We were at Heather Bowman Thomlinson's house today.  Mom did pretty well there, but not with the cold.  We aren't going out this weekend until it warms up a bit on Monday, she just can't take it.  She has major meltdowns over being cold.  It makes me really mad, but there isn't anything I can do about it except throw more blankets on her.  I am not happy about this development at all.  It means no sewing tomorrow, which I look forward to each week.  I am trying not to be mad, but it is a losing battle.  I hate the disease she has, I hate it more than the diseases I have.  She, of course, is unaware of how upset this makes me, which is actually good because she would meltdown again over that.  

Anyways, after that, today has been fun.  I relearned how to knit from Heather BT.  I am going to practice more tonight.  Silly me though, I bought the wrong type of needles and yarn.  I should have called her but I didn't.  Sometimes my brainlessness is amazing.  I will return all the yarn except one because I am going to make trivets for the table with them and one set of needles and get the right type.  I knitted about 4 rows before her children came in.  No use knitting when her children arrive.  Mainly because they have all my attention and mom's. 

I hope you are warm and sunny today!  Try to stay warm unless you live somewhere warm, if you do, yeah!  Wish I was there!

I GOT MY CROCK POT TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I am a bit excited about it?  Sunday dinner will be the first time I use the pot for company.  Tillie is coming over for dinner.  I went grocery shopping (definitely not my favorite thing to do!) today for every thing we will need to cook in the pot.  Mom, of course, went with me and helped me get them into the house.  I also bought her a pair of slippers so her feet will stay warm and she won't have to wear boots in the house, which I hate.  Mainly I hate it because I have a hard time cleaning and wearing outside shoes in the house dirties the house faster.  We will take sat afternoon to clean the kitchen/dining room floor and the stairs and the bathroom floor.  I am trying to spread out the work during the week so we don't have to take a full day to do them.  I love my swiffer dry and swiffer wet jet.  They work so well and don't leave a film on the floor.  I will also be cleaning up the kitchen on Friday night and Saturday afternoon so that it looks nice for company.  I know Tillie doesn't really care what it looks like, but I do and I am tired of a dirty kitchen/dining room and a non perfect bathroom.

Mom and I went to see the movie "the Tooth fairy" this afternoon.  It was cute.  Julie Andrews was in it and she is great in everything she does.  Mom liked what she saw of it, she did, as usual, fall asleep a brief time during the movie.  We had a semi showing with only a few other people in the theatre and it was in the big one.  After that, we went to Olive Garden for dinner.  It was good, but the waitress was slightly dippy.  I was unhappy with her so she didn't get the great tip I usually leave.  We were eating (forks up and down eating not just sitting on the table) and she asks me if we want boxes.  Hmm, let's think about this, we ARE EATING! No we don't want boxes yet.  The she handed me the check without asking us if we wanted dessert.  Well, what if we did?  I hate that.  She rushed us through the meal.  She won't last too long there, she is not waitress material for that restaurant.

I hope your day is good, mine was pretty good, movie and getting the crock pot was good.  Tomorrow will be great - I will relearn how to knit.  We are getting our yarn and needles in the morning before Mom's blood test!  I can't wait.  Also, stay warm!  I am putting on extra blankets on my bed tonight, that is for sure!!!

So, yeah, I know what time I am meeting Wendy, it's 1:30, she works until 1:00 pm.  Guess when I remembered that, when we were waiting for her.  She was right on time, we were early.  Actually, it worked out pretty well because I was able to feed Mom some soup since she was cold and another donut before Wendy arrived, so that was good.  Next time though, I will get the time right for me.  Silly me!  We had a great time, at least I did, Mom did really well, she doesn't say much, just quietly sits there and listens.  She did have a hard time sitting at the end so it was good that Wendy had to go and pick up her son from school.  Mom is doing fine now, back to her normal self.  It was so fun talking with Wendy and realizing how much everyone has changed since high school.  I am looking forward to the next reunion.  I hope to meet with Wendy again soon.  It was just so awesome.  We didn't really hang out in high school, we each had our own circle of friends, but it sure is nice to be friends with people I went to high school with now.  On face book I am friends with several that I was mostly casual friends with, more like people I knew, but didn't really know well.  Kathy told me I would be happy about this, I should have listen to her years ago, but I was just too stubborn for my own good.  I told Wendy about Kathy and her kids and how they are doing.  I hope to take a day trip in March to see Kathy and the kids.  February is just booked on the weekends, the 13th is the benefit concert and I will be broke after that, then the following weekend is competition, so next month weekends are busy.  Maybe the last weekend in Feb, we shall see what her schedule is like.  Mom really liked going to visit her when we did in December.  Day trips are good for her right now, just the right size for her.  She doesn't get to confused because we are coming home for the evening.  I still don't have my back disability so I don't know if we are staying over night at competition or not.  I am sort of thinking we shouldn't even if the money comes in because Mom doesn't really do that well at someone else's house overnight and she might wander.  We shall see when it gets closer.  Tillie is coming to competition too, so I am excited about that.

