Vintage Plane & J.

Hi, Readers!

 

Here is the awesome picture Kristy Sheriff took of J and I next to Bob Hoff's vintage plane a few years ago.

 

The night sky was better in person at our friend's reception. And the perfect back drop to such an evening! I tried to get J. to wear something reception worthy but I love the bright yellow of his shirt against the colors!

 

One snap shot and it is perfect. I still need to get this photo framed but I had to have it put up this month so I could look at it!

 

 

Because it is my Birthmonth- and Leap Year Green is part of the decor, I pulled this star Kurt Knudsen (his store: Piggy & Dirt is on etsy)

from the family room window and put it in mine. I have the reds, etc. all up for the sake of Valentine's Day too.

 

 

 

As Valentine's Day has neared, I pulled out the garland and tried to untangle one and it is just brittle and snowed hearts all over the carpet. So I left it wadded up, like the muscles in my neck and back and placed it next to the heart star.

 

I found one of the hearts in my slipper:

 

 

Which must mean I wear my heart on the Soles of my Shoe rather than my sleeve.

This is my plug for this brand of slipper- Arch support is soooooo good. I wish they made shoes or something.

 

However, there is a foot insert that is made that is helpful. J. likes to hang out at Idaho Mountain Trading and they sell an insert by a company that lets you try it out for so many days and send it back if it didn't work.

 

Well, I have a shoe that is half a size up from mine and ordered in WIDE for an orthotic. I took out the footbed and put the one in and it seems to do quite a good job. My feet stay stable on the ground.

 

(You can catch a falling star with a shower curtain ring....)

 

So I don't roll my ankles, it seems to align my spine up, and slowly stretch out the knotted muscles in my back and ribs.

 

Happy Sunday. I am going to work on my Christmas letters. Still. Ha, ha. If you have not gotten yours yet, it is because I was waiting for the pictures to come of J. and I with the plane.

 

And it takes time to write personalized letters. I think I will just call them letters instead of Christmas letters from this point out.

 

Cheerio,

 

February 5th early in the a.m.

(courtesy of Kurt Knudsen. etsy. Piggy and Dirt.- German Garnet Heart Star. The heart in the middle is from Germany! )

 

 





Readers, I am coping right now. Legs up, arm resting on Wardahl the Pillow,

 and my heart- a little down.

(courtesy of Kurt)

All day has been pretty tough. And night. I slept on my left side, propped up with some pillows so I wasn't horizontal. Hence this post so early in the a. m.
Yesterday Padre took me to my appts. * This was written a bit ago. And edited Friday night.





(Kurt includes the Dad's in his stars- this one reads: "My heart belongs to Daddy.")

He was in a rush to get going so when I received a text saying he'd run some errand and that he was going to be home and parked in backwards.....
I thought:

 

"Uh-oh, I better hurry up if he's parking in backwards...."

 

(Daddy heart is pretty big and spindly!)

How much time does that save anyway? Well, I asked him later and he said he parked that way so I would have less distance to walk around the car.


Oh. My bad. I thought it was so that we could get out of the drive way faster. I felt guilty for assuming that was the reason when really he was trying to look out for me.

Glad he is still is. I need it.

How We Live

 

(Courtesy of Kurt Knudsen. etsy. Best Stars made in the Universe! This one beats! Okay. I lie. It just blinks with the help of a battery until it goes ka-pootie.) 

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;

in feelings, not figures on a dial.

We should count time by heart throbs. 

He most lives who thinks most; feels noblest; acts the best.

P.J. Bailey.

 

All for tonight as my body is throbbing. More tomorrow on star symbolism, quotes, etc. like I promised! Unless I can't move from the physical therapy.

Good Looking Gene & Green

Okay, Readers. I said I would expound on the stars and love and such this month. But yesterday I had physical therapy. And it has been raining. The snow is gone.

 

So, this pillow, which is a Norwahl, needed to make an appearance. He is Sea Foam Green.

 

like Kurt's on etsy's Piggy and Dirt glass stars:

 

It is called, 'Lake Shimmer'

 

So I entitled this post "The Good Looking Gene." I hate to say this but it runs in the gene pool/lake or what have you in our family.

