Good mornings

The day isn't officially started until you get your power chair stuck and have to call the neighbors. LOL
(It's not my first time of learning where NOT to drive)

(

Our apple tree just bloomed out!)

So, it's insanely warm out and Cody and I headed out to enjoy the beautiful morning and investigate our place waking up from winter.  

(The lilacs)

There was a tractor planting across the road from us (hugely fascinating) and it spooked up a couple deer, so I drove Cody and myself over to watch if they ran across the road; not paying much attention to my terrain - obviously.  I wedged my chair into a small gully/ditch.  Worked to get it pushed out, but nothing was moving.  Desperate, I called the neighbor who usually helps me out but they weren't home.  Called my closest neighbor and caught him just as he was heading out to do his planting!  Whoo-hoo - he got me loose and Cody and I proceeded on our morning.  Poor man came with his pick-up and chains expecting to pull a car out of a ditch!!  What else would someone be talking about when they asked for help because they were stuck?

We then moved to play time and running barefooted (which seems to be a new experience every time) and our fluffy kitty came and sat with Cody and tickled his arm.

The horses tried to stare me down to turn them out to graze again as they've gotten to go out most every day since the grass has come in well.  Sorry guys, with 90+ degrees in the forecast I want you close to your water.

We swung on the swing by the pasture and the brother to Tipper, or BFF (big fluffy furball) played with Cody when he wasn't sitting by me.

Then Cody tried the climbing wall again.  (Momma's going to have to come rescue him if he ever makes it up!)

And as our finish before escaping the growing heat and heading in for lunch, Cody put dandelions between his toes.  *insert my raised eyebrow and 'my boy's such a goof' here*  Oh, and mowing, I can't leave off, "I gonna mow - OKAY"

I love our start to the day!

I'm B A cK

Life's been busy here, and I'll get to that at a time I don't have to see a Dr. in a couple hours, but I'm mad.  Fed Up, tired of 'how things are.

Just read another blog/network - Job Creators Network

From their most recent post:

Welfare is Rotten in the State of Denmark: Lessons for Americans

The number of persons on Social Security disability has shot up from 10 million to 14 million in just the last four years. To put those four million additional people in perspective: Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in America, has just 2.2 million people on the payroll. The dramatic spike in disability claims has led to suspicions that the economy – rather than a real debilitating condition – is often the cause of claims.

^ Got my blood boiling... and I'll go back to their page to tell THEM why.  Getting on disability is not easy and you need medical proof of ' a real debilitating condition'.  The reason for the increase, in my opinion, is that employers see no value to work with someone who has acquired an illness or disability.  Take my case:  my last job payed me $1000 in moving expenses, trained me, and whatever other costs come with a new employee.  Then, six months after I start, when I'm diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and go to them with ideas that will keep me productive and functional for the longest amount of time, they put me in a 'temporary part time position.  I HAD started using a cane then, because I saw the benefit of me not falling and walking like a drunk, and them (trying not to break anything that may have been in our small settlement), an organization serving youth, said my handicap 'didn't fit their image'... didn't want a lead figure driving motorized aids to get places or (my words) appearing weak.  Hmph.  Why not teach children that people with disabilities are people too.  Did they offer me another position that wouldn't be so 'high profile' (or whatever they didn't want seen)?  No.  Same company just fired another employee for a disabling injury.

On the other hand, and I'm sure part of why I got disability, I applied for my unemployment 'two jobs a week for 18 months' and never got hired.  A few interviews, one job offer that was nights and with potentially violent patients that I couldn't take, but otherwise nothing.  But, I was 28 and walking into the interviews I did get with a cane.  You also don't get many interviews when your last job held on to you for about a year and a half.

All past 'stuff' aside, I do believe 'things happen for a reason'... or, really, that good can come out of anything - if you let it. My life wouldn't be the way it is now if all that hadn't happened.

I do wish that employers would find value in employees that may need to do things a little differently - altered, and work with them.

The snow storm... that wasn't?

The End

(Putting it at the top for those who already read this yesterday)

We finally did get some snow and had a good ground cover by 1.

And winding up with what we figure was about 2 inches here.

When we got up this morning, it looked like about 4 inches had fallen during our 'super storm'.

