I was planning on going to see Oceans today, but we didn't make it. Mom is leaning to the left today and seems kinda tired, so we will go maybe next week. If we miss it in the movies, there is always the DVD! Which wouldn't bother me to wait until the DVD, I mean, it isn't like it's Eclipse or the newest Harry Potter movie! Those we have to see in the movie theatre, oceans, would be nice, but it is okay to miss.

Mom is resting in the living room, she must have been up real early again. I am going to have to start putting her back into bed. When she woke, her left side hurt, which is strange because she lays on the right side, not the left, so I don't know why that side would hurt. Either way, she is resting in the living room. It was difficult for her to walk in Walmart, well, walk in general today, don't know why, she is slow to begin with, and even slower today. Not a good thing when I am riding in the scooter at the store. But we were able to get the items we needed plus new PJ's for Mom! They are Tinkerbell and they will look adorable on her. I can't wait until tonight to put them on her! She will look so cute. They will keep her warm but not too warm like the sweat pants were doing. She was getting over heated in them. The sleeves on the new pajamas are long so for her, that is good. They are probably a little heavy on the material side for most people, but for a person who is cold all the time, they will be great. Not to mention the cuteness factor.

I finished putting the paper together for the American Guild of Music Competition info. I don't know how many students want to go, or if any, but since it isn't super far away, I will offer it for the summer. I will be passing it out this week. I already know Lily isn't going because Summer Music Theatre is going on at the same time and she plans to be involved with that. I am planning to go and see her in the play at the end of July. She is such a doll. Mom will like it too. If we go to Chicago (where the competition is) then Tillie will be going too to help with Mom. I already asked her this week, she has never been to Chicago, so she said yes! I am thankful for that because I would need help with Mom when I am busy with the competition. We hope to do some sightseeing while we are there too. Tillie is bring her wheelchair for Mom and I will have my scooter. The planetarium and the aquarium are really neat. Mom and I have seen those before, but they are well worth seeing again. I think Tillie would like those too. Since I have a handicap parking sticker, we get good parking too. The two buildings are right next to each other. I don't know what sightseeing is around where we are staying. The hotel is 30 minutes from the downtown area. It may have things to see right around there, like when we were at Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum was right near by. As it gets closer and if we are also going, I will look into it. If I only have 1 or 2 or 3 students interested, I am not going. I will attend only if there are 4 or more students going.

We are almost all caught up on bills. Once I make my car payment tomorrow, we will be caught up from behind. Yes, I will get behind again because the payment is due the 15th and the money doesn't come in until the 28th, but if I call, they may switch the date it is due. I have asked before and they said if you are caught up and up to date, they may be able to switch the due date. I am going to be calling and asking that is for sure! It feels nice to be up to date with bills, I can then plan better and maybe even put some away for a vacation, a cheap vacation to be sure, but a vacation nonetheless. It could be the trip to Chicago for the weekend or a trip to Kalamazoo for the weekend to see Kathy! Either way, it is a nice feeling not being so behind! It is very stressful being in charge of the money. No wonder Mom used to get stressed over it when I was a kid. It is hard when you don't have enough to pay the bills. I have now used most of the money we found when we cleaned Mom's room. I used almost all of it to pay outstanding bills. I couldn't save it for a vacation because we were getting so far behind (because we were behind and never had enough to totally catch up!). I used the instrument sales money for the ads for the newspaper. I saw the proof, the newspaper people did a great job, it looks really nice! I can't wait to see it in the newspaper. Oh yeah, need to email about a receipt. I need a receipt for tax purposes. I think I will be getting one, but just in case I am going to email about it.

Not much else happening in our house today. Next Sunday is Mother's Day. I am going to get her a bouquet of Spring Flowers. She loves fresh flowers and the spice up the kitchen so nicely. I don't know what else we will be doing, possibly a movie, possibly a dinner, we shall see how she is next week. I don't even know if she realizes when Mother's Day is. Not to worry, I will be sure to let her know!

