today's post part II.  We had surprise company come by so I had to end sooner than planned.  Mom's friend from her old work, Jose, stopped by.  He has a thing for her, still, after all these years.  He's planning to come Tuesday and pick her up for a bit of time.  Apparently, he has stopped by a lot but we weren't home or we were sleeping.  He comes a bit early for us, about 8:30 am.  Yeah, like I am awake at that time.  I let him know that the door doesn't usually open until 11:30 ish, because I am still sleeping and don't hear the door.

I will be working on some crafts in January.  I found a few kits that I have bought during the year that I haven't done yet, so I am planning to start working on them as soon as the new year begins.  I am not starting until then because tomorrow I am spending the day with my Katie.  I am very excited about that and not sure what we are going to do outside of going to Red Robin's for early dinner/late lunch.  Friday we will go out to eat for our yearly celebration of the new year.  We also have some new movies we will watch.  Sunday, we are going to see "Alvin and the Chipmunks, the squeakuel."  I cannot wait for that.  It looks so cute and I love the chipmunks.  Kathy's little girl, Sammy, likes to sing with the girl chipmunks when the commercial comes on.  I would love to see that!  The chipmunks might be the girls first movie.  I will find out when I talk to Kathy later this week.  She will be 42 in about 12 days.  So nice that she is older than me!  I won't be 42 until April!!!!  He he he!  

Tonight is a quiet night here with a new Charlie Brown special!  I love Charlie Brown.  The specials are usually quite good and cute with nice music.  Frank is playing Linus and Lucy for competition, he is doing really well on it.  Katie, Rachel, and Rebecca are also going to competition this year.  I used to have about 10 to 15 kids go, but not right now!  I am happy that they want to go, of course, I would be happy if they didn't.  Competition is optional, if you want to go, do your best, if you don't, that is fine too, just keep learning more music.

Speaking of competition, I need to look up some info about it!  Better get going!

Have a great night!  happy new year's eve eve!

Can't believe tomorrow is New Year's Eve.  We aren't doing much in the evening, but spending the day with Katie.  We are planning to go to Red Robin for lunch/dinner.  I love that place.  Best burgers around.  I think Mom likes it too.

I don't have any new year's resolutions this year.  Not sure why, just don't.  Maybe next year.  I just wasn't too into the whole Christmas/New Year's mode this year.  Maybe next year.  Mom will probably be in a home by next Christmas.  I will be looking into things like that during the next year.  Any family member who wishes to see and speak to Mom, now would be good, well, between June.  I hope to see many between now and then.

I think New Year's Day we will go out to dinner.  It shall be fun.  Mom likes to do that.

I hope you are having a good day and ready for the new year!

Yesterday was a good day at my Uncle's.  My cousin, Nicole was there too with her two little ones.  My uncle has a 2 1/2 year old named Jayson.  he is adorable.  Colby and Shay looked like they had a lot of fun playing with him.  Kinda weird to think my uncle is a dad to a toddler again at age 61.  Definitely weird.  His wife seemed real nice too.  Andrew was there too.  He seemed to like hanging out with Mom.  

Mom did well for the trip, she gets a little restless after dark, but I expect it.  We left around 6 ish.  The dinner was good, better than Christmas and Christmas Eve.  Michelle is a real good cook.  Mom ate most of it, I was impressed.  Sometimes she doesn't eat very well, but mostly she does good.  She seemed to enjoy visiting with everyone.  There wasn't too many people there so she wasn't nervous at all.  

I am glad that the holidays are mostly over, I am anxious for the new year to arrive.  I think New Year's day we will go see a movie and to dinner.  I found the gift cards, I put them in my chest of drawers so Mom won't hide them anymore from me.  She hid them the day after Christmas and we could have used one when we went to Red Lobster's with Kathy.  But I am glad I found them that night.  I plan to use one on New Year's Day.  After New Year's I will start the process of looking into a home for mom, she won't need it right now, but eventually she will.  I will also start looking at where I am going to live.  It would be great if Richard and his family moved back here, I would move in with them but I don't think that is going to happen.  Richard hates Michigan.  I love it, but he doesn't.  Of course it does depend on where he gets a job.  The kids got the Christmas presents.  Hope they like the candy!  I made some for them too.

Well, this is getting awfully long!  Pain is alright today.  My head is its normal pain, my knee is a bit bad, but not too bad.

I hope you are having a great day!

It's over already!  Yup, Christmas!  Now on to the new year!  I am looking forward to 2010.  It should be a good year.  Mom did well the last few days.  We were at our cousin, Tillie's house.  We spent the night Christmas Eve and then went home Christmas Day.  She didn't sleep much because she kept getting cramps in her legs and she had to use the bathroom several times.  She only cried a few times on Christmas because she was either too hot or too cold.  Her body is difficult to regulate her temperature.  But over all, for being in a strange place, she did really well.  My younger brother was there too.  He seemed happy to see her and she was happy to see him.  It has been three years since he moved to London, Ontario.  She has been having an easier time going to bed now that she has the new medicine.  She takes it around 7:30 and then we go up around 9 pm.  It has definitely helped her not be so upset at bedtime.  No more bad nights right now!  I am really happy about that.  Unfortunately, she still likes to get up early and I don't.  She was up at 8:30 this morning in my room.  I don't know what time she got up, but oh my, 8:30 is a little early for me.  I like to get up after 10 am, preferably around 11.  She only came in a couple of times, but it can get annoying when she keeps coming in.  But it is better than her going outside.  I am glad she doesn't want to go out right now because it is so cold out.  Today was very windy too.

