Mama Always ~ L.A. Brown, Author

Like tonight. My mood has been iffy for days, almost like I'm willing someone to challenge me or give me a good reason to lose my composure and break down in tears. Since I've been on the fibromyalgia medicine the instances have been few and far between, but there are still days that totally over-ride it. Today was one of them. It started pretty early...about five hours after I went to bed and six hours after I took my night-time bp meds. I figured that I was pretty safe with the six hours between doses and took my second dose after I brushed my teeth. Yeah, not a really good idea. I felt the drop as I started to lose focus and get dizzy. When I went to take my blood pressure I found that my bp monitor had died. No problem, new batteries, still dead. Peachy. So I decided that one of the things that I needed to do soon is to get a new monitor. Now that I think of it some fourteen hours later, I absolutely forgot. Such is my memory lately. After breakfast with my buddy, Mouse...

..I learned in the last month. The month of May has been, hands down, the most  difficult month that I think that I've ever experienced. Being away from home and hearth, health problems on both sides of the family and that great equalizer, death being a huge part of the month...yeah, I'm over it. The month of May was pretty much the wind down for me and my travelling the world. I was able to stay with my Mom while she had her back surgery and then some of the recovery time, which was a good thing. Dad was able to keep working so he didn't lose any time at all really. I was able to help Mom out with the things that she normally would be able to do for herself, and helped her to keep track of the medication that made her a bit loopy and a tad forgetful. This was a good thing, but a little bit stressful, so bring on a flare up. Nothing to write home about and pretty much controllable with Advil, but flareup nonetheless. The end of April and the beginning of May also brough...

OK, I couldn't come up with anything clever today for my title because everything that came to mind was sound effects! I am absolutely abuzz with anticipation right now, my foot won't stop moving and this is even before one cup of coffee has been even halfway drank. Praise God that I only have my carry-on to pack now because I would probably forget half of what I want to take with me. Part of the problem, though, happens to be a hole in the eaves of my roof. Apparently, I want to think cats and not coons, found their way into my attic last night/this morning and were fighting and running into stuff and making a terrible noise up there. It woke me out of a (finally) sound sleep and I didn't sleep worth a hoot afterwards. I was even in my backyard with a flashlight at 430 this morning looking on the roof hoping that they were there instead of inside. When I walked back into the house, all eight cats were wide-eyed and staring at the access to the attic. Go figure. Chris, of...

I had to smile this morning as I looked outside at the pouring rain. At least I don't have to water today, or tomorrow, or possibly even the next day from the looks of things. Rain now, sends me a mixed bag of emotions. Sometimes I look out and I see a big old Australian Shepherd hunkered down on the couch or some remote corner of the house refusing to step foot outside. That boy was not afraid of anything, except getting his paws wet. We were convinced that he believed for all its worth that he would melt if he were to get his paws wet. On the off chance that it was one of those days that he chose to run from us instead of allowing gravity to assume the full brunt of his 45 pounds and sticking to the floor like Velcro, when he was caught, he would be dragged to the back door and unceremoniously tossed out into the rain where he gingerly tip-toed to the least wet place in the yard, did his business and high-tailed it back to the door and the safety of the step where he balanced him...

So, I'm finding that I'm settling in to the fact that Angel is home where she belongs, but it is kind of quiet around here, with the exception of Gir taking off after one of her babies on occasion. Today, however, was one of those days when everything got to me. I woke up with a full blown migraine and  body aches. So, I had to decide whether I wanted to kill the body aches and deal with the migraine, or kill the migraine and deal with the body aches. I opted for the latter.The ibuprofen will mostly take away the migraine and slightly diminish the body aches. The Vicodin, however, will totally take away the body aches and not touch the migraine. Go figure. So, instead of concocting evil plots in my pounding head to dispose of everything and everyone who is making the noise that makes my head throb even more, I opted to get rid of the headache. The other I deal with on a daily basis to some degree or another and I'm capable of ignoring most of it until it starts to turn in...

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...