Hi Everyone!

Starz - Sounds like you are going to have your hands full. I am glad that you will have help though. Hopefully, DSD will learn some parenting skills from observing you and how you deal with the grands. I know things have been rough on her (as well as you and DH). Kids do quickly learn what is acceptable at the various places (home, your house, school, other people's houses, etc.) and your DGS will catch on to your rules. I hope all goes well. Keep us posted on how you all are doing.

Well, we sure let this thread go, including me...so I'm going to try to revive interest (and posts) here...

Trish, how are you doing? You have so many challenges in your life, yet you exude a sense of "glass very full" positivity!

Kitty, how are the kitties? and how are YOU?

I miss so many who don't post here any longer--especially Sally

I've bee doing okay the past month, except pain levels of joints/muscles and other sxs have me wondering if I was in a flare. Sxs have begun to subside, so I'm going to take notes and let things take it's course.

We've been back and forth to the cabin a couple of times. The weather (minus the flooding we had in July) was some of the best we've ever experienced in northern WI. Needless to say we had a wonderful summer up there.

We are trying to finish up the landscaping/mulching in the yard before the cold hits at home. Then it's finishing up some inside projects and getting ready for the holidays

Hi Debbie! It's good to see you post. I'm sorry you were experiencing an increase in symptoms but am glad they have calmed down. You've been so busy this summer at the cabin and have had lots to do there. Add in the heat and humidity of summer and I'm sure that has contributed to your symptoms. How are all you little grands? Have you been able to see them over the summer?

I have a couple of projects that I am going to start working on. I picked up a couple of end tables at our local Salvation Army. I needed end tables but wasn't looking for them. These have the prettiest legs on them. I kept thinking about them and what I would do with them if I got them. They were $40 so I wasn't quite sure as my budget has been tight since I had to get a new computer. DD25 suggested that we go back and ask if I could get them for a lower price ($30). I asked the guy and he looked at the tag and said they were 1/2 off. I got 2 oak end tables for $20. I'm going to stain them a slightly darker color. I never liked that honey oak look. I realized yesterday while sanding that the trim is plastic!!! So, now I'm looking in to other options such as stainable primer and gel stains like Kar. I don't feel as confident with this piece anymore as I thought the trim was wood. A mix of materials makes it a bit more challenging. I really don't want to paint the tables. By design, these tables are not ones that would look good painted. I also like the varying colors that you get when you stain it, even a dark stain.

Last weekend, I found a nice, definitely solid oak, coffee table at the Goodwill. DD25 wasn't planning on getting a coffee table but after I spotted it and pulled all the stuff off of it she loved it. It was $20. She wants the bottom a cream color and the top stained a darker color. Her table will be a much easier, straight forward project. I have all the materials except the stain. I'm hoping to knock the table out this weekend as well as finish up a painting that I am doing for her.

I hope you all have a great day!

Hi everyone! I've been terrible about consistently posting. I'll try to be better about it.

The weather is finally cooling off here. Anything under 90 is considered "cool" here especially after the summer we just had.

Fall festivals are in full swing here but I haven't been to any. I used to love going and just walking around and looking at all the different things folks had made. And enjoying the nice weather. Can't do that anymore but that's OK. Saves me money!! $$$

August and September were very hard months both physically and emotionally for me.

The first weekend in August I fell and like a dummy didn't have my phone with me. Couldn't get up and couldn't call anyone. I waited 7 hours for one of my son's to realize that I wasn't answering the phone and that they needed to come check on me. Oldest DS finally came over about 4 PM. Hearing that garage door open was the best sound I have ever heard! Poor DS found me on the floor and called for help. All that stress caused a major flair.

Then on the 22nd of August my orange cat Tigger died. It wasn't unexpected (he had Lymphoma) but nonetheless was very hard to go through. I was with him when he passed and kept saying "Mama loves you" because I had said that to him his whole life and it was a familiar phrase to him.

Not 24 hours had passed and Gracie (my grey Russian Blue) developed breathing problems and eventually was in so much distress we had to take her to the vet. The vet said she was suffering and in heart failure and we needed to do the humane thing and let her go. Gracie was in good health (or so I thought) and the vet said she could only describe this as a broken heart. Gracie and Tigger were a bonded pair and when Tigger left Gracie just lost her will to live. She wanted and needed to be with him.

