Still watching all the fallout from the events at the Capitol last week. I'm glad to see that they are finding many of the people (who were so proud to be on video or in photos). It's so hard to believe this has all happened in our country. And then the President was impeached for the second time. Holy smokes!

I just pray that no one else is hurt or killed as we go through the inauguration of a new President and Vice-President. It should be an exciting time for the nation, but will be tempered with concern and worry and stress for many. 

So what else is going on in your world? Crazy weather? Weight gain? Missing the grandkids? Hmmm...I just mentioned some of MY issues. 

The biggest (literally) for me right now is the weight. I keep trying to get back to doing what I KNOW works for me (low carb), but this addiction to sweets is hard to switch off!

I'm starting to resemble a certain cartoon character!!

Hoping to see some comments soon :) 

 

How quickly things change in the world...

 So, this is the day after the White House was overrun, defaced and basically, rendered shutdown for several hours. I haven't been able to write about it on social media at all, but here I feel safe.

On one hand, I feel disturbed and unsettled after watching the entire event from beginning to end. I could stop watching until I couldn't keep my eyes open. On the other hand, I feel confident that our world will right itself eventually. It just takes longer than usual for some people to draw the line as to what they will accept. 

I will be happy to discuss everything with you, if anyone decides they would like to post here. I still haven't put out a notice that this blog is "open for business". I'm such a chicken, but I may just do it today.

In the meantime, I will leave you with this and hope to hear from you soon. I would like to find out how you feel about our country after all that's happened this year.

To continue catching up...

I'm going to get caught up on a few more things about the past year, and then I'm going to try to get some of my followers back here and find out what everyone wants to talk about. It can't be just about me and there's a huge gap between where I started (Minnie Pauz) and where I am now.

One of biggest changes in my life since I moved back to Michigan is the wonderful addition of a granddaughter and a daughter-in-law! That was great since the boys were outnumbering us girls quite heavily! :) So, NOW we are even! (At least counting the adults with the kids) :) Still have 5 grandsons and 3 granddaughters! (this picture was 5 yrs ago)

So meet Miss Lucy Grace! I just love her name and she is a sweetheart as you can see! Her Momma married my son in Nov. 2019 and I was so happy to be there! They have just passed their 1 year anniversary and Lucy is going to be 4 in August. She loves to read and play the ukelele and have tea parties!

Now we are on to whatever comes to mind, not just for me but for you also. I hope to hear from many of you about what your life is like and what issues seem to crop up most often...the good and the bad. As I mentioned, I will be tracking you down one by one and dragging you over here to help this blog come alive again! :) For now this is my second post in only 4 days so you can imagine how exhausted I am! LOL!! Hope to hear from you soon! Dee

 

Another New Year, Another promise to keep posting!

 Let me apologize once again for leaving you hanging for 16 months! Holy Moly, I am truly going to try to keep this blog updated on a regular basis now that I am more "settled" than I have been since 2012. As you can see from my photo, I've gone through a few changes, but don't worry because I think I've found the antidote...YOU!!

LOL! At least I haven't lost my sense of humor! I have a lot of work to do though, to get my followers back! This 2nd day of 2021 seems to be a good place to start, right?

Ok, it's been 14 months since my last post and I was getting ready to move back to Michigan after living in TX for 7 years. There were no comments on that post so I will start from there and hope followers will catch up. 

I arrived back in Michigan in October 2019, just in time for Halloween and moved into my daughter's upstairs bedroom to wait for my name to come up on the list for an apartment at a lovely 55 & older place called Heritage Place Apartments. At the time, there was no indication of how long the wait would be, but I was very happy to be back with my Michigan family and friends. Also was hoping to make up some lost time with my youngest grandson. I made yearly visits from TX after he was born, but had missed the daily or weekly relationship that I had enjoyed with the other 6 grandkids!

I will never forget the surprise and happiness I felt when I got a call from the apartment manager that, due to many unexpected circumstances, I was going to get my apt. in January...at least 6 mo. sooner than expected! After 7 years of living with my son and his family, I was going to be in my own place again!!

Now I have been in my apartment for a full year I feel really settled in and ready to get back to sharing and caring with other women. My "outreach" to women began back in 1997 (I think) when I created Minnie Pauz. That led to creating this blog in 2006, when I was still a "middle-aged" woman, LOL! 

