Author Archives: Deb / Being Aunt Debbie

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About Deb / Being Aunt Debbie

Single, disabled mother of 2 adult children and grandmother to 7 beautiful grandchildren! I love Medieval History, castles, all things Celtic. I love animals, rock music, Mexican food, writing, learning, and good movies. I love to crochet!

Stage Fright

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When I was in elementary school, the school decided to have a fashion show. I don’t know whose bright idea it was but it doesn’t make sense. Why would an elementary school have a fashion show? Beats me. Maybe it wasn’t a fashion show. Maybe my memories aren’t as clear as they used to be.

Anyway, my mom was a fantastic seamstress. No, nothing professional but she made some of the clothes my sisters and I wore. So, she made my sisters and me matching dresses and we were entered in the fashion show!

I was scared shitless being only 10 or 11 years old but I was the lead in this model trio and it was my job to make sure my sisters (ages 6 and 2 approximately) did what they were supposed to do on stage. Ugh. My middle sister did pretty well but the littlest wanted to run around like a banshee. I was petrified! I had to hold her hand and keep her under control while we turned and showed our lovely dresses. We were taught to curtsy when we finished, but I don’t remember my sisters doing it. I was too focused on keeping the littlest sister from running right off the edge of the stage!

At the end of our “performance,” the crowd cheered and at that very moment I was in awe of my mother and her mad sewing skills! My mother actually won that fashion show competition!

I know now or think I know, that it wasn’t so much the dresses that won. That was part of it of course, but it was really the whole package. Not just one dress but three dresses. Not just one model but three models. Unique. Plus watching a little rugrat running around on stage and me trying to keep her from killing herself surely added to the entertainment value!

I have what I thought was a photo of us in those dresses, but the dresses don’t match. Maybe mom didn’t make matching dresses after all. As I said, my memories may not be as clear as they used to be. But here’s that faded photo anyway!

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Top 5 Grocery Items!

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I’m trying to write something every day and the daily prompts provided by WordPress help. Some of the posts are weird though, like this one!

My top 5 grocery items are must-haves, although I have many must-haves!

  1. Frank’s Hot Sauce – I buy quart-sized bottles. I use it a lot! In fact, their slogan “I put that shit on everything!” is just about right!
  2. Bottled Water – Our water is not fit to drink so I buy bottled water. I buy it in gallon jugs to make my tea and coffee, and I buy 24-packs of individual bottles for drinking.
  3. Low Sodium Tortilla Chips – Because I like a salty, crunchy snack once in a while and I also serve them with several of my soups and chilis.
  4. Hershey’s Miniatures and Nuggets – I love my chocolate! We always have these in stock in my house! When I have a chocolate craving, I can eat 3 or 4 of these little miniatures or nuggets and I’m good until next time!
  5. French Vanilla Coffee Creamer – Gotta have my creamer for my 3 cups of coffee in the morning!

What are your top 5 grocery items?

Bobcats, Opossums, and Bears…Oh My!

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I live in rural SW Missouri where it’s common to see wild animals. I absolutely love it! I see raccoons, opossums, and skunks almost daily. I’ve seen the usual black skunks with white stripes but also completely white skunks!

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Image by BowmanStudios from Pixabay

I’ve seen bats at night and once a bat got in our house. I had gone to bed and kept hearing what sounded like a big moth fluttering about. I turned on the light, and was shocked to see it was a little bat! He was hanging from the ceiling since I turned on the light. I woke up my son because someone had to witness this! I got a small waste basket, emptied it, stood up on the bed, and carefully placed the waste basket over the bat. Then I took a cookie sheet and carefully and slowly moved it across the top of the wastebasket. Then my son and I took the little bat outside and released him. I bet he was thankful!

Years ago, I was coming home from work and saw what I first thought was a big dog. As I got closer, I realized it was a young bear! I figured his mama was nearby but I didn’t see her. I haven’t seen a bear since then.

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Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay

I’ve most recently seen a bobcat and my cats saw it, too! Thankfully, my furbabies have an enclosure to keep them safe. I think the bobcat jumped on top of the enclosure because there were indentations in the wire, like footprints.

