He’s Always Dreaming

My wonderful husband, Norm, is always dreaming about ways that we can add on to or improve our home. Sometimes he even draws up plans and shows them to me. Now, granted he’s not an architect, but he does a pretty good job. I’ve been thinking lately that we need a storage unit for the backyard. One of those metal buildings would probably do just fine for us. I bet it would even withstand a monsoon during the summer. I’ll have to mention it to my husband and see what he thinks. It never hurts to give him something else to dream about.

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A Trip to Paris

A few days ago we celebrated 13 years of marriage! Norm took me to Paris for lunch. Well, not really, but it sure seems like we went to Paris. We visited Au Petit Four which is a French cafe and bakery newly located in Old Town Scottsdale. We happen to discover it last week while making a quick trip to the bank, which is right across the street. I told Norm that’s where I wanted to go for our anniversary.

It was a delightful lunch and it felt like we were in Paris because the owners and staff were speaking to each other in French and French music played the whole time we were there. Norm had a quiche and a field greens salad and I had a Panini and a simple pasta salad. All of it was quite tasty and fresh made. Then we splurged and had some kind of chocolate ganache dessert from the bakery. I don’t remember what it was called, but it was rich and tasty!

Check them out yourself!

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Can you keep a secret?

My wonderful husband and I rescued an abandoned shopping cart.  We were driving through part of town that’s rather industrial looking with lots of metal buildings around.  We go there as our secret way to get to In & Out Burger.  One day we noticed a couple of those grocery store type shopping carts along the side of the road.  I suggested to Norm that it would be handy to have one of those around the house so we could use it to bring all the bags of groceries in when we get home from the store.  We both laughed about it and went on.  Then, Norm was driving along the same area by himself a few weeks later and saw the same abandoned shopping carts.  So he brought one home.  It doesn’t have any identification as to which store it came from; it was just sitting out there all by itself exposed to the elements.  Now it has a good home and we make good use of it.  I hope we don’t get in trouble!

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Merry Christmas

Okay, so Christmas was a few days ago. We had a very quiet Christmas this year – just me and Norm. Neither of us bothered to buy a gift for the other one because we’re both too lazy to go shopping. We went to church in the morning and then had a late lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s with Norm’s brother. The rest of the day we watched movies on TV. It was nice not to be in the hospital this year for Christmas.

I missed my family and playing games. Oh well, maybe next year?

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Living with Limitations

Karen here, finally. With all the posts he’s written lately, I’m sure some of you thought Norm had taken over my blog. When I’m not feeling quite up to it, or busy with other tasks that take my full energy, I let Norm write as many blogs as he wants. He went crazy this time, but I don’t mind.

Most readers of my blog know that I am a lifelong member of the physically challenged community. I’ve never walked and I’ve had to learn to live with many physical limitations. Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2 is a progressive condition and the older I get the more limitations I must learn to live with. I fight it though as long as I can because I value my freedom. However, I’m also learning with age – a.k.a. wisdom – that some new limitations are better to be dealt with as fast as possible.

Here’s an example from my own life. Almost a year ago I ended up with a kidney stone that had to be removed surgically. I was in the hospital over Christmas and it took me a good two months to fully recover from the ordeal. A couple of months before the kidney stone cropped up I had an episode of dehydration and an unknown urinary tract infection that put me in the hospital for a couple of days. That event was actually a warning sign that I did not give enough attention to at the time.

For a long time I have unconsciously and sometimes consciously limited my fluid intake because I need help going to the bathroom. During the day my husband can assist me with this personal chore. If I knew he was going to be around I would intake as much fluids as I wanted, but when we went out to places where I thought I could not use the restroom or if I knew he was going to be gone for a few hours, I would not drink anything or very little.

At night I would stop drinking about three hours before going to bed so that I could make it through the night without having to go to the bathroom. For many years this had worked for me but in the last couple of years it had become a problem. For probably about six months to a year before my kidney stone episode I would feel the need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but I would hold it until my husband woke up in the morning or until it was urgent, whichever came first.

The combination of limiting my fluid intake and holding my urine for many hours created the perfect conditions for dehydration, urinary tract infection and kidney stone. After my health crisis I realized I needed to make some changes in my life: increasing my fluid intake and choosing to wear adult diapers during the night. It’s been almost a year now and I must say that wearing adult diapers has made my life a lot less limited.

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Too Funny Not to Share

I’ve been talking for months to Norm about getting a Nook, but we’ve always been short of funds, so it just gets put on the back burner.  Earlier today Norm was helping me with something and he said, “where are we going to get your nookie?”  I wasn’t quite sure what to say as it dawned on me what he actually said, even though I knew what he really meant.  Before I could think of something funny, it dawned on him how it sounded and he began to giggle.  I started giggling and it was a few minutes before either one of us could talk.

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