February 3, 2025 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Allie hasn't had to follow me into the bathroom as my patient guardian many times a day anymore.  *knock on wood*  

Things have suddenly improved quite a lot.  Whew!  These fibro bouts are very unpredictable.  That part has shifted to tolerable, while the body aches all over are even worse...but the exhaustion/chronic fatigue has let up some, too.  So--a good week on the whole as far as my (cancer free!) body goes.

The bad part of the week was finding out I had suddenly lost Medicaid, food stamps, and Federal Housing Assistance out of the blue on Tuesday.  Many, many people were thrown into turmoil because of many, many federal assistance programs and grants being cut off.  Trillions of dollars in aid...from Meals on Wheels to school lunch programs to veteran aid to fire & police...the list goes on and on and on.  Thursday I heard a federal judge put the order on pause until Monday...but I wasn't sure I would have coverage for the dentist appointment I had already had to reschedule for Monday.  So, I called and rescheduled it once again to be on the safe side.  I wasn't sure if I should see my oncologist on Friday, either.

The good news is, I had already seen my results for lab and CT scans online and I was still cancer free so I could pass if I had to.  There were people who had to cancel surgeries and treatments.  I am so lucky I'm not in treatment anymore and that I already had my CTscans done the week before!  Leah said if I got charged for the visit she and Dagan would pay for it...so I said I'd go.  I am one of the very poor, truth be told.  I live on SS--a little over $1,000 a month.  What a stressful week!  

And it is not over.  I heard that Elon just got access to the entire federal payment system...for everything!  ???  Why?  What are they planning to do next?  Randomly stop payments on individual programs?  Trump has made it clear that he wants to stop all federal assistance and grant programs because he thinks they should all be switched over to being privatized.  Anything else should be the responsibility of each state to take care of their own--including natural disasters.  Like we are each a separate country?

Okay.  I don't usually talk about politics, but this was a tremendously stressful week and most of what all else is going on sounds insane to me.  Enough said.

Silver lining.  One anti-diarrhea pill a day and fasting before appointments has been working to keep things tolerable and I made it to see my oncologist on Friday--lol!  Amazing!  There are always silver linings.  :)

When I asked the girl at the check-in desk if Medicaid was working she said--"yes" with a big sigh...and we both added at the same time..."for now".  Dr. Failing, my oncologist, wants me to see the urologist for another poke and peek of my bladder.  I am going to try a new doctor--a lady doctor.  I have also had another mystery lump.  This one is on my face and been there 7-9 months maybe.  So, another trip to the dermatologist is on the list, too, to have that removed and tested for skin cancer.  Have to try to make calls today.  All the stress has my entire body complaining...quite painfully.  Nothing I haven't had to endure before, obviously--but worse pain always slows you down.

So, I am happy to report that I got into the studio again to play this past week.

Tested the other handmade art journal and it was about the same.

Quite buckly...and likely made of the same student grade paper.

Then I tried the Strathmore Visual Watercolor Journal with better quality paper...and it is hard to explain the difference, but ahhh!  Let's just say that it's more what I am used to and the watercolor paint does more what I expect it to do.  

Even though I am still mostly a newbie and years out of practice at what I did know...I was having such fun trying to remember how to judge how wet the paper still is to get this and that effect and so on.  Felt like I was now finally on the path to remembering how to paint with watercolor!  Life is too short to use crummy paper.  I will give the grandboys the handmade art journals.  I didn't know when I made those journals so very long ago how bad student grade paper really is--lol!  For watercolor paper anyways.  

Got too overconfident and tried the new method she was demonstrating on a YT video I had on my laptop.  I want to learn how to do what she does...where she has a dark edge around every petal.  But I need a lot of practice.  As you can see, if I tried it when it was still too damp it spread too much.  Too dry and it didn't blend on the edge at all and was just a sharp line.  

Anyways, I was having a lot of fun and I shall continue to try to learn how to do transparent flowers--on good paper--lol!  (Notice the lack of bad buckling--whoohoo!)  Probably need breaks to do something else fun, too. ;)

Speaking of fun!  The boys went to one of their favorite places.  I can never remember the name and just think of it as the trampoline place--lol!

They stopped at Perkins and Ian was using sweetener packets it looks like to build what I think of as a card house--lol!

Excellent job!

Meanwhile, they have worked on the cat tunnel between Blink's litter spot under the stairs and my maintenance/laundry room.  They used hunks of carpeting to enclose it.  Leah says she needs to figure out some way to keep the top hunk of carpet up higher.  View from one end...

...and the other end.

