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.