It's been a while

I haven't posted in 2 1/2 years but I decided I'm going to give it a try again.  Someone said I should start writing about my life and I told her I used to blog and I thought I should document all that I go through since I don't keep a journal.  This will just be a public one.

The last time I posted, I talked about being in a wheelchair and possibly getting a baclofen pump.  Well, I am still in a wheelchair and can only walk a little bit.  I was able to walk around the house without any assistance this time last year, but on January 1st, I fell and broke my left ankle.  I had to have surgery and ended up spending 4 weeks in the hospital between the regular hospital and rehab.  I also had another flare to my right leg that took away all my work and weakened my right leg more.  I'm just now starting to walk a little better but I still have to use the chair in the house.  I'm progressing a little bit each week.

I got a baclofen pump in July 2012.  It has been the best treatment ever.  My spasticity is under control for the most part.  If at any point I have increased spasticity, I just have to go to the doctor and he adjusts the pump dose and then my spasticity is under control again.  IT IS AWESOME!!!  I have to get it refilled every 6 months, which means going to the hospital and having it filled with a needle under x-ray.  The pump battery will last about 7 years then I will have to  have the pump replaced.

I'm not going to update anything else about my MS.  I'll add things about my MS as I post more as time goes on.  There is too much to update in one post.  It will take me hours, plus it will depress me.

Now for the big news of the year.  Rachael is getting married.  She and Zack started dating in March I think.  They got engaged over the 4th of July weekend.  They will be getting married January 9th with a reception on the 10th.  Their wedding will be held in the Texas San Antonio temple.  She is also in her senior year of college and will graduate in May with a bachelors of Fine Arts in Dance.  She plans on getting a job as a professional dancer and teaching on the side.  Zack is currently in school working on some kind of computer degree but is thinking about changing his major to chiropractics.

The boys are doing well.  Andrew is working on his Eagle project now.  He is going to make a Gaga pit at the church in the picnic area in the back.  Andrew learned about this game at scout camp and it is hugely popular among his fellow scouters.  He will have plenty of volunteers to help him if he can ever get it done.  My kids have inherited their fathers procrastination.  There is a video about Gaga in the next post.  Andrew also got his license this year.  That is a huge help to me.

Jeremy is in boy scouts too and he is still in Tae Kwon Do.  He is a purple belt now. He loves it and plans to go all the way and continue with it for the rest of his life.  He is one of the happiest boys I know.  He always has a smile on his face.  He loves everyone and everyone loves him.

Stan is still bishop and he is doing a great job.  He has gotten big time into board games.  Our family room has a big shelf that looks like a shelf in a comic store.  They are a lot of fun though.  Way better than spending the evening watching TV.  I prefer to play the cooperative ones with him.

There is more to me that just my MS, so here is a little about what I have been doing.  I haven't been able to sew as much this year, but I have been doing some.  Still mostly bags.  I have some Christmas tree skirts I started for Christmas last year that I need to finish but I haven't touched them.  I still make one or two things a month.  I've also been called as primary president, so that keeps me a little busier.  We start practicing for the primary program tomorrow.  I had no idea that the presidency had to write the entire program themselves.  That was a lot of work and I'm still nervous about how it's going to turn out.  I hope it's long enough and I hope it flows together and makes sense to the congregation..

My goal is to post every few days during my rest time in the afternoon.  I hope I can do that.  This would be a good way to keep a record of my life.

Update on the Family

It seems like so much changes from month to month with my kids, especially with Rachael.  The only thing that doesn't change with her is she is still dancing.  She isn't dancing as many hours as she was now that she is a full time college student.  She is in a new chapter of her dance career though.  She isn't in VIR this year since that is a high school thing.  At Tapestry, they started a new things this year that is almost VIR, except it is for adults.  It's called Tapestry, Too.  She started that this year.  She was almost guaranteed a spot for that considering Brenna is the director for Tapestry, Too and Brenna has been Rachael's tap teacher for years.  In addition to Tapestry, Too, she is taking some technique classes at Tapestry and a choreography class through ACC as part of her degree plan.  She is also taking 2 other classes at ACC (for those reading this who are not in Austin, ACC stands for Austin Community College), Literature and College Mathematics.  After she finishes these classes, she will only have 1 science class and 1 speech class and all her "basics" will be complete.  She will only have her Major classes left.  She has her acceptance letter to Texas state.  Now, she just has to find out what she needs to do to get into the Dance program, which should be no problem.  We don't see her around the house much these days between school, dance, working, church and her social life.  She's a busy girl.

