Monday, January 25, 2010

It's been a day.  I did enjoy the 3 lessons I had, but other than that it was just a day.  Mom's friend, Jose, can to look at her shower.  She took the door off about 5 or more years ago because my brother kept flooding the furnace room when he took a shower.  It was annoying, darn near ruined the floor and the ceiling.  Then Mom took the door off and he had to take a shower in the tub bathroom.  I don't know why Jose wants the door on but I think he thinks it will help mom.  It won't, but some day it needs to go back on.  I am getting tired of tripping over crap in the house but there isn't much I can do about it right now.  Any time I try to clean it up or reorganize, Mom flips out.  She is afraid that I am going to throw her stuff out.  I am not, but she doesn't believe anyone.  I will, however, throw away garbage like her stupid pieces of Kleenex or paper towel that she carries around every day and then takes them out of her jackets and puts fresh in the next day.

I am meeting Wendy for tea tomorrow.  I am very excited about that.  I haven't seen her in over 20 years, more like 23 years since high school.  Who would have thought?  Not me.  I was the one who never wanted to go to the reunions, now I will probably go to the next one, providing I find someone to watch mom for me.  She isn't coming with me to that.  I put my foot down on that.  I take her everywhere else.  

I am rather tired now.  It is about 7 pm, not quite bed time.  Mom is always ready for bed anytime after 5 pm.  We will go up in about an hour.  I wonder how Richard is doing.  He should really come and visit Mom while she still knows who he is.  She is slowly forgetting all of us, she even asks if I am Heather sometimes.  Usually first thing in the morning or late at night.  During the day she is fine.  She doesn't do this everyday, mind you, just once in a while about once every other week.

I will be getting the new crock Wednesday!  I can't wait.  I am inviting Tillie over for Sunday dinner, I will be making what my friend's children call green rice and ham.  It is rice, spinach, and ham.  I loved it last week when we had it so I will pass this one on to our kitchen.

I will also be getting the lottery ticket.  It has a pretty good size jackpot.  Can't win if you don't play.  good luck everyone.

Pain is medium, not too unusual.  Hope your day has been a good one.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

It's raining outside, but warmer than it was.  We are supposed to get the super cold weather back later this week.  Ugh.  Not happy about that, not happy at all.  I am really tired today, I tried to sleep in but with Mom, you know how hard that is.  I think I will slip into the front room and try to sneak a nap in on the chair.  She usually leaves me alone there for a while anyways.  She is sleeping in her chair as usual.  And I wonder why she doesn't sleep much at night, right, I know why, she sleeps all day.

Debbie will have her lesson later today.  Wish it was more than just Debbie, but, nothing right now I can do about it.

Mom is doing alright today except for the sleeping part.  That is actually normal for her.  Sleep during the day, up during the night.  I have tried to fix it, but I am losing the battle.  As long as she is blocked in upstairs, she is fine.  She does get some sleep at night, just not as much as I would like her too.

Pain is medium to high today in the head.  My right side is going to fall off soon.  I took an Advil even though I really am not supposed to, but the Tylenol is just not cutting it.  Not much happening today, hopefully better this week.  I will be seeing my friend, Wendy, on Tuesday and I will see Heather on Thursday so my week is looking good.  The only day that will be boring is Wednesday as of right now I have no lessons scheduled for then, Rachel and Rebecca don't have their lessons scheduled yet, so I hope to know when theirs are soon.

I hope your day is sunny and nice out unlike the yucky rain we are getting.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

We went to Chili's tonight, well, this afternoon for dinner.  They were having a special two for $20 that included an appetizer, 2 entrees, and dessert!  We had a gift cert from Christmas from Richard, so I thought, why not!!!  Mom still does well going out to eat so off we went!  I had two lessons earlier, was supposed to be three, but turned out to be 2.  It was still a good day.  Mom and I are now watching Walker, Texas Ranger, season 5 disc 4 episode 2.  We love this show.  After this we are going to go to bed, it's been a long day for her.  I might read a bit in my room.  I am reading a really good book right now.  I have read it before, but it still good.  Mom gave it to me for Christmas.  About 2 days before Christmas she said she wanted to give me books for Christmas so we went to the used bookstore for them.  I got 7 books for about $21.  Mom saw a Curious George Christmas book and I asked her if she would like it, she said yes, so I got it for her.  It was expensive!  It cost about $14 but she likes those kind of books and doesn't have much time left so I got it for her.  A small thing to bring her much pleasure.  I also got her a puzzle book, the type where every page is a puzzle.  There are about 8 pages in it.  It was Christmas theme.   Next year, I don't anticipate a very good Christmas for her, I don't think she will remember much by then so I am trying to pack as much as I can into this year for us, despite the shortage of funds.  She likes simple things that don't cost a lot of money.  We watch a lot of movies and TV together.  She likes that a lot, even when she falls asleep during them briefly.  She is wide awake tonight, I don't know why, but hey, I am not questioning it.