Now I'm a senior citizen👵 so I may have to change the name of the blog, but I will wait until I see who is going to hang in here with me. 

Here we are on January 2, 2021, in the middle of a pandemic and about to change Presidents...and I'm trying to revive the connection with all of you that has motivated and encouraged me for years to find out things about myself that I had never imagined. I have so much I want to tell you now, but first I will get out there (virtually) and find you and pull you back into my web! LOL! I will be BEGGING you to comment on this post so I know you're there listening and then I will continue to make up for my abandonment! Then I will try to make you laugh again! Oh, just so you know I haven't turned into a cat, here I am with my Covid 20 lbs.

Actually, this was before covid. I'm not allowing any pictures until it's all over and I can lose the 20 lbs!! Let me know how you've been handling all the shutdowns and quarantines. I hope and pray that no one has lost a loved one or friend to this awful virus! Join others on my two Minnie Pauz facebook pages. #1 and #2 for us seniors! Love you all!

So....I had to quit the job cutting vegetables at Albertson's, because of the arthritis. even though I was only working 5 hrs a day, it was really hard on my hands, my feet and lower back. 

I was kind of bummed to have to quit because I liked working in the back and especially happy that I wasn't working in the bakery!! Oh my goodness! That would have been a challenge for sure! At least I could snack on healthy stuff! :)
A few months after I left, the store was closed and all the employees were spread out to other spots. I hated to see it also because it was the closest place to run in and pick up whatever you needed. 


In September of 2017, I went to work on the weekends only, at Legend Oaks Rehabilitation & Healthcare facility, rightaround the corner from where I live. They didn't have anyone to do activities with the residents on Saturday and Sunday and since my other job was to drive the grandkids to school and pick them up during the week, the weekend was just what I wanted! 

This has almost changed my life! Honestly, I have such an awareness now of what the aged are going through. I've learned about dementia and alzheimers and about trying to help the elderly live with dignity and respect. I was hired to do activities on the weekend so we had Bingo, fun exercises, Spa Day, worship services, visits from comfort dogs, and music entertainment. Here's a collage of some of my favorite times and people! 

After two years of walking 2-4 miles a day at work and pushing 10-15 wheelchairs back and forth to activities or out to the patio for some fresh air and chit chat, I noticed that I was having back spasms that came from limping because of pain in my foot. I also had a burning sensation in my left elbow, so after a visit with several doctors, I found out I had a fractured toe, inflamed Achilles and plantar fasciitis on my right foot and tennis elbow on my left arm! I was off work for a month and it finally became clear to me that I wouldn't be able to return to work there because I would most surely just injure the same places. 




So now I'm caught up and the latest news is that I am moving back to Michigan in mid-October and will be able to "grow up" with my youngest grandchild (for now), who is 6! 

For those who have been following me on Facebook, there are plenty of posts of my kids and grandkids...like the latest of my two grandsons here in TX in 2012 and 2019. :) 

At my age now (71), it's time to find a place to settle down. I need to be near the kids and I guess I've seen what's to come in another 15-20 yrs., but I can't help but think about a cabin in the woods (with wifi, of course), wild animals strolling by and beautiful scenery to take photos of! Of course, I'll make do with what I have and enjoy being able to share with all of you! 

Leave your comments below...about anything I've written or about something in your life you want to talk about. I love hearing from you! ♥

If you thought 2 years was a long time between posts....

How about 3 years? Oh my goodness...I swear it's not Alzheimers! I've learned a lot about that topic since working at a nursing home for the past two years and will be hitting on the topic seriously in the next few posts.

What has happened in the last 3 years? Well, I've gotten older for one thing! I've entered my 70's for another thing! I'm now 71 1/2 years old!! And please don't try to trick me and say I'm 71 1/2 years young. That does not make me feel younger!! LOL!  I'll tell you what makes me feel younger...working in a nursing home! Now that I've mentioned it twice, I will catch you up on all that later, but first I will go back and catch you up from where I left off in 2016 (the last post).

