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I came down with strep throat on April 24. I was pretty sick for a few days then the antibiotics kicked it.

I had no appetite when I had a fever of 102 for three days and it didn’t come back after it broke.

I was queasy for the 10 days I was taking the antibiotics and I didn’t drink a drop of alcohol. Ugh, I didn’t want to anyway.

When I was better I still had a small appetite and didn’t want to drink wine or any sort of cocktail. I drank lots and lots of water.

I could tell I lost weight so I weighed myself. I lost 5 pounds. Good I thought I could use too.

I noticed I could breathe better. I had more energy. I could dance fast at belly dance and not get winded doing anything.

I felt amazing. I began to eat healthier lighter food since the weather was warm. I became aware of what I was eating. I still wasn’t drinking alcohol.

The second week of May I had yet another colonoscopy at Dartmouth Hitchcock to see if the infusions were doing its job. They were and I am in complete remission!

The fasting was easy for me as I prepped for the colonoscopy. This was the first time I didn’t complain I was hungry or craving something.

Since then I’ve had a couple of glasses of wine at a dinner party that I didn’t really enjoy and they clobbered the hell out of me.

Could the alcohol be a contributing factor to my weight lose I started to wonder. Previously, I drank two glasses of wine or a cocktail every night.

I read up on it and yes that could be a factor for sure. I was sleeping better and woke up ready to tackle anything.

I got a call from my pulmonologist last Friday after completing a few different tests right before and the day of the colonoscopy, before I should add.

He said that nothing changed and my heart looked normal, no pulmonary hypertension which needed to be ruled out.

I told him how great I felt and how active I am again. I went on to tell him I am not winded when I am dancing fast or going up stairs anymore.

I feel 25 years younger like I did a long time ago. I also shared with him I lost 12 pounds since having strep throat.

He told me losing weight is making all those wonderful things happen and obviously why I feel so good.

If I wanted to stay asymptomatic and keep feeling like I do I need to continue to follow a healthy lifestyle.

In other words, keep doing what I’m doing. I’ve cooked some delicious and flavorful meals that are healthier for the both of us.

I started to lift weights again to tone my body and regain the muscle I lost. I’ve been swimming laps in our pool which is a lovely 87 degrees.

Will I drink again, I am sure I’ll have a drink here and there when we are with friends but maybe not since it has no appeal to me now.

I know I’ll still eat bad at Martin’s but I eat small portions anyway. I’m not on a diet, I’ve changed my lifestyle so I can breathe better and do the things I want to do again.

I feel amazing and young. I’m tan and have already been in our pool more than I did all last year, just floating around on my chaise lounge and relaxing.

My life is really great right now guys. I never in a million years I’d be here again and it feels fabulous!

I will be sharing my healthier meals and recipes as we go on from here. I know I can lighten up my cooking without sacrificing any deliciousness.

So far since having pneumonia last year I’ve lost about 26 lbs. I have 5 more pounds to go to be back into my ideal weight range.

It’s so weird that it took strep throat to completely change my life back for the better, which is where I want to stay.

See how my garden grows. My flowers and vegetable garden in my Vegtrug raised garden beds is off to an amazing start!

I wrote about the greens in one of the beds last week. Since then, the three other beds have skyrocketed.

I bought most of my veggies plants but from seed I planted the greens, English and sugar snap peas. In another bed, I planted beet, carrot, and green bean seeds.

Next year, I plant to attempt veggies. I am already excited about it.

The parsnip seeds I planted in another bed haven’t done anything so far. I’m getting a little bummed out.

I am growing 3 varieties of tomatoes; San Marzano, Big Beef, and Fourth of July.

I never saw Fourth of July tomatoes before which are supposed to produce tomatoes by the Fourth.

Yesterday, I noticed I have those precious little yellow flowers on that plant. It’s incredible that they can cultivate when something is supposed to ready by.

I’ll keep you posted on that. I planted herbs, another tomato plant, and some cucumbers in containers.

I went to a nursery that I haven’t been to since the boys were young. They always had different varieties of things you don’t see.

I decided to visit the sweet couple that own The Greenery in Salem, NY again in April. The two kinds of petunias I chose are different from any other ones I’ve seen.

