Ramblings....

Well, I must be getting old!! I find myself falling a lot for no particular reason these days. Just last week, I went over to put on the corner table lamp and for some reason lost my balance. I was aware of Holly standing there watching me as I (in slow motion) began to tip over and couldn't stop myself. I ended up sliding my butt down the cd holder, positive I was breaking each one as I went down and finally landed sitting in the dog bed in the corner. I looked up and Holly was looking at me like, 'What the hell are you doing?' She came right over to help me up, but because of my fybromyalgia, you just can't tug on my arms to pull me up. I'm far too heavy for that. She managed to get me on my (then, aching) knees in front of the couch where I struggled like a beached whale until she (surprisingly) just pretty well picked me up and stood me on my feet. (She's like the Hulk!) To make it worse, we were both laughing so that just made the whole thing impossible, really. Thank goodness she was home as I really don't think I could have gotten up on my own. Imagine everyone is out and they come home to find me in the corner, sitting in Bunny's bed. Yeah, that's not my best look.
It's not just the falling, it's other little things that I'm noticing. I tried to do some of Holly's exercises with her, and I was laying on the floor, trying to lift both my legs up at the same time in order to do some sort of belly crunch. I could not lift my legs up. So, Holly held them up while I attempted to do the crunches. The whole time I was thinking...how long has it been since I couldn't hold my legs up??? When did I lose this ability?? It kind of freaked me out...sigh!
I know I've talked about the fact that I can't open anything anymore. Hubby has to break my Popsicle and open the package for me like I'm a 2 year old. Holly opens all my bottles of water, pop, mayonnaise etc...ugh. I figure the next phase for me will be strings on my mittens and my name and phone # on my book bag...sigh...and yes, I will have to use a book bag because I am constantly forgetting my purse everywhere, to the point that I've stopped using a purse. (but I haven't stopped buying them!)
Anyhoo, the baby birdies are ready to be hand fed. They are actually trying to leave the nesting box on their own, so today we will take them out and start feeding them. Holly and I are not really looking forward to it as much this time, as it's a lot of work, especially for 3, but it's time. I have some new video of them from the other day on my photo/video blog. They are going to be beautiful. Ashley has informed me that she wants 2 of them, so I really only have one to sell. Let's see how that goes.
There's not much else new around here to report, but I'll post again soon.
Take care

Good News and Some Whining...(you've been warned)

Hi folks..I trust all is well in Blogistan.
Well, the good (good?!) news is Poppy has had another baby hatch. Holly calls it Marie. She says she's going for an Osmond theme. (She's such a freak, obviously you should start with Alan.) But no, it's Jimmy and Marie. I can't figure her out, and I've quite trying. She is, after all, my kid...sigh. I told her not to count on the big teeth and she actually looked a little disappointed. To make her feel better, I promised we would raise them Mormon. That put a smile on her funny little face! Gee, the stuff moms have to do just to make their kids happy.
Anyhoo..this is where the whining comes in. I'm a little upset and kind of shell shocked about something that I'd like to share with all of you. (I thought of saying y'all, but I'm Canadian and it would sound really stupid coming from me!)
Since I've been on Google reader, I have found some new blogs to read. There was one in particular that I found good reading. The writer is an RN in an emergency ward. She often has funny stories about life in the ER, and even some sad ones. She's always interesting. Monday I read her post. It was a short one and it was on the fact that it was Fybromyalgia Awareness Day. My ears perked up when I read the title. I've only been told fairly recently that this was one of my problems and I'm still trying to get used to it. This RN went on to say she was tired of having people with Fybromyalgia show up at the ER with their 'pretend' disease so they can get narcotics and use up medicaide and have an excuse for not working. I was shocked. (first of all, I didn't know I could wait at the ER for 8 hours to get some 'good' drugs!!)
I digress...she then had about 30 responses, and all but 3 including mine, were making fun of fibromyagics. She asked in her post how you would be celebrating FMD. There were 2 funny responses, by the way. One said they were having a pin the tail on the pressure point party, and the other said they were getting each pressure point tattooed so they could show every one.
One RN response was, when I see a chart that says Fybromyalgia Pain, I put it on the bottom. It's not life threatening, is it? True, but if someone has come into ER with that kind of pain, please relieve it asap. It would take 2 minutes. Now, I know that there are some people who would be called 'drug seekers', but they can come in with any ailment, (migraine, back pain) and use that as an excuse. But some of us truly suffer, and have gone a long period of time getting tested for this, that and the next thing before coming to the dx of fybromyalgia. Fibromyalgics just want to know why their lives are a shell of what they were. And finally getting the diagnoses does not make us throw a party, but at least we don't feel like fakers anymore.
One of the comments was from another RN, who said she always felt the same way about people with fybromyalgia, that is until she herself got it. Now she regrets her treatment of those people. She asked her Rhumatologist how it can be proved that she has it? He said, 'How can you prove a headache?'
O.k., no more lectures from me. But this post and the comments really made me feel bad. I started thinking, maybe mentally I've just given up...(or worse) I'm just lazy. But how to explain the pain and the complete exhaustion..I couldn't. I didn't realize that this disease was considered 'pretend' by so many medical professionals. But both comments on the positive side, were also from medical professionals.
Oh well, I think I will stay away from her blog from now on. For a nurse, she has very little empathy.
Take care all
Hugs

