It's Mom's second birthday party!  I know she doesn't really remember the first, but that is okay, I remember it for her.  I have the camera ready and everything for it.  I only forgot pop so Tillie had to go out so she is going to get some.  I am excited about this like I was for the last one.

Mom's room is half done, I'd say more than half, but Tillie says half and she is in charge so she would know!  I am only an innocent bystander in this project.  Our dining room no longer looks like boxes everywhere and stuff all over.  Our table has the spring table cloth on it.  Basically, everything looks wonderful like a whole new house.  hard to believe what we have been living in.  So nice of cousins to come and help!  I really appreciate it because I just couldn't have done what they have done.  Not at all, I just couldn't.  You know what it is like with fibromyalgia and how you can only do things in baby steps.

I almost forgot to put the roast on for dinner!  Fortunately, I remembered and it is cooking now.  I love the pork roast kits you can buy, all the veggies are there and a nice cut of pork.  We are having Cornish hens (I think I have already said that) tomorrow and I am excited to cook them.  With the kitchen as nice as accessible now, I want to do more cooking.  It is a scary thing, Heather wants to cook again!  We have a freezer full of frozen food I have to finish first.  I love my crock pot too!  It is so easy to do.  I just sit at the table and cut up the veggies, then I toss them in the pot add a bit of water and bam! it is done and in a few hours we have our dinner.

I will be by myself for a couple of days.  Tillie wants Mom to go home with her so she is going to go with Tillie.  I will miss Mom, but as it is a Monday and a Tuesday, I will be busy with teaching.  I may even do a craft or two!  I will be at Tillie's early Wednesday for Mom's appointments.  She has a doctor and her bath appointments.  Thursday she is getting her picture taken at Walmart.  Since it will be right after the bath, she will be spiffed up.  I think I am putting her in a pink sweatshirt she  was wearing yesterday.  It is really pretty and she looked very nice in it.  Today she has a green one on.  She now has about 10 hoodies in her collection, we (they) found some when they were working on her room.  She looks very cute in hoodies.  I will post a picture when we get them so you can see what I mean.  I know everyone thinks their Mom is the cutest, but really, I have the cutest little old lady for a Mom.  Really.  I do.  She is the best even if she isn't all there anymore.  What is left of her is wonderful.

Well, off to teaching!  Have a great Easter and wonderful Saturday!!!

Today was a slow day.  Took a nap, got the ice cream, spoons, and plates for the cake and ice cream party.  We pick up the cake tomorrow morning before lessons.  

The living room is empty except for the 2 pianos and furniture.  It looks great.  They did a real nice job.  The only rooms left are finishing Mom's room and the family room.  We took the stereo out, I am going to donate it.  They moved the DVDs to the dining room and put a book shelf in the living room that now has the toys and the pirate ship and soldiers.   The pirate ship is a collectible and only for looking!  No one gets to play with them because they are pewter pieces and pewter breaks easily.

We went out to eat and I think I ate too much.  Oh my!  It was really good though.  We go to this little restaurant up the street from our house.  Tillie treated us.

I will end this now as I don't have much to say.  Looking forward from tomorrow though!  Mom's second party.

Our tornado is almost over in the house.  Most of it is almost clean, I am glad it is almost done.  I can't wait to see the finished product.  The only room in the house that hasn't been touched is mine and it doesn't really need it.  I am missing one of my hoodies though.  It is probably in the bottom of the dirty clothes basket.  I will look after all of this craziness.  Then I will do all my laundry and put it away where it belongs and then I will be able to walk in my room!  What a concept.

Pain is a bit high right now in the legs and head.  I guess it is just the way things are going right now.

Not much going on right now.  More tomorrow.

Mom had her bath today and her hair washed.  She is all spiffed up.  She looks so nice.  Tillie is here and Maia was here earlier.  They are working on the family room because they can't move anything out of the living room without redoing the family room.  It looks like a tornado hit it but when it is over it will look nice.  

Hayley is stopping by tomorrow morning to pick up her order.  Only one of the boxes is in so I don't know when the others will be arriving.

Tillie and Maia have found some strange stuff downstairs.  Old school papers of mine from high school, mom's old papers from college and a couple of things from Andrew.  How funny.  So far they haven't found anything of Richard's.  Who knows what they will find tomorrow.  It is a scary thing going through the house, you never know what you will find!

