30 posts tagged “mom”

My mommy posted in her LJ and her VOX...
Her blood work is in and it seems to answer why her MRI was abnormal.  And it's not MS nor is it Sarcoidosis! 

It's Pernicious Anemia so she gets to get B-12 injections.  Still gotta say that sounds better than MS or Sarcoid so I'm calling this good news :)

My mom (her Vox here or LJ here) took part in Collage Mania (her suns are on page 15 but are claimed already).  Had I realized this earlier I'd have posted earlier but I'm *cough* stealing her infor about it so you guys know about it in case interested.  It's going right now! 235 collages are available today for a minimum donation of $80 to the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For A Cause. If that is too rich for your wallet, the ones remaining tomorrow go for $40 each. Help FFAC and Virginia Spiegel meet and exceed her goal of raising $30,000 for the American Cancer Society and add to the more that $150,000 already donated.

Also, I haven't really talked about it here, because I've primarily been using it on other blogs, but I joined SocialSpark (a blog for money site).  You know, pick an opportunity you're interesting in and qualified for, write a post, get paid.   And yeah, it works, I made a little money last month.  Well it's a little different than some sites like that, in that it's also a community and has some blog back opportunities.  I of course had to check the charity channel.  And found a woman who now blogs about her daughter that was recently diagnosed with MS.  Selected Visions, reminds me of my mom shortly after we found out we found I'd had it with her posts like the one about Vitamin D in MS.  Of course my poor mom then had to counter-research Vitamin D with Sarcoid too.  But I know there's more than a few with MS who read this on the LJ crosspost, so if you have any kind words you can offer her or just want to add another MS blogger to your feeds, go check her out.

Has anyone seen the movie The Darjeeling Limited?  I'd never heard of it but  now whenever we go to places like Best Buy it's the only movie that seems to jump out at me, it ends up in recommendations for me on various sites, etc.  I think I'm meant to see it but haven't really heard a review from anyone I know.  Hmm.. Suppose I'll have to check it out someday, the little I know of it seems like a me kind of movie I think.

Also since I wanted to make sure my mommy person would want what I had planned for her as a Mother's Day gift before buying it and therefore spoiled it for her already I can post it here, it's been ordered, she's getting a Genius MousePen 8X6 Graphic Tablet.  I should have just ordered it and surprised her, heh.  But ugh, wanted to be sure it wouldn't just end up on a pile of her craft stuff unused etc.  She's been drawing sun faces with a mouse, drawing with a mouse sucks. 

And while looking around Amazon (I was good, I only ordered mom's present, and added a few things to my wishlist), I think I found a  me kind of movie Brian would approve of too,  Cashback  -- how could he not like a movie with lots of naked chicks, yet the plot sounds like my kind of thing.

Before the w00t... well a partial w00t first I suppose.  I went to dentist this morning.  They gave me a new temp dental crown.  I asked them what to do if this one breaks or falls off as my perm isn't in until a week from tomorrow.  They said they didn't think this one will.  Bets? :P   It does seem like they shaved this one down a little so it doesn't easily touch the tooth below it, hopefully that means in sleep hard to grind it / loosen it / break it.  We'll see.  They said if it breaks / falls off come back, when I said that has to be around Brian's work schedule as I don't drive they did say try to get it on myself but still try to get in, but still we don't think this one will have that prob, etc.  Brian noticed it does look different and it does feel flatter and as I said, doesn't easily touch other tooth, they angled it a little so only a tiny piece touches so we'll see if that helps.  Still.. my hopes aren't high, but we'll see :P  I kept the broken one and now have denture paste to seal it back into place just in case. And I slept some last night, Brian wondered if I fell asleep too soon, not letting cement dry enough last time.

Now the real w00t!  My sister was stuck on $175 on her MS walk pledges forever with a $500 goal.  I suspect she was bummed.  She lowered her goal to $300 then I think raised it to $400.  At the last minute mom's quilt art group came through and she's at $485.  Brian's donating today so she'll be over her original $500 goal.  Keegan's original goal was $500, he reached it, raised his to $700 and is now at $700.  This was Karina's comment on my MySpace today:

"I am $15 away from achieving VIP status! I hope I make it!!! I will truly be able to sport the VIP title, i wont just be a legend in my own mind!!! Keegan has a shot at a $150 target gift card... he would love that right by his bday!"

I really am proud of them both.  This was Keegan's idea.  A 6 year old (he'll be 7 next week) who decided a charity walk was a good idea and who got his mom excited.  Karina's excited about it.  I really am proud of them both.  How many kids Keegan's age say let's go do this charity event?  And for those of you who have been around long enough to know Karina's recent past, be honest, a few years ago who would have thought she'd be doing this well?

You can still donate to Keegan or donate to Karina if you'd like.  Mom says they can accept until the 21st.  In here LJ post here she's given another option.  If you've seen her sunfaces / art, she'll be trying to (time willing) post some art in her LJ next week.  Sales will be paid through Paypal so she can use that money to donate all money earned to their final total.

Ok as much as I'd love to paint my own messenger bag for my art supplies or build my own bag, the truth is I can't really justify spending that much on a bag now.  I still need fillings we can't do because we can't afford them.  So buying Brian's bday present or a book or two is one thing... but spending that kind of money on my biggest shopping addiction would be BAD, heh.  So would anyone use a 20% off discount at Timbuk2.com?  First person who really wants it and contacts me can have it, so please be serious, would hate to see it go to waste (it's valid until May 30th).

