It has been a decent day so far.  I have had 5 lessons and will have one more tonight.  After that, dinner and then off to bed.  Mom is doing alright so far today.  I gave her her anxiety medicine this morning and it seemed to help this morning.  She only cried a little bit a few minutes ago.  She is tired again, I don't think she slept well.  She did wake up at 5:30 am again, so naturally, I put her right back into bed.  Not getting up then, no way Jose!!!!  She is currently hallucinating about a little boy right now.  Hmm, these are getting more frequent, but it isn't time for her medicine again.  Not until about 7 pm.  I hope she will stop soon.

The students did well at their lessons, all three girls are ready for the concert on Saturday.  This is the benefit concert for Women for Women International.  It should be fun.  A few of my former students are performing and one of them is the hostess.  Can't wait for that.  No sewing this week.  Laura (the mom) has to have outpatient surgery on Wednesday and probably won't be feeling up to sewing on Friday.  No problem!  We will do it next week!

My arm is slowly getting a bit better.  I can stretch it a bit more before it really begins to hurt.  I am trying to remember to exercise it every day.  I don't understand why it froze on me.  I didn't do anything to it, it just did this on it's own.  Once it is back to normal I will be able to dress myself and I won't need help.

I did think of something else that intrigues me for a second career.  A paralegal.  I had thought of that when I was younger and fresh out of college.  But then I started teaching more and that went out the window.  So now I am looking into it again.  Mom will most likely in the next year be in a home, she is going downhill that fast.  It is so awful to watch.  I want my mommy back the way she was, not this stranger in her place.  I mean, the stranger is nice, but she isn't the same as my mommy.  So anyways, I am looking into how to become a paralegal.  I still am also interested in opening my own music school, so who knows what I will be doing in a year or where I will be living!  Life is an adventure, that is for sure.

I hope your day is pleasant and sunny!  It is so sunny out it is wonderful here!  Of course, snow is on the way for tomorrow and Wednesday.  Wednesday is the day we have to go to Windsor for Mom's appointment.  I hope the roads are fine by then, I don't really want to go if they aren't.  If the roads are bad, we will postpone the appointment for another week.  We shall wait and see!

Today is a much better day!  Mom did well with Tillie here, minimal crying.  She is watching Army Wives disc 5 season 2 right now.  I just did my hair so we are waiting for my hair to dry before going to bed.  Not much happened today, we visited with Tillie and then we went to Boston Market for dinner.  Naturally, I forgot to bring my wallet and it is my treat.  Ugh, how embarrassing.  So, Tillie paid and then I paid her back as soon as we got home.  This is the second time I have done this in three days.  I don't usually not check that I have my wallet, but Friday I did forget to check and we were at Tim Horton's and well, oops, I forgot.  Fortunately, they know me there and let me pay afterward we when went back.  I did, but we were late for sewing class.  

Wednesday, Mom and I are heading to the Alzheimer's society for an appointment.  We are meeting a social worker there.  Don't know why or for what, but I am going anyway.  I guess I am beginning to understand that she is going to need care i can't give her, I mean, look at yesterday.  I was totally out of control with the situation, she was so confused and I couldn't help her.  I am not sure anyone could have.  I really don't think anyone could have.  I don't know what they would have done with her at a home either, I mean, what do you do when a person just doesn't get it?  How do you deal with that?  I am going to give her her anxiety medicine twice a day now though because Tillie said it would help her stay calm through out the day.  So now, twice a day she gets it starting today.  I gave it to her earlier and she stopped crying.  Apparently, this will help her stop crying all day.  I hope so.  I hate seeing her upset.  I also have to throw away any junk mail we get because Mom thinks they are bills that we can't pay and freaks out over money.  She worries about money a lot, she often asks if we have enough to pay to stay the night.  I reassure her a lot, I don't tell her the money worries because I don't think she really understands.  I am not sure I want her to understand.  As long as we don't lose the house while she is in it, that is all that matters to me.  After that, it can be added to her bankruptcy or whatever.

Anyways, all in all, not a bad day.  Hope yours was good too!

Back again.  We have finally done with the cycle.  Frank, Rachel, and Katie were here for practice sessions and she calmed down.  I didn't get a chance to take a nap because she was back in the bad cycle again.  It finally stopped after the kids arrived for practice.  Although I freaked when I couldn't find her and she was in the dining room.  Definitely an over reaction.  I calmed down when she went into the living room where we all were.

Tillie is coming over tomorrow.  I have nothing to serve for dinner so we will need to go to the store.  I couldn't find the chicken that is in the freezer.  Where, I do not know.  But after the day I just had, the chicken can go to you know where.  I can get a new chicken or something for tomorrow's dinner.  I have the veggies and the potatoes.  They are the the boxed type.  It will work somehow.

