And

Mother's first birthday and Christmas in the nursing home

Continuing with the "Firsts"

Gene has spent his first night in the hospital.
Not bad to be 57 and never been in the hospital. All in all he liked it. Just push a button and get waited on......that did not carry-over once he got home.

A Year of Firsts

My first Thanksgiving without daddy; very little food, very little eaten.

My family always believed in "giving". We loved to give gifts. What wonderful memories I have of my daddy's family all getting together at Christmas with presents piled to the ceiling. We always had over 50 family members all crammed into my Papa Copes little house. Presents, presents, presents..we all bought for everybody.

This year, for the first time, I can literally get all of my Christmas gifts "under" the tree..not around it, literally under it......thanks Scrooge, bah humbug!

So, this is a year of "firsts". I don't like it at all.

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A Star in the Making!

Tonight we got to go and watch Trenton Paul perform
with the Little Dribblers!!

He was AWESOME!

Best Laid Plans

Well, so much for a vacation. I did get to stick my toes in the gulf. Daddy got sick and I had to come back home after only 36 hrs in the nice sun. I will rant later about the stupid semi driver that just about killed us on the way home. I am getting too old for an 11 hr car ride. No more trips for me, not even going to try it.

On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!!

I spent another long evening at the ER with mother. She fell again. This time she didn't cut her head, but she sure took a hard hit to the head, and got a huge pump knot. I don't think I have ever seen a knot that big. After a CT scan, they determined that she doesn't have any broken bones, bleeding or concussion. Bless her heart. She just can't walk anymore. They have put a seat belt on her chair, but she has already figured out how to unlock it. It is so strange that she has enough mind to open the seat belt but not enough to know better than to try to get up and walk on her own. I say, "mother, don't get up" she says "ok" and up she pops! Their room is also being painted so they have been displaced into other rooms and are apart. They don't seem to mind being apart, but that isn't surprising since they don't know each other.

The camper is out front, getting all cleaned up!

Sarah got hold of a pair of scissors and decided to give herself a haircut, and this is the result...

So, a trip to the stylist was in order....I think it turned out really cute.

A New Toy!

I just love new toys....here is my newest!

Now I am officially a redneck!

Goodbye Summer!

Well, fall is here. The leaves are starting to turn and fall. I noticed several Fall decorations at houses on my way to Church this morning. The weather is so nice....warm days, cool nights...gotta love it!

But, the end of summer also means that I have this ugly black square in my backyard!
You would think that someone would come up with a way to dress up this big, black, ugly square!
I really don't understand why something that you have in your yard for at least 6 months a year can't be painted to at least add a little interest.

Fall also means that it is time to get the boat out of the water. So, here is the trailer, parked in the driveway waiting for us to get some time to run over to the lake and get the boat and drag it home for the winter. Another pretty site in the yard to look at all winter!
But, the absolute best thing about Fall is Fall Camping. So, now we have the Popup sitting at the front door ready to be loaded up so that we can head out for some Fall camping....aw, campfires and bike riding, hiking and sweatshirts.....can't beat it!


All in all, I like Fall!

Fairy Ring

We have a fairy ring in our yard every year. It is really neat. I love it when all of the mushrooms open; but I usually have to look fast before they get mowed down!

Fairy rings also occupy a prominent place in European folklore as the location of gateways into elfin kingdoms, or places where elves gather and dance. According to the folklore, a fairy ring appears when a fairy, pixie, or elf appears. It will disappear without trace in less than five days, but if an observer waits for the elf to return to the ring, he may be able to capture it.

One of these days I'm gonna catch that elf :)

Started Bad, But Ended Good!

The weekend, that is.

Mother fell again Friday morning. She cut her arm, but thankfully it didn't involve another run to the ER. Bless her heart, she will not stay in a wheelchair, insists on getting up, but really is too unstable to walk alone. She has a chair and bed alarm, but gets up so fast no one can get to her before she falls. She is a disaster waiting to happen. Every time the phone rings I cringe.

Drew, Lindsay and Maddie came in for the weekend! Drew traded his big ole truck for a medium size truck. It is a black Chevrolet Colorado. It is really pretty and economical. We had a really good visit with them.