Tillie can't come tomorrow to see the movie with us, but she is coming over on Sunday for dinner!  yeah!!!!  Yes, I will be using my new crock pot on Sunday for dinner.  After we buy the crock pot I am going to go to Border's and get a slow cooker cook book.  It's bound to have some new yummy recipes that I can either prep at the table or quick prep.  I am looking forward to cooking again.  Never that I would say that, never in a million years, but I am so tired of frozen dinners and I think adding some home cooked meals would be good and worth the effort.  This might help Mom gain some weight too.  She needs to gain about 25 to 30 pounds again.  It is hard for her to keep the weight on, I know, backwards from me, but it is true.  She can lose weight by just breathing it seems.  She will have a CT scan in about a week to double check everything is okay.  I will make the appointment tomorrow and her blood work appointment too.  The doctor wants her to have the blood work first in case there is something wrong and she shouldn't have the IV of the CT scan.  I doubt there is anything, but it is best to double check these things, right?  

I am trying to make sure we have some fruit in our diet every day.  I bought fruit cups and fresh fruit for us this month and it seemed to work pretty well.  It may even help me lose some weight, although with some of the medicine I am on and the limitations of standing and walking, I have difficulty with that.  After my student leaves I am going to try our elliptical for a short time.  I don't want to do this before my student in case I get exhausted from it, I never know when that will happen, it happens so quickly when it does. Mom, of course, as usual, is ready for bed now, however, I know when we go up she will be tired until she is ready to jump into bed and then she will perk.  She does this every night so I know the routine.  She is tired during the day because of boredom.  That's why we are going out tomorrow afternoon, so the boredom is broken up.  It helps me stay awake during the day too.  Of course, so does the caffeine in my tea and diet coke.  I have cut down on my diet coke, I won't be buying it for home anymore.  I am going to check to see if it adds to the pain, I haven't noticed if it does or doesn't when I don't have it, so you never can tell.

I also plan to do some boring laundry tonight.  Both Mom and my clothes' are starting to pile up.  Tomorrow we will also be going to JoAnn's and getting our yarn for our knitting project.  After that we will go to Hobby Lobby and get our needles, my friend, Heather, says they aren't too expensive there, so that is good.  I am excited to relearn how to knit.  Mom wants to try it too but I don't have high hopes for that.  She used to knit when I was small so maybe there is a slight chance that she will remember, but I doubt it.  But, hey, if she wants to try, why not.  She may pick it up and then she will have something to do during the day while we watch TV and movies.  That is the one thing I am looking forward too, having something to do during the day.  I plan to make a scarf for Mom, Andrew, Tillie, Kathy, Tony, Matthew, Jacob, Samantha, and Alicia.  I figure by the time I get to the twins I will have this knitting thing down pat and maybe then I can make some baby doll clothes and hats and stuff like that.  I have big plans for this endeavor. 

Today has been a good day, I have one student soon, Charlie.  Zach had to reschedule for Friday as both his parents needed the car today.  He wasn't very happy about it, but hey, it's best to reschedule instead of cancel a lesson.  (gives me something to look forward too!)  Both boys are doing quite well, Charlie has a new book he is working out of and when I get the back disability I will be buying a solo book he can borrow and have fun with.  They now have CDs for these books.  How cool is that?  Pretty cool if you ask me.  I am not getting the CD though, I have no pressing need for it and Charlie doesn't usually like playing with them, so why shell out the $25 it costs plus shipping and handling if he isn't going to use it?

I hope your day is going great too!!!!!!!

I am meeting Wendy today at 1:00 pm.  I can't wait.  It shall be fun.  I almost typed me fun.  Silly me.

Mom had a rough morning this morning, but I was up to the challenge.  When I realized she was in a bad cycle, (it only took 15 minutes this time instead of 3 hours) I got up, she helped me get dressed and then we went to get breakfast.  She got out of it by the time we were getting breakfast.  She is sleeping in her chair right now.  Nothing new there.  I hope to take her to a movie tomorrow and I am going to see if Tillie wants to come with us.  Anyways, not a long post today.  See you later!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!