It's Friday!   I don't know why that would excite me except it brings me 1 day closer to Book Club!!!  I just love book club.  Even thought it will be just Maggie and me, I haven't seen her since July and boy do I want to hear about the rest of her summer.  I am so glad summer is over.  We are doing alright now and I aim to have us stay that way!

My project of the season is going to be Mom's room.  I am going to have the room redone in some ways.  I am not going to do crazy redecorating, just some simple things that Mom will like (I think).  Now that she doesn't know what is hers and what isn't, it is finally safe to declutter her room.  One of the effects of Alzheimer's is hoarding and Mom is a pack rat to begin with, it isn't quite like the people on the hoarding shows, but it is still rather dangerous for the little person.  I want to put the bed frame in the garage for now because someday, it will go back in her room, when she is no longer mobile.  then I will put the bed back together.  It is a high bed and it will be easier to change her with a high bed so I don't want to sell her bed at all.  Not when I plan to use it again someday.  For right now though, it is in the way and I manage to step on the railings quite frequently when helping Mom in or out of bed.  Then I need to go to the storage unit and get her Mickey Mouse snow globe out.  I hope I didn't ruin it by putting it in storage.  I thought we were moving, but it turns out we weren't.  I plan to do that this weekend, I think.  I just have to find the right box it is in.  I am not sure which box it is in, and I also want to get the other snow globe (Beauty and the Beast) out too.  I do hope they are in good condition.  I would like to have her room painted pink.  She likes that color and with the white curtains, I think pink would look nice.  The boxes at the end of her bed will be removed and those clothes will go in the empty drawers and closet.  It would be nice to be able to get into her closet.  Right now, I have to move a couple of boxes in order to open her closet door and you can only open the right door because there is a big box in front of the left door.  Anyways, by Christmas, I want her room looking spiffy.  I want it to be a haven when she goes in to bed and very calming for her.  She needs calming things around her at all times because I can only imagine having Alzheimer's is NOT calming.

The winter project is my room.  I am not repainting it as I like the color of the walls.  I don't necessarily like the curtains, but I will price some to see if I can afford 2 pairs as I have 2 windows in my room.  I want them lined though because my room does get quite cold.  It is the coldest room of the upstairs, which is great for sleeping, but not for anything else.  I want to get my pictures and stuff back from storage and put them back out on my dresser again.  I also want to hang up some pictures on the walls.  I need my stuffed animal collection back out on my chest of drawers.  I want my books back in the bookcase and then my Anne of Green Gables Figurines on my dresser.  I want my room to be my haven when I go to bed instead of the empty room with piles it is right now.  I don't know what to do with some of the stuff I have, I am going to get rid of some, but not all.  I just have to decide what I really want.  I will move the rest of the Winnie the Pooh beanie babies down to the piano because that is where most of them are right now, so the collection needs to be complete.

I hope to pace myself very carefully so that I can do these projects.  I will probably need some help as I can't really lift anything that is over about 5 pounds because of the rods in my back.  I figure in the next week or two I will make a list for Mom's room and then divide and conquer!  I really want a nice looking room for her.  It has been cluttered up for too long and she has some nice pieces that are hidden.  I may move some of her paintings from other rooms into her room.  I don't know, we shall see.



My knee seems to be improving a bit.  It isn't quite back to normal yet, but I am hopeful it will soon.  I hope the knee flare up goes away soon.  Several people I know are in flare ups right now, there must be something in the weather.   Ugh, hope they all feel better soon.

I hope this finds you doing well.

We ran into Lily and her mom, Julie at Tim Horton's this afternoon.  I saw Lily enter and I thought, I must be seeing things as she is supposed to be in school.  Unfortunately, she hurt her foot and had to go to the doctors.  It was so nice to talk to them.  I haven't seen them much this summer.  We both have been busy, but mostly they have been very busy.

I am waiting for the lady to come and give Mom a bath.  She should be here any minute now.  It has been a week since she has had a good one and I want her hair washed.  It should be okay to do today because it has been over a week since she fell so I want it done well today.  It has been rather confusing getting the home aide here because our usual one is on vacation for 2 weeks.  It should be all taken care of now, I hope.  I can't wait until Angela is back and we are back on schedule.