It is muggy out today, warm and muggy. I have shorts on for the first time this year. I never put Mom in shorts because she freezes inside buildings and that would be bad. I only put her in one hoodie this afternoon and I think she was alright, but I am not sure as she didn't tell me if she was cold or not. I asked, but she didn't answer. She doesn't answer so much anymore, sometimes I have to ask her several times before she can process it to answer. Just par for the course I guess. Well, I am going to check on her now. I hope this finds you having a nice day! Enjoy the spring weather (unless it is raining where you are, and then, stay inside where it is dry!)

Here is the weekly link:

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

It is an overcast day. We went and picked up my clarinet because it had been fixed. It didn't take long at all. Quite happy on that one! Not much was wrong with it either, 3 pads, minor key adjustment, and it needed to be oiled.

We went to Olive Garden for dinner. Yummy! Mom had a bowl of soup and ate the whole thing. I had pasta and soup and ate the whole thing. I need to eat more like Mom and maybe I would actually lose weight as opposed to gaining it. After I finish this I will be going to the bookstore and getting my book club book! I have a coupon for 40% off! yeah! My amazon.com order will arrive next week too. I ordered a book and a TV series, Scarecrow and Mrs. King. We used to love that series a lot. I hope we still like it because I bought it! I also bought first season of Charlie's Angels. We didn't really like it, I did when I was small, but I really don't like it now.

Lily had her lesson today. Her mom brought her. I haven't seen Julie, outside of dropping some tax info off, since the beginning of tax season. She is a tax expert so during tax season, well, let's just say no one really sees her. So it was nice to see her again today. She is a very nice person. I just love her whole family, they are all really nice and wonderful to us, especially Mom. The kids adopted Mom as their Grandmother. It is quite cool!

Not much happening today, possible movie tomorrow. We shall see what tomorrow brings. Hope you had a good day!

I turned in the paperwork for the state of Michigan.  Only 3 more pieces to go and I am finished!  Woo Hoo!  I am excited.  I called them to let them know that they were faxed over.  I should not be charged anymore payroll tax and the amounts they have charged me with should be over soon and fixed to zero as I don't owe any payroll tax.  Difficult to owe a tax when you have no employees because you have no store!  I am almost done dealing with the state of Michigan sales, use, and payroll tax people!  I am excited!  They are very nice on the phone, but I hate having to deal with the store stuff because it makes me really sad and depressed because I lost the store and building.  I loved my business.  Now I am a stay at home daughter (instead of mom, daughter).  I am grateful for the time I have with her because you never know how much you have left because of her memory.  Fortunately, she still remembers me and knows I belong to her and I am her daughter.  Sometimes, though, she asks where Heather is and I am standing or sitting right near her.  It isn't very often though so that is good.

It is so beautiful out right now!  Gorgeous weather, possibly up to 82 degrees today!  yeah!  And, of course, rain on the weekend, naturally.  We don't have to really go out anywhere this weekend except to pick up my clarinet from McCourt's music.  It is fixed and ready to come home!  I am glad it didn't take that long at all.  Cory is a good repair technician on instruments.  I would love to learn how to fix instruments, but that will have to be another day because of taking care of mom is first priority right now.  I have all the time in the world when she is gone.  Maybe I will learn after, maybe not.  We shall see, who knows what that time will bring me.  I do hope to work a bit, maybe not full time, unless I am healthy enough for it.  That is the goal.  But it isn't anything I need to worry or even think about right now.  Now, is the time to concentrate on Mom!

In the next few weeks we are going to see Oceans, the new Disney flick.  It looks really really good and Mom wants to see it too.  I think we will wait until next week though, as Hayley is hopefully coming by on Sunday.  

After dinner, I think we are going to take a walk up the street to see how much and how far Mom can walk now.  I will ride my scooter.  I won't take her far as we haven't walked since the fall and I don't want to exhaust her, just a short one, probably up and down our street.  She is sleeping in the chair.  I am planning to nap after this is finished.

