A Little of Everything

It has been a busy couple of weeks! First, congratulations to Tessie Friedli who had her baby girl yesterday!! I could not be happier for her!
Second, my nephew, Tanner, got married last Saturday in San Diego. As my brother, Craig, said, "Heaven is only a little less wonderful." The weather was perfect, Tanner and Christon were an adorable couple, Robert had a great weekend with the kids by himself, I got to see my brother, Craig, who lives in Virginia, and best of all, Robert made sure I had my very own room. MY VERY OWN ROOM. I spent lots of time with my siblings but had plenty of time to sit on my balcony, watch and listen to the ocean, and relax.

My view while having breakfast at the hotel

Craig, mom, me, Matthews head, Olivia and Wendy (couldn't look away from the ocean.) 

What Wendy couldn't look away from

My view from my balcony

The day after I got back, all three kids received their yellow belts at Karate. They are absolutely hilarious to watch and love every second of their lessons. I missed Aleq's ceremony because they did it at the first of his class instead of the end :(

So proud!

Tommy bowing to Master Johny.He got his belt before his uniform

A few days after getting back, Ana Jain had a scope at Primary Children's Medical Center. Going there always breaks my heart to see so much sadness. I have to talk myself into not bursting into tears for every family there. And I always leave there feeling so blessed that for right this second, my children are healthy. Anyway, Jain was treated like royalty and everything looked nice and healthy. Thank goodness! Robert was coming and going from his office about a mile away, and, well, I'm strokey, so we were very happy that Wendy agreed to come along. Jain was just more relaxed and happy with Wendy there. Thank you, Wendy (bonus mom)!!

She is not at all sure about all this

No wheelchairs here! She got to ride out in a wagon pulled by Wendy

The day after, I got to go see what Aleq has been doing after school. It's called Lego Mindstorms and he and his partner, Jackson, have programmed their robot to go through a maze. Sounds simple but it's not! It has been very intense and involves working with computers etc. that I may never understand.

Working on some final touches

The boys with their creation. Keep in mind that many kids were around me and I was trying to keep my balance.

One last thing. Right after my stroke I felt as if I had no "filter" when talking. If I thought it, I said it. I once told Robert exactly how many days it had been since we were...um...alone together. My mom was standing next to him. I once told a therapist that her breath smelled like eggs. Many, many times, while living with my mom, there were things about which I should have kept my mouth shut. I didn't. Everybody thought I was just using my stroke as an excuse to be rude. We used to joke about my lack of a filter but no one actually believed. It was just thought that I could control myself but I was choosing not to. But often I was horrified by myself!
As I was reading today, many other stroke survivors experience this. It was very therapeutic for me to read other people's stories and know that (just this once) I'm not totally crazy. It's a thing. It's anecdotal evidence for me but I'll take it. Although I can't take back what I said, I feel better knowing that A) I'm not just a mean person and B) I'm not alone on this.
Sorry if I offended you!