Cosy Pictures

I bragged on the phone this afternoon about feeling good and then out of nowhere... BAM!... another headache. I didn't play around with this one... it got the good migraine meds right out of the gates. Last week I was nearly comatose over date "night" (and day and night and the next day) and I'd like to be a little more engaged this week. Sprinkle all those good "headache be gone" vibes my way, if you would.

Gamer Girl watching her dad play

This morning I had the little chickadee and her furry companion with me. I picked them up and we drove through Dunkin' Donuts for an iced coffee for Nana and some munchkins for the munchkin. The employees gathered in the drive-thru window to see the tiny kitten and tried to bribe her from us. Cosy would never forgive me if I gave her kitten away. They are fairing fairly well, I think.

Tucked in for a nap

We did have to have a conversation today about not throwing the cat... and how to pick her up gently... and then there was a complete meltdown when we had to leave the cat at home to make a little grocery shopping trip. I'm telling you... three year old girls are probably the most emotional creatures on earth. It wasn't just tears... it was tears and hyperventilating and giving her dad the stink eye... she's hard core, that one! But before that we had a nice, peaceful... sort of... happy morning. Thought I'd share a few photos with you, especially for the ones who aren't on Facebook or Instagram or the other spots in cyberspace I tend to hang out.

Now I'm going to close my eyes for a little while before time to head south for Date Night (and day and night and the next day). Hope your Tuesday has been lovely! Love and hugs, y'all!

wearing a chair for a hat

Laughing at her silly dad... 

A bit wound up... 

 

Throwback Thursday - June 14

That awkward moment when Throwback Thursday becomes Flashback Friday... Wednesday night into Thursday became the worst headache I've had in a long time and I could not bear to even do something as simple as post a blog post that was already written. Boyfriend Brag Time: my guy gave me the most relaxing, amazing week(end) (which is actually most people's midweek but it's our weekend. It's complicated.) and took such wonderful care of me. If you've never been a single woman... or a woman married to a man who just doesn't give a rip what you're feeling like... which describes my entire adult life... you cannot imagine how lovely it feels just to have something as basic as, "can I bring you a cool compress for your head?" or to hear "I'm sorry you don't feel well" from someone who means it. He watched over me and let me sleep and made a superhuman effort to keep a quiet, cool space for me to be in so that I could be comfortable. It just melts my stone cold heart into a little babbling brook when he does these sweet things for me. He also fed me so that I didn't have to leave the house until time to go home. And I had to go home because there was this med that I've been missing, as described in my last blog post. I got home... called the pharmacy, they got it ready quickly and Austin hurried over to pick it up for me and although I have bit of a residual headache today, I'm so much better than yesterday!

So let's pick up where you were supposed to be yesterday with a review of blogs from YESTERDAY in blog history. I hope you enjoy!

It's that time of week where I look back to this day in past years on my blog and share a few clips and updates. Since 2017 and 2016 were a bit crazy... I'm going to start with this day in 2015. We had just returned from Connecticut (where we attended my brother's wedding, see Wedding Wednesday from last week if you missed the flashback). Cosy was here and melting my heart but Oliver was not yet here. I was looking forward to holding both babies at once and I have so many times since then... but what I wasn't prepared for, that has been the bigger joy for me, was their sweet interactions (and sometimes not so sweet) with each other. I never, ever, ever talk to Oliver that he doesn't ask me where Cosy is. Any time I say, "guess who is coming to play with you this week?" she immediately guesses Oliver. They might... possibly... who knows... be my only grandchildren and they might very likely be only children. I so very much want them to have each other to lean on! That's another thing about grandparenting... you find yourself focusing on helping your grandchildren foster relationships with other people who will be in their lives long after you are gone. Cosy is really attached to Austin's girlfriend, Jessie. I would be jealous every time Cosy asks me to let Jessie push the shopping cart instead of me... but then I think, if Jessie is involved in Cosy's life long term, I want Cosy to WANT to be around Jessie. I want her to be surrounded by people who love her and make her feel loved. This perspective helps me a lot in dealing with the fact that Oliver is so far away... he sees his other grandma and her mother and sister more than once a week and me just once a month, usually. As much as I wish I could see him more, I'm so glad that there are three other ladies loving him to pieces when I am not around!

In my blog post on this day in 2013, I talked about my thoughts about boys and girls (men and women) and their different perspectives in relationships. This was while I was in sort of an "I'm not ever doing that again" stage of life when it came to relationships but I still stand by what I said. If anything is different with this whole "later in life love" this time around, I'd say that it's taking my own advice of not trying to change him...

Girls fall in love with boys hoping they can change them.... boys fall in love with girls hoping they don't change a bit. And what happens? Guys do what they've always done and if they want to play video games from dark til dawn, they do. And girls get lazy, feeling unappreciated and... let themselves go. I've done it in every single relationship of my life. I've seen a guy as a rough draft that I can improve on... a fixer up, so to speak. And they see me as "move in ready" and expect things to stay perfect, with no attention from them. Relationships fail because we love people for who we want them to be, not for who they are.

If anything is different with this whole "later in life love" this time around, I'd say that it's taking my own advice of not trying to change him... just appreciating who he already is. I don't mean that we never have anything to gain, no opportunities to grow. I hope that I'm always going to learn new things throughout my life and I know he feels the same way. I'm talking about someone's fundamental personality and character traits not their knowledge and abilities.

