Is It Monday Again?

Boy, time sure does fly fast, doesn't it?  I can't believe another Monday is upon us.  I don't even remember the weekend, it whizzed by so fast!  I hope all my blog readers had a good one.  I did nothing but relax and try to keep my feet up as much as possible.  The swelling in them has gotten so bad, I can't even bend my feet very much.  The skin is pulled taunt and the top of my feet get red sometimes.  I've got photographic evidence of my "lovely" feet.  How would you like to wake up to this?

This is my left foot, obviously.  It's the worst of the two.  And all this swelling is with me ON a "water" pill!  I can't imagine me NOT taking it!!

Now, what's a left foot without a right foot?

 

 I just cringe when I look down and see my feet.  They were NEVER this swollen BEFORE I had them damn shots in my back.  They started puffing up the day after the shots.  Coincidence?  I think NOT.  Even my primary care doctor says she thinks its the shots the pain clinic gave me. The pain clinic, of course, denied any such claim.  The real mystery is why they won't go down in size.  I had those shots in February of this year. They should have resolved months ago!  That's why I was sent to the cardiologist and everything checked out good with my heart.  So I have a big mystery on me hands.....er, feet, I mean! LOL!

OK, let's go skipping down memory lane again.  This is fun to record all my memories before they fade away.  I plan on having my blog made into a book one day and it will have all my favorite memories and pictures (except my feet!) at my fingertips forever.  I always wanted to start a diary, but some reason, I just didn't.  I'm a "lefty" and when I write, my hand gets all dirty from the ink, so I'm constantly cleaning ink marks off before they embed in my skin. (No, I'm not too OCD!!!))  And then this idea of blogging came into focus and I thought, "cool....I can do a journal online" and other people can read it and maybe associate with it and learn from it.  I've made a lot of mistakes being a "grown up."  I ran up high credit card bills, a sketchy work history because of the fibro and the stress in our household, and we went into bankruptcy.  We had no choice.  So at least the phones stopped ringing off the hook and it gave us our life back.  I really don't recommend filing, but sometimes you just have to.  And as our lawyer said, we had no other options.  We owe so much to Frankie's parents for keeping us under their roof and excellent care for the past two years.  And to my grandma who kept us afloat when we were living in Yuma and Tucson.  If I live to be 140, I'll never pay them all back!  My mother-in-law and Grandma say that their pay back will be seeing us on our feet and making it work, just the two of us.  I agree.  And we are trying, it's just very hard in this economy.  Since our van was repossessed in April, we had to start saving for a car.  And a good car, not some clunker that works for five minutes!  I've had too many of those growing up, where I'd have to push the back of vehicle while Dad tried the clutch.  I didn't want to relive those memories all over again!!

Right after we first got married, my parents moved into a one bedroom apartment that she could better afford.  She still had to get medications, doctor visits, food, ect.  Luckily, they had no car (having a car meant more expenses than Mom could afford) as I had the Neon to get to and from work.  I felt bad with leaving them, but I just had to try out life on the big city for just a little while.  I had never lived in a big city to remember it, (when I was a child we lived in Kalamazoo, MI but I don't remember a thing about that!) and I was leaving with them my computer and Toby, who originally started out as MY cat and ended up being dad's!  I did feel bad about taking the car, but I had to.  Mom was perfectly OK with that.

I remember the day we said goodbye, loaded up the car and took off into the wild blue yonder.  Here's some group photos we had taken before we left.  Debbie was riding with us to Phoenix to catch her plane.  Debbie was the maid of honor at my wedding.

Pictured are: Mom, Dad, Frankie and Debbie.  What a motley crew they make, don't ya think?  It was a very emotional good-bye for all of us.

Pictured here is: Yours truly, my new hubby Frankie, Mom and Dad. I remember a lot of tears being shed that day.  I think I cried all the way from Yuma to Phoenix.  It wasn't like I was going to live on Mars, but 4 hours away, I kept telling myself.  We could make it work.  Below are pictures of our very first apartment.  I wish I would have taken some of our bare-bones furniture.  We had a bed that my in-laws gave us as a wedding gift and a dresser.  In the living room, we had a plastic patio table in between two lawn chairs!  Ah, how I remember sitting in them and not being able to know what to do about my arms.  Arm rests might have been nice.  They were the reclining chairs with NO arm rests.  One month into our marriage we got Tora, our kitty from the shelter.  He came pre-named and was 8 months old.  Such a sweet kitty!

Here's a photo of the outside of our apartment.  My mom and dad were visiting for the weekend.  They borrowed Grandma's car to make the trip. I was so happy to see them!

The apartment was great in regards to the living room was huge, as was the bedroom.  They were stingy with the kitchen, though, and it felt like a galley on a plane!  I remember the first meal I made for my parents: cheeseburger macaroni hamburger helper!  My dear, sweet parents acted like it was a gourmet meal!

They also came in time to welcome our kitty baby to the family.  Here Tora is being brushed by his "grandpa."  LOL!  He never sat that nice for me when I had to brush him. He'd zip across the apartment like it was the kitty 500!

 Awwww....the "newlyweds" with their "baby."  He was such a sweet kitty.  He will forever be missed.  He passed away Sept. 23, 2009 of a blood clot to his little heart.  We never saw it coming. The vet says cats are very good at hiding their illnesses.   Here is one more shot of Frankie getting some quality time with Tora:

Tora always loved to snuggle and be by people.  Frankie was like that too...LOL!  Anyway, isn't it funny what you remember about the past?  I have a lot of good memories of my family, I truly do.  Sure, we fight and argue like any other family and nobody is perfect, but we help each other out the best way that we can.

Whew, that ought to do it for today.  Memory lane is very taxing!  My hubby and I just got back from Active Forever and purchased my shower chair.  So I can shower like everyone else and not have it be physical, sheer torture.  I'd do the quickest shower in the west...and that's NOT a good thing!  But this shower chair should be perfect.

Nothing much more to report today.  I'm exhausted from going out, but that is nothing new.  My stamina is zero, I think! 
Hope you all have a good evening!
God bless,
Until next post,

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