pooped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi there all
For those who know me, along with my ADD, I have accomplanied it with a healthy dose of somthing called Obsessive Compulsivie Disorder (OCD). Right in this moment that means that I am pooped. I looked at the builders beige in the house and felt an overwhelming NEED to deal with it. This means to the "normal" person that painting is required. To me that means that PAINTING needs to be done and COLOR is required to make living bare-able. This also means that ASAP is in order, and that there is almost nowhere not included. I have used almost all the old paint that was stored in the house and have bought several others to make the process easier.
The first project was the kitchen area. This was done in Tuscany style with yellows, white and rust. There was much layering and washing to create the desired effect ( about 4 layers of color ). Next, the lower entrance hallway, this was done is a variety of color in abstract layered block, colors being light purpley blue, dark purply blue, rust, cobalt blue, dark sage green and white lining. That felt good so next project, the upper hallway-gallery, done in 2 colors of blue and a nice cranberry red with the support columns done in crisp white. This is great to set off my paintings. Next the yucky kids bathroom hallway done is the purply blue and crisp white. Then next was the guest bedroom done it the 2 different blues and also a feature wall of a plaid style with the 2 blues, white and dark sage green. Then the living room-tv room done in rust and sage green, with a feature wall done in varying widths of stripes of rust, white, light and dark sage green and cobalt blue (way coooooool). Finally, the student room is done in the 2 sage greens, unfortunately this has caused the only glitch in the painting projects and has caused the room to unpleasantly shrink in seeming size. ( the only failure, but at least it is not builders beige!!!!!!!). Most of the spaces required 2 layers of paint to cover that horrible builders beige. Now to normal people this project would take a while, for me not so. I have also failed to mention that I am an insomniac. This means that I sleep about 2-5 hours a night and this means that if there is something that my person feels needs to be done, I can easily find the time. These 6 rooms and hallways were done within 1 week. The problem was the first room being the kitchen area as 4 layers had to be done to get the right effect, that took the most time as I had to live in it to figure out the problems of color and shading. So now I feel a bit tired. I have only one wall left to do in the morning, I have had to wait, as the paint wouldn't dry properly and I can do it in the morning. But the spurt is almost over and I can enjoy the color around me. My friend came by the other day, quite shocked to the amount that had been done and also the amount of color used. She happily left with the project to paint her living space as well. I love to inspire people to live in color. But the compliment she gave me was this, not only are your paintings a work of art but also the house is a work of art that embraces and brings to light the paintings that live there. This was a nice one for me to hear and keep me inspired. For now though, I am feeling a power sleep coming on, the 2 vodka and cokes to celebrate the near completion aren't helping much to stop the sleepiness. So knowing my sleeping patterns and requirements, also my ADD and obsessive compulsive charge that I have, I will be up within several hours to complete my job. When I am not painting either the house or my own paintings, I read a great deal. I love my e-reader and the books that I have on it. I have passed this legacy of ADD and OCD onto my son. Fortunately, though he is not an insomniac yet, maybe later like me. Anyway, I grow tired and my writings are starting to show it. Talk with you all later.
Please be kind to those who have special gifts and talents even though they do not seem to be the norm, it gives you a chance to be non-normal too.
Robin

homeschooling and life after

Hi there
Well, Rachelle seems to be on her way to finishing schooling. She, I think will do well. Although I have guilt for her not having a high school prom or having a drivers licence that she would have if we had stayed in Canada, here she has a job waiting for her in a hotel where they want to train her for hotel services and she speaks 2 languages fluently. She also has ADD and some asperbergers syndrome but her obsessive part is human understanding so she is easy to slide into society.
Now Dane, for those of you who know him, he is a wonderful person full of ideas and understanding, he is now just learning that he has to study humans and how to communicate that will get him heard and be apart of society. For those of you who don't know him nor have even given the time to understand asperbergers, you need to bone up to "get him". Leave your judgements behind and give some time. I remember some time ago there was a girl who was full autistic, who was performing in a school auditorium for Xmas with her class. She was running about and such and generally doing autistic behaviors. One woman in the crowd sitting next to me said how bad the girl was and it was a disgrace etc. I politely said to her that I was proud of her and that she had actually gotten on stage and was doing very well. She said how could I say such a thing..... I said she has autism and I explained what the conditions were for that girl, to where I eventually had to educate her and had the lady agreeing with me on the girls success. She felt bad because she didn't know ahead of time. I said that knowledge is power and it is up to us to inform ourselves rather than pass judgement on things that we don't know. We, as a race, need to be more supportive than judgemental. The same goes for my son. In many ways, you have to go to him rather than he to you. It is very hard for alot of people because it means that someone else is more important than the self. He is being trained to do opposite and he is coming along. But those of you who are not supportive need to educate yourselves on his condition and realize his successes. He is an amazing person, a valuable person. He makes me grow and learn and appreciate life. If you are caught up in yourselves not to appreciate him, it is your loss and I am sorry for you, you are missing out. I have no doubt that he will find his place and do great things, though those decisions are not needed to be made today, they will come in their own time at the perfect time. His science studies are coming and so are his other studies, he is becoming more and more independant. He is still obsessing on certain subjects, but if you look through his eyes you will see why he does, life and its workings are amazing. He is a gift, as all children are, as my grandfather said. There are alot of negative things that we can obsess on, why bother when there are so many more wonderful things to work with!
Love learn and love until you need to
Robin

