I lost a follower

Blogger has a feature in which you can become a follower of my blog.

I don't know when, but I lost a follower.

Maybe that person got sick of Experiencing life Kerrie Meyer style.

I can totally see why.

I'm sick of Experience life Kerrie Meyer style, too.

Another.....

Video blog

Thanks for asking

Many of you have asked about Mom's appointment. She had the MRI and then we met with the doctor Monday afternoon. He said the MRI showed what he expected of chronic MS. Her brain and spinal cord are shrinking. The reason she has so much problems with her legs is because of the shrinkage of her spinal cord.

At this time she doesn't have any active lesions, but she does have scar tissue from the one that's caused her memory problem. I wasn't sure how long a lesion was active so I asked him. He said they are active anywhere from a week to a month. Sometimes the brain recovers from them and you'd never know they were there. Other times they cause scar tissue and cause long term damage.

He switched some of her medications around and also put her on Aricept, which is a drug for Alzheimers. I really hope it works. He said that the dementia will just get worse, but hopefully the Aricept will slow it down.

They give my mom a test each time she's there. They ask her such questions as the county she's in, the day of the week, the date - those type of things. Last time she answered the day wrong, but the girl didn't call her on it. She's not good at lists either. They are hard for her and rile her up. This time she did ok with the list. She got all the things right. The hard part for her, and for me watching, was the date. She had no idea what day it was. She said "I didn't watch TV last night, so I don't know what day it is." She didn't want to guess either. They asked her the date. It made me so sad to see her struggle. Then she said "Well, I know it's February. Maybe I can figure it out. Ok, I know that Valentine's Day is February 15th and it was on a Thursday." I closed my eyes and wished I was anywhere but there. She'd just gotten the day of the week wrong and even the littlest amount of stress makes her memory worse.

When the nurse left the room, Mom said "I think I did better on that test then the last time we were here." She was incorrect. She did better the last time. She also told the nurse that she didn't seem to forget things as much as she was in the past. Incorrect again.

It was hard. I just don't understand why MS wasn't enough. Why dementia too? I just don't get it. Don't get me wrong; I'm glad she's alive and we don't have to visit her in a cemetery, but for crying out loud!

Anyway, that's how her appointment went. I know things could be worse - I know that. She's only 63 years old and sometimes can't remember not what she ate for lunch - but IF she ate lunch.

Thanks for asking - I sincerely appreciate it.

Fancy was her name

Yesterday when I was getting Claire ready to go to Tracy's, she wanted to wear a skirt. I told her she'd have to wear some tights because it was cold out. I said "How about you wear this dress?" It was her Christmas dress that she never got to wear because she was sick. She was b*e*y*o*n*d excited. She said "I've GOT to wear this dress. Tracy will think I'm BEAUTIFUL!" Sure enough - she did. ;)

Video blog

25 things

Since I'm such a facebook junkie, I'll post my 25 things on here too. Not all of you are able to see my facebook account.

Here are 25 things you may or may not know about me:
1. I'm scared of the dark.

2. I hate it when I open too many windows on the computer and they stack themselves. If I wanted them stacked - I would have stacked them.

3. If there are two light switches to a room and the lights are off, I need *both* switches to be down.

4. If I mow the grass and see one piece of grass sticking up that I missed, I'll cut across the whole lawn to cut it. It reminds me of hair and the need to be even.

5. I can't say the word caterpillar. I say it cal-a-pitter.

6. I've been in quite a few car accidents, but never when I was driving.

7. I hate it when someone asks me where I'm from. I don't have an answer. I've lived more years in SD, but somehow I still feel like I'm *from* Texas.

8. PS: I was born in Texas and lived there for 13 years.

9. My first friend in Milbank was Kellie Schneider.

10. I left Texas as a popular girl with many friends. When I got to Milbank, people called me a Whore. One boy pushed me down in the mud and two others spit in my face. Fun times.

11. I can't roll my r's - no matter how hard I try.

12. I will always regret and never forget May 24, 1992. (If you don't understand this, please don't ask me.)

13. The only time I feel confident is when I'm at work.

14. I wish I could have one more child. I can't without in-vitro.

15. I'm obsessed with food in my teeth. I carry a mirror to check my teeth after I eat. Thank you braces.

16. I swore I was heading back to Texas after high school. I've moved many places since then - but never OUT of South Dakota.

17. My favorite eye color is brown.

18. I love Keith Urban - in case you didn't know. I've been to 3 of his concerts. June will make 4.

19. I'm only 5'1" in real life, but in my brain I'm 6 foot tall and bullet proof.

20. If I could choose a different profession, I would like to be a nurse. One catch, I don't really like the sight of blood.

21. Many of my family members didn't think I would amount to much as an adult. It feel great to have proved them wrong.

22. I think my house might be haunted. Two of my three kids have seen or talked to 'someone'. I catch 'things' in my peripheral vision often.

23. Growing up I loved Dr. Pepper. Now I can't stand the taste of it. Ick!

24. When I was in the 8th grade my math teacher looked up my dress. I didn't know until the boy behind me tapped me on the shoulder and told me. Thank you Cory Folk.

