Chronicles of Nani - Life Got Really Normal

Life with a chronic illness and in a wheelchair we all create and live with our own kind of normal. I had a few wonderful days of exactly that, including enough energy to accomplish "too much to do." With MS they don't last forever, but when they do it's heaven! Everyone enjoyed having me around, ESPECIALLY me!

Please come and enjoy with me a great weekend including a new kitten!

(Thank you David, Mike, Claudia, Sheri, my Dad & Aunt and Casey, the sweetest little kitten around, for making my world fantastic this weekend!)

 Merry Christmas!

This weeks vlog is a combination of helpful and happy. It's a much more "normal" Nani than last week's was!

It's the support and loving positivity from my blog friends, family of relatives and friends and this week especially my baby brother that keeps my smile going!

Thank you, all of you!

The Chronicles of Nani - Seasonal Depression

 The vlog is a little sad this week this week, but it's real.

The Chronicles of Nani - Happy Thanksgiving

 I'm starting to get my act together! At least I'm on time with the video this week! 

From the earliest back that I can remember to the present day Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Remember, I said from the earliest Thanksgiving I can remember. Of course before that Santa and I had a pretty close penpal friendship.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to my Internet family whether you are a new regular at my cyber coffee shop or you've been here since practically the beginning (I love you Edna!)

I'm so sorry that I didn't get this up in time for the debut this morning! Definitely do stop by sometime to see my Halloween Video with costumes and ideas from a Halloween present, past and future!

 

So much going on

credits: Wintergreen by Mags Graphics and Winter Magic 

by Aprilisa Designs, Challenge word art by 

Kristmess, snowman paintings Fair Use from the Internet

Too much going on too? I have two big problems that I'm working on. I am proud to say that I actually am working on both of them. More on that in a minute…

Don't you just love the scrapbook page that started off my blog? I say that with all kinds of pride and I'm not sorry for stroking my own ego. I made that (No I didn't draw the pictures, I can't draw, but I did put it out to gather into a scrapbook page) and I’m very happy with how it turned out. The line referring to children making snowmen as “outdoor Michelangelos making Davids” is one I came up with many years ago and my husband David said it was too much to use on Christmas card. So I knew that eventually I wanted to use it for a scrapbook page and put that single line on a word document and then switched it to a pages document when I changed back to Mac. That's how long I was holding onto that line until I had time to create a scrapbook page I thought was worthy of it. I am VERY proud of that page.


All of my gifts and gift wrap are here and ready for me to put together, or anyway, ask David and/or my aides to put together for me.

To add to my pre-holiday excitement, I just found out that my niece, Rina, will be at my dad’s on Christmas Day after all! Originally, a first year assistant manager, of course has the short straw when it came to getting a holiday off and although she isn't working on Christmas was originally scheduled for Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas leaving no way she was going to drive all the way up to Michigan for Christmas day to turn around four hours later and go back to Indianapolis. As it works out she was able to get the schedule manipulated so that she can be in Michigan for the Christmas Eve feast at my cousin’s and for Christmas morning at Pop’s. I'm sure she feels great about it for her, but I will admit wholeheartedly that I personally feel blessed. I'm not so mobile and therefore not able to see my nieces anymore than once or twice a year now. Good thing at over 50 I'm still well-versed in the way 20-somethings communicate.

All I really need now is to get my wool cape dry cleaned and either spend a night driving around looking at Christmas lights or finding a night that's not quite so cold to go to the zoo and see The Lights Before Christmas. If that can't happen I'll settle for making some space for my little 2 foot tree.

The Lights Before Christmas at the Toledo zoo, 2011

Now back to my two problems. First problem, as I'm going backwards in years, is my hands. First let me describe what MS hands are like. My description of what my untreated hands feel like is imagine that your hands are twice the size that they are, almost like there's a second skin that's blown up over top of your regular hands and inside that second skin it's packed full of tiny buzzing insects and day and night that's all you feel is swollen hands stiffened by the fact that they're packed with these buzzing insects. I've tried so many different kinds of prescribed drugs and dry skin lotions so that I could use my hands, grab more things without dropping them and even type. Frustratingly, nothing was working, one of the drugs even made me sleep so soundly that I’d wake up not knowing what time of day it was and sometimes not even knowing where I was. As a thinker and a control freak THAT was not acceptable!

But now, I've become part of the cannabis generation! I have not taken up smoking or seriously doing drugs. But I use CBD ointment, which is basically the healing part of marijuana without the THC that makes you high (and gives you the munchies which I really don't need right now.) I use a combination of serum and the lotion. And I've been experimenting now with a 3X lotion that I can really feel when I put it on and it starts clearing up my hands right away. The 3X unfortunately stands for triple strength and triple price. But if it works and I can actually feel things and use my fingers to type or at least fix errors that using speech to text makes, might make it worth swallowing the extra cost.

Then there's the other problem that I'm fixing. I'm actually talking with a therapist again to help me sort out the fact that I have a huge list of priorities that's so overwhelming I can't prioritize all the priorities. I've worked with a therapist and psychologist before and as I've said in the past they are the most wonderful people in the world. I think the number one thing is that you have to be open to allowing them to help you and you have to accept that helping you is not doing it for you but it's helping you find it in yourself to do it for yourself. I'm not gonna say that it's difficult or that it's easy, that it's quick or takes forever. That depends on what the problems are that you are brave enough to tackle and strong enough to realize that you can't do it alone. So far I'm already starting to feel somewhat at ease as the professional I'm talking with is already helping me break up my priority list so I can tackle things one thing at a time.

