Author: Yajaira

A Year Since My Fracture

I’ve honestly been tip-toe-ing (literally) this entire month leading up to October 27th, which is when I broke my stupid ankle in 6 places last year. I’m attributing that to PTSD and just having bad luck for the past couple of years. But my anniversary came and went. I haven’t broken anything else, thank God. But these days I only wear flats and am constantly looking at the ground when I’m walking. I’m telling you–PTSD.

But I managed to lose 30 lbs. since March, thanks to sticking to Keto.

Although I’m still not working out, I feel better about myself these days and I was able to go from pre-diabetic during my July 2021 labs (6.3 A1C) to 5.3 A1C this past August 2022. My goal is to further lower that number. I’ve recently been denied physical therapy (ever since the staff changed, things just aren’t the same. I miss Lynnette!), so I need to start using my treadmill and stationary bike.

As for my mental health: my new meds seem to be doing better for my depression and anxiety (but that could also be because things seem to be falling into place for me lately). I’m no longer experiencing those weird brain zaps or leg twitches and I haven’t gained weight, thank goodness.

I’m also hoping to make more changes to get further in my career with the government, so that’s kind of what I’m focused on right now. Work has been great, even though Julianna promoted to a supervisory position in Laredo and she’s leaving šŸ˜„ .

And speaking of: Eenan is now working and Jaylen just switched jobs/careers. I’m so proud of them!

And the girls: well, they’re too busy being teenagers with social lives but they are both doing great in school so I’m fine with driving them around. Sometimes LOL.

Seeing my friends lately has been a challenge. Everyone’s busy or have things going on in their own lives. But I finally got to catch up with Sally this past Friday. It was nice and she’s always a wonderful hostess.

It’s Sunday and I have errands to run and stuff to study so this will be all for now. I’m only blogging because I reformatted my hard drive yesterday and wiped it clean and it’s actually working! On to my next cup of coffee 8) .

What An Anniversary!

After a good year of not being able to get myself to finish typing out this entry, I was finally ready and I believe healed enough to finally post the blog post about my idiot ex-husband and his 19-yr-old mistress. It was literally almost to the day. I still canā€™t believe how much shit happened since: ballooning to 150 lbs due to depression, antidepressants, breaking my leg/foot and just feeling awful about myself (I mean, what woman wouldnā€™t, when youā€™re seemingly replaced by a CHILD). I still canā€™t believe all of that happened. I mean, I knew he was a mentally-unstable asshole, but I never thought he would stoop so low. Anyway, it was time wasted, I changed mentally and physically for the worst, and back again for the better and I feel so much better about myself than I have in years. I learned to finally value my worth and have become more selective in whom I even start a friendship with, much less a relationship. Iā€™m just happy the trash threw itself out šŸ™‚ .

Mental Health Update

I swear I should have gone into psychologyā€”like Eenan is. Maybe then Iā€™d understand mental health a bit more; namely: mine.

Eenan was diagnosed with ADHD about a year ago and the therapist told him this is something that heā€™s probably had since he was a little kid that went undetected. I felt so bad when he told me this, because a couple of his teachers brought it up to me in elementary, but one of those teachers was an older woman who didnā€™t like dealing with her 2nd graders AT ALL. I could hear her losing her shit with them even before 8am when I was passing by Eenanā€™s class on the way from dropping off Jaylen at his class. Eenan always had good grades, always understood lessons. Really brilliant kid. He was just talkative and would draw during the teacherā€™s lectures and would distract the other kids because he was done with his work faster than anyone (which is exactly why I would get in trouble in middle school). So I figured he was just getting bored or his work was too easy for him.

But no. It was probably ADD the whole time. Then the therapist told him that it usually comes from one of the parents. How much you wanna bet that parent is me??

For example: I got out of bed and washed up and made a cup of coffee with full intentions of going back to bed to read. But I didnā€™t even make it back to my bedroom because I started messing with my plants while drinking coffee. I suddenly remembered I wanted to get ahead on laundry and put a few ā€œdarksā€ into the washing machine but never set the machine to wash. I was going to heat up leftovers and didnā€™t because I started hanging the chalkboard pen holder on the wall in the kitchen. But I was looking for a screwdriver so I started cleaning the drawer where all the tools are and I completely forgot about eating lunch or doing laundry entirely *facepalm*.

So, me, possibly having ADHD, explains A LOT. Iā€™ve always wondered why I canā€™t just finish anything or why my mind wanders off when Iā€™m reading! Perhaps this is something to bring up to my therapist at my eval tomorrow morning? Iā€™m just afraid of what kind of side effects Iā€™d have if they prescribe me new meds. I was finally able to completely wean myself off of Paroxetine/Paxil. I donā€™t recommend it after my experience with it. Weight gain, brain zaps and ā€œwhooshingā€ in my ears when I would turn my eyesā€”yeah, itā€™s as fucked up as it sounds lol. Iā€™m actually still getting mild brain zaps, but thankfully itā€™s now when Iā€™m about to go to sleep as opposed to when I was DRIVING.

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Oops, of course I wouldnā€™t finish that entry and upload it in one day *facepalm*. I went to my re-eval with my psychiatrist and I told him my concerns about possibly being bipolarā€”because Iā€™d been losing my shit with the kids over small stuff more than usual (dishes piled high, trash piled high, dirty floors, etc.). He chuckled and told me no, that his wife had just done that that morning and then apologized to everyone, heh. He said thatā€™s just a natural reaction as a parent and if I had been bipolar, I would have had hospitalizations by now and this is something I would have had since I was a child. So, thatā€™s a relief! However, I completely forgot to ask about the ADHD thing, but Iā€™m kind of glad I forgot because Iā€™m sure I would have been put on meds for it and he just got me started on Fluoxetine. Letā€™s see how that one goes! Not going to lieā€”after the way Paroxetine made me feel, Iā€™m really nervous about this new drug. But weā€™ll see. He said there shouldnā€™t be weight gain with this one. There better not be! (Okā€”I looked it up and…Fluoxetine is Prozac!! Iā€™m watching The Sopranos right now and Tony Soprano takes it and I am not ok with the side effects! I Googled it and yupā€”no low sex-drive for me, thankyouverymuch!!)

Anywayā€”been trying more than ever to keep myself busy and distract myself from things that may cause me anxiety. Iā€™ve taken on some DIYā€™s and of course the kids and plants keep me busy. And my matitas make me so happy and I feel ELATED when theyā€™re thriving and doing wellā€”like a Goddess of Nature. But as soon as one starts dying on me the depression and feeling worthlessness sets in and Iā€™m back at square one. FML.

This is an old photo. There is much more craziness going on here these days, heh.

I digress (see, thereā€™s that ADD again). The first project was finally painting the vintage dresser Iā€™d gotten Alaethia about 2 years ago when Jorge and I first got separated (the boys moved with Jorge to the house he was renting and the girls each got to finally have their own rooms). We needed another dresser but I didnā€™t have tons of money to spend. So we spray painted their old, colorful dresser white and Emily took that one. Then, I was on the lookout on Marketplace for a cheap one. Lo and behold: there was a vintage dresser for $100, but I brought it down to $80. I was thrilled with it: it looked like Momā€™s old one, except hers had a cascading edge where the drawers are. It needed some work, but I knew with some TLC and elbow grease it would be amazing.

Sadly, Alaethia ended up not liking how it looked in her room, so it spent a good year and a half in the garage. I finally decided to give Alaethia my old dresser and paint this one for myself. Iā€™m thrilled with how it came out.

Before…
Sanding this thing was a BITCH.
THE FINAL PRODUCT! Iā€™m in love!

Next was my chalkboard wall that Iā€™d been wanting to paint since around 2014. I bought one chalkboard paint can at that time and then returned it because I never used it. Then, about 3 years ago, I went and bought ANOTHER chalkboard paint can and it lived in a cabinet in the kitchen till just a few weeks ago. The paint had badly separated and it looked navy blue, but some rigorous mixing got it looking black as night again.

Filled in all the holes and places where the laminate had been pulled off throughout the years. Then I sanded the whole thing down.
1 layer down!
4 coats later!
ā€œConditioningā€ the board
ā€œConditioningā€ part 2: erasing.
Trying it out šŸ™‚

The kids have already had their friends sign it and have jotted down their little jokes. Iā€™m just sad it took me this long to do it!

I will, hopefully, tackle my laundry room next. I got a white shelf for under the cabinet that will hold the dryer sheet bin and other things nicely. A sign that says ā€œlaundry roomā€, from the Chip and Joanna Gaines collection, of course. I bought the gray wall paint for my laundry room and have the white paint for the cabinet. I even patched up a huge hole the plumber left on the wall (about 2 years ago) behind the water heater when he repaired a pipe that burst in the wall and the landlord never sent anyone to fix it. I also finally got the drop cloths and tarp, so hopefully Iā€™ll be motivated enough to tackle it soon. What discourages me is that I can never seem to get those hampers completely empty! Just when I feel like Iā€™m almost there, *poof* 2 comforters and 30 throw pillows show up. Plus a whole bunch of towels and clothes on the floor. The FLOOR, not in one of the 3 hampers in there. Drives me nuts. Iā€™m just going to throw everything in the garage. Story of my life. I wish I had the energy to have a garage sale, but it kind of sucks when you have to do it all yourself.

Anyway! Iā€™m just rambling and bitching now šŸ˜€ . Stay tuned for the next mental health update!