Everyday Chatting & Waffling {2025} Let's get to know each other!

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I'm sorry to not be able to keep up around here chatting wise, disability steals everything.

Anyway my caregiver/ex/abuser#2 is in the hospital for week two, she is doing better now, but please send prayers and good vibes to me and my dogs that we make it through this, probably last 6 months to a year. Not much is in order (you can not force another adult to handle their own stuff) so im just trying to not panic and stay as calm as i can so i don't get sick too.

so just asking for anything you have, prayers, vibes, positive thoughts it all helps!!
Thanks so much
Me, Shimmer and Chloe
 
AJsRandom said:
Hi everyone! Thanks, Lynnie, for starting the new thread. You are our glue! :)

I am Ane (pronounced like Ann) and am married to Brent. We just celebrated our 30th anniversary in December! :) We live in Illinois, just across the river from St. Louis.

-Our oldest is Zack (28), and he is married to Annette. They have 2 children: Lena, 4, and Adonis, 1. They live in Ohio.
-Our middle child is Nate (26), and he is married to Mariah. They live in Utah.
-Our youngest is Eren (20, non-binary) and they have a serious boyfriend, Michelangelo. They live together in St. Louis and go to Saint Louis University. They are talking marriage, but as Eren is planning on med school, I'm not sure when this will happen.

A few highlights from last year: Zack moved his family from Utah to Ohio. They are now only about 5.5 hours away from us! We've visited them 4 times already. :) We went to Utah in July to celebrate my FIL's 80th birthday and see Nate and Mariah. I started a Master's degree in humanities and will graduate in September 2026 (I think). Zack brought his family here for Thanksgiving and we went there for Christmas.

So for Christmas, we went to Ohio for a week. I had plenty of time with the grandkids, and all 3 of my children were there. It was so special and merited family photos. We also did an adults-only gift exchange (no x-rated gifts, thankfully) and visited some old friends of ours for dinner and games.

For New Years, Brent and I shared some sparkling grape juice and went to bed early. I had a migraine, but we rarely stay up until midnight anymore anyway. New Year's day we had Eren & BF, plus one of their friends over for brunch. Brent made chocolate chip pancakes, with fudge ripple ice cream and chocolate sauce. Mmm!
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Where in OH does Zack's family live? We are in the Akron area.
 
VariaMoon said:
I'm sorry to not be able to keep up around here chatting wise, disability steals everything.

Anyway my caregiver/ex/abuser#2 is in the hospital for week two, she is doing better now, but please send prayers and good vibes to me and my dogs that we make it through this, probably last 6 months to a year. Not much is in order (you can not force another adult to handle their own stuff) so im just trying to not panic and stay as calm as i can so i don't get sick too.

so just asking for anything you have, prayers, vibes, positive thoughts it all helps!!
Thanks so much
Me, Shimmer and Chloe
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May God bless you and your situation. What flavor are your dogs?
 
We live right in the suburbs, but we could see them from our deck! (through the camera, of course... VERY faintly with our eyes) Got some good pix, but not as good as we would had we gone out to the boonies! Some beautiful reds and greens! I was so happy. I'll share one later. Don't have the EHD hooked up here.
 
We totally missed the northern lights. Didn't know it was happening until it was over. :( But I've seen lots of photos, and they're gorgeous!

What's everyone up to this weekend? We're doing the usual shopping, housework, church, and choir (not all that on 1 day, of course). Hubby is making a buffet for our dining room. It'll make it a lot more organized (we have trouble with organization here). Welp, I'm off to watch some mindless TV and work on one of my many Lego sets.

Have a great weekend everyone! <3
 
Hello, my lovely scrapping friends. I know it has been forever since I posted, but I am in the final days before daughter Karen's wedding. Her dress is almost done, just a fitting and hemming. I have to fix a few things on the back, but it looks pretty. I am going to drive up to hers today and fit it one last time. Hopefully it all works out. I will be a lot less stressed.

The weather is very unpredictable. One day it predicts it will be sunny for her wedding, the next day it predicts will be rainy. it is an outdoor wedding and reception, so you can imagine how worried we are. We have ordered rain ponchos, have a pop up for the ceremony and an pop up for the reception, but it will be rough. Karen says it will be lovely no matter what and I can't help but think we can get some lovely pictures in the rain!

I really want to do some scrapping, but I haven't had a minute.
 
Good luck Lynnie! I'm sure everything will be wonderful no matter the weather. One of our dear friends got married several weeks ago. They planned and planned. It was at a stunning venue, complete with a sunflower field and farmland everywhere. Just gorgeous. Several minutes after they began taking pix, HUGE RAINSTORM. Her hair, gown, his bright kelly green (yes green) tux, everything SOAKED! They LAUGHED and took it all in and continued on and got married and his tux was now a DEEP shade of onyx-teal. But the important part was that they're going to live happily ever after. <3<3<3 And those are her words!
 