OK now is the time where I mention again that while Rina is the dedicated retail manager moving her way up, just like her great grandmother did, her twin sister, Tori, is a psychologist in Indianapolis. To say that I am incredibly proud of MY millennials is truly an understatement.

Christmas last year

So that's me checking in for now. With a little more control over my hands I should be able to blog a little more. But realistically, I don't think the next blog will be from me because after reading JDs fill ins Marco has been bugging me that it's his turn. But I think I've got some Christmas pictures and maybe even Christmas music to share this weekend.

Please keep me or add me to your reading list. The positive comments really do keep me going.

Now I need to take a break so I can do some reading and commenting myself!

Behind The Dot

Hi everyone in the Interwebs!

I’m Julie Danielle Catinez, but call me JD. I like JD better. Mommy says Julie Danielle is my name but she only uses it when I’m bad. Bad? Who’s the cat here? I’ll tell you if I’m ever bad. I’ll turn 4 next year and be able to go to feline obedience school. I read that in the online sample of our first semester text book, “Make Them Obey.” Even if you don’t go to obedience school, it’s a best-seller at Catmazon!

Mommy follows some pretty cool blogs! She hasn’t writed a lot in a while, but she’s using stuff she says is like catnip but you don’t feel funny. It sounds like boring catnip, but it helps her help me write, so if she likes it, it’s okay for me.

Mommy follows some great blogs Of course there’s Miss Edna’s biog where we keep up on our friend, Pogo, but there are also blogs about or writed by other cats! They play Interwebs games together. Mommy’s gonna help me with Linky so I can play too.

Friendly Fill-Ins is a Friday game, and I will try to do it earlier this week.

Friendly Fill-Ins are from Four Legged Fur Balls and 15 and Meowing.

1. I look forward to seeing _________ at the holidays.

2. I can see _________ outside my _________ window.

3. _________ always puts me in a festive mood.

4. My favorite holiday tradition is _________.


1. I look forward to seeing Santa Paws at the holidays! Last year I was a kiteen (Mommy and Daddy say we look like cats at a year old, but kittenhood lasts for a couple years.) Because I just becomed a housecat last year, I never got treats and toys for Christmas before. I can’t wait this year!

2. I can see squirrels outside my front cat TV screen. (Which they tell me is also called a window) It snowed last month and Squirrely, the star of The Squirrel Show, went into his oak tree in front of the screen. But it got warmer and there was another episode!

3. Mommy puts on my favorite green blanket so I can sleep on her legs always makes me happy and that’s a festive mood. She makes Christmas scrapbook pages and it makes her happy.

4. My favorite holiday tradition is Mommy has Christmas candy so we get more treats!

Have fun! I’ll be back soon!

This Year, With Work, It Will Finally Get Better

The title of today's blog is my mantra for 2019. The last few years have been torture in my brain. With the help of a couple of psychologists and some other important people who are helping me there will be some changes in my world this year, changes that will make things better.

I’ve felt like pretty crappy friend the last couple months. Getting to Christmas had been rough.. If you read a few entries back you can kind of get an idea of what the end of 2018 was like for me. For a little bit I kept up with my Sunday Weekend Playlist. But I'll be totally honest. I don't even remember a lot of November with the broken bones and the painkillers I was on so that I wouldn't feel how bad those broken bones hurt it's sort of left me with a very cloudy vision of what November was like. I remember not being happy that with the broken feet there was no way I could go to my dad's the weekend after Thanksgiving for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We were going to do mom’s traditional sage stuffing this year too.

I do remember one funny thing. Let me start by explaining that when we were teenagers we would take turns with everybody picking on one of us for the evening every now and then. Somehow I never got picked to be teased for the night I and I voiced concern about that. “You never pick on me. Don't you guys love me?" At that time I was told I hadn't done enough dumb things to be picked on for. I guess that was a compliment but I felt kind of bad that I got to laugh at everybody else and they didn't get a chance to laugh at me. Under the influence of some serious drugs I finally got my stupid statement that I'm reminded about over and over. In fact I love the fact that I’m laughed at for it so much I make sure everybody hears about it!

My nurse picked up one of the mini Hershey's Gold candy bars that was in the candy jar on the table next to my recliner and asked me what it was. I told her it's a Bruno Mars bar. Now I really do referred of those as Bruno Mars bars because his song 24K Magic is used in the advertising and I say with a smirk that they are “Caramel and sweet just like Bruno.” Well in my; drugged up state from the painkillers I told her “they’re Bruno Mars bars because they’re caramel, sweet and crunchy just like Bruno." Nobody, including me, has any idea what makes Bruno Mars crunchy. The candy bars are crunchy - they have pretzel pieces and peanuts in them. But what I said was Bruno Mars is caramel sweet and crunchy. Exactly what the definition of crunchy is I get picked on for a lot. And I have to admit as someone who doesn't get picked on a lot, I love it.

My Christmas shopping is usually done by December 1. This year I’m ashamed to say that the last of my gifts were bought after Christmas, but, though perhaps not as personal as in the past, I did get my gifts out. My brain may not have been working well but my heart was.