Andrew is not very busy at all.  The only extra-curricular activity he has right now is Boy Scouts.  The cooking school he was going to shut down in the fall.  They decided to retire and couldn't find anyone to buy it, so they just shut down.  I was disappointed.  I haven't been able to find anything comparable for Andrew to take that works with our schedule and is in south Austin.  He still is interested in cooking.  He doesn't cook much at home though.  I have discovered that Young Chef taught him how to do portions of a recipe, but never really taught him how to follow a recipe from beginning to end and make an entire meal.  He helps me cook a lot, but I have to help him a lot too.  He is now learning how to make more things and he will soon be able to make things on his own.  He still likes to bake a lot.  Given his choice to do anything, he would play video games all day and that is what I want to change more than anything.

Jeremy is still my little handful.  He is so smart and so full of energy.  He loves to play outside with his friends, he LOVES Legos, riding his scooter, jumping on the trampoline, reading, making up stories, creating movies/plays, and playing video games with his brother.  He has an incredible imagination and comes up with great stories.  He really wants to film a movie for cub scouts.  He started Tae Kwon Do in September and he really loves that.  He got his yellow belt right before Christmas.  He is doing great.  We are having a few problems with school work and some behavior.  He is having a lot of trouble dealing with me being in a wheel chair.  I think he is worried sub consciously that I am going to die since his grandma died only a few years after she had to go into a wheel chair.  We took him to a therapist recently and we will see if she can help him work through these problems.  He is such a sweet kid and everyone who meets him loves him.

Stan is still working at Tokyo Electron.  He is doing more woodworking and is geocaching a lot.  He was called to serve as  Bishop of the Austin ward in January, so that is keeping him really, really busy.  He is gone a lot, which is hard on the entire family, but we are blessed by his service.  I'll post another time with all of Stan's wood working things.  He has made some amazing puzzles and toys.  He is going to help my cub scouts make some things in a few weeks.  That should be fun.

Till next time!

Already missed

Well, I was planning on posting at least once a week, but I've already missed.  I have a good reason though.  My monster of a disease, also known as multiple sclerosis, has shown it's ugly head again.  I was really hopeful that the Copaxone I have been switched to would be effective faster than expected, but that is not to be the case.  I am currently having  the worst MS flare I have ever had.  It started 10 days ago.  I woke up with my hip flexors feeling a little weak.  I could still walk normally, but I felt it when I stepped up.  It just seemed to take a little extra effort.  This was the Friday before Easter.  We had a normal Easter weekend, including an Easter egg hunt on Saturday.  Things were still  the same on Monday when I went to physical therapy.  I asked my therapist about it and he assessed my hip strength and he said it was just a little  bit weak.  He gave me soeme exercises to start doing at home.  Tuesday brought more weakness though.  I sent my neuro an email about it and by the time she got back with me, my entire right leg from the hip down was paralyzed.  I can't even take a step on my own now.  I was so not ready for this.  My neuro got me started on IV solumedrol right away.  However, it didn't help at all this time.  I usually get 50% or more of my function back from the IV steroids.  I didn't get anything back this time.  I'm on an oral taper right now and still  no improvement.  I have to go get an MRI tomorrow.  I'm hoping they can find where the problem in on the MRI.  I'm also hoping they can do something about it.  I can take a few steps if I pick up my leg by my pant leg and make it step.  Other wise, I'm stuck in a wheel chair.  I'm grateful that I have access to a handicapped van, wheel chair, walker, etc without having to wait to get all of that stuff.  My mother in law left her handicapped van to us when she passed away.  Stan's grandma has been using it for the past 2 years.  I feel bad we had to take it back from her, but Beth wanted to make sure I had it if I needed it.  I'm trying to cope the best I can, but it has been really hard.  I will be the first to admit that I am scared.  I'm scared I'm going to be in a wheel chair for the rest of my life.  I don't  feel  like I can take care of my family the way I want to either.  I'm glad my kids are older and can help me out around  the house.  I don't want to put extra stress on them.  I'm suppose to be the mom and I'm suppose to take care of them.  They are my life and I love them dearly.


Rachael is getting ready to officially graduate.  She won't have an actual graduation since she is homeschooled, but she will be considered graduated.  She has been taking some classes at ACC for the last 2 years.  She will start college with 26 credit hours.  We went to a local art museum with a beautiful garden a few weeks ago and took some great pictures for her senior pictures.  They turned out so good.  I'm pleased with my work, if I do say so myself.  I"ve been trying to load them onto FB, but I keep getting an error message.  I"m going to try to put them on here now and see if I can get them to load.  My daughter is so beautiful and she is so photogenic.  If she was taller, she would make a great model.  She isn't  interested in modeling though.  She only wants to dance.

Speaking of dance, her very last VIR show is this Saturday.  She has a solo in the show.  I"m really excited to see the show.  I love watching her dance.  If your in Austin and want to see a good show, it is at the Carver at 2pm and 7pm.

Mormon Prom

 This weekend was "Mormon Prom", more formally know as the Priest & Laurel Formal.  Rachael wasn't really sure she wanted to go, but all  of her friends really wanted her to, so she decided to go.  One reason she didn't want to go was because Andy is on his mission.  She didn't really want to go stag, so she asked one of the boys in our ward, Aaron Stoddard, to go with her.  She figured that was pretty safe since he is younger and she wants to wait for Andy anyway.  She didn't want a long, formal prom dress this year.  She did that last year.  She found this fabric at Joann's in the fall and fell in love with it, so she decided to make a wrap dress out of it and wear it to prom.  I think it turned out great.  There was a few frustrations with it, but she still did a great job with it.  I made Aaron a matching tie.  Now that prom is over, he gave the tie back and we are going to send it to Andy so he and Rachael can match when he gets back.  She had a good time at the prom.  She is kinda outgrowing youth dances though.  She usually comes home and says they were lame.  She has gone to a few young single adult dances and she likes them a lot better. The picture below is one of Rachael and her cousin Aashlie.  Aashlie designed her dress and drew it out and her mom made it.  She did a really good job on the dress too.

I wanted to share with everyone the bag that is a Poppy Mom Gifts original.  Rachael gets credit for the design.  She drew it out for me and then I had to figure out how to sew it.  Her original design had 4 sections in the front rather than the 5 I put in this bag.  It was easier to alternate fabrics with an odd number of wedge pieces.  I made this one for my niece, Jessica.  She picked out the main body fabric from my stash and I found a few others that went with them.  I actually used upholstery trim for the strap.  I made one using the same pattern for Rachael, but ended up having to alter the pattern a little bit.  I thought I had taken a picture, but I can't find it right now.  Rachael's used the Indian silky fabrics that are so beautiful and intricate.  The problem was that they are thick and didn't lay flat when I sewed the small strips together.  I had to make the wedge pieces bigger and use only 3 instead of 5.  The Indian fabric has a unique property that it was teal with a gold print on one side but gold with a teal print on the other.  Rachael's bag alternates the teal and the gold, then I used a gold drapery tie for the handle.  I have a pattern with instructions written out.  The next time I make  one, I'm going to take photos of each step so I can put a tutorial on my blog for this bag.  I didn't take a picture of the inside.  It's just lined with a black satiny type fabric.   This one has a pouch style pocket, but Rachael's has a zipper pocket.  I would have preferred to put a zipper in this one but I didn't have any black ones.  This is probably the nicest bag I've made, meaning that it isn't a casual type bag.  It's fancier and can be really fancy depending upon the fabric I use.  Rachael's is really fancy since we used fancy fabric. 

