I Am Defined

Happy Sunday everyone! Unless you’re reading this tomorrow or on any day that’s not today or some multiple of seven from today, then happy whatever of the six other days this happens to be.

I have finally been defined with a definition I agree with. For years and years I’ve taken forms of the Meyers-Briggs tests, including the all out test that I took for a job interview many years back, and the results always start with E, calling me an extrovert. I’m actually consistently an ENTJ; Extrovert, Intuitive, Thinking, Judgmental, and the description of an ENTJ fits me pretty well except that I am not that outgoing. I’m outgoing when I need to be, when I have to, but I treasure my alone time too. As a rule, extroverts can’t stand being alone. I took a test online that tells what kind of introvert or extrovert a person is, because I love taking personality tests no matter how corny they are although this one is less corny than others I’ve taken, and it doesn’t call me an extrovert. According to my results I am an outgoing introvert. Which if you look at this description; 8 signs you may be an outgoing introvert, it fits me perfectly. And I love the fact that it doesn’t call me an extrovert.

I’m in the midst of a reading dilemma. Remember I said I was going to have an upstarts book and an ereader book going at the same time? Well, I did that. If you look at my Good Reads widget on the right, there are 2 current books listed. One is a hard cover that I got in a book swap and one is an e-book, young adult fiction. I read the Harry Potter series, and the Trylle series in the beginning of 2013; don’t judge! ;) But my current problem is that I’m just not really into either one. They’re both okay, but nor riveting at all. I have a Baldacci paperback in waiting and thanks to Christmas gift cards for both Barnes and Noble for the Nook app and Amazon for the Kindle app, both on my iPad, I have a couple lists of loaded and ready to read books on the tablet. I have a goal of averaging 2 books a month and I’m not even half way through either book with only a week of January left! January and February are usually good reading months for me. I have to come up with a plan to get myself some reading time so I can catch up and start some bocks I’m more likely to MAKE time to read.

I was talking to a friend from our MS support group about the things that make MS easier to live with today than it would have been years ago, say in the 1940s when it was first diagnosed and recognized as an actual disease. Without MRIs, there was no apparent scarring of the myelin to see on the brain or spine images and while it wasn’t a death sentence for sure, it did affect life expectancy just because they knew so little about it. So much about diagnosing and understanding the disease has improved in the many years since then.

The first disease modifying medication was approved for use and became available in 1993 and more medications became available after that; all injectable. The first oral medication was approved in 2010. That was my first choice in 2011, anything to avoid needles. There are 10 medications an MS patient and their neurologist can try, depending on what side effects you want to chance. But just think;25 years ago there were NO options. You were diagnosed, treated the symptoms as best you could and you knew the disease was going to progress with no way of slowing it down.

Back in that day, just prior to a drug for the disease, it wasn’t considered a disability. In fact the ADA was a baby in 1990 with members of congress that still didn’t want it to pass. We MSers were still destined to end up in wheelchairs and there were still people fighting tooth and nail not to have to widen a door for those chairs or anyone else with a wheelchair, walker, cane or just limited mobility or allowed mobility for breathing or heart conditions. We have advocates and are encouraged to be self-advocates in the fight to continue living instead of just existing as helpless invalids; we became legally valid!

But we really acknowledged the internet, tablet, smart phones. The internet means we aren’t hopeless and lonely when we are at home. The incredible ability to reach out to others like us and be cyber support is fantastic. I couldn’t live without my iPad. With the numbness in my hands that has me dropping things all the time and unable to write having my planner and several reading apps in one device, with a padded cover and replacement insurance on it, is such a blessing It also has a notepad, radio and MP3 storage, camera and my social media apps. And it has speech-to-text for every app I’d type in, a godsend for the times when my “fumblehands” just aren’t up to hitting the right keys. This is not an ad for the iPad. It’s an acknowledgement of how technology makes disabilities less disabling. There have been many times in the past year that speech-to-text software,, like Dragon on my PC, has written this blog!

It’s just amazing and wonderful. How many times did I watched Star Trek episodes where someone was carrying around a tablet with information essential for their job on it? I’m just waiting now for the hypo spray that will zap my MS all together? THAT’S something I’d take to our support group for “share and tell!”

My final note today is for everyone in the areas where the current storm is headed BE CAREFUL! The nasty winter storm the Weather channel is calling Juno is supposed to dump a TON of snow and nastiness on the east! We have relatives and friends that are expected to get in excess of a foot of snow. My friend Edna of Miss Edna’s Place will be seeing it in her part of New England as well, what she describes as feet of inches predicted on TV. If you are in the areas getting snow and hurricane winds, stay as safe and warm as possible and the rest of us please send good thoughts and prayers for them. We’ll get a few inches in Toledo and I’ll complain as I see it falling but then I’ll remember that I don’t have it so bad and check Edna’s blog or ask David if he talked to any of his brothers.