 

 

(My room, and Norwahl the best Pillow ever, would love these colors...)

 

 

I just saw a picture of some cousins and some of them look like they ought to be actors. Others are really good at acting. Not acting good looking. But are some true charachters. And they are handsome/goodlooking to boot!

 

Looks, however, are fleeting.

 

 

Whether on prednisone or no. I really liked having my bridals done by a famous guy,

 

Justin Hackworth.

 

 (he wasn't as famous then as he is now. He takes photos for Stephanie Nielsen over at nieniedialogues.blogspot.com)

 

While looking for the FAMOUS badge

 

(courtesy of Best Made Co. )

 

 I found this green cake and recalled:

 

"Hey, J's Rossi's are green!" 

All he [J.] can think about are snow reports, skiing, boarding, and whether I will be healthy enough to get him to a mountain. Oh, hooray!!!! J. called up to Kelly Canyon and it is SNOWING there!
Thank you clouds!!!!
 

(And Katie's cake looks so good right now....)

For those of you Readers wondering why I am blogging green things during a month

 

 Known for Red

 

(Courtesy Kurt Knudsen)

 

(This one rocks. Red Doily courtesy of Kurt again.)

 

 

 

 

(Mary Deane- courtesy of Kurt's grand-daughter and all proceeds of this mini heart go to medical expenses from her terminal illness: Cystic Fibrosis)

 

 and Pink, and

 

 

HOT PINK

(The Emma Star of Kurt's; 9.5 inches of blinding love right there.)

 

 

put a cake on here as well,

 

well,

 

 it is because this month it's all because it is

 

LEAP YEAR.

 

A day that is so forgotten that it isn't even a day for a few years!!

And IF you are so fortunate to be born on this day, as am I, you share it with all sorts of green frogs.

 

The Leap Year mascot.

 

When I was younger my mom, if not prepared for my day on the 28th, could technically do it on the 1st of March. That month is for the Lucky Charmers!

 

 

 

 

(bling clovers courtesy of Kurth Knudsen on etsy)

 

It hurt my feelings! Not having a bday was bad enough. But then when my Jr. High did a huge calendar and put people's bdays and left mine off during the month of February- I pouted all of that month. I belonged with the hearts and lovey dovey stuff.

 

By March everyone was past a non-existing bday in the first place! And then they thought my bday was March 1st! Gads!

 

 

Now I know that what ya look like and when you were born are anything to cry about.

Unless ya wanna. Cause crying sometimes helps.

 

Grandma said:

 

"Beauty is as Beauty Does. "

 

So do beautiful things and you will be a beauty !

 

 

 

Piggy & Dirt V-Day Stars

Readers,

          Happy Ground hog's Day!



(Susan Branch's picture of the ground hog was too adorable to not share with you. Susanbranch.com is where you will find the coziest of her posts yet from Martha's Vineyard! )

 It's officially my NON- Existing birthday month! It's going to take me a bit to get some
 happy red,



pink,                

 

(This wreath with the pink center and gray points waited MONTHS to hang on my ARMY GREEN

Door! The grays don't go with my room, darn cause I love gray. But in the hallway.....)

 white, and every heartfelt  February color



to celebrate love.

 

And the whole month because I get to; because I don't get a b-day!

Most of the pics of the  stars above are a repeat for Kurt, the man behind the woman,

BECKY,

who have been etsy pen pals to me lately and the creators of the stars @ Piggy & Dirt. Despite the fact that the stars have dotted my posts for some time I am going to set the writing goal to write about the coolest quotes, symbolism, and such because I am tapering prednisone and am in a lot of pain and no energy.



I haven't gotten into all the reasons why I LOVE stars and why this shop on etsy won my heart months ago.

(The wrapping is also adorable so if you are sending this to someone as a gift.... they. will. love. it. )Period.

 Yes, the star baby song my mom sang to us as kids that has to do with a lonesome moon and why

 

God made all those little star babies.

(the itty-bitti-est star he makes for V-day!)