Stay tuned. I’ll share some of my favorite photos that made me smile as I was being tapered off the more mind-messing and addictive drugs in mid-December!

Christmas II

12-25-2017

Pop and Aunt Judy tag-teamed to get my slipper-boots on me to leave.

After spending a day in the wheelchair with my feet down for most of it they were swollen and putting the boots on was much more difficult than it was when David put them on at six in the morning. But they did get them on, David scraped off the van, we got our goodies to take home and with loving goodbyes we were homeward bound.

The surface streets were slippery and snowy but not so bad once we got on the freeway. The freeway was full of cars headed south on Christmas evening after a seasonally early sunset. Crowded roads were probably a good thing because lots of cars and lots of tires helped keep lanes clearer, but it was mostly the common Michigan practice when it snows, three lane sections of freeway become two lane sections. There were some slick spots but we got back to Toledo okay.

Really our driveway was the most treacherous snow we had to deal with! David tried backing in and that didn’t work so we pulled back out and went in front ways through the drifted snow David did some tricky turning in the backyard to line up my door and the ramp so I could get in the house. He shoveled off the ramp and I put my chair in high traction gear and I got in safe and sound.

Marco greeted us at the door, acting like we’d been gone forever. Christmas day this year is the longest he’s been alone in his entire life. He went from being with his Mama and littermates to having a human Mommy and Daddy and two older sister-cats. He hadn’t been alone more than a couple of hours since Carla’s passing and today had been 14 hours. To a kitty brain, that’s almost a week!

David went in to the living room while I was taking off my cape and immediately discovered some of what Marco had busied himself with during the day!

I’d done a pretty good job of keeping him off the table and not chewing the little tree for the time it had been there

The tree is about 2-1/2 feet tall and was a gift from a friend who helped out in an aide capacity in November and December. I’ve said before that I need those lights, the warm glow of a tree, to feel holiday cheer. She knew what I meant and brought the tabletop tree, lights, ornaments and everything as a gift a couple weeks before Christmas.

After righting the tree and getting the rest of our packages inside and getting something to drink, we opened presents that were around our tree.

I always love giving David an Italian chocolate hazelnut bar. It’s a large candy bar and David absolutely loved it the first time my aunt gave us one in our gift when she and my uncle visited from San Marino in 2009, when we were iced out of seeing everybody. So much of the food I grew up with doesn’t match David‘s palate, so I enjoy making sure he gets that candy bar at least once a year so I can share a little of my heritage. I also got him a sweater in a yarn pattern he seemed to really like and a copy of Stephen Colbert‘s Midnight Confessions.

We agreed that that’s one of our favorite recurring segments on The Late Show and when the book came out that it would be a fun coffee table book.

Yes, that is an area where with the laugh and a smile I admit I’m old; my husband and I tune to “Colbert” before bedtime the same way my grandparents said “let’s see who’s on Johnny Carson.“


Edna was so generous! (she always is) I was a good girl and waited to open the box she sent until Christmas. She sent a message to me not to open the mailer, and that box was the base of the gifts around the tree, protected from my anxious inner chid by the fact an aide put it just out of my reach. Edna gave a bunch of sweet gifts, highlighted with her 2018 calendar. I always look forward to seeing the photos she chose for the year. She’s such a talented photographer! There was also a train DVD for David and sweet squirrel ornament. David added the ornament to the tree because Marco wanted to add my squirrely to the squeaking cat toys Pogo sent him.

The marquis gift this year was the bed doll in a hand-crocheted green dress.

The pic is before her hair was un-messed from shipping and I’ll get a better pic on my made bed sitting on my prayer quilt as soon as my 2018 remix is in full swing. She kinda looks like me in the messy hair shot, well, except that I have a bit more gray. I would so have worn the green dress in the pre-gray and wheelchair days!


After enjoying gifts and taking some time to assure Marco we never planned to abandon him, a fun but long Christmas Day turned into a cozy and exhausted slumber.

Thank you to everyone who contributed in person and in heart to a wonderful holiday!

Christmas

Pop's and Aunt Judy's tree

*decorated byTori*

Christmas blessings were abundant this year. In a year where health, finances and time left me giving a little less in some areas than I usually like to, I still seemed to receive a lot. I think what hurt the most was that we didn’t do Christmas cards this year. We always put the kids on our cards. If not having Kaline on them didn’t hurt enough, we knew Carla was sick at the time I would’ve been making the cards and I couldn’t bear to even think of whether not to put her on the card. I’ve also been in constant back-and-forth arguments with the insurance company about how much money out of pocket I’ve spent on my healthcare this year since the end of September.

But onto the happy stuff! David and I woke up at 5 AM yesterday to forage north to Pop’s House for Christmas. It had snowed a little and it was very cold but our drive was relatively uneventful. The main road off the freeway and the dirt road to Pop‘s house was our biggest snow challenge. The last of my cold still lingers, so I couldn’t smell Pop and Aunt Judy’s citrus pine, but I sure could smell the bacon cooking! Tori was busy at the stove with a couple packs of bacon cooking and cooking. “Papa said ‘just cook at all.’ I have a small stack of wimpy bacon for Uncle David t oo.” My love of crispy bacon is a family trait.

