The Empty Nest

I expected my empty nest years ago. My youngest child Alex moved out when he bought his own home at age 21. My daughter had been on her own after college. My oldest child Nate actually moved out when he was about 24 but then........he moved back home. 2 1/2 years ago he moved in for 2 to 3 months, that’s all, “I promise Mom, I’ll be out soon.” Yeah, right.

For the past 14 years he has talked of moving to Florida. I always said I’d believe it when it happened. Well, it happened :-) I can hardly believe it. Nate never liked winter, even when he was a kid. He claims it is because he is Colombian and therefore genetically programmed for warm weather. He left a few days ago for Tampa, arrived Saturday. He went with a friend he met at work. Nate does medical billing for a large national medical supply company. When he gave them his notice they didn’t want to lose him so after an interview he was accepted at the Tampa office of the same company. This was a major relief for me as he had planned to go there without a job, not wise in this economy.

His 11 y.o. son lives with his mother in Lakeville. Poor Sondros is very sad his Dad moved. He knows he has talked about it for years but he’s at an age where he really likes to be with his Dad. I will be taking him to Tampa for spring break.

The cats and I miss Nate too. It’s so quiet around the place. I think I’ll get used to it. I do wish he hadn’t moved so far away. The photos are of the cats watching Nate pack up his car.

Today was in the mid 70’s. Hard to believe for November 3rd. I love fall weather but uffda, the high mold count really affects my allergies and asthma. The next few days are to be reasonably warm but rain and thunderstorms. Then snow and a high of 38 degrees predicted for Friday. Minnie-sota, 4 seasons in a week, gotta love it here. I went to Minnehaha Falls for a walk today and was disappointed that there wasn’t a drop of water in the creek or over the falls.

Today was my last day riding the bus. I am glad because once again I have a respiratory crud.

Don't forget to vote tomorrow. Minnesota always has the highest voter turnout in the country. The last presidential election saw 80% of us voting. I expect tomorrow will be higher.

The Wheels on The Bus...

go round and round, all through Saint Paul. I have been riding a school bus every morning and afternoon with a 5 y.o. Hmong boy who has a tracheostomy and fragile respiratory system. I agreed to do it only short term until someone permanent could be found. I didn’t think short term would mean until November. I retired because of my health and I’ve learned I definitely cannot work with kids. I’m on respiratory infection number 4 since the job started. I have been on prednisone, after needing it only once my first full year of retirement. Tomorrow is my last day riding with Ben as they found a nurse who will both ride on the bus and stay in the classroom all day. I won’t miss the bus ride but I will miss Ben. He is so darn cute and adorable. He has limited vision also but makes the most of what he does have. He knows a lot of signs. He wears glasses that make him look like Erkle. He is small, wears size 2 clothes! He is very smart, I think eventually he might be able to move to a class with higher functioning kids. He’ll always be in special ed but compared to his peers he’s higher functioning. Right now I am campaigning for him to be homecoming prince. I wish I could post his photo but I have a policy of no posting of identifying kids’ photos, even if I have parent permission.

Speaking of busing, Saint Paul buses 87% of its students, more than any urban district in the United States.

I know I have been lax about blogging. I have to improve because Arthie is home in India for 2 months, she needs to keep current with local happenings. Also, my older son Nate moved to Florida!!!!!! More on that tomorrow.

The End of Summer

It seems like summer just started and now it's Labor Day, the official end of the summer season. School starts tomorrow for most kids. Fall is officially a few weeks away but the cool nights are already here. And the real test of fall, my allergies are terrible.

Today is the last day of the Great Minnesota Get Together, otherwise known as the Minnesota State Fair. I went last Tuesday and spent all but the first hour at the Miracle of Birth Center. A ewe had just started labor so I stayed in one spot for 41/2 hours. Her labor was longer than normal for a ewe. She had twins and needed a little human help with baby girl one. She had 2 baby girls, so cute. She had quite the audience for her delivery. It's too bad so many people don't see human births as miracles.

The Republican National Convention opened today. The only change I have noticed where I live, about 3 miles from the site, is increased helicopter traffic. Tomorrow I plan to go to the bluffs with my telescopic lens to get photos. The hooligans broke windows in Macy's, took apart bus waiting benches, and just generally engaged in non productive activities.

Take That France

The American male swimmers did it!!!!! It couldn't have happened any better.

Home from Camp

Sondros and I got home from camp Friday evening. We both had a good time. Sondros learned to canoe and was able to canoe out to the island in Lake Independence. He successfully completed Polar Bears, which requires an early morning jump in the lake. He also participated in archery and made the target every shot.