Maia is coming by today.  She is going to help me with the monthly cleaning of the house.  I have a difficult time with scrubbing and vacuuming.  I am sure most of you totally understand this one!  It causes so much extra pain that I just don't do it.  Maia said she will come over once a month a help.  She is my cousin too!  Her boyfriend lives right near me although she doesn't.  She lives in Windsor.  Kinda funny that her boyfriend and I went to the same high school, although he is older than me.  What a small world we live in now.  With all this new technology, it gets even smaller.

I hope you have a good day, ours is shaping up to be good.  I don't have any students today and I had to cancel sewing because of the paperwork that needed to be done so no students all around.  I have 1 tomorrow though!  Can't wait!

It's knitting day!  I am not a very good knitter, not like my friend, Heather B-T, she has made some awesome stuff and I am still on my first scarf.  But I am doing pretty good considering I have Fibromyalgia and Arthritis (in my hands and fingers), so an hour of knitting is good for me.  I can't do after an hour because the pain in my hands is too much.  Sometimes, even typing on the computer makes them hurt.  I can't wait to get my big computer out because that keyboard is better for me.  Once Maia and I have the office ready, I will be bringing the printer back downstairs and putting out the big computer.  I love that computer a lot too.  It has a great big screen that I use for graphics and photos and stuff like that.  I will be able to put in pictures in my blog of things I have made, painted, and the new look to the house in general.

We are doing alright here in the Paxton household today.  Mom ate brunch like a trooper and is now doing her usual falling asleep at the table.  This summer I plan to take the cushions on the couch and chairs downstairs and restuff them.  The cushions are all hard and definitely need to be redone.  It shouldn't cost much either.  I like the furniture, I just wish we had a hard wood floor downstairs instead of carpeting, oh well, I didn't choose it, Mom did and it is still her house.  I am going to get rid of a few things down there, like the bar stools, we don't need those anymore and the shuffleboard.  It takes up so much room and we don't use it.  Mom doesn't remember how and I have never liked it, so it is going!  I have a lot of boxes of office supply that will actually be coming up here and put into the cupboards in the utility room.  That will be a good place for them.  I will have a corner with shelves for sewing and craft items.  I don't think after putting the office supplies up here, that the craft items will fit in the cupboards.  I could be wrong as we haven't tried yet, but I don't think so.  I figure by end of summer our house will be ready and waiting for winter.  In the fall I will have the gas person from the fireplace store come and turn on the pilot light in the gas logs so that will be ready if we want to sit downstairs and play games or sew or something.  I don't plan on using that room too much, but I do plan on using my office and that is down stairs.  When I am down there, Mom usually is downstairs too because she likes to be near me at all times.  I prefer that too, that because then I know where she is and that she is okay.  It is almost like having a child around you, that's the way I look at it.  She is in the place of the child I never had.  Of course, when I was younger I didn't know I couldn't have them because of my blood disorder.  I was going to adopt, but then I got really really sick with vasculitis, and then the fibromyalgia flared even more and I decided that it wouldn't be fair to any child to try to raise them and be as sick as I was.  Now, of course, I am glad, because to take care of Mom and a child would be hard, although I know there are people who can.  I really applaud those people who can do both!  I know how hard it is with just an ill mom, can't imagine raising a little one on top of it.  She takes most of my attention and time.  Although, I am lucky, because she doesn't hallucinate much, isn't violent, and doesn't wander continuously.  I help her with what she needs and she does the rest on her own.  She is still able to feed herself, so that is good too.  Basically, I think, for a stage 6 (there are 7 stages altogether) she is doing pretty darn good.  I am lucky I still have her with me even if she doesn't eat enough.

The fibromyalgia is doing alright for the time being, my bad headache is going away!  Yeah!  My shoulder is the normal pain.  I have a little machine type thing that I use to help it get more flexibility and that seems to help a lot.  It is on my bedroom door.  Our friend, Jose, made it for me.  He was concerned that the shoulder would seize up permanently and made me the little pulley thing.  It was very generous of him, but that is the way he is.  The legs aren't as sore as they were earlier too.  I am going to need to get up earlier because my hips are really starting to complain about being in bed too long.  When they start, I am going to have to get up out of bed and get moving because that is the only way the pain stops.