Then it was present opening time. It was Rina's and Tori‘s suggestion a few years ago that we draw names instead of buying for everybody. It gives you the opportunity to really shop for thoughtful gifts for one person instead of trying to spread the budget around two gifts for everyone. It worked out great. I know in the past few years I’ve given and received some wonderful gifts. This year was no different.

Rina's boy, Basil, sitting next to his great-uncle.

Ya know how cats are drawn to non-cat people?

David is not a dog person, but this started 

with a nap together before breakfast.

In drawing names it was strange this year that fathers and first daughters traded gifts. Pop and I had each other as did Dave and Rina. It was Star Wars for Dave and Red Wings for Rina and their Exchange and mostly food stuff between Pop and me. Keeping in mind that this is the 52nd Christmas Pop and I have celebrated together, choosing gifts wasn’t difficult, but it seemed that knowing when to stop was for both of us! Pop gave me a wonderful vibrating kitty neck wrap that I’m looking forward to trying tonight, As well as some warm slippers and a beautiful bracelet. And the food, wow! I got 4 solid large persimmons and some ambrosia apples to help them ripen, an only raisins panettone, lemon pizzele and some other tasty treats including two packages of my favorite breadsticks that can only be found, that I know of, and his Italian store. Among the things I found for him, to go with the stories and recipes from American immigrants cookbook, were an 18-pack of Pocket Coffee (dark chocolates with a liquid espresso center) chestnuts in a 1 pound block of aged 3 years Parmesan Reggiano cheese. We had a fun and yummy exchange! Tori was beyond happy, Especially about 2 poetry books from Ucle David. Between Rina, David and me for the information and finding the books, we did really well with that one!

It had been snowing a little bit while we were opening presents and there was already a thin coating of snow on our van when the Indianapolis family headed back home A little before noon. We made sure to have them call when they got home. I guess the worst of the snow was in Michigan for their ride.

Our annual Christmas 3-shot

Rina, Nana, Tori

Around 3 o’clock my cousin, Lisa, and family arrived for dinner. The snow was falling in heavier squalls by then and when Lisa’s bff, Annelie, and her kids got there they were commenting about the roads being pretty nasty.

All. Freaking. Day.

David and I have usually seen Lisa‘s kids a few times during the year between Christmases. I usually see Lisa’s kids more than we see Lisa! This year we hadn’t seen the kids all year and in a year her oldest, Owen, looks like quite the young man and as completely sweet and giving as he’s always been. Her twins don’t look like kids anymore either. At 13, they are definitely teenagers. Audrey is a beautiful young woman who looks more like her mom every day. Ethan is 100% teenager, showing off his new smart watch, but he made a point of engaging everybody, making you feel like his favorite person when he was talking with you. (What a magical gift!)

My awesome cousins

At the end of the evening when we were all packing up to go, Annelie sent home half of her homemade apple pie with us, we tried that apple pie for the first time at Thanksgiving and OMG it is wonderful! Before they were ready to leave Lisa‘s husband, Tory, shoveled off the ramp so we wouldn’t have to do that to leave. I’ve always said and I’m always proven right; my family chooses and breeds the best!


More Christmas to come...



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Yes Nani, There Is A Santa Claus

Merry Christmas Eve and Happy First Day of Hanukkah! Boy, we got here fast this year. I'm sure the surgery at the beginning of the month can be blamed for the things that are late or didn't get done this year. Well, I'm blaming it for taking a week of prep time away from me. I can't bake anymore, at least not alone, and I've been sending other cookies or treats to the loved ones I'd sent those to before. I didn't this year and that makes me sad. I feel a little plowed under by the holiday season that sort of avalanched. Our Christmas cards are still here and will be sent out after Christmas as our way of extending the warmth and love of the holiday.

Last minute shopping I needed to do was thwarted by weather yesterday. How that happened on a dry and warmer day was that iced over packed snow at the end of the driveway turned to thick slush. My wheels slid around and got stuck and the bus driver had to help me out. That was at the beginning of about a 10-yard slush field. After backing me out I had to refuse the ride since we agreed there was no way I could get to the bus. I had asked David about making that trip after dinner. We had planned to go out to acknowledge our anniversary last night, but a combination of that slush on the wheelchair van, rediscovering that the old wheelchair, which is lower and fits at restaurant tables, is the "old" wheelchair because the seat is too short and is the reason why my hips are painfully twisted (they're worse now and it hurts more) and to top it off it was raining, cancelled the dinner plans too.

It's been a challenging Holiday season for me this year.

But there are many good things too.

For the surgical procedure to have happened at all it meant the blood pressure problem that saw it rescheduled in November is under control It was successful with no complications and visiting nurse says healing well.

I always put funds for a couple extra gifts in my Christmas budget for gifts for friends I don't always exchange with, RAKs, extra help for people I don't know or charity. I don't make a big deal about doing that because it's something I do for myself, it just makes me feel good. This year I didn't have time to spend that, but I did get an "emergency call" from a friend who I was able to help because of not having time to spend it. I gladly accept that there's a reason for everything

I ran out of time but I really wanted to make a single batch of gingerbread cookies. I spent years perfecting my gingerbread recipe to be exactly the cookies I wanted. I did that to my taste, I shared them with my holiday baking, but they were the cookie I made for me. One of my aides said we could make the dough one day and bake them the next. Unfortunately she wasn't scheduled to be in this week, so the cookies weren't made. However, if she's in the week after Christmas, we can still do a batch. I also accept that gingerbread doesn't have to be a Christmas cookie.