This is where it comes out in the maintenance room by my washer and dryer.  Blink made it through, no problem.

They shut off the door on the litter box side under the stairs so Blink can't get into my apartment because she has claws and is clawing the new lift chair upstairs.  They keep my apartment door shut, too, so she can't get to my new red lift chair down here.

I want a new bin to hold the clean kitty litter and a trash container with a lid for the unmentionables--lol!  We'll be getting those before I move.  The bins I am using over here for litter and bird seed are just too big for that space.   

I plan to keep Allie's litterbox in the maintenance room at first.  She has a similar door/hole from my bathroom (behind the toilet) into the maintenance room so I don't have to keep the maintenance door open all the time.  Eventually we hope they will get along and we can open up the tunnel so Allie and Blink can come and go as they please and I will move Allie's litterbox under the stairs, too.  That's best case scenario, as you never know with cats. ;)  Oh, and the cats are using different litters!  Blink uses wood pellets.  Allie was not having any of that when I did try wood pellets over here.  We hope they can both use the same kind after a while but who knows with that, either.

This was exciting!  Ian went to a paid class on carnivorous plants!  Leah and Laim went along to the free version.  It is like having new pets.  I could see the pitcher plant and the Venus Fly Trap but there's another low one I don't recognize.  Ian got three plants to take home.  Anyways, later on they found a millipede in the house.  

The millipede could not climb out of the pitcher plant!  It must be really slippery inside like they said at the class.  Future bugs in the house beware!

Kids fall asleep in weird positions...just like cats and dogs, eh?  LOL!

Anyways, we were warmer (above freezing) for a few days and now back to cold again, but not as cold as those 50-60 below windchills, hopefully--lol!  For the next two weeks it says below freezing during the day and if below zero that'll be during the night.  Nippy, for sure.

That's about it from here for now.  I finished the Agatha Christie series and decided to rewatch all of Vera on BritBox.  I find that gruff old lady catching the bad guys quite soothing.  Right, Pet?  Yes, Love.

Hopefully this coming week will be less shocking, but you never know.  Allie, Vera, and my paints will keep me company--lol! Till next week, my friends.  We are all in this together.  :) :) 

January 27, 2025 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Can you tell we had 60 below windchill the beginning of the week--lol!

Super cold for a few days.

There was even a partridge food fight between this covey of eight and another covey of five that visit the Critter Cafe--lol!  

Lots of chasing back and forth across the snow.  That's why some of the residents here call them the roadrunners--lol!

Well, between anti-diarrhea pills and fasting I made it to the lab on Tuesday and the CT scans on Friday!  TaDa!!  Now I have the oncologist this week on Friday afternoon...but then the rescheduled dentist checkup on Monday after that.  Apparently will be a lot more fasting in my future--lol!  Oh, and Keanna comes to clean on Tuesday.  Life seems to have picked up the pace recently--lol! ;)

I made it into the studio to test out the old watercolor journal I had made all those years ago.  Notice I brought in my laptop to watch Agatha Christie episodes--ROFL!

I wanted to try the transparent flower petals.  Didn't use her book.  Just played around from memory of her videos I have watched.

Didn't try anything besides the petals...no darker edging on them or anything because nothing was working very well for me.

I don't know if it was more from the buckly, absorbent paper or more from my total inexperience with the technique.  Didn't matter to me.  I was having fun and learning.  But this paper was buckling so that it made the water puddle in places you didn't want it to and then was drying out quickly where you didn't want it to.  Regardless, I do love the transparent look and want to keep testing the other better watercolor paper and journals next.  Left it all set up and ready to go.  You will see a lot of blue flowers--lol!  I plan to use the same paint and brush so I can compare papers fairly.  (That is a true challenge for such a lover of variety, I tell you.)

Made and prepped foods for two days.  Not easy to accomplish when you are fasting--lol!  Especially the beef soup in the crock pot smelling soooo good all day long!  ;)

McFamily had to come over here for our Christmas.  The boys opening their Mad Libs books.  Liam wasn't interested until he realized how it worked and found out he could pick (hysterically funny to a 7-year old) words like poo, pee, butt, fart, poopy, pooping, peeing, and farting.  Then he enjoyed them tremendously!  

But he still goes right to Gramma's frig magnets.

They are his favorite things to play with at Gramma's.

I think Ian quite enjoyed the crazy, silly stories, too.