Thoroughly Thursday

First, let’s talk about the weather; BRRRR! It’s mostly in the 70s here and in July 80s is okay, really! There have been some hot days, but this is mostly a very mild summer so far. I hope it means there is a mild winter ahead again. I wouldn’t be happy if Global Climate Change ends up meaning Ohio Cooling Change. If we have the Polar Vortex winters every 4 or 5 years and very mild ones in between, that’d be fine. I can plan vacations accordingly.

Now for some snippets from Naniland as of late.

Yesterday I started my day in the arms of three firemen!

Boy, I wish that was as scandalous as it sounds! It would have been more fun. Lately it's been getting harder to get in and especially out of the bathroom. It’s the location of the counter, door and the turn I have to make in the morning to get to the stair-climber. Yesterday I failed. I was holding on to the counter and the walker just outside the bathroom and my balance gave out. I tried to lift upon the counter and David was trying to do what he could to help but finally my left leg was just to weak to keep supporting me and I told David it was no use; I was falling. The cool thing is it was almost a controlled fall, falling slowly so it lessened the impact. I landed on the floor but also hit my shoulder and head on the shower chair. After making sure nothing moved less than it already did, I managed to scoot out to the stairs, but there was no way I was getting up and we called 911.

Folks, if I weighed a hundred pounds I wouldn’t let David lift me on his own. 100 struggling or trying to be helpful pounds is a dangerous thing to lift on your own. I’m a little more /sarcasm than 100. The fire department dispatched three EMS guys. After a few tries at ways that would work, we got one with two of the guys behind me lifting and one in front steadying me and balancing me. I ended up hugging the guy in front and the other two hugging me from behind while I balanced. Then they got me in the stair lift chair and I got down and transferred to my power chair without further incident. It had been over a year and now my safety board goes back to 1.

Social Media

Well, a blog is social media, a personal blog is anyway, but I do some other social media things too. My latest big news on Facebook is my friends list. My 2 favorite teachers from high school sent me friend requests. How cool is that? When I was in high school I was a renegade. I was defiant and a had a huge wall in front of me to protect me from my own teenage insecurities. I wasn’t a troublemaker, not really, but I pushed established boundaries. There were two teachers who really saw through my teenage façade and pushed me to break past my own boundaries. They saw potential and nurtured it. I don’t know if they foresaw how truly influential and precious their influence on me would be for the rest of my life but when I got a friend invite from my broadcast teacher and then my French & humanities teacher those were acknowledgements and rekindled acquaintances that I treasure! Justin Verlander could follow me on Twitter and it wouldn’t mean as much. If you like how I turned out, thank my teachers, a couple of them especially.

Instagram; remember my plan for all coffee vignettes? Well, java_nani has become a bit more than that. I found a great Weight Watchers community there and one subset of that that I enjoy a “share the love” group with. We exchange support and monthly gifts in the mail with each other. The gifts include inspiring and supportive items and also an opportunity to share snacks and things that have been helpful to us. My partner’s box goes out tomorrow and it’s as exciting as Christmas!

I’ve also found a great MS support network there. I’m currently participating in a daily IG post meme leading up to World MS Trend Day, July 31. Here are a couple of the daily photo-posts I’ve done:

Prompt: Love

 

Prompt: Fun

 

Prompt: Sand

Short notes:

- My “training phone” died this week and I made the big leap to a phone that’s smarter than me! I have an iPhone that talks to my iPad and they talk about me in front of my chest (where the phone is clipped) That they share information is both cool and scary to me.

- As of this morning for the first time in 31 years I'm not a legal driver. My license expires next week so I went to the DMV to get a state ID. I seem to be the only one who thinks this is a good thing. I haven’t driven in 2 years and it disturbed me that legally I still could.

- On July 19 it was one month since the TV died. I don’t keep up with my baseball teams as well without the home team play by play. For instance it was three days before I read that Joey Votto reinjured his left quads. But other than the details I’m missing, our teams haven’t been doing well this year and maybe we don’t want to watch? Even the Tigers have been streaky. I still hope we have a TV by the playoffs!

- Tomorrow is Eye Exam day. My eye doc is next to Panera. You know what that means! Lunch tomorrow is a You Pick Two Bacon Turkey Bravo and something else with an apple and a latte! Then it’s come home with a new prescription and finally order sunglasses!

Beware of The Chair

It’s been a busy week with doctor appointments and all including my semiannual visit to Cleveland Clinic on Tuesday. When I schedule my May visit David and I always check the area baseball schedules so we can plan our day. For this year’s first trip we’d checked the Indians schedule while we were at the Mellen Center in November and upon realizing the Tigers were in town about 6 months later, we made a point of scheduling my appointment for one of the days in the series.

