Saturday, September 29, 2007

Santa Cruz was beautiful

I cannot believe how incredible my house in Santa Cruz is looking.  Every time I go there I am more amazed at how gorgeous it is.  This time we remember to take pictures.  The apartment upstairs is framed and it looks like they are going to get the roof on before it starts raining.

After we went to Santa Cruz my mom and I went to Holders Country Inn for lunch but we both ended up having breakfast, I think that is my new favorite place for breakfast.  I had a spinach, sour cream, bacon and green onion soufflĂ© with Swedish pancakes.  Of course it was so big I brought half of it home for breakfast tomorrow.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Ladies Support Group

Today was a really good day.  I have always wanted to go to the all women support group at Janie's house but I just never made it.  Janie was my disabled counselor when I went to DeAnza College, she also taught a class on how to higher attendants at the Independent living Center and she came to my house warming party when I moved in here about five years ago.  Jamie is on vacation so my friend Cindy had it at her place.  Cindy lives in a really beautiful disabled complex and she held the support group in the day room.  I have always wanted to live in a place like that because I love talking to and meeting new people.  Everybody there may be feel really comfortable and they had lasagna, a regular salad and a fruit salad and brownies for dessert.

Tomorrow Angie is going to drive us, my mom and I, to Santa Cruz to take pictures of the progress on my new house and to visit with my uncle and aunt.  Charlie is going to meet us there to talk about Windows, this is really coming together very nicely.

The guy came to fix my lift today so my mom came down to meet him and let him in because I was at the support group.  He was getting ready to leave as I drove up so I got to meet him.  He said he's going to be the one to install the new system in my house in Santa Cruz, he was such a sweet guy.

Sunday's usually just my day to stay in bed, watch movies and rest.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Broken lift

After I took a bath this morning my lift broke.  Luckily it's only on the bathroom side and I can still get in and out up my chair on the bedroom side of it.  I called Bill from West Coast Mobility and he's going to send somebody out tomorrow.  Bill lives in Santa Cruz and actually has started kind of a spinal cord injury community and it sounds like everybody is really close, I cannot wait to move up there and be a part of it.  His son Levi, is also a quadriplegic and was a friend of my cousin Patrick, who passed away in 99.

They also have another wheelchair community in Santa Cruz called Shared Adventures and they do a lot of outings and barbecues.  I have a feeling when I moved to Santa Cruz I'm going to be very busy in the a lot of really cool people and I know I'm going to love it.

Today I went to a Halloween store called The Spirit Store.  It is pretty much right across the street and usually I wait until the last minute and all of the good stuff is gone so this time I decided to go early and I got a bunch of really cool stuff.  I'm going to have a Halloween party, this might be the last chance that I have two have a party in this place.  I'm really excited about it.  I am getting recipes online for some really gross food and I'm trying to think of some Halloween games and I even saw a Halloween pinata.

Tomorrow I'm going to a support group that a friend of mine told me about.  She is having it at her place because the lady who usually has it is going out of town so this will be the first time I will attend.  I've been wanting to go for a while so I'm just going to do it, it should be a lot of fun.

They also have one on the last Thursday of every month that I have been wanting to go to and I guess I better start going now before it gets too late.  When I moved to Santa Cruz I'm hoping to start a support group so I would like to experience as many as possible so I will know what to expect.

Supposedly the apartment above the garage garage in Santa Cruz is framed so I'm hoping to go there this weekend and take pictures since I forgot to last time I was there.  It sounds like it's really coming along great.  Charlie really knows his stuff.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Just another week

I cannot believe that it is Friday already, this week really did go by very fast.

The more I go to the support group meetings the more I really enjoy them and I'm hoping it will help because it's really hard for me to talk in front of groups of people.

On Wednesdays my mom and I usually go out to dinner to Holders Country inn but last Wednesday we decided to get the food and bring it back here, pretty much everything they have there is great.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping and probably forgot a bunch of things that I really needed because that's what I usually do.  Today I took Brodie and Tue tue to the lake.  There wasn't a lot of people there and it was really nice to get out and I know Brodie appreciated it.  We ran around the lake twice and played catch and then she just laid underneath the tree and rolled around in the grass.  I found a new place to eat on the way in the food was really good so I think we're going to do that every Friday.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Sick caregivers

There must be something going around.  Thursday and Friday Lulu was sick with the stomach flu and Madonna was sick on Friday so I ended up just staying in bed.  Last week my mom was sick for a couple of days... I hope I don't get it.  I do feel really bad that I didn't get to go to the hospital and visit Dewey but there's always this week.