Not much happening today because I have no lessons and we aren't visiting because of the bath and the new schedule for the young children at the B-T's house.  With the start of a new school year comes many changes to schedules as most of you know.  I am not sure what time we will be visiting, but we will get it in somewhere because I really do enjoy it and so does Mom.

I had my boring blood test again.  I missed the appointment two weeks ago and before the office calls me to tell me I forgot, I thought I better make an appointment.  The nurse found the vein right away and it went fine for a change.  My veins are very hard to find at times and they don't always behave nicely for nurses.  I can clear a room of nurses just by signing my name.

Pain level is normal for me.  It is beautiful outside, not to hot, not to cold, just perfect.  Mom is chatting away right now.  It is really cute to see her do this.  I wish that she would do this when certain people are around, but she clams up around them because they make her nervous so she doesn't speak.  Maybe I should video this.  Hm, I will think about that.

I hope this finds you doing well and having a good day.  We have had a great one so far!

don't forget about the online magazine from the National Fibromyalgia Association!!!!


www.fmaware.org.


It is a great resource and the website is really good too.

Once again it is beautiful weather outside.  I am really loving this so far this fall.  I know fall doesn't officially start for another few weeks, but hey, kids are in school so to me it is fall.

It isn't too bad of a pain day for a nice change.  The head is its normal pain level (I have a headache everyday and have had one for 6 years straight now) so I am thrilled and my knee seems to be behaving.  It isn't back to normal, but it is getting there.

Mom did wonderful at physical therapy today.  Lori came earlier than usual, but that was alright and fit great into our schedule.  She called and by the time she got here, Mom was dressed and brushing her teeth. (She is back to doing them on her own again)  I brought her downstairs, gave her her medicines, and then put her shoes on her.  After that, Lori took over and I went to get dressed.  I was so pleased that Mom did well even without me cheering her on like I usually do.  I am trying not to interfere with Lori's work, but sometimes I can get Mom to do better by cheering her on.  Lori now cheers her own the same way I do and that seems to help quite a bit.  I will miss the physical therapy when it is over next month.  I bought ankle weights that mom and I will use to give us both strength.  I just pray she doesn't go into the hospital again.

Tomorrow Mom gets her bath.  It won't be done by Angela because she is on vacation (honeymoon! how cool is that?!) but by a new worker for us.  She wanted to come at 8 to 8:30 am.  Now, we all now I am NOT a morning person, but Mom isn't either.  So I had to tell her that wouldn't work.  She said that she has 2 people in our area, Mom and another lady, but still, I am NOT getting Mom up any earlier than I usually do because she would be exhausted all day long and that would NOT be good.  So we compromised and said about 10 to 10:30 am.  I can do that.  No way I can do the other, absolutely not happening.  I like that Angela always came around 12:30 to 1:00 pm, but we can use this new time to our advantage as I will wake Mom right as soon as she arrives.  She can get ready and I will get Mom and then she will have her bath and be all ready for the day, so it will work out for us.  Mom usually sleeps until 10 to 10:30 am anyways.  I know because I check in on her.

I took a wee nap today and had some strange dreams.  Sometimes dreams are really weird when I take naps.  I wonder why?  Hm, something to ponder in the future.

Bob had his lesson and he is learning his songs quite well.  He is playing his first piano invention by J. S. Bach.  He is putting his hands together for the first time on the new part and it was really good, slow, but good.  My saying always is, if you can't play it slow, you can't play it fast.  Of course, a problem is once you learn it fast, you really can't always play it slow.  But when learning, you need to play the song slowly and then speed up as you practice more.  That has always worked for me and my students.