I did get all the presents I had planned on getting and I got them all wrapped. There were two boxes that were sent in the mail and I know that one of them made it today and I'm hoping that the other one did as well. David is picking up the breakfast pastries that I couldn't get yesterday and I will have those ready for Christmas morning. I've talked to Pop; there is a beautiful decorated tree to go with the fabulous meal he'll be serving tomorrow.

In so many ways it is felt like this holiday season is just another part of a gloomy year. But even in the darkest of times, the holidays bring out the best in everybody and the brightest of feelings inside all of us.  Yes Nani, there is a Santa Claus; but sometimes you have to look for him so you can give him a hug.

Flowers, Flowers, Freebies

Aren't they beautiful? David stopped to pick up a few grocery items, including a special holiday traditional treat for me, on the way home Friday. When he came in he presented me with a bouquet of bright Christmas-colored flowers! He hasn't brought me flowers in the long time. I hadn't been feeling like a Neil Diamond song or anything, but they sure make me smile every time I look at them!

Getting flowers is a nice introduction to me giving flowers to all of my digital scrapbooking friends! I might have mentioned when I released Christmas Cocoa for Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies on December 1 that I thought it needed flowers and maybe something else.

Here are the flowers and a few leaves to add to this month's freebie kit!

Christmas Cocoa Flowers

Click on preview to download at MediaFire

The Christmas Cocoa kit is here,

 I hope you enjoy Christmas Cocoa. Stay tuned! I may yet have something else to add to this kit.

Christmas Cocoa

Welcome to the 2016 Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies!

If you are a visitor from the Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies blog, welcome! If you are a regular reader here who will enjoy some fabulous Christmas scrapbooking freebies, by all means click that logo to check out the great holiday gifts! Regardless of how you got here, if you download my mini kit, enjoy!

Here is the palette I used for this year's kit.

Without further ado, here is Christmas Cocoa!

Click image to download at Mediafire


This kit is customizable. If you saw the sample layout yesterday, the hot Chocolate mugs work as coffee mugs too. The mugs, steam, marshmallows and whipped cream topping are separate elements, so you can dress up your warm beverage the way that best accents your photos and journaling. It is a mini kit, so visit back! I do think it could use a couple flowers, maybe an alpha or something too. :)

For many of us, we NEED the holiday season to save 2016. I hope all the great scrapbooking freebies are a good inspiration to send the year out with a loving surge.


But wait, there's more! Make sure you pick up the add-on flowers here!

Kicking Off The Holidays

The holiday season has officially kicked off. We went to Michigan the Sunday before Thanksgiving to have our Thanksgiving dinner would Pop and Aunt Judy. Thursday was a Play football day at home with David. Thursday night I started my Christmas holiday shopping. Even for a homebody who does most of my shopping online, Black Friday sales were abundant.

Today I watched Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer while David was at work, making the Christmas season official for my inner child. David is not a Rudolf fan at all, so Rudolph, however necessary, is a solo event for me.

The other thing that I did today was this scrapbook page:

Credits: Christmas Cocoa buy Digitalegacies Designs

He1he… my fellow scrappers can sleep on that. Christmas Cocoa Will be released tomorrow morning as my contribution to Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies this year!

More in the morning…

A Few Spring Things

Happy Opening Day! Like the parties on Christmas Eve have increased over the years, there were 3 Opening Day Eve parties. I watched bits of the first one, because my aide was in and yesterday was salon-day (hair-wash and pamper,) and all of the last two. Opening Day is today, not because I’m a Reds fan, but because the oldest professional team in baseball has always played at home on Opening Day. Baseball resuming in Cincinnati has always marked the beginning of the new season.

I still want to one day get to Cincinnati for Opening Day, parade and everything. I’ve been to OD for the Tigers as both a paying fan, intern and paid staff. No matter in what capacity, there is nothing that compares to the electric feeling in the air on Opening Day. As huge as it is in Tiger-town, you can feel the city-wide buzz is even more powerful in Cincinnati watching it on TV. I’d hope that the Joey Votto jersey and wheelchair could get me to the front of the parade line, or at least a free drink. **smiles**

When Melinda, my aide a few days a week, was here on Saturday it was snowing. It was enough snow that at times it looked pretty heavy and it did stick to the ground. It was April 2, so where did that prank come from? Its been a rough spring for me with no actual usable wheelchair, I’ve been a house-body, so I pretty much missed the crocuses this year except for one photo David took when they first came up and a glimpse of the end of them and beginning of the daffodil buds when I went to the doctor’s office a couple weeks ago. Melinda came right back in after she left and brought me one of the narcissus blooms. It didn’t get knocked off, she picked it. “So you get to enjoy at least one of them.” It made my day.

The snow we got on Saturday was melted away pretty quickly yesterday morning. Even though it was still a cold day, it started out sunny. We have nothing to complain about. I read on Edna's blog  that they woke up to a lot more snow from overnight in New England yesterday. She had some nice snow pictures and in spite of the snow, she offered a very bright and warm quick page freebie. By golly, it’s spring! I followed her lead and rebelled against the chill with this:

Credits: 2016 quick page 15 by Miss Edna, Open Windows by Mandy King and Connie Prince

I added a bit of my slightly sarcastic sense of humor, I remembered the ads from my childhood that “it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” It seems she pranks us enough. I don’t need no stinkin’ real butter…

Funny memories… Marco was being nosey about my toothbrushing stuff and it brought to mind an old lesson about why they don’t sell cat-toothbrushes.