Mom was up early as usual, I have no idea what time she gets up.  She was sitting on her bed when I was up around 8:00 (I of course, went back to bed!)  I am glad Bob and I moved her bed off the bed frame, it is so much easier for her.  She can sit on the bed and not feel like she will fall and if she does fall, it isn't so far down to go, she will miss the corner of the nightstand too, another bonus.

It is shoring up to be a great day here, I leave for knitting in while (with Mom in tow, of course!)  I am looking forward to seeing and spending time with Calli and Acer (Heather's children) and her Mom.  Her Mom seems to really like my Mom.  I am so glad.  They both have a lot in common and I thought this was funny, they both have the same 2 doctors, the family doctor and the neurologist!  How cool is that?  When Heather's Mom goes back to her own house (Heather and her brother are getting in ready for her and fixing up her bedroom) then Mom and I are going to invite her over for dinner here.  That will be lots of fun.  We love having company.  

Speaking of company, I am hoping Hayley will be able to stop by this Sunday.  She and her friend are planning a shopping trip over on this side of the border.  I have an order for Hayley that I know she is anxious to pick up and use the products that are in there.  I am not sure what all is in there as it is hers and I haven't opened it.  I like watching her open up the box and show me what she got.  Mom enjoys her company too.  I just love my cousin a lot.  We have a good time together.  I also like to meet her friends, usually they are very nice too.  

I hope you have a great day, we are so far and it looks like it is only going to get better!!!

It was bath day today.  Mom is spiffed up and looking extra cute.  I am waiting for the newspaper to send me a proof of the ad I am putting in for the next 4 weeks.  I am excited to see what kind of response I get.  I hope to get at least 2 students, that is all I ask, just 2!  The newspaper goes to 30,000 houses weekly, so I am hopeful.

Mom gained 2 pounds!  I am so happy about that!  2 pounds in 1 1/2 weeks!  How awesome is that?  If this keeps up, she will hit 100 pounds and maybe she gain up to 110 pounds, that is our goal.  She looks very good at that weight.  (I also won't have to buy as many new clothes for her because the old ones will fit!)  The change of medication also seems to have helped her sleep better, except she wakes up too early!  I mean, earlier than me, and I want her to wake up when I do, but that is asking a lot, as I don't get up until about 11 am.  I know, that is awful, but I sleep so little at night that I like to get as much as I can.  I am sure so many of you understand how that is!  I wake up quite a bit because of the pain and have to get up and walk some of the pain away.  If I could sleep through out the entire night without waking, then I would get up earlier too.  Unfortunately, I don't, so I don't get up that early.  Although I have been up earlier the last couple of mornings, I got up at 9:30 am.  That is early for me.  Tomorrow will be a regular morning around here.  Only knitting tomorrow.  It will be fun though, I like my afternoons over at my friend, Heather's (what a name!!!  Totally confused Mom at first having 2 Heathers in the same house, she is used to it now.)  Her mom is staying with her right now until she is feeling better.  She fell in her bathroom about a month ago and stayed in the hospital for a few days.  She looks so much better now.  Her bruises are completely gone and she seems to be enjoying staying with Heather and her family.  I know I like my mom being with me all the time, I couldn't imagine her not being here with me.

It was beautiful out today even if I didn't go for a walk or anything in it, it was a bit cool but easy driving weather.  Mom did well on our driving and our visiting.  All in all, a good day.  I hope yours was too!

Nice day for us.  We took a drive out to Waterford (about 1/2 hour away) dropped off the instruments.  I ended up keeping 1 flute, it is a very old one and he didn't think it could be used for anything but parts, so I kept it.  The 2 clarinets (not my wood one or my nice plastic one), 2 violins, and 1 flute are all gone.  I am okay with what I got for it.  I would have liked more, but with a market like this, what can you say?  It's satisfactory.