Acer, Calli, and Charlie all had lessons yesterday.  It was quite a busy afternoon for a bit.  I loved every minute of it.  Acer showed me his new jazz piece he composed.  He composes often and I wouldn't be surprise that when he is older he will be a composer.  Calli is doing super well on her jazz piece.  I simply love the song she is playing and the next song she will play is also a cool jazz piece.  She will be starting to sing in the next week or two too so that will be fun.  I have some of the books out now and I need to copy some songs for her and put the piano parts on a CD for her to practice.  Katie wants to have a chat with her on the virtues of going to competition and singing in the ensemble as we are one short for an ensemble this year and with Calli we would have enough.  I don't know if that will happen, but Katie is a determined teenager and I think she will just love Calli.  I also know that Acer could participate in the ensemble if he chose too.  It is entirely up to them, I will not make anyone do anything but I do understand how much Katie loves singing in an ensemble and I have some cute music for one.  Katie is a character for sure.  Charlie is also doing pretty well with his lessons.  He got a couple of exercises marked off because he sight read them perfect.  I actually expected this, but he didn't know that.  The book reviews a bit from the previous book so that is why I expected it.  Charlie also plays the drums which thrills Acer.  I told Acer that Charlie played the tenor drums in marching band, but I wasn't sure if he played the 5 (apparently it is 6) or 1 drum in the band.  We waited for Charlie for the answer.  Charlie thought it was really cool that Acer is very interested in drums.  He thinks he is a neat little man, which he is.



I hope you are enjoying the fall weather.  It is supposed to warm up a bit tomorrow and by the weekend, but I don't mind, it won't get too hot for me.

Also, I just received a phone call from a different worker (the one who called yesterday) and she is coming for Mom at about 4:30 tomorrow.  I had to call the office and let them know so this time is better for us because we won't have to wake up earlier than usual.  I hope they get this straightened out.  I missed the phone call yesterday by about 5 minutes and they were worried they wouldn't get a hold of me.  So, the bottom line is, the timing for the other woman is much better than the first so we are going with the second lady (who in fact was the first to call me).  As long as Mom gets a bath, that is all that matters to me.

Enjoy your day and have a great evening!!!

It is really beautiful out right now.  I mean, simply gorgeous!  I am really liking the nice cool weather we are having.  Mom is taking her usual nap in the living room.  I am waiting for phone calls for lesson times.  It has been a busy couple of days for us.  First we went to my Uncle's yesterday and that was a lot of fun.  Andrew couldn't be there because he was studying (as a good student should) so he called just to talk to Mom.  That was great because Mom really liked that.  We will hopefully see him a few weeks when we go back.  Tillie wasn't there either as she was working on her house, but that really was a good thing, as my cousin, her granddaughter, went into labor while we were at my uncle's!  Yup, little Esther Ruth decided to come a bit early (3 days I think) and so I have a new cousin in the world.  I am excited about that.  I can't wait to see her in a few weeks when we go over.  Another cousin.  I have so many.  Speaking of cousins, Maia is now a grandmother for the 2nd time!  Hard to believe, but true.  I did get to see Elizabeth (Danielle's daughter) briefly yesterday.  She is a little doll.

We got home rather late because we needed to take Maia to her place to drop off her stuff and then drop her and Danielle off at the hospital to see Lia.  Mom was really tired, but she went up the stairs all right, a little slower than usual, but she did great on them.  She sometimes forgets that our rooms are upstairs so I have to remind her and then she is like, oh, okay, let's go then.  I expected a bit of a rough time for her because we were out so late and the car ride was longer than normal, but she did fine.  I got her up, changed, and in bed in no time.  Now for me, well, I was really sore last night after I put her to bed for some reason, I mean sorer than usual.  My hips and lower back were just screaming with pain.  Finally, about 2 hours or so later, I fell asleep.  I woke up at the usual time though, so that was a nice surprise and i am not really extra tired right now like I would have thought.

We have a quiet week with a few lessons that I am looking forward too.  I also want to go to Joann's to get a nice fall table cloth.  I love the spring one we have had one since March, but now it is fall and I need one to reflect the season.  Mom loves picking them out with me.  I couldn't decide between two of them for spring, so she made the final decision.  She made a good choice.

