Swoggling is a new word to my vocabulary. It's not truly a word as in the sense that it is in the dictionary. It's like Schnuffles (or sometimes Schnoofles - I spell it whichever way I feel like it when I write it, really).
Swoggle means "to steal" or "to swipe."
My sister has a dog named Toggle. He got his name because he tended to toggle the switches and button in cars and on remotes. In fact, his middle name is Switch.
Anyway, she was trying to figure out how to tell him to not "steal" food off of plates and from people. He would try to take the food off of plates and you'd have to be quick and pull it away before he could grab at the food.
She tried telling him not to steal. She tried telling him not to grab the food. It didn't seem to work. She turned to using the phrase "Swiper no swiping!" from Dora the Explorer. It still didn't work too well.
The next time he tried to take food, since she used that, I said, "Toggle, no swoggling!" It seemed to work. Briana used it and my mom used it and it seemed to work. So, "swoggling" has become a word that mean "stealing."
After all, "hornswoggling," means "bamboozling" or "hoaxing." So, why not have "swoggling" mean stealing?" It seems to make sense!
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
Trivia
I thought that I'd ask a trivia question today.
What is considered to be the most haunted place (plantation) in Louisiana?
What is considered to be the most haunted place (plantation) in Louisiana?
Riddle Answer
Yesterday I asked, "What can go up a chimney down but not down a chimney up?"
Briana the Magnifi-can't seems to have answered correctly, though her answer was not completely correct. She wrote, "t's bmbrsht..."
Her answer seems to be missing the vowels. "Bumbershoot" would be a correct answer as it is another word for "umbrella."
Don't get it? Think about it. If an umbrella is "down," that means it is closed. A closed umbrella could easily go up a chimney. However, if an umbrella is "up," that means it is open. An open umbrella cannot go down a chimney.
Briana the Magnifi-can't seems to have answered correctly, though her answer was not completely correct. She wrote, "t's bmbrsht..."
Her answer seems to be missing the vowels. "Bumbershoot" would be a correct answer as it is another word for "umbrella."
Don't get it? Think about it. If an umbrella is "down," that means it is closed. A closed umbrella could easily go up a chimney. However, if an umbrella is "up," that means it is open. An open umbrella cannot go down a chimney.
Woofles Schnufles
"Woofles Schufles" (Schuffles rhymes with Woofles, even though I spell it differently). is not a phrase I've said a lot of times in my entire life. However, it is a phrase that I have said a lot since early 2009. That's when I got my dog, Woofles.
My mom, my sister, and I all decided that his snout was just too cute to be called a snout. Since I named him Woofles, we decided that a perfect name for his snout would be a Schnuffle. We already said that the dogs "schnuffed" (which started as "snuff," but we didn't like that because it mean to "die" or to "expire" or "extinguish") at things. We'd say that they "snooted." I know that "snoot" is a real word. However, we don't use the verb like Merriam-Webster defines the verb. That is as, "to treat with disdain : look down one's nose at."
"Snoot" is also a noun for "nose," and that is where we get our meaning of "snoot" for the dogs. They "snoot" as in "nudge with the nose." I'm not sure, but this may also be a correct usage of the verb "snoot." Merriam-Webster doesn't have it, though.
"Schnuff" means to sniff or snoot around at the floor or in blankets or at anything. Basically, the dog is sniffing all over. The dog may be tracking something or just sniffing out of curiosity.
Now that I have Woofles and he has the Schnuffle, one of his nicknames has become "Woofles Schnuffles." Sometimes when he is schnuffing, I'll say that he is "Schnuffling."
Of course, his middle name is really Syrup. Sometimes he gets called "Woofles Syrup," too. More often, it is yelled when I want him to behave. After all, you have o have that middle name so he knows that when it is yelled, he is in trouble.
There are times that I also say it excitedly or sweetly. However, he usually gets called "Woofles Schnuffles" when he's being sweet and cuddling.
Woofles is featured in the picture for the following articles: How to Give Your Dog a Bath Top 5 Foods that Are Dangerous for Dogs
My mom, my sister, and I all decided that his snout was just too cute to be called a snout. Since I named him Woofles, we decided that a perfect name for his snout would be a Schnuffle. We already said that the dogs "schnuffed" (which started as "snuff," but we didn't like that because it mean to "die" or to "expire" or "extinguish") at things. We'd say that they "snooted." I know that "snoot" is a real word. However, we don't use the verb like Merriam-Webster defines the verb. That is as, "to treat with disdain : look down one's nose at."
"Snoot" is also a noun for "nose," and that is where we get our meaning of "snoot" for the dogs. They "snoot" as in "nudge with the nose." I'm not sure, but this may also be a correct usage of the verb "snoot." Merriam-Webster doesn't have it, though.
"Schnuff" means to sniff or snoot around at the floor or in blankets or at anything. Basically, the dog is sniffing all over. The dog may be tracking something or just sniffing out of curiosity.
Now that I have Woofles and he has the Schnuffle, one of his nicknames has become "Woofles Schnuffles." Sometimes when he is schnuffing, I'll say that he is "Schnuffling."
Of course, his middle name is really Syrup. Sometimes he gets called "Woofles Syrup," too. More often, it is yelled when I want him to behave. After all, you have o have that middle name so he knows that when it is yelled, he is in trouble.
There are times that I also say it excitedly or sweetly. However, he usually gets called "Woofles Schnuffles" when he's being sweet and cuddling.
Woofles is featured in the picture for the following articles: How to Give Your Dog a Bath Top 5 Foods that Are Dangerous for Dogs
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Briana made this for me to post.
X Uncaught exception: (Forgot my net.)
OK Cancel Call Ghostbusters. PANIC!
Trivia Answer
Yesterday's trivia question was, "What is the shape of the Washington Monument?"
aikakone got the answer correct.
The shape of the Washington Monument is an obelisk.
Merriam-Webster defines it as, "an upright 4-sided usually monolithic pillar that gradually tapers as it rises and terminates in a pyramid."
This would basically be a really thin trapezoidal prism (or however many make up the long pillar) and then a rectangular pyramid on the top.
aikakone got the answer correct.
The shape of the Washington Monument is an obelisk.
Merriam-Webster defines it as, "an upright 4-sided usually monolithic pillar that gradually tapers as it rises and terminates in a pyramid."
This would basically be a really thin trapezoidal prism (or however many make up the long pillar) and then a rectangular pyramid on the top.
Honestly
Honestly is one of those words that I know a say quite often. However, it is not one of the words that I don't tend to realize that I say. I know I say it.
I think the reason that I say it is because I want people to know that I am going to be honest. I don't believe in telling somebody that their clothes look great or that they have done a wonderful job if those things aren't true.
I know that my hair is usually a mess. I don't mind people telling me that. I say "I know." It's usually a mess because I rarely have time to take care of it these days. I never LIKED having to take care of it, either. I'm not one of those people that likes to spend time on her "beauty," which really isn't beauty because it's not me. It's makeup if time is spent applying it.
I do need to find my aloe acne prevention pads because those help with my dermatitis and I realized I didn't know where they are the other day, so my face has been getting redder and itchier. However, that's not the same thing.
Even when I am writing about the word "honestly, I have used the word "however."
I don't like when people assume that I have said something that I have never said. There is one person who is a writer online. The thing about her writing is that it's not very good. At times, she has some good ideas, but even then, her writing is bad. It's good that it's not Stephanie Meyer's bad, but it's still bad.
She wonders why certain places won't publish her stuff. The reason is because her writing is bad. She won't look at herself and her writing.
I've never once told her that she is a good writer or that her writing is good.
When I've come across her writings, I've only said I've visited or put a smiley face. Sometimes I may have left a message letting her know what is happening with me.
She has never asked me what I think of her writing and I've never told her. If she asked me, I'd ask her, "Honestly?" If she said yes, then I would answer honestly. If she said no, I'd let her know that I'm only saying this to flatter her and that it's not true.
I tend to try to mark my sarcasm with at the end if not also at the beginning with. Some people just don't get it, no matter how obvious it is that a person is being sarcastic.
If you want to know what I think of your, well, your anything, remember that I will be completely honest while trying to be as nice as possible. If you want me to be harsh about it, I will.
I think the reason that I say it is because I want people to know that I am going to be honest. I don't believe in telling somebody that their clothes look great or that they have done a wonderful job if those things aren't true.
I know that my hair is usually a mess. I don't mind people telling me that. I say "I know." It's usually a mess because I rarely have time to take care of it these days. I never LIKED having to take care of it, either. I'm not one of those people that likes to spend time on her "beauty," which really isn't beauty because it's not me. It's makeup if time is spent applying it.
I do need to find my aloe acne prevention pads because those help with my dermatitis and I realized I didn't know where they are the other day, so my face has been getting redder and itchier. However, that's not the same thing.
Even when I am writing about the word "honestly, I have used the word "however."
I don't like when people assume that I have said something that I have never said. There is one person who is a writer online. The thing about her writing is that it's not very good. At times, she has some good ideas, but even then, her writing is bad. It's good that it's not Stephanie Meyer's bad, but it's still bad.
She wonders why certain places won't publish her stuff. The reason is because her writing is bad. She won't look at herself and her writing.
I've never once told her that she is a good writer or that her writing is good.
When I've come across her writings, I've only said I've visited or put a smiley face. Sometimes I may have left a message letting her know what is happening with me.
She has never asked me what I think of her writing and I've never told her. If she asked me, I'd ask her, "Honestly?" If she said yes, then I would answer honestly. If she said no, I'd let her know that I'm only saying this to flatter her and that it's not true.
I tend to try to mark my sarcasm with at the end if not also at the beginning with
If you want to know what I think of your, well, your anything, remember that I will be completely honest while trying to be as nice as possible. If you want me to be harsh about it, I will.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Empire Avenue
{EAV:dd14e3f8c466c92f}
I don't understand a lot of Empire Avenue, but it told me to copy the key into the next blog post that I do. I'm on Empire Avenue, so you can add me there if you understand it or are on it. It says adding this as a blog requires that code. So, there's the code, I guess.
