and Leah go to Liam's parent-teacher conference and then for dinner with a lady.  They want me to sit in my new chair most of the time so I can be sure it is a good one for me.  (There's a 30-day return, I guess.)  I'll be there from about 2:30-7ish.  Looking forward to spending time with the new chair!  And the boys, of course--ROFL!  I'm bringing the Henry Winkler book.  Will get to see how far the plumbers have gotten in two days.  Should be a good week!

Meanwhile, I'll be coloring cards, writing letters, and keeping out of trouble. ;)  Maybe I'll find a new eye doctor.  Been thinking about colorful frames...?  Who knows!  Have a great week.  Be sure to vote, everybody!  Till next time...