The wildflower garden I put in last week is loaded with tiny seedlings. The perennial garden in front of our house is doing nicely.

The thing I’ve really enjoyed is our hummingbird feeder. I have to be honest, this is the first one we’ve ever had.

As I watch the hummingbirds go back and forth from the feeder right outside of the window in our back room I wondered why this was the first.

I realized why. I never had time before to first of all sit still enough to enjoy one or have the time to change the sugar water every couple of days.

Marty and I are both enjoying watching the hummers. Whenever we sit in the back room there are always one or two that come by.

Marty said I have spent more time outside this year than I have since the boys were young and he’s right. I am loving it too.

Last year’s close call made me reevaluate everything in my life and I’ve changed in miraculous ways. All for the better.

I don’t have silver bells or cockle shells in my garden like Mary did, I have so much! ♥️

I am so excited; I have made two meals with spinach and arugula from my garden!

Over the winter, I studied and watched videos about vegetable gardens. There was so much I didn’t know.

This year, I planted the seeds correctly. I learned about companion gardening and understood why I failed horribly last year.

So what did I make? This post will be more about the delicious food than bore you with gardening facts.

Tuesday night, I made two different flatbread pizzas that weren’t traditional.

The first flatbread was a white pie with lots of garlic, sautéed spinach, olive oil, mozzarella, and ricotta cheese. It was so flavorful!

The second pie was a fig, bacon because I didn’t have any prosciutto, mozzarella cheese, olive oil, bleu cheese crumbles topped with arugula.

The sweet, salty, and tanginess from the bleu cheese were in perfect balance. The arugula was the bitterness to cut through the richness and fat of the pizza. Yum!

I have had these two flatbreads in my head since I planted those seeds less than a month ago.

They were as good as I expected them to be, but next time, I will use prosciutto since they were a little bacon-forward.

Yesterday, before dance classes, I made us a light meal with protein, spinach, garlic, lemon, and toasted breadcrumbs. I say light because we don’t eat until after 8:30 pm.

I made a fantastic scampi over white rice. By the way, those aren’t scallops but tofu, which I cut with a small round cutter. I also cut the leftover pieces up and threw them in. The texture and taste were pretty damn close.

This was a lighter protein and a really good substitute. The tofu block cost me only .75 cents, as opposed to the price of day boat scallops.

I’ve gone back out to cut more spinach, arugula, and lettuce. It’s growing as fast as I can use it. I’m jumping for joy over this!

I love the process of cutting the leaves, washing them, spinning them dry, and eventually putting them in ziplock bags.

I crouch down like they do in Eastern countries and work right on the terrace rocks. It feels primal in a way. Nelly was very interested in what I was doing. She does everything with me.

I put in the rest of my vegetable garden, which I will post about soon. 👩🏻‍🌾

I spent Friday and Saturday afternoon, and the early morning on Sunday to create and plant my wildflower garden.

I did everything they said to do on various YouTube videos but there was one young woman who really spoke to me.

I realized all the things I’ve done wrong when planting seeds in the past. Now I had the chance to do things right.

I cut out the flower bed, removed the lawn, and edged it. It went smoothly.

It was a bit of work, but I am feeling fantastic these days without any breathing issues and after last Tuesdays colonoscopy, I am in complete remission! 🥳

The thing I was doing wrong when planting seeds was either burying them too deep or covering them too much.

I finally figured out what cover lightly means. The gal on YouTube had a great suggestion when it was time to plant my seeds.

She showed how sprinkled the seeds in the lightly cultivated flower bed. She stepped on the seeds so they wouldn’t fly away or float away.

Next, she used a colander to cover the seeds lightly with potting mix. Ah, that’s what lightly means.

So I did that. She said to water the seeds every morning and evening unless it rains until the seeds germinate keeping it moist. Then water as needed.

I used a bag of northeast native perennial seeds. It looked like a lot but it wasn’t, a common mistake people make.

I also added sunflower and annual seeds to the mix along with Ann’s seeds.

My friend Ann from NJ, who visits our area gave me a bag of different mums and other flower seeds she collects in the fall.

When I was done I prayed. Now, all I can do is wait and see what happens.

I know wildflower gardens take years to become lush and full by reseeding itself but I’d be happy with some flowers. 🙂

Above is a photo of me with my long thick hair. People who I knew well and not so well would ask me if it was real and could they touch it.

