Whew! what a week.

My ex FIL passed away yesterday after a stress filled week of trying to get his son (my ex) to do the right thing. Jack the cat is feeling better, and while he hates to be medicated, he is certainly enjoying the benefits of having medication. The snow birds are packing up and getting ready to head south. This means that our block will be back to peaceful and calm, instead of full of summer parties, crowds, and folks just wanting to see the lake side. New Pastor in the church is causing quite a nice reaction in town. folks really like him.

I am off to the big girl hospital for my check up and have a new audio book to listen to on the way. Wahoo!

Great thread, thanks.

I like Cindy's spelling better..

This week: This has been a good week. A sweet friend offered me a scooter that she no longer uses but I don't have anywhere to use it where I live. I suggested my cousin who also has MS and who's having a hard time getting around. Turned out to be a perfect match and now someone who couldn't be mobile (very easily) has a new toy to play with!

Had to take my cat to the vet this morning but he seems to be feeling better now.

I've been having fun with my new bread machine. I've made several loaves and I think Honey Wheat is my favorite. I'm going to try pizza crust dough next and make a veggie pizza. YUM!

I usually write my TILT on Wednesday night to be prepared to press copy and post in my NT blog. That did not happen but it is Thursday and I love this day. So here goes!

My PCP. This week started out with a good doctor’s appointment. Long story short, I went back to my PCP who had moved from being 10 minutes drive away to 30 minutes drive away. I missed her medical experience and despite not really needing much in the way of medical care, I missed her expertise. She is unique. Her husband has Multiple Sclerosis so she knows MS from a medical AND personal perspective.

She knows all the pills out there, all the treatments and the efficacy. And I was able to talk to her about CCSVI without bias, i.e. a neurologist or even an interventional radiologist. Pros and cons. It felt good to have her input on my various problems and seek good solutions.

Cousin Marty. An e-mail from my very distant cousin in Toronto added to my CCSVI research. He is not a doctor but he has a doctorate in statistics. He is aware of the Liberation procedure and offered to do a statistical analysis for me. How can I refuse? Thursday is a day for looking on the bright side. The answer of course is yes.

Pedicure. Since I cannot reach my toenails and hold the cutter properly, I found a great nail salon and more importantly, a great guy to cut my toenails properly, give a great massage and paint them pretty. It is totally necessary and a total luxury. Before MS, I took care of it myself. Now I look forward to this self indulgence.

Doozy of a Deal. I love this internet computer coupon. It is a franchise organization but it has a charity aspect that makes it really good in my estimation. Every few days I get an e-mail that gives me a choice to get in on a good offer. I get 40% to 70% off on a service. Part of my money goes to the business and about 7% goes to a charity of my choice. I chose the Humane Society. So I get a discount, I am exposed to a new business who may or may not get more of my patronage and my charity gets a little as well. So far I have purchased a coupon for $15 for $30 of food at a great hamburger restaurant. Between DH and me, it covered an entire meal with even a glass of beer to share!

Which brings me to Lipogenix. This was the first deal I purchased. It was strictly on a whim. I had just joined and it was around my birthday so I bought it as a gift to myself. It was a good bargain for a photofacial. What is a photofacial? I do not know but it sounded good! At my age, a little face pampering can’t hurt! DH drives me there and uh oh, what have I gotten myself into?! The doctor looks to be in his 20’s and I begin to read that the procedure will cause initial SCABBING!!! Here I thought it would be a massage and a little light and maybe my wrinkles won’t be so prominent. But SCABBING??? It might have been money wasted ‘cause I was not going to have anything so aggressive. We went into his office and talked. I did not need a photofacial but I do have tiny red veins that appear on my nose around my nostrils. He said for my coupon he could laser them and make them disappear. I am game for it but as I lay down I cannot help to think I am crazy for letting some young guy LASER my face! He was good though and Thursday being Thursday, it is nice to report that my belated birthday present was just what I wanted!

Random. Clean house. Mango. Watching my two juvenile cats play together. Football season. Chocolate cookies dunked in milk. Clean bedsheets. Remembering to play Trivia and winning a top spot. Reading DS’s TILT and learning how he is using his iPad for an application that gives him pleasure and enthusiasm to work out. Moving small items around the house to give an area a fresh look. Buying a soft serve vanilla yogurt ice cream on a cone and remembering how it was when I was little and my mom would take me to Dairy Queen.

Both kids coming home this weekend! Cut and color this Saturday, company I'm looking forward to on Sunday. I can't wait!!! (oh, and two trivia wins in last week after some bottom of the pile days)

Oh my gosh! Can it be Thursday? This week was a jumble, I did not know what day it was all week and Thursday just snuck up on me. It is one day to focus on the positive, even if it is just one great thing that happened in the 7 days. Let's TILT together.

This week: DH travels extensively, so a week with having him home is definitely a good week for me. He works from home so I get to have his company all the time. Plus, he takes care of me. It is nice to be pampered. He never complains about getting me a glass of water or fixing me something to eat. He does the grocery shopping then cooks the dinner. He plans everything so that there are leftovers for me to defrost when he is away.

