Medical Day

 I had two appointments today but managed to sneak in a blood draw between them, so I feel like I've hung out at the hospital and PT clinic all day.

I wasn't looking forward to the visit to the cardiologist, because I'm afraid of making a wrong decision or overlooking something that could make my life better.  I always enjoy PT, but I never actually look forward to it.  

On the way into the back door of Swedish after I found the last parking place in town, it seems, and parked diagonally in the space, I was greeted by this fellow on the walkway.  I startled him when I bent down to take his picture, and he tried hopping away, only to land on his back with his legs all going in different directions.  He only flailed around for a second before he was gone.

Dr. Muni, the cardiologist, is just so sweet.  He came in and immediately started talking about where we were two months ago.  He was reading from my chart and remembering things, and then he looked up and said, "I think I've about talked myself out of recommending any procedures or surgeries right now."  Even my mask couldn't hide the big grin when I heard that.  He said it was pretty obvious that I've had this arrhythmia for awhile, and it was just brought up after my fall.  He said it looks like my heart rejected the cardioversion and has just reached its natural rhythm, one that is working right now.  He can't promise it's always going to work or if I'll feel the best I can, but he thinks with continuing the medications I'm on now, we can avoid surgeries, ablations, more cardioversions - all the things that scare me.  I'll see him in 6 months, and we'll see if we think I need something done.  I told him I would do my best to step up the walking and work on my anxiety.  The first time he saw me was about two weeks after my accident, and I was in a lot of pain, freezing, and very stressed out. Compared to that day, I probably seem like a much different person - doing well with my own personal heart rhythm.

I then went and had blood work that was ordered by my primary care physician several months ago.  He had said to get it by July, so I made it, but it's been so hard to get over here and have it done.  I went ahead and warned the sweet girl about to stick me that she might want to go straight to my hands instead of digging around in the arm.  She briefly poked both arms but did end up in my hand with minimal discomfort.  When she found out I was going to PT after that, she said, "Proliance?  I just LOVE Proliance.  Best place ever."  I told her I was glad to hear that because my daughter was the clinic director.  She said, "I know her.  I love her too.  What's her name.  Tall girl.  Oh, Emily.  Yeah, she worked on my feet and gave me some inserts for my shoes that changed my life."  Orthotics?  "I had so much fun there.  It's a happy place."  

I went right on over to the happy place after that and had my PT session.  Even I thought I did well today.  It was probably the best I've felt about things.  I do need more strength, but the pain is better, and I was able to do all the repetitions without getting the shakes.  Can't believe I have only three more sessions.  I'll sure miss Laura and our crazy conversations.

I got this picture from Emily just now.

I'm not sure where this lake is, but it's not too far from Sioux Falls.  The creature seems to be a walleye.  Emily was embarrassed that I asked if it were a catfish. Graysen looks thrilled.

Luckily, it's rained part of every day, so I haven't had to water the garden and just the flower pots on Steller once.  Luna has been fed and watered and petted and the garbage cans and mail brought in.

Some pictures from my exciting visit.

The girls put this together for their birdie friends.  I'm sure this one has a name, but I don't know it.  Their favorite hummingbirds are Emerald and Ruby.

Emily's Mother's Day gifts from the girls.  The pink one was blooming today.

Ryan has built a cat litter room for Luna, and she is not complaining.  It's genius.  The hinged top is a little porch that opens from the mudroom to the garage and can be reached by a cat door.

She enters from the side where there's a scooper and holder, clean litter, and plastic bags for the used litter.  She's a little short-legged cat, and it seems just the right size for her.

This is how it looks from the top when you lift the hinged top.  So easy to clean.

Meanwhile, back at home...

I'm trying to get two boxes a day packed, at least, but it's been a fun cleaning out and organizing week so far.  I sleep until I'm ready to get up, take naps when I want to, eat when I want to, and go to bed when I want - which usually means 2:00 or 3:00.

I read (listened to) The Push by Ashley Audrain almost nonstop over two days.  Here's a review.  I had to start over and re-listen a couple of times because I kept mixing up the mother-daughter combinations in the flashbacks.  

I'm also listening to Unfit, a documentary about the personality traits that made Trump such a terrifying person to have as the leader of our country.  And still is terrifying, as there are people who think it's funny for him to demean and punish people who don't worship him, to lie about anything and everything, and to destroy careers at random.   Those are the ones who will fight to let him get his dangerous claws back into politics and finish the division among our people.  We're so lucky to have gotten him out before he destroyed our constitution and our country.  I'm so tired of him, but I'm drawn to the personality traits that make him the way he is - the cult leader with no empathy, no sense of responsibility, complete quest for power, complete lack of interest in the truth.

I wish there was just a little bit of thunder to go along with the rain tonight. 

I just noticed this funny view on my chest.  When I first got home from surgery, Emily moved my TV into my bedroom, thinking we would watch some movies together at Christmas.  We watched one, and then it's only been used for Octonauts and a couple of movies for the girls.  As dusk came, I glanced up at the screensaver picture and thought I saw a sheep with a dog watching it.