 

So through out this month I will tell you why I love stars, their symbolism, and share some more of Kurt - n - Becky's stars, with their permission, - I don't own ALL of them! DARN  IT!

 

I have been really excited to find ways to decorate with them and looked forward to this month so that I could put my stars on display in the front window!

 

Sadly, Readers- I want to look at them A LOT!

And I am still not able to take down what is up in the window now!

 

 

We still need it to:

 

So  certain someone can

 

 

-hey, is that some green I see? The color of Leap Year! Next Post:

The green decor.

 

Enjoy,



Finding a Photo on Flopbott

Prednisone Taper Progress Post. Basically a journal entry.







 

Dear Readers, I have spent some time on my own blog tonight trying to find some photos from a post.

I can't find it.

It wasn't the type-writer picture I was looking for either. I stuck the old thing on this post because it was one of the first pictures I uploaded.

The reason why "pro-bloggers" are called 'Pros" in the first place- is because they stopped and figured out how to blog. Read up on how to make the pictures look better. Took some classes or seminars in photography and this sort of thing.

So they can easily find a picture if they wanted to show it to someone. They have all their posts indexed, highlighted, easy to find if inclined to, linked up to other sites, hash grammed, and photo shopped-

not mine.

Why not? I am asking myself as I noticed the exact date that I had some concussions as I flipped through the list of posts like an old rolodex. I can see when I was "taken out of the game" for a time with an infection. Or when one cleared up.

I know the time period when J. and I either walked or road bikes all over the place and how it about killed me and he has no recollection of how hard we worked to do some things.

In fact he even said the other day: "This is the first time that I have been really passionate about something."

ME: "Are you kidding me?" (this is a place where I wish I could link you to all the past posts on us working to earn money for flag football, pads and cleats, basketball shoes, camps, and clinics, gas money, baseball bats.

But then I recall that I also forgot how horrible child birth can be for some people and that they forget how horrible it can be and I forgave his shortened memory.

So as I flipped through all these pictures and reminded myself that at one time a person in my church who is someone I would have loved to have been friends with but she lives too far away.  (five blocks away in a different section of the neighborhood.) And I got sick enough that I couldn't walk that five blocks anymore.

It literally became "too far away." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I took her advice and it has been a good thing.


Yes, this blog has been a haphazrd attempt to put my writing out there because I felt like I wanted to document as much as possible because

 

 I didn't know what would happen.

With my body. With a disease.

Now I know what happened.

I pretty much went through time; looked at how much my son has grown physically.

 I saw how this was my outlet, my way of reaching out to the world when I couldn't get out there any longer. I saw the ebb and flow of my energy all partly due to prednisone.
I won
When I see my hands, my feet from some dumb shot I had taken of them after working in the garden tears came freely. It was so hard to "do" those gardens. But, thanks to prednisone, I did them. I had that energy. And then it bottomed out.

Finding the picture of me and J. next to Bob's red bi-plane was................ a million things. So many thoughts ran through my mind that night. Of what was ahead. It was going to get dark. And it did, Readers. And it is, Readers.

I remember the losses along the way. The losses before I started this thing- this Blog. When I first heard about blogs I scoffed. 'Oh, brother. Another social media dealio..' Then look- I became a blogger.

I don't know why. Maybe it was all the scratch paper I'd write some tid-bit on. Or feelings. Or because I have several journals going at the same time. I am one of millions of people who pass through life. I wonder how many sit down to read about others' lives?

Whether anyone comes across mine or not I am glad I documented all of this how I did. It is my story.

In fact a lot of what I do as someone who is home bound makes me stop and wonder if it matters.
Readers, my evening consisted of writing reviews for Amazon, in the hopes of helping someone pick out the best Cavi- Wipes, whether or not to size up or down when buying Haflinger slippers- all the while as my folks watch Downtown Abbey. (Padre would never have gotten into it were it not for having surgery on his shoulder.

I provided the call to Pizza Hut for J. and his friend for a late night hang out. Then made sure to show them how to clean up afterward. Padre Protocol is supper up to the table. But on this occassion he was calmed by me putting down a blanket and Madre putting a plastic table cloth on top of that.
Protect the carpet. Padre said something about there being some buildings having rules about where ya eat... blah, blah.

I took my meds to help my stomach, esophagus, and such from being burned to death from this disease. I drank enough water to make sure I stayed hydrated which happens a lot even when you wouldn't suspect it.

The other day I was able to manage to help a bit when a friend came to help clean. I showed J. what I meant when  I said I wanted him to "Deep Dust." (i.e. don't just take the feather duster over the objects, but move the objects and



***********************************************************************
Tapering 1 mg is hard.

I hate it.
I was in a bad mood right around 11.
Barely pulled myself up to take my reduced amount of prednisone this morning. It's noon. J. slept til 10 and asked If I wanted to take him up to snowboard. (let out a very long sigh.)

When I finally got moving I made it to the loo-- knock. knock.

ME: "Yeee-ehhhsss!"

J: "Good news! I called up to Kelly Canyon and it's not icy like the other night but is just the 'crud'."

Me: "The CRUD?"   this term seemed to fall in the negative of ideal ski/boarding weather.

J: "Yeh, it's kinda like what is on skier's lane, you know, the smooshed up snow. Packed a bit then sugary.

ME: "Oohhhhh, yeh,

J: "So can you take me?"

ME: 'Oh, crud. We'll see."

*******************************************************************************
J. made it up to try out snow boarding. On a real mountain. He said he fell.

And then he said: "I am falling for it!"  Again.

ME: "I heard ya say the first time, that ya fell. Ouch.!"

J:" No, I am falling for it as in LIKING it."

ME: "Oh, dear."

He apparently doesn't recall loving it a

Long Time Ago.......



My heart fell into my wool, well arched slippers. What about all your good equipment.

"I am going to do both! I have it all planned! Board at Kelly's and Ski Targhee!"

Kids are so funny at this age.

MAKE IT Snow!

 

 (All stars made by Kurt and Becky Knudsen off of etsy. But they are swamped so be aware your order has 79 before it for Vday)

Readers,

 

             It is a shame I am in the process of  tapering in ski season. Because it really bites. And ya need snow. We were riding on the fact that the closest mountain- well, slope side- was twenty minutes away and actually got some good snow!!

 

Give a three cheers, hoorah with your hands in a fist.

 

But. Mid week it decided to get really warm, for Idaho. IN the 30's. So there was melting. Then Freezing. Which equals ice.

 

Which meant that I took J. up to snowboard- not ski- notice I said snowboard cause that comes in handy later. So he wants to snowboard or try it out.

 



 

(Yes, The Blue Bird of Happyness is givng one of my stars a piggy back cause I am on prednisone.)

 

So while I was having a personal moment in the loo he knocks on the door.

 

ME: "Yay - ah??" simultaneously thinking: "He saw me just five seconds ago." Mind you I can't find him if there is something that is seriously needing to get done. okay so he knocks. and I say a tired response.

 

(okay this is my original favorite star. Christmas Theme Star. It is over the kitchen sink. So you are happy when you do dishes. I haven't done them in some time. So thanks, mom. And sorry.)



 

 

J: "So we can still get in time even though it isn't the whole day!!"

 

ME: "Awesome!" I say sarcastically.

 

Then I am washing my hands. Leaning on elbows for support.

 

knock. knock.

 

You have to be kidding me.

 

ME: " " ---- wait, I didn't say anything, I just opened the door with with a soapy hand.

 

J: "Guess what! I called up there and they said it is, 'soft, kinda like powder. the perfect day for skiing."

 

ME: "What kind of report is that?" I said wondering if they are being honest with a kid over the phone while looking at my seriously swollen face in the mirror and wondering how I was going to find make-up that could hide moon face.

 

These are the people- the ones who told him the sketchy snow condition. - who sold a ticket to a kid when all the HS kids were leaving and telling us it was really icy and they were happy to put him in a rental snowboard late at night.  I get that they need to hedge their situation. But honestly.

 

I was so glad I stopped that and said: "Just ski."

 

 



(I wish this purple star I gave my mom was a tad more light purple. I will find the perfect one for her)