Gosh, on Saturday my oldest will turn 22, how did THAT happen? Especially since (in my mind anyway) I'm only 24, lol! We don't have any special plans, but hopefully we will have a chance to sit on the deck and sing to him and open presents. I may have to sit down and look at his baby book and some old photos this weekend ;0)
Well, but I also have to replace my needle bar, ugh! I broke a needle Sunday evening with only about a half hour left on a customer quilt. I went ahead and shut down the machine thinking I'd finish Tuesday. When I went to sew, I couldn't get the needle bar to go down. Uh Oh. Been here before . . . that's a bent needle bar. Lucky for me, I keep several on hand because my machine seems prone to bending needle bars when it breaks a needle. I did finish the super hero quilt and deliver it (finally!) so that's good news. The guy who received it must have been happy - by the time I got home, he had posted 7 pix of it on his facebook page! He was a pretty happy fellow! Since this was a freebie, I hope that I score several new clients through it *fingers crossed*
Tomorrow is the day mom and I go to Vincennes to pick up Ellen. We need to bring boxes so she can pack - that will be interesting. She is excited for us to see her room, and we are excited to see it. Ellen will be coming home for about a week to pack up her bedroom and then she is moving to my gr'ma's house. I don't see any way she is going to make it back to Vincennes next semester, short of a miracle. She only got $1,050 in aid for the YEAR! But they generously offered us parent loans in excess of $11,000! YIKES! Um, thank you but no thanks, we can't possibly do that. She will be devastated, but she will be able to get just as good an education out at IUPU - Columbus. And at least she had a year on campus.
Things with MIL are going fine. She is ticked at the other side of the family right now, so we are not taking any heat at the moment, LOL. She still is not taking her antibiotic, so I anticipate an ER visit probably in June due to the UTI getting worse. I'm also keeping an eye on her because last year the summer is when we started having trouble with her retaining water and ending up in the ER 3 times with difficulty breathing. So, I'm keeping my journal about her medical stuff updated and ready.
Right now I'm looking forward to putting up the pool! It's hitting 88 degrees outside today, and it's only May 7th! Hoping to crank out 2 quilts this weekend so I will have the funds for getting water hauled in. Ellen offered to help set it up, and Marci probably will too. They both want it, so they are most likely to help ;0) I am a little nervous because we didn't put the pool up last year, it just sat folded up on the ground. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best!!
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Spring has arrived
MIL made it home from the Nursing home, but not before she had another UTI and went on a hunger strike, convinced that the workers were coughing on her food and going to make her sick. She developed a respiratory infection, which in her mind confirmed her crazy notion. So we had to move her from that home to another one. She simply would not believe that the food was safe and so she refused to eat anything. In the last couple of days before the move we were able to get her to accept some pre-packaged foods, but they weren't the healthiest.
She moved to the new place March 7 and we had our first phone call from her in less than 24 hours, LOL. She said they were telling her she had a dr. appointment the next day but she didn't know where it was or how she was to get there. We were able to call the nurses and determine that one of them had mentioned that the Nurse Practitioner would see her for the first time tomorrow - MIL just jumbled it all up. That has been the bad thing with this nursing home stay, all of the medical people working with her have noticed her mental confusion and most of them are using the word Dementia pretty freely. Though it's not been diagnosed, it's pretty obvious that it's beginning. She had a follow-up appt. with the Ortho doctor and discovered that her shoulder has fallen out of socket - basically, she's right back to where she was before the surgery :0( Only 15 degrees of lifting from the shoulder. Of course, if you ask her to lift her arm, she bends it at the elbow and touches her shoulder, and believes that she just did what you asked, Bless Her Heart! Since it was out of socket, there was no need to continue therapy, so nursing home was no longer covered under insurance.