On closer look, it's actually an old vase of Mama's that I found and am wondering what to do with.

Life can't get much more exciting than this!

Moving!

 It's so hard to get back to finishing up a post and adding pictures after I hit "Publish" to get a blog entry.  I know I'll be glad of the details ones day, but sometimes I spend hours on getting just one day's worth of memories written down.  

For more than a year now, I've had so much time for just myself, something I've never had and do appreciate.  At the end of almost every day, I wonder where all that time went.  I'm sure not bored.  It seems like the older I get, the more I want to explore new things and learn, and it doesn't help that there are thousands of blogs written just for me.  After all this time of turning up my nose at TikToc, I accidentally found it and just have to limit myself sometimes when I find an interesting subject.  Granted, you do have to scroll past a whole lot of junk, but there are some really creative people out there who make me laugh and make me cry and make me think.  I just have to find a way to find some filters to keep me from wasting time.  Favorites?  I don't know.

So back to things I do know.  Unless something goes wrong with our plans, I'm finally going to be able to move into a first-floor apartment.  It's just a matter of about 50 steps from my garage to the new one, but I'm hoping it's just what I need.  I do love my bright and cheerful second-floor apartment with the balcony, but I don't love the 20 stairs I have to go up and down several times a day.  Right now, I have to park (outside my garage because it's too full) and walk around the corner in all sorts of weather and then up those 20 stairs.  Add groceries or numerous things for the girls, and it's always the worst part of my day.  Luckily, when they're with me, I load them down with their own stuff and mine, and they skip right on past me with all that energy.  I know they'll be so glad not to hear my voice on the way down begging them to hold onto the banisters and DON'T RUN and watch the flip-flops and long skirts.  I guess I'll never get over the trauma of my fall and drive everybody else crazy with it.  Even though stairs had nothing to do with it!

I'm going to rent an extra storage space and hopefully will be able to park inside my garage and walk directly into my laundry room out of the weather and without climbing even one step.  I can't even imagine that.  From the video of the floor plan, it looks like almost the same space minus one bedroom and with the windows placed so that I have more flexibility in placing furniture - such as high windows by the fireplace instead of the ones that stretch almost from floor to ceiling.  No sliding glass door but just a plain old door and window.  I guess the least attractive thing about it is the lack of sunlight, and that might not be that much of a problem.  I'm not allowed to go inside for a walk-through because the folks who live there aren't moving until June 19th and then COVID rules.  

Another best thing is that Noreen's porch is right next to mine, and we are the only two occupants of the first floor - just us and six garages behind us.  She's H101, and I'm H102 (moving from K).  The big circles are all maple or cherry trees, but I'm not sure about the smal circles in the alley.  

Amazingly, I've never lived in a place where I've had upstairs or downstairs neighbors, so having two different neighbors overhead will be something to get used to.  I have to thank our sweet maintenance guy for scouting out changes and being so excited to find me a place next door to my friend.  Yards are hard to come by in an apartment, but this means we share a stretch of grass between our apartments for all five of our grandchildren to play on, and she has that sunny patio for when things get too cool for comfort.  

I will now face a street now instead of an alley, and not being awakened by garbage trucks every Tuesday will be another bonus.  The alley sometimes gets a little noisy, but it's usually just conversations and kids riding bikes or scooters. We do have some new neighbors who like to spend a lot of time on their balcony, so it's kind of awkward being within hearing distance of them, even though they're quiet. It will take some getting used to also to see people walk down the sidewalks right out front, and it is a busy street, more for walking dogs than driving, but I probably won't be sitting outside in my pajamas any more.  Bad news.  I'll still be two blocks from the haircut place, 3 blocks from the library, 1 block from the school, and a 5-minute walk from my family, so I couldn't ask for any better location.  

After looking at all my options, I think this is the best things for me.  I don't want another house to have to take care of.  I would like 3 bedrooms still, but there are none on the first floor.  There are no nicer apartments in town, and the condos have a really high ROA fees and are not in walking distance of the places I like to go.  Finding a house to rent is always difficult, because they're snapped up quickly, and they almost always have that second floor!  So, I've decided this is the best thing for me and am getting excited about making some changes.

As to those sunny warm days, they went away temporarily, and I was shivering all day yesterday.  Even the girls were chilly at gymnastics and opted to stay inside instead of going to the park while waiting on each other's classes to finish. 

Elise got them some surprises last week, the favorite of which was this scratch-off set.

It is surprisingly satisfying to scrape away at the black and have color appear.  I noticed a friend sitting behind me yesterday and told her I didn't know she was there.  She said, "I noticed you were coloring and didn't want to interrupt."  I'm trying to talk the girls into leaving some black spaces, but they don't seem to want to take my advice.  Graysen does color every little space very deliberately, but Katherine says, "I just like to scribble over the whole thing and see what happen."  No right or wrong way with art!

More Aunt CeCe gifts and a picture of the windows I'll be giving up.

Second graders have been growing butterflies from the egg up, and they had the Butterfly Release last week.  I walked over to watch, and Ali brought Harper and Graysen over.  I think my expectations were higher than they should have been, since each class had maybe one or two butterflies to release.  It was cute though.