I don't understand a lot of Empire Avenue, but it told me to copy the key into the next blog post that I do. I'm on Empire Avenue, so you can add me there if you understand it or are on it. It says adding this as a blog requires that code. So, there's the code, I guess.
Trivia Question
I didn't say it would always be difficult trivia. I'm sure lots of people know the answer to this.
What is the shape of the Washington Monument?
What is the shape of the Washington Monument?
Trivia Answer
Yesterday's trivia question was "The name of the sailor on the product Cracker Jack is obviously Jack. However, there is a dog that sits next to him. What is the name of the dog?"
The name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box is "Bingo." You can find it on the Internet. Just search, "Sailor Jack and Bingo."
However
One of the most difficult things for a writer to do is to find a good transition to a next part of a story or article. There are many transition words, but not all of them work.
Sometimes no transition word is needed due to how the story is written. A space can be put between paragraphs to show the change of time or the change of day. Sometimes all that is needed is a phrase like "a few years later . . ."
However (see how I used it there), sometimes a transition word is needed. I know that it is not good to always use the same transition word. When I write, though, I find I have to keep myself from always writing "however."
I know that I say it quite a few times as well. Yet, it seems that it is not needed as much in speech because the transition of time is obvious to everybody when speaking.
Sometimes no transition word is needed due to how the story is written. A space can be put between paragraphs to show the change of time or the change of day. Sometimes all that is needed is a phrase like "a few years later . . ."
However (see how I used it there), sometimes a transition word is needed. I know that it is not good to always use the same transition word. When I write, though, I find I have to keep myself from always writing "however."
I know that I say it quite a few times as well. Yet, it seems that it is not needed as much in speech because the transition of time is obvious to everybody when speaking.
I try to keep "however" as not being my "go to transition word." The problem is that "however" only has a few words and phrases that are synonymous with it. Changing the line of reasoning can be difficult without using "however." The only other words that seem to truly work are "on the other hand," "but," "yet," "nevertheless," and "on the contrary." I forget to use "on the contrary." When it fits, that is a good one to use. However (there it is again), "on the contrary" doesn't always fit when wanting to use "however."
If using vernacular in your writing, you can change up how people say transition words. Instead of "however," there is saying "howe'er."
On that note, it brings me back to a poem I've loved since I was little. It's called "Eletelephony." I don't know the author and I think it may be anonymous. If it's not, apologies to the author if it is not wanted online.
Eletelephony
Once there was an elephant
Who tried to use the telephant.
No, no, I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone.
Dear me, I'm not certain quite
That even now I've got this right.
Howe'er it was he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk.
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee.
I fear I'd better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Trivia
The name of the sailor on the product Cracker Jack is obviously Jack. However, there is a dog that sits next to him. What is the name of the dog?
Trivia Answer
Yesterday's trivia question was "Who was the first athlete to appear on a box of Wheaties?" Perhaps I should have written "Who was the first athlete depicted on a box of Wheaties?"
The answer?
Lou Gehrig
Y'know
I don't think about it, but I know that when I talk I tend to say "Y'know," after a lot of my sentences. It's not that people really do know. It's just how I tend to talk like how many Canadians follow their sentences with "Eh?"
My family didn't talk like this. My mom, which bothers me, says, "Yeah, right" meaning, "yes." I don't know when she picked up that habit, but I always told her that, "Yeah, right" is a sarcastic way of DISAGREEING.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I picked up the "y'know" habit from growing up and being around Lutherans. I'm definitely Lutheran when it is a cultural thing. I have the habits, mannerisms, and humor of Lutherans.
Many Lutherans grew up in Minnesota where they say, "Doncha know?" I think some have shortened it to "y' know?" I've also seen some people online put "yanno?"
I know I've heard other Lutherans say "y'know." The guitar player in Lost And Found says it a lot.
While I know that I say "y'know," I say it without even realizing it. I think this is the case for a lot of people.
My family didn't talk like this. My mom, which bothers me, says, "Yeah, right" meaning, "yes." I don't know when she picked up that habit, but I always told her that, "Yeah, right" is a sarcastic way of DISAGREEING.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that I picked up the "y'know" habit from growing up and being around Lutherans. I'm definitely Lutheran when it is a cultural thing. I have the habits, mannerisms, and humor of Lutherans.
Many Lutherans grew up in Minnesota where they say, "Doncha know?" I think some have shortened it to "y' know?" I've also seen some people online put "yanno?"
I know I've heard other Lutherans say "y'know." The guitar player in Lost And Found says it a lot.
While I know that I say "y'know," I say it without even realizing it. I think this is the case for a lot of people.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Riddle Me This Answer
The last riddle asked was "Riddle me this:
What type of food do you get if you put Fluorine in the middle of Kansas City?"
What type of food do you get if you put Fluorine in the middle of Kansas City?"
The answer is "fried chicken."
If you still don't understand, the common abbreviation for Kansas City is KC. The chemical symbol for Fluorine is F. So, you put F in between K and C to get KFC. KFC is Kentucky Fried Chicken.
G'nite
I can remember that when I was younger, I always wanted a "cool" way to sign off of a chat. I tried different phrases from different cartoons. There was one cartoon that I watched where the phrase used was "Later days." I tried that for a little while. I also tried "Laters" for a few days. Neither stuck.
I stopped trying and just went with whatever I would end up typing.
I don't know exactly when it happened, but I found that when I would chat at night or early into the mornings, that if the chat was a pleasant one with a friend, I started typing "G'nite" at the end.
I know what makes it this way personally for me. Sure, it is "good night," but I've found that even when I have said "Good night," out loud that I tend to almost swallow the "ood" of "good," so it is more just the hard G sound followed by the word "night."
I started typing it the way it sounded when I said it. That would be "g'night," but "nite" if often accepted in chat, and it is quicker when you are tired, so I went with "g'nite."
However, it is not night right now, so I guess I should tell everybody "g'morning!"
I stopped trying and just went with whatever I would end up typing.
I don't know exactly when it happened, but I found that when I would chat at night or early into the mornings, that if the chat was a pleasant one with a friend, I started typing "G'nite" at the end.
I know what makes it this way personally for me. Sure, it is "good night," but I've found that even when I have said "Good night," out loud that I tend to almost swallow the "ood" of "good," so it is more just the hard G sound followed by the word "night."
I started typing it the way it sounded when I said it. That would be "g'night," but "nite" if often accepted in chat, and it is quicker when you are tired, so I went with "g'nite."
However, it is not night right now, so I guess I should tell everybody "g'morning!"
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Riddle Me This . . . .
Riddle me this:
What type of food do you get if you put Fluorine in the middle of Kansas City?
What type of food do you get if you put Fluorine in the middle of Kansas City?
Gaybois
I don't really have an exact reason as to "why" I use this word. However, I once saw somebody refer to the males that were homosexual as "gaybois." I thought it was a great way to refer to those people, especially being that I like "gaybois." I love them. They can be the best friends for a straight girl!
After all, they tend to like to talk fashion (though I'm not much of a fashion person), and cute boys. Then, there's no real competition between a straight female and a gay male.
Then, "gaybois" always seem to be so nice and cute! The word just seems to fit how nice and cute they are! I don't understand people who are against homosexuality.
I didn't CHOOSE to be straight. I just know that I am. I also find women pretty or attractive, but I just don't have sexual desire towards them. I've no drive that way. I don't care about homosexual women, either. It's great that people are different and everybody should be able to love who they want to love!
If anything, government should not be involved. Either all marriage should be legal or all marriage should be illegal. If people are so concerned about gay marriage, they really just need to go join a church that doesn't allow it and stick with that church. The government really shouldn't have a say. Then, the homosexual people can join churches that let them marry.
Yeah, I love all my "gaybois," whether I am close to them or not. They are all awesome. At least, I've never met one that isn't awesome!
After all, they tend to like to talk fashion (though I'm not much of a fashion person), and cute boys. Then, there's no real competition between a straight female and a gay male.
Then, "gaybois" always seem to be so nice and cute! The word just seems to fit how nice and cute they are! I don't understand people who are against homosexuality.
I didn't CHOOSE to be straight. I just know that I am. I also find women pretty or attractive, but I just don't have sexual desire towards them. I've no drive that way. I don't care about homosexual women, either. It's great that people are different and everybody should be able to love who they want to love!
If anything, government should not be involved. Either all marriage should be legal or all marriage should be illegal. If people are so concerned about gay marriage, they really just need to go join a church that doesn't allow it and stick with that church. The government really shouldn't have a say. Then, the homosexual people can join churches that let them marry.
Yeah, I love all my "gaybois," whether I am close to them or not. They are all awesome. At least, I've never met one that isn't awesome!
Decision!
I've decided that I will start posting on words or phrases I tend to use, either out loud or in writing. Also, I will post riddles or trivia each day. That should keep things interesting!
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Mom's Discharged . . . but No Diagnosis :(
Valerie is now at home. I just got home. Briana and I needed a break from all the stress, so we stayed the night in a local hotel. Unfortunately, they (either hospital or the doctors) have not come up with any diagnosis and she is still very bad. She goes into these "episodes" where she has no idea what she does and other times she does things and remembers part of them, but not much of them at all. Like, now, just when we got home, Briana was in the back yard and our mom opened the door. All our mom did was yell "Niblet!" and then Briana told her that Niblet couldn't be out back because the dog door had been closed. Her response was something like, "I know, but I just wanted to see if he was out back." She is pretty hard to understand.
They did a CT Scan and an EEG, but the neurologist saw nothing.
She needs care, but the hospital discharged her on a Friday night and only gave us papers that said there were referrals for home health care and social services. They didn't give us any numbers.
The moment we got her home, she fell when she got out of the car! She said she needed to use the bathroom which was an improvement over the general situation. When she fell, I told her to crawl up the stairs, into the house, and to the bathroom. Briana was going in afterwards and our mom was on the floor writhing around like a fish.
My mom is much heavier than me and much taller than Briana. Then, with my scoliosis and Briana's scoliosis and other problems resulting from her surgery to make it better, we can't take our mom falling on us like she does. It's been happening every day.
My back and my legs hurt so much right now and Briana's ankle hurts - and this is all from our mom falling and not helping to get herself up off the ground.