Nani and Ritchie ages 17 & 1

When I was 17, I had a cat, Ritchie. Ritchie was all black except for a few white hairs on his chest and he was incredibly affectionate, although dumb as a box of rocks. On one given day, 17-year-old Nani was dumber than that box of rocks. I was playing with Ritchie, nuzzling his face, and he had incredible fish-breath! I figured it was a good idea to brush his teeth. I got an old toothbrush and put a little toothpaste on it. I never got to brush his teeth. As soon as the toothpaste hit his tongue he freaked. He ran through the house with the foam that the tooth paste instantly created trailing behind him leaving a frothy white map to exactly where he was. Where he it eventually ended up was his water bowl and I don't think I’ve ever seen a cat drink so much water!

Leave cat dental procedures to the professionals!

Happy Chocolate Bunnies!

Easter art made from a few pieces from my stash

David and I will trade chocolate when he gets home from work. I ope everyone has a great holiday, if you celebrate it, or a beautiful spring day that happens to have excellent candy on the shelves!

I’m watching cactus league baseball game and munching beans and eggs. That’s healthy food, right? -big grin- Okay, jelly beans and candy covered chocolate eggs. I don’t count candy points on Easter. I’ll check in after I sleep off the sugar coma. hehe

Christmas Tears

Oh, I’m talking about the kind of tears that I want to feel welling up in my eyes during the holidays! I had a wonderful Christmas as a giver with gifts well-received and a few unexpected extras that I truly enjoyed seeing the reactions of the recipients. But I was the gift-getter of not one, but three gifts that gave me those happy tears this year!

It started Christmas Eve. There were some errands to run and we were going out to dinner. It rained on our anniversary and David and I decided to have an earlier dinner on Christmas Eve rather than me venturing out in my chair in the rain. Even with an umbrella, there is much more of you exposed to the rain in a wheelchair than there is standing up. So we were going out after David’s afternoon “commitment.” It wasn’t a train or poker and he wouldn’t tell me details, so I figured the “commitment” was something for me.

Well, the time for that commitment came and David was still home. He told me the time had been pushed back a little later. He started cleaning up some things in the living room where I had been cleaning little by little but he's capable of picking it up much faster. I was thinking to myself that helping with that was an awesome gift in itself. He works full time and when he’s home, taking cafe of all the things I can’t do is a full time job. I don’t remember exactly what I asked, but his answer included that he was clearing out space because Mike was coming over and they were putting up a tree.

What?

He’d read the blog post I did about being sad that I wouldn’t have an aide yet to help me clean up the living room and it’d be the third year without a tree. He wanted to give me a tree for Christmas Eve. Mike, who is allergic to cats, drugged himself up with allergy meds and came over. He and David put up the tree with lights, garland and the tree skirt and angel on top, just like I was planning to do.

At first I told him it was the thought and it made me feel so good, but he didn’t need to put up a tree. I insisted it was a lot of work to do it and we weren’t going to be home on Christmas but then I stopped saying not to do it. I was ashamed of myself for not appreciating the incredible meaning of the thought. It’s not just that he reads my blog; it’s that he really reads the piece of me I put into what I write. And he knew better than I did just how much it would do for me to have a tree.

Oh those beautiful, warm lights glowing in the dark after we got home from dinner were just beautiful to to watch. I settled into the recliner and he cozied on the couch and we just relaxed. I’m not a snow means Christmas person, Christmas is Christmas as long as there are lights. David gave me my Christmas spirit this year.


My other happy Christmas tears from gifts I received came on Christmas Day. We did name drawing for our family gift exchange on Christmas morning. Tori drew my name. I had already said I was prepared for a warm and fuzzy gift. She “owed me tears” after the books I’d done for the girls when they turned 18. I got my gift and opened Catopoly, the cat version of Monopoly. After 21 years, she knows me well! I was anxious to play the game. I was surprised there wasn’t a mushy gift after all. But then there was a second smaller box. The second box was the tears box.

When the girls were learning to talk, they had 2 names to learn in their world that were similar. They had Aunt Nanette, with vowel sounds similar to “baguette,” and Aunt Nani, rhymes with “Donny.” For a while we were both “Nana,” like the end of “Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’.” As their ability to better grspthe vowel sounds improved, Nanette became Aunt Nanette, but part because Nana and Nani sound so similar and part because they saw me more often and had been calling me Nana all along, I stayed Nana. It’s the same as my Aunt Raffaella has always been Auntie to me and still is. That’s what makes her MY aunt, and so my name, Nana, is with the girls.

The smaller box had tissue paper that when unfolded revealed a silver rope bracelet with a clasp big enough to be put on and taken off with MS hands. It also has a heart-shaped sparkly charm that says NANA in block letters.

It’s pretty much been as everyday important as my medical alert bracelet since Tori fastened it on my wrist Christmas morning.