By The Way....

New pics on my photo/video blog. Alsto look for new pics of the new baby, who Holly calls Jimmy...o.k...

It's Just Me...or is it just me?

This is the kind of antics my poor Hubby has to put up with. Too funny! These are our big kids now, Gus and Queenie. (Gussie is the one with the yellow on his head) Aren't they beautiful? But, as usual, they are love birds and they are bad, bad, bad. They're lucky they're so cute! They're a lot of fun though. We take them out every morning and they chase each other around the living room, tear up every piece of paper they can find, sit on the windowsill looking out which is really cute. And constantly fight with each other. Even when they're cuddling. But we love them anyway, even when they're dangling off of our nose rings or when they're dangling off Hubby's glasses. Little buggers!
One of Poppy's babies has hatched...here we go again. Naked with big black closed eyes with his head stuck between the other eggs. At this point, he, of course, cannot lift his head by himself, not for about 6 weeks. So, I'm sure we'll see a new one hatch if not every day, every second day. Poppy's going to be busy.
The plan is to sell them, and gosh I pray I can because plan B is to basically stand on a corner in a trench coat, cigarette hanging out of my mouth, going...'Pssssst...wanna buy a love bird cheap, Bud?' at which point I flash open my coat and have all five of the little buggers hanging in a row on strings. No, of course I wouldn't do that....that's what I had kids for. When my girls were little, I thought I had them so they could get the t.v. remote for me. They're older now...
Ashley phoned me tonight. She had gone to see her father's new house. (you remember Fang, the ex?!) She said, 'Mom, his house is gorgeous.' I sniffed and tried not to sound interested. 'Really?' Ashley responded, 'Well, yeah, because it has all of your furniture in it!' I could have cried. My beautiful furniture. And it really was beautiful. All of my beautiful new appliances, my huge solid oak, hand made dining room with matching candle table and huge corner cabinet...waaaaah. And then it hit me, I'm free from him and it was worth it and more...I'm happy...and...lol..he's 50 and just had a baby over Christmas! One poor child that neither he nor his girlfriend, also close to 50, didn't want. That's just so sad for that baby, especially since he was a terrible father the first time around. I will pray for that baby all it's life, I suspect. He was very abusive to my 2 girls, and would have been physically except I could kick his ass and he knew it. (read, crazy native woman) But that's the only reason why he didn't. He was scared for his life and for good reason. He knew not to ever cross that point, cause I promised him great pain if he did. I had to in order to keep the girls safe. But he did a lot more damage on all of us mentally and emotionally. He only physically went after Ashley once. They were in the car and I was in the house. I heard them pull in and within seconds, Ashley was in the door, up the stairs and screaming for help. She jumped from the stairs into my lap. (She was like 14 then) He came flying up after her. I stood up, pushed her behind me and faced him. 'What the hell do you think your going to do?' I asked him, shaking. He turned to Ashley and said, 'You're going to pay for that!' I felt that was a serious threat, and that was pretty well the night I started staying awake all night to keep the kids safe. He was capable of murder and he was terribly jealous of the kids. Other than that, things were pretty hunky Dory around there. So, he can have all I ever owned, but I have things he'll never have in his life. How did I get into all this?? Sorry...I'm so emotional lately...menopause?? Did you notice anything bad starts with the word 'men'? Menopause, Menstruation, Mental Illness, Menial Jobs...Just kidding you guys. I love men.
Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print.
Take care
Tory