Yes, she has been declining rapidly. There used to be a few times these weird "episodes" happened, but it wasn't much. However, they've increased in frequency. We need to get help to switch our rooms, too. There's lots of heavy furniture that we can't move on our own. The house is also a mess and this is mostly because of our mom, now. She thinks she is "cleaning" when she throws things around. Briana and I worked so hard to get rooms clean before, and our work is now seems like useless. Sure, sometimes Briana made and makes it difficult, but she KNOWS that! Her making it difficult does not help, but it helps that she understands what happens. Our mom doesn't seem to understand it at all.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Still no diagnosis?
The doctors and hospital staff still have no diagnosis. We really want to know what is going on with my mom.
The "seizure" type things are apparently not seizures. However, I don't know to explain her being completely unresponsive, shaking, and even sometimes drooling or foaming at the mouth. Briana and I were very scared when we saw that happening on Tuesday.
Thankfully, she will have orders for physical therapy, home health care, and a bed side commode. However, I don't think even all those things are going to help.
I just don't like this "possible discharge" without them finding anything.
We were looking at withdrawal symptoms of Paxil (Paroxetine), and while my mom is taking it, the things that make her complain seem to be the same as the symptoms for withdrawal and addiction to Paxil. She gets hot and cold. She gets headaches. She has panic attacks. She sometimes has sharp pains suddenly in places of her body. At times, she has had suicidal thoughts. She gets nauseous.
Paxil says that you should not take any other antidepressant medications with it. The trochees that she has been taking, Clonazepam, are also used as antidepressant medication and that means that they and Paxil should not be used together.
Then, things got worse when she switched from Detrol L.A. to Oxybutynin, too. I really wish they could just find something and make it all better.
I miss my mom that made sense. Even if it were just my mom that fell about once a week and was dizzy the rest of the days, but made sense - I miss that mom. She's not been around for months.
The one thing this has definitely made me decide is that I am NOT going to take any antidepressants unless they are going to save my life! I don't want to have any of the horrible addiction that they can cause.
I'm not one of those people who insists on things being natural and I am glad for doctors and medicines that help us. I understand that some people really need antidepressants to function, but it is better if they don't.
On a not so serious note, maybe my mom should smoke marijuana! She'd not be so depressed and she'd eat! Heck, maybe we just need to put her in a room filled with marijuana smoke - just put her in a room where others are smoking marijuana.
The "seizure" type things are apparently not seizures. However, I don't know to explain her being completely unresponsive, shaking, and even sometimes drooling or foaming at the mouth. Briana and I were very scared when we saw that happening on Tuesday.
Thankfully, she will have orders for physical therapy, home health care, and a bed side commode. However, I don't think even all those things are going to help.
I just don't like this "possible discharge" without them finding anything.
We were looking at withdrawal symptoms of Paxil (Paroxetine), and while my mom is taking it, the things that make her complain seem to be the same as the symptoms for withdrawal and addiction to Paxil. She gets hot and cold. She gets headaches. She has panic attacks. She sometimes has sharp pains suddenly in places of her body. At times, she has had suicidal thoughts. She gets nauseous.
Paxil says that you should not take any other antidepressant medications with it. The trochees that she has been taking, Clonazepam, are also used as antidepressant medication and that means that they and Paxil should not be used together.
Then, things got worse when she switched from Detrol L.A. to Oxybutynin, too. I really wish they could just find something and make it all better.
I miss my mom that made sense. Even if it were just my mom that fell about once a week and was dizzy the rest of the days, but made sense - I miss that mom. She's not been around for months.
The one thing this has definitely made me decide is that I am NOT going to take any antidepressants unless they are going to save my life! I don't want to have any of the horrible addiction that they can cause.
I'm not one of those people who insists on things being natural and I am glad for doctors and medicines that help us. I understand that some people really need antidepressants to function, but it is better if they don't.
On a not so serious note, maybe my mom should smoke marijuana! She'd not be so depressed and she'd eat! Heck, maybe we just need to put her in a room filled with marijuana smoke - just put her in a room where others are smoking marijuana.
Z is for Zonk
Last night, I eventually and finally got to zonk out so I was not so overwhelmingly tired and stressed. I got to sleep and relax and cuddle with Woofles. He slept with me all night and he's been wanting to cuddle or be near me when I am home which is very cute.
Zonking was good for me with all of this stress.
I've been so stressed with my mother. She says that her health is not bad, but it has been getting worse and worse, and worse.
I know that talking about her urinary incontinence and fecal incontinence may not seem like giving her dignity, but she can't take care of herself with it. Briana and I have had to clean up after her so much that it's become our burden and she doesn't care one bit.
A huge problem is that she'll have these accidents in public and then she'll just turn to us and say, "I had an accident." We'll have to bring her home and then she'll go in the bathroom (after falling all over and making huge messes in places) and then make a mess in the bathroom and be uncooperative about letting anybody help her get clean.
Briana and I have tried and it never works. She has a fit when we try to help her. She insists that she is okay. We've learned that she's not.
I'm concerned that some of this has to do with her switching to oxybutynin from the Detrol L.A. She was having problems before that, too. However, I think it has gotten worse since she did that. She won't admit it, though.
I'm also concerned about the long term effects of the Paroxetine (Paxil) and the doctor just keep increasing the does at her insistence because she is getting depressed.
I'd honestly like to see how she is off of all these medications that she is taking. If she's only depressed but she can actually function, I'd rather see her be depressed and functioning because then we'd at least know that the medications are the problem and it's not more serious than that.
However, I don't know if that's the case because of her orthostatic blood pressure and how many times she has hit her head.
People say that it takes a long time to get off of Paxil, too.
Anyway, I hope I can get more nights sleep like that because I really need sleep. Zonking feels great.
I also thought of writing Z is for Zeus. That's what the vet office was first calling Woofles before I adopted him. However, he is definitely not a Zeus and is definitely a Woofles!
I need help switching my room with my mom's room. It would be great to have help to do this while she is in the hospital so that she is not in the way of the work. She's ALWAYS in the way of work being done in the house. She doesn't help at all.
She won't admit it, but she is a hoarder. She doens't throw out any of her trash! Instead, she throws it on the ground. She throws her dirty clothes on the ground. She then wears the dirty clothes for days afterwards!
I need more nights of zonking. I need to have times when I can just sleep and zonk out so peacefully. However, I also need to work and write articles to make money.
Now that I'm at the end of the alphabet challenge, I need other blogging ideas to keep me writing!
Zonking was good for me with all of this stress.
I've been so stressed with my mother. She says that her health is not bad, but it has been getting worse and worse, and worse.
I know that talking about her urinary incontinence and fecal incontinence may not seem like giving her dignity, but she can't take care of herself with it. Briana and I have had to clean up after her so much that it's become our burden and she doesn't care one bit.
A huge problem is that she'll have these accidents in public and then she'll just turn to us and say, "I had an accident." We'll have to bring her home and then she'll go in the bathroom (after falling all over and making huge messes in places) and then make a mess in the bathroom and be uncooperative about letting anybody help her get clean.
Briana and I have tried and it never works. She has a fit when we try to help her. She insists that she is okay. We've learned that she's not.
I'm concerned that some of this has to do with her switching to oxybutynin from the Detrol L.A. She was having problems before that, too. However, I think it has gotten worse since she did that. She won't admit it, though.
I'm also concerned about the long term effects of the Paroxetine (Paxil) and the doctor just keep increasing the does at her insistence because she is getting depressed.
I'd honestly like to see how she is off of all these medications that she is taking. If she's only depressed but she can actually function, I'd rather see her be depressed and functioning because then we'd at least know that the medications are the problem and it's not more serious than that.
However, I don't know if that's the case because of her orthostatic blood pressure and how many times she has hit her head.
People say that it takes a long time to get off of Paxil, too.
Anyway, I hope I can get more nights sleep like that because I really need sleep. Zonking feels great.
I also thought of writing Z is for Zeus. That's what the vet office was first calling Woofles before I adopted him. However, he is definitely not a Zeus and is definitely a Woofles!
I need help switching my room with my mom's room. It would be great to have help to do this while she is in the hospital so that she is not in the way of the work. She's ALWAYS in the way of work being done in the house. She doesn't help at all.
She won't admit it, but she is a hoarder. She doens't throw out any of her trash! Instead, she throws it on the ground. She throws her dirty clothes on the ground. She then wears the dirty clothes for days afterwards!
I need more nights of zonking. I need to have times when I can just sleep and zonk out so peacefully. However, I also need to work and write articles to make money.
Now that I'm at the end of the alphabet challenge, I need other blogging ideas to keep me writing!
Thursday, May 10, 2012
No Real Diagnosis
All we know so far is that our mom has orthostatic blood pressure. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if they took her off all the medicines that she takes. She only has four, but none of them are for actually keeping her alive. She might be depressed and weepy and have more urinary incontinence and be dizzy, but I wonder if that would stop the fecal incontinence and not even feeling that she's gone to the bathroom on herself.
She says she doesn't want to be a burden for us. However, then she starts whining and making us feel guilty. I wish somebody could just take me for a day and give me a break from everything.
Briana is trying to be good, but the thing is that she KNOWS she needs to work on the things that I have to do. I've just had to drill it into her mind over the days, weeks, months, and years.
Here's more information:
My mom is currently at Christus St. Patrick Hospital. She is in room 4143. Briana and I cannot keep going up to the hospital every day and we cannot keep calling her all the time. I do need to work and I need to be able to take care of our dogs and the house.
If anybody that is in Lake Charles can visit her, that is definitely appreciated. Then, if anybody ANYWHERE can call her to talk to her (all she does is say the same things over and over to us), it would be appreciated as she "doesn't have friends" and she tries to make me (and Briana) feel guilty about that.
Call St. Pat's at and then ask for room 4143. That's her phone to her room and you should be able to contact her. Yes, she is always that hard to understand.
----------------------------------------
Then there's all this:
Also, prayers are appreciated! She would never tell the health professionals the truth. She still doesn't tell them the truth. We need to know what is behind this "passing out" or "fainting" or "seizures" and all the falls and the slurred speech and sometimes feeling like one whole side is paralyzed. Then, also, what is going on with her not being able to feel that she needs to go to the bathroom. She has no idea when she needs to go #1 or #2. The not knowing when she needs to go to the bathroom constantly happens in the house and she says it doesn't, but it does. She wears the off-brand depends and it started only for a few accidents and now she says she can't feel the urge to go at all. She can't even feel when she HAS gone to the bathroom in her pants.