As it ended up we saw the middle game of the Indians sweeping the Tigers but as I always say “A bad day at the ballpark is better than a good day somewhere else!” It was a fun evening and the seats I picked on the computer were as great as they looked like they should be!

I had no problems at the game or with Indians fans as I proudly sported my Tigers logo on my chest. My problem was getting in the park and security. Progressive Field has metal detectors at the gates. All bags, purses etcetera are checked before entering and fans must walk through the metal detectors. It was the first time I’ve seen that much protection to enter a baseball game since the Olympics in 1996. Of course a wheelchair would set off the metal detector so I didn’t have to go through it. In fact, I didn’t have to go through anything. They opened up the area between the metal detectors and I wheeled through onto the stadium’s concourse. They didn’t search me, they didn’t even look in my tote bag that hung on the back of my chair; nothing. And for all the security, no one even asked me to try to stand up thus proving I actually am a “harmless chick in a wheelchair.”

That’s one problem. As someone who uses a wheelchair I am neither harmless nor helpless. Okay, with the manual chair, which we use for out of town trips I need a little more help because my arms, while stronger than my legs, get tired of wheeling the manual chair. It’s not like they get a break at home when I use the power chair, they’re still important for lifting myself and moving when I’m standing so there is a fatigue limit when I’m using the manual chair, but I’m not the only person who goes to baseball games in a wheelchair. There are plenty of people who have increased upper body strength as a result of using the chair. It’s a little offensive to lump us all into a “harmless cripple” category. A disability doesn’t make someone any less of a human being and as the old adage say: where there’s a will, there's a way. Like anyone else, a disabled person isn’t a security risk because that person chooses not to be.

But the insinuation that I pose no danger because of my disability is not my biggest issue. Check out 1800WHEELCHAIR.com . Go ahead, the link opens in a new window. Look at all the chairs for sale! That’s just the easy one to remember; there are tons of sites that sell chairs, even power chairs and scooters. They all do wonderful things for those of us that need them and they have pockets, baskets and different accessories for carrying things. Manual chairs even have under the seat storage pouches available and I always have a tote bag on the handles behind me. You can find all those things online and you know what? A doctors’ prescription is NOT necessary to purchase them. No one cares if you actually need mobility assistance, if you pay the advertised price, they’ll even deliver it to you for free! If you want to commit an act of terror at a crowded event buy a wheelchair and put your contraband materials in one of those handy pockets. Easy peasy.

So don’t automatically treat a person using a mobility assistive device like they couldn’t possibly be a risk. A person in a wheelchair is just that; a person. They should be trusted no more and no less than someone who walks in to an event on their own legs. I would have felt safer if they’d swiped the front of me with the wand and looked in my bag before they let me roll on in.

Goals and Projects For 2014

BRRR… I’m cold. It’s cold outside and we have a drafty door near where I’m sitting. But, I feel otherwise good and not at all sick. 2013 ends better than 2012 did and it promises a better January 1 for 2014!

As I say goodbye to 2013 it’s time to set up my goals and projects for 2014. Looking over 2013’s goals and projects I can say that I’m pleased with how well I did in some areas and I know I definitely disappointed myself in some. In some areas I nailed the “or something better.”

“We aim above the mark to hit the mark.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Clean and Organize Project:

Well, last year I dropped the White Tornado idea for 2013 and well, I must say we did a good job of not moving forward on that front. Looking forward now however, I’m less mobile and more clumsy and that makes everyday things more out of reach and clutter more dangerous. In the first couple months of 2014 I’ll be researching and asking questions. After suggestions from friends (hi Edna!) and other family members I’m going to look into avenues for daily living assistance for people with disabilities. I understand there are even people who will help with serious cleaning and organizing a more accessible house.

Like I said research first. I need to find out what assistance I can get, if I am an eligible candidate for disability assistance and how much it will cost/if I can afford it. I figure initially there will be a lot of work to get our house truly organized and safe, then maybe just someone who can help tidy up once a week or so. We’ll see; this is entirely new territory for me. I’ll talk to my doctor too to see if he has any suggestions.

One thing that I must get done is the door jamb on the entryway to the kitchen from the dining room has to come out. There is snuggly enough space to drive the power chair through but if the jamb is removed it will give an extra inch. In all the years David’s been here there’s never been a door there, so the door jamb won’t be missed. A mid-December call to 911 to come pick me up off the kitchen floor because my leg just quit while I was hobbling back from the bathroom made me decide that I had to be able to use the chair in the kitchen. I also want to see about a couple more grab bars in the hallway to the downstairs bathroom, where the chair doesn’t fit at all and I have to “walk.”


Blog Goals:

Blog more regularly?? I did the consolidation in the fall putting all my blogs on The Chronicles of Nani so I have plenty of material for a healthy blog, I just need to get my head in the right place. Counseling is helping; I’m getting g better. I also think that if I can get the help to get the house up to safer and more comfortable it will help too. I can’t let my mental health depend on that right now though since I don’t know for sure that I can get or afford that help! Still, I’ve set some 2014 goals with my counselor and I feel good about my prospects. I want it and I believe it will work, 75% of the battle.

So, with my head and heart in a better place, and getting better day by day, I should be able to commit myself to The Chronicles better. I want to blog a minimum of twice a week. I’m also going to post at least one Tweet a day.


Reading Goals:

This is one place I am very pleased with my numbers for 2013. My goal was to read 2 books a month with a short book review on The Chronicles of Nani. I read 27 books with reviews here in 2013! Waiting in doctors' offices gets a nod for help with that one, but so does reading before bed or an afternoon nap.

For 2014, I’m keeping that goal of 2 books a month with book reviews here.


Health and Wellness:

Of course the January Detox starts January 2, or whichever day I can get out of the house after the snow to stock up on some better groceries. With decreased mobility and depression came some bad eating habits and less movement! I don’t try to lose in December; I just try to not gain any weight or at least very little. This November and December was a fail! An emotional eater in distress, I gained enough to feel uncomfortable emotionally and physically. I do start January with a bunch of containers of my own homemade vegetable soup in the freezer, a very recent Lean Cuisine sale where David stocked me up and a week’s worth of Greek yogurt in the fridge. I need to get out to the produce market.

I want to lose at least 20 pounds by June.

In physical health and wellness goals, I will have my first round of epidural steroids for my lower back next week. I’m not going to hide that I’m as nervous as can be. I remember the worst part of spinal taps I got when I was 18 was feeling those needles when I couldn’t see what was going on. Numb or not it was agonizing. For this procedure I can’t take the bus because I can’t go home alone, David has to be there because I get IV funny juice. Continued pain is the only prospect I like less! Hopefully the injections will help me get up from a sitting position better and give me a little light exercise ability.


Scrapbooking:

The idea of scrapping the current month instead of trying to catchup a year at a time went brilliantly! Every folder for January and February was completed during these months in 2013! Now those are the months I take fewer pictures, but I’ll be catching up some of the December and November during those months this year while I’m keeping 2014 up to date.

I did keep a tally of the pages I completed each month with my goal of averaging a layout a day. In 2013 I finished 484 scrapbook pages with my record month being July (When the ramp was still new for discovering all the places I could go and it was hot anyway) I did 66 layouts in July!

In this too my goal shall remain the same; average a page a day with a tally kept.


Project 365:

Now here was a fail this year. I figured out that where I completed 2012 but fell behind and dropped 2013 was in the randomness. 2012 was just a line or two written about the day and a layout with those thoughts each week. 2013 was a structured “writing assignment” that had to be written and scrapped every week with pre-assigned topics for each week. I like a challenge, but hobbies are supposed to be fun and as challenging as I want them to be on any day. This year my Project 52 will be “2014: That’s So Random!” I’m going to do a page a week. It might be a journaling page, or a quote every day, a picture a day, a mix of ideas each day or just a layout of a highlight event for the week. I won’t know until the week is under way what it’ll be.

We’ll see how that works!


Employment Goal:

Part of working toward working for me in 2013 was volunteering. Volunteering means networking and earning some current references who have worked with me in a professional setting. As the year was winding down I had some wonderful ego-building surprises as a result of volunteer work that have pushed me into leadership and more detailed work. That means that I not only feel like I have a lot to offer even with wheels, but I’m perceived as having a lot to offer by other professionals. I can’t even express how good that feels and how much it does for my confidence!

So my goals for employment this year are to keep doing what I’ve been doing, shoring up my resume presentation and add at least a few professional items to my wardrobe. Ideally it would be great to land something part time and either have that go full time or move on to a full time placement from there. I know it’d be best to build my stamina rather than jump into 40+ hours a week right off the bat. I want, no need, to feel I’m making a valuable contribution at work and to the home income too.

And there is my plan for 2014. 

 Of course, this or something better!

A Freebie and 5-Minute Friday

I’ve been juggling the last chapters for school and the outline and research for my final paper with cooking, cleaning, holiday preparation and trying to keep my current scrapbooks within 6 months of up-to-date. Oh yeah, I also have a project that I‘ve been working on for the last four years that I’ll be wrapping up soon. It keeps me out of trouble.

I’ve decided that I’ll be taking next semester off school and I’m going to slowly but surely get the house up to workable accessibility. I’m thinking that I can get everything but the stairs walker and reach friendly. If I can manage that on our 1950’s house, creating some simple tools to help, there may be a consulting future. Hmmm… Well, at the very least a few contracts? I’ll DO the job first. Advertise later if it works!