Saturday we went to a family wedding! It was outside at Crooked Creek Golf Club. It was so pretty and the reception was really nice. The colors were lavender and mint green. Everything was decorated. We had a great time; but it is always fun to get together with the Sizemore/Miller clan....they are a great bunch.

Gene and Gerri Ann

Apparently the newest craze among the younger set is a phone app called Angry Birds. Aaron loves it, so I made him and Sarah some Angry Bird shirts to wear. Aaron wore this one for picture day at school. Love my grandbabies!

A Little Victory!

I have a cousin that lives in Indiana. She has been so much help to me in my situation with mother and daddy. We email back and forth constantly. She is so loving and compassionate. She doesn't work, but she gets to babysit for her 3 grandchildren everyday, and she keeps me laughing. Three children under 5 years old are always up to something. She is fortunate that she gets to spend so much time with them. She says they are keeping her young. She also sends cards and letters to mother almost every week. She usually sends a couple of pictures. Today she sent the two black and white photos you see in the pic. One is a picture of me and her taken when we were about 5 and 6. The other is a picture of Mother with her mother. I asked mother if she knew who was in the pictures. She didn't recognize me or my cousin, but she did recognize herself and her mother. My cousin also sent the picture directly under the black and white of mother and her mother. This is mothers' brother Wallace. The picture is about 40 years old, so Mother actually knows who it is "sometimes" You just never know!

We have a nurse that is staying with them for the next 3 days. I hope this mess on my arm clears up during that time or I am going to have to go and let the dr. take a look at it and make sure that it isn't something that could be dangerous to mother and daddy.

Always something, but could always be worse!

When You Can't Sleep,

You might as well create. I usually just get up and eat (which is something that I absolutely do NOT need to be doing). So last night I decided to do something constructive instead of destructive. So, I got out my projects box and chose this one. I sewed on it most of the night and finished it this morning. Mother loved it! Bless her heart. She looks a lot worse than she feels.


The dolls name is Daisy and she has a reversible dress. I was very tired when I was sewing the dress and for some reason it took me forever to figure out how to make it reversible.

I have this weird blistering rash on my arm (I won't gross you out with pictures). It looks like poison ivy, but it doesn't itch, so I don't have a clue. When I first got it I was afraid it was shingles, but I think that it is just some sort of contact dermatitis. It just hurts when it is touched or when water runs on it.

I will have a couple of days off this week, so I'm thinking casino or Pigeon Forge. Hm? Tough decision.

Next Week Has to be Better!

This week started out ok. Even though I have double shifts at the nursing home this week, it was going pretty good. Daddy was eating good again and that is always a relief. Mother was doing good until.....I got a call at 10:00 pm on Wednesday that mother had fallen and had a cut above her right eye that would require stitches. So, I get out of bed and get dressed in a hurry, thankfully remember to grab the portable file with all her insurance stuff in in and head for the hospital. I get to the hospital before the ambulance. At about 11:15 they roll in with mother on a back board and in a neck brace. She is not happy about it at all. The EMS person said that they had to place the collar on her because when they picked her up they asked her if her neck hurt and of course she said yes. When will people learn that someone with Alzheimers doesn't know their neck from their ankle or anything else. Good grief, health care professionals need more training on dealing with Alzheimers patients. Anyway, mother was in the ER yelling to get this off me. I tried to get the hospital staff to take it off, but they refused to move her off the hard board or remove the neck brace until the Dr. said they could. So, here she lays, in extreme discomfort, but not from her cut, just all the bracing. The Dr. finally comes in to see her bout 2:30 and orders a CT scan. More fun....they wheel her into the lab, still on the hardboard and she yells the whole time. Ok, scan finished and we take the same trip back to the ER, backboard. neck brace and all. Finally about 3:30 they take her off the back board. About 4:00 am the dr. finally comes around with a nurse to put her stitches in. I said "well, I will step outside while you do this" (I really, really hate stitches). The Dr. informs me that I will not leave that I will stay with her and hold her arms down and if I feel like fainting, just try to fall onto the bed!! So, she goes thru the ordeal of the stitching, screaming the whole time, fighting and wanting to leave. Finally at 4:30 she gets to take off the neck brace. THANK YOU JESUS! The ER is filling up with mostly a bunch of horrible people and babies crying all around. Mother hears the babies crying and starts yelling, "what's wrong baby" over and over. So, after paying her insurance copay they call the ambulance to take her back to the nursing home. I followed her back to the nursing home and made sure that she got all settled in and I finally got home around 6:00 am. When I got back down the next day to check on her she looked so pitiful. The cut looks good, but because she is on blood thinner, every little bump puts blood underneath the skin, so you can imagine how bad she looks I took a picture, but it is just too awful to post. She has no recollection of falling at all and said she feels fine. My husband and sister were both out of town this week and the nurse that we hire to stay a few days a month had emergency surgery this week and couldn't help me at all.

