Thankful Mom of Five, Adoptive Mom of Two Ukrainian Beauties and Bereaved Mom

       Today I am so thankful that Olivia really likes her job in the salon.  Olivia has finally found a direction towards a career.  In this salon, clients are given a robe to wear as soon as they go in the salon and they are given, a glass of wine or a cup of coffee or a soda. I am so happy that she is enjoying her job.  Next week she starts Cosmetology School, I hope that she has nice people in her class. She comes out of the salon with a smile on her face, so far,  that is! I hope the enjoyment continues!        Today I am also thankful for my Physical Therapist.  I had to get PT for my shoulder and for my sciatica.   My PT was a nice looking, friendly,  Asian young man.  I never saw an Asian man with tattoos but he had several and had several piercings in both ears. He told me that he also worked weekends at a hospital to make more money.  I thought he was sav...

        Today I am so thankful for my bereaved parent nighttime support group.  The second meeting of the month is usually sparsely attended. There were only 7 of us there, and 4 of those were 2 couples.  We are all good friends. It is easy to talk to people who "get it."  They get the grief, they get the pain, they get the tiredness, they get the plodding through life, they get the missing your child so much you want to scream, they get the never getting over it, and they get the need to be with others who understand the need to be together.  We can talk about our deceased child without making others uncomfortable or trying to change the subject. My best friend Priscilla was there and I am always so happy to be with her. We just chatted instead of having a real meeting where we discuss topics. Carol and her husband Joe started this local group of Bereaved Parents USA. Below is a small bit about BPUSA from their ...

        Today I am thankful for my skin care doctor.  I had to go for a full body scan and she is completely professional.  She makes me feel at ease even with her checking every inch of my body. I am good to go for now. They give you a plastic and paper sheet to cover you.  It barely fit around my body, just barely with nothing to spare!! Too little a cover and too much girl to cover! Once you are a cancer patient, you have to get checked by every type of doctor. I am glad that some people are so knowledgeable in their fields.  When i am with some of my doctors, I think, gee, they must have so much knowledge in their heads. And they have to analyze situations based on symptoms and medical tests. That is a huge responsibility!          .When I was a kid, my mother never took me to the doctors, never.  She would even fill out my forms and sign a name.  She was a nurse so s...

        Today I am thankful for the new music minister at our church. This was the first Sunday that he performed.  He plays guitar and has a fabulous voice. I really like him a lot.  Dan and I have been going to the 8:05 service for the past few months.  We had planned to go to the 8:05 this morning but I forgot to set my alarm.  The next service is 9:30. We got to church about 9:25 and the parking lot was mobbed, it is never that bad even on holidays.  I had to park illegally and I hate to do that but there were no open spaces and all the extra cars also parked illegally.  The church was packed when we walked in at 9:28 and the service had already started. We had to sit in the last pew and we have a really huge church.  As the service progressed, I realized that something was off. We had a guest speaker and he was really good, but he wasn't a preacher, just a speaker. I realized that it was the week of COSMOS and...

        Today I am thankful for perennial plants.  Once you plant them, they bloom every year.  I love my gardens to have color.  Annuals are much more colorful and I usually plant them in pots.  This year I may just buy them potted already! Perennials are like old friends, they stick around and keep coming back!  All of my perennials are starting to grow!  I was afraid that some of them would die because the weather has been so cold lately. Since my shoulder injury, I really can't garden much right now.  I love to see the small spots of color coming up.  The rabbits eat some of my perennials but not much I can do about it. I use to do all my own trimming of bushes but this year I am paying the landscapers to do it. I especially love my purple butterfly bushes. I think I will try to catch some of the butterflies and release them at the cemetery.   My hyacinths have bloomed in the front of my h...

                     Today I am thankful that I got to spend time with Olya.  I really miss Olya.  She is just always so calm and peaceful. When Olya was home for her Spring break, she asked Dan or I to drive her to her friends.  Dan likes to drive her because he likes to spend time with her.  I was wondering why she didn't ask to drive herself.  Today she told us that Olivia told her that the two of them couldn't use our cars because of Olivia's car accident.  The rule was for Olivia, not for Olya.   And we still had been allowing Olivia to use our cars locally, especially for job interviews and signing up for Beauty School.         It was a beautiful day, the weather was great!  Olya called Dan and invited him to come up to her college campus because the weather was going to be in the eighties!...

        Today I am thankful that Olivia loved her job at the salon. She said she had to work hard and was tired but really liked working there.  She gets free haircuts and waxing and only has to pay $7 for coloring.  We don't want her to color her hair, it is such a beautiful, warm,  natural brown color. She finally has her hair with no color in it and it is long enough, I don't want her coloring it but she is almost 21 so she can do whatever she wants to with her hair.  The owners are two males and they also work in the salon.  One of them brings his pug bulldog and Olivia loved having the dog around.  Dan drove her to work this morning and bought her breakfast at WAWA. She was hungry at lunch time and I was having lunch out with my friend, Deb.  Deb lost her son a few years ago. She is such a nice person and we like to get together and chat. My car was in the shop because I noticed o...