We have great ADA guidelines for people with disabilities to enjoy productive lives in the comfort of their “normal” wherever we go. Unfortunately the ADA guidelines are a good start but that half sentence is documented with a period. There is a lot open to interpretation. Businesses often do the bare minimum to be legal and don't bother with keeping those standards current

For Instance:


That ledge is on the wheelchair ramp at our local Tim Horton's. The smaller front wheels of most wheelchairs might be destroyed hitting that ledge, or it could just stop the chair short and throw the person sitting in the chair to the ground. Neither result is acceptable! Not to mention the dropped ramp there is a lawsuit begging to happen. When Rina and I went into the shop when these photos were taken, she backed me up over the side of the ramp, which was actually a lower lip than the top.

I’m sending an email with the photos to Tim Horton’s corporate office. I’m not looking for anything but to have it fixed. I like Tim Horton’s, but I can’t go to the store closest to me on my own because it just wouldn’t be safe. That ledge is obvious enough that an able-bodied 17-year-old saw it immediately. It's not an easily missed little thing.


Back to keeping the scrapbook caught up, I did this page this week:

Credits: Siren by Viva Artistry, Panel Template by Digitalegacies Designs

I did this page, as I often do, by creating the layout and adding the pictures and papers later. That means I have a digital template to share!

Download link in five minutes! (At the end of the post)



Five Minute Friday

5 Minute Friday was fun last week and since I was up earkly today, I definitely have some time to devote 5 minutes.

Today’ word is unexpected.


GO

The best things are the unexpected things. Flowers on Valentine’s Day are wonderful, but flowers for no reason at all are even better.

When I try something new and expect there to be a learning curve and I do well, that’s an unexpected ego boost. When things DON”T go as planned, that’s an unexpected opportunity to learn. Okay, Nani looks at the lemonade stand when she has lemons is NOT unexpected, but what fun would life be without SOME stability? As much fun as it would be with no surprises. The unexpected is what keeps life exciting.

I always say I don’t like people to just drop by to visit. Truth is, I always enjoy it more than I feel inconvenienced when someone doesn’t call first.

STOP


Definitely click that icon and check out Lisa-Jo’s blog. Lots of interesting and fun stuff there!

Download the Digitalegacies Designs Panel Template

Backup Glasses for Safety!

Who would have thought that an extra pair of eyeglasses could be a safety measure too? No kidding here, I have a couple of bruises on my face, including a really ugly one below my left eye. And I’m grateful to my dearly departed backup glasses that it wasn’t much worse! I’d turned in early and as a result woke up before the sun did Friday. Rather than waking my husband up, I got my backup glasses out of the office. Good thing I have an extra pair! Well, I just kept the extra pair on. Several hours later, I was in the bedroom to get a sweater. I twisted wrong and fell, face first, into the bed frame! My glasses took a lot of the impact. My broken glasses are probably why my damage was bruises and not a broken nose!

I learned two things that day. First, people with bad knees need to twist slower when they are looking for something and it’s really an essential thing to have at least one pair of backup eyeglasses! I’ve blogged about Zenni Optical before and I’ve also read the great review in examiner.com, part of New York’s Info 101, telling how it IS possible to get low cost, high quality eyeglasses. Now I’m about to make that call and get the necessary prescription information to become a customer too!

Zenni Optical has a selection of simple, fun frames that are only $8.00 with the lenses! They also have a large collection of frames in different designs, including rimless ones that are just like the ones I usually wear, glasses that look like my over $250 glasses for under $30. So tomorrow will be a call to the eye doc to get my prescription and pupillary distance. I’ll need that information to order my new backups. I picked a very pretty pair of half-rim glasses, adding the anti-reflective coating that my vanity has to have - $20.91! Even with my insurance, I can’t replace the broken glasses for anywhere near that inexpensive!

I’ve heard great testimonials from friends who swear by Zenni Optical for their backups. Of course, you aren’t replacing the care you get from your eye doctor. You still need the prescription information from an optometrist, but what you are replacing is the big bills for multiple pairs of glasses, which, believe me, are a good thing to have! Of course, if your reserve glasses look as good as your primary glasses, if anything does happen to them, you’ll still look good!

Whether it’s a backup pair or a couple in different colors to match your wardrobe, Zenni Optical keeps you looking and seeing your best for a LOT less!

Options For 2010

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Safer® brand. All opinions are 100% mine.

As I’m getting ready to ring in the New Year, I’m planning the things I’ll do to make it a better year. Part of this is, of course, thinking about spring and what can I do as a fan to support the Reds and Tigers for a solid start. A big part of that is I can be a healthier fan so I have the necessary energy to be an enthusiastic fan! So, along with thoughts of bats and balls go plans for cucumbers and tomatoes!