Mom is very calm right now.  It is refreshing.  We shall see how bed time is.  But I pray it is alright because I don't know if I can handle a night like this day.  I begged God to make her night easier and so far it is.  Let's hope it lasts until tomorrow.  I called her friend to see if he could take her for an hour or two, but he never called me back.  Guess he was busy.  I was at my wits ends but then the change of the lessons helped.  We are heading for bed now, it is 9:00 pm and we are both tired, although she isn't sleeping in her chair, just watching Army Wives with me calmly.  I remembered to give her her anxiety medicine at 7:00 pm.  I did give it to her this morning but man, it didn't help at all.  I hope to not have to deal with that again.  And if I do, I hope to handle it with more than tears and upsets.

I hope you have a good night!!  Talk to you tomorrow!

I am very tired today, not just because Mom woke up at 8:00 am, but from crying on and off for about 4 or so hours.  Mom was in a bad cycle when she woke, so I rushed to give her her anxiety medicine.  She stopped crying.  Then she went into wanting to go home and where I am.  So I tried to get her to lay back down.  It didn't work.  We went to Tim Horton's for breakfast, and when we got back, she was right back into it.  This has never happened before.  She wanted to go to sleep so we went upstairs, then she didn't want to, so we went back downstairs.  No matter what I did, nothing worked.  So hence, the tears.  She was dry eyed the entire time.  I don't think she had a clue it was me at all, she also sometimes hallucinates a little girl in our house that disappears when I come around.  I think she is seeing herself as a little girl, but I am not sure.  She also is very shaky on her legs today, like she has no balance.  This is new and I haven't read anywhere that this is normal.  So I am worried about that.  I have never seen her so off balance and confused in my life.  I almost took her to emergency.  If the shakiness keeps happening, I am going to have to.  She is fine now.  Sitting quietly in her chair.  I wonder if I can sneak in a nap now.  I am so tired.

When Lily came for her lesson, she was the one who broke Mom's bad cycle.  I don't know how, but the change of Lily and Ross being in the house did it.  I am so thankful for that.

I think I am going to try to sneak in a nap in the living room while Mom has her eyes closed in here.  We shall see.

We had sewing class this afternoon!  It was fun, except I forgot my sewing machine so the girls only had one to use.  That was not very well done of me.  Natalie didn't sew today because she had an earache and wasn't feeling very well.  Poor kid!!  Earaches are no fun.  Little Sarah did very well, she basted her first seams.  She did 5 of them.  She pinned 3 seams and then sewed all of the seams.  She  has about 6 seams left to do before I can sew them together.  She is doing so well for 6 years old.  Hannah and Lydia did well as usual.  They are learning to be good little seamstresses.  I can't wait to start them on knitting too!  After tax season I am going to learn how to hand quilt.  Then I can teach the girls that one too.  I have great plans for them and me.  Mom slept through a lot of sewing today.  She is so exhausted and now her tummy is hurting her.  I gave her the tummy medicine, I hope it helps.  I have had heartburn for a couple of days now.  I have a prescription that I am taking in tomorrow that will help.  I haven't really had this problem until now.  Not pleasant.  Not at all.

I have a busy tomorrow that I am excited about.  I have Lily at 1, as usual, and then at 4 I have Frank, Rachel, and Katie to practice for competition.  Frank has solo and ensemble tomorrow morning.  I hope he is ready!  I have done all I can for him, so it is up to him now.  He is going to accompany Rachel on her solo for competition.  Then Rachel and Katie are doing a duet.  Tillie is going to come with us to competition.  It should be a fun time for all of us.

It is getting colder out again here.  Mom is in a blanket as well as a sweatshirt, fleece jacket,and a hoodie.  She is finally sort of warm.  I have the heat up to about 73 degrees.  It does get cold in here though when it gets colder outside.  As long as it doesn't get as cold as it did last weekend.  Hope your day is good!

It was a very busy day for a change in the Paxton household today.  First thing, blood test for me.  The nurse had 3 tubes to get and she got everything the FIRST time!!!!  Yeah, what a great way to start the day!  Only 1 poke!!!  Then we were off to Tim Horton's for our breakfast/lunch.  Okay, brunch.  After that we had to go to the bank.  I got a certified check for the taxes so we will be register mailing the check tomorrow!  We won't be losing the house!  Then we went to JoAnn's Craft store to return the needles and yarn I bought last week that was wrong and rebuy what I need.  After I had what I needed, off to Heather BT's house.  We had a good visit.  Mom only cried one time because she had bad memories in her head.  She did start the day off crying for the same reason so tomorrow I am going to give her her anxiety medicine to see if that helps her.  Once I was up and getting dressed she was fine.  Every day this week she has started off the morning crying on and off so I think we need to fix this.  If it keeps up, then I will let her doctor now about this.  I think her medicine will help her, it helps her at night so she doesn't cry at night much anymore.  She even goes into her room without getting upset that we sleep in different rooms.  She used to cry every night about that.