Mom did well during her bath and her hair wash.  She works well with Teri, her personal care worker.  Next week, Mom is going home with Tillie for a couple of days, I will miss her and am not sure I want her to go.  I like having Mom with me a lot, not all the time, but a lot.  I don't like being all alone at night in the house and 2 nights of it just doesn't sound like too much fun.  I don't mind being alone during the day, but not at night.  I will leave the kitchen and dining room lights on again like I did last time.

I have a personal dilemma that unfortunately, I can't really discuss, although I would love to.  How do you know if you are doing the right thing?  My stomach has been in knots for weeks now over this and I don't know what to do.  I don't know if I am doing the right thing.  I have a few more weeks before I make the final decision, but it is killing me.  I have panic attacks again over this.  I feel like I am not doing right, but I don't really know how to go and fix it.  It is that crazy over here right now.

So far, it has been an alright day despite the tummy knots that I have.  I hope your day is going well and everything!

Tillie and Maia are on their way or at least, should be.  They will be here in about an hour.  That's how long it takes to get her from their house.  

I just paid the car payment.  Woo, it's paid for the month of February, yes, I know, it's March.  We are a bit behind on it.  I hope to catch up before too long.  It's hard to do when you have things that are tight, as some of you know very well.  I have to mail in my health insurance payment tonight along with some other store stuff.  I can't believe I am still dealing with store stuff almost 2 years later.  Hard to believe, but I am.  Speaking of which, I need to pay the sales and use tax payment of the month.  I am on hold.  I don't mind too much because I can write while I wait!  

It is so nice out right now.  The sun is shining and the weather has improved greatly!  Even Mom was a bit warmer in the car, we had the windows part way down.

Not much going on today, we did our usual, Tim Horton's this early afternoon, and then I have 2 students this evening.  I should have both of them today, haven't heard any different.  Next week they are all on vacation so I am not sure who I will have.  I know of 2 who will be gone and hopefully having fun.  It used to be that I cancelled most lessons because most of the kids were gone during Easter vacation.  Now, many kids are home, so I don't cancel, plus, I only have a few to begin with.  Since I am not as busy as I used to be, I need to teach when I can and I love it.

Just paid the payment.  Wow, my bank account is going to hate me!  2 bills in one day!  I am doing much better in keeping up with bills now that the house payment has been lowered.  Thank God for that!  Between us, we are doing alright, tight, but alright.

Mom is having her second birthday party on Saturday.  I can't wait!  It is the friend's party.  We will have about 30 people in our house, and we don't have enough chairs!  Oh well, kids can sit on the floor and others can stand.  I have to remember to buy ice cream and plates and spoons.  We have forks, but we don't need them with ice cream.  I am to pick up the cake at 11 am on Saturday morning.  We will have to do it on time because Aggie will be having her lesson at 12 noon and I don't want to be late.  You know how I feel about being late.

Well, this has been a random post, going here, going there!  I hope your day is going well, mine is so far and we are expecting company!!  yeah!  Cousins!  Also!  My older brother will be coming for a visit soon, he said in a month or two, not sure when, but soon.  I can't wait, I miss the older brother!  I just adore both my brothers!  Simply adore them!

Here is the weekly link to the online magazine at NFA.  hope you enjoy the magazine.  It's the only one just for us out there that I know of.  If you find another, please let me know!!!

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/fma/fibromyalgiaaware_2009winter_v2/ 

Back to work day.  I don't mind, I love teaching.  I had one lesson and I will have three more this afternoon.  Mom is a bit more tired today than usual, probably the excitement of yesterday catching up on her.  I am too, a bit more tired because of yesterday.  Well worth the extra tiredness though.  We had a good time.

Tillie isn't coming today, something is wrong with her car so she is coming tomorrow.  Whatever day works for her works for me.  Our schedule isn't that busy.  Wednesday we will be over her house anyway. 

Not much going on right now, Mom is dozing as usual and I am waiting for a student.  He should be here any minute now. 

It is sunny out and I am looking forward to the warmer temperatures later in the week!  Can't wait for warm weather so we don't need so many layers on Mom.  Spring has sprung!  I love spring and fall best.

I hope you are having a good day.

