I'm still alive! I feel like I should say that first because I've been radio silent for so long.
I don't really have a good reason for not posting more often. Life has been busy, but not unpleasantly so. It's just been day-to-day stuff, although some things have progressed over the last few months. I write drafts to post and then overthink them and end up not posting anything at all.
I have lost almost 70 pounds now, and that feels great. By the middle of May, I will have been taking tirzepatide for a year, so 70 pounds (or a little more by the time I hit my one year mark) is a good--but not crazy--weight loss amount, and I don't feel like I've had any negative side effects from the weekly shot.
Obviously, I feel better in many ways. Donating my old clothes as they get baggy and then purchasing new clothing I feel is flattering has been a lot of fun. The best thing, however, is that playing with my very active grandsons is much, much easier. Everything is much easier!
Speaking of the grandsons, I love them so much and have such joy in them! Because Sophia lives close by, I get to see her little Bam-Bam at least once a week. I don't get to see Siân's four as much, but it's always a grand time when I can go to their house and hang out with them. We send frequent Marco Polo videos to each other so I can laugh at their antics and feel my heart explode with love for them.
My daughters, sons-in-law, and sons are doing well (or, in Raine's case, not great but better than he was).
Elannah and Gabrielle work together at a large software company, but while Gabrielle has long been hired by the company as a full-time employee, Elannah has been a contractor for the past year, and the end date for her contract was starting to loom large. Fortunately, she was just informed that, because of some personnel changes, she will be hired as a full-time employee before her contract ends, giving her some good job security and a nice pay bump. Also PTO. This is wonderful news because she has been putting her husband through flight school (he recently earned his private pilot's license and is now working on his commercial pilot's license) and they needed that job security.
Gabrielle's husband, Raine, is the one who was injured during his deployment last year in Djibouti, Africa. He was on duty and was climbing into the back of a truck when the driver hit the gas, which caused Raine to bump his head hard, twice, on both sides of his head, before he flew out of the truck and hit the back of his head very soundly against the ground. Despite being diagnosed with a severe concussion and ordered onto bed rest for three weeks, his commanding officer ignored the order and required him to continue working after only twenty-four hours. After a month or so of severe and constant headaches and nausea, along with terrible insomnia, Raine finally demanded to be allowed to see the doctor again. By this point, his commanding officer, who didn't believe he had been so severely injured and thought Raine was faking it, had spread some nasty rumors around his company, causing his fellow soldiers to treat him poorly. When the base doc took a look at Raine, he immediately ordered him to be sent to the American base in Germany. There, the doctors diagnosed him with a traumatic brain injury as a result of the untreated severe concussion. Raine then spent eight months at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., being treated. He has not seen significant improvement, but the Army recently re-stationed him to the base in Colorado for the duration of his treatment. Hopefully, within another eight or nine months, he will receive his medical discharge. Because he was injured on duty through no fault of his own (in a technical combat zone), and because the outcome of his untreated concussion was also not his fault, he should be receiving a very generous monthly stipend from the Army for the rest of his life, as well as top-quality military health insurance. Meanwhile, by the time he is discharged, he and Gabrielle will have been apart for almost two years. They decided that Gabrielle would not move out to Colorado in order to keep the townhome they're currently renting so Raine can come home to a familiar place. Gabrielle and Raine have become fairly philosophical about it all and are just looking forward to being together again full time and maybe starting a family. The monthly medical check will be very helpful.
Husband and I ran some errands into The Big City today, and Sophia asked if she and Bam-Bam could tag along as her husband works on Saturdays and they were bored. That was so much fun!
My father is on hospice now. He was in so much pain for so long that going on hospice has been a relief. He actually feels a lot better and far more happy. Now they can treat his pain without worrying so much about long-term negative effects of the pain medication on his organs. His quality of life has improved, and he can smile and joke around again. I love my dad so much.
One of the things that has changed recently has made both of my parents very happy:
I have two younger sisters, and one of them (Ann) has lived in The Big City for the last couple decades, and we are very close. My other sister, Adele, has had a rough life. She is a supremely loving and caring person, but she has made some poor choices in men and in life decisions, and those decisions have led to some pretty serious physical problems (if I ever again run into the piece of crap former boyfriend who hurt her years ago and caused her those injuries, heaven help him). She was living in rural Minnesota until a couple months ago, but her car had broken down and she was having a very difficult time getting to necessary medical appointments and refills on her medications, which was causing even more physical and emotional/mental issues. Her current piece of crap boyfriend didn't care and was no help.
My mom bought a good used car, which she registered in Adele's name, and my sister, Ann, and my brother, Aaron, made the drive to bring Adele the car. When my siblings arrived at Adele's place, she saw their faces, looked around at her piece of crap boyfriend and her sad life, and said, "I'm coming back with you." By six o'clock the next morning, she was packed and ready to go, and she is now living with my parents and my two youngest brothers, Aaron (who owns the house) and Thomas, my youngest sibling. Due to her frequent migraines and some other ailments, I was only recently able to see her again at a family party at Siân's house, where she also got to meet her nephews for the first time. It was a great reunion. I'm so glad she's with us, her family, again. When she is able, she is helping take care of the household chores and cooking--along with my amazing brothers--so that my mother (who, even in her late 70s and with capable, grown children, thinks she, as the mother, should take care of everything and everyone) can concentrate on taking care of my dad.
My older son, Joseph, is working for the Census Bureau and making plans for his life. He is a smart, funny, good-hearted young man, and I love the conversations we have when we pass as ships in the late afternoon or early evening--especially when he's teasing me about my woeful ignorance of his generation's meme humor. We had a sad moment today, however, when we had to bury his little parakeet, Dave, who passed away in the night. Husband and I, after discovering a deceased Dave this morning (he had been ailing for a little while), took care of giving him a solemn little burial in the back yard and cleaning up his cage and all his toys to be donated to some other cute little birdie buddy. RIP, Dave. You were the best little parakeet you could be, and I really was very fond of you despite your screeching every time I turned the kitchen sink faucet on and the endless supply of bird seed you scattered onto the floor. The wall behind where your cage hung is sadly empty.
We still have Marmite the Dog, however. He's an old man now, roughly seventeen or eighteen, but he still loves to chase his squeaky toy when I throw it, go on walks, and be right at my side when I'm home. He's almost completely deaf, however, but he now "talks" constantly, usually in a whine as he begs for treats. Also, like an old man, he usually has to pee at some horrible hour of the early morning, and I'm the one he comes to get to let him out.
Back to my children, though. Gary is almost finished with high school and is still working two jobs as both a student sweeper at his old elementary school on weekdays and at the bakery on Saturdays. He's saving money for a mission. This kid has an amazing capacity to store historical facts, especially as they pertain to world conflicts. He passionately seeks out historical data merely because he is fascinated by it. During a recent car ride, he gave me a thorough education on all the nuances of Japan's involvement in World War II. It was incredibly eye-opening because those were not things I ever learned in my school history classes.
Husband is still teaching fifth graders and I'm still working at the two seminary buildings, loving my job. The new high school and seminary is opening for the next school year, and we just found out who the new seminary principal will be. Now we will start sorting out who the faculty members will be and if I will be the new administrative assistant there, which I'm pretty sure I will be. I'll let you know. I'm currently practicing Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, movement II, for my next recital in May. I'd also play the third movement if I was a far better pianist and could get it perfected in two months, but that is not going to happen. But I thoroughly enjoy the journey!
I think I'll leave it there. Thanks for stopping by and hanging out! I hope your day has been a good one!
