Looking For The Positives

[kevin]

DNA, my kids are like Heinz 57.....I'm 75% Irish, 25% Greek.....My first  wife was 50% French and 50% Native(I thought she was Italian), My kids are heavy into the Spartan Indian Shamrocks in their Tats.........From what I read, even the Natives migrated via land bridge from Asia....Weather is warming up and spring is around the corner...

[Margm]

I keep one by the computer.  I have so many one words I stick down I don't remember what for.

Thanks Gwen, I needed that.  I joke around a lot, but this is no joking matter.  I've got to where most times I just tell my kids I don't remember and I don't try to tax my brain to remember.  Maybe I should.  This is a real problem for me.  This is not a joke.  I might really try to joke a lot of times but this immediate amnesia scares me.  I've just fired my family practice doctor and I really cannot take any medicine but the Xanax.  I don't lean heavy on it, I never go over my 2 a day and the only time I will take one in the daytime is if I have to talk to people and it keeps my chin from quivering/shaking, which it will naturally do with my congenital tremor, but if I get excited I don't see how the temporomandibular joint hangs together.  All I can call it is amnesia for something that happens in the last few hours.  And if they say "Mama, you said it" then I cannot argue.  I cannot say this is new, and I have always excused it as "grief fog" but just don't know how long it lasts.  The first thing was buying the comforter and don't remember where or when.  Still don't. I was fixing to go back to Walmart for the lost bag of groceries but Brianna made me look where I would naturally keep the stuff and it was there.  That is why I cannot stop putting phone in right pocket, keys in left pocket, glasses on printer.  Purse by computer.  If I go off this schedule, I really panic.  I've got some phone numbers to call tomorrow.  If I have an appointment, I remember.  I remember how to get places.  I never have a fog about where I am going or how to get there.  It is little things. 

[Margm]

10 hours ago, kevin said:

DNA, my kids are like Heinz 57.

I think we all are Kevin.  My grandmother's grandmother was still alive when she was a little girl.  Her name was Walker. She spoke no English, only German.  She lived with her bachelor son who made a great business for himself on the very tip of Texas and Mexico. He was a lawyer and had a department store.  My grandmother used to write to her grandmother all the time and he (the son) would interpret and write her back.  I have seen their graves, very fancy, beautiful, but stone is stone. The Ggrandmother had a bunch of kids and only one stayed in the community they were born in.  Our family genealogist finds them the most interesting.  Not only that, she went to California, to the beautiful area in and around the Plumas National Forest where our ancestors, that branch settled.  We (Billy and I) had the RV set up to go to that area to meet our distant cousins.  My cousin had written to them.  They were excited also.  Unfortunately Billy got sick and the last thing I care really about thinking about is making a trip to visit my people.  The things that used to be exciting, the daily mundane way of life that was exciting is like eating food with no salt.  Nothing tastes the same.

But, my cousin's DNA (ancestry.com) came back with less UK than we had.  How could that be?  Our ancestors on both sides did not commit incest, but they  married 2nd cousins, some married brothers of brothers  that had married sisters of sisters.   Still, my branch had the most UK.  (I've read too many history books) and never remember reading about a red headed, freckle faced Pocahontas.  It is what it is.

[kayc]

I haven't had my DNA analyzed, but I'm mostly English and have Irish/Scotch, and have been told Dutch, French, and German.  My kids' dad was Sicilian (Italian) and Norwegian and English so they have mostly English and 1/4 Italian, some Norwegian and a smidgen of everything else.  They've always embraced the Italian part, we don't seem English in personality but hey we are what we are.

[Margm]

Kay, when I first got married I showed Billy the picture of my "squaw" great grandmother.  I was so proud to be so much Native American.  Billy really got a kick out of it when I found out she was almost totally Irish, no Native American.  We didn't have Ancestry.com back in the early 60's.  In fact, we did not have any "dot com's" at all.  

[kevin]

My Mother claims her family..(half the Town in Ireland) were descendants of the Spanish Armada.....Guess a couple ships had survivors who mixed with the villagers.. The term "Black Irish" came about.......Ancestry has both Great GrandParents from County Cork......Republic of Ireland   

[Margm]

Well Kevin, my son wanted us all to be from Scandinavia, where ever that is,   Sounds cold to me.  We are what we are.  I took one of those stupid quizzes and it  came up that I was only 75% redneck.  Hurt my feelings.

[kayc]

My dad looks totally Irish, but my cousin says the family was Scottish, my folks always claimed Irish.  Not sure it matters enough to pay for DNA analysis, I have the Irish nose but that came from my mom's side.  George had Native American but you can see it with his nose, the bridge of it, the eyes, not full blooded but it shows up.