Calli will be starting her lessons next week.  That will be fun and a challenge.  I have never taught a visually impaired person before.  I have, of course, taught many 9 year old children though.  Mom and I are going to figure out how we are going to do this this weekend.  Something to look forward too.  On Saturday, I will have to do my sales and use tax returns from 2008 and 2007.  I don't know how to do this, but I have to finish them by the 15th of this month.  This is the last step in closing out the store.  Thank God it is almost over.  I then have to send in my proof of income and the august of 08 return and I will be finished (except for paying, of course) with the paperwork for the state of Michigan!  I can't wait.  No more phone calls!  I dread the phone calls when I get them.  Richard doesn't have anything to do with this, although he was part owner, because he was the silent partner.  I don't expect him to do with this either, it is my responsibility and I am almost done.  It will take years to pay them what we owe though.  Bit by bit it will be paid.

Tomorrow we have sewing!  I can't wait for that either.  All in all, it has been a pretty good week.  The weather has been warmer so Mom hasn't been as frozen as she had been.  I hope your week is going well too!

We got the money for the taxes.  We went and got it today so now we won't lose the house.  Mom had her CT scan.  She did pretty well, only freaked a bit.  While she was waiting for the next scan she started squirming around looking for me so I quickly ran in and then ran back out.  She had her arms to her side and moved on onto her tummy.  The techs at first were kinda upset about it, but then when I told them about her memory, then they were fine.  One of the techs told the other to write down that she was confused.  I will find out the results in a few days when the doctor calls us for an appointment.  I hope there is nothing there because, quite frankly, she can't handle anything else.  She is depressed enough.  I do need to call her doctor and let her know how much she cries and says she wants to jump into a lake.  She finally said it in front of Tillie, usually it is just me who is honored to hear this.  Tillie told her it was too cold and too icy to jump in.  That is the answer I will give her from now on.  It's too cold and icy to jump in.  Mom was in a good mood after the CT scan which is why I thought it was perfect to go to get the money and visit Tillie, but by the time we got there, she was grumpy again.  I hate that.  I have to learn to let more go because I am getting to stressed and that means she will get grumpier faster.  At least she did well at Tillie's when we got back from dinner.  She did well at dinner too.  She is fine now that we are home and she has had her pre-nighttime medicine.  Sometimes, I have to give it to her during the day.  I don't like it, but I have to because she is too upset.

I did not post yesterday, I don't know why.  It was an alright day.  Nothing to impressive happened except I had 4 lessons.  Becca was still sick.  She has bronchitis and is getting slowly better.  Her sister, Rachel, had her lesson though.  She and Frank practiced together for the first time.  It was interesting.  She has never practiced with a live piano player before so it was new for both of them.  I think they will do well together.  Frank is almost ready for the rest of his music for competition.  Next week is the benefit concert.  I can't believe it is almost here.

Today is a mostly boring day.  I had Katie for her lesson and Charlie later, but that is about it.  Mom is having a CT scan tomorrow and isn't too happy about it.  She was really upset earlier about the whole thing.  Accused me of not telling her and stuff like that.  I did tell her, she just doesn't remember so I wrote it down.  Like that is really going to help.  

She got really upset at Tim Horton's today.  I don't know why, but she freaked.  We were sitting with Rosemary and all of a sudden she was upset, so we had to leave.  I was not happy about that.  I was actually kinda mad.  I am tired of her tears and comments about jumping in the lake.  It gets very weary on a person.  I  gave her an anxiety pill when we got home.  It helped some but not much.  If this keeps up, we are going in to see her doctor.  I am not taking this too well.

I hope you are having a good day.  It is alright here, nothing spectacular.  It is also snowing again, which looks really pretty, but we will see how much we get.