So, she was discharged and went home March 26th. She should have 24/7 supervision, but no one is able to do that, so we are doing the best we can. Tim & I have taken her pills to our house and he brings them to her each morning - so she only has one day's worth of Rx at a time. She is supposed to be taking antibiotic for a UTI diagnosed at her follow-up appt. with family doctor a week after her discharge, but is refusing it (actually, she likely had it at then end of the nursing home stay because she was refusing to take her antibiotic there, so this is just the same one probably that never went away.) So not sure what we will do with that. It will only get worse and not better. Unfortunately for us, this means she will get more and more paranoid and irrational and even argumentative, ugh. She has only taken one pill, 4/2/15 and is convinced that it was "working on her." so hasn't taken another - although she will tell the doctor she has been taking it when he asks!
At the appt. with the ortho doctor last week, she was trying to get him to change the antibiotic and he couldn't get her to understand that it is her family doctor who needs to do that. Of course she doesn't want to talk to HIM because she's mad at him for putting her on it. So she said she would just talk to her heart doctor "He'll take care of me!" As the doctor was leaving the room, he looked at me and said, "You do a good job with her." WOW. That meant a lot, considering that she doesn't see and/or appreciate the sacrifices I'm making and how hard I'm trying to work with her. And Ellen told me that the Deans don't see it either or appreciate it. So it's nice to know that *someone* thinks I'm doing a good job. ;0)
Ellen is just about done with this semester of college. She had some upheaval with the roommate and moved out into a single room about a month ago. The roommate was planning to bring her sister to stay for a week - and never asked Ellen if it was okay. The sister had bullied Ellen some in High School and the sister has anger issues, is moody and really difficult - not the sort of person you want to be trapped in a small dorm room with ;0\ We called to see if this could even be allowed and were told that "no" they are freshman so overnight guests are not allowed during the week. So I finally called and tried to find out what to do. Long and short of it is, the roomie was called into the housing office and questioned, but mom had gotten "Special Permission" so there was nothing we could do. When roomie came back and yelled about it, she told Ellen "it doesn't matter, she's coming, there's nothing you can do about it so just deal with it!" Ellen said that was the last straw and pretty much summed up her whole experience as this girl's roommate: Ellen never got a vote, it was always this girl's way and/or her mom's way or the highway. Heck, even knowing that Ellen was considering moving out and she was unhappy, this girl walked into the living room and turned the TV from what Ellen was watching, in the middle of the show, to "get ready" for a show coming on in a half hour. *sheesh!*
Then the mom and I had a blow out over the phone. In the course of that fight I had told the mom that her daughter was having sex in their home when the boyfriend stayed all night there (her daughter had bragged about it to my daughter.) The mom waited until the daughter came home on Friday for the weekend and asked her about it, and daughter said, "no" of course. So mom branded me a liar and lit up Facebook with nasty posts about Ellen and me, thinly veiled of course, but obvious to everyone, LOL. Calling us liars and saying how horrible we were to make up and spread rumors about them. People were responding with the whole "Keep your head up, you are better than this, Karma will get them, etc." stuff to the mom. (and in a side note, nope -- Karma bit them this last weekend instead, a couple of times actually!! LOL)
We were probably pretty frustrating, because we didn't respond to any of it. As soon as I heard about it, I blocked all four of their family members as did Ellen and we just went on with our lives. Their family LOVES drama, so our not engaging was better than trying to fight with them, it likely drove the mom nuts! Funny twist, Ellen and the daughter had a sit-down and worked out their differences and still go to the dining hall now and then (when Ellen doesn't have anything better to do, LOL.) At lunch a couple days ago the daughter told Ellen that she is in trouble with her mom and mom no longer trusts her because she lied about something (not being where she was supposed to be, I think skipping classes specifically, but she didn't elaborate to Ellen.) I just had to laugh because the mom pretty much tried to destroy me for "lying about her daughter" who always "tells her everything, because we are best friends." When in fact, nope, your daughter lies to you a fair amount, she just hasn't ever gotten tripped up in them because usually she is able to tip toe around and get away with it!!
Work is fine. Nothing new or exciting. And home is ok. Still not getting much time in to quilt. It just seems like the days are not long enough. By the time I go to work, come home and make dinner then tidy up from that - it's almost bedtime. My days off, one