So......August was hard. I needed a course of IVSM towards the end of the month because the stress was just killin' me.

Then, later in September I had a Trigeminal Neurialgia attack and have never experienced that kind of pain ever before. I was in tears. It felt like electrical shocks in my right eye and in the right side of my face. Finally got an rx for Tegretol and that helped immensely.

Well, that was the condensed version of what's been going on with me. October so far has been uneventful. Hoping I didn't just jinx myself!

Hope everyone is doing well and that others will check in.

trik, you are making me want to go to Goodwill. My Mom loved her Goodwill trips for bargains. What she loved the most was pictures, paintings or just the frames to put those wonderful pictures and paintings in. My sister and I were of course her transportation and we got sucked into it enjoyed it.

Kitty, you have had a real hard time of it. I had the Trigeminal neuralgia a loong time ago and it didn't take long for my PCP to get me controlled on my Tegretol and have had no trouble since so I can't totally empathize with you since my pain was never that bad. But I am sorry you are going such a hard time.

My B/P is still high but do have times of the level that my cardiologist says would be my new normal although it isn't normal. I also have had a few bouts with dizziness although it wasn't nearly as bad as what I had after my stent put in. I guess because of the medicine I have to be on after the stent I bruise a lot. I wish I had more energy but I hope if the pain in my arm with the neck stenosis gets better, I can get up and move better. OK, that's me right now

It's been a long time since the sands of time has landed here! Everyone OK? I am doing OK. I think I may have some depression and I know what to do about, get off my butt and get moving. Do I do it, no. But I am felling better, getting back in choir practice and that heart my heart sing. I am loving the fall weather. The colors aren't that vibrant yet but I know as soon as it is we will have a storm with a lot of wind and those wonderful colors that WERE on the trees will be on the ground.

I pray that all are well and back home from storms.

I finally have some good news! My oldest son got engaged this past weekend!! No date set yet but she's already looking at wedding venues!!

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I haven't been on here a long time. Some of you see my posts on fb so hopefully you all know I am still around. I will be so glad when 2016 is over, and hoping the next year is better.

My sister is slowly recovering from her surgery. It's two steps forward and one step back. I had to take her to the er last week because she had been coughing and vomitiing for a day and a half. We thought they would just give her fluids and release her, but her liver enzymes were really high, and she had early pneumonia. They discovered that a new blood thinner she was on had caused the liver enzymes to sky rocket so it's a good thing we went in. She wasn't supposed to have bloodwork done until the end of November. So she ended up staying for 2 nights and getting a course of iv antibiotics. She is probably getting somach acid in her lungs and that is causing the bronchitis issues. She has to sleep in a recliner. She is plannning on going back into school/work next week, but doesn't have to teach until January. I think her next cat scan will be in December. There was no evidence of cancer in her last scan.

I now have neightbors. Six of the other houses in my section are now completed, and they are working on four others. I am so happy I decided to buy, and get out of the apartment. Apartment living was not for me. And my house payments are less than my rent was!

I am hoping to go back to Ohio for Christmas as long as things are going well. My brother got me tickets through all of his frequent miles. I really need to get away from here for awhlie.

I haven't seen a neurologist in two years. I know I should try to find a new one but my ms sysmptoms have been mostly stable. Plus, the state of Illinois still doesn't have a real budget, so I have been paying my medical bills hoping I will get reimbursed someday. I just checked a bit ago, and they have now paid claims through March 25, 2015.

I will try to check in here more often, but if you are on FB I would be happy to be yout "friend" there.

Kit, congrats on a new DIL, future. She is beautiful.

Barb, sorry your year has been bad. I guess I had never heard of a state not having a budget and therefore your bills aren't paid. WOW. I just got my cardiac cath bill and it was almost $40,000 and my portion was $1900. Hope next year is better.

How is everyone doing????? We are finally feeling a little like fall here. The temps in the upper 80's have been nice but it's not normal. Hardly any trick or treaters here, everyone goes to the malls, trunk or treats, etc.

Charlie is finally being more active in changing his bag. He has done it 3 weeks in a row now. The first week was on my insistence but I was surprised when last week he asked me to observe and then this week he changed it again!!!! Miracles never cease!!!!!