Kathy is in town and we went to lunch and the bookstore.  We had a lot of fun.  Her kids are so cute and they liked the presents they got from Mom and I.  She picked out some cute Lego sets for the boys and we (we both saw them at the same time) picked out cute dolls for the girls.  Kathy got me a gift card for Barnes and Noble.  I love reading!  We got two books at the bookstore.  One for the book club and another just for fun reading.  I got several books from the used bookstore for Christmas from Mom.  I also got a new coat that we are sending back because it is supposed to be a winter parka!  Not!  It's lining is like a sweatshirt and the coat is thin.  Some winter coat.  The one I have now does better than that one ever would.  I am sending back the sweat suit too, I only bought it because I wanted the coat and with a purchase it was only $4.  I should have realized that you can't get a good coat for that cheap.  I was extremely disappointed when I opened up the package.  Oh well, can't have everything I suppose.

I don't have any real plans for New Year's Eve.  We probably will watch a few movies and go to bed before Midnight as usual.  I plan to go out to a movie and out to eat New Year's Day though.  We did that last year and it was a lot of fun.  I plan to repeat that performance.

I hope you are having a good day and had a great Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everybody!!!!  Have a great day!

It is almost Christmas!  Are you ready?????

Mom is all set as far as medicaid is concerned.  So am I.  We went ridiculously early to social services this morning.  The guy yesterday said they do interviews from 7:30 am to 11 am so I made sure we were there at 7:30.  We waited until 9:15 to see a worker.  Yup, that is 9:15 am.  They called the first person on the list (we were #3) at 9:00 am.  If they aren't going to start the interviews until after 9, could he have not told me that?  It would have been nice.  The lady was very nice and I guess she is now our caseworker.  She did apply for food stamps for us but (as I suspected) together we get too much money to get approved.  Individually, we don't have enough, but as we live together we get too much.  Yes, food stamps would have helped immensely, but we are doing alright, it isn't like we are starving or going hungry, we are doing okay.  My biggest worries are mom and her illness and my illnesses.

Mom is sleeping in her chair next to me.  When she wakes up she asks me random questions that don't make any sense, I just answer and smile to myself.  She was awake at 4:30 this morning.  Yup, that's what I said, 4:30 am.  Not pleasant for me.  I need a nap, but the roofers will be back shortly and then they will wake me up.  Okay, they are back now.  Mom somehow knocked over her water, she just noticed that.  She does such silly things.  Okay, some annoying things too.

In some ways I am not looking forward to Friday.  I haven't put up the tree and have decided not too.  It is in the family room which I have nicknamed the dungeon.  It is difficult to get into and then to find the tree?  Forget it.  I also then would have to decorate it in some burst at a time.  Just not up to it this year.  Mom really doesn't care, so I am not going to do it.  We aren't going to be home for Christmas anyways so it isn't like there will be presents under it.  I am nervous on how mom is going to take staying at Tillie's for the night.  I am bringing the sedatives with me just in case along with the rest of the medicines we need to take.  I also am not wrapping any presents but Kathy's kids.  Mom really doesn't care and we are opening them before we leave for Windsor.  This is probably her last real Christmas.  I anticipate her being more out of it next year.  I hope I am wrong.  Her memory is going slowly and from what some other friends say, she has about a year of good (well, to her good) memory left before she won't even know me.  We shall see what 2010 brings.  I hope a better year, although 2009 has definitely been better than 2008 was but not as good as 2006 and 2007.  Those years rocked!

I hope you are enjoying your season and finding time to relax!

Yesterday I saw Anne!!!!!!!  We met up for about 2 1/2 hours.  It so awesome to see her again.  I miss her so much.  I like having my girl once a week, not this every few months if I am lucky.  But I do understand, slightly difficult to see her often when she lives in NYC.  She likes it there a lot so I am glad about that.  She spent 2 years in Japan teaching English before she moved to NYC.  I made some candy for her for Christmas.  I am making candy for Andrew and Tillie too.  Tillie told me not to get her anything for Christmas so I am making her candy.  I don't listen very well to comments like that.  I also bought her a book mark because I know she reads a lot.  I can't believe this week is Christmas.  So hard to believe it is here already.  I haven't wrapped a thing for me or mom yet.  Not sure I am going to as wrapping slightly confuses her.  She will be confused enough with the holiday and us spending the night away from home.  At least I will be there and she won't be alone.  We don't need another Friday night.

We are watching Frosty the Snowman.  Mom loves this movie, so do I.  I love the song so much.  Frank played it for the Christmas Concert.  He did a good job on it.  Mom is sorta watching it, her eyes are closed as usual when TV is on.