I'm Back And Feeling Better...

First of all, I want to apologize for my whining in the last 2 posts. I had a bad couple of days, but I'm much better now. I was taking some Tylenol 3's for the pain for my iritis, and I find the codeine seems to depress me. I only take them when I absolutely have to. It also constipates me, so I can't poop and I feel down...that could be a deadly combination. But I'm done with them for now, and feeling much better, including my eye.
I went for my weekly eye surgery on Thursday. They were supposed to do the left eye this week, but of course, it was the one with iritis, so they gave me medicine for it and did the right eye again. It was not fun! It really hurt this time and I was not impressed. But if I want to keep my eyesight, this is the only way. The Dr. was very nice, and I was just holding onto the hand grips on the machine for dear life. I was surprised I didn't actually pull the suckers right off! But I'm sure the machine was worth a billion dollars and I didn't want to have to pay for a new one as I didn't have my billfold on me at the time. There goes my lunch money...
Anyhoo, now I know I seem to whine a lot on here, but in actual fact, I am very good with pain and weird procedures. I'm not afraid of pain, and lets face it, I have been in chronic pain for a couple of years. But I manage just fine. But this eye thing was so painful this time, as soon as I left the Dr.'s office which is in this huge hospital in Toronto, I began to cry. I don't think it was really the pain, but I could hardly see to find my way out of the hospital, and then I found the car only because Hubby parks in the exact same place. He took one look at me and was upset. He said he hates to see me cry. I wasn't really crying from the pain, because that was all over, I think I was just feeling a bit frustrated over the whole thing. If you're wondering why Hubby didn't come up with me, I told him not to because it's like $12 to park and there's a free parking area if you stay with the car. He said next time he was coming up, but there's no point. I'm fine by myself and there is nothing he can do about the pain and frustration. I made it out of the hospital just fine. So, being the true fat couple we are...he bought me lunch and I had a smile from ear to ear within five minutes! He does know what to do, my wonderful man. My eye was fine after that, it does not hurt after the operation at all. Enough about that, I just wanted to keep you all up to date.
Poppy still has 5 eggs (5!). What a circus it will be to hand feed all of them. It was busy enough with Gus and Queenie but 5?! Help me....so Holly, the cheerful little monster she can be, announced that including the eggs if they hatch, we will have a grand total of 10 birds...eeeeek! Gosh, I hope I can sell them or we're screwed. We love our birds, but they are noisy at times. Gus and Queenie have their fierce talking time between 2 and 5 in the afternoon. They are actually asleep beside each other the whole time, but they are screaming in each others ears, while sleeping. But I do love them to pieces. I have absolutely no idea why they are called 'love birds' except they will cuddle with each other, when they're not fighting and biting each other on the feet. They are little war birds really, but can be so sweet at times. Not often though. We take them out every day for fun and games and it's us against them. They have this terrible habit of grabbing my nose ring and twisting it, which brings tears to my eyes. They do the same with Holly. Now with Hubby, I laugh until I almost pee. They head right for his glasses and stand on his face to do it. He'll say..'Ow..ow!' and I'll look over and there's a bird sitting on each lens. You have to see it. I'm going to get a picture of it for you because it is truly slapstick comedy at it's best! They are so lucky we love them.
Anyway, that's pretty well all for now.
Take care everyone and have a great Monday.
Tory

By The Way....