On this day in 2012, I was getting ready to move back to Riverdale for (what I wasn't sure then would be) a short time and looking for gainful employment / trying to decide if I should go ahead and file for disability. When I look back to that period in time there was so much uncertainty in my life. I'm really glad that things are so much more stable now. Obviously, life can change in the blink of an eye but wow! that was a time of really big decisions. I moved to Riverdale in June and my parents bought a house in Cleveland in August. In the meantime I found a job in Fayetteville (near Riverdale for those who aren't local) and it was exactly what I needed to end my career with a little bit of self-esteem but also with the documentation that was crucial in getting my disability approved. Being able to attempt to work as little as an hour or two a day and not being able to do even that small amount of time consistently was key.

I really focused on finding humor in the situation back in  2011 as we were sort of figuring out that things were not going to get better. I read these posts in 2011 KNOWING that my house is about to get struck by lightning (literally) and I'm about to have to move and what little rest and comfort I had at the time (my home base) was going to be ripped out from under me. Of course, I also didn't know that I was going to find a cheaper, quieter place closer to work... and because of Renter's Insurance the move was going to be done by someone  other than me, including the packing. Yes, it was a real stressful situation at the time but it ended up ok. That's the important thing. It always ends up ok.

In 2010, I was getting back into Weight Watchers and did lose a good bit of weight before my back problems started and I had to get on meds that really don't allow me to lose weight. Even when I eat practically nothing for an extended period of time I don't lose. It would be great to have less weight to carry around but I'm not too stressed over it. I'm ok with me.

And that's all I have for this week! I hope you enjoyed this look back on today in my blog history. Happy Flag Day!

Wednesday

Usually I write my blog posts for Wednesday and Thursday in advance so that while I am with my guy... I'm not spending a lot of time typing away on my laptop. This week I wasn't quite so organized and he has left for his Wednesday night trivia show so... I thought I'd do a little mid-week update before I commence spa night.

Last night for date night we tried a new (to us) place... Pure Taqueria in Duluth. I'd like to save this little food update for Friday but I didn't take photos and can't really do a full on review so I'll just give you a little paragraph or so today. Pretend it's Friday. Click here to visit their website, if you'd like. We shared an appetizer of Tres Ceviches. It's three individual ceviches - shrimp, octopus and fish - served with tostadas and fried plantains. I love ceviche but usually find that it's too spicy. Theirs was not. It was perfect for me! Honestly, I could have made a meal out of the ceviche, even sharing it. I also had an ensalade de verano - salad with smoked salmon. The salad was not your basic - it had grilled corn, watermelon radish, queso cheese (which is basically like saying, "cheese cheese" but you get the picture), tortilla chips in a lemon vinaigrette. I'm not usually a salad girl but this just sounded like it had all the right parts for me. Marvin had scallop tacos which he liked fairly well. We did have probably the worst server we've had in all our restaurant endeavors. We were literally begging for a refill of tea which was frustrating because otherwise, it was a really lovely meal. They do a really fresh take on Mexican and there were several other things on the menu that I would like to try.

Today we had a deliciously lazy day. This is a picture Marvin got of me dressed in his sweats this morning. The a/c in his house is set really cold and I wasn't prepared. We normally go out for lunch on Wednesday but today we stayed in and did grilled cheese. We had a garlic and herb cheese on rye bread and it was amazing! So good that it could easily become my new go-to meal! We finished watching the series Altered Carbon which... I've struggled with because it's science fiction and I had such a hard time keeping all the details straight but... by the end I was thoroughly invested in the story.

I realized today that I have forgotten one of my medicines for - at least the past week - maybe longer. I take a lot of meds between the different pain meds and blood pressure meds and migraine meds. I think there are 12 different prescriptions in all. I have one drug that I take that is traditionally an anti-depressant but it works well on pain, lowers your blood pressure and helps with migraines- it also helps you sleep - so I'm on sort of a high dose of it. It occurred to me today that I didn't sort it into my weekly drug divider this week and I'm almost certain that I didn't last week. I've struggled with sleep the past several days, my migraines have been terrible for the past week or so and my pain levels are higher than normal, which I was attributing to not sleeping. There's this whole sleep/pain cycle that you learn about when you're a chronic pain patient. Sleep is really important for healing inflammation in your body so when you have interrupted sleep, you have more pain. I slept poorly for several days in a row but fortunately, last night I slept great. I ALWAYS sleep well at Marvin's. His space is quieter and cooler and darker and there are no animals climbing in bed with me and I truly believe that I feel safer when he's near. Not in an... I'm endangered at home kind of way. Just that I know he's nearby and in charge and watching over me and I am therefore more relaxed. Hopefully I can get another night of really deep sleep in and when I get home tomorrow I can figure out what happened to the medicine I'm missing.

I've had a headache all day today and I left my migraine rescue meds at home so I'm just winging it with ibuprofen. It's not really working so this may be a shorter post than I meant.

Cosy and her new kitten came over yesterday. Baby girl loves that kitten like an obsessed stalker. The kitten is still tiny and submissive. It will break Cosy's heart if she gets too big or skittish to let Cosy cuddle her like she wants to. I tried teaching her how to lay her on her back and rub her tummy like I do with my kitty. One good thing about the kitty... somehow she was a trade off for giving up the pacifier so ... I think the paci habit is well and truly broken. We'll see. I told Marvin that the picture he snapped of her last week at lunch with her paci may be the last one we have. I'm glad to see her grow up and not be attached to it but... she's growing up! I'll miss that sweet little face in the rearview mirror with her sunglasses (her "hater shades") and the paci plugging her little mouth while we drive along.

And... I guess that's it for now. I'm going to see if I can find something to get rid of this headache. Hope you had a great Wednesday... I heard thunder but I haven't even peeked outside all day so I have no idea what the weather is like. I'll be back tomorrow with a Throwback Thursday post! Love and hugs!