I really want to get a bush cucumber plant and a potted tomato plant for our back yard and maybe a small herb pot. Wow. I can almost taste the fresh gazpacho writing about it! I really miss the garden we had in our backyard in Michigan and while I’m not looking to go as gonzo as Pop does with gardening, I especially miss the cukes and tomatoes!

I’ve talked before about my strong desire to keep my personal gardening organic. I just prefer my veggies without added chemicals and the taste is better. I got hooked on organic carrots at Detroit’s Eastern Market a few years back. I love to munch on the baby carrots from the packaged bags, but a quart of organic carrots almost didn’t make it home the first time I bought them! It really does make that much difference in taste! Unfortunately, organic also makes a measurable difference in cost, so while I’m not ready to grow my own carrots yet, growing the cucumbers and tomatoes will save me enough to supplement them with purchased organic carrots! Now I just have to get my plan to prevent bugs on my plants to make this awesome salad work!

Luckily, I know where to go. saferbrand.com is the best first stop to get ready for Organic Gardening. The Organic Gardening 101 section gives you all the information and support you need to get to work on growing healthy and pest-free plants without the chemicals and poisons you don’t want in your body or even just altering the taste of your fresh veggies! Their extensive insect library can help you identify the bugs in your garden and determine if they are beneficial bugs or bugs that need to be eradicated from your plants along with the safe, organic way to do that!

There are even more choices to keep up-to-date on the organic gardening secrets that will keep you in the best tasting and safest fresh veggies this year. Safer brand's facebook page will give you information on their updates whenever you login to your account. I like that affirmation of my commitment to my garden plants and eating better. Safer brand is officially on twitter too! You can friend them and get and give Tweets on your living organic choices and what they can provide to help you help yourself live a better-tasting, healthier and longer life.

Baby-Safe Travel

If you’ll be binging a new little one to meet the family for the holidays this year, make a point of visiting Baby Safe Travel. You can fins tips on traveling with baby, baby travel gear and baby-safe hotels for stops along the way. Get your new bundle of joy started on the path of loving going hoe for the holidays!

Team Pride, Group Style

If you’ve been reading here or on Facebook and read about or saw pictures from our wedding reception, you know what a fan of customizing I am. We had so much fun with our custom M&Ms and I was so flattered to her the reviews on the programs, which were in the style of a newsletter direct mail ad and of course, everything was a fun David and Nani theme, including our bride and groom hats and the replica dress and tux t-shirts! We also did name tags for our guests at the ball park so we could identify each other as part of the party in hopes of opening people up to mingling.

I think stuff like that is awesome. I’ve been to games where groups had t-shirt screen printing done for their outing, whether it was a company holiday or a bachelor or bachelorette party, even just a girls' day out done in a big way. Have you ever been to a park and seen people in their family reunion tee shirts? I’ve seen them done for all the kids at Bar Mitzvahs too.

LogoDogz Pintz is a great place that is known for their quality screen printing tee shirt work. Do you have an event coming up that you could use tee shirts for? How about shirts for the Football boosters t your kids’ school? As the cooler fall nights set in, LogoDogz does custom screen printing on sweatshirts too!

There are lo shirts in kids’ sizes. I was thinking matching shirts for a preschool group outing to the zoo, what a great idea to add one more bit of visible security for the kids. Adults and kids of the same group are readily identifiable and anyone can see if the adult touching a child from the group is NOT with the group. See? Custom logos are not just for sales or fun, they can be used for safety too!

If you have a use for quality screen printing, LogoDogz Print is an excellent choice for your custom logo services!

I am Super Woman 43!

What a festival this year. I still have a few days left, and I’m hoping there is more reward than challenge to show me how much of a super woman I am!

On my actual birthday, I woke up early, as I usually do because my husband has turned mme into a bona fide morning person, I just wake up around 7 AM, even without any alarm now. Whoda ever thunk that would happen! I did a scrapbook page in mt ever winding road to catch up. I’m almost 40 on paper now! It’s David’s 40th on the laptop and cats around the time of mine on the Mac. So I did a cute kitty page and it was nearing David wake-up time. I needed him to get a top shelf photo album for me so I could post that Photoblog. I didn’t have the picture of Mums and me on my 17th scanned yet. Then we went downstairs, I made coffee and washed up the dishes that I didn’t get to Tuesday nighty.

