Pictures

This is one of my nephews, Jordan.

My other two nephews. Sebastian, one sister's son, on the left, and one of our other sister's sons, Jacob, on the right. Jacob is Jordan's older brother. I love my nephews!

Sam likes to sleep holding something, so recently I gave him Purple Bunny to hold. Then we decided to put him in Sam's stuffed animal sling. Purple Bunny is 31 years old -- my mom got him for me when I was 3 and in the hospital. I love that bunny! :-) Now I get to share him with my son.



Here's a picture of Zoe, my new wheelchair, for those of you who don't live in Texas. (Because the people here have already seen it.) It's a very nice chair and I am a lot more free in it than in the previous one. :-)

And for those of you from Tucson: A view of Sombrero Peak from my Dad's backyard.

The Pollywog Blog

What happens when my favorite band puts out an album of children's music? ..... Finally... music that my kids and I all like to listen to!!! Yay!

The Barenaked Ladies is a odd titled band that is now almost 20 years into their bandhood, and now they're all dads. So, they made an album of all new original kids songs. Below are the videos for probably the two best songs on the album (though I really like a lot of them.) If you like BNL at all, or if your kids are ready for more songs, I highly recommend "Snack Time" by BNL.


Pollywog in a Bog -- by Jim Creegan, bassist




789 -- by Ed Robertson, guitarist



There are a few other videos from this album on You Tube as well. Click here for all of the Snack Time songs on You Tube. I also really like "Things" and "The Ninjas" and "Raisins" and "Crazy ABCs". Sam's favorites are "789" and "Here Come the Geese" and "Drawing" and "Popcorn" and "Pollywog in a Bog". Ok, we like them all!! :-)

School Pictures and the new Stairlift

It's that time of year again. Time for school pictures for our annual new Homeschool IDs. Here are today's pictures for those IDs.



They protested against having their pictures taken while they were dressed up for church this year. So, instead, they picked out their favorite shirts.

Last Saturday, Brian and two of his friends installed my new stair lift. At first, I was really sad and in shock, because, you know, I'm under 85 years old, I shouldn't need a stairlift. But, then, I started using it, and I'm getting so much more done now. It's really helping me to do things again, instead of being trapped on one floor like I've been for so long. Much thanks to my Dad for talking me into getting it. :-)

Carnival rides at my house for 50 cents a ride! hehe. :-)

Hack Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Hack Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Roots - Pedigree

It's been ordered!

I really shouldn't blog tonight, since I only have two woking fingers on each hand today. The thumb and the index fingers work almost all the way, the rest are curled up and won't come out to play, probably not until sometime tomorrow mid-morning, as usual. That happens often, so I'm getting used to it. I guess this is what they call 'hen picking' at the keyboard. But I'm just so happy that I've told everyone about my life now, so I don't have to keep it all to myself anymore and I can keep you updated as things happen. :-)

After a very long week of researching, I finally placed two very big orders this morning. I ordered the stair lift, which might be here for Brian to install as early as this weekend. Also, I ordered my new wheelchair. Since I needed a 2nd one for upstairs, we decided to make my current one the upstairs chair and get a new, much better one for the rest of the time. I didn't get a very nice one the first time because I was thinking it would be for part time use. But, since I'm using it more and more all the time, it's time to get a good one that will allow me to go off-roading! --ok, maybe not off-roading, but not quite confined to sidewalks so much, I can't wait to show it to you, but you'll have to wait 2-3 weeks while they make it.

I'm thinking today that I might name it Zoe. It's dark blue, which seems more Zoe to me than Ellie. But then I have synesthesia, and I think of colors when I think of numbers and letters, so that's why I have to change the name if it's the wrong color. Zoe is blue-black to me, whereas Ellie is yellow, so that doesn't fit. (My sister says that the scientists would love to study my brain!) :-)

Thank you, and an Update

Thank you to everyone for your kind words. Yes, we're doing better now. Yesterday Brian took a day off of work. He moved everything stored in the garage from one side of the garage to the other, and we added my first ramp. Now I can get from the house down to the garage all by myself. And also, now we can park my car on the far side of the garage from the door, so I have room to ramp down and still get to my car. What a huge improvement! I just realized I should be showing you a picture instead of describing something so complicated. Well, I'll have to get pics when all the work is done.

I guess you could say that it's simpler to be able to not need the wheelchair every minute of the day, but I wouldn't call it easier. It's a whole lot harder to walk a few steps for me than not to, but that's just life. The problem now is that I keep having to walk in our non-accessible places in our home, like upstairs, out to the garage, into the bathrooms, etc., when necessary, and it's completely wearing me out. Either that or I just sit still and don't do anything, which is what I have been doing most of the past 2 years. I'm too young to stop living, I need to keep going. If I go upstairs, I need Brian to lift my legs for me step by step to help me climb the stairs. He lifts the leg onto the next step, and I push up with my crutches to shift my center of gravity up, then we doing it again with the other leg. And once we get up there, I have to lay down and rest or take a nap. It's a huge waste of time and energy. So, the goal is to make the house accessible enough for me that I can still have enough energy to homeschool once school starts up again in about 1.5 months. So, that's my "deadline" to get it all done.

The, what I call a stair chair, is technically called a stair lift. I'm going to order it from this company: http://www.jamesonmedical.com/stair_lifts.htm. So, if you'd like to see what it looks like, you can go to that site. We're also going to order a 2nd wheelchair, so that one can always stay on the top floor. I've been fighting this inevitiblity for a while now, because those two things will be SO expensive. But, I'm just too exhausted without them to do anything, and that's no way to live if it can be helped. I talked with my Dad, with Brian's Dad, and with Brian, the three men in my life, two of whom (the Dads) can build anything and know a lot about house modifications, and all three of them said it's cheaper to do the stair lift and the 2nd wheelchair than to move to a one story house. So, as much as it costs, it's still the better way to go, I guess.

So, now that the garage ramp is in, we're spending the rest of this weekend on small house maintenance chores, partying tonight of course, and picking out all the details for the stair chair and the 2nd 'chair.

Speaking of which. She'll need a name. My crutches are Abby, or Abigail if they're falling and I can't catch them and need to use a stern voice with them, hehe. My chair now is Charlie, named by my sister Krysten. I'm thinking of maybe Ellie for the next one. I'll have to wait until I order it and then when it gets here, then I'll know which name to go with.

Have a great 4th of July!

Adaptation

Picture from Disaboom.com

Hey there old friends! Sorry I haven't written here in a while. My life has been changing a lot. Kelley, congratulations on your new baby. Brian, congratulations on the move to Georgia. Lisa, congratulations on the move to Kansas. Anna, yes, I actually wrote in my blog! :-) Miracles never cease! hehe :-)

I hope everyone is doing well. Since about February, my mobility has been quickly declining, and I've been dealing with and adjusting to that, so I haven't had time for blogging. But, things appear to be stabilizing out now, and life is attempting to return as much as possible to normal. So I've been eager to write here and to reconnect with my friends all over the country.

I wanted to take this opportunity to let everyone know that yes, I look different than I used to, but that it's going to be okay. I'm doing alright. I use crutches and a wheelchair to get around now. These are just tools for travelling, like a bike or a car. To quote Christopher Reeve: "I'm still me." :-) Actually, I'm a whole lot more social and talkative than I used to be. Interesting side effect. :-) I like it!

I write this to inform my friends, and not to complain. I was born with a spinal cord disease that has been slowly getting worse the older I get. I didn't know how bad it was going to get, and so I thought it was best that I didn't tell anybody, so as not to worry them with something that couldn't be fixed. If I had known that I would be where I am today, I would have told everyone years ago, in order to prepare them for what has come. But, I didn't know either.

In the past 4 years, I've slowly done fewer and fewer things that I love. I've stopped hiking, going on walks at town lake, biking, gardening, home improvements, and other recreational activities such as going to Sea World. In the past 2 years, I've cut down on even required things, such as some grocery shopping, cooking food, doing laundry, cleaning the house, and following my kids around. Going to the beach last year meant mostly sitting on the shore watching everyone else try to surf, and being in incredible pain from trying to walk on the uneven sand.

Earlier this year, around February, everything progressed a whole lot quicker. In addition to the pain of spastic muscles, I began to also have incredible weakness in the affected areas. It has become incredibly hard for me to move my legs and feet and sometimes my right hand. I went from a cane (which I really should've started using about 2 years ago, but I wasn't humble enough back then), to crutches, to now, in which I use crutches for really short distances and a wheelchair for medium to longer distances. It takes a great deal of effort to do what I used to do with a lot less effort when I was younger, so I can only walk a very small amount each day.

This is just how it happens with some people, and it appears I'm one of them. It should steady out soon, if it hasn't already. I have it in my legs the most and also on the right side of my body, so my right hand, for example, isn't nearly as useful as my left hand. I have a therapist who helps me, and I do lots of stretches to help the muscles not get too tight. Since I'm not a young child, though, that's about all that can be done. So it's just a matter of adjusting.

I know it's a big shock for a lot of people, and I'm sorry for that. Anyway, I don't write this here to complain or anything, but because I know so many of you care about me, and I wanted you to know what's happening. It is permanent, but because I can still take a few steps now and then, it's still better than a complete spinal cord injury, and I'm grateful for that.

Our home has stairs. We considered moving for a while, and instead we've decided to modify the home with ramps and stairlifts, etc. It's cheaper to modify than to move, plus we love our home, so we're staying put.

Well, that's all I can think of. Don't hesitate to ask me questions if you want to. At first, earlier this year, I was very hesitant to tell people something was wrong with me because I'd been hiding it for so many years, and it was a strange adjustment for me to start telling people. But I'm over that now, and I'm sorry that I was so shy about it for so long.

Anyway, Brian and I are adjusting, and are beginning a new chapter in our lives. Brian is a wonderful help, and has really been a great support to me. I'm so grateful for him! He's taking such good care of me that I feel he needs more support than I do right now. We know it'll be okay, the Lord is taking good care of us.