She gets up and it is very disgusting and she trails it through the house wherever she walks. Then, she makes a huge mess in the bathroom (it looks like four or five monkeys have been throwing poop around in the place) and she claims that she tried to clean the bathroom, but she hasn't tried at all. Briana and I always end up cleaning the toilet and the walls and the floor and anything else that happens to be in the bathroom.
----------------------------------------
She tries to make me feel guilty for having friends. She tries to make me feel guilty for wanting to find somebody to date. She tries to make me feel guilty for wanting to go back to school.
She has these health problems. She lies to the health professionals. She fights off the EMTs if we call them. Thankfully this last time she didn't do that. However, that was a rare case and we were so relieved that she didn't fight them. She complains about not having friends, but she is the only one to blame for that. Years ago, she stopped going out and stopped talking to people. Then, when she did know people, she stopped calling them!
She even met one gal and talked to her all evening while Briana and I brought a dog house for Toggle to our house in trips. She told the gal that she might call her again. She never called the gal. It's not like she didn't have a telephone. She had her cell phone at that time. She just never called.
She says she doesn't want to be a burden for us. However, then she starts whining and making us feel guilty. I wish somebody could just take me for a day and give me a break from everything.
Briana is trying to be good, but the thing is that she KNOWS she needs to work on the things that I have to do. I've just had to drill it into her mind over the days, weeks, months, and years.
Here's more information:
My mom is currently at Christus St. Patrick Hospital. She is in room 4143. Briana and I cannot keep going up to the hospital every day and we cannot keep calling her all the time. I do need to work and I need to be able to take care of our dogs and the house.
If anybody that is in Lake Charles can visit her, that is definitely appreciated. Then, if anybody ANYWHERE can call her to talk to her (all she does is say the same things over and over to us), it would be appreciated as she "doesn't have friends" and she tries to make me (and Briana) feel guilty about that.
Call St. Pat's at and then ask for room 4143. That's her phone to her room and you should be able to contact her. Yes, she is always that hard to understand.
----------------------------------------
Then there's all this:
Also, prayers are appreciated! She would never tell the health professionals the truth. She still doesn't tell them the truth. We need to know what is behind this "passing out" or "fainting" or "seizures" and all the falls and the slurred speech and sometimes feeling like one whole side is paralyzed. Then, also, what is going on with her not being able to feel that she needs to go to the bathroom. She has no idea when she needs to go #1 or #2. The not knowing when she needs to go to the bathroom constantly happens in the house and she says it doesn't, but it does. She wears the off-brand depends and it started only for a few accidents and now she says she can't feel the urge to go at all. She can't even feel when she HAS gone to the bathroom in her pants.
She gets up and it is very disgusting and she trails it through the house wherever she walks. Then, she makes a huge mess in the bathroom (it looks like four or five monkeys have been throwing poop around in the place) and she claims that she tried to clean the bathroom, but she hasn't tried at all. Briana and I always end up cleaning the toilet and the walls and the floor and anything else that happens to be in the bathroom.
----------------------------------------
She tries to make me feel guilty for having friends. She tries to make me feel guilty for wanting to find somebody to date. She tries to make me feel guilty for wanting to go back to school.
She has these health problems. She lies to the health professionals. She fights off the EMTs if we call them. Thankfully this last time she didn't do that. However, that was a rare case and we were so relieved that she didn't fight them. She complains about not having friends, but she is the only one to blame for that. Years ago, she stopped going out and stopped talking to people. Then, when she did know people, she stopped calling them!
She even met one gal and talked to her all evening while Briana and I brought a dog house for Toggle to our house in trips. She told the gal that she might call her again. She never called the gal. It's not like she didn't have a telephone. She had her cell phone at that time. She just never called.
Y is for Yard
A quick post today to keep up with the blogging alphabet challenge. Y is for yard. Just like most people that live in a house, we have two yards. We have a front yard and a back yard. Both yards have fences and gates. There's a dog run in the back yard thanks to one of the people from First Christian. Toggle has to be on this run the majority of the day because if we leave him off the run, he jumps the fence. It's not that he doesn't love his family or that he really wants to leave. It's just that he is used to running around because he was a stray that somebody had and dumped at a gas station.
There is a dog door out to the back yard and Niblet and Woofles love to go through the dog door to get to the back yard. They especially love doing this on a nice day. There were a couple of days in a row that the weather was really nice, so they kept running out to the back yard and back into the house, out to the back yard and back into the house.
We also have a front yard. We got the "white picket" fence around it as my mom always wanted a white picket fence. It's not wood, though. It's that plastic or vinyl so that it doesn't have to be painted or have upkeep. If it needs to be washed, you just spray it with water or you might need to do a little bit of scrubbing with a sponge that has soap and water.
Niblet and Woofles love to lay in the grass in the front yard. The people who installed the fence had to come back a few days afterwards to put chicken wire over the open spots of the fence because Woofles could get through them! He's that scrawny! While I wasn't sure if he was able to do such a thing, I had him out one time and he did when my grandpa drove up into our driveway.
So, we have two nice yards that all three dogs love. Yes, Marbles even loved the yards and his ashes are buried in the back yard.
There is a dog door out to the back yard and Niblet and Woofles love to go through the dog door to get to the back yard. They especially love doing this on a nice day. There were a couple of days in a row that the weather was really nice, so they kept running out to the back yard and back into the house, out to the back yard and back into the house.
We also have a front yard. We got the "white picket" fence around it as my mom always wanted a white picket fence. It's not wood, though. It's that plastic or vinyl so that it doesn't have to be painted or have upkeep. If it needs to be washed, you just spray it with water or you might need to do a little bit of scrubbing with a sponge that has soap and water.
Niblet and Woofles love to lay in the grass in the front yard. The people who installed the fence had to come back a few days afterwards to put chicken wire over the open spots of the fence because Woofles could get through them! He's that scrawny! While I wasn't sure if he was able to do such a thing, I had him out one time and he did when my grandpa drove up into our driveway.
So, we have two nice yards that all three dogs love. Yes, Marbles even loved the yards and his ashes are buried in the back yard.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
X is for Xyster
I obviously have a lot of stress going on in my life right now. However, I am going to try to keep up with my blog and my writing. I especially need to keep up with my writing as it is my source of income. It's just like if I had a job, I'd still have to go to work.
Honestly, right now, that might be better because my mom couldn't expect me to go up to the hospital and to be able to do things for her because I'd have to be at work. It's too bad people won't hire me just because I need to be able to sit because of my scoliosis and always having a really sore back. I even have my transport wheelchair, which I maneuver on my own unless my sister wants to push me - and she usually likes to push me as it gives her something to lean on so she can walk or run and get exercise.
Anyway, X is for Xyster. Xyster is a strange word, isn't it? The Y nestles into the x if the X is capital. If it is written later than the first word in the sentence, it is xyster. It's not quite as comfy looking as it was a first, but it still has a neat type of fit for the letters.
If that was boring, don't be concerned. I'm not going to be spending time analyzing the looks of words in my blog posts.
Years ago, my sister and I came across the word "xyster." We were curious if there was such a word, since our mom would be silly and say things like "bring this to your zister" instead of "bring this to your sister."
We still remember the word, even though some dictionaries don't have the word. It is a medical device used for scraping bone, or what they call a surgical rasp or a surgical file. Briana and I maintain that we not xysters, no matter how much our mom would call use zisters. We say that the words sound alike, so we are not going to be either.
Honestly, right now, that might be better because my mom couldn't expect me to go up to the hospital and to be able to do things for her because I'd have to be at work. It's too bad people won't hire me just because I need to be able to sit because of my scoliosis and always having a really sore back. I even have my transport wheelchair, which I maneuver on my own unless my sister wants to push me - and she usually likes to push me as it gives her something to lean on so she can walk or run and get exercise.
Anyway, X is for Xyster. Xyster is a strange word, isn't it? The Y nestles into the x if the X is capital. If it is written later than the first word in the sentence, it is xyster. It's not quite as comfy looking as it was a first, but it still has a neat type of fit for the letters.
If that was boring, don't be concerned. I'm not going to be spending time analyzing the looks of words in my blog posts.
Years ago, my sister and I came across the word "xyster." We were curious if there was such a word, since our mom would be silly and say things like "bring this to your zister" instead of "bring this to your sister."
We still remember the word, even though some dictionaries don't have the word. It is a medical device used for scraping bone, or what they call a surgical rasp or a surgical file. Briana and I maintain that we not xysters, no matter how much our mom would call use zisters. We say that the words sound alike, so we are not going to be either.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Is There a Dcotor in the House, er Internet?
I was going to try to write article today, but that didn't happen.
My grandpa tends to come by most days and see how things are going. For awhile, even when my mom was getting bad, they were okay. I could handle what was happening and just make sure she didn't do much.
However, in the past year, things have not been good. She has seemed to decline rapidly in the past two to three months.
She goes to the ER, to our GP, to a neurologist (a pretty bad one as we don't like him and cant understand him and his ratings are also the lowest of all neurologists in Lake Charles!)
The only thing that these doctors have been able to tell us is that she has depression, low blood pressure, Asperger's, and neurological degeneration. She also often has a bladder infection or a UTI (or are they one in the same?).
Now, it is no doubt that her low blood pressure doesn't help her keep her balance. However, years age when my Daddy was alive, she tended to drink. She would get drunk and then she'd fall down. So, her falling mostly started when she got drunk and it later turned into all the time even when she was sober. I can remember her falling a few times when my Daddy was alive, but nothing like she does now.
She has problems that they will not address. The one thing that was addressed is what my sister and I always tell her. She needs to exercise to keep her leg muscles strong as if she does not, her muscles will atrophy.
She has these "seizures." I don't know what to call them, but that's what they seem to be. She is unresponsive to everything around her and she shakes. These seem to happen when she is sitting.
She falls and she has hit her head many times when she has fallen. Of course, we care about her and the doctors have looked and they don't find anything.