It was a lot of fun!  They brought Allie and my Christmas stockings with, too.  Gramma got some bags of her favorite Twin Cities coffees, an Amazon gift card, and some new-to-me Keto goodies--like fake pop tarts and a cinnamon roll!  And we shared a bunch of sugar-free, handmade chocolates from a shop Leah found that were really delicious!  Allie even got a couple of new toys (she loved) and some cat treats (shown no interest in--strange cat is she--won't eat canned cat food or any people food, either).  Anyways, it was a nice--if late--Christmas. :)  

Oh, and don't worry--their cat, Blink, will gladly eat the treats--lol! ;)

We're supposed to be in the 30s through Thursday so a lot of the snow will be gone again.  I thought I lived in Fargo?  Such strange weather.  From -60 wind chills to snow melting away.  Remember when I showed you snowbanks from the plows that were as high as the peaks of the garages out there?  Been a while.

Leah's back and shoulders have been bad.  She's been at the chiropractor every week I think for a bit.  Says she's feeling a bit better.  Otherwise, the rest of the family is doing well.  Even I am doing a bit better.  Hey!  Made it to appointments this week!  Even got into the studio--whoohoo!  Hope to be playing in there some more this week!  Life is good!   

Till next week, my dear friends!  May you have a week filled with giggles and doing things you love!  :)

January 20, 2025 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Been dangerously cold up here.  Wind chills of 50-55 below.  Lots of "frostbite will happen fast" warnings.  I have frosty ice around the air conditioner.   

Yes, I could put the cover on, but there would still be ice behind the cover, and I don't really need the little bit of extra warmth it would give me here.  That's one thing that has been great about this apartment--it is well insulated.  Being on main floor and not facing the north winds helps, too, I think.  I stay cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter than any apartment I have ever lived in.  

This might be because there are vents connecting all the apartments...which I have never had before.  That does cause me to lose any humidity I can muster with my little humidifier, too, though.  If it gets over 72 degrees in here I get too warm--lol!  With all the seniors cranking up their heat in the winter it can actually get too warm for me so that I have to shut off the heat and crack the patio door for a little while to cool it down.  But haven't had to lately with it being super cold again.  Even though I keep it set between 68-70 it has still been creeping up to 73-74.  

The patio door has gotten frozen shut so that it is really a task to get it open enough to toss seed out for the Critter Cafe--lol!  But just having that door open six inches for a couple minutes will cool it off in a snap when it's below zero and windy, so feeding the birds a couple times a day will keep it from getting too hot in here for me--lol!  I was more used to apartments where I could have it cranked up to 80 degrees and couldn't get it near even 68 degrees ever.  Or apartments where you could run the AC on high day and night and never get it below 80.  So this is a wonderful apartment for me.  Anyways, that's life in the deep freeze.

I was showing Leah in links the things I was planning to get for the new place in February but start using now.  A big woven basket for my various blankets I use for sleeping in my chair and new sets of soap pumps.  The automatic ones I tried on sale from Bed, Bath and Beyond are horrible.  You have to hold your hand under there like 3-4 times for a tiny dribble to come out.  I know Leah loves her (more expensive) automatic pumps and she even offered to buy them for me.  But I want to go back to my dependable hand pump type...plus want pairs so I can also refill dish soap and lotion to have less bottles at my sinks.  Even picked out absorbent stone holders for them...and a set of multicolored dryer balls I won't use till I move--lol!  

Well--Leah said she wanted to buy them for me!  Whoohoo!  So I got the new colorful woven basket for my summer and winter throws (which had been just piled on the floor all this time).  Love it!!!

And two sets of bottles and the stone holders for them.

You can see the Bed, Bath and Beyond automatic pump that didn't work at all to the left.  I will not refill the lotion with this particular lotion again!  LOL!  It was too thick to pour.  Even used packing tape to tape the two bottle end to end and let them sit for a couple hours and not much at all moved down into the black bottle. *sigh*  So it was a very long process...but I am patient and used to doing things a little at a time. ;)

Actually caught a bit of blue sky and white clouds one day.  Winter can be quite gray.

Finally they were all done and in place!  Bathroom has lotion and hand soap...

...kitchen has dish soap and hand soap.  I love them!

Leah had the new dryer balls sent to their house and told me they would be waiting for me in the new dryer.  So nice!  Told you I get excited about all these little things. :)

Turned out Dagan had to work later on Friday and not sure how late (clinic only open till 5pm for labs).  So Thursday after the boys got out of school he and the boys picked me up and we went to the clinic...where I was informed my request had expired. ??  Good grief!  I was even having a better day for leaving the apartment and everything.  Apparently Dr. Failing puts in the request for the next appointment that is set to expire in six months--so it expired in December and they didn't think to renew that when I had to schedule everything myself for January because they never did it for December.  Hard to follow?  LOL!  The lab ladies said they couldn't just call him, either.  (Why not?!)

