January 21, 2009

• Ribs, Obama, Chicken, Foster Care

  First of all, to all of you who prayed for me, THANK YOU!  Yesterday was one of the most painful days, AND the fact I had not slept well for two nights probably made me short on patience with my pain.  By yesterday evening, I was crying.  If you’ve never had this happen, I can tell you it is VERY painful.  When I worked in an E.R. we saw people who thought they were having a heart attack. I’ve had this problem (weak upper body & trunk muscles) of easily rotating my ribs since childhood.  If I turn to get a bar of soap in the shower, reach down to tie my shoe, etc. – oops! there they go!  I’m familiar with it, so it doesn’t scare me and, usually, it happens to my lower ribs – not the ones around my heart.  But I must have rotated about 4 ribs this time.  One popped back in place yesterday afternoon (I could feel the pop in my back – no pain – just a pop) and two more while I was sleeping last night.  Last night, I cried out to God begging Him to take the pain away, then fell into a deep sleep early and all night long.  The girls and Jesse prayed for me too and today it’s SO MUCH better.  I can only feel one rib bulging in my sternum and the pain is manageable.  AND, I can take deep breaths and cough without much pain.

  Annamarie says she still hurts.  But, she slept through the night, she isn’t crying, AND she is eating soft foods much better than she could have the other day.  She had carrots and potatoes mashed together last night and is eating oatmeal right now.  I figure she will see a turning point tomorrow.

  Didn’t do much around here, yesterday.  I almost finished Rissy’s laundry.  I had to quit on the whites, figuring she wasn’t going anywhere, it didn’t matter!  I had to wash the blankets Sushi wet.  She’s getting better, but still has accidents.  She knows commands but is slow in learning her name.  Maybe the fact I forget “Sushi” and sometimes call her “Sasha” has something to do with her retention problem!

  We watched the inaugural festivity (events before and a few minutes after).  I wanted the girls to see it and remember it – just like I remember when President Kennedy was shot (and the others) and when the first man walked on the moon.  I told them, by the time they get to high school, all of this stuff would be in history books and the pictures they would see in their books would be of things they watched happen live.  I didn’t care to hear about Michelle Obama’s fashion being analyzed, and turned the TV off shortly after he said, “I do!”  We mainly talked about Martin Luther King (the day before) and the signficance of Obama being electred AND the fact he was sworn in on Lincoln’s Bible.

  I stayed down most of the afternoon reading.  Almost dozed (or maybe did for 10 minutes here and there) a couple of times.  Like I said, the pain was severe.  Around 4:30pm, I started to prepare dinner.  I remembered an easy way to make a one pan meal and showed Rissy how.  Peel carrots and potatoes, cut them in large chunks, put carrots on the bottom of the pan and potatoes on top, and then top with pieces of chicken (mine is boneless chicken breasts – if you used chicken with bones, you have to put IT on the bottom), a can of chicken broth, seasonings, and a bit of water.  Heat to boiling, then turn down burner so it’s a slow simmering.  Cook for 1 1/2 – 2 hours.  It’s just like Crock Pot food, but takes much less time.  Since I had nothing planned, I needed something that took much less time.

  The caseworker from Child Welfare called back yesterday and told me it would be a week, at least, before he could go through my file and told me how “these things take time” and “just because we fostered once doesn’t mean we could jump back in and do it again . . .” (rolling my eyes).  I wasn’t pleased.  I called the caseworker who came out to our house in 2004 and asked for help.  She pulled us up on her computer and said our fingerprints were missing from the file (rolling eyes) and that appeared to be all they needed.  I checked today and our fingerprints were completed on July 20th BEFORE we went to classes!  I asked her if she could PLEASE be our caseworker rather than this other guy.  She talked to her supervisor and called me back.  She said she is the one who assigns cases to workers and she would assign our case to herself.  Yay!  She and I (in the short time we talked 4 years ago) have a nice relationship and we’re not just a case number on a file jacket to her.  She will look for our fingerprint reports.

  Things To Do Today:
  *  As little as possible (LOL!!!)
  *  Luci’s laundry (Annamarie is in no shape to turn her clothes right side out and sort them for me)
  *  Add some things to my appointment book (dental was rescheduled, Annamarie’s new return appointment to MD)
  *  I think teaching is a wash for this week except for Rissy’s spelling (we HAVE to do that)
  *  Dinner?????  I’ll come up with something – probably pull ground beef and make a soup tonight

  Be Blessed  ~

  I’ve been on here for hours typing and being interrupted.  Not gonna proof it, today.  You get what you get!
  

  • 11:40 am
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