An Old Friend Is New Again!

Don't you hate it when you lose touch with someone you really like, really connect with? And you have no idea why you lost touch to begin with? I have a friend like that; her name is Jenny. And she found me on Facebook yesterday! I have been searching Facebook for her for years; I have no idea why she didn't pop up in any of my search results.

*shakes fist in anger at Facebook*

I first met Jenny back in the late 80's or early 90's; not sure exactly when, but it was when I went to live with my mom for a year. We hit it off immediately, sharing a love for Anne of Green Gables. She lived in Northwest Washington while I lived in Portland, OR. She got married and eventually moved to Montana. Eventually, I also moved to Montana, but we were still a couple of hours by car away from each other; we got together every once in a while. Then I moved farther east in Montana, and we were more like 5-6 hours by car from each other. Then we just kinda lost touch somehow.

We are both very excited about reconnecting. We both are crafty people; she makes the most ADORABLE coats for babies/toddlers/little kids you have ever seen, and I don't understand why she isn't a millionaire by now. And now, come to find out, she is a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I remembered that she always had a love for rubber stamps, etc., many years ago. She has a group of six other gals (some that I knew back when I was living with Mom) that all swap cards with each other once a month, and they have a newsletter and everything. Jenny has asked me to join, and I'm going to do it! My time is limited for crafting, but I think I can manage to make seven cards in a month. Woo hoo! I'm so excited! I'll be sure to show you what I have made.

~oOo~

In my last post, I told you that we finally discovered why Les has been so anemic. Sis and I (well, Les too) learned something quite interesting. He is not bleeding out from anywhere, he is in early stage four kidney failure (stage five is dialysis).

Everyone's red blood cells eventually die off and the body just makes new ones. The signal for your body to do this comes from your kidneys. They send out a hormone that tells the bone marrow to kick out some more red blood cells; however, when you are in kidney failure, this hormone does not get released, and you don't make new cells. Interesting, no? I had no idea the kidneys talked to the bone marrow! Our bodies are truly amazing things. Anywho, they took him off of his main diabetic medication - because, surprise surprise, it is bad for your kidneys. So then his blood sugar levels skyrocketed - which is, surprise not so surprising, bad for your kidneys. Now he is on insulin and is tolerating it really well. His blood sugar is completely normal using the smallest dose, and his energy is coming back to him. He works out in the garden, does more stuff around the house, and doesn't sleep all day. Unfortunately, he has a tendency to want to over do it, and winds up face down in the lawn (as happened during my writing of my last post). Sis and I are working with him on that! I keep telling him that if he falls outside on a Friday while I am at work (40 miles away) and Sis is in Portland, the dogs will probably start to eat him before I get home. At first he thought I was joking, but then I assured him I was not as we have mostly Dachshunds and they will eat their own poop, so eating him probably wouldn't cause any issues for them.

Right now our goal is to keep him from reaching stage five, and not being eaten by Dachsunds.

~oOo~

On Monday night, Mom and I arrived at her place to find a message on her answering machine from my Uncle Bobby. It was one of those, "Hey, call me. We need to talk." Ominous. So Mom worried about it for about 20 minutes until I told her to JUST CALL HIM FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. It turns out that my cousin Sarah, who had just turned 35 on Thursday, passed away on Friday. She had several medical issues, not all of which are known to me, and has been on oxygen for a while. Apparently, her heart just gave out on her. Her boyfriend could not wake her up, called 911, but she was already gone. It's heartbreaking. She was such a sweet girl, but could never seem to catch a break. I am glad that she had someone to share her life with, and that loved her along with her problems. I'm sad that she is gone, and I wish I had been a better cousin to her. Our family is close, yet us cousins are not close. Sarah's brother lives about 20 minutes away from my mom (and Sarah lived even closer), but we never get together. I guess with the invention of social media, people sometimes feel like they are "getting together" when we look at the family pictures they post, or "like" their status, and whatnot. But you know, it isn't the same. Pick up the phone and CALL each other, hear their voice, you know? I'm going to try very hard to be better about that. Her memorial is on Sunday, and I cannot wait to hug her mother. She was my uncle's...erm...last wife (he was married many times) and she was also my favorite. My uncle passed away 11 years ago, but our whole family still included her in everything because she didn't stop being a part of our family when my uncle died. She still has our love and support, especially now. A few years ago, she remarried and moved to Canada. Her husband will be joining her down in Portland tomorrow, and I can't wait to meet him. I wish it was under different circumstances.

Well, I guess I had better git. Sis just called me to say she has a raspberry cobbler in the oven, and when it comes out her fabulous chicken enchiladas are going in! Woo hoo!

TTFN.