We bought fabric material and he recovered our barstools. The fabric is almost too nice for those chairs but I love them. It was a little complicated with a stripe-y pattern but he matched it perfectly, PERFECTLY. We have two more barstools, different style, so we will get more and he will recover them as well. More difficult but no matter how badly he does on them, they will look better than they do right now! We recycled the old material by flipping them over and recovering the kitchen chairs. He was happy with his staple gun and hammer.

I wanted to move the bedroom furniture in DS’s old room. DS does not come home often enough to really even open his door but I have been on a reordering jag. Can’t spend large piles of money but I can change the look. The bed frame was major heavy but there DH is huffing and puffing and moving things around at 9 PM. Gotta love it.

Mrs. Waingrow: There is a lot of talk these days about holding teachers accountable for the education of kids. I loved Mrs. Waingrow. She taught me a lot about parenting when my children were in her preschool class. She was not a certified teacher but a great teacher. It was a class where four parents were scheduled to assist her in the classroom on a given Tuesday/Thursday or Monday/Wednesday/Friday but there was no doubt, Mrs. Waingrow was in charge. We were just as obedient as those little three and four year olds. I always loved to volunteer on the very first day of class for the three year olds. They had no idea who this lady was and what she was doing as she sang the songs they would learn, like Clean Up Time or Willie the Worm. She never raised her voice in anger no matter how crazy it got. One year her husband had built a two level tree house for her room and a hyperactive boy climbed into the recess corner. It was so funny watching her try for who-knows-how-long to coax him out.

Then there was a time when I came to pick up DS and she took me and another mother aside. I was going to have to follow up on disciplining DS for a playground antic. He and his bestest friend had found milk bottles used at a carnival to be knocked down for a prize. In the corner of the yard, they found something useful for the heavy steel bottles. Being boys, those containers were PERFECT to pee into. There was Mrs. Waingrow watching my DS and friend with their drawers dropped down to their ankles and aiming at the open mouths of the bottles. Why? Because they are boys! Mrs. Waingrow thought it was so funny. And it was.

She was adamant that we were not to say anything more, the “problem” had been handled. They were to wash the bottles in our toilets. I was so embarrassed but I knew that someday I would laugh about it. Today is Thursday.

I always thought the other mother’s child was the instigator. She thought DS was the one who thought of the activity. As life has gone on and DS has grown up, I know with a certainty that she was right!

I love that memory.

The rest: Sweet Tomatoes Salad Bar, root beer floats, reading the local newspaper, calls from New York, the new fall season of programs, FaceBook Stalking, SallyC thanking everyone and always having something nice or sympathetic to post, a new frozen yogurt shoppe with all kinds of flavors, watching my old cat basking in the sunshine from my living room.

wow, I missed a thursday and one more is here! This is my week.

My DS has not found a job, and that means he cannot come stay with me. He is looking, but his enthusiam is falling off. 2 days ago, he spoke with a great twinkle in his eye, and I asked "who is she?" he denied it twice, and I told him you cant hide from momma's. He admitted he has been talking to a girl on the internet. She is 1 year old than he, has a great job, money in the bank, travels, parents who died and left her a lot of money and property, great education...Which begs the question...what does she want with a 26 y/o man who just got out of a bad relationship, no items to call his own, doesnt even own his own pillow, let alone a place to call his own. zero money in the bank, a busted car, and a bag full of bills? She lives in Nevada and my DS in Connecticut....tell me I am not wrong on this one ladies, what does this supposidly stable woman want with my busted son? It just doesnt add up. I asked if she used to be a man, is she on drugs, is she a liar...this one is worrysome. GodBless my son, he is a dumbo when it comes to women.

Other than that, I have had a down week. The rich neighbors have packed and gone, and in two weeks the apartment is going to be empty, so no nutty neighbors this year. Most of the other snow birds will be gone by mid month. hurray!

on a side note. I have the shopping bug. I want to shop! there is no place around here to shop, so I guess I am SOL.

I'm a day late (as usual), but here's one:

I love having a garage! Never take that for granted. We/I didn't have a garage for the first 44 years of my life, and who knows how much snow and ice I got up my coat sleeves sweeping, scraping, shoveling snow and ice off the car?

I used to have to bundle up my toddlers and put them in the car so I could move it while the guy plowed the driveway. No more.

If I left something in the car and remembered it after I was already in my jammies, I had to put a coat and boots on over my jammies and go outside. Now I can just scoot downstairs in my jammies if I want. Awesome.

I don't care if it's pouring rain when I get home with umpteen bags of groceries, because I can unload the car INDOORS!

I've had a garage for 16 years now, and I don't think I ever push that garage door opener button without wanting to kiss it and say "Thank you, Lord!"

DD had Thurs and Friday as reading days at school, no classes and her friend came to visit her parents in town. I e-mailed DD to charge expensive train ticket home to my credit card, she was much better than money. She couldn't but said had she known earlier she would have. She would have come home, I'm happy to know that. Sometimes that's as good as it gets.

@Kicker and B2U. Thanks for the TILT's. You gave me inspiration for the next week.