She goes into these "episodes," where she doesn't really know what she is doing. She will often spend money on things that are not needed. She'll go out to get food from somewhere. (We didn't know that's what was happening until later). She'll do things (like unplugging the phone or trying to talk to her dog) that she won't remember. I've said that it is kind of like Sybil, if you've ever read that book. However, when she's in one of these "episodes," it's not like another personality that will remember what happened. It's just gone from her memory.
Every now and then she'll remember a little bit of something she did during one of these "episodes," but it'll be just a bit of stuff, and then if you ask her about it more, she'll change the subject. It may be related to the topic, or it may just go to her saying, "While I'm thinking of it . . ."
Briana and I can't take care of her like she needs. She is taller than Briana. She is heavier than me. She fights and argues. If we try to help her, she falls on top of us.
However, she doesn't wash up properly. That's one of the hardest challenges. How can we get our mom to showers and wash herself properly? I keep telling her to let Briana help, but she doesn't let Briana help. She says that she is capable of taking care of herself.
However, today, when she was in the ER at very first, they put a catheter in to get a urine sample. Before that, though they had to take down her pants and her off brand depends underwear. Then, they had to clean her vagina because feces was all over it! Briana and I had no idea that she had a huge accident. She didn't tell us about this. She didn't get up out of the bed.
It would be nice to find some hospice care or a nursing home facility for her.
The thing is, we can't afford it! My mom gets SSI. My sister gets SSI. I work. We pay our bills with the three incomes. We've been lucky at times that I've had money to make it so my mom's bank account is not overdrawn.
A nursing home is about $5,000 per month. If my mom lives 50 more years, that over three million dollars! I don't know of any jobs that would even pay that much (plus probably $2,000 for the bills at home) even if they would hire me.
Do any doctors have any idea what could be happening? We keep getting sent back home without a diagnosis. How can she be having these problems and not having them show up on a CT scan or MRI?
We need some type of diagnosis and we need some help.
My grandpa tends to come by most days and see how things are going. For awhile, even when my mom was getting bad, they were okay. I could handle what was happening and just make sure she didn't do much.
However, in the past year, things have not been good. She has seemed to decline rapidly in the past two to three months.
She goes to the ER, to our GP, to a neurologist (a pretty bad one as we don't like him and cant understand him and his ratings are also the lowest of all neurologists in Lake Charles!)
The only thing that these doctors have been able to tell us is that she has depression, low blood pressure, Asperger's, and neurological degeneration. She also often has a bladder infection or a UTI (or are they one in the same?).
Now, it is no doubt that her low blood pressure doesn't help her keep her balance. However, years age when my Daddy was alive, she tended to drink. She would get drunk and then she'd fall down. So, her falling mostly started when she got drunk and it later turned into all the time even when she was sober. I can remember her falling a few times when my Daddy was alive, but nothing like she does now.
She has problems that they will not address. The one thing that was addressed is what my sister and I always tell her. She needs to exercise to keep her leg muscles strong as if she does not, her muscles will atrophy.
She has these "seizures." I don't know what to call them, but that's what they seem to be. She is unresponsive to everything around her and she shakes. These seem to happen when she is sitting.
She falls and she has hit her head many times when she has fallen. Of course, we care about her and the doctors have looked and they don't find anything.
She goes into these "episodes," where she doesn't really know what she is doing. She will often spend money on things that are not needed. She'll go out to get food from somewhere. (We didn't know that's what was happening until later). She'll do things (like unplugging the phone or trying to talk to her dog) that she won't remember. I've said that it is kind of like Sybil, if you've ever read that book. However, when she's in one of these "episodes," it's not like another personality that will remember what happened. It's just gone from her memory.
Every now and then she'll remember a little bit of something she did during one of these "episodes," but it'll be just a bit of stuff, and then if you ask her about it more, she'll change the subject. It may be related to the topic, or it may just go to her saying, "While I'm thinking of it . . ."
Briana and I can't take care of her like she needs. She is taller than Briana. She is heavier than me. She fights and argues. If we try to help her, she falls on top of us.
However, she doesn't wash up properly. That's one of the hardest challenges. How can we get our mom to showers and wash herself properly? I keep telling her to let Briana help, but she doesn't let Briana help. She says that she is capable of taking care of herself.
However, today, when she was in the ER at very first, they put a catheter in to get a urine sample. Before that, though they had to take down her pants and her off brand depends underwear. Then, they had to clean her vagina because feces was all over it! Briana and I had no idea that she had a huge accident. She didn't tell us about this. She didn't get up out of the bed.
It would be nice to find some hospice care or a nursing home facility for her.
The thing is, we can't afford it! My mom gets SSI. My sister gets SSI. I work. We pay our bills with the three incomes. We've been lucky at times that I've had money to make it so my mom's bank account is not overdrawn.
A nursing home is about $5,000 per month. If my mom lives 50 more years, that over three million dollars! I don't know of any jobs that would even pay that much (plus probably $2,000 for the bills at home) even if they would hire me.
Do any doctors have any idea what could be happening? We keep getting sent back home without a diagnosis. How can she be having these problems and not having them show up on a CT scan or MRI?
We need some type of diagnosis and we need some help.
W is for Woofstock
You read that correctly. W is for Woofstock. It's not for Woodstock. First of all, I wasn't alive in 1969. Secondly, I'm not doing any research on the festival. Thirdly, I do like Snoopy and Peanuts, but I'm not focusing on that, either.
Woofstock is a Purina Rally to Rescue event (I keep starting to type a Purina Rescue to Rally event and then I realize it and am able to correct myself either before I type that or once I get to first L in "rally.")
There are a few Woofstock events throughout the United States. Obviously, this one is in Lake Charles, LA. I've been e-mailing people about donating items that are worth at least $20 for the silent auction. The donations are tax deductible, so if you or if you know of anybody willing to donate, I have the contact information for the people in charge of the event.
It is going to be a fun day. There will be a pet blessing, vendors, rescue groups, a "mutt strut" parade, a black dog showcase, a silent auction, dog contests, and more.
Any monetary donations are nice, too. They haven't been asking for them, but I know that it costs this volunteer organization $125 per vendor that is going to be there for using the Civic Center.
Then, they also need groups such as boy scouts, girl scouts, service groups, and 4H clubs that do service to help. They need people to help set up the event (starts on the evening of Thursday, October 11) and then to take down all the stuff after the event (Saturday, October 13). They want adults or at least adults to sit with older "children" (teens who can handle holding dogs) in front of bathrooms to hold dogs while people go to the bathroom. The Civic Center is going to allow use of the inside bathrooms, but the dogs can't go inside unless they are service animals. This means that "dog holders" are needed.
Like I said before, I have all the contact information. Let me know if you are interested or if you know of anybody that is interested.
Oh, and the other thing, I asked one person, but it is "yes, if she is not busy." They need people for the kids' area. They are going to have things like crafts, coloring sheets, and face painting so the kids can also enjoy the event.
Woofstock is a Purina Rally to Rescue event (I keep starting to type a Purina Rescue to Rally event and then I realize it and am able to correct myself either before I type that or once I get to first L in "rally.")
There are a few Woofstock events throughout the United States. Obviously, this one is in Lake Charles, LA. I've been e-mailing people about donating items that are worth at least $20 for the silent auction. The donations are tax deductible, so if you or if you know of anybody willing to donate, I have the contact information for the people in charge of the event.
It is going to be a fun day. There will be a pet blessing, vendors, rescue groups, a "mutt strut" parade, a black dog showcase, a silent auction, dog contests, and more.
Any monetary donations are nice, too. They haven't been asking for them, but I know that it costs this volunteer organization $125 per vendor that is going to be there for using the Civic Center.
Then, they also need groups such as boy scouts, girl scouts, service groups, and 4H clubs that do service to help. They need people to help set up the event (starts on the evening of Thursday, October 11) and then to take down all the stuff after the event (Saturday, October 13). They want adults or at least adults to sit with older "children" (teens who can handle holding dogs) in front of bathrooms to hold dogs while people go to the bathroom. The Civic Center is going to allow use of the inside bathrooms, but the dogs can't go inside unless they are service animals. This means that "dog holders" are needed.
Like I said before, I have all the contact information. Let me know if you are interested or if you know of anybody that is interested.
Oh, and the other thing, I asked one person, but it is "yes, if she is not busy." They need people for the kids' area. They are going to have things like crafts, coloring sheets, and face painting so the kids can also enjoy the event.
Monday, May 7, 2012
My Sister and my Mother Have Asperger's
This post was rejected for publication by Yahoo! Voices and I can't seem to get Bukisa to log me into their site, so I'll post this here because I do want people to read it.
I don't currently have any children. However, I grew up with my sister. When we were young, I didn't find anything all that different with her. However, by the time I got to middle school, I felt there was something different. She would yell at me for trying to help her with her homework after she had asked me for help. She would write my homework that I had started when it clearly needed to be in my own handwriting. Of course, this didn't make sense. She was old enough to know better. However, our parents didn't scold her for doing such a thing, which didn't make any sense.
As she got into high school, I could definitely tell that something was different. She stopped wanting to go to school. She would fake being sick. I knew she wasn't sick, but our parents would let her stay home. If it was a day that I did not have to go to school or if I was already back from college classes, she would be acting fine at home.
One year, our parents even made me come with them to her high school to talk about her missing classes so she could still graduate in 2002. I really wished they didn't do that and made her take the extra year of school and have her graduate in 2003 because she was learning nothing about consequences.
As much as I tried to tell them that I truly thought something was different with her and that she needed some type of testing, they ignored me. My friends and I went though different ideas. One of the ideas was that she was a chronic liar. Another was that she actually believed what she read in books. These were based on what was happening and instances from their own relatives and friends.
It wasn't until she tried to move to Minnesota to go to college and came back that she finally got tested and we found out what made her different. It started with a letter written to my parents and me by our paternal grandmother. A friend that she had made in Minnesota told our grandmother that all the things she did and how she acted, as well as some of her physical appearances pointed to Asperger's. She knew this because she had Asperger's.
