Whadda ya get? Pruuuney fingers!

My nephew got married about a month before our oldest daughter got married. He lives several states away, and we were not able to get to his wedding. They are having another ceremony a year from now, I think, but I'm not sure we'll be able to make it to it, either. It just depends on so many things. However, we will be visiting family soon, and we'll be having a bit of a family reunion. So I've decided to make them a pinata for a belated wedding gift. They can use it at the family reunion, or they can save it and use it at the reception for their official wedding ceremony. It's up to them.

I've made pinatas for a couple of my brothers who got married several years ago. They turned out really cute. I wish I knew where the pictures were, and I'd post them, but I have no clue where they might be. Maybe someday...

One brother collected Mickey Mouse stuff his entire life. He just loved Mickey. So as a bachelor, he had the Mickey phone, the sheets, the pillows, etc. It was just a part of who he was, and it was really kind of neat. So the pinata I made when he got married was the head of Mickey Mouse. However, one side of the head was Mickey and the other was Minnie. Minnie wore a veil, a pearl necklace, false eyelashes that went out to here, and blush. Mickey had a top hat and a bow tie.

We bought 3 5lbs bags of candy to fill it, and I apparently made it a bit too strong. After all the kids had gone through blindfolded, they then went through several times w/o blindfolds to hit it. Eventually people were getting a bit restless, so the men in the family took a baseball bat to it with no blindfold, and it still took several swings for it to break open. Still, I'd rather have a pinata that is tough to break than to have it break with the first hit and leave the little kids without a turn at it.

A couple of years later, another brother got married. He'd loved elephants from the time he was tiny. He'd collected quite a few over the years, so it was a no-brainer to choose to make a Mr. and Mrs. Dumbo pinata. Again they shared the same head and ears. But this time they both held flowers. Dumbo held his trunk way out in front of him and had a single red rose in the tip of his trunk, like he was presenting it to his bride. I can't recall, if he had a top hat, but I think he did as well as a bow tie. Mrs. Dumbo held her trunk much closer and it was curled around a little bouquet of roses as though it were her bridal bouquet. She also had the false eyelashes, rouge and veil. I can't remember, if she had the pearl necklace, but I think she did. They never broke it, and as far as I know, it still has 15lbs of candy in it. They've been married for over 10 years now, so I don't know how much I'd trust that candy!

I included a little card with each of the pinatas with the verse from Genesis 2:24 on it. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." The pinata was just my very loose artistic interpretation of the Bible verse. Everyone loved it, and I always thought of how I wanted to make one again.

Enter my nephew and his new wife stage left. The only thing is that I'm not sure what they like. So I'm going to do a moose....er...a Mr. and Mrs. Moose. I'm not sure how close it will look to Bullwinkle, but I'm leaning somewhat in that direction. It will at least involve a two-sided moose head. And once again, I'll make sure I enclose a note card with Genesis 2:24.

I got started on making it today. I put the first 6 coats of paper on the balloon. I'm hoping it will be dry enough tomorrow I can add the string and 6 more coats of paper. If not, I'll just work on the smaller balloons that will be the tips of the noses. My fingers are going to be so wrinkled and pruned for a few days. That's okay. It's for a good cause.

I'll take pictures as I go along and post them all in one post when it's done.

And I'll be using plenty of lotion before bed!

Therapy of sorts.

A friend recently contacted me and asked, if she could use my girls for the subject of a report she has to do for college. She promised me that there would be nothing identifiable about them used, and my husband and I are okay with that. We understand that the genetic issue with them is rare, and as a result we are approached occasionally by friends or even someone who has worked with them medically over the years for this very reason.

Normally, I'm interviewed about them, but my friend lives across the country from me, and with her work and school schedule and the time difference she asked, if I could just write as much as I could about them in an email, and then she'd call me and ask me any questions she might have once she got started on the paper. I agreed to that as well, but I was surprised at how long it took me to write everything out. There was a lot to remember. Six hours later I pushed the 'send' button.

I found myself back in time watching the movies in my head of different things that happened over the years. I realized that we really went through an extraordinary amount with the girls, and I realized that I don't know that I've really processed it all. I think in many ways that I've pushed it aside to deal with later, and as a result much of it feels like it didn't happen to me. I know in my head that it did. I know my heart broke a thousand times with what they went through. And while I know how much our little darlings went through, I don't know that I've honestly acknowledged what we've gone through - what I've gone through as a mom.