dipping into un----reality

Hi all, well it has been quite some time since I wrote. I thought that I would have written sooner but life got in the way, and the inspiration to write was dampered. When faced with potentially dangerous medical problems, it tends to decrease the need to share with others and make your life more private as you deal with trauma. So that potentially dangerous medical situation we were dealing with was: my partner in life, Rob having a stroke. While we were hiking for our health in the mountains he had a strange episode. Normally, because Rob is way stronger and faster than me, he is way ahead and waits for me to catch up. But this time, uncharacteristicly, he was walking toward me after a particularly difficult hill. I was jogging to try and keep up and told him to follow me. At another designated catch up site, he was walking toward me with a distracted look on his face. He was chatting to me about how nice it was to live in such a beautiful place, and that it was like he was seeing it for the first time and that he felt it was like a re-awakening, but he was happy and not distressed. Then he looked in his pocket and found his water bottle, and asked how that had got there? Well this day there was quite a reason to remember the water bottle, as it fell into the dog water dish and splashed me. I realized then he was not remembering, so I questioned him further and found larger gaps in his memory and then I did some cognition tests, speech tests and coordination tests and checked his eyes and heart rate, what I could do on the mountain. The only thing that I found was the memory block, everything else was good. As we approached the city, 40 min later, he started to get concerned about the memory loss, though he remembered the kids but not the house guest etc. By the time we got home, his memory was coming back but he kept asking me if he had a stroke and I said I think so, but he asked me about 20 times and I finally had to ask him if he remembered asking me in the first place. Needless to say this inspired a full investigation of the man's brain box and cardiovascular system. We started off first with getting a ct scan in the neighboring city of Ambato ($130 and results in half an hour) to make sure that he could travel to higher elevation of Quito for the MRI the next day. Since there was no bleeder in his brain we felt safe and we went the next day and had the MRI ( $160, results in 1 hour) again nothing accept healthy brain. Went back to Banos and organized a doppler (checking the carotid and jugular blood vessels for integrity) a slight deviation there. Hmmmmmm that clinic suggested another exam and when we went there the price went up because of our I am sorry to say this......... extranjero--ness and they didn't even show up for the exam. We ran out of there feeling lucky indeed having not spent that kind of money and not feeling safe or taken advantage of. So then we went to Vozandes hospital in Shell, where we waited most of the day and had an angiogram and also told that doctor of the blood work that was done that showed his blood a little high in cholesterol. Overall, there he had a great doctor and since it was a missionary hospital, one that spoke in English. Next a referral to a neurologist in Quito for the first time, we had to wait for an appointment, 2 weeks. She was a very good doctor (unfortunately only spanish speaking but we worked it out satisfactorily thank god for google translate and having a med background) and requested a ultrasound, of his heart and a scan of his neck. Well finally some sort of showing, he has a fatty deposit in his neck that when the doppler tech was sliding around the wand, it interupted the results to show inconsistency and not a fistula of the carotid-jugular. However this still does not explain the memory loss with a man who has the heart of an athlete and the brain of a healthy individual, (I can't say Einstien as he had a smaller than normal brain size). As nothing else could be explained, the final thought would be artiosclerosis. But there is no evidence to support that either. Of course dealing with alopathic md means meds, meds, meds. But with no scientific support of artiosclerosis this means either more investigation on our part, and utilizing naturopathic medicine and being fully responcible for our own health through diet and exercise. So, when he goes to Canada he will visit his friendly and wonderful naturopath and they will deal with it. So after spending very little money for tests to be done with all the results done in hours of the tests, I feel pretty good about the health system of Ecuador. I am also glad that I have a med background to help and guide the process. I think that we made all the right decisions and found out everything way faster than if we had been in Canada. Sitting on pins and needles is not good for health or peace of mind and would have given me an ulcer!!!!! I did find that I was under alot of stress as after the test in Quito because in a restuarant a guy was about to try and steal my backpack and I had saved it and I was so annoyed chomped down on a bone in my food that I didn't know was there and broke my tooth. Wannnnnnn, so I had to go to the dentist and for $25 he fixed it. Where I met a fellow Canadian who was on a dental trip here to get a dental plate made (better than Canada and cheaper). It seems more and more Canadians are making the trip here for their medical concerns, I understand why.
So that is my excuse for not writing, and I feel that after this episode I will enjoy a nice relaxing break. I will continue with my fitness practices and watching my diet, I will try and incorporate raw again into my diet (as much to other people's opinion is yucky and tastes gross) but I love the flavors and how wonderful I feel when I am eating raw!!!!! I probably don't have nearly as healthy of a heart as Rob so I have to take care of it as I have an arhythmia.
I also hope to go back to painting and hang out in my studio again. My paintings are needing some shot of fun and also maybe some more abstract or even different approach. My mind needs an opening and loving kindness after this episode and home schooling commitment.
The garden looks amazing and filled with tropical plants and flowers. We have not had ANY snow, but nice weather with sun and occasional rain. I love going into the mountain and finding the different plants. If you can check out the flower from the taxo plant it is truely amazing, a flower in a flower.
be kind to each other, patient and rely on your instincts as they are usually correct although the occasional outburst of crankiness will help to release tension even if other people don't like it.
Robin