Wednesday, July 28, 2010

No Worse for the Wii

Momma. My dear sweet momma.



Truly an inspiration for overcoming fears and challenges of many types. For her, technology has been one of those hurdles to encounter with nothing less than stubborn determination and self-mockery.  If there are two things I have learned from this woman they are how to pray and how to laugh at myself. 
So, Momma got a wii. The same woman who when she used a computer for the first time, the mouse flew across the screen as if it were having a spasmotic seizure.  I had to set up the paint program so she could practice controlling the mouse by writing her name. She decided she wanted to get a wii fit.  That evening she took the instruction manual out and read it. Front to back. Well, front to mid-point. The rest was in Spanish. The next day, once she thought she was prepared enough, she wheeled the office chair to the exercise/sewing/storage room where she would set it all up. She successfully got everything to work and her first task was to create her mii.  She oh so carefully created a character in her likeness.  Hair color, hair cut, eye color, clothing type, body type, and body size. She decided she would be as accurate as she could and honestly picked shape and size. Being quite satisfied, she put in the wii fit disc. Her mii came bouncing out in her exercise outfit. Then it asked her to stand on the board to get her BMI (body mass index). Once she did, her mii began to expand before her eyes. Feeling a little deflated...or inflated, she continued with the instructions.  Being a woman of order, she had to do the first activity on the list. Hula-Hoop. 
The genetics in our family do not predispose us to be very coordinated people. Surprisingly she got the hang of it fairly quickly. Steadily the difficulty level got higher, but she was keeping up and really putting everything she had into it.  Perhaps a little too much into it.  She heard a pop and had a sharp pain in her hip. Thankfully she still had the office chair in the room because she had to use it for support to get back down the hall. Those pesky sacroiliac joints. So she was out of commission for a while and the chiropractor there was out of town and I'm a few hundred miles away. The next day she returned to the wii, but stayed away from the Hula-Hoop for a while.
 I am happy to report she never stopped using the wii and has regained full use of her hips...which have shrunk a little too.

Love you Momma.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Bubble Gum

Big Mawmaw was an incredible woman. There is no way I can begin to describe her in her entirety.  I think about her often and can't help but feel a little inspired.


Once, when we were kids, we were chewing bubble gum at her house.  Oh, did she get excited! She said it had been years since she had a piece and she loved bubble gum! Did I mention she always said she was still a child at heart?  The next day we brought her some bubble gum. She was SO happy! She carefully unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth. After a few chews, she remembered why she had not had bubble gum in years.

1 piece of bubble gum + 1 set of dentures = 1 BIG mess


Sunday, July 11, 2010

Pawpaw

My Pawpaw

He never complained, he never griped
He just went on with his daily life.
And always rated the pain as a 5.

He served his family, his country, and he served his God.
Old friends, he never forgot.

He would tell of people he had seen and people he had known
Many of these have already passed on.

He had so many stories and comments to share,
But if you didn't listen closely, you wouldn't know they were there.

If Mawmaw was away and we came to see,
He's sit at the table and make us sandwiches of bologna.

A simple life is the one he led.
He checked out books from the library and put his initials in the ones he read.

The work he asked of us was not hard.
Our payment was water and juicy fruit when we mowed his yard.

His fight with sickness was too long.
His body was weak, but his heart was strong.
Now, thank God, that body is gone.

-Becky Zeagler, May 14, 2005