[Margm]

My cousin is our family genealogist.  She has paid for every member in her family to have this done.  No, it is not cheap.  Each person is right at or above $100.  Now they want me to have mine done.  I won't.  I took a Jeff Foxworthy quiz the other night about being a redneck and I only came up 75%.  Hurt my feelings.  Felt I was closer to 100%.  I will pay to have my granddaughter's done.  She is adopted and wants to know.  It does not matter that my sister and I came from the same mom and pop, our DNA will still be different.  Myself, I don't really care.  They did.  It was my Christmas gift to my sister.  I have Factor IX in my blood which led to hemophilia in Queen Victoria's male ancestors.  Female carries it, male dies usually from it.  But my son was born with the X chromosome that made it where he did not have hemophilia.  My daughter could not have children, so it stopped there, but I gave her a form of it, Factor VIII, which means she has von Willebrand's and is a bleeder.  She has to take something before she has surgery.  Having this has never made me a bleeder. Really, finding out where it came from does not help me at this stage in life.

 

[kevin]

Got new picture of youngest grandson......  

[Margm]

He is beautiful.  You have wonderful grandchildren.  And a new one, just so precious.  Life is precious.

[kevin]

Going up to visit early next month......Now that I can walk almost normal....Just too cute

[Margm]

Absolutely

[kayc]

Kevin,

He looks like a little doll!  My grandson is going to be born March 10, I hope there's no snow then, I want to meet him!

[Herc]

I woke up feeling confident this morning.  As I do every morning, the first thing I did was tell my honey that I love her, and that I know she loves me.  Most mornings I choke up a bit when I say it, but today it was strong and left me feeling that she is with me in my heart to help me through the day.

I read a bit of this thread last night and am looking forward to reading through it further at some point to get to know everyone here a bit better.  I also love the concept of embracing the positive and can't wait to see some of those messages from other people's journeys.  Hoping everyone finds some peace today, and if they can a little extra to help them through,

Herc

[Margm]

After nearly 55 years of sleeping beside Billy, my first thoughts each morning are that he is beside me.  I do not lay in bed in memories because memories still hurt me.  I thought at first I would touch his side of the bed and be honest and tell him I knew he was gone.  My friend, who had lost her husband a few months before, told me never to do that again.  Love his side of the bed and tell him that you love him and he will be with you forever.  I felt so much better doing that.  I found his favorite Tee shirt this week.  I don't know why it was packed separately, but I added it in between my pillows, and I am a person who scatters pillows on top of pillows to sleep.  He slept on a flat pillow, only one.

[Brad]

1 hour ago, Marg M said:

  I found his favorite Tee shirt this week.  I don't know why it was packed separately, but I added it in between my pillows

 

Deedo had a "Wakey Dog" since she was three or four.  The poor thing is now as old as I am and shows every bit of the wear and tear of age.  She would keep the stuffed dog hidden away but when life was challenging out he would come to comfort her.  Now Wakey sleeps on her side of the bed and he is providing me with comfort.

[Margm]

I don't cry every day anymore, but somehow or other, your "Wakey Dog" brought them.  Billy's Tee Shirt still held his essence, a small bit I imagined, and it brought tears.  Tears are good, they release something.  Maybe my sodium level is less.  Thanks Brad.  

[kayc]

My positive today is it is NOT SNOWING!  That's a welcome break for me because I've had to shovel for the last few days and I guess it's due back Sunday and Monday (ugh).  But this is about positives so I'll try not to think about it returning, and enjoy the moment of today and the welcome relief from shoveling.

[Brad]

This is what 64 years of love looks like.

[Margm]

Well Brad, it is a good looking animal to be that old.  I'm afraid I feel the worse for wear.  I'm glad you have it.

[Margm]

1 hour ago, kayc said:

My positive today is it is NOT SNOWING!

My positive is a get to wear my "do-rag" to keep the wind from blowing my hair.  The temperature is very mild, up into the 70's, but that wind is whipping.  Okaaaaaay, this is March.  March winds, April showers, May flowers.

[kayc]

23 hours ago, Brad said:

This is what 64 years of love looks like.

So that's what I look like!  (I'm 64)!

[Herc]

My positive for the day actually happened yesterday.  I got to teach my stepdaughter how to cook a steak in a cast iron skillet last night.  She was going to try it herself, but it just so happened that right as she finished sauteing the mushrooms and onions (another thing I recently taught her how to do), I walked in the door.  I was able to show her how to get the perfect sear, and taught her how to tell how well done a steak is by feeling the palm of your hand and comparing it to the meat so you don't have to stick a fork in it and let the juices out.  They were absolutely delicious and juicy, and best of all we got some more time to bond.

Also I had enough time to read through the first six pages of this thread.  The timeline from my perspective is that Queeniemary is getting back to her silver sneakers and tai chi classes; Harry is fixing up his house and planting a garden; KayC is shoveling snow, and cuddling her dog, and shoveling snow, and getting her bridge replace, and shoveling snow...well you get the picture; and KSBeachbum is taking time to smell the orange blossoms.  There are also all sorts of other wonderful people doing wonderful things.  It's like watching a TV show in some respects.  I can't wait to check out the next few episodes.  Wishing you all peace, comfort, and a mouthwatering meal,

Herc

[Brad]

Herc - You're a better man than I.  I've been on the forum for around eighteen months and the only threads I've read from the beginning are the ones that were started after I joined and even many of them I've not read the entire thread.