This morning when I awoke, my back hurt a little bit. Nothing more than normal, but enough I took some ibuprofen for it. However, the more I wrote about our girls, the more my back hurt. It got closer and closer to spasming, and the less the heating pad helped. I tend to carry stress in my back, and it started feeling like I was carrying quite a lot.

I know that hoarding tendencies (as well as eating at times of stress, becoming an alcoholic, drug abuse, compulsive shopping, etc.) can be present in a person's personality and not be acted upon, but that often a traumatic situation can bring that tendency to the forefront and kick it into overdrive. Especially, if that person doesn't acknowledge the trauma or deal with it or grieve it. And I've always been like Scarlett O'Hara and put off dealing with things, because after all, "Tomorrow is another day!"

Well, I think tomorrow is quickly approaching for me. I've talked with my husband to see, if he was comfortable with me blogging about different things that have happened over the years. He is behind me one hundred percent and told me he thinks I should.

I'm thinking I might. I'm going to think it over and pray about it for a few weeks, before I make a final decision. But I really do think it might help me. There are times that I feel like I've pushed so many feelings down and tried to get it so far away from me that, if I'm bumped just right I'm going to explode.

So yeah. I'm thinking about it.

I think I can. I think I can.

My asthma has been acting up a bit today. It's because I forgot to wear a mask while cleaning the curtains in my bedroom yesterday. I was afraid of that. As a result, I haven't been able to do as much as I would like without coughing up a storm. So I've taken it a little easier today.

When I have a day when I'm not able to accomplish as much as I'd like, I do try to remind myself of the fact that I'm a hoarder and that I need to keep on task, so I can get out of this rut. So I did 'homework' today in the form of watching the latest Hoarders episode. It was an update (filmed a year later) on 4 different people that they'd helped in the first season.

Of the four, there was one complete failure. The home looked just as bad as it did before the show went in and helped the family out, but in all fairness, there was such a resistance to the cleaning at the time that the crew was not able to completely clean the house up when they were there initially. It apparently didn't take long for the woman to fill the house back up, and she now faces jail time, if she isn't able to get the house cleaned within the time frame given. At the rate of progress she's making, it looks like she's probably going to serve time.

The second situation was similar to the first in that the crew was not able to completely clean this man's property. He is still getting citations on a weekly basis to get things cleaned up for 'criminal littering'. He has several acres, and he has literal tons of metal scrap, old appliances and vehicles. If I remember correctly, he has 17 vehicles in all. That's the bad news. The good news is that he hasn't added a lot to the mess. He's added 2 semi trailers and a refrigerator, so that in and of itself is progress. However, he hasn't gotten rid of enough, and he may lose his property, if he doesn't clean it up.

The third situation involves a woman who hoards food. And while she did not completely get her home finished when they were there, she has maintained for the most part. You can still see her floors, tabletop and counters. However, she also still has food in the refrigerator and freezer that is outdated by 6 months or more, and she insists that it's not bad. That she'll throw it out, if she's worried about it. And while I do believe that some expiration dates are included just to make people buy things more quickly, I would be afraid to eat most things that were outdated by more than 6 months or that were growing green fuzzies on them.

The last situation is the only one that seems to be a complete success story at this time. It's a young man with an alcoholic father. When Hoarders came to their house and cleaned it out, they found hundreds upon hundreds of wine bottles from the dad's drinking stash. They were empty, but he'd consumed the contents of each one. He was drunk the entire time the crew was there. The young man is now going to college and the father has stopped drinking wine entirely and seems to be getting his life together. He's still drinking a couple of beers every day, but he was clearly not drunk during this interview like he was a year before.

It was eye-opening to say the least. It's scary to think the recidivism rate is so high amongst hoarders. But I can't help but think that a lot of it has to do with how willing the person was to participate in the initial cleanup in the first place. I really do think that a person has to be willing to make the changes themselves, or they won't be successful, and even then it's going to be a daily struggle.

I know that there are days it's easier for me physically and mentally than other days. I also know that I want to be free of clutter and the hoarding mess from the very depths of my soul. Due to circumstances, it may take longer than I'd like it to take to get all the way to the goal, but I will get there.

It will happen.