This weekend I was honored to receive an award for my blog by a fellow blogger named Missy Schantz.  She is a fibro girl like so many of us.  I was very happy and thrilled to know that she likes reading my blog.  A writer likes knowing that she is read and liked or at least I do!!!  Anyways, she gave me the cutest award picture that I have absolutely no idea how to post on my blog so I am going to try to post the award in this post.  Here is my try:

It worked!!! Yeah!  I will try to post it on my blog and we shall see if it works.  Isn't this a really cute picture of an award??  I thank Missy for it.  Her blog is also very interesting.  If you get a chance, go under my followers and find Missy and then click on it and then you will get to a page where you can read her blog.

I hope everyone is having a great day like we are.

Had a great day at my Uncle's!  One little incident.  I discovered Mom does not do well with liquid Tylenol.  Yeah, it makes her literally sick to her tummy!  Thank God for Michelle who helped as I was a little green myself during the incident.  Not my best moment as a caretaker.  I will be giving Michelle all the Liquid Tylenol for her little guy, the adorable Jayson.

I will post more on this tomorrow as it is so time for bed for the little Mom and me!  Have a wonderful night!

I have 1 lesson this morning. I am excited about it because I haven't seen my Katie since June and I miss her. She should be her shortly. I can't remember exactly what we were working on, but I will find out soon! When she arrives. She is also going to (I think) help put music away. I am not sure. At this point, if it gets done, fine, if not, fine too. It doesn't bother me as much as the hospital bed in the living room does.

Mom is getting stronger with the physical therapy. I bought her ankle weights to use after physical therapy is over. She and I will be doing exercise together. I think she will like that as she always used to like exercising. She is doing much better with the cooler weather than the heat.

Katie had her lesson and surprise! I have 2 more lessons this evening. Rachel and Becca will be starting up again today. What a nice surprise! I haven't seen them since competition in February.

Katie also filed ALL the music in the living room. Yup, except for the stuff I pulled, it has been put away. I am very excited about this. I can use both benches in the living room right now! Not that I can play 2 pianos at the same time, but if I have a student who wants to, I certainly can! How exciting is that? Very in my book.

Mom is taking a wee nap. After Katie finished the filing we went to Tim Horton's for a treat for her then Mom and I headed to Walmart to pick up a few items like her medicine. I also got 4 notebooks for $.15 each! Since I thought I had bought them last week only to discover I bought graph notebooks, I needed them. I also picked up a packet of 10 pens and a magazine to read later. All in all, a good day for us.

Tomorrow we are going to my uncle's for the day. Maia is coming with us. Should be fun, I think. Tuesday I have to make an early phone call to see what I can do about this bill that I totally forgot about and it does mean disaster for me financially. Bad move on my part, I am so angry at myself for forgetting. This mess that I am in is totally my fault, but I am hoping I will be able to take care of it and now with the notebook of bills, I won't forget again. They don't send a monthly statement and that is partly why I forget. The other part is just plain forgetfulness and not being very responsible. I hope it is easy to work out because otherwise I don't know what we will do. i can't pay the entire bill right now, I just don't have the money.

I have had a bad headache for a couple of days because of the financial mistake I made and the hot weather earlier in the week. I hope by tomorrow it is gone because I don't want to have a bad headache and go to my uncle's, it just isn't fun for me then.

I love this cool weather we are getting! The sun is shining beautifully! I hope you are having a good day too!

It is so beautiful out. It is nice and cool. So cool, in fact, I had to change into sweats because it is too cold for shorts! Ahhhh, my kind of weather. Mom has 2 little jackets on to keep warm, 1 hoodie, and 1 fleece. She looks so cute all bundled up like that. Someday I will be able to post a picture of it just as soon as I find that cord! Yup, still looking!

I finished updating the piano catalogue. I need to update the voice one but that music is out so I can't right now. I now have 761 piano pieces (including books and individual sheet music) for my students to choose from. I hope to not have to buy anything new this year. I really do. My file cabinets are getting full and there is no room for a new cabinet, none whatsoever. I even remember to list the songs on the books that aren't piano courses or lesson books. This way, when I search by song, it will pop up to be found. Katie is coming to help put away all the music that is sitting out. It definitely needs it. I am keeping all the Christmas stuff out though because we will be starting that soon. There is music all over the living room, in the family room, and in the office that need to be put away. I hope she has time tomorrow after her lesson. I really do because I would love for this stuff to be put back where it belongs!