Pain is not so bad considering I am completely out of prescription pain pills.  The refill will be ready Monday, but I don't know if I will have the money, if Grace has a lesson, then I will otherwise I will need to wait until Wednesday.  I have Tylenol so it isn't like I have nothing for pain and if really necessary, Advil.  I don't take Advil because of the blood thinners, but if I really need it, I will take it.

I hope your day is as good as mine was.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Sewing day this afternoon.  The girls are doing really well including the littlest one.  She pined her first piece of material today.  She pined really nicely, all straight and a little close together, but other than that, she did awesome.  I get to learn how to knit next week.  Can't wait.  My friend, Heather, is going to teach me.  Mom is getting used to my friend who has the same name as me, it doesn't confuse her as much as it used to.  We to start this endeavor next week.  I am very excited to learn this task again.  I used to know when I was a kid, but that was a long time ago.
Other than sewing, rather boring day after that excitement for the day.  I have 3 students tomorrow and 1 on Sunday.  So between the hours of 1 pm to 2:30 pm, I will be busy, and then, not so much, another boring day.  Outside of the 5:30 to 6:00 pm tomorrow, Sunday is looking rather dull too.  It is the week before Mom's money comes in so we are slightly broke, so no movie, not that I think anything good is playing.  We saw a lot this summer, that was fun.  I have a couple more letters to write about lessons.  I hope to hear something from someone, I can't believe that neither teacher has taken me up on this plan.  I mean, free lessons for 2 of their students, really.  I just don't understand it.

Pain is high right now, don't really know why since it is warmer than it was yesterday.  We shall see how tomorrow goes.  I hope your day is good.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Kinda of a grumpy day for me.  Mom keeps asking me if I am tired yet.  That would be because she is up during the night and not sleeping so she is tired during the day.  She was up at 1 pm moving crap in her room around and, well, she fell on her cross stitch bag that should never have been on the floor.  I don't know where she got that from because it wasn't there when I put her to bed.  Fortunately, she didn't hit her head so we didn't have to go to the ER.  We were lucky there.  She doesn't remember falling, but I sure do.  I had to move two other bags that she moved into her room, I don't know where these bags came from, but they were tossed way into the back of the spare room so she can't get them again.

I am not dealing well with her today, she isn't doing anything different or worse than any other day, I just am grumpy, very grumpy.  I had my blood test and the nurse got in one shot, so yeah, on that.  I went to the tummy doctor for the 3 month check and the physician assistant asked how mom was doing and I told her she lost 7 more pounds.  Now she is going to get a CT scan and a blood test, so that is good.  She is trying to get to the bottom of this weight loss.  It just falls off her.  I need to lose the weight, not her.  I, of course, managed to gain another 3 pounds.  At this rate, goodness knows how much I will weigh soon.  I have got to do something, I am watching my food and I don't eat the junk food.  I give that stuff to mom.  At least my cholesterol went down both the bad one and the triglycerides or however you spell it.

We have the sub meeting tonight so I am very glad about that.  I may not be so grumpy but I can't just stay at home tonight and do nothing, it is driving me crazy.  Maybe we will go to Starbucks in a few minutes to get out of the house again.  I just can't stay here right now.

I need to do something with Mom's room, it is a death trap, literally.  If she needs an ambulance, they would NOT be able to get the stretcher in her room, that is how bad it is.  Throwing out her stuff or even reorganizing it upsets her and she gets hysterical over it.  I have to figure out something soon or she may fall again.  At least she isn't losing her balance, her feet got caught in the straps of the cross stitch bag, that was why she fell.  Still, it could happen again since I have no idea what is in her room.  Kathy has offered to help if I could take Mom away for a few hours.  Maybe Tillie can take her for the afternoon and Kathy and I could go to town in her room.  Hayley has also offered to help.  We shall see what is going to work best.  That is my new project.