I Almost forgot to tell you all....Poppy has two more eggs!! Here we go again.
Take care
Tory

Empty Nest Syndrome....

Well, I've been abandoned...my grandbabies are gone. Apparently, Ariel cried for her Nanny half of the way home ...sigh. Of course, I cried when they left and felt heartsick to see them go...sigh. We had a wonderful time, the house was busy and loud and I loved it. They grow so fast and I feel like I'm missing so much. It's hard to believe that Ariel is 5 and in school already. She's so smart, and drew me a million pictures while she was here. Most of us had ice skates on in the pictures...so cute. Baby Boy is getting so big as well. He has the cutest little face and says the funniest things. He thinks baby Scarlett is a boy even though his mother keeps telling him she's not. He also thinks Scarlett is the family pet. He pats her on the head and says, 'Cute little animal!' One day Ashley noticed that his jeans were bulky, so she asked him, 'Stephon, what do you have in your pants?' He replied, 'My testicles!'. (Do you ever write a word that you're almost 100 percent sure you've never written before? Testicles would be one of those words for me...and now I've written it twice in one post! The 'testicle word elves' will be very pleased with me.)
Last but not least, baby Scarlett. She is so beautiful with her deep blue eyes. She is such a happy baby and smiles constantly.
...Sigh.... We were so busy, I didn't get around to taking any pictures, so the morning they left, I thought I'd better get some...the battery was dead in my camera..but not to worry, I gave them a new camera for their computer and Ashley promised to send some soon.
In other news...the baby birdies are real birds now, In a cage and eating seed. They are fully weaned. I was afraid to stop feeding them their formula, in case they went hungry, but they're doing great. They've been weaned for a week now. Too cute..I will take some videos of them soon. They fly so gently, almost like hummingbirds. So, just for fun, I checked out their pelvis's to get a clue as to their gender. Gus is definitely a Gus...but Leonard definitely feels like a female. So, we changed her name to Queenie. Because their bones are still soft, it is hard to tell for sure until they are about 5 months old...but I'm almost positive. If not, too bad...we will force Queenie into dresses and heels and insist she remain a girl, for our amusement..(I put the word 'fun' back in dysfunctional, don't I?)
I have to tell you that I found Forsythia's blog http://lifeinmerlin.blogspot.com/ and read the whole thing in one sitting. She is so funny. One of the things she writes about is what she calls, 'Fun With Hearing Loss'. I hope you don't mind, Forsythia, if I borrow this idea. It's so funny.
Yesterday, I heard the news anchor on t.v. say, 'It's going to take a lot of pigeons for your commute home today!'
What she actually said (I assume) was, it's going to take a lot of PATIENCE...
Have a great week, everyone!
Take care
Tory

Family Day ~ Woo Hoo!!

Today is the very first, newly appointed 'Family Day' in Canada. I think they were just looking for an excuse for another long week-end. As with other national holidays, banks, stores, government offices and other businesses are closed. Should you have to work, you will be getting paid time and a half on your wages. Since this is the first one, ever, I am at a loss as to protocol for this holiday. Some of my questions, if I should happen to get a call from the Prime Minister today, will be as follows...
1) Do you have to spend it with your own family, or can you force yourself into the family photo's of strangers?
2) Will you get arrested for this and have a restraining order posted against you, or in the spirit of family day, will this unknown family, (unknown until today, that is..) have to simply call me Aunt Edna and put up with my shinanigans? (such as get drunk, tell stories about their grandmother's foray into the golden days of burlesque...in which her act included a can opener...and a garden gnome...) I digress!
3) Define 'Family'!! Would it count if I decided my family would be Bunny and a handful of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches...with sombreros and Nike sneakers? (actually, some of them wouldn't be caught dead in Nike...the whole child labour thing...)
Now, to call it family day was a pretty good idea, but not very creative. What good is a national holiday if we can't exclude and segregate people and groups of people? The following would have been good choices, in my opinion, for names for the new national holiday....
1) National Name That Dustbunny Day!
2) Have Your Yak Spade or Neutered Day!
3) Does This Look Infected To You Day!
4) National Smile At A Whore Day!
5) Rough And Scaley Elbow Day!
6) Tell Everyone You're Going To Quit Smoking, Then Don't Day!
7) Name this national holiday, Day!

