Ethan’s Journey

I often compare sitting with Ethan in the hospital for months to being in prison. I was afraid to go anywhere. I was afraid of bringing diseases back to Ethan. I was afraid something was going to happen when I stepped away.  I remember being at the rehab center and Ethan was separated from me doing his therapy and how weird that felt. I remember walking outside and feeling the sunshine on my skin for the first time in months. The positives that came out of a crappy situation are tremendous. I didn’t realize it at the time. But really relishing in the little things we take for granted. Today I saw an adolescent deer grazing on apples under the apple tree in the back yard. I totally enjoyed the moment. These moments are gifts. We just have to look for them and enjoy the moment. My sister in-law had me cracking up this morning. She found that Amazon keeps tabs on your buying history and maps out the personality of your purchases. She shared that her profile says: She prioritizes runni...

​Paul and his crew finished applying a layer of tar to the driveway today. Our house and yard smelled like fresh driveway sealer the entire day. It looks great! Ethan was tied up after work. He asked me if I could pick up his medications for him. I got to say hello to the wonderful pharmacy staff that helps us each month.  It was a quiet evening as Paul was gone and it was just Ethan and myself. I took a walk outside in the dark this evening. It was a dark night with the stars shining. The air was comfortable. So pretty. Moe decided he should sleep in our bed tonight. It doesn’t happen often, but tonight I caved.

​We are in the in between phase of fighting off turning on the heat and freezing to death. The house sat between 62-66 degrees at various times throughout the day. When it started feeling cold I did a couple sets of my physical therapy exercises to warm up. Being stubborn is really stupid and annoying. I only blame myself for this, ha ha. Ethan has plans after work tomorrow and he got the text to pick up his prescriptions about 15 minutes prior to closing. He asked if I could pick up his medications for him. I absolutely can and will. 2 years ago, Ethan would have chosen his plans over the prescriptions and not had the thought to ask for help. This is progress.  We are still seeing progress from him. I love watching him grow. He is setting things up for himself and making things happen. I am sitting back and watching to see, quietly and loudly cheering him on.  This week Ethan had to make a decision about accent color specks for his epoxy floor. He made his decision. He asked ...

​Paul asked me to help him prepare the driveway to be sealed. My assigned task was to trim flowers around an island in the driveway and move rocks (small hand sized rocks) away from the from the edge of the driveway. He totally knows better and knows that I excel at other things. I laughed when he said that was what he needed help with. I gave him the old “we’ll see if I can do that.” I wanted to give him grim hope in case my back was uncooperative. I started working on it after work. I probably completed 85% of the job. FAR more than I ever expected. Physical therapy is such a game changer. I couldn’t have done that two years ago. I stopped when it started to bother me and made myself useful by having dinner ready. Seems like a fair trade. Paul noticed the camper was sitting a bit odd. He found that there was something wrong with a brace blah blah blah and the axel. I wasn’t paying that close attention to the fine details. I asked if it was significant enough to cancel the trip. He sa...

​This morning I was able to book tickets for girls weekend (5 days) in Florida in March. It’s one of those 5 day weekends. Phew! I have a few trips to look forward to once the weather gets cold and crappy. Avery and Kendall came over to have a day fire and enjoy the fall air. We had the dogs out, Ethan joined us and I threw together a half assed lunch. We all enjoyed the half ass lunch of frozen pizza and frozen breaded chicken. We had some tunes on and we had a 30 second sprinkle that resolved so fast.  I was able to get a few more bags of sticks cut and stored for our kindling wood this winter.  Paul brought the camper home and will be moving it in a day or so to Ethan’s driveway. We are sealing our driveway this week. I say “We”.  I am not overly involved in this. I do have to trim some plants around one portion of the driveway, but that is the extent of my role. We prepare for one last camping trip of the season. We are getting our money’s worth out of this camper. I ...

Ethan and I went to go get donuts, cider and apple fritters this morning. The apple fritters were still warm. Yum! Fall goodies! Diabetes here we come! I did some meal prep this morning…well…I cheated. I had two crock pots going to make two different meals, chili and Beef-and broccoli. It yielded 19 meals all together. That will keep some men bellies full. ​I had a van full of donations today that I dropped off in various spots. Some at the clothing closet and some at the thrift store. It felt good to purge the house. I have more purging to do over the next few weeks. Ethan and I were laughing at the dogs tonight. They were being either goofy or angelic. You figure out which is which. Jiminy looks a little robust in this picture. It is most definitely that camera angle.

​it was a bit drizzly this morning. Little Jiminy curled up and napped on the Fall decor pillows. He was warm and cozy, exuding Autumn spirit. He looked like a fall croissant. Ethan came home in a hopeful mood. He was chatting about his next career moves and ideas for himself to graduate into something else. It’s always good to brainstorm and get those ideas out and explore them. Paul is closing camp up this weekend. Boo! I decided I didn’t want to be there. I am not much help AND it makes me sad to see the docks come out….along with the other obvious…it is chilly out and I want to get cracking on getting our house ready for the winter months.  I did a small meal prep today. I have bigger plans for tomorrow. Maybe some crockpot magic. I did some PTO planning for the rest of the year. I set that up and got my back up’s in place when I am gone. That felt good. I started picking away at my extensive list of chores this evening. I looked at flights and rental cars for my girls trip nex...