Ali almost stepped on one, and we decided it must be Mrs. Duncan's class butterfly, so we watched over it until it got used to the wind and the outdoors and found a flower to land on.

Most of the kids are back in school, at least part of the day, so it did Harper and Graysen good to mingle with their friends and have a little outing.  Hopefully, this fall will see them ALL back in third grade.  I can't believe I typed that.  Seems like Graysen just started to kindergarten yesterday.

We have no picture of it that I received anyway, but Katherine lost her second tooth within days of losing her first one.  Almost 6 and losing teeth.  That seems strange to me too!

This was last week on one of those perfect days at the little park near gymnastics.  It's not kept up very well.  It just sits at the end of a row of office buildings, but Graysen and Katherine think it's the best park ever.  There are 3 different kinds of swings, 3 slides, 2 forts, a sandbox, a basketball goal and basketball, picnic tables and chairs and, best of all, a little roofed platform back in the trees for lots of pretend play.

Trying to eat an apple with two loose teeth.  The man in the background brings over his little boy who has a screaming aversion to watching his sister in gymnastics.  The dad didn't show up yesterday, and his mom wasn't allowed to watch his sister either!  She did several laps around the waiting area chasing him.

Last Wednesday we walked to the slushie place and got a mixed one, mango and something blue.  Best one ever, they declared.

Family is headed to South Dakota this coming weekend to see Grandma and Grandpa Bindert.  So glad they're getting to go.  I'll be watering the garden and flower beds and feeding Miss Luna.

May is Going Fast

 When the days are beautiful and warm, and you're busy, the days just fly by.  Some of these days I want to freeze for when the gloomy days come, but sometimes I'm more than ready to fall into bed at the end of the day.

Last week was quite busy, and I'll mainly just post the pictures I took or was sent.  

Just random photos of the balcony, Steller, and other pretty places.

Can't get enough of the view from the living room.  It's still a little cool for sitting outside for long periods, but it won't be long.

Emily's favorites this year are ranunculus and lupine.  She planted seeds in the raised bed on the side of their house last year, and nothing came up, but they sure did this year!

The cats can't get enough of that sunshine and will lie out there and mutter to the hummingbirds all day.

Sunday:  Mother's Day.  The girls and I were pretty last minute with their mom's gift.  Early in the afternoon, we were in the garage potting petunias.  I didn't even take a picture of the gifts, but they were pretty cute.  Graysen chose pink and Katherine purple flowers, and they were received excitedly since Emily's very favorite things nowadays are plants.

I found these little plastic pots with a clear overlay.  Once the picture is colored - or drawn - you sandwich it between the pot and the plastic cover and have a nicely decorated pot.

They got busy immediately and started coloring and discussing their choices - and then they discovered a blank band of paper, and that was just what they wanted - to be creative.  They just created their own pictures, which is one thing I love about them.  One had MOM on it, and the other one had EMILY!  I'll ask for pictures of the finished products.

The girls chose Mother's Day outfits for everyone.

Princess

Harry Potter

Archeologist

This is a little bit of a stretch from digging dinosaurs out of rocks, but it's much more exciting for a cat-loving little girl.

From Katherine to Mom.

I got beautiful hand-made cards from the girls and a glassybaby hand-blown candle holder from everyone.  I kept hearing about those uniquely-named products through the years on the community page and never expected to own one.  Now I'm in the inner circle. It's beautiful though.  I'll take a photo tonight when it will show up the best.  Elise brought in five different colored geraniums and that beautiful petunia basket.  She listens well and knows what I like.

This sweet surprise came in the mail Friday from Debby.  It's perfect, and I am blessed.  The girls were so excited to see a shirt with my name on it, like I'm the only Mimi ever.  I LOVE it.  A lot.

We don't personally have a dog among us right now, but I do have a new cousin - Max.  When I called Debby to thank her for the shirt, she and Tom were at the airport picking him up.  I can't stand it!  Who can resist that little face and that little body!

And of all breeds to run into last week, there was another English bulldog, Chomps, at the park where we were.  Katherine was yelling, "Awwwwwwww, a puppy," and I asked if we could pet him.  He belonged to someone from Duvall, which is a good distance away, who was here watching his brother play baseball at the high school nearby.

The paw print stamp on Katherine's hand was their reward for a good gymnastics hour.  At first, she was disappointed.  "A PAW?"  A different child gets to pick the stamp every time, and the only boy chose this one.  Appropriate!

Monday:  This was my first visit to soccer camp.  It's just an introduction to soccer in preparation for teams in August.  Graysen decided she didn't want to go but wanted to stay home and help her dad, so it was just me.  A few of the kids were really into, but most of them were just running around joyously and having fun.  Katherine was very enthusiastic but didn't seem to be paying particular attention to what they were supposed to be doing.  I'm not sure any of them did.  Coach was patient and seemed to enjoy himself.  Such a beautiful windy day.

My time has run out, and I still have to cover gymnastics, a train, moving, and more things, I'm sure.