I was the nurse for the 8 y.o. boys. We had 9 boys in the cabin, which is 2 to 3 too many. We were scheduled for 10 but one did not show up. An important part of asthma camp is doing education. It is a challenge at this age. One of my boys ended up being sent home for bad behavior. Another ended up going home early. His father was murdered 2 weeks before camp and he just needed to be with his Mom. He was a very sweet boy, I felt so bad for him.

I found several 4 leaf clovers. I have always had an eye for seeing 4 leaf clovers. The most I ever found in one day was 20, back in Cassadaga.

I developed an ear infection at camp. I have not had an ear infection since I was 25 y.o. and in the Navy. It really was uncomfortable.

We had only one storm at camp, during lunch on Thursday. We all had to go in the storm shelter. It was rather crowded, to say the least. The next day it was very hot and humid. My campers were all picked up on time, whew!

Now that we are home Sondros and I spend our afternoons in the pool. Sondros swam for 4 hours yesterday! I did laps for 2 1/2 hours. Tomorrow I am taking him and his friend Mitch to see Kung Fu Panda.

Off to Camp Superkids

I'm getting ready to leave for Camp Superkids. It is the oldest and largest camp in the U.S. for kids with asthma. It is run by the American Lung Association of Minnesota and held at a YMCA camp near Loretto, MN. I will again have the 8 y.o. boys, who are all 1st time campers. Each cabin has a R.N. There is a M.D. present 24 hours/day at camp. We do a lot of education on recognizing triggers and early warning signs, proper inhaler technique, and learning that kids with asthma can do anything other kids can do. So many kids, along with their parents, mistakenly believe the kids cannot participate in running and other sports. For the last several years it has been documented that our campers have fewer ER visits and hospitalizations after completing camp. For that reason many health plans pay for camp.

I picked up my grandson's Advair yesterday and the co-pay was $50!!! It was a $42 co-pay for an albuterol inhaler. One of the biggest problems in asthma management is medication compliance, along with improper inhaler technique. Well, with co-pays of $50 it is understandable how families cannot afford an Advair diskus every month. We are so in need of health care reform in this country.

Yesterday I saw a Tylenol display in a store. The sign said "skipping meals can cause you to have a headache" so stock up on Tylenol. Hello, wouldn't it be better to eat than to take a drug known to cause liver toxicity? A Tylenol now and then, OK but regular ingestion can ruin your liver just as badly as alcohol. The bottle size was 500 extra strength caplets. That should be a life time supply!!

I will be off line until Saturday 7/12.

Summer is Here

At last, after an unusually cold and wet spring summer is here. The weather this past weekend was beautiful. Low 70's, pleasant breezes, sunny. The kind of climate I would like year round. This week it is moving into the 80's, a little too warm for my tastes. I begin my days with a 5 to 6 mile walk early. I wait til about 6 p.m. or later to swim so I can avoid the melanoma causing sun rays. I love to swim, I should have been an otter.

Sunday I took a walk through Crosby Park, it was alive with dragon flies. I don't know what type of dragon fly is blue but they were everywhere. I need to get a dragon fly field guide (hint Emily,Alex, or Helen for Christmas or birthday).

I am typing with Galway on my shoulder. He is a very loving, but naughty, kitten. He loves to sit on my shoulder. At night he sleeps on my head. He has the same hair color I do. I think that is why he is bonded so much with me.

Congratulations to my grand daughter Katie. She just turned 4 and is riding a 2 wheeler bike BY HERSELF!!! No training wheels. That is pretty amazing for her age.

I cannot believe this is my first post for June!!! I will try to do better Arthie and Emily.

Let Summer Begin

Summer doesn't officially begin for another month yet but most of us consider Memorial Day weekend as the beginning of summer. Here in Minnesota we have had a very cool spring. We had snow several times in April and even once in May. The Memorial Day weekend was no exception. It did get very muggy on Saturday, leading to tornadoes. The nearby city of Hugo was hit, killing a 2 y.o. and injuring many. The next day it was back to 50 degree weather. I predict this summer will be similar to the summer of 1990. President Gorbachev visited Saint Paul that summer on the first Sunday of June. We stood in line to see him in our neighborhood. It was 28 degrees that day!! It was a very cool June and cooler than normal summer. This summer will be the same, in my opinion. Of course I'm not a climatologist but that is my prediction.

Gas here is up to $3.85.9 per gallon. So I will be mostly staying close to home this summer. My car required $1700+ in repairs earlier this month, followed a week later by a flat tire. Any money I had saved for a vacation is gone. I have a 2001 Taurus. I would trade it in but it only has 50,000 miles so I want to keep it for a few more years.