Feel free to make up your own, folks.

Now, in other news, please check out my photo/video blog for new videos of Leonard and Gus. Today we took them from Poppy and they were hand fed for the first time. They did very well. We thought Poppy would be upset that they were gone, especially since she took such good care of them. She couldn't care less!!! Not a bit, and the baby's don't seem to mind that they are away from mom. It was all much less painful than I thought it would be. We expected screaming and crying...from me, of course..but it was all good.
Talk to you soon, Kids.
Take care
Tory

A New Member to Our Petting Zoo!!!

A grand announcment from us...one of Poppy's babies has hatched somewhere between 5p.m. and Midnight, last night. Holly went in to check the nesting box, as she does every night before putting the birds to bed. At first, she thought that the egg had broken and it was no good. Then it moved! I was in the washroom (of course!) and she's shouting at me, 'Mom, something happened!'. I hurry up to go and see what was going on and sure enough, there was Baby Leonard! (We named him after the man who sells us all of our birds.) However, we may have to adjust the name once we actually find out if it's male or female. We're so exited! It's so small that I actually had to go and get my glasses to make out which end was which! He's only between 1 and 2 cm. We took pictures, but were having a hard time since he is so small, but check out my Picture/Video Blog for video and pics. He is so adorable that Holly and I just want to touch him, dress him up in something fetching and put sunglasses on him for photo ops...but we're really trying not to. He probably wouldn't enjoy it. Poor Bailey sits by himself all day while Poppy sits on her clutch. He looks so lonely, but will still tear off into the nesting box if we get too close. But I'm determined to get some pics of him today, to show you all how beautiful he is.
I will also be looking around for the WWC for this week. I can't remember what they were, so I'll have to check again.
Talk to you later, Kids!
Take care
Tory

A Wonderful Day Had By All...

Well, Sunday was a wonderful day all around. New and improved Hubby and I went to visit Bambi and all four of her Kids. I call them kids, but they are all full grown. The eldest is Flopsy who is almost 30 yrs. old and just recently got married. Her husband wasn't there, but he sounds like a wonderful guy and I can't wait to meet him. Second eldest is Mopsy, who lives with his girlfriend, Muffin who was also there. The youngest are the twins, a boy and girl, named Stanny and Franny, who are 26. It was so great to see everyone, as it's been over three years since we lost touch and I've known these kids since they were shorter than I am.
(of course that's not their names...come on guys..keep up with me!)
When Bambi and I first saw each other, we both almost started crying. It was great. The rest of the time was spent laughing and revisiting old times. I can't wait to see them again!
And in other news, Poppy and Bailey now have 3 eggs in the nesting box. I still haven't been able to get Bailey to stay outside the box when I'm in the room. I feel at this point, that Poppy has put ideas in his head about us. I can tell by the way he looks at us. Is it possible that he is even more suspicious of us than Poppy is? But, as I mentioned, we don't know what Poppy is telling him. Lumpy thinks that they are very unfriendly and won't give him the time of day. Oh, I can't wait until they hatch! Hubby says we can sell them once they're old enough...and of course, I totally agree..(wink!) Poor Hubby doesn't really know what's going on in my world at the best of times. He probably prefers it that way.
That's all for now.
Take care Kids
Tory