I hope your day is better than my grumpy butt day!  have a good one!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Mom is all set.  She has her card she needs to be put on the list in Windsor.  When the card comes in we will go and take care of it.  We were at Tillie's this afternoon.  She even made us dinner!  It was good, she made pork, veggies, and fries.  Mom ate the fries which shocked me because they were seasoned and she doesn't do well with seasonings.  She did get a bit of a tummy ache afterward, but she is fine now.  She is actually sleeping in the chair at the dining room table while I am watching Law and Order SVU.  Now she awake again.

I tried to go on the website for Canada pension because Mom paid into it when she was in the service, but for some reason it wouldn't accept her number.  I will double check that I have her proper number and try it again tomorrow.  

I have a blood test and a doctor appointment all in the same day tomorrow.  Lucky me.  Yeah.  I am so happy about that.  NOT!!!  It is an appointment with the tummy doctor to check for side effects on the medicine I am on.  I don't have any so I am happy about that.  Apparently it can cause some serious side effects and there is a group trying to get it pulled off the market.  I am rather screwed should they do that as nothing has worked like this.  Hopefully they won't.  Then in the evening, we are going to the subdivision's board meeting, always an interesting time.  Mom goes with me.  I think she enjoys the meetings too, she is just quiet during them.

Pain is normal today.  No big deal, nothing unusual.  I hope your day is going well like mine did.  Oh, and tomorrow, I will work some more on the Christmas ornaments.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

It's Tuesday and 3 lessons again today.  Katie just had her lesson.  She is really improving a whole lot.  It is awesome.  She is working hard on her competition songs.  She is planning to sing them for the benefit too.  Might as well, get as much out of those songs as possible, plus, competition is a week after the benefit so she will be more than ready with those.  Frank is not as ready as I would like.  Rachel, not sure of, haven't seen her in a couple of weeks.  Zach and Charlie have their lessons tonight too then we are going to the little cafe for dinner.  I don't feel like cooking or heating up anything.  I have to empty the fridge though, I just remembered that.  We have old food that needs to be removed.

Mom is having an okay day - not great or good, but not too bad.  She got upset when I went upstairs and she forgot where I was.  She needs to be with me everywhere so she feels safe.  This morning was her usual coming in and out.  Gating her upstairs definitely keeps her up there.  She doesn't even think about going near it any more, so I am very happy about that.

I finished Rachel's music today.  Ugh, it was a hard one.  Mostly because I know I have a good tape accompaniment of it, but I can't find it so I had to put it in finale.  But it is finally done!  Both of her songs are done.  The prayer was easy, but not upon this rock.  Frank and I worked on Alleluia yesterday.  He is accompanying her at competition, they will get together next week.  He almost has the song memorized which is good.  He just needs to memorize all his stuff!  I get nervous around this time every year for competition.  It just gets nerve wracking!  I am not in charge of how much that the kids practice and stuff so that is what gets to me.

My side is sore today - not sure why.  Other than that, not too bad in the pain level.  We are heading for Windsor tomorrow.  I have to bring Tillie her mail when we go.  We are having dinner around 4:30 ish.  At least I don't have to cook tomorrow!!!  Have a great night!

Monday, January 18, 2010

I had my usual 3 lessons for the day.  After a really boring day yesterday, today was a sigh of relief.  I have 3 lessons spread out tomorrow so I am very happy about that!!!  The news was on and Mom started crying, so I changed to Golden Girls.  She loves the show a lot even though I think we have seen every episode at least once if not twice.  It is an interesting show this one.  We will probably watch the next couple episodes because Mom can't handle the news about Haiti today.  I mean, it is so awful what happened, and I am glad there are a lot of people over there helping them.

Other than the lessons, not much going on.  It is just boring days around here.  I would prefer more excitement, but good excitement, not the bad type.  

Pain is normal today.  Mom is doing alright outside of the crying from the news.  We don't watch the news a lot because she is very emotional these days.  She did wake up at 1 am and was ready to go for the day until I told her what time it was, she went back to bed after that.  I hope she sleeps through the night tonight!