Today was Mom's official birthday!  She is now 76 years old.  We had a party at Tillie's house.  Most of the cousins came and my uncle and his family.  We sure filled her small house to the rims with family.  It was great.  I think Mom enjoyed it although it may have been a bit tiring for her.  She should sleep well tonight!  The cake I brought looked like it might have been too big, but I think the smaller size would have been too small, so what to do?  Andrew took some home, Zachary took some home, and Danielle took the rest for her family.  There wasn't much after the boys got some.  It was a good cake.  We will have the same style of one on Saturday for the cake and ice cream party with the friends here at our house.  It should be a fun.  I am glad my cousins and uncle got to see Mom.  Andrew wanted to surprise us but Tillie let us know he was coming that's why he didn't tell me or email me.  Oh well, I enjoyed spending the afternoon with him too.  He sat next to Mom pretty much the entire time, he misses her a lot.  We are probably going to go visit him next month for his birthday, depending on his work schedule.  He is also going to school so his schedule is very full and busy, unlike ours that is sporadically busy and then not busy and then busy again.

Tillie and Maia are coming over again tomorrow for more housecleaning of the Paxton residence.  I am so thankful for them to help me because I can't do a lot of on my own, as most of you know and understand.  With Fibro, there are limits to how long you can stand, walk, and lift, etc.  So to have some help is a major Godsend!  We are getting somewhere with the house now, I feel much better about it and don't feel so down on it.  The back room and kitchen look great and the fridge is clean with good food in it.  We don't have much in it because most of our food is frozen.  You know the three meals I cook: frozen, takeout, and microwave!  I do use the crock pot a lot though, I love using that.  It makes the house smells so wonderful.

It will be the usual type teaching week for me this week, next week will have less students because of the holiday, Easter.  Both Grace and Frank will be absent.  I hope they have fun since I won't get to see them.  At least this week is a nice and full week and we will have company the entire week.

It rained all day so my head is a bit sorer than usual.  My arm is sorer too because of a wardrobe event.  It is so annoying to have an arm that doesn't work right, getting dressed at times is just difficult with one arm even with Mom helping me.  I tried to do most of it on my own, you know, practicing for when I don't have Mom here to help.  Yeah, that didn't work very well at all.  I don't know what I will do when she isn't here, fortunately I don't have to worry about that for a while yet.  Maybe my arm will improve before then.  I can only hope.

I hope your day was as great as mine!

Tomorrow is the Mom's birthday, although we are celebrating it today too.  I bought her flowers and will be taking her to dinner soon.  She doesn't really remember that it is her birthday tomorrow.  I am picking up the cake at 11 and then leaving from there to Windsor.  We will be back in the evening after the party.  I called my uncle last night, good thing because he never got the invitation I sent him.  He and his family are coming!  I am glad.  Mom likes to see her little brother (although he towers over her, he is about a foot taller than her).  He has a little boy who is 2 1/2 and adorable.  His name is Jayson.  I have all the food we need, I think.  I also bought our Easter basket stuff yesterday too.  I got some for Tillie too.  She will be here so I got her some stuff.  Not much, just a bit.  I no longer go crazy at Easter for Mom.  She enjoys it for a few minutes and then forgets about it, finds it again, and then forgets again.  She is dozing in her chair as usual.  We are going out to eat in about a 1/2 hour.  I haven't decided exactly where we are going to go, either Red Lobster or Olive Garden, my choice since she won't really care either way.  I think we will watch Old Dogs when we get back home.  I love that movie, we bought it the day it came out and we haven't seen it yet.  We've been busy on the days we usually watch movies.

Lily had her lesson this afternoon.  She picked what she wants to sing for the spring concert.  It is in three weeks.  She's going to sing "I'm Gonna Wash that Boy Right Out of my Hair" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight".  She is now 12, hard to believe, but it's true and sings pretty well for her age.  This week everyone is going to have to choose what they are playing/singing for the concert so I can get the program started.

Tillie and Maia are coming over again this week.  They are going to finish the dining room and do the living room.  That room just really needs the music put away, although I can't really stand long enough to do it.  The DVD's need to be put back in the shelves and the books in the shelves downstairs.  I have 2 tables up that we will need for the cake and ice cream party for Mom.  I can't forget to buy ice cream for the party next week.  Lily is coming to that so is the Muglia family and the Heyart family.  I can't wait to see Kathy again, even though I just saw her last weekend.  She's my best friend and I miss her a lot when I don't see her.  She lives about 2 1/2 hours away from me.  Next month Mom and I are going to take a day trip to see her.  

