Precious Easter Gifts from Two Amazing Little Girls!!

My friend Debbie's two adorable little granddaughters sent me these crafts! 

Easter gifts for Amy

I just LOVE them.  They are so cute!  Every holiday for the past 17 years, Debbie and I have sent each other gift boxes on the holidays. It is a bright spot on the holidays which always carry sadness for bereaved parents.  Olivia and Olya LOVE to see a box from Debbie because they know she has sent them something!  Debbie and I both lost our teenage beloved children the same year,  We use to chat with a group of bereaved moms in a MSN chatroom every night.  Those moms got me through the worst time of my life.  Nina, the moderator of that group, recently passed away.  If there is a heaven, Nina is most definitely with our children.  These two rabbits made me smile, they look so joyful!!  The rabbits remind me so much of Debbie's granddaughters because they are such happy little girls! I forgot that I had Parkinson's when I opened the box. I just thought of how happy these two little girls have made Debbie and Vinny feel.  And I LOVED eating the chocolate and that made me feel great! Debbie ALWAYS sends gifts for Amy.  I will take Amy's gifts to the cemetery tomorrow!

     
         On a positive Parkinson's note, I didn't use my walker all day!! If I could just get rid of or lessen my sciatica pain, I could deal better with my Parkinson's. My sciatica bothered me but not as much as usual.  I am so hoping that the steroid shots will continue to work.  My friend Diane from high school recently herniated disks in her back and is going to see a pain management doctor. I told her to use my doc because she is wonderful and so smart. Her doc is in the same practice so she is in good hands! Diane and I  have to get together again and have lunch before we fall apart at the seams!  To be honest, in the afternoon, I sat a lot but I didn't even think about getting my walker when I got up. In the morning through early afternoon,  I hand washed all the glasses, ironed the tablecloths, and decorated for Easter dinner and set the table and I forgot about using my walker! I guess I didn't need it or I would have fallen over.  I had to make a list of what I needed to get for Easter dinner because we are going to visit Olya overnight and have dinner at Red Lobster(Olya's favorite) on Sat night with Matt's family.  On Easter morning we are going to brunch at Renee and Adam's country club, then I have to come home and make dinner for my family and my sister's family.  I cheated this year and purchased mashed potatoes, and I will buy a dessert.  I think we will be stuffed from the brunch so I am not going to make a huge dinner.  I invited Olivia's boyfriend Frankie's parents to come for dessert but they have to visit each side of their families so I don't think they will be able to come.  I wish Adam's family lived closer so we could do holidays with them too! Maybe when Olya graduates from college, we could celebrate with Adam's family on Easter!
        My friend Carol, who is the leader of the night time bereaved parents group wants to get some of the members to blog. I think it is a great idea and will help them express some of their feelings. We are going to try to help them set up blogs.  I wonder if there is a way to do a group blog and post it on our facebook group page.
      When someone asks me to introduce myself and/or tell about myself, I always say I am a retired  reading specialist, a mom to five, and one of my children is deceased. Now I am wondering if I should add "and I have Parkinson's."  When I was out with my friend who has Parkinson's, I didn't notice it at all.  If I didn't know she had Parkinson's, I would definitely not have been able to tell at all!  She said that she and her other friends who ave Parkinsons's sit on their hands if they have tremors.  I'll have to remember that if I get tremors. I only had two very, very slight tremors one time, in each hand.