It was women who asked to touch my hair and would tell me how amazing my hair was. Then, it happened.

Last year, after a horrific year of sickness and breathing issues, it wasn’t until the end of July that the lung disease I was diagnosed with was not pulmonary fibrosis which would kill me in less than 3-5 years.

I had a nervous breakdown in March when I was first diagnosed with lung disease.

While I was waiting three months to see a specialist at Dartmouth Hitchcock I was frightened and very stressed out.

The stress and thoughts running through my head made me become weak and fragile. The smoke from the Canadian wildfires didn’t help.

I didn’t want my family to watch me suffocate to death. I thought about getting it over with and sparing them a slow death.

Finally after seeing the Dartmouth pulmonologist and finding out this type of lung disease wasn’t deadly, I relaxed.

Then my hair started falling out at the end of August.

In the months following until January of this year, my hair came out at an astonishing rate.

Every day when I brushed my hair I would have brush fulls of hair come out.

After I washed my hair combs full of hair came out then more when I dried it.

I could pull literally handfuls of hair out of my head. It was very scary. I cried a lot as I put handfuls of hair in the bathroom garbage.

I felt like I was Samson losing all my power as I was trying to adjust to my new health issues.

I was afraid of losing all my hair out of vanity I guess. My hair was my thing. My one last good thing.

As we age skin loosens and things sag. Every day is like opening a fortune cookie; today you will get age spots on your face. Oh look, varicose veins.

If you are older than 45 you know what I am talking about. Different pains, more grunts and groans. Losing the figure you once had.

No one really prepares you for old age, not that I consider myself old. I am older. lol.

Nothing prepared me for my hair falling out of my fucking head. Luckily, it fell out all over my head and not in clumps like alopecia.

I began looking at wigs and hair extensions. As soon as I googled wigs, all of my newsfeeds were full of women’s hair loss.

Some women’s hair falls out like patterned baldness on top of their heads. I watched many reels of children, teens, men, and women with alopecia getting their first real hair wigs.

Wigs have come a long way since my Nana and Aunt Claire wore them.They look so real and they don’t come off.

I watched a young wig specialist who has alopecia herself dive into a pool and her wig which was made of human hair stayed put and looked like real wet hair.

This changes the lives of people with alopecia. There are also easy-to-apply eyebrows for children and men to apply. Women can draw them on.

The eyebrows look so real. When young teens see themselves with real hair and eyebrows they wept tears of joy. Boys and girls alike.

My hair loss slowed down by the end of January then over the next couple of months went back to a regular amount of hairs we all lose every day about 100 they say.

I did try a synthetic hair extensions that looked good but was such a pain in the ass to put on and it was very uncomfortable.

I knew I would never be able to wear anything on my head in the warm weather since I sweat like a pig from my head.

That’s when I decided to cut my now stringy long hair that was holding on for dear life.

With a little help from Marty I gave myself a blunt cut just past my shoulders. I plan to keep this length while all the hairs are growing back in.

Some hair is already two inches long. I can feel in top of my head how thick it’s growing back. Thank goodness.

Stress is a killer. I knew I was stress out having panic and anxiety attacks constantly last year, but I didn’t know I was stressed that bad.

It’s taken me a while to get up the courage to write about my hair loss. My hair still looks ok just thin.

The photo that I took tonight is very hard for me to post. I am exhausted after today’s production and look horrible.

I can tell from my expression that I am uneasy with a forced smile and my body language is stiff.

I can also tell that when I feel like I look good I tilt my head which isn’t the case in tonight’s photo.

So that is my hair loss story. A hard tale to tell but I did it.

I am finally realizing my power was not in my hair but was in me all along.

Gulp, I’m hitting publish now. 😕

Planting flowers, herbs, and veggie gardens have been a tradition since my first Mother’s Day.

I’ve learned the hard way after 28 years to not go full steam ahead. My veggie plants, herbs, and root vegetable seeds will wait until after our last frost date 5/24.

I did start some English peas, sugar snap peas, arugula, spinach, and lettuce a couple of weeks ago.

Yesterday morning, Noah and Aja stopped by bright and early. They bought me the most beautiful and perfect hanging basket.