On Saturday Angie drove my mom and I to Santa Cruz to see that progress on my new place, it is coming along so fast and it looks awesome.  I got to visit for a while with my Uncle Dick, my Aunt Kathy, my cousin Rich, his wife Vanessa, who is pregnant, Alexia, and Seth.  I also got to meet some of my neighbors and they seem like they are all really great people.  The couple that lives across the street from me work in the emergency room at a hospital in Watsonville and have so many resources.  I told them I will need new caregivers and that I would like to start a support group when I moved there and he seemed really anxious to helping in any way.  It sounds like they have a lot of cul-de-sac get-togethers and it just seems like it's going to be so much fun living there.We ended up visiting so much that I did not remember to have the Angie take any pictures but we will be going back in two weeks.

This morning my Sunday morning caregiver, Leticia, called in sick.  It is the year anniversary of her husband's mother passing away so they were going to have mass.  My mom came up and gave me breakfast and coffee and now I'm just relaxing and watching Lifetime Movie Network, they are actually having some movies on this weekend that I have not seen before.

I'm going to be happy to move to Santa Cruz but I'm also going to miss living here.  This is the very first place that I have owned and I have a lot of great memories here and I have made a lot of really good friends in my neighbors.  It's always nice to have people just stop by and visit and that always seems to happen a lot here, I hope it also happens in Santa Cruz.  Rosie, a longtime friend of our family came by today with his sister.  Growing up I remember our families doing a lot together.  Richard and his family came by for a short visit also.  They were down here at Home Depot and had to wait for some paperwork to be done so they stopped by.

Tomorrow is the support group at Valley Medical.  On Saturday when I went to Santa Cruz the wheelchair lock down in my van was not working but we finally figured out how to get me out of it.  Next week I'm going to have somebody take it apart and clean it, I hope that's all it needs.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Dewey

I talked to my ex for about an hour on the telephone and it was actually really nice to catch up on everything that is going on.  Come to find out his friend Dewey is in Kaiser Santa Clara Hospital so I think I'm going to go visit him on Thursday or Friday, it will be really great to see him.  He had surgery on his hand and the nurse said that he was doing pretty good but had a lot of morphine.

I've been kind of grounded for the last couple of days because Brodie is not feeling good and I don't want to take her anywhere until she's feeling better.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

taking out flooring and cabinets

On Saturday I went to Southern Lumber to pick out the kind of wood that I want for the floor and cabinets for my new place.  I picked about four pieces of wood that I liked and Charlie is going to stain them different colors and then I can choose from there.  I think I picked Oak, Mahogany, Hickory and for some reason the other one I can remember right now.  We also went over to lamps plus and I picked out a couple of pendulum lights that I liked for the bar between the kitchen and the living room.

My uncle Dick and Aunt Kathy were working on their duplex on Elm Street so my mom went over to visit and they ended up going to a little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant.  They called me to see if I wanted anything and of course I would never pass up an offer for food... especially when Uncle Dick is buying.  I had chicken tacos and I was really good.  I don't know how he does it for my uncle always seems to find these great little hole in the wall restaurants with awesome food.  I'm really looking forward to moving to Santa Cruz and spending a lot more time with them.  My Uncle Dick LOVES to go to yard sales on the weekends and I'm really looking forward to that also.

My ex called me the other day.  He was going to be in the area visiting a friend who had just lost his brother and he was going to try to stop by to say hello.  Apparently his friend is having a really hard time dealing with it which is very understandable.  Dave had lost his brother several years ago and I remember how hard it was on him so I'm really glad that he could be there with his friend Dewey.  Dewey was always one of my favorites.  He was not only very funny but very kind and just a lot of fun to be around.  Dave told me that he was having a really hard time on Saturday and totaled his car and ended up in the hospital with a crushed hand and a broken shoulder.  I really wish there was something that I could do because Dewey is such a special man.

Monday, September 3, 2007

OK...not sold

Angie drove my mom and I to Santa Cruz on Saturday and we met with Charlie and Terri and my aunt and uncle and checked out the progress on my new place, unbelievable.  The subfloor is in and it's all framed or you can see where each room is and they spray painted the floor so you can see where everything is going to go.  It is a lot bigger than I thought was going to be.  It just keeps getting more and more exciting.

As it turns out the guy could not get funding to buy this place so we're back on the market again, I thought that was too easy.  Today is a holiday so on Tuesday I'm going to run around and pass out more flyers if Pat gets them to me in time.  I'm going to take some more over to Valley Medical Center, Stanford, Transitions and Care Meridian.

Sabina sent me a picture of her new baby, I can't believe she had it already.  I can't wait to meet her and see how big her sister has grown.