I've had 3 new jobs since I last posted and I have to say, they've all been quite interesting, part-time, but every little bit helps, right? The first one was a crossing guard at a middle school. I had the best time making the kids smile in the morning as they were trudging to school and then seeing their bounding joy as they came the other way in the afternoon! LOL! 

I had to give that job up at the end of the year since I would be  driving my own grandkids to totally different school, so when I said my last goodbyes, the kids gave me hugs and we took pictures to remember each other by. :) It was a joy and I would recommend this job to anyone who wants a fun job!


My next job was at Albertson's grocery store and I actually started it while I was doing the crossing guard job since I could work inbetween the school hours. I worked in the produce dept. cutting up vegetables for the "take out" section. Not exactly sure what they called it. Here's pictures to explain. The first is my uniform, next is my work station and the result.

  

I've got to show you something else I did at Albertson's...making coleslaw! Oh my goodness! I never saw so much coleslaw in my life! LOL! Same with guacamole!!  

NOTE: i was trying to post more after the picture of the guacamole, but having trouble so I will post this now and come back to it after I get some help! :)

It's been a long 2 years!

February 2016

I can't even begin to explain why I haven't posted on my blog since 2014. I'll probably just start writing and see where I end up! I will say that I never DID get to the gym like I was talking about in that last post! LOL As I read back over the last few years, I realized that a lot has changed from my original plans, my health, my job and of course, my jeans size!

Let's start with my original plans....I moved to Tx in 2012 with the intent to get an apartment of my own and be available to do things with my 3 grandkids here. I was on a waiting list for the most perfect place for over a year when I had such a bad flare-up of psoriatic arthritis, that I could barely do anything for myself. It took several months of trying different medications and different doses and combinations, and it was a blessing that I WASN'T living by myself! By the time it was under control, my Son and DIL convinced me to continue living here with them and that's where I am today. They have been searching for just the right house for their family and one requirement is a MIL apartment or suite. :)

2 years of this before finding a solution

My health.....like I mentioned, the main problem was the arthritis and it's never going to go away so with the help of my rheumatologist, I'm managing it pretty well.  Fortunately, the shots that help the arthritis also keep the psoriasis under control. That was a huge shocker back in 2005 when I first noticed that my scalp was itching and flaking, then my legs and back started getting really bad. Only about 10% of people with psoriasis get the arthritis too. No one else in my family has had this, unless it was in the past. In the middle of these afflictions, I was also diagnosed with Type2 diabetes so I had to change my eating habits and exercise to control my blood sugar.

My job....for 18 years my job was creating Minnie Pauz, which became my sole source of income. When I moved to TX and had the flare up of arthritis, it really hit my motivation hard and crushed my physical ability for a long time. I became depressed and just couldn't keep up with the website, newsletters and emails. Then my hard drive crashed and I lost all my editing programs and couldn't grasp the idea of starting all over. Since I couldn't get back to doing the mental work on the website, etc., I went to work as a server at McAlister's Deli!

First time I had done work outside the home in over 20 years and you know what? It helped me out of my slump! It was great to be communicating with customers in person and I realized my wonderful personality and sense of humor were still intact!! The only problem was....now I couldn't handle the physical part! I was on my feet for 4-5 hrs. at a time, carrying heavy plates and lifting heavy chairs (like highchairs). As of March 2015 I was hired by my son's company to do part time administrative work at home, on the computer. :) I've decided to see if there's any interest in someone buying Minnie Pauz as an addition to their thriving healthcare projects. In case someone reading this is interested, contact me @ minniepauz.com.

Regarding my jeans size....well, let's just say the sizes run a very wide gamut! Since 2010, when I was diagnosed with diabetes, until today, I have such a variety of clothes that change sometimes daily. What's with that??? :) I will say that in 2014 I got down to my smallest size in a long, long time and I'm not even sure how I did it!! It might have been when I was sick, so I guess I won't try that again! I'm up a few pounds now, but I'm finally getting back to walking every day so that helps me feel like I'm in control again.

So I feel like I caught you up on the last two years! Hope there are a few of you who are still following my blog. I would love to hear how YOU are doing! I've always enjoyed the interaction I've had with women I related to. Some of you were just starting to have symptoms of menopause when we first connected and now....well, my 41 yr. old daughter is having hot flashes! So let me know if you're still here! I've missed you!   Dee