I hope your day is good.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

I am watching the movie Fame.  It is the remake, the 2009 version and so far it is really dumb.  We just watched Night of the Museum, the first one.  it was good.  I loved the TV series Fame, but this movie is just not good.  I don't remember the original movie except I didn't like it either.  I thought this would be better.  If it doesn't improve in the next few minutes, it's going off.  finally, a song I actually know, Out Here On My Own.  I love this song, I sung it for competition when I was about 19 and won.  It was the first time I got first place.

Mom is alright today, she woke up early as usual but she wasn't confused, so that was good.  She did her usual coming in and out of my room a lot.  It gets annoying but I can't do anything about that, she doesn't realize I am trying to sleep!  I don't understand how she misses the point as my eyes are closed!  But she does miss the point every day.  No point in trying to get her to realize I am trying to sleep, she will just get upset and then that would be the end of it.  She woke up at 3 am and didn't want to go back to sleep.  She did once I told her what time it was.  Then she woke up again at about 7 and I don't think she went back to bed.  She is tired now and was sleeping on the chair.  i thought she was going to sleep during breakfast.  I really did, her eyes were closing and everything.

Okay - just took the movie Fame out and put in Walker, Texas Ranger season 5 disc 3.  Definitely, a better choice.

Pain is a bit high, I don't really know why today, I didn't do anything to increase it, but it is high, especially in the left shoulder, the annoying one.  I don't know what I did to it in the first place.  It started in June and hasn't really let up since.  I can't move it completely upright yet.  I should be getting a cortisone shot soon after I get my next blood test.  I have to do the blood test on a Tuesday so that the shot can be done on a Friday.  We shall see.  Ross says they do help, I was sceptical about the whole idea.  I mean, I have tried so much that hasn't worked yet.  

It has been a rather boring day because we don't have any lessons today.  I will be hopefully getting a few more in the future.

I hope your day is good.

Friday, January 15, 2010

The last two days have been fun filled until right about now.  Mom is having a rough evening.  I gave her medicine so I hope it kicks in soon.  She was great yesterday at my friend, heather's house.  She does really well there now, so I am happy about that.  It wasn't too windy so she wasn't freaked out about the wind.  We were at sewing earlier this afternoon.  She was falling asleep there a lot.  I picked up our dinner on the way home.  I just gave her an ensure, she needs to gain about 23 pounds to get to 120lbs.  I just don't want her to lose any more weight so I just keep feeding her.  It doesn't do a whole lot of good since she is still super tiny, but I try.  I would gladly give her what I don't want, but it just doesn't work that way.

We are watching the news about the earthquake in Haiti, how awful.  About 140,000 people killed, that is the new estimate.  The looting has started there too.  That is awful, it just shows how desperate the situation is.  I feel for the people there, I can't imagine such a situation as theirs.  

Mom is calming down now, the medicine is kicking in.  She has stopped crying now and is not asking so much where are we and when will we go home.  We are already home.  She isn't normally like this.  This is an unusual night.  I don't know why this happens every few weeks.  It isn't her normal nightly behavior.  She is hard to pin down.  She has done a bit of hallucinating about me as a little girl but that only has happened 2 times both in the morning.  Once I break whatever cycle she is in (usually leaving the house) she forgets all about the little girl and she is fine.  She does get upset over the news at times so I change the channel when that happens, we have many choices and if there isn't anything good on TV, I put it a disc that she likes.  We don't have to do this too often, but when it becomes necessary, I take care of it.  She isn't ready for a nursing home yet, I do know that will happen in the future, but she won't do well if we place her now.  She would probably stop eating (that's what she does when she is upset) and die from loneliness and despair.  She has mentioned that she would rather be dead than go in a nursing home so I take her very seriously when she says that.  She doesn't want to be disposed of - her words, not mine - that is how she sees it.  Since I want her around, I am postponing as much as possible when she will go, probably when she is confused all the time and not really responding to anything.  I hope that is for not a least a year, maybe two.  We shall see.  This waiting game is awful and difficult for the both of us.

Pain is low for a change - the weather is a bit warmer and not so damp.  I hope your day is good like the last two I had!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

I am going to my friend Heather's today!  I will see her adorable 2 kids and her!  I am very excited about this!  Can you tell???????

Starting Small with Old Hobbies I Love

  I learned to sew when I was in 3rd grade.  I was 8 years old and home because I was very sick, so was my younger brother.  We both missed ...