Maybe that’s the problem. I didn’t do the dishes Tuesday night and that jinxed me. Physical therapy has made me quite quite weak in the back nd hips as we’re working on retraining my walking muscles. Near the end of a not very large sink of dishes, my back weakened and I was teetering standing up. That is so frustrating when it happens! I put the last pan in the drain and stepped away and was hit with pan in my left lower back-hip area like a bolt of lightening! It’s like a combination muscle spasm and cramp. Nasty birthday present from fate, huh? So, ice, ice, Nani time!

Ice, Advil and Icy Hit rub have made it bearable and bit by bit better over the last three days, but I haven’t been as mobile as I wanted to be! Just today I’m finally feeling up to trying to get the laundry done and run a few errands. Yeesh!

But then yesterday, add to superwoman for this week, I get a phone call from Grandma’s next door neighbor, at Grandma’s house. There is a sad truism about living alone as you get older. If Grandma doesn’t feel physically up to fixing a meal or even going into the kitchen to get something to eat, she just doesn't. Not a good thing for a diabetic! Her friend, whom she talks with a couple times a day, was worried because she just didn’t sound okay, so she called the neighbor who went to Grandma’s house. Grandma’s blood sugar had tanked, again. The neighbor got her some juice and made her breakfast, then called me.

After I called her doctor and subsequently, he called her, the neighbor brought her in to see him. Now she’s in the hospital getting some tests done and getting some heart-related issues tended to.

I’m her power-of-attorney person and the one the doctors give all the information to, so I am also Grandma-info-central! I have more area codes in my recent calls list on my phone than someone who doesn’t like talking on the phone should have! Thankfully, when I talked to Grandma this morning, she sounds great. She was complaining that they are feeding her so much all the time and I encouraged her to just listen and eat when they say eat because that’s why she ended up there! Dad is working close to her place and is visiting after work. Dave and Dad were planning a visit next weekend anyway and my Cincinnati pans have changed to traveling north rather than south. I’ll go up to bring her home when she gets out of the hospital and be there when the rest of the family gets there. At her doctor’s suggestion, our goal is to get her to be on board with the thought of a senior apartment.

Her doctor says it’s really time to think about assisted living. She has her independence, but 24/7 help when she needs it. I’d really prefer Grandma to be okay with it rather than have to play the “You signed papers saying I can bully you” card! Wish us luck!

So, since turning 43, I’ve been on ice and painfully immobile, Grandma is in the hospital and, oh, there was a back-up and overflow in the bathroom this morning, that I fixed and cleaned up, sopping wet towels with my cramped back. I firmly believe that life’s challenges are God’s way of showing you how strong he made you. He’ll never give you more than you can handle, but sometimes I just wish I wasn’t so strong!

Just in case God telling me I’m super woman wasn’t enough to make me smile, when it’s all done and I realize what I’ve accomplished, there are some nice things that I didn’t have to work for too! There have been a ton of birthday greetings on my Facebook page, email greetings including a cute email card from Sheri. My Dad called Wednesday just to say “Happy Birthday” and Dave called and the whole family sang “Happy birthday davonna-sis-nana...” to me. I got a sweet card in the mail from Heather. David cooked me a fish dinner and brought home the ice cream cake he ordered, and he gave me a card. I LOVE cards and he’s not a huge giver-of-cards, which makes me feel even more spoiled and totally romanced when he gives me one. There was also a sweet personal note in it that made me get misty too!

Now, I’m going to take Advil again for the back, switch the laundry loads, run a couple errands and stop at Cold Stone Creamery with my free Love-It Size birthday coupon. The make a fat-free cake batter than is just crying to have chocolate chips and cherries mixed in it for me!

New Sponsors To Consider

We just got home very late last night, so I’m catching up on a lot of things this Memorial Day! Thank goodness for a day to catch up! There will be a Monday Mug Shot, later, this evening after I check-in on the assignments list for the last week in my web pre-class for school and see about lunch! David made a late waffle breakfast this morning, so I really at least owe him seeing if he’s hungry before I “head off to school!”

Before I wanted to take a minute to introduce you to some new ideas that sound pretty good! You’ll find these links in the bulletin board too!


Medical ID Bracelets

If you or a loved one has a medical condition like diabetes or a heart condition or allergies to medications or food, they really should have some kind of ID that’s always with them. Medical ID bracelets or pendants are a great way to do that.

I had an ID bracelet for my penicillin allergy when I was younger and I really should wear it, but I don’t. I’m rethinking that now, especially when I know there are more Nani-stylish options to the old medical alert jewelry. I love the dog-tag style necklaces and I can get one in colored aluminum. It can be engraved to say my name, allergies to Penicillin and food allergy to MSG. Hey, if I should ever pass out at a Chinese restaurant, they’ll have an idea where to start investigating!

Check out the site, even a pendant worn under a shirt could save your life or the life of someone you love in an emergency!

See the Medical ID Jewelry at MemorialBracelets:

Medical ID Jewelry





Kids Clothes

Baby Me has some awesome styles for babies, toddlers and young girls and boys, totally adorable styles!