Not to exciting of a day, we had physical therapy for Mom and she did awesome! I mean, it was really good how she concentrated on her exercises. She did a fantastic job. Aggie had her lesson and then we went to the usual for an afternoon snack. Mom is napping in the living room right now. A little later than usual, but that is okay because she won't be sleeping much longer. She usually does about 2 hours a day for a nap. I try to have her nap from about 2 to 4, but today we didn't get home until after 3 so that is why she is still sleeping.

My arm is a bit sore from all that typing so I will end this now. I was able to talk to the big brother, Richard, and wish him a happy birthday! He is 46 years old today. Mom and I both got to wish him a happy birthday in our brief conversation because they were getting ready to go out and about doing stuff and errands. I sure miss that family. I know Mom does too. I can't wait until he comes! Should be soon!

Anyways, I still have a bit of a bad headache and my knee is a bit better today, at least right now it is. I am hoping it stays this way. I hope this finds you doing well and having a great day!

We are waiting for Robin to call so we can meet for lunch. She is getting her hair done and I am getting really hungry. I mean, really hungry, as I haven't eaten at all today. That would be because I did just get up, but seriously, I am getting Olga's Restaurant hungry. I hope that is where we are going today. Mom is coming too. Robin has a railing for a bed for Mom that I hope will help her not fall out. Now, she hasn't fallen out yet, but I like to do preventative measures instead of after the incident ever since she wandered out of the house last year, 3 times. Now she is blocked in upstairs and has no where to go. She can wander away all she wants up those stairs at night and before I wake up. She usually just lays there until I come into her room. Then we get up and get her dressed. I am almost always dressed before I get her ready. It makes it much easier to do when I am already dressed.

We have a quiet weekend ahead of us. Katie will be here Sunday afternoon for her lesson and to help put music away. I will be labeling the new music I received probably this evening and Saturday while the TV is on entertaining Mom. We have a new movie we need to watch too, as well as finish up the Season 8 of Walker, Texas Ranger. We have enough for entertainment while I do a bit of work this weekend. I don't know what lessons I will have this Monday as it is labor day. I will be home, but I don't know what the plans are for my students. I shall find out soon, I expect.

The hospital bed is still in the living room. I have called again to have them come and get it. They still haven't. I wonder if they are even going to. It takes up a lot of the space in the living room that can be used for other things, like a sofa and the table chairs for the little ones. That helps with the siblings entertainment during lessons that is really important because we need quiet siblings during the lessons! I hope they take it this weekend. It is bothering me having it here. It needs to go, completely go.

Mom is a bit chatty today, it is kind of cute. She gets this way sometimes especially when I am on the phone or the computer. She has been so quiet at times that a chatty mom is a nice change.

Robin was getting a perm to her hair, that's what was taking so long. We are back from meeting with her. She loaned me a bed rail. It looks like it will do the trick for Mom. We shall see. Mom is sleeping in the living room. Evelyn, the nurse, is on her way to see Mom for her weekly check up. She comes once a week now, instead of 2 times a week. I haven't told her about the fall yet, but I will and I have the discharge papers in case she needs them. It was a fun lunch with Robin. I love Panera. I wanted to go to Olga's until Robin said how about Panera? Well, that changed my mind and boy was it good.

Just relaxing the rest of the night. It is so beautiful out. My head is almost its normal headache. Loving this weather though, simply loving it! I hope you are having a good day too.

I went to the cardiologist this afternoon. I do not have a heart problem. His opinion is that the stress test was normal and since everything else was normal, the pain was not from the heart. Since I found out that fibromyalgia can imitate heart pains, I think that is what it was.