My last happy Christmas tears came when we got home Christmas night. Edna spoiled me with a couple of boxes. One was a sort of stocking in a box with wrapped presents that included one that felt like it must be a neck warmer like the ones I knew she was making for Christmas gifts. I opened that last because I love hand-made gifts and I expected that would be the special gift I’d want to open as the finale of the box.

I opened the paper and saw the variegated pink, purples, orange and yellow; gorgeous. I remember how much I liked the multi color ones she’d done. I may have even left a comment about it on her blog. It was beautiful! But when I turned it around the get a full look pinned together from the front, that’s when my eyes welled up again that'd day.

On the pin is a orange ribbon MS charm. The gorgeous gift was very personal and yesterday when I wore it to the doctors office, it was warm too!


So those were my smiling Christmas tears. I like to give gifts that are special; something the receiver wouldn't normally buy for themselves but would enjoy or something that just jumps out and makes me think of them or something I create. I like to give gifts that are memorable or memories in themselves. That’s because of how wonderful it feels to receive gifts liken that. This year I had three of them that felt beyond that emotional bar I set for myself as a giver. The friends and relatives that are my famiy are just awesome. I love you guys!

Santa Paws Is Just Awesome!

Behind Stripes and Spots

I needed a break after playing with Wobbert

This was such a cool Christmas! We got lots of treats and toy mousies. Two mousies jungle and two of them make real squeaks! But the best thing I got was Wobbert! Here’s Wobbert’s video:


Isn’t Wobbert cool? Mommy says Wobbert is a “Feline Tickle Me Elmo.” I don’t know what that is but she says that everycat wants a Wobbert this year. Well, yeah. Did you watch the video? How could anycat NOT want a Wobbert?

I’m not so sure about the name on my present. It didn’t say Marco it said Share. Mommy and Daddy have called me nicknames before but Santa Paws is the first one to call me Share. But it’s okay to call me Share if you’re giving me edible string!

That is the part of the video I don’t get. How can you play with Wobbert when he still has chicken-string? When Mommy loads him up like the video shows, the first thing I do is eat the yummy string. Mommy gave a piece of string to Carla and one to Kaline. Neither one of them liked the string so when Mommy stopped holding me against my will, I got the extra pieces of string right away. How could they not like edible string??

We all play with Wobbert and get him to drop treats for us. Kaline platys with him a little, but would rather have human staff just give her the treats. But I admit Carla is pretty impressive. She can get a treat from Wobbert almost every time she hits him! One time she hit him a buncha times and got treats for all of us!

We also found out my Wobbert is better than games for people-kids because Mommy heard that one of her people-kid cousins got a new X-box that wouldn’t play his old X-box games! Santa Paws sent a present from our friend, Pogo, in New England. It was a whole bag of Meow Mix treats, which are very yummy treats by the way, thanks, Pogo! Mommy put some of those treats in my Wobbert and they worked great. Take THAT X-box!

Mommy said maybe she should get another Wobbert since we all like to play at the same time when she loads the treat holders. I think that's a good idea. If she got the girls a Wobbert I could eat all the string since they don’t like the string.

It was a good Christmas!

Longer Days Again!

Happy Yule! It’s Winter Solstice which means the days will now be getting longer everyday! YAY!!

After a grouchy and the a whiny post, it’s time for a normal Nani, dontcha think? The Winter Solstice really is a holiday with good memories for me. Most of them are because I love sunlight. Seriously I didn't have to get too old before I realized I just like doing things during the day best. Even when I travel I prefer skipping going out and enjoying what there is to do at night so I can wake up and do morning things. So the marking of the days getting longer is worth celebrating to me. I also have a fun memory of the Solstice Celebration I enjoyed with the guy I was dating many years ago. He was a Buddhist who celebrated recognized the pagan holidays.


This also marks the beginning of a busy week for me. Tomorrow is our anniversary! It will be 7 years since that day that I started off a bachelorette falling on a 12 pack of cherry soda and ended waiting for my husband to get home from work. I still smile when I think about the fun that we had with our mischievous reveals the next couple weeks. There was nothing conventional about our wedding day or the events leading up to it or any of the things we did over the next few months to celebrate it. And I wouldn't change one bit of it for anything in the world. I am blessed that I have a wonderful man in my world. He has gone through so much with me and he is still my rock. I love you, David and as I get things in order I look forward to giving you the very best of me for many years to come.

It's my blog; I can have my mushy moments if I want them.

Then it’s Christmas Eve and Christmas day! We don't actually have Christmas eve plans this year, But David is off work that day. Maybe we'll exchange our gifts to each other if David's had a chance to shop by then. hehehehe… Christmas day will be family time.


I've been enjoying some flavors of the season this past week. I posted this photo on my Facebook page and received decent number of likes for someone who sporadically uses Facebook.

Panettone is a traditional Italian cake. Mom and I both loved panettone, but we did not like it with the candied orange peel. Noni always made a point of having one for Christmas that was solo uvetta/senza canditi; only raisins/without candied fruit. Those are not easy to find at all! I try to find one for Christmas but there have been years where I haven't had any panettone. This year I found an Amazon store that imports groceries from Italy. It fulfills the delivery through Amazon Prime. This panettone is a really good one too!

Panettone is a traditional Italian holiday cake. Taste-wise it’s similar to raisin bread only just a touch sweeter and a ton richer. A typical recipe for panettone includes a couple of eggs and double that number of just yolks. The texture is like the really soft inside of fresh Italian bread with a touch of cake to it with raisins and candied orange peel. Now the hard-to-find “senza canditi” is that just without the orange peel.