So...we were in and out of the clinic really quickly.  The highlight for the boys was this butt-ugly vehicle in the parking lot of the clinic--ROFL!

The boys wanted Dagan to stop so they could get a good look at it as we were leaving.  I think they like it because it looks like something from Minecraft or a game of some kind--lol!  It doesn't look like a real car, I tell you.

Went straight back home so I could call Dr. Failing's office.  Left a message for his nurse.  She called me back on Friday morning and we are now set any time for the lab work.  But Dagan couldn't take me till this week...and with it being -17 degrees today and Martin Luther King Day so Dagan and Leah are off work...we are going to try for tomorrow over his lunch break.  I had thought I was going to be getting a needle in my arm and peeing in a cup at the time of the inauguration.  Seemed appropriate.  But was unaware D&L were off work today and it was going to still be frost-warning-cold out...so tomorrow makes more sense.  I think I'd rather be at the lab getting blood drawn--LOL!

Hopefully all will go well this week and I will get to the lab and to the CT scans on Friday.  I have to remind myself that if I can't...well, I will just have to reschedule them.  I can fast, etc...but there's only so much I can do.  This is also another checkup.  Not treatments, at least, anymore, right?  Not the end of the world.  

Meanwhile...we did have our Christmas on Saturday.  Turned out I was not up to leaving the apartment but was okay enough for them to pop over here for a short visit so the boys could finally get their Christmas presents from me.  Did any of you like Mad Libs when you were a kid?  I didn't know about them.  And the few times I did see them as an adult I thought it was just some kind of random word game and didn't know it had an actual name.  Anyways, the boys played with those for a while and each did a couple of them.  Good for teaching English grammar and reading skills, too.  Lots of laughter!  (And mentioning of many forms of "poo"--Liam is 7 after all--lol!)  They brought with Allie and my Christmas stockings.  And also a variety of sugar free hand-made chocolates (they bought at this amazing shop they found) that we all shared.  Delicious!  

Healthwise the week was about the same for me.  Better days and worse days like a yo-yo--lol!  But if I can still get all the usual daily/weekly stuff done and not get behind...well, that's a very good week in my book. ;)  Putting up with bad health bouts is not new...even if the types of bouts have varied since the cancer--lol!  I have to remind myself that a year ago I was working up to being able to sit at the table for more than five minutes...and to staying awake for longer than 3-5 hours. Made a lot of progress this past year.  I am very, very grateful...even if I do feel impatient sometimes. ;)  

I am warm in this toasty apartment with Allie--who does care when I'm having a bad day and will faithfully follow me back and forth to the bathroom--lol!  I have been watching the Agatha Christie series on BritBox.  Rather watch that today than anything else. ;)  Stay safe and warm...or safe and cool depending on where you live.  See you next week. :)

January 13, 2025 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Even though this is a dusk picture of eight partridges--lol!  I also see five coming so I may even have two coveys visiting the Critter Cafe. ;)

All week my bad gut spell was still doing quite well--lol!  Enough so that I had to reschedule my annual dr checkup and we had to reschedule Christmas again.  We'll try again for next weekend.  Wasn't only me.  Leah's back was hurting and she had a headache.  (Could have been from dealing with the snow... snowblower and shoveling were involved, I am sure.)  She deserved the rest also.

Wednesday night Dagan and Ian dropped off my groceries while Liam and Leah were out loading IKEA boxes into the car from my garage.  Ian helped me take down all the Christmas cards off the frig.  I showed him and Dagan that this year I got five cards with hand painting involved.  Never have gotten that many!  I have some talented friends!

The frig is back to pics of McFamily and the boys' school pictures.

I did get all the "have-to" stuff done...laundry, cooking and all the rest...but I didn't get a lot done in the studio.

The old handmade watercolor journals...well, I thought I had made three of the smaller ones, but maybe it was two.  I know I finished one for sure and I think I threw it away.  Maybe I threw away two of them--lol!  Anyways, I have the two larger ones and the one smaller one I have been working in.    

Not that it is all that much smaller, but those largest ones seem huge to me--lol!

I cut it apart and tossed the pages I had used.  Save the blank ones and sent them home with Ian for him and Liam to use any way they like.  Turned out the cover was in worse shape than I thought, so I tossed that, too.

So now I need to test the paper in the two larger journals.  They are so old that the waxed thread snapped in a couple places on the purple one...and I haven't even used it yet.  

