I’ve been pretty quiet for a while. I’ve kept plenty busy working out things for our new home, scrapbooking traditionally (I discovered a hidden scrapbooking talent in Angie, & someday /I’ll post stuff we’ve made!), & I’ve been busy with a new calling (volunteer “job” at church) as a Personal Progress leader: In my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) we have a wonderful program for the Young Women (girls aged between 12 and 17) called Personal Progress that helps them to gain self-worth and a stronger relationship with their Heavenly Father. I get to help the girls & their parents work on this program, & I am in charge of the activity for the 3rd Tuesday every month, so until I get the swing of things, my focus is there…

In other news, about the beginning of September, , I’ve suddenly become clearer when I speak, & have begun to hold CONVERSATIONS w/o signing! One of the 1st was w/Angie’s son: lately, Angie’s son likes to block me from going places, so when I was headed to the bathroom before we were headed out of the house, & when he stood I’m front of me w/his arms & legs extended out. I said, “I can’t go to HEB…” (Our grocery store). His response, “But I want to go!” So I responded, “Then u better let me go potty!” & he moved out of my way! How awesome is that?!? I had a CONVERSATION w/a 3 year old!

On a similar note, about the same time, a friend heard me speaking at church, & commented, “I’m loving this! Aren’t you?!” A family member responded, “sometimes,” which makes me laugh! Before, family could say whatever they wanted around me…I couldn’t fight back, dish out punishments, etc. But now, watch out! 🙂

It’s been awhile! June tends to be a pretty busy month with school ending, & all the church activities/camps also, we are going to build a new house, so we’ve been focusing on that!

Why are we moving? I guess a lot has to do with me–i’ve outgrown this home: it was built back when my prognosis was to blink & not move…they thought i’d just stare at our pretty view all day!

the new house will be like 10 min. away from here, but it was a roller coaster finding it! mk & jessie have been bugging me for years to move. at 1st, i didn’t think i wanted to move. i hate change, was comfortable, & FINALLY settled (it took years, since i could only move & organize stuff, when i had a body there, specifically helping me!)

so years ago when i was 1st approached, i thought, “i just got settled, & u want me 2 do it all over again?!? no way!” but this time, i finally gave in & said, “we’ll talk, if u can find land”–& i gave some guidelines i didn’t think they could do: had to stay here, stay close to the church & have a grocery store nearby, but we had to be able to custom build.

it’s actually hard to find land in the area we are in, so at 1st we looked a little farther away than we wanted too, but the weirdest stuff happened when we bid on land that was farther away! I feel the Lord knew where He wanted us, & while this land eventually fell into our laps (just as mk was ready to give up), every other place we looked at was essential to leading us to where we ended up (which is interesting, if u understand the history for my church, because it had a similar situation). While our new place it’s more land than we wanted, it was priced so cheap, & was so flat (finding a large, flat area is tough where we are, but that is what we needed), yet it was so beautiful, so we (or should I say I? lol) couldn’t say no! (Plus is part of some wildlife tax exemption, so property tax is super cheap, which appealed to my “thrifty” side!)
i think this is where mk & i will be for quite a while!

i feel like i have lived on pintrest, preparing to meet w/our architect! but w/a new home, now i can open blinds, change room temp., etc. on my iPad! plus, I am dinging up this place, trying to be more independent: it wasn’t built for me to tool around the kitchen, & feed myself! besides, we want a 1-story home with the rooms i access, closer together: i can’t tell u how often i have needed to potty upstairs (where my lift is), but i’m stranded downstairs from a power outtage (granted a generator could help w/that, but i hate my craft room being downstairs, isolating me from my family!

In other news, i totally miss horse therapy, & while I can still do push-ups, I seem to be getting weaker—it is really hard to replicate what I do on the horse! There is a machine that attempts to replicate horse riding (iGallop), but it seems a bit advanced for me! BUT, I’ve been doing a lot of ROM lately, & it’s is totally helping me: Sunday i realized that my neck is turning more to the right, which is so awesome! Before it only would turn like 45 degrees, & my eyes won’t turn well to that side either, so I couldn’t see very well turning to my right…I had to either turn my chair, or sit on the right, so my head only had to turn left! but now i can actually see the “blindside” on the right! (it’s ONLY been 10+ years…lol) i keep turning my head to just make sure it’s still able to do it!

It was real windy during horse therapy Tuesday, which actually made it tough to keep my balance–strange cuz when I sit on my mat with Angie there, her son actually tries to knock me over, & I am proud to say that I easily resist him, so it’s odd that between the wind & a left arm that kept having tremors or something, I was throwing me off balance.

As u know, I?ve been trying to work on being able to straighten my left arm, since it really helps me balance in horse therapy. I have Angie sit me on a mat so I can do weight-bearing on my arm, & I?ve been working on figuring out which muscles straighten my left arm. Between horse therapy & the mat exercises, I?ve realized that I can move my left shoulder & left elbow?but I need my hand moved to where I can activate those muscles, & I?m not sure yet where that is.

If u’ve seen my YouTube video “Jenny’s Story”?you may recall seeing me sitting on my mat, or on my belly, with my arms bent, doing weight-bearing exercises on my shoulders. If I?ve fallen, I?ve always needed help getting back up.

However, today (Wednesday) I was doing weight-bearing on my straight arms & knees, & I collapsed. Without thinking, I did a ?girl push-up? & got back up! Since my left hand was in ?the right place? (where ever that is!) & couldn?t move, I ended up doing about 3 or 4 ?girl push-ups? by controlling the relax & straighten motion in my arm! My left bicep is shaking from the workout, but I am thrilled!

Also, I voted all by myself Tuesday: mk has always signed my name & I tell him how to vote for me (since I couldn’t see, due to my double vision, in order to do it), but I did it all myself this time. Luckily, I only had to choose 1 candidate on the ballot, & that 1 person was the only person I knew (I am not very knowledgable about political stuff), but it’s just one more thing that I was never supposed to do again, yet I did! Yay!