Since Tillie will be at our house for the week, I am going to take Mom for her bath and leave Tillie at the house.  She has a key, so I am not worried.  We will only be gone for a few hours. That way, Tillie can keep working (her words not mine!) and not be interrupted by us.  A good thing too, because sometimes it's easier to not see what they are donating.  As long as my Pooh Bear collection is still here, I love my collection and she has been trying to get me to donate them.  I am not.  Nope, no how, no way. I love them too much.  Besides, many of them were bought by Mom right after I got really really sick and my life changed.  Many of you know what that was like, the day you realized you aren't going to get any better.  I thought life was over and that was that but she wouldn't let me think or live like that.  I was practically bed ridden and she and my older brother got me up and walking and moving again.  It's thanks to them I can do what I can do.

Pain is normal for the day, the sun is out and it is a bit warmer than yesterday.  Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, as long as it rains after the party and when we are home!  We should have a decent day since we are celebrating Mom!  I mean, really, how many does she have left?  I don't mean physically, I mean mentally.  I told my cousins they need to see her now, not later because later she may not have a clue who they are.  There are days she asks where Heather is and she is looking right at me.  Not many, but some.  I'd say about once a month she does this, maybe twice.  It is heartbreaking.

I hope your day is great and it is sunny and warm wherever you are!!!!!!

We finally had sewing again today.  We won't be having it next week because of Good Friday.  Easter is a week away.  We are having Cornish hens.  I haven't made them in several years, so I hope they turn out.  They should though, I always do a decent job, no one has complained yet!

I am so tired right now, I could take a nap.  I think we are heading for bed awfully early tonight.  Mom is falling asleep in her chair too.  She was awake for some of the afternoon.  We had to get up early this morning because of sewing.  I have been extra tired this week, I am not sure why.  Hard to say, could be any reason.

My arm is very sore today, don't really know why either.  I also now have a bad headache so I just may go and lay down when I am done here.  I am glad I didn't have this while I was sewing, that would have been terrible.  My arm was sore but not like it is now.

Tomorrow I have to go and get the veggie tray, cookies, napkins, pop, and cups for the party on Sunday.  I will pick up the cake on Sunday.  2 days til B-Day!  Wish Richard was coming.  I understand why he isn't, but I can still wish, can't I?  I wonder if he has found a job yet.  It is so hard looking for a job.  I am not in the job market right now as what would I do with Mom?  I would spend so much money on her day care that it would eat into the money I make, so until she goes into care, I am out of the job market.  Of course, we all know I hope to have enough students at the time Mom goes into care that I won't need another job.  I love teaching!  I will just need enough to make up Mom's money that will be going to her care (as it should), so we shall see.  I am trying not to worry about it right now.  I keep reminding myself that somehow it will work out.  I won't be homeless.

It is sunny out but really cold.  Next week is supposed to be warmer!!!  yeah!  Warm weather!  I hope your day was good.

We were at my friend, Heather's, this afternoon.  Her mom is staying with her, she just got out of the hospital after a couple of major falls in the bathroom.  Her face is very bruised still and it has been 2 weeks.  I am glad she is doing better.  Her kids are thrilled that Grandma Pat is staying with them.  She is a favorite of them.  I didn't bring any knitting because I can't find mine.  I will have to get new needles and new yarn.  I will do this over the weekend.

Mom is eating the same.  I gave her a talking too this morning and pointed out the problems she is creating for herself by not drinking enough.  She has almost finished 14 oz so far and is on her way to 16 oz, the most she has had in a month.  She had 2 beef soft tacos without lettuce and an ensure for dinner, not bad for her.  I had the shrimp tacos, oh my are those good, and expensive.

Saturday I have to pick up the stuff we need for the party except the cake.  That gets picked up on Sunday at 11 am.  Then off to the party!  I can't wait!  I believe I have said that everyday this week.

We have a sub meeting tonight.  I won't be offering our house anytime again in the near future as no one showed up at our house.  Next month is the big meeting, we should be deciding where tonight.  I am inviting the neighbors who go monthly to the meeting to the cake and ice cream party for mom the day before Easter.  My friend, Heather, and her family will be there too.  Kathy's kids will love Heather's kids.

Speaking of Heather's kids, her little boy is a normal little boy, he actually misbehaves.  I saw it today, I would never have believed it if I hadn't witnessed it myself.  They are always so well behaved when we are there.  He must have been more hungry than he would admit because Heather says that's when he misbehaves the most.  She was very calm although I could tell she was a bit upset over it.  I just love her kids.  I see Calli every week for her lesson.  Acer will start in the fall.  He already plays the melody of Calli's music.  It is quite cute.  Although she lets him know he isn't playing all the notes at the same time.

Mom finished a water!!!!!!!!  She just finished a water!  I am so proud and happy about it!  Without a face at me too.

It has been a good day.  Hope yours is too!