I found an online test for people to take in order for them to see if they might have Asperger's. I don't know if the exact test still exists, but it was like the Asperger's Quotient Test at Wired. Everybody in our immediate family took it thinking of the answers that would fit my sister. This included herself, which she even needed some guidance to think about her own answers. Everybody, including herself, got the result that she had Asperger's.
We went to a local counseling agency called Family and Youth. They had an Asperger's program in place. They even had an official test, the Gilliam Asperger's Disorder Scale (GADS). After the results came back positive that she definitely had Asperger's, we went to work to get her officially diagnosed before she turned 23. I had learned that it was important to be diagnosed at age 22 or earlier to qualify for disability. She had other disabilities due to her scoliosis surgery, but some of them were also just from her body and the way Asperger's affected her.
I went to counseling sessions with her to learn how to deal with her. She constantly has to be reminded how to behave in public. However, at least, the more that she is reminded, the more she usually learns. There are behaviors that I have to tell her that she shouldn't be doing. I often have to tell her to take her hands out from between her legs. I have to tell her to not put her hands in her pants or her skirt.
It makes it difficult because she does not see a mess in front of her face. I do not know how she can't see it, but she can't. I can't work and clean up after her all the time. I don't understand how she can't understand that it is important that she cleans up after herself. She also does not have good personal hygiene. She says that it is because of sensitivities that she has due to the Asperger's. Sometimes this may be true, but other times it seems she is being too picky. It seems that she is often like a little child that doesn't want to come and take a bath and or wash hair.
I deal with what she needs every day.
When our mom realized that she wasn't cleaning and got closer to my sister with word games, addiction to computer games, and not doing what was needed, she also took the GADS. Her results were positive. She got diagnosed as having Asperger's. Then a neurologist also said she has a mental degeneration like Asperger's, but he is difficult to understand. I do not know why she has not tried to find somebody that is easier to understand. He also does not understand the concerns that we bring to him.
So, in addition to taking care of my sister, I also have to take care of my mother. It is difficult to work and take care of two people who can't seem to take care of themselves. Sometimes the only comfort I get is from my dog. Other times, I can get it from being with people at church or with my friends elsewhere, but it is a difficult thing to get away from my sister at times to be able to relax. She is often like a puppy dog, following me wherever I go.
However, it is important to get people diagnosed with Asperger's or autism if you think they have it. After age 22, it will not be counted towards having any type of disability unless they change the laws.
V is for Valerie
V is for Valerie? Why is it for Valerie? Valerie is my mom's first name. I've written about some of the troubles that I'm having at home. This is about what is happening with my mom.
First of all, she says she has always had low pressure. I don't know if this was true when she was a little kid, but I know that she even had low blood pressure before Briana was born, and I think before I was born. It's not exactly a completely new thing, so she isn't lying about that.
Friday and Saturday night were spent in the Emergency Room at Memorial Hospital. Briana convinced her to go to get a thorough check-up and it is a good thing that she went. It was found that she has a massive bladder infection which they said could easily contribute to her having a low blood pressure and being sick.
I keep trying to enforce the importance of being clean to her, but she doesn't tend to always clean herself like she need to clean herself. Then, even though I tell her, she has a fit and goes into her mode of yelling, "Bridget, I'm an adult! I know what I'm doing!"
That, unfortunately, has become a common refrain in this household.
The problem is that most of the time, she doesn't know what she is doing.
Briana and I were looking and we found articles about how soccer players that repeatedly head soccer balls have brain injuries, but they are not detected by CT scans or MRIs because the brain heals enough so that no medical technology finds these brain injuries. However, they do exist.
With how many times my mom has fallen, from being dizzy lately, and earlier, she would get drunk and fall, she'd hit her head, even though we'd try to teach her how to fall and not hit her head. She wouldn't take the advice and lean to the back or to the side to hit her butt. She wouldn't use her arms or her legs to fall on them as it is not as good as falling on your butt, but it's better to have a broken arm or a broken leg than to hit your head.
She goes into these "episodes," where she really doesn't know what she is doing. She may remember a tiny bit, but she doesn't know overall what she is doing.
The most recent occurrence of this is when she went out to get food from Wok D'Lite. First of all, she bought three dinners and three drinks. One dinner is huge enough for all three of us. So, all she needed to do was buy one dinner and three drinks.
However, I asked her how much it was and she told me it was around $40. I got to see what she spent, and thankfully, it was just a bit under $20.
She tends to buy things when she is in these "episodes." She goes out to buy food. She knows she needs a driver's license. That stays with her, so I have her license and if it gets so bad in these episodes, we'll just have to tell her that she doesn't have one.
She's dangerous when she's "normal" as it is when it comes to driving. She doesn't tend to look at the road. She looks at the steering wheel. Awhile ago, she tilted the steering wheel down and told me she did this like it was going to help me. I had to go fix it again because what she really did was make it impossible to see the speedometer.
She was in one the other day, too, when she yelled to me that she unplugged the house phone in the bedroom. I asked her why and she said it was because she wanted it to be quiet. I asked her why she wanted that. She insisted that the phone had been ringing all day. It had rung once and that was hours earlier. It hadn't rung since then that day.
She also doesn't know where to find the time when she's in the living room. The time is always right on the cable box.
Quite awhile ago, but something Briana and I remember clearly, is how she tried to talk to Niblet (that's her chihuahua) about SSI. We know it was about some type of benefits. Of course, when she talks, it usually doesn't make sense. It made no sense, but she insisted that Niblet understood what she was saying and that we shouldn't be interrupting because he needed to understand what she was saying.
Niblet sat on the floor next to the chair where she was sitting and looking up at her, all confused. He looked at me and at Briana, too. The poor dog was so confused.
She's also called either Niblet or Woofles "Cinder." Cinder was the dog that she had when we were young. She has not been around since I've been in 8th grade.
It's really sad to watch her go down like this because she is only 52 and I see plenty of people who are much older that are much more fit than she is.
I wish that we had the money so we could afford to put her in a nursing home, but those cost about $5,000 per month. Then, we'd need to pay all the bills, so we'd probably need another $2,000 per month. I don't know of jobs that pay $7,000 per month or have a salary of $154,000 per year. Okay, maybe coaching some type of sport, but I don't play sports or know anything about coaching them!
It's no wonder those coaches have a good life and great lifestyles! My Daddy was a chemistry professor and they didn't value him more than the coaches, no matter how much extra time he stayed at McNeese to help and to work and keep things done.
It was upsetting enough for him when they took the computer lab away so his students could no longer use them to do chemistry work, then they would stuff extra people in his classes, and it was getting worse and worse. Sadly, he passed away, but I think he would have been under so much stress to know that they had cut the budget at McNeese for the Arts and Sciences.
So, yeah, Valerie, even if she says things are "fine," really isn't doing well. It's difficult to explain.
If you've ever read Sybil, you've read about what they used to call Multiple Personality Disorder. It is somewhat like this, but it's like this other "Valerie" isn't really there at all. She'll snap back to reality and maybe remember parts of what she did (but sometimes she doesn't know what she did at all), and the "Valerie" that did exist is kind of like another personality, but you can't truly access it again. It's not like when she goes into an episode that she'll remember what she did, either.
Perhaps you can link it to sleepwalking, but it's not that, either. She's awake, just not in the right state of consciousness or something like that.
If we don't know how to explain it and the doctors don't know how to explain it, we can't really explain it to other people. She's just not herself at all any longer. She doesn't even understand the simplest of jokes and puzzles when she is in one of these "episodes."
It also seems that we never truly know how long one will last. Sometimes she seems to be in one for weeks. Other times, it seems to happen for just a few hours per night.
We won't even get into the Depends and the accidents and the constant falling. Now you know a bit more about what is happening with my mom, Valerie.
First of all, she says she has always had low pressure. I don't know if this was true when she was a little kid, but I know that she even had low blood pressure before Briana was born, and I think before I was born. It's not exactly a completely new thing, so she isn't lying about that.
Friday and Saturday night were spent in the Emergency Room at Memorial Hospital. Briana convinced her to go to get a thorough check-up and it is a good thing that she went. It was found that she has a massive bladder infection which they said could easily contribute to her having a low blood pressure and being sick.
I keep trying to enforce the importance of being clean to her, but she doesn't tend to always clean herself like she need to clean herself. Then, even though I tell her, she has a fit and goes into her mode of yelling, "Bridget, I'm an adult! I know what I'm doing!"
That, unfortunately, has become a common refrain in this household.
The problem is that most of the time, she doesn't know what she is doing.
Briana and I were looking and we found articles about how soccer players that repeatedly head soccer balls have brain injuries, but they are not detected by CT scans or MRIs because the brain heals enough so that no medical technology finds these brain injuries. However, they do exist.
With how many times my mom has fallen, from being dizzy lately, and earlier, she would get drunk and fall, she'd hit her head, even though we'd try to teach her how to fall and not hit her head. She wouldn't take the advice and lean to the back or to the side to hit her butt. She wouldn't use her arms or her legs to fall on them as it is not as good as falling on your butt, but it's better to have a broken arm or a broken leg than to hit your head.
She goes into these "episodes," where she really doesn't know what she is doing. She may remember a tiny bit, but she doesn't know overall what she is doing.
The most recent occurrence of this is when she went out to get food from Wok D'Lite. First of all, she bought three dinners and three drinks. One dinner is huge enough for all three of us. So, all she needed to do was buy one dinner and three drinks.
However, I asked her how much it was and she told me it was around $40. I got to see what she spent, and thankfully, it was just a bit under $20.
She tends to buy things when she is in these "episodes." She goes out to buy food. She knows she needs a driver's license. That stays with her, so I have her license and if it gets so bad in these episodes, we'll just have to tell her that she doesn't have one.
She's dangerous when she's "normal" as it is when it comes to driving. She doesn't tend to look at the road. She looks at the steering wheel. Awhile ago, she tilted the steering wheel down and told me she did this like it was going to help me. I had to go fix it again because what she really did was make it impossible to see the speedometer.
She was in one the other day, too, when she yelled to me that she unplugged the house phone in the bedroom. I asked her why and she said it was because she wanted it to be quiet. I asked her why she wanted that. She insisted that the phone had been ringing all day. It had rung once and that was hours earlier. It hadn't rung since then that day.
She also doesn't know where to find the time when she's in the living room. The time is always right on the cable box.
Quite awhile ago, but something Briana and I remember clearly, is how she tried to talk to Niblet (that's her chihuahua) about SSI. We know it was about some type of benefits. Of course, when she talks, it usually doesn't make sense. It made no sense, but she insisted that Niblet understood what she was saying and that we shouldn't be interrupting because he needed to understand what she was saying.
Niblet sat on the floor next to the chair where she was sitting and looking up at her, all confused. He looked at me and at Briana, too. The poor dog was so confused.
She's also called either Niblet or Woofles "Cinder." Cinder was the dog that she had when we were young. She has not been around since I've been in 8th grade.
It's really sad to watch her go down like this because she is only 52 and I see plenty of people who are much older that are much more fit than she is.
I wish that we had the money so we could afford to put her in a nursing home, but those cost about $5,000 per month. Then, we'd need to pay all the bills, so we'd probably need another $2,000 per month. I don't know of jobs that pay $7,000 per month or have a salary of $154,000 per year. Okay, maybe coaching some type of sport, but I don't play sports or know anything about coaching them!
It's no wonder those coaches have a good life and great lifestyles! My Daddy was a chemistry professor and they didn't value him more than the coaches, no matter how much extra time he stayed at McNeese to help and to work and keep things done.
It was upsetting enough for him when they took the computer lab away so his students could no longer use them to do chemistry work, then they would stuff extra people in his classes, and it was getting worse and worse. Sadly, he passed away, but I think he would have been under so much stress to know that they had cut the budget at McNeese for the Arts and Sciences.
So, yeah, Valerie, even if she says things are "fine," really isn't doing well. It's difficult to explain.
If you've ever read Sybil, you've read about what they used to call Multiple Personality Disorder. It is somewhat like this, but it's like this other "Valerie" isn't really there at all. She'll snap back to reality and maybe remember parts of what she did (but sometimes she doesn't know what she did at all), and the "Valerie" that did exist is kind of like another personality, but you can't truly access it again. It's not like when she goes into an episode that she'll remember what she did, either.
Perhaps you can link it to sleepwalking, but it's not that, either. She's awake, just not in the right state of consciousness or something like that.
If we don't know how to explain it and the doctors don't know how to explain it, we can't really explain it to other people. She's just not herself at all any longer. She doesn't even understand the simplest of jokes and puzzles when she is in one of these "episodes."
It also seems that we never truly know how long one will last. Sometimes she seems to be in one for weeks. Other times, it seems to happen for just a few hours per night.
We won't even get into the Depends and the accidents and the constant falling. Now you know a bit more about what is happening with my mom, Valerie.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
U is for Underwear
First, just to say, yes, "medically" my mom is okay. We've been at the ER the past two afternoons and nights, but the only thing found was a massive bladder infection. So, hopefully she'll take her antibiotics and drink things that do not have caffeine or carbonation.
As for my post, U is for Underwear. Why is U for Underwear?
In most households, washers and dryers seem to eat socks. Now, I can't say our doesn't seem to do that. After all, they do seem to eat socks. I have a difficult time finding a pair of socks whenever I need a pair of socks.
However, the washer and dryer also seem to eat my underwear. I know that it doesn't help that the laundry is only strewn all over our den and I'd like a day when I could just sit and do laundry all day. Or, I'd love a day when people could come bag up laundry and help me by going to a laundromat and we'd do all the laundry there and we could come sort it.
My mom and Briana weren't using their dressers and then they ended up blocking the one I was using, too. So, even though it's not the neatest thing ever, I got each of us a huge blue container to hold our laundry. The problem is that they don't use these containers. Instead, they throw the laundry onto the floor.
If they just washed their own laundry in loads, it wouldn't be too difficult. In fact, one of these days, maybe I can buy another container and designate it for bedding- sheet, blankets, etc. That way those wouldn't be on the floor, either.
Yet, it always seems to be my underwear that goes missing. I'll have found a week's worth of underwear one day and set it in my clean laundry container. Then, the next day, I'll end up finding only two or three pairs and the rest of the underwear are gone. It makes no sense.
If somebody could come and take the underwear stealing monster, that would be nice. However, he seems to be invisible. After all, I never see him. My mom and my sister never see him.
It's not an easy solution like pinning two socks together so it's either they don't get lost or both of them get lost.
With all the underwear I've bought over the past year, you'd think I'd have almost enough underwear for a clean pair every day of the year, or a least for a fourth of a year. It doesn't seem that way, though.
Oh, and as for the underwear stealing beast, I'm assuming it's male. I don't know being that I've never seen it. However, why would a female want to steal another female's underwear?
As for my post, U is for Underwear. Why is U for Underwear?
In most households, washers and dryers seem to eat socks. Now, I can't say our doesn't seem to do that. After all, they do seem to eat socks. I have a difficult time finding a pair of socks whenever I need a pair of socks.
However, the washer and dryer also seem to eat my underwear. I know that it doesn't help that the laundry is only strewn all over our den and I'd like a day when I could just sit and do laundry all day. Or, I'd love a day when people could come bag up laundry and help me by going to a laundromat and we'd do all the laundry there and we could come sort it.
My mom and Briana weren't using their dressers and then they ended up blocking the one I was using, too. So, even though it's not the neatest thing ever, I got each of us a huge blue container to hold our laundry. The problem is that they don't use these containers. Instead, they throw the laundry onto the floor.
If they just washed their own laundry in loads, it wouldn't be too difficult. In fact, one of these days, maybe I can buy another container and designate it for bedding- sheet, blankets, etc. That way those wouldn't be on the floor, either.
Yet, it always seems to be my underwear that goes missing. I'll have found a week's worth of underwear one day and set it in my clean laundry container. Then, the next day, I'll end up finding only two or three pairs and the rest of the underwear are gone. It makes no sense.
If somebody could come and take the underwear stealing monster, that would be nice. However, he seems to be invisible. After all, I never see him. My mom and my sister never see him.
It's not an easy solution like pinning two socks together so it's either they don't get lost or both of them get lost.
With all the underwear I've bought over the past year, you'd think I'd have almost enough underwear for a clean pair every day of the year, or a least for a fourth of a year. It doesn't seem that way, though.
Oh, and as for the underwear stealing beast, I'm assuming it's male. I don't know being that I've never seen it. However, why would a female want to steal another female's underwear?
Saturday, May 5, 2012
T is for Termites
I didn't end up writing yesterday because my mom was at the hospital all afternoon and all night. On Thursday night, I was in tears because she was so much to handle. Anyway, T is for termites because on Thursday night I drove over to First Christian Church to see if anybody was there.
I would've gotten out at first, but I had Woofles with me. This is because my mom insisted that she has prescriptions to pick up from Walgreens. She insisted somebody had called and said they were ready to be picked up from the store.
The phone had not rang and she had not talked to anybody. I know that she didn't talk to anybody because her cell phone is broken as she fell on it and the screen broke.
So, back to the termites. Stacy came out to talk to me and try to help me find some resources that might help. I was in the car and it was getting towards dusk. The termites were starting to come out and being that I was parked near a wooden telephone pole where there was a light, they were attracted near the car. Stacy was using her cell phone to help me, so they were also attracted to that light.
They would come and hit her skin and she'd feel them. Poor Stacy even ended up swallowing one of the termites when it came near.
I've still got the list of resources. Sadly, being that my mom is 52, she doesn't qualify for the ones I could reach. She has to be 55 or 60 for most of them.
It drives me crazy that the three year age difference makes them not accept her when she needs some type of help. She is considered disabled and she is on SSI. She doesn't work. She doesn't do her crafts like she says she'll do them.
In fact, only when she was in the hospital room (not even in the waiting room in ER or being checked out in triage) did she finally start to act like herself. Of course, it was good that Briana and I could talk to her, but then, of course, the doctor and the nurses couldn't see how she acts a lot of the time. Which, honestly, has been the majority of the time lately.
I would've gotten out at first, but I had Woofles with me. This is because my mom insisted that she has prescriptions to pick up from Walgreens. She insisted somebody had called and said they were ready to be picked up from the store.
The phone had not rang and she had not talked to anybody. I know that she didn't talk to anybody because her cell phone is broken as she fell on it and the screen broke.
So, back to the termites. Stacy came out to talk to me and try to help me find some resources that might help. I was in the car and it was getting towards dusk. The termites were starting to come out and being that I was parked near a wooden telephone pole where there was a light, they were attracted near the car. Stacy was using her cell phone to help me, so they were also attracted to that light.
They would come and hit her skin and she'd feel them. Poor Stacy even ended up swallowing one of the termites when it came near.
I've still got the list of resources. Sadly, being that my mom is 52, she doesn't qualify for the ones I could reach. She has to be 55 or 60 for most of them.
It drives me crazy that the three year age difference makes them not accept her when she needs some type of help. She is considered disabled and she is on SSI. She doesn't work. She doesn't do her crafts like she says she'll do them.
In fact, only when she was in the hospital room (not even in the waiting room in ER or being checked out in triage) did she finally start to act like herself. Of course, it was good that Briana and I could talk to her, but then, of course, the doctor and the nurses couldn't see how she acts a lot of the time. Which, honestly, has been the majority of the time lately.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
S is for Shit
I'm sorry for being so graphic, but yes, S is for shit. I can't hide how terrible my mother is. She wants us to keep everything secret, but I can't keep everything secret. She thinks that it is perfectly okay to hide all of her health problems. She thinks that is okay that she never does what the doctors ask her to do. She thinks it is okay to hide that the minute she stands up, she falls and can't get back up for over an hour.
My sister knows that at times she is stressful. It doesn't help in the times that she is causing a lot of stress, but it helps to have her know it and that she knows that she needs to be responsible.
My mother, however, only yells at me. Yesterday, she yelled that she wasn't a baby or wasn't an infant. Truthfully, she is a baby or an infant.
She always falls. Every day, she falls. She can't get up for an hour after she falls. It takes her over an hour just to get to the bathroom from where she currently has her room. (We REALLY need to get our rooms switched!). Then, we need to get grab bars put on the walls so she can hold them when she's going from her new room to the bathroom.
However, what I need first is help to get our rooms clean. I know people can't do things at the drop of a hat. I know that they need to get things organized. I'm not expecting people to do things immediately or know what to do immediately.
All I know is that this is really difficult.
Oh, and why is S for shit? That's how my day started. Yep, my mother gets up and she is icky and dirty. At least she wears the store brand depends. However, even that doesn't keep her clean! She had shit ALL OVER THE PLACE. I am not joking about this at all.
I couldn't even use the front bathroom (the bathroom) and had to use the back bathroom (the backthroom). It was so disgusting that I could not even breathe when I went near the door. Briana was good today and cleaned, but I knew why she was feeling so bad.
While we did need some groceries, I said I would take her to a place to eat that wasn't too expensive. Taco Bell worked fine for us.
However, yesterday, I had to take my mother do the doctor. He told her to exercise by standing and sitting, standing and sitting, standing and sitting. She hasn't done that at all. She also insists that she's always okay, but she's not. She has Asperger's and a neurological degeneration. She spends money that she doesn't have and she expects me or Briana to always be able to bail her out of debt. We can't do this because we are paying bills and household expenses!
I wish I could afford to put her in a nursing home, but I can't afford that! It's $5,000 a month to be able to put somebody in a nursing home! If she manages to live for 50 more years, that's THREE MILLION DOLLARS.
Is the bathroom covered in shit normal? Yes, it is! It may not be daily, but it's constant. She doesn't cleaned up after herself. She has the toilet covered in shit. She has the floor covered in shit. She has the walls covered in shit. She has the sink full of shit. It is literally EVERYWHERE. Being that she has to come through my room to get to the bathroom, it's all over my room, too!
There are myriad advantages for her to be in the room I'm currently in right now. However, there are also myriad advantages for me to be in the room where she is. She wants to know if I have an ulterior motive to being in that room. It is good for me, but the thing is, if she can't be in a nursing home, it is best for her to be in the room that is currently mine.
In that room, I also need to get a direct line to the Internet, get the electrical outlet grounded, and get another direct cable line. Other than that, the house needs to be cleaned and then some heavy furniture needs to be moved.
My sister knows that at times she is stressful. It doesn't help in the times that she is causing a lot of stress, but it helps to have her know it and that she knows that she needs to be responsible.
My mother, however, only yells at me. Yesterday, she yelled that she wasn't a baby or wasn't an infant. Truthfully, she is a baby or an infant.
She always falls. Every day, she falls. She can't get up for an hour after she falls. It takes her over an hour just to get to the bathroom from where she currently has her room. (We REALLY need to get our rooms switched!). Then, we need to get grab bars put on the walls so she can hold them when she's going from her new room to the bathroom.
However, what I need first is help to get our rooms clean. I know people can't do things at the drop of a hat. I know that they need to get things organized. I'm not expecting people to do things immediately or know what to do immediately.
All I know is that this is really difficult.
Oh, and why is S for shit? That's how my day started. Yep, my mother gets up and she is icky and dirty. At least she wears the store brand depends. However, even that doesn't keep her clean! She had shit ALL OVER THE PLACE. I am not joking about this at all.
I couldn't even use the front bathroom (the bathroom) and had to use the back bathroom (the backthroom). It was so disgusting that I could not even breathe when I went near the door. Briana was good today and cleaned, but I knew why she was feeling so bad.
While we did need some groceries, I said I would take her to a place to eat that wasn't too expensive. Taco Bell worked fine for us.
However, yesterday, I had to take my mother do the doctor. He told her to exercise by standing and sitting, standing and sitting, standing and sitting. She hasn't done that at all. She also insists that she's always okay, but she's not. She has Asperger's and a neurological degeneration. She spends money that she doesn't have and she expects me or Briana to always be able to bail her out of debt. We can't do this because we are paying bills and household expenses!
I wish I could afford to put her in a nursing home, but I can't afford that! It's $5,000 a month to be able to put somebody in a nursing home! If she manages to live for 50 more years, that's THREE MILLION DOLLARS.
Is the bathroom covered in shit normal? Yes, it is! It may not be daily, but it's constant. She doesn't cleaned up after herself. She has the toilet covered in shit. She has the floor covered in shit. She has the walls covered in shit. She has the sink full of shit. It is literally EVERYWHERE. Being that she has to come through my room to get to the bathroom, it's all over my room, too!
There are myriad advantages for her to be in the room I'm currently in right now. However, there are also myriad advantages for me to be in the room where she is. She wants to know if I have an ulterior motive to being in that room. It is good for me, but the thing is, if she can't be in a nursing home, it is best for her to be in the room that is currently mine.
In that room, I also need to get a direct line to the Internet, get the electrical outlet grounded, and get another direct cable line. Other than that, the house needs to be cleaned and then some heavy furniture needs to be moved.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
R is for Responsibility
I am honestly tired of having to be responsible for everybody and everything in this house. My mom and my sister act like just because they are giving money to household bills, that makes the responsible. It doesn't. After all, the way they get money is from SSI. They don't work to earn it. They sit on their butts and don't have to do a thing.
What do they do when it comes to trash? The simple thing, you'd think, would be to throw it away in a garbage can. Do they ever do this? No, they don't. Instead, they leave it on the floor and throw it all over the place. It is on desks and tables and chairs and the couch.
They don't even put their dirty laundry in the bathroom. I have used my own money to go buy them hampers and they don't use them! I am really tired of finding their dirty laundry all over the floors of this house.
Then, when it comes to feminine sanitary items (maxi pads and depends), they also don't throw those away. Those are disgusting and all over the floor. I can't think of a day I haven't come across one and had to put it in trash.
My mom and sister are idiots when it comes to the drain blocker to block hair from going in the drain. They complain that it takes too long to drain the sink or the tub. They take the drain blocker out from the drain and then the hair is in the water and goes in the drain! They then blame me for the hair in the drain! It needs to stay in the drain and be removed after the water drains. It then needs to be pulled straight up and the hair needs to be thrown away.
Why can't they ever be clean? Why can't they clean up after themselves?
As a creative person, I don't mind a little bit of clutter. I like a house to look like somebody lives in it. However, how they keep the house is WAY TOO DIRTY. It is like living with two hoarders! How can I possibly even open the doors to the entrances of the house?
My mom and I really need to switch rooms, too. She needs to be MUCH CLOSER to the bathroom. We also need our plumbing fixed because of the toilets. It seems if the toilet from the front bathroom is flushed, it backs up to the back bathroom (which Briana decided should be called the "backthroom.")
I know part of it is the Asperger's that they have, but it's still very bad.
My mom also has some type of neurological degeneration and then she also has very low blood pressure. When she's dizzy, she won't get up and walk, so her muscles have definitely atrophied. She is so weak that she takes a half hour just to get to the bathroom from where is room is right now.
I also have to keep track of all three of our finances since they have no idea how to take care of money!
Here are some articles about Asperger's:
A Mind Like a ViewMaster: Understanding How People with Asperger's Think
Jenny McCarthy, Holly Robinson Peete, and My Experience with Asperger's
Interview with Derek Bartholomaus, Creater of Jenny McCarthy Body Count
What do they do when it comes to trash? The simple thing, you'd think, would be to throw it away in a garbage can. Do they ever do this? No, they don't. Instead, they leave it on the floor and throw it all over the place. It is on desks and tables and chairs and the couch.
They don't even put their dirty laundry in the bathroom. I have used my own money to go buy them hampers and they don't use them! I am really tired of finding their dirty laundry all over the floors of this house.
Then, when it comes to feminine sanitary items (maxi pads and depends), they also don't throw those away. Those are disgusting and all over the floor. I can't think of a day I haven't come across one and had to put it in trash.
My mom and sister are idiots when it comes to the drain blocker to block hair from going in the drain. They complain that it takes too long to drain the sink or the tub. They take the drain blocker out from the drain and then the hair is in the water and goes in the drain! They then blame me for the hair in the drain! It needs to stay in the drain and be removed after the water drains. It then needs to be pulled straight up and the hair needs to be thrown away.
Why can't they ever be clean? Why can't they clean up after themselves?
As a creative person, I don't mind a little bit of clutter. I like a house to look like somebody lives in it. However, how they keep the house is WAY TOO DIRTY. It is like living with two hoarders! How can I possibly even open the doors to the entrances of the house?
My mom and I really need to switch rooms, too. She needs to be MUCH CLOSER to the bathroom. We also need our plumbing fixed because of the toilets. It seems if the toilet from the front bathroom is flushed, it backs up to the back bathroom (which Briana decided should be called the "backthroom.")
I know part of it is the Asperger's that they have, but it's still very bad.
My mom also has some type of neurological degeneration and then she also has very low blood pressure. When she's dizzy, she won't get up and walk, so her muscles have definitely atrophied. She is so weak that she takes a half hour just to get to the bathroom from where is room is right now.
I also have to keep track of all three of our finances since they have no idea how to take care of money!
Here are some articles about Asperger's:
A Mind Like a ViewMaster: Understanding How People with Asperger's Think
Jenny McCarthy, Holly Robinson Peete, and My Experience with Asperger's
Interview with Derek Bartholomaus, Creater of Jenny McCarthy Body Count
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Q is for Quiz Bowl
When I was in high school, I was on the quiz bowl team. I loved being on the team. There were all kinds of trivia questions asked. Some had to do with things we learned in school and others were completely random. I found that I was good to questions from literature and from the Bible. Sometimes, I had no idea how I knew the answers to questions.
I can remember that the first question I ever answered in a quiz bowl tournament was the name of the RCA dog. If you are wondering what it is, the name is Nipper. The little one that added a few years is named Chipper. I remember this by remembering the phrase "a chip off the old block."
If my college would have had a quiz bowl team or a trivia bowl team, I would've joined. However, the college didn't have one. Trivia is something that I love.
I wish dictionaries would add the definition of trivia that it's taken to be "facts." Most still call it "unimportant fact" as relating to "trivial." This hasn't been true for many years. I think the common use of the word "trivia" has been around since I was born.
It seems that I don't have the phrase origin of "chip off the old block," but I do have reviews of different types of chips. Here are a few of those.
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