In other news, my dentist didn't return my call today (I thought they were closed Monday, it's Tuesday they're closed), so I'm gonna assume my temp cap the way iit is = ok.  I made the mistake of passing out instead of falling asleep though so it fell out again (didn't break any further this time at least).  I won't be doing that again, would hate to lose it. 

Re-watched the last Smallville as I didn't really pay attention to it very well when it was on.  Was better when I really paid attention the second time around.

There's still a couple of days left to vote in the banner contest (voting goes through the 11th).  I'm done spamming but if  you still wanted to vote on any of me and mom's banners my list of them is here.

My mom had quite the adventure getting stuck in her van with a flat this weekend on a back road in Oregon City (I think, too lazy to look it up).  Eeek.  Her cell wasn't getting reception so she had to sleep there til someone came along the next day.  Tonight I asked her if I need to get her a GPS chip implanted into her :P

Keegan is still getting MS walk pledges, my sister is stuck at $175... She need donations.  Mom said she must secretly be in counseling as she walked up and hugged her today and asked how she could help her more or something... Big changed for those of you who know her history.  I'm proud of her, she's come a long way in the last few years.

That is all.

I got Brian a My Name is Earl "I've done some bad things" shirt.  It was on clearance back hmm I think at Christmas of last year.  It's become his lucky shirt.  If he wears it to work when things aren't going so well  they suddenly turn around.  It works so well that he decided to wear it to work yesterday because they were facing working Saturday and Sunday and the shirt had come up in chat the day before.  Things went so well yesterday they MIGHT not have to work Saturday.  He'll know tonight.  But his whole team wants a shirt that no longer is for sale and Brian wants extras so he can wear it more often.  I can't even find it on eBay and he seriously wants it.  I told him take a picture and make an iron on :P

In other news, my host switched my site to a newer server so I can redo my site using wordpress as I <3 wordpress.  Somehow I managed to import most of my Gallery from my old server to a new server, parts of it are broken but that's ok, it was a different version of Gallery and not installed on that server so I didn't think it'd work at all, the fact that it imported anything seemed like a miracle.

Sent mom a moo gift certificate as I've won a free mini card holder (don't know what kind, they're so new they're not on their site yet), 15% off mini cards, free note cards, and free greeting cards in their online egg hunt (which is over today, two weeks of daily web egg searching ending, boo!).  She wanted mini cards, so I figured with all I won I'd spend some money on their site and give her the note cards too as I surely don't need note cards and greeting cards both, but the greeting cards will be cool, I'll have to make some art before the coupon expires  10 greeting cards using my own pics... hmm Brian's bday is in May, will have to create something for him.

I get to stay up to wait for my shots to be delivered and my head is still not great.  Week long headaches are not my friend.  I make rambling posts when I am in pain.  I also noticed about 20 times I typed the wrong word and later fixed it so if this post is still a mess, I blame pain alien.

Sooo... mom apparently tricked them into telling her over the phone what they're looking at based on her MRI results as she can't really afford a doctor visit co-pay at the moment.  She's a copycat!  They suspect MS based on her MRI and want her to have  spinal MRI based on what they found on the two head MRIs.  She doesn't  want to go have it done as she knows what an MS diagnosis means: the shots (which she'd likely decide against),  medications for symptoms (which she can get without a diagnosis), and a diagnosis aka a pre-existing condition making her un-insurable.  Her line of work means she could lose her insurance at any time and then be re-insured, etc.  Pre-existing condition then is bad.  So now she knows she might have MS but can't really find out or it could be more trouble for her than the diagnosis itself could be.  Welcome to the American health care system.  Don't get sick my friends and if your body betrays you through no fault of your own, good friggin luck.  We're now at three in my family with neurological issues.  Eeek.  Me with definite MS, mom probably, uncle with unknown causes.  If someone in your family shows up with these probs pray you're adopted :P

Pain is not my friend.  The good news is that pain alien mostly isn't in my head, the bad news is that he's in most every other inch of my body.  OUCHIE! 

Also mom heard from her doctor, all they'd tell her over the phone without an appointment was that it was inconclusive.  Which leads us to believe they're leaning towards MS.  I THINK maybe stroke damage is more easy to identify on an MRI than MS, which a lot of places won't diagnose without a spinal tap and/or a history or MRIs to review.  But we won't know for sure until mom can see the doctor and she's not in the mood to go see the doctor to find out "we don't know" so I told her find out if they can at least start prescribing you meds for your symptoms as she'll go in if they'll HELP her :P  Guess I see her point, why pay $20 to hear we don't know when she already heard that and can't afford more tests at the moment, but still they know what they can rule out and what to consider, she should at least hear THAT... They did tell her she won't be dropping dead, so that's good :)

Grrrrr! 
The land around the Hollywood sign is for sale.  I sincerely hope that someone buys it to preserve it.  I know it's a lot of money, but there is a lot of money in California.  Surely someone would want to buy it and keep it free of homes.  Some places shouldn't be built on.  Parks.  Forests.  As a Californian, I believe that the Hollywood sign is one of those places you just don't violate with houses.

Art failure but not: