Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

I love my fur babies, I really do. They bring me joy, frustration and eat me out of house and home and I wouldn't have it any other way. But there is a downside to having them. In November, the 21st to be exact, I lost my beloved Australian Shepherd, Draco. He had arthritis all up and down his spine with the exception of about four inches of clear spine. The arthritis was so bad that it was literally twisting the spurs of the spine itself into the spinal cord, which caused paralysis. There was nothing that we could do to save him and on his 11th birthday, he crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. That had to be one of the toughest days that we have had as a family in a very long time. Since then there have been days that I have told him to come on so we could go "night-night", wanted to stick my head out of the back door to tell him to be quiet because it was too early/late to bark. In the grocery store more than once I have gone to the dog food isle specifically to pick up...

Sometimes I just have to shake my head. Let me start with the fact that I knew  when I went to bed that it was going to be a tough night. I had the shoulders starting to tweak and tighten up, then my neck decided that the shoulders shouldn't do this alone. **sigh** Anyway, my family and I have been watching the Star Trek TNG series and we got to the one with some sort of bug that invades the person and takes over that person's personality. So, somehow this manages to get into my dream state. Let's see...the dream incorporated someones pregnancy, a rescued pit bull puppy that was abused; some basketball player and his family; a singer who is famous, but I have no idea who she was; a stiff back; a movie marquis and a clogged pore that when you squeeze it a blue worm came out of it. Yay. At any rate, last night was a little restless for me. I didn't have a really good nights sleep. I didn't toss and turn because my back was so stiff, my hips hurt and my right arm a...

I got a phone call this morning from a good friend of mine. She had a call from a friend of hers who is pregnant. She just got the news that there's a 95% probability that the baby that she's carrying had Down Syndrome. My friend called to see if I would talk to this young woman. Absolutely! So, I called and spoke with this young mother who is dealing with the uncertainty of what she is about to experience. She spoke of the lifespan of her unborn daughter; does she have to have a c-section or can she give birth normally. What is she to expect? So, I started to tell her the story of my Mouse, Andrea. My pregnancy with Andrea was textbook. There wasn't a pregnancy symptom that I didn't have. I gained weight when I was supposed to; I had morning sickness when I was supposed to, everything was normal, there was zero reason to believe that there was even a little issue. All I gained was 21 pounds, nothing indicated problems. I had an ultrasound because the technology was...

OK, I have to admit it....I'm a bit of a Trekkie. I love The Next Generation, have actually attended a Trek Convention ( I know, right?), and am currently going through the first season via Netflix. If I had known that Netflix was this cool, I would have dropped my movie channels a long time ago! Lol! Anyway, Netflix is my new favorite channel because I can get my fill of Star Trek TNG, Voyager and Deep Space Nine any time I want. The original Star Trek is too hokey...the aliens look more like the monsters from Japanese movies than they do from something produced in a Hollywood studio. As for Enterprise, I have to get over Scott Bakula being the Captain of the Enterprise and not from Quantum Leap and  predating William Shatner (supposedly) as Kirk. Hard to wrap my brain around the hokey from the original coming after the cool of Enterprise. Seems more like a step through a worm hole or something. So, Chris, Andrea and I are watching through the series...we figure it will take us...

I've noticed something about my family line, especially the female side of it. We like our hair messed with. I don't understand that at all, but I have to tell you, that is probably the most relaxing thing for me. If I had the money to do it, I would go to the salon every day just to have my hair washed, the back of my neck massaged and my hair styled. Everyday!!  Personally, I think I might be just a little weird. Just ask my BFF or my youngest daughter, they would be the first to volunteer any weird information just to back up the claim. Anyway, I love to have my hair brushed, and Andrea loves brushing it. When I'm having a bad fibro day, the brush usually comes out and she's brushing it the wrong way or in my eyes or adding some strange looking barrette to it. The fastest way for me to lower my blood pressure is to have her brush my hair. Sometimes its my idea, but she's got pretty good instinct and usually can tell without me saying anything that the hurting...

The Elephant Rhyme It was six men of Indostan; To learning much inclined, Who went to see the Elephant; (Though all of them were blind), That each by observation; Might satisfy his mind.  The First approached the Elephant, And happening to fall Against his broad and sturdy side, At once began to bawl: “God bless me! but the Elephant Is very like a wall!” The Second, feeling of the tusk, Cried, “Ho! what have we here So very round and smooth and sharp? To me ’tis mighty clear This wonder of an Elephant Is very like a spear!” The Third approached the animal, And happening to take The squirming trunk within his hands, Thus boldly up and spake: “I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant Is very like a snake!” The Fourth reached out an eager hand, And felt about the knee. “What most this wondrous beast is like Is mighty plain,” quoth he; “ ‘Tis clear enough the Elephant Is very like a tree!” The Fifth, who chanced ...

Just for fun and to distract me from the fibro pains that are bugging the living tar out of me at the moment, I thought I would post this excerpt of a piece from a writer who is struggling with the writing part. Enjoy. Wha Happen??           It had been a couple of months since we brought Fuzzball home that I realized that I hadn’t seen Miss Lillian lately. Perhaps, I figured, that I was finally settling into the routine of having to step over a furry body that was parked in the middle of where I was walking; or working around having to fight for a stream of water in the sink. The only time that this wasn’t a problem was when I was washing dishes. Fuzzball decided one day to assist me with this task since it probably wasn’t being done properly. The first time that a bubble went up his nose, he looked at me as if to say, ‘you’re on your own, slave,’ and rather rapidly scooted off of the sink.       ...

Do you ever wonder which one you're doing on any particular day? I'd like to think that I soar like an eagle every day, but in reality, I'm walking like a turkey most all of the time. Sure, I get some air time every once in a while, but mostly, yeah, walking like and with the turkeys. I remember an old saying "It's hard to soar like an eagle when the turkeys get you down", and another version says "It's hard to soar like an eagle when you're surrounded by turkeys". Now, we can interpret this in several ways, one way is pretty obvious. The turkeys that most people believe they are surrounded by are the people who hold them back from their hopes, and their dreams. They believe that if they can just break free of the turkeys they would be rich, famous, good-looking looking, or whatever floats their boat. But that's only one version of the turkeys that seem to get us down. If we look around us, the 'turkeys' that are there are pov...

Have you ever had a song so stuck in your head that no matter what you do you can't get it out? Happened to me this morning. I was reading a devotional this morning from www.GodSpeaks.com   and they were talking about Ezekiel's dry bones. That got me to thinking about all of the songs that get stuck in your head. Some are with fair warning, most are not. They're like fingernails on a chalkboard; they raise the hair on the back of your neck, make your skin crawl and some could even say that they make yours ears bleed. Of course, I've never had my ears bleed, but at those particular moments when a song that I absolutely despise comes into hearing range, it makes me wish that I had a head cold and couldn't hear anything. Yes, there are songs out there that I despise that much. Its not that they're bad songs, I'm sure that they have been written well, marketed superbly and sung like a Nightingale, I just can not stand them. Case in point. When I was a junior ...

Did you ever wake up and just know....just know  that it was going to be one of those days? Today was just one of those days, you know? OK, enough of the fun with the word know , at least for now. Today is the day after my birthday, which, I might add was pretty much a super fabulous kind of day. Well, except for Andrea going on about it being my birthday to the entire world not to mention the entire Outback Restaurant that she and my Hubby had taken me to for my birthday dinner. I mean, she totally blindsided me. We were ordering dinner when she wanted to "ask me a question", OK, I'll bite. When I asked her what she needed, because I thought she was going to ask if she could have something off of the menu, she sweetly turned to the waitress and announced to the whole restaurant  that it was my birthday. Weasel. Needless to say, I was embarrassed by the clapping and happy birthday song and the restaurant clapping and saying happy birthday. Yay, me. Anyway, today is a ...

Actually, it's my birthday today and a dear friend of mine, Candi's birthday. I have to admit, I was a little hesitant getting out of bed this morning, Andrea has been ramping up to go nuts with the "happy birthdays" for a solid week! My Andrea, who has Down Syndrome, supplies days with never a dull moment in them...sometimes I wish she would! =o) Most days its coloring, watching t.v., playing on the Wii, things like that. In addition, she adds in the constant commentary that is similar to having the radio or television on for background noise; its there, it makes me realize that there are others in my little world and I am usually quite capable of ignoring it when necessary. I have learned, though, that when you totally ignore and are suddenly  face to face with a question that was asked and she is now asking for an answer, you have a couple of choices. You, A) get angry for being in your face and bugging you for an answer; B) You take a chance and say yes (though th...

Hi there! My name is Lois and I am a mom to two beautiful young women and Grandma to one and a half granddaughters. My oldest, Andrea, has Down Syndrome and is home with me and my hubby; my youngest, Beth, is in Okinawa with her jewel Khloe, her hubby who is a marine sergeant and is expecting her second in just a few weeks, a little girl they will call Devynn. This will be a mish-mash of subjects, as the need arises which will also include some reviews of products as they are available; advice for issues that may come up in your day to day lives and a shoulder to cry on when you need it. There will be blogs about my life with an entire family of cats whose mama is a Snowshoe Siamese named Gir and I will also be writing about my new path called Fibromyalgia which has come into my life within the last year and a half; my struggles, frustrations and triumphs. I suppose one could almost call this an online diary of sorts. =o))  Through it all I just want you to know that God is...