After the music store, we went to our usual and ran into Rosemary there.  We all sat and chatted around for a bit before going to the bank to deposit the money from the instrument sale.  Katie was waiting for us, I didn't get her message because I was driving and I don't answer the phone when I am driving.  She had her lesson and it went well.  Zach is absent this week because he is on his way to Washington DC.  I hope he has a fun time.  I would like to go and visit our wonderful capitol again someday.  I spent a day there about 14 years ago with Mom when we went to Gettysburg.  It was a lot of fun, but a lot of walking.  Back then I could walk better than I can today.  Thankfully the bus seats were comfortable because I took two small naps during the day when we were driving between places.  I would like to go to the library of congress, that just seems like such a neat thing to see.  My book is in there too.  I would like to see it in it's grandeur.  His mom, Robin, is going with the school choir heading to Washington DC.

I have Charlie later this afternoon.  I don't have my instrument to play with him tonight, but as it is rare that I play with him, it isn't a problem.  If I played every week, we'd have a problem.  I rarely play my instruments with my students.  I never had a teacher who did and I like to make sure they are playing the music correctly and I don't want to have to concentrate on my playing perfectly too.  It just works better for me this way.

It is chilly out today, but nice and sunny.  Mom is a bit tired today, but I think she slept better last night and she didn't go to sleep on her floor.  She likes having the bed lowered on the floor, she said so.  

Pain is a bit high for some reason, could be because I got up at 8 am and then went back into bed at 8:15 and woke up again at 9:30 to get ready for the meeting in Waterford.  I think I am going to go and take a nap in the living room.  Yup, that's what I am going to do!  I hope you have a great day too!

Mom is better today.  She is very tired though.  I found her sleeping on the floor in her room at about 10 am.  I flipped out, but not at her.  I realized she probably couldn't get onto her bed, she has one of the thick mattress that make the bed super high.  She struggles at night every night to get in, she practically has to jump to get in.  Bob and I removed her bed frame and now she will be able to sit on her bed without practically jumping onto it.  Her headboard is still there, but it isn't attached to anything, it is just sitting there.  I was very worried as she was so tired today, she slept most of the day.  I hope she will sleep tonight.  Tomorrow I will be setting my alarm at 7:45 so i can call the doctor's office at 8:00 am to get a same day appointment.  The hospital said to have Mom see Dr. Gradolph right away, so as there was no appointments today, I will get up early for tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will also be in Waterford by 11 am with all the instruments I am selling.  I am meeting with Dan (he owns a music store) to price the instruments and to fix my clarinet.  It needs servicing.  I hope I don't forget it.  That would be bad.  I am excited about the instruments I am selling, I feel like a load is off my shoulders.  If only I could get rid of the 25 painted violins and violas.  I plan to do a give away here in May, and the rest will go to the auction place near my house.  Unless Dan wants some of them, they are all going.  I am not saving any for next years competition because I don't want to keep them around that long.  I am giving 2 to one of my friends for her little ones.  They are very into music instruments and anything make music.  That's how they are, very into music.

I have made some decisions about Mom.  I will enact them this week.  By Friday, all the decisions will be enacted and in place.  I feel good about the decisions I have made.  It is the best for me and for Mom.  Definitely best for us.  It's not that we won't be flexible to the situations that may arise, but they are definitely best for what we are going through and what is coming up for us.

Pain isn't too bad considering all that we have been through this weekend.  I dressed myself all by myself for the first time in months.  It was very difficult and rather painful, but since Mom can no longer help me, I have to do it myself.  The socks are the hardest, or at least the left sock.  The right one is no problem really, but the left is a doozy.  Oh well, at least I know I can do it by myself.

It has been a pretty good day compared to yesterday.  I hope your day has been good.