I called the doctor this morning and asked what to do about Mom when she is having a bad night.  She will call me back with information.  Mom has been alright for the last couple of nights.  I am anticipating a kind of bad night tonight because the roofers are here and it is confusing her a bit.  They are giving me a bit of a bad headache.  Where is the hotel when you need one?  Okay, so I don't have the money for a hotel, but it would be quieter and perhaps a bit fun for a change.  Then again, Mom doesn't do very well with change, so maybe the hotel would be a bad idea.  She keeps answering the door when the roofers bang their tools like knocking on the door.  It is difficult to know the difference.  

I have two lessons today and two tomorrow then none until Saturday when I have one and I also have one on Sunday.  We are getting ready for the benefit concert and competition now.  Always looking forward for another performance.

The doctor just called back.  She is sending a prescription to the pharmacy for a sedative if this happens again.  If it happens more frequently or the sedative doesn't work, then I am to call again.

Well, time to go!  I have candy to make for Friday, well, Thursday actually since that is the day we are leaving.

Last night was a nightmare.  Not only for me but for mom.  I called the Alzheimer's society and they didn't really have anything very helpful.  Yeah, she kept wanting to go home.  I told her she was home and she agreed but then wanted to go home again.  It was like this for 3 hours.  She was so confused and upset that it was horrible for both of us.  So I called the society and they said to go along with the delusion.  However, if I did that, she would have left the house looking for her house.  So, a bad night all around.  I called Tillie and asked her if she would ask at the home what they do about these things at night.  She is going to look into it for me.  I am grateful for support.  Any one has suggestions, please let me know!

Other than that, things are alright here.  It was book club today!!!!  How fun.  We all loved the book that Maggie picked, "the Christmas Sweater," by Glenn Beck.  It was such a good book.  We are reading "The Other Boleyn Sister" for next month.  I loved that book so much.  The movie was good too.  Katie is going to get it out of the library when she goes to work next and Aggie, I think, may have it.  The other Katie is going to go and buy it, so is Maggie.  I love book club.  It is so much fun.  I was glad both Katie and Katie were able to join us.  Both of them had to work last time.  

I am ready for Christmas except for wrapping and the tree.  I am going to put the tree up tomorrow and wrap the presents too.  Mom and I are going to make candy tomorrow to for Christmas presents for Andrew and Tillie.  Andrew decided after all to go Tillie's for Christmas.  We haven't seen him in about 3 years since he moved to London, Ontario.  It will be nice to see him again.  We will be alone with him for about 3 hours Christmas Day while Tillie goes to see her husband in the home.

I hope you are having a good Christmas season and enjoying all the joys it brings!  Merry Christmas!

I had sewing today!  Finally we are back only to take off 2 more weeks for the holidays.  I don't mind though because when we start again in the new year, all three girls will be starting new outfits.  They are doing so well.  They all have a skirt with a coordinating top to go with it.  I am so proud of them.  Their smaller sister, Sarah, will be starting a skirt with me.  She is to young to use the machine but she can help me with other stuff like pinning and basting, easy things.  She is excited to start.

I finished the ornaments.  Just in time for the concert.  The concert was last night and it went well.  Next on the schedule is the benefit concert and quickly followed by competition.  They are two events in a row.  I figure my students can perform their competition music at the benefit concert.  I have some people already confirmed to perform, I am just waiting for some more.

I hope you are having a good day!

You would think I was torturing Mom this afternoon by making her wash her hair.  Every time we do this it is a trial.  She is afraid of being cold, which I understand, but still, one needs her hair washed and she doesn't do it in the shower so it is done in the back sink.  I now have her wrapped in a blanket with a towel on her head.  In about a 1/2 hour we will go up and blow dry our hair completely dry.  It takes a few hours to get this done.  Thank goodness I don't have much to do these days.  It is just one of those things that you deal with memory loss people.  At least she didn't cry and go on and on this time like she did last time.  I turned the heat up to 78 (it's rather warm in here now) so she wouldn't freeze and we did it fast!  So now she is almost finished with the process.

I have finished the ornaments for tonight.  I just have to fold the programs, and we are all ready!  I can't wait.  I know I have too, but it just isn't arriving so fast as I would like.  I love the concerts, they are so much fun.  I love watching the kids perform, they get so proud of themselves when they play or sing well, the smiles are unbeatable!

I ordered girl scout cookies today.  I will be ordering some from Rachel and Rebecca too, Mom loves girl scout cookies and they freeze beautifully so I am ordering a few for her.  At least she will eat a few at a time of those.  The other cookies she will eat occasionally, so I don't buy them any more.  No point as they usually end up in my tummy and goodness knows I don't need them!  I need to lose weight and lower my cholesterol not raise the stuff!

It's a decent day, I started a new medicine today, celebrex, so I shall see how it goes.  I hope it works, the arthritis is just as bad as the fibromyalgia.  My head is sore today, I woke up with a bad headache again this morning but it is almost back to it's regular one!

I hope you are enjoying your day!