Mom got up rather late today. I let her sleep in because she was so tired. She got up a few minutes before Angela arrived. It worked out quite well. Mom got her hair washed too and the blood is now out of her hair from the fall. She seems to have recovered nicely from it. She isn't really sore in too many places and she went up and down the stairs just fine. No major problems with that! She went with me to the doctors as usual. It was a long wait for a few minute visit. I hate waiting for doctors, but what else can we do? While we were at the doctors office there was a storm, but fortunately we didn't have any damage.

Saturday is Richard's birthday. He will be 46 years old. He is 3 1/2 years older than me and 4 1/2 years older than Andrew. I wonder what he will be doing on his birthday? I plan to call him and hope I get a chance to talk a long while with him.

Mom is slightly grumpish right now. Not really grumpy, grumpy, just a little off. She got mad when I told her that her prescription was in and we would pick it up tomorrow. She actually got mad at that. Now she is fine again since I told her it was going to rain. Hard to tell with her what is going on, sometimes it is exhausting figuring her out.

Her favorite game is playing with paper so I try to make sure she has paper to play with. She loves envelopes too so when I don't need an envelope, I just pass it along. Sometimes she is amusing too. She wants to hit the road now. I asked her where she wanted to go and she doesn't know. Alzheimer's, what an interesting, crazy disease.

Not much going on tonight. We may meet up with Robin tomorrow, that will be fun. Since the physical therapist came today, she will be here on Saturday. I think her schedule is busier than mine at times.

I have a bad headache today. I can thank the humid weather for that. I hope it goes away soon. Tomorrow is supposed be a better weather type day because I really am tired of bad headaches because of the weather. I hope you are doing better.

Mom is home. She did not get a MRI done because the neurologist didn't want to do one. She didn't see the same thing in the CT scan results as the emergency doctor. Yes, there is some shrinkage, which is normal for Alzheimer's. Right now she is in the living room sleeping even though I don't really like her sleeping this late in the day. However, today was not a normal day, so she can sleep away. She didn't have a nap today or yesterday so I imagine she is exhausted. I am and I had a brief nap yesterday, mind you it was at about 6:30 pm, but it was a nap, nonetheless. I am glad they decided not to do a MRI because they would really need to knock her completely out for it. She would flip. I have had one and I can't see her being able to handle it. I didn't like it one bit and I had to have 2 of them. That is definitely one experience I never want again. The main reason they didn't do one was because if she had a stroke, there is nothing they can do about it. It would be a silent stroke, not a major one where there are symptoms. Vascular Dementia is usually caused by strokes and that is what Mom has, according to the neurologist at the hospital. We both just got lucky that she didn't break anything.

I am relieved to have her home and resting. I am pretty calm over the whole thing now. Pain level has gone down a bit since the meeting with the neurologist this afternoon. I was in a lot of pain last night that I had to come down and take another pain pill just so I could try to get some sleep. I should sleep very well tonight with both of us here. I called her neurologist to let her know Mom was in the hospital again and why. Tomorrow I have to have the hospital fax over the reports to Dr. T for her records. When I go into the cardiologist tomorrow I will let Dr. G know that Mom is home and she is fine. The cardiologist is in the same office as our family doctor. Makes it easier to have the records in one place. I also found out that the tummy doctor now comes once a month to my family doctor's office too. I still just go to his office because I see his assistant and we like her a lot. I am very tired today too, just like Mom. Mom is walking about as good as I imagined. I don't know if I will get her up the stairs. If not, the hospital bed is still here and even though she hates it, she may end up sleeping on it. We will see. She is resting now so she may be okay going up tonight. Her left side is a bit sore she says. I have a prescription for liquid adult Tylenol that I am going to get filled for her. Also I have talked to the doctors office to ask for a better pain medicine for Mom rather than children's Tylenol. Maybe a patch or something like that. We shall see what they give us.

Anyways, life is back to the normal for us. We are going to lie low as Richard calls it, for the next few days. Nothing too exciting for the little Mom and I like that. I have 1 lesson tomorrow and then the cardiologist appointment so we shall see what he has to say. I still say it was just stress that caused the chest pains. I haven't had any since either so that is good.

I hope September brings you joy and happiness for the fall! I so glad the summer is almost over!