During the Christmas season panettone is a breakfast bread, a social coffee side or a light dessert. When you see what looks like a plate of hunks of bread on the table when you visit Italian friends during the holidays you think it’s just a plain thing to munch with your coffee. But when you taste a “little piece to be polite” you find out it has a truly addictive quality! An Italian holiday is a never-ending food coma anyway but the panettone with robust espresso after dinner was always a wonderful finish.

All I Want For Christmas

Our tree in 2011

I hope everyone is enjoying this festive time of year. Hanukah just ended last week, and while I know it’s not the biggie of the Jewish holidays, it is the biggest commercial one because of the time of the year. I think Christmas is much the same. The bigger Christian holiday is Easter, but Christmas is the big party one. The roots of all of that probably have to do with farming.The crops have been harvested and the time is available for celebrating and feasting. In the northern hemisphere, especially us further north parts of it, the days are shorter and it’s colder. A major holiday celebration is good for morale.That's just my thought based on personal observation.

I’m a little blue because we don’t have a tree again. It’s the third year in a row we haven’t put up the tree, but it’s also three years we’ve been at Pop’s on Christmas morning. I’ve enjoyed the pretty tree Aunt Judy does at their house. I’d still be in a happier Christmas mood if we had a tree at home. A lot of the worst things in our home are because of my disability. I was always the person who cleans up around the house, especially for the holidays, scrubbing up the kitchen before a huge baking week and arranging my “Santa-Nani’s Worksop” for gifts and such. Now that workshop decor is pretty much back to a bachelor pad motif. I’m not ripping on the former bachelor in the house - I’m lamenting my former elfen ability!

We did the tree with lights and a plush gold garland that Mom had gotten many years ago. It’s thick commercial grade; she’d talked a sales associate into selling it to her after Christmas one year. Every ornament on the tree had special meaning. There are ceramic angels from the formal pink and burgundy tree I had in my 20s, gorgeous porcelain angels Scotty’s family gave me and the glass ballerina Mom picked out because it reminded her of my dance days when I was a little girl. In a box next to the box with our tree are baseball ornaments for all three of our teams many cats and trains and gifts from friends. We have a special ornament for every year we’ve been together since 2005, including the photo the judge took of us on our wedding day in the 2008 frame ornament that says “our first married Christmas.” We picked out that ornament earlier in December when we didn’t even know for sure which day the picture would be taken. We’ve gotten an ornament for the last 2 years even though there was no tree but not for this year. I had said that if we didn’t put up the tree this year I wanted to get rid of it because all it was doing was taking storage space; But what I actually meant was I desperately wanted the tree and an ornament for this year.

My pink tree from the 80s/90s

Notice the same tree top?

We almost had a tree too. I had planned to drain the rest of my current savings to pay for a home heath aide (insurance doesn’t cover an aide) and I’d get things picked up and organized and we could have a tree. This year it’d probably be lights and garland, at least until we saw how Marco reacted. He’s 2-1/2 years old and has never seen a “cat-toy tree” or tried to climb one. But we’d fasten the tree to the wall with fishing wire like we did when Kaline still climbed. And my aide would help me with warping gifts and writing on tags. I was even dreaming about making a couple crostadas and a batch of gingerbread cookies. That’s a selfish me thing; I love my gingerbread cookies. But alas; no aide. I need help too bad to get help.

You see, I can't get out of the wheelchair on my own. Right now we’re working on getting a new chair that will have a lift, tilt forward, like our recliner, so I’m half standing, which is all I need to grab something and keep standing. But from this chair, I can sort of levitate my butt, but then someone needs to lift me to that level when\re I can grab something to finish standing. But in that in between, I need to really be supported and lifted up. If I was 145 pounds, which I’m not unless I’m asleep and having a very happy dream, for that lift, it’s over 50 pounds. 50 pounds is the limit of what an aide is allowed to lift. It’s for the safety of both the aide and me and I see and agree with that, but it means there won’t be an aide until I have a new chair and then only if it has that lift//tilt, which I’m told that insurance companies more often than not won’t cover. I did tell the new vendor we’re working with that the chair will have the lift and I’ll find a grant or a loan if it’s not approved.

So entering into 2016 there is a lot to look forward to. Everything that has dragged on and on this year has the potential to become a bountiful blossom next year. No matter what it takes, I’ll have the chair that better suits the way I use it. With the lift, I’ll be able to transfer without putting so much stress on my caregiver. That means I’ll be able to have an aide. I’ve applied for a grant for that and have an application for another one too. I hope I can at least have someone in a couple times week to help me get in and out the shower and some housekeeping assistance. And NEXT year I’ll have Christmas Tree and a happier holiday season. Next year I’ll bring a crostada to Christmas morning festivities and I’ll make a batch of gingerbread bats.

Now, DON’T WORRY. I’m still more happy than glum and I bounce back well when I'm sad. I find great joy in giving and I’ve sent a few gifts to friends I don’t trade holiday gifts with. I haven't been out much, so I haven’t gotten to pick up a stranger’s coffee or even lunch bill, but when a friend I haven’t seen in a few years ends a “thank you” with “you shouldn’t have, but I’m so glad you did” it feels awesome.