Why do gas prices always end in .9 cents? Nothing else is priced that way. I don't get it.

Tomorrow I test for the TSA, the folks doing security at our airports. If I make it through all the hoops I'd be working part time at the airport as a screener. I think it would be an interesting job.

May 1st 2005: 3 Years Later

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of what was almost my date of death. On May 1st 2005, a Sunday, my sons checked on me because they knew I had not felt well on Saturday. I had been in Ireland earlier in April. After returning from there I was tired beyond any jet lag I’d ever had. I worked on Friday and went to my usual Friday night crop, which I ended up leaving early because I was literally falling asleep while cropping. I was also having sharp abdominal pain. That night and all day Saturday was a blur of shaking chills and over whelming fatigue. Sunday they found me and called 911. I was admitted to the hospital in critical condition with pneumonia, septic shock, and DIC (Disseminated intravascular coagulation). I was dying. remember Jim Henson, the puppeteer? He died from the same thing. I was in and out of being conscious. While semiconscious I prayed to God saying if it was my time then take me. I prayed to Fr. Oscar Romero asking him to intercede on my behalf, that I wanted to live but I would accept whatever was God’s will. Well, I did survive. Had I died I never would have met my 3rd grandchild, Armando. Katie would not have remembered me, being only a year old. And Sondros would have missed me terribly. I have been left with a lot of lung damage. My health has never returned to normal. I ended up having to retire many years earlier than I planned to. But I am alive and I am glad. Thanks be to God and Senor Oscar Romero for his intercession.

Waters Edge Retreat Center

I spent a 4 day weekend at a great scrapbooking retreat. A group of us from Creating Keepsakes Member Board decided many months ago to get together for a weekend of cropping and scrapping. Gena, aka HiMommy, found information about Waters Edge Retreat Center on line. It is located in the boonies outside the small town of Santiago, MN. It was a great place for such a retreat. 11 of us from Minnesota and Iowa, and Sarah from California, spent 4 days together. I had met 2 of the women previously at Saturday crops at The Scrapbook shop in Saint Paul. The other women were all friends waiting to be made. We took turns making meals, having signed up ahead of time for a particular meal time. It was amazing how well we all got along, united in our hobby of scrapbooking but otherwise representing different careers, religions, politics, etc. One weird but true fact was NONE of us smoke. I think that is why we got along so well. You know, birds of a feather flocking together.

I worked on my 1989, 1990, and 1991 photos and scrapbooks. I had put off doing those years because they represent difficult years in my life, covering the time period after my divorce when I became a single mother of 3 children and we moved to Minnesota. I was able to date the photos with the help of my diary and date book. We sure did go to ALOT of Twins games our first few years here. I completed 22 pages, fewer than I had hoped but a respectable number. I think Bethany did 30 pages. Most of us did somewhere in the 20's.

On Friday a group of 5 of us toured the Creative Memories factory in nearby Saint Cloud. Creative Memories is really the company that contributed the most to the hobby of scrapbooking taking hold the way it has. Scrapbooking has always been around but they took it to a new level with archival products easily available. They encouraged the combination of scrapbooking and photography. I had always kept scrapbooks since 4th grade when the Salk polio vaccine came out. In college I began combining my photos with my scrapbooks. In 1988 I was introduced to Creative Memories at a genealogy conference. I became hooked then. CM really got its start through genealogy. It offered a way to preserve your family stories along with the photos. I have always used CM albums, they are by far the best quality of any on the market. Now that there are a bzillion companies selling various scrapbooking products I do use other products but I tend to stick with CM's basic style of keeping it simple but telling the story.

It was interesting to see the albums made. They are all made in the United States, what a unique idea. The factory is clean, organized, and well run. Yes, CM albums cost a little more but it's worth it to get a well made USA product.

It was a good weekend to spend inside because it was really a yucky weather weekend. It was cold, rainy, and then snowy. Yes, snow!!! We only got 1-2 inches where we were. Up north got 18 inches. That is so depressing for the last weekend of April. The retreat center is located along the Saint Francis river. It was really a very pretty location. The river got quite high during our stay. We were glad there was a stone retaining wall and slight incline between us and the river.

After this retreat thongs, white weiners, ring bologna, and lemons will never have the same meaning again, LOL. Sarah from California received quite the education from us midwest girls. We plan to get together again next April at the same place. We wanted the same weekend but another group already signed up for it so we'll be going a week earlier. If it snows again then Sarah isn't invited to any retreats after that.