I’ve seen red foxes, coyotes, and mountain lions. The red foxes are beautiful! We have an overabundance of squirrels, armadillos, rabbits, and deer! People have told me about feral pigs and I may have heard them in the woods late at night a time or two, but I can’t be sure. I have yet to see one! I’ve seen moles, voles, groundhogs, chipmunks, gophers, weasels, and even a flying squirrel! It’s amazing! I can’t forget about box turtles, snapping turtles, skinks, frogs, toads, and different species of snakes!

photo of fox sitting on ground

Photo by Alex Andrews on Pexels.com

I can’t forget about birds! I’ve seen pigeons, wild turkeys, mourning doves, owls, roadrunners, starlings, herons, egrets, and several species of woodpeckers including pileated woodpeckers. The most awesome of the birds are birds of prey. I can’t even count how many species of hawks I’ve seen over the years. I’ve even seen bald eagles!

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Image by Kathy Büscher from Pixabay

I got my love of nature and wildlife from my dad. He taught me to respect, watch, and learn instead of disturbing or killing. Do you live in an area where you see wildlife?

Trouble With Nerves

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It’s been a rough year but most especially the last 6 months. From personal drama to health issues…what’s coming in 2024? I don’t even want to know.

The last 2 months have been difficult beginning with the week before Thanksgiving. I did some chores (because who’s gonna do them if I don’t?) and I overdid it. It doesn’t take much for me to overdo things, but I normally snap back in a couple of days. This time, I didn’t. It started with what I thought was the arthritis taking over my pelvic bone. Then, my left leg kept falling asleep on me. Not while I was sitting, mind you. I can be standing or walking and all of a sudden my leg will fall asleep. If I am on my feet for too long (10 or 15 minutes is sometimes too long) my left leg will start to burn. Just BURN like hell. I also noticed my left leg was swelling up near my knee. I thought surely I had a pinched nerve. Finally, I sucked it up and went to the doctor. Ok, not a doctor but my Nurse Practitioner.

My NP spent nearly 2 hours with me trying to pinpoint the problem. I have never had any doctor spend that kind of time with me for any reason! I explained the problem I was having and she asked a lot of questions and poked and prodded my lower spine. and came to the conclusion that I have inflamed nerves in my lower spine where it meets the pelvic bone. She gave me a steroid injection which helped tremendously for about 24 hours and then some of the pain and discomfort came back. I received a second steroid injection a few days later. It helped a little but not as much as I had hoped.

She put me on a more mild diuretic than Lasix which I was taking as needed. I hated taking the Lasix because I spent too much time in the bathroom and I didn’t want to kill my kidneys. The new diuretic (hydrochlorothiazide or HCTZ) seems to be helping with the swelling. It’s not enough that I have to wear compression sleeves on my lower legs to prevent swelling, now I have to deal with this new area swelling up. Ugh.

I’m still having issues with the inflamed nerves but my NP said it may take some time. I’m trying to be patient. I haven’t experienced a lot of that burning sensation since the injections so I feel like it IS getting better. Weather permitting, I will go see my NP again next week. I was going to go this week but why do today when you can put off until tomorrow? Haha.

I really like my NP and her nurse is spectacular, too! I just hate going because I don’t want her to send me to some jerk doctor who won’t do anything but make me feel worse. They always seem to think they have to TELL me I’m overweight as if I don’t know. I want to say to them, “Hey asshole. I know I’m fat. I don’t need you to tell me that!” I wouldn’t be so much overweight if I had received proper medical care in the beginning. Then maybe I’d have been able to continue my daily exercise of walking (or some form of exercise like my recumbent bike) to keep my weight down. Maybe I’d have my knee replacements by now, too!

Ugh. Anyway, that’s what’s what in my neck of the woods. We’ll be getting snow soon. I don’t mind that as long as we have what we need and don’t need to leave the house. Another excuse not to go to the doctor. Haha.

Toodles, my friends!