Ethan’s Journey

We woke up this morning and jetted out of the campground a day early. It was supposed to start raining and be kinda yucky so we just left.  I took advantage of the time by cleaning out the camper and getting it ready for a nice winter slumber. I have my cabinets emptied, drinks are mostly out,  my pots and pans are in Rubbermaid containers just in case mice get into the camper. Yuck! Bedding has been stripped, pillows removed, garbages emptied. I even washed the refrigerator shelves. I am tired.  Luckily we didn’t see anymore seizures from Jiminy. He did vomit twice yesteryear and again this morning. After the 3 rd vomit I gave him some medication to combat nausea. He did much better after that. I took the remainder of the day to put things away, catch up on laundry and more.  Paul and Ethan started moving shelving into his barn. He was given lots of shelves from when my mom moved. He will be able to utilize his storage. Avery and Kendall popped over because they nee...

we slept IN today. I was up earliest at 9:30 am. This never happens. Paul woke up about a half hour later. He decided to go home and do a few things while I stayed camping. It is a 20 minute drive. I had coffee outside and then let Jiminy outside. He was right behind me as I walked over to the community fire pit. I turned around to see if he was right there…and he wasn’t.  My eyes scanned our campsite as I called for him. Then I saw him under the camper rolling around. I knew exactly what was happened by and sprinted fast as lightening to him. He was having a seizure. There was no rhyme or reason to him having a seizure unless he bounced his head off of something. I wasn’t watching and don’t quite know what triggered it. I called Paul to bring Jiminy’s seizure medication back with him. We discussed the urgency and decided to take a “wait and see” approach.  Jiminy recovered but was quite tired. He earned himself to be in the papoose at all times with me.  He walked down t...

I had my coffee outside under a tree. It was pleasant in the sunshine. I sat in my outdoor chair which Moe tied to a tree and chewing on his bone. I took the dogs for a walk just to get them outside and moving around. My friends and I went to the local cemetery. This cemetery was beautiful and housed some very old gravestones. With the trees starting to change color against the landscaping of the cemetery it was easy to enjoy the colors against the blue sky. The illuminati was on a Doctor’s gravesite. We made our way up the hill towards the tower. The tower has a spiral staircase that was quite tricky to navigate as it was narrow, didn’t have a railing the entire way up and very dark. We finally made it to the tippy top. There may have been some bad words as we kept climbing. This is the Tower.👆 We came home around 4:00 ish. We had some snacks, started a fire 🔥 and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.  Our friend’s shared chili with everyone. I am pleased how well Moe is doing with...

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...