Thank you so much ladies!! She is doing better and we have hope that she will be out of the ICU soon!!!! Long way to home, but we are on the correct road now!

Just a general warning, her issues right now are not related to her cancer, but up until Thursday they were pushing heavily for me to sign DNR, to move her to hospice, (which would have required taking her off the oxygen for transport, and that would have killed her!!) they were pushing pushing pushing hard for this to be the end, when clearly what she and all of us need is time to actually heal! Just watch your people closely, went to yelp found a TON of one star reviews with same problem, them pushing for person to die!!

I actually had to say "look she is on team LIVE, I am on team live, and I need you guys to be on team live too, because YOU are scaring her"

I expected the hospital people to automatically be on team live, NOT SO!

Traumatizing to say the least!!!! Do not believe everything you hear even from dr's!! And watch your people if they go to hospital!!
 
WOW, Varia! I get it and completely understand, but just WOW.
We almost lost a dear friend during CV due to a similar circumstance. Had his wife not INSISTED that he NOT be put on a ventilator, he would have been gone too! As you say, "Traumatizing to say the least!!!! Do not believe everything you hear even from dr's!! And watch your people if they go to hospital!!"
God Bless you for looking out for your ex. That, in and of itself must be incredibly tough.
 
Carla minicooper452 said:
WOW, Varia! I get it and completely understand, but just WOW.
We almost lost a dear friend during CV due to a similar circumstance. Had his wife not INSISTED that he NOT be put on a ventilator, he would have been gone too! As you say, "Traumatizing to say the least!!!! Do not believe everything you hear even from dr's!! And watch your people if they go to hospital!!"
God Bless you for looking out for your ex. That, in and of itself must be incredibly tough.
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Carla, it is and it inset all at the same time..... I just have it in me, that you do not leave people to die alone, no matter what! She is also the only person on the planet to stand up to my "father" and free me from him, I watched him scream non stop at her for three days! that "she (me) does not have the right to live away from me because im handicapped and its her job!"

If she had not fought him, I would not be alive today, I know that.

After they took out a foot of my intestine, (crohns disease) the surgeon himself came into my room and said "I have never ever seen it that bad, it was like leather, I have no idea why you are alive."

I could not speak it, but I knew then answer immediately, I was not "allowed" to be sick.

Back to Joan, I believe it, they were pushing so hard to vent her, to take her off oxygen and transport which they admitted she probably would not make it through.... i was like WHAT!? they were just overwhelming pushing instead of watching and giving time to to see if she would heal, this is getting INSANE!!!
 
Varia, I'm so glad that you were there to be the advocate for your loved one. It's wild where the family of patients must speak up to the medical professionals to ensure our loved ones get the care they need and deserve. And while it was heartbreaking to hear your story, I'm glad that she also had advocated for YOU when you needed someone to support you and get you what you needed for your survival. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that, and I'm glad you're in a better place now.

Ane, you must have a very talented husband who can just "make" a buffet! Wow. What kind of LEGO sets do you collect? Randy got me a Disney LEGO set that looks like an old time camera reel. Apparently, there's also a separate light kit that you can add on after it's assembled. I've been saving that project for when its bitter cold outside.

Lynnie, always good to hear from you. I hope the wedding dress turns out as you've envisioned it, and I can't wait to see photos of the wedding. How lovely for you to share your amazing talents!

Randy and I have been getting allergy shots. We did the "rush" option where we had three, 4-hour appointments where they shot us with stuff we're allergic to every 30 minutes. Each session, the dosage would be increased. It's amazing how much that takes out of us. Our last round was Friday morning, and I needed to rest for pretty much all the rest of the day. This time around, the injection sites on my arms welted up and itched horribly for about three days. Thank goodness for ice packs! I did make it down to see family on Saturday. It was the first time ALL of my family and my brother's family were able to come together since Christmas of 2023. And we've added a few more family members since that time (15 of us now). I took the youngest nephew's senior photos, then we did my brother's family photos with their kids and grandkids. The weather was just perfect and I'm so happy with how the photos turned out. After sunset, most of us went to the Wichita zoo for their "Wild Lights" display. It was a great way to spend a Saturday.
 
Shana, hubby loves woodworking, and he doesn't get to do it often, but we have storage issues and this "buffet" will help solve them. I collect mostly the botanical sets, but I've also got Starry Night I need to do. I got hubby that Disney camera set a couple of years ago. We just get so busy that we forget they're there! We like to work together, but fall is super busy for us so we haven't gotten to do that for a while. We also have light kits for some of our sets. It's best to put the lights in while you are working on them. If you do it after, you have to partially disassemble the set.

