GLIMMERS OF NORMAL

As of Friday, I had taken all of the doors off of our closets so that Valerie could paint them.  She said that realistically she thought it might take her a week or two to paint just a little at a time.

Saturday morning, I woke up and heard Valerie milling around (okay, that by itself is different and improvement).  I got up to find that she'd set up the card table and had all of the paint stuff set on it ready to begin painting the closet doors.  whoa.... :)

She spent most of Saturday, painting a little, then resting some.... painting a little, then resting some....  She got all of the doors (6) painted with 2 coats on one side.  The other side could wait until tomorrow.

Sunday, she felt a little pooped - kinda nauseous - and she moved a little slower.  BUT she still painted the other sides of the doors, ate and took all of her supplements.  Then we went to a place she's really been wanting to go to for dinner.

A painting machine!

When we were in Mexico this last time, Valerie was talking to another patient about where we live and the woman asked if we'd ever eaten at River's End.  She said it was her favorite place and we knew where it was (because we had turned around in their parking lot once) but we'd never eaten there.

So, Sunday night, we had dinner there.  It was GREAT!  Valerie and I shared fish and shrimp tacos with rice and beans.  Yes we are vegetarians.... except when we eat fish and seafood.  :)  Valerie's mom had the fish and chips.  We watched the sun set and saw the last of the kite surfers coming in for the day.  It was perfect.

Then today, Valerie finished up painting the doors.  As if that wasn't enough, she cleaned up the frames where the doors hang and painted them too.  I will rehang them tomorrow and the bedroom will look that much more complete so Valerie can have a more pleasant view to wake up to.  (And I cleaned the ceiling fan that was BADLY in need of a cleaning.  She noticed this morning - Monday - and was very excited.)

Dinner at River's End - one of our new
favorite places!

It's amazing how much your surroundings can impact your health and healing.  It's HUGE!

We did have a bit of a crisis today.  Valerie's mom, Colette, was worried because her cell phone wasn't working.  Obviously, it's the only phone she has while she's here, so Valerie looked up the nearest T-Mobile store for her and she set off to get it fixed.  She arrived at the store - asked the first person for help - they looked at her phone, and after about a half a second, they pushed the power butting, turning on the phone - and then they said, "there you go!"  THE PHONE WAS TURNED OFF!!! :)

We are all suffering from our minds being in different places these days..... but that was a particularly good one! :)  More progress and good news to come.... stay tuned!