Granted, IF we hadn't had the dry air masses and the snow had been able to fall like it had south of us in Kansas, we would have been buried!

(Winter Storm Q)

Q?  Really?!  NEVER remember storms being named when I was a kid - except hurricanes!  Back home in South Dakota, we just called this 'Winter' - from about October to May, simply winter with about a heavy snow once a month and referring to them by their year and month.  Or, simply, 'You know, that thunder-snow storm that buried everyone my freshman year of college in '98'

****************************************************************************

So Nebraska was shutting down last night for a predicted major snow storm (up to 16" in the south east corner I live in).

And many schools, including my daughter's, were shut down already last night.  I get e-mail alerts from her school and received this at 8:44 pm:

(my daughter's) School will be closed on Thursday due to predicted severe winter weather.

And we woke up to this new forecast of up to 16"...

...and this view out our front door at 8:00 am!

My son also gets daycare called off when schools are - so both kids have a snowday.

With not much for snow, when they woke up and started watching TV at 8 - notice the brown, not white, ground out the window. lol

At least the snow started coming in a blustery, small snow flake kind of way around 9 and had accumulated a little when I took this picture at 10 am.

Perhaps it's my growing up in South Dakota that makes me so cynical to Nebraska's approach to snow storms and their approach to weather vs SD's?

(off the Sioux Falls, SD school district site - where I grew up, and the biggest town in SD) 

  "The first and foremost consideration is the safety of students. In recent years, while snow events have not hampered the school calendar, tremendously cold wind chills have. When wind chills approach the point where exposed flesh can freeze in 10 minutes or less [-40 on a calm day, -30 on a windy day], the District will typically call off school.

  When it comes to weather-related delays, early dismissals or cancellations, numerous factors are in play. What time of day will the wind chill be in that dangerous range, and for how long? Will the 12 inches of snow be done falling by 3 a.m. and give city plows enough time to clear main thoroughfares and the streets around schools? What time in the afternoon is the winter storm predicted to hit our area?"

Lincoln, NE, biggest town near me, doesn't even have a policy that I could find!

Perhaps it's the weather man's complete seriousness they take in their guess work.  Totally on board with my riding group's term of Big Fat Lying Weatherman (BFLWM)

 (the site of my group's 'fearless leader' and her blog's first? reference to the BFLWM http://www.horsetrailriders.com/2008/07/big-fat-lying-weatherman-bflwm-strikes.html)

Will update on how much snow we get....

Refusing the chair part II

Not to exciting, but we picked up one of the cheaper ($70) wheeled with a seat walkers from a hardware store last week.  Who would've thought you could pick up walking aids at a hardware store?!

Sit or Stand Behind Rolling Walker

I already have a walker I tried using in the house, but this one is smaller and I can keep it to ONLY use in the house or going to town for appointments, etc.

(my exact walker - store photo)

I used it all day Monday, Thursday, Friday and the weekend last week.  Well, mostly on the weekend.  I started using my chair more this weekend again and am today (Monday).  After sticking with my chair for so much, man does it make a body tired. lol  Oh well, it's all good - only one way to get stronger, and that's to use the muscles!  Darn, I'm tired today, though.  Of course that could be somewhat my nearly 5 mile ride last night too.  And I got nearly a mile of trot work in there too!!  So, using my legs more in general is a good thing.  Just have to be sure to find that fine line between doing just enough and not too much.  For instance; part of why I've stuck with the chair for today is it's laundry day and I'm not about to figure out how to carry a basket on my walker right now.  Also need to get going again on the dresser painting project  and that's up stairs where I'll be caning it.

The (sometimes not so much) joys of country living

Started this a week ago Tuesday, gotta love that I'm busy though! (I think)

 

You always hear about 'the joys of country living'; for me - the open space, having a big garden (this spring? - fingers crossed), watching deer go across your land, coyotes singing at night, being able to ride out for as far as I'd like from my house and living with my horses outside my window.

The thing you don't hear about a lot is the roads, when it snows and rains.  Pure slop!

And then, you get a woman like me, who grew up as a city girl, and when she almost got stuck in their car on the road the night before, she calls the bus company to make sure they know about the roads (which they didn't) - just to warn them, and they choose not to drive the 3/4 of a mile to your place off the pavement.

And you send your daughter, who just got a 'mud day' off of school, out to take pictures for you... because you have MS, and navigating mud and slop is near impossible.

She didn't do too bad capturing the mud bog our road had become, but man, you should have seen the 'rooster tails' coming off my car and I couldn't really go over 30!!

One nice thing was that our usually frequented road (it's busy when people are going to and from work and we seem to be on the main thoroughfare between the two towns we're nearest - hence why our road is so tore up.

THAT all was from amost an inch of rain we had, plus snow melt, and frost coming out - welcome to the country!

What a difference...

... a couple hundred miles... having a chronic illness... one more child... makes.

First, I know, I know, I was going to quit titeling posts and doing them later, but a future post, 'Being sick is expensive' is being written in my head.  Put it here 'cause a lot of the slack on my blogging is due in part to that I hunt and peck to type and had a wpm of 28 6? years ago when I was in vocational rehab.  2nd is, and why there's such a lack of pics on here, is I'm still only get my pics off my old digital camera - at least it's digital and I can upload them lol

As far as 'what a difference a couple hundred miles makes', the above weather map from today shows that.  I grew up in the SE corner of South Dakota (the pointy corner in the blue wind chill advisory), and my journey as brought me to the SE corner of Nebraska (state with the top, NE corner in Nebraska - also labeled like northeast by an NE...?). 

Our, (southeast) NE, 7 day;

'Their', (southeast) SD, 7 day;

My husband's from SD too, but everytime we've discussed moving back, we just can't get past that it's colder and cold longer - maybe someday.

The difference another kid makes is really felt when there's a snow day!  We had almost 6 inches of snow yesterday, January 30th, and it was my 2 year old's regular daycare day of the 3 days a week I got granted so I could fit appointments, housework and rest into my week without having to worry about him - so, I got to deal with the fun of BOTH a 2 yr old and an 11 yr old. *sigh*  Wouldn't be too bad if I had the energy (and creativity) to keep them entertained with projects all day, 'part of the day' only goes so far you know.  Luckily, my sonis easily entertained by the TV (like right now) and even crashed yesterday before lunch!

Problem comes when the 11 year old gets fed up with G movies.  Of course, she started the day off on a bad note yesterday, which was ok because 'Dad' needed help shoveling (in front of our place and the neighbor's). :-)

On the other hand, my son keeps me active during the day and my first child has been a god's send (when she wants to be cooperative) with the ms diagnosis. - why is it usually termed like that?  Probably because once you get diagnosed with ms and are living with it, it's a journey in and of itself... kinda like, 'I have a ms diagosis' = 'I reside in the third dimention of this planet called ms'. hmpf, no.  In reality, it just means 'they' (the medical profession) have barely a clue what ms actually is, not a clue why it does what it does, and therefore throw whatever they can that might treat what they think they know at it.

In parting





  

New Year's resolutions

It's the first of the year and it seems that what happened in 2012 and what people want to happen in 2013 is on everyone's mind.

Yeah, I need to finish telling mine - 1. quit starting posts and leaving them as drafts for a week!  Sorry. Also sorry there's no pics (yet) for this post either... typing isn't quick for me, 28 wpm when I was in Voc. Rehab. trying to find a job after I was dismissed from my job in '07, and trying to make this look pretty, get new pics to use, and type, AND do this and have a 2 yr. old (which means if he's at daycare I'm doing damage contol, resting or RIDING.
So, not in this order for resolutions,
2. quick getting sucked into the Face Book vortex and actually DO something
3. Did 200 miles this year in the Distance Derby race, finishing 42 out of the 46 riders that finished the year of the 72 riders who started this year long virtual, gps horse race of miles, so... I hadn't set a goal at the beginning of last year and got 200, so I'm aiming for 300 this year.
4. Reteach my fingers to play piano (remember the typing thing?).
5. Get a better seat under me riding by being able to do 7 strides posting, 7 standing and 7 sitting by the end of the summer.
6. Get my husband to get riding our 2 green horses more or send them down the rode!  Goodness, they're 6 and 8 and I feel unbalanced and insecure riding them too the point that, especially after my experience with the neighbor's 4wheeler the other day on the 6 yr old, I've decided it's unsafe for me to be on them.

Happy New Year, may it be a good year for everyone!