Meanwhile the new journals and pad came.  I tore the front page from the front of the Visual Journal before I remembered to get a picture.  I've used the Visual Journals before and they are okay.

The other pad and journal are new to me.  I'll be testing these out, too.

I won't say this week because I am eternally optimistic...but have been mistaken for quite a while as to my feeling better--lol!  ;)  But soon, I hope.

We did get some snow!  Enough to mostly cover the grass.  So that's when the partridges show up in broad daylight and not only at dawn and dusk.

As soon as they come the little birds gather around pretty quickly because the bigger partridges can dig the seed out from the snow much easier and they want to take advantage of their stronger, bigger legs and feet--lol!

Allie froze when the partridges arrived...mid bathing her privates--lol!

The boys went to see the new Sonic movie.  I think Uncle Aaron went with, too.

The exciting thing this week was that they came to install the carpeting down the stairs a week early!  The basement stairs are on the left.

I think they matched the carpeting pretty well, too!

Down to the landing...

...and down to my door on the left.  

Leah had the orange rug for at the bottom of the stairs.  Goes well!

And the plumbers came, too.  They got that back bar installed.  Were going to do the caulking but the caulk Leah bought and put down there disappeared!  Couldn't find it anywhere.  So they'll have to come back.  But things are coming together. :)

So--another week.  I need to get my labwork done this week, but can do that any time as a walk-in at the clinic--so odds are I can manage that--I hope.  If I don't get that done I can't get my scans done the following Friday.  Fingers crossed.  

Keanna comes Tuesday.  I've been just hoping my system would straighten out--trying a few small things.  I may just have to fast a couple of days before appointments, as I have had to do in the past.  Whatever.  (Got to be a better week, right?...don't want to say that too loudly--lol!)

I plan to clean off the top part of my frig, too.  Started.  Getting rid of the hand-painted clothespin magnets I made like 40 years ago and some other things...but I will keep this one favorite magnet..."Life is short but it's wide".  I do love it so.  Can't part with it.  Probably bought that a good 40 years ago.  Time for some changes, but not that magnet.  That one is going to the new place.

I'm already buying odds and ends for the new place.  The electric skillet and the wild bamboo utensils, for example.  But also boring things like a new black wastebasket (which isn't boring to me, though...I get excited about everything like a kid at Christmas!)  

Leah and I text back and forth about things like dishwasher soap and laundry soap.  I already had promised her long ago I wouldn't use dryer sheets anymore in the new dryer.  I've been using dryer balls for years, but I also toss in a dryer sheet because I still got a lot of static.  I told her I was even getting new dryer balls and I found the perfect ones!  So me!  A rainbow of colors!  And they are not supposed to bleed the color from the balls.  I sent her a link to show her (Amazon).

We were also talking hand soap dispensers.  Leah loves her automatic ones, but they are quite expensive.  I had tried these cheaper ones from the Bed, Bath, and Beyond close out sale...but they're terrible. Have to put your hand under there like 3-5 times and just a tiny drizzle comes out.  I just wanted to go back to good old dependable pump bottles.  Already had those picked out, too.  She even offered to buy the more expensive automatic ones for me like they have, but I said I had decided to use sets--labeled refillable bottles for the bathroom and kitchen.  Less sitting out on the counter, you know?  And I found these little absorbent stone platforms to set them on.  Sent her links to show her.

Well, she ordered them all for me!!  Said she was going to have the colored dryer balls waiting for me in the new dryer...so she sent those to their house.  Awesome!  I was so excited I couldn't sleep!  No lie!  I planned to order all that (and more) in February.  But now I can set up my new soap dispensers and get rid of these awful ones that everyone complains about--myself included--sooner than I expected!  Whoohoo!!  And I have my eye on some other things to order in February, too, of course--lol!  ;)

I should be focusing on the last of my writing, card-making, and art supply purchases before I move and begin my no-buy in those areas...but it is just too darn exciting to get stuff for the new place--lol! ;)  Well, I did get the new watercolor journals and pad.  :)

Anyways, that's about it from here till next week, my friends.  Allie knows I haven't been feeling that great.  She follows me to the bathroom and sits on the rug waiting for me.  Of course, she wants me to toss a small glass of water into the shower for her to lick off the walls after I wash my hands...every time.  But even though I am up and down a lot (and she hates that) she is usually right back up on the chair with me wanting to cuddle...wet feet, butt, and tail from the shower--lol!  She's here on the chair with me right now purring loudly.  Cats!  Gotta love 'em.  

Till next week...change is coming...in many ways.  Let's hope more positive than negative.  Fingers crossed.  :)