We just got back from the ER with Mom.  She had a CT scan, chest x-ray, blood tests, and urine tests.  Everything came back okay, except there may be something with her kidney's now.  She was very confused this morning, I mean really, really confused.  Way more than normal, it was hard for her to keep her head up, it was resting on the table and she thought it was up.  She is eating dinner now, she is doing a pretty good job with her dinner, I am happy about that.  Of course, this morning while she was super confused and couldn't hold anything, I was yelling and losing my patience.  She slept okay, I think, because she was up before me.  That in itself is nothing unusual, because she is often up before me.  I wonder if putting her back into bed would have help her.  I don't know because I didn't do it.  I don't know if that would have helped.  She nearly fell coming out of the house, but fortunately, she didn't, it was a close call.

After 3 1/2 hours of the emergency room, we were in and out.  We got in pretty quick too, I was impressed with that.  We saw the doctor right away too, I mean, it seemed like we just got in and there he was.  He said Mom needed to see her doctor right away this week for further testing.  It could also be Alzheimer's dropping too.  He said sometimes a person will do a drop and then go right back up again.  I will know more tomorrow.  Right now I am just happy she is eating something and is sitting up better than she was this morning.

Pain is a bit higher because of the stress.  I am very tired now.  I think after this Extreme Makeover show we are going to bed.  Mom is tired too, I think both from getting up early and going to emergency this afternoon.

Nap is over.  I slept for about an hour.  When I got up, I didn't know where Mom was.  I was a bit nervous until I heard the little voice say, I'm up here in my room.  Then I was relieved, she didn't go outside looking for me.  She came down to help with the laundry.  Right now, she is so not making any sense.  It happens a lot with Alzheimer's.  They get so confused and then they don't make sense.  I was asking her to drink her water so she will be healthier, she answered rather strangely.  I am getting used to this but it is unnerving.  

Today was rather boring except for the two lessons.  Both were good lessons and then we went to Red Lobster for dinner.  I had the soup and the salad.  Oh, is it good!  Mom just had a bowl (not a cup) of clam chowder.  She ate the whole thing.  I will be giving her another ensure shortly since she won't drink her water.  Stubborn little thing, I can't seem to get it in her head that it is for her health and she would be healthier if she drank water.  But no, not my Mother, she has to think it is awful and torturous.  Well, I could give her worse, too bad she doesn't know that.  I tried to have her get me an ensure for her today, but she couldn't find it and it was right in front of her.  She no longer recognizes certain things, like the difference between a basket and a box.  She kept handing me the box, I was not happy because the basket was right in front of her.  I need to learn to calm down when she does these things.  I know now not to ask her to get anything because she just can't.  I didn't know that this morning.

Pain is a bit high because of the rainy weather we have.  It is gray outside, and ugly looking.  No sun whatsoever.  I am so unhappy over this revelation.  It is suppose to pour again tomorrow.  I think we may be heading to a movie or something like that.  Staying home is getting to me and we haven't seen a movie in forever it seems.  Since before Christmas that I know of.  If I am wrong, I apologize for being wrong, but it has been a while I know.

There isn't anything good on TV tonight that I know of.  Of course, I don't get the TV guide anymore because they only put in the evenings TV and we watch during the day too.  It is really annoying how they do that.  It is more of a celebrity magazine than the TV guide, and we buy it for the TV guide not the celebrity stories!  I cancelled the subscription when they changed the format.  They, of course, called, and wanted to know if we wanted it again, and I said no.  They guy goes, don't you get other magazines you don't read?  Well, I don't, if I don't read it, I don't buy it.  I don't know anyone who gets a magazine they don't read.  Do you?

She finished 16 oz of water now.  Finally, it takes all day and most of the time she doesn't make it.  I try to impress upon her how important it is, she just doesn't get it, which is fine, she doesn't have to get it, she just has to do it.  That is the important thing.  Finishing her water.

I hope your day was better than mine or at least more interesting!  I hope tomorrow is a better day.

Not much happening, can't think of anything to say.  Going to nap in the living room.

Here is the weekly link:

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