And the end to this perfect week, my granddaughter said to me on the phone tonight "I don't like MIMI, Aaron loves MIMI but I don't"

It can only get better...........................

Kash comes to Visit!

Kash came for a visit. It was the first time I have seen him since he was just a tiny infant. Now, he is a big boy, crawling around everywhere. He will be walking in no time. We had a picnic in honor of his visit. The weather was great and the kids and adults had a great time in the pool.

Gene, Berlon an Carvel having a bite!

Carmen and Juanita doing the same! The kids were too busy playing to eat!

Kash is a little water dog! He loves it.

Kash and Layla playing

Layla took a break from playing to eat a bite!

What Came Over Me!

For some very strange reason, I got up at 3:00 am and got on the internet and ordered a 3G, Wifi Kindle and a pink case. When I woke up at 7:00 am I thought that I had dreamed it, but when I checked my email, sure enough, there was the order confirmation. Well, if I keep doing this it could become a realllll problem :)

Some Things are Just Hard to Understand

Sometimes I feel guilty when I complain about the problems that I have in my life, and tonight I am feeling REALLY guilty. I have just spent the last couple of hours watching the memorial service for my cousins' grandson. Ethan was only 9 years old. He had a very rare cancer that was discovered when he was 7. Ethan lived in Oregon. I never met Ethan, but I have followed his journey here :

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ethanjostad/journal

My heart breaks for my cousin and the whole family. No child should have to suffer so much.

The memorial service was streamed live on the internet. This was a first for me. I have never attended a funeral service online; it was heartbreaking.

I have absolutely nothing to complain about and much to be thankful for................

Caution, pictures ahead!

We just returned from a visit with the grandkids. We had a great time. It was very hot while we were up there. We took Aaron and Sarah to the movies. We saw Winnie the Pooh. This was Sarah's first movie and she really enjoyed it. I took Aaron to this first movie last year. They both really liked the popcorn! Then on Tuesday we took them to Toys R Us and let them pick out some toys. You can't imagine how long that took! On Wednesday we took them to Wild West Town. It was hot, but we had a good time.

Sarah riding the train with her poppy.

She looked so cute riding the hand cycle. We thought that she would be to young, but she took right off. The park worker gave her a little hand when she got stuck a few times, but she looked so cute.

Here she is making a cute face!

We had to stop in the local saloon for a little refreshment. They liked the saddle stools.

This is where they held the wild west show. The guns were very loud.

Aaron enjoying the show.

Sarah enjoying the show

Sarah rode a real horse, her mom helped.

Aaron is a big boy and didn't need his mom to walk with him.

Waiting in line for the shooting galley

Aaron

Sarah

Sarah panning for gold with Mimi watching.

Aaron panning. They both found quite a few nuggets. It was a good thing to do on a hot day!

Aaron in the red shirt, riding the roller coaster

Sarah wasn't too thrilled with the animals in the petting zoo.

Sarah on the merry-go-round, with Mimi there to hold her on. It went really fast. Good thing I don't get motion sickness.

Aaron on the merry go round

Paige on the train!

Canoe Ride

Poppy sure loves these babies! The one in the middle is Sarah's doll!

We walked to downtown Marengo for ice cream. Sarah really enjoyed hers!

It would be wonderful to live close enough to the grandkids to do fun things with them all the time. We enjoy them so much. Long distance grandparenting is sooo hard!

We stopped by Drew and Lindsays on the way back and ate dinner at the Fishmarket on the Levee. They have the best crabcakes! We had a really good overnight visit with them.