Be sure to check out the clearance section too! for deals like this pink skirt set for only $9.00!




This toddler boys hoodie is in the clearance section for $12.00.

Get inspired for kids’ styles and check out the cute fashions here:

Girls' and boys' clothing boutique!





Baby Photos

Once you have your baby all dolled up, why not submit one of those great photos you have in the Great American Photo Contest? If your precious baby photo wins, it’s a $2500 first prize! That will buy a few diapers and the clothes they grow out of so quickly and all you have to do is share photos and show off your little one. That’s easy!

Check out the details here:

Improving Your Web Presence

If you are using your blog or if you have a website you are using as a revenue earning place on the web, you know how important search engines finding you is! Check out Steve Wiideman’s SEO consulting site. You can get some search engine optimization tips there while you have consider if Steve might be able to help you increase your visibility and your profits on the web.

Check out what Steve had to offer here:

SEO Consulting Services

Let's Talk About Sex

No, it’s not a questionable new scrapbook kit by the woman who names all her kits after songs. This is more shocking. It’s the real deal, a sex blog, one worth investigating if you have adolescents in your world or if there are simply questions you have yourself.

Teens and young adults all have questions and some dubious information about sex. What things did you think when you were young and later found out were totally wrong? The classic “you can’t get pregnant the first time” was common “knowledge” with the kids when I was a high school freshman. Later it was if he stops at a certain time you’re safe. Of course, you couldn’t get an STD from oral sex when I was in high school and only homosexuals got AIDS in my early 20s. I'm lucky I made it out of the young and stupid years alive!

My Mom was willing to talk to me about anything when I was a teen and I talked to her about almost everything, but I did NOT talk to her about sex until I was around 25. Even then, it was always in the third person!

I found Sex Health Guru online. What a great site! Word of warning, this is NOT a pro-abstinence site. But it’s not a porn site either, which is way too often where the younger folks get their extended sex-ed nowadays!

Sex Health Guru had parts of the site devoted to contraception, STD prevention (and those are SEPARATE headings!) and no nonsense information about sex decisions and even making sex more pleasurable for us married and otherwise committed couples. I found that most of the videos for those areas are for mature audiences and you have to register to see them. The first time and sex health topics are open. It doesn’t say do or don’t to anything addressed, it just tells you about it. Yanno, if the truth about responsible sex makes just one teen decide that they are ready to wait, the site’s worth it’s bandwidth in gold.

Mom gave me a great book with just the facts about recreational drugs when I was a teen. She didn’t want to say “just don’t do it” because I was a bit of a rebel and kids will always wonder “why” long after they quit asking “why” every ten seconds! As it turned out, I really wasn’t that interested in drugs in school, because I knew all my “whys” from that book. If I was a teen now, I'm sure Mom would send me this link too!

Safety Starts at the Ground Level!

I was on the phone with my Dad yesterday, he was taking a break and gave me a call from work. He mentioned that it was even getting cold inside the house he working on! Now, I come form a “Construction Princess” world. When I was a kid, I waited up until dark to day goodnight to Daddy before I went to bed in the summer when it got dark late. As I got older, I began to really appreciate not just the late summer hours but the outside work he did, even in the bitter cold in the winter! Winter meals usually started with a big bowl of hot soup so he could warm up!

This week in the north and eastern parts of the country is supposed to be that bitter cold winter weather. In Toledo, Friday’s high won’t even go into double digits! That makes me think about how much I hate the cold and how quick my feet get painfully cold, always have, that’s just me. If I go outside in the winter, I need warm boots, but what about the people who work outside?

If you work outside, or if you have a loved one who does, it’s not just warmth! Boots need to protect too! Work Boots USA is a great site to check out boots that keep feet dry, warm and protected. In fact, they have steel and plain toe boots and regular work shoes for men and women.

Sheri has an indoor job, but it’s a factory job that requires safety shoes. Imagine a heavy part falls on your foot. It’s not a laughing matter! It can put you out of work for days or weeks and in this economy, that could be devastating! A good, comfortable, steel toe work shoe is such a sound investment!

Scotty worked for many years outside in construction. In that line of work, you need work boots that are warm, keep feet dry and are rugged. Also, as a type 1 diabetic, boots that protect have always been important. I didn’t realize until I’d attended some diabetes classes with my Mom years ago, how careful a diabetic must be about their feet due to decreased sensitivity! A good pair of work boots can mean ensuring your ability to work is there for years!

Work Boots USA is sure to have the boot you need for work whether you’re looking for a rugged construction boot, a comfortable assembly line shoe or a stylish safety shoe for a supervisor walking the factory floor, check out the great selection at Work Boots USA!