The flowers are different shades of purple with deep purple almost black vines.

Aja picked out the most beautiful piece of butterfly art for my garden. It flaps its wings in the breeze. I love it so much.

I made three hanging baskets with 3 small varieties of flowers. I saw a few I loved over the winter when I was studying gardening.

This year, I planted English cottage flowers that should spill out of the baskets with a soft appearance.

So far, I love how they look. If we do get a frost I can bring them inside easily.

Later in the day, I got a call from Sam wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day.

I am still in awe that my body made such incredible sons. It was the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever accomplished, twice!

Mother’s Day is joyful for some people and an emotional day for others. It’s been both for me for many years.

This was the first Mother’s Day I thought of my mother Eileen fondly and wished her a Happy Mother’s Day in heaven.

It feels amazing to not carry around all that pain and anger anymore.

I haven’t written much this week because I’ve been working on a big outdoor project that is close to completion.

I can’t wait to share it with you! 🤗

My sister Jen and my niece Sofia came for a quick visit a couple of weeks ago.

Jen bought me a beautiful blue nikko hydrangea scrub/plant.

The color was stunning I never saw any flower that blue before besides in photos of Cape Cod.

The same week my three tulips bloomed, yes I only have three but will be planting many more this fall.

I usually drive by them going in and out of the driveway. I can’t see them from the house or the porch.

This year, I used my brain and thought, “Hey, dumbass, why don’t you cut the tulips and enjoy them inside.”

They were so pretty and colorful. I loved watching them open during the day and close at night.

Shhhhh, I don’t know they did that. Some kind of gardener I am, but I’ve learned a lot over the winter.

Yesterday, I bit the bullet and planted the blue hydrangea in our front yard garden bed.

I followed exactly how they did it on YouTube videos. The flowers were spent so I clipped them off in the right spot.

They say if you do this you will have continuous blooms until the fall. I hope so, how cool would that be?

After I got done giving the hydrangea a hair cut, I fertilized the ground before I put the hydrangea in the hole I dug.

I watered it and said a pray it survives. This is not something I would have bought myself. So fingers crossed. 🙏🏼🤞🏼

I still have a lot of work to do out the front garden beds before I start snapping photos.

I can’t wait to show you what else I’ll be planting. I’m going to a plant sale on Saturday and hoping to pick up a few more perennials.

That’s it from here, have a great night guys!

I know I post a shitload of Nelly photos with her looking so peaceful and usually sleeping.

That’s the cuddly side of her. Then there is the funny and playful side. She is hysterical to watch.

Nelly is great at keeping herself busy with her toys if I am busy in the house.

My role is Nelly’s nurturer, her spa attendant, her private chef, and most of all her mommy. I love these rolls.

I didn’t not chose to be her playmate.

When Klaus was alive he was Nelly’s playmate. That was the best year of his life.

After Klausie died Marty filled that role and Nelly is as relentless with him as she was with Klaus.

She pulls all her tricks to get him to play with her like she did with Klaus.

She barks at him, snaps at his limps like piranha girl, tries to rile him up until he can’t say no.

See why I didn’t chose that role? 😂

After 15 minutes of playing her favorite game of fetch the ball, Klaus taught her well, she is exhausted.

Once exhausted, she will snuggle with Marty for hours with piranha girl no where in sight. Just daddy’s little sweetheart.

Marty is at the farmers market today so Nelly is content to snuggle next to me any chance she gets, listens for the sounds of me cutting up fruits or vegetables, and follows me from room to room.

Before we got Nelly, we spoke to our breeder in depth specifying exactly the kind of dog we needed at this point in our lives.

We wanted a little cuddle bug with a playful side and boy, did he deliver. ☺️

I drew this last Sunday. I look for things that I want to learn to draw. I liked this style and how whimsical it was.

I always show my practice pieces to my friend and dance student Maria Wulf.

She liked my version of the drawing better than the original, “It has more movement and feeling.”

I added a bumblebee, a ladybug, and a couple more flies. They needed to be there.

I knew that as I was recreating the original it felt too angular and straight to me.

You can see Maria’s style of artwork on her website at http://fullmoonfiberart

I wonder what I’ll draw next? Like my blog posts I have no idea.