I really need to find the time to start working on more bags for my Etsy store.  I've been working on the quilts for the quilting club and a bag for the YW auction.  I'll put pictures of the bag and quilts on my blog and on my FB when I am done with them.  If anyone in the Austin area wants to come to the YW auction, it will be May 7th.  I know it will be at the Parker Lane chapel, but I don't know the time yet.  I'll post that when I find out.  Everyone have a great week.

Etsy

I have an Etsy store now.  I'm super excited about this.  I started making bags about 6 months ago and I've been hooked on it ever since.  I've made probably 30 bags since I've started.  I've given away lots as gifts.  I've had several people tell me I need to start selling them, so that is what I am doing.  Here is what I have in there right now, and  there are several more things I need to put in there soon.

 The top one is a purse with a magnetic snap and a pouch pocket inside.  The second 2 are little girl's dance bags.  These are the kind of bags Rachael would have loved when she was a little girl.  It's big enough to hold tap shoes and ballet shoes plus a few other small things.  The last one is the Schelpp bag.  I've made lots of these type bags.  Here is the link to my store-   http://www.etsy.com/shop/poppymomgifts?ref=pr_shop  .  My store is called Poppy Mom Gifts.  I do take requests, so feel free to contact me about making a bag.  I also make throw size quilts, but won't be selling those on Etsy.  I make those on an individual request, so if you want a quilt, contact me and we can discuss it.  Feel free to pass this along to all your friends.

Now that the business part of my post is done, onto life.  Life has actually been pretty stressful lately.  My health is just giving me lots of trouble.  In December, I had a really bad MS flare that left my right foot completely paralyzed and my right leg fairly weak.    I was just starting to feel like I had gotten my energy back when I was hit with some really bad migraines that started off with pain behind my right eye.  I dismissed them as just migraines, until my vision started getting blurry in my right eye.  After connecting the dots, I made an appointment with the ophthalmologist to have this evaluated.  I was correct in my assumption; I have optic neuritis.  It is a common problem in MS patients.  This is about the 5th time I have had it.  I elected not to treat this one though.  I saw the neuro the next week and we decided that my current MS management isn't working, so we are going to change things up a bit.  I'm going to stop my weekly Avonex injections and start daily Copaxone injections.  I'm actually looking forward to the change.  The Avonex makes me feel like I have the flu for 24 hours each week.  I won't have those side effects with the Copaxone.  I'm just hoping it works and continues to work for longer that the Avonex did.  There is a new oral medication out now, but I want it to be on the market for longer before I start taking it.  I want to see what kind of side effects show up in real life and if there are any problems with it.

This weekend, we had our packs Pinewood Derby and Blue and Gold banquet.  We had some trouble with Jeremy's car, but it still did well.  The wheels were having trouble staying on the day of the race, but he still got 2nd place over all.  His car looked really cool this year.  I have pictures on my camera, but I haven't downloaded them yet.  I"ll get that done soon.  Jeremy also got his Bear awarded this weekend.  Of my 5 Bears, all but one got his Bear.  The one that didn't started the year late because of sports.  We are working on getting his done by May.  I really have such a great group of Cub Scouts.  They have lots of energy, but I love them.  This coming weekend, a bunch of the scouts are going to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco for a camp out.  Andrew is going to go with them this time.

If you are interested in seeing Rachael dance, and you live in the Austin area, this weekend is your chance.  Rachael has a preview dance show on Saturday at 6:30 at Tapestry.  Admission is free with donations accepted at the door.  There is also a silent auction, in which I have donated several bags, a quilt and Stan has made several wooden puzzles.  I love watching Rachael dance.  I can't believe this is her last year in VIR.  It's not her last year dancing by any means, but no more recitals for us after May.  She is going to be majoring in dance at Texas State, so there will be other shows in her future.  I'm just not ready to have an adult child.  I don't know that you are ever ready.

Everyone have a great weekend!