Last night's dinner went well.  Mom liked it although she did her usual "will I have a problem if I eat this?"  She is very worried about missing the bathroom.  She NEVER has and I don't understand, but I just reassure her she is fine.  She is having a rough day although perhaps now she is out of it.  She was crying while she helped me get dressed and while we were at Tim Horton's.  She won't tell me why.  So I just let her cry and hand her Kleenex.  She let me sleep in today until 11:30, in fact, she wasn't even out of bed before me today and that has never happened.  I don't know if that is part of her bad start to the day.  I am going to put some Walker Texas Ranger (we are on season 6) in, she likes that.  We have nothing to do today.  Tillie was supposed to come over but yesterday her real estate agent called and wanted to meet her today after the showing of the house.  We think there might be an offer.  She certainly can't missed that!  I hope it is what she wants for the house.  Houses just aren't selling so I don't know if they will offer her what she wants.  Over here, not much is selling at all except foreclosed houses because you can get them cheap.  I have to come up with the tax money for 2008 or we will lose the house.  I think we have enough to pay it.  I hope so!

Well, it is still cold here but not as cold.  I hope your day will be good.  I plan to watch TV with Mom, read my book, and knit.  Have a good one!

I am using my slow cooker!!!!  Yup, I have potato soup, corn, and mushrooms in it.  I make it kinda like a stew.  I would add chicken, but the pieces of chicken I bought were breaded.  didn't mean to do that, it was $6 too, so a waste of money.  I will have to find something else to use them with.  I have the ham thawing for tomorrow's dinner, rice, spinach and ham.  Kinda scary that I am cooking a bit this weekend.  Mom helped me open everything and put stuff in the crock pot so I wouldn't have to stand super long.  I think after about 2 minutes my left hip starts to protest a lot, so standing is not the best for me.  Doing laundry with this problem is a nightmare.  Mom helps though so that is good.  It is getting harder for her to help me as her memory decreases, but she still can do some things.  She, as usual, is sleeping in her chair.  We spend a lot of time in the dining room because that is where the TV is.  I know Katie said she would move it to the living room, but there is no room in there with the 2 pianos and the stereo.  It is a very crowded room as it is, and the TV just wouldn't fit.  But I was thankful she asked.

Not much to do right now.  I loaded the dishwasher and cleaned off the counter.  I will swiffer in a bit and do it in sections.  I found my stylus pen for my DS last night.  I was very excited about that.  It has been missing for a month.  It flung out of my DS holder one night and I couldn't find it.  I found it hiding under the table.  I guess I didn't swiffer very good the last few times I swiffered.

It has warmed up a bit here, Mom is still freezing, but not as cold as last night.  She has only one little hoodie on and a blanket around her.  I have the little heater in the kitchen going to so that helps a lot.  It is facing her and blowing directly in her direction.  I get a little bit from it, but she gets the most.  Works for me, I am not as cold as she is.  I also didn't have to turn the heat up yet.  Probably will when the sun goes down.  This week is supposed to be much warmer so yeah! for that.

Other than cleaning spurts, not much going on in our house today.  I will be practicing my knitting in a little while so that I can start on a project tonight.  I am going to make a scarf for Mom.  She lost hers, so she needs a new one.  I have other projects in mind too.  I hope my hands let me knit, they no longer let me play the piano very long anymore.  I usually have to save my hands during the day for my lessons, so I am very rusty right now.

I hope this finds you doing well and having a good day.  It is an alright day over here for us.

It feels like 50 below out today.  Mom is still in her winter coat right now.  I will get her out of it eventually and then put her in blankets.  I did turn the heat up again today.  It is just so cold in here.  When it is around 30ish, it isn't so cold in the house, but man, get below that and wham!  it's cold in here.  I turned the heat up a lot last night and I should have just turned it up a bit and put another blanket on mom, she complained it was too hot upstairs at bedtime.  Can't win with this weather can I?  It makes me frustrated but I try not to get to frustrated about it because she can't help it.  We had to go to Tim Horton's today because we had no milk or bread, so we had nothing to eat for breakfast.   She didn't do too bad, it is just around the corner and it was quick in and out.  Then back to the house.  

I am going to cook with the slow cooker tomorrow!  I am going to take potato soup, corn, chicken, and another veggie and put them all together!  I have made this before and mom seems to like it.  It is really good potato soup, nice and thick the way I like it.  It is almost like a stew, so that it is really yummy!

I am going to do some knitting today while we watch mindless TV, not much good on during the day until Oprah, and I will miss her today because Zach is having a make up lesson and Rachel and Rebecca are having their lessons too.  I don't really mind because if I had to chose between the two, you know I'd pick lessons.  Speaking of lessons!  I have a new student, Heather's daughter, Calli.  She is 9 and a doll.  She is going to hopefully start next week.  I sent Heather my schedule so she can work in what will work with her.  I am excited about this.  All my girls are just going to love her and her little brother.  I just know it.  Acer is still a little small for lessons, he is only 5, but maybe when he gets older he will too.  One never knows.

I hope you are staying warm!  It is very cold here in Michigan.  It is supposed to warm up on Monday, so let's hope so.  Time to get the blankets out!