25. I wish I knew who I was. When I think I have it figured out, I'm proven wrong.

He loves me!

How nice of my boyfriend to do this for me. Watch it very close.

What is it exactly?

I know this happens to a lot of hair people (I'm not even sure what to call myself anymore, Amber), but people tell me things that I'm not sure they'd even tell their best friend. I feel like I give advice all day long. I'm not saying it's all good, I'm just saying that I do it all day long.

I've had a client call my husband corrupt without even knowing that he was my husband. She's mad at him for putting her husband in prison. I try to understand her, but no matter if it was a family business, selling drugs out of your house is illegal. That doesn't make my husband corrupt. Strange.

I had a guy tell me that he was arrested for DUI and plead with the cop to let him go. After all, he was only a block and a half away from his house. I totally understood - there should be a part in that law that reads 'you're only guilty if you are farther than a 3 block radius from your home'. Kinda like tag. If you're 3 blocks or closer to your house - you're on base. Are ya KIDDIN' me? Thankfully the cop that busted him wasn't Justin. He was embarrassed to learn that I had been a dispatcher. He said "Here I am bashing the cops while you were a dispatcher". He clearly didn't know the half of it.

People tell me strange stuff. I listen. I have no filter, so I tell them what I think - good, bad, or indifferent. I think some people might not even care for my mad hair cutting skills (ha), they just want me to talk to them.

Sometimes I swear I'm being punk'ed. For real. One lady told me that she was married to a dwarf and I'm positive I could count her teeth on both hands. I had one lady who has zero teeth in her mouth who's maybe in her mid 40's tell me about her husband who's 74 years old. She's just mad at the world because she's sick of taking care of him. Um - did she not know that life would come to this when she married him? Did she think that she would time warp and somehow become the same age as him? Strange!

In turn, I think my definition of nosey is different than most others. If you sit in my chair and I think something is wrong with you, I'm going to ask you what's wrong and if there is anything I can do to help. I ask my clients a million questions to get to know them better. Most of them are shocked that I remember 90% of it at their next visit - even if it has been months prior. Is it being nosey? In my opinion, no. I'm just interested. If that's what you consider nosey - that's fine.

Anyway, I just thing it's interesting. Do you tell your hair person your life story too?

Video Blog - YAY!

She loves him THIS! much

This and that - take 6

I guess I took a couple of weeks off from blogging. I just don't have the time that I used to to sit and actually type out what's in my brain. I blog in my head, but when I sit down I either don't feel like it or by that time - what I've blogged about in my head no longer matters. Here are some things that you've missed.

Nathan, Jack and I all got some sort of sinus infection. Jack, of coarse, needed some help from a nebulizer to get better. We ran out of the medicine and Nathan was concerned. I had to run to the salon one night and on my way out Justin asked if I could buy him some toothpaste while I was out. Nathan ran up to me and said "Mom, where are you going to get Dad's toothpaste?" "Lewis" I answered. He said "Good. While you're there could you get Jack some nebulizer medicine? He really needs it." I seriously just about cried. "I can't just buy it, sweetie. The doctor has to write it down on a piece of paper before they'll give it to me" I told him. Obviously disappointed, he hung his head and said "Shoot. He really needs that." I promised to call the doctor and get him more. That boy is something else. He has a real - true - heart of gold.

Justin has tried to get Jack nebs at our doctors office here before, but they won't give them to him without hearing him wheeze. I really do understand that they can't just hand out medications when they don't see the symptoms, but can't they at least listen to the parent and go off of what they say? Apparently not at our clinic.

Last Tuesday I took Jack to see my favorite doctor, Dr. Henry, in Sioux Falls. He walked in and asked what Jack needed to be seen for. I told him that Jack needed more nebulizers to help get over his illness. We talked about the possibility, again, that he might have asthma. He wanted to know if I THOUGHT (hmmm - a doctor wanted to know what a mother thought? That's why I love him...) Jack needed a neb every day to help him breath. I told him that I didn't think that was the case for now, but he for sure needs a neb every time he gets sick. Not a problem. He wrote me a prescription for a year of nebs and told me to call him if I need him. Dr. Henry - I heart you! Jack's doing much better and that's what's important.

On Saturday night, Justin and I went out for supper with one of Justin's coworkers to celebrate his birthday. We've never been out with this couple before. Keep in mind I worked with this person for 8 years myself, so we've been family friends for a while. We had so much fun. I laughed and laughed and laughed. We're going to challenge them in Wii bowling - mostly so I can watch Rob be a dork. =)

Yesterday one of Natey's little buddies came to the door to see if he could come to his house for a Super Bowl party. It was really sweet, but Natey already had plans. He'd only been counting the days/hours/minutes for about a week. I thought it was sweet that this little boy wanted to invite Natey, but I also found it strange that he waited until 5 hours before the game started. ;)

Anyway, we went to Tracy's for the Super Bowl party and had a good time. There were babies everywhere and I was in heaven. A couple there had twins. How nice of them to have two to spread the love. One was dressed in a Bronco onesie and the other a Vikings onesie. I held baby Bronco and that's what I called her. They were PRECIOUS! The kids had A! BLAST!

So - that's what's been going on at our house.