I've had a good, productive Monday. Did some homework, did some cleaning so I could move all the assembled Lego sets upstairs (the grands will be here next week and we want the Legos to stay assembled). I also practiced my clarinet, and now here I am, hungry and waiting for hubby to get home. But it's cool--he made some awesome fish stew last night and we have enough for tonight too. :)
 
Wow, the drive to work this morning felt like navigating through soup as the fog was unbelievably thick! Still, I’m loving these fall temperatures: cool enough to keep the mosquitoes away, yet warm enough that I can skip a coat by afternoon.

Randy started raking leaves from our big oak tree in the front yard, but since the tree still has half its leaves, we’ll be doing round two soon. LOL! I’m still on those allergy shots and keeping tissues close by, but at least it’s a relatively quiet work week with no travel.

I’m hoping to make progress on layouts from our recent Disney trip. So far, I’ve only finished the Star Wars photos. I’m trying to prioritize capturing our favorite memories and stories first. I’m also waiting for my nephew to pick his favorite senior photos so I can finish editing them. He asked me to design his graduation announcement too, and I need to assemble his graduation book.

I started the grad book tradition over 20 years ago with the oldest nephew, gifting each graduate in our family a scrapbook album of photos I’ve taken since their birth. The first few were traditional Creative Memories albums, but the more recent ones have been digital through Shutterfly. Since this is the youngest nephew, I definitely have enough layouts to fill three books! LOL! So now I need to curate everything into one album.

What projects are you all working on? Or what's on your to do list?
 
I know about that Lynnie! Kolten's baby book is about 150 pages, but they lived with us. Caddie's is 52. (but it was an ABC book that included pix up until she was two when she lived with us while AJ was deployed) Hunter's isn't finished yet. He's 11. I have a theme, but AJ was terrible at taking and getting me pictures! argh...... so I'm scrounging still and it's turning into more of an "I love you" album. I might get it done by the time he graduates HS.
 
Happy Friday, all! We are planning to stay home and organize the house this weekend. Here's hoping that hubby stays motivated (as 99% of the piles are his). LOL! Is anyone doing anything fun this weekend?
 
Hi Ladies, I'm doing something fun this weekend! I am in Cincinnati right now. We're going to a tailgate and a college football game tomorrow night, but before that, we're going to the art museum (because it's free). We've been to the awesome zoo/botanical garden here before and we'd go again, but it is expensive, even for veterans! We might try to meet up with our friends from our town who are also here, but who knows. We'll definitely see them at the tailgate/game. We'll drive home Sunday, 'cause we have family coming for Thanksgiving and our house is not ready!
 
Ane, hope you had a great time in Cincinnati! As it's Thanksgiving time, and because I'm of THAT generation... this time of year always reminds me of the WKRP in Cincinnati episodes that included "as God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." LOL!!!! IFYKYK!

We’re heading to a Thanksgiving brunch at my in-laws on Thursday, and Hubby is already stressed. His stepmother invited her side of the family too, and past experience shows the two families don’t mix well. Her side tends to be cliquish and condescending. I’m not bothered, but I hate seeing him worked up, so we’ve planned an escape right after dinner.

My bigger concern is my MIL’s lack of organization. She dreams of Martha Stewart-level gatherings but struggles with time management. In the past, meals have been served 2–3 hours late, and helping her is tricky because she gives no clear direction and gets upset if things aren’t done her way. We’ve offered to keep it simple and bring dishes, but she insists on her vision.

My daughter will go early to help set up, and I’m bringing a pre-made fruit tray (I don’t cook...long story). MIL hinted I should come at 8 a.m., even had FIL call saying he “accidentally” bought strawberries for me to prep. I politely declined; I’m not driving separately at 5 a.m. and reminded him about the fruit tray.

We’ve even offered to host. The last time, we rented a hotel meeting room, catered a full meal, decorated, played music, and had games. It was stress-free and fun. But MIL didn’t like our approach. So we will attend the brunch, make nice with everyone, and then leave. Hubby is currently looking for sales so that we can be booked on a trip over Christmas! LOL! Ah the joys of families during the holidays.
 
Lynnie, congrats on your daughter's wedding! I'm sure it was splendid! Hopefully you can take a nap and rest before Thanksgiving!

I need a nap today. Our power went out around 3 a.m. and all of our battery backups started squealing. Oh my... please pass the coffee!
 
Lynnie, you must be relieved that the wedding is over! When you recover from everything, tell us about it. :)

Shana, I'd join you for that nap if I could. I've been working like mad to beautify the house for the last 2 days. All the kids, grandkids, and the FIL get in tomorrow! :eek: I'm glad I don't have to take a turn driving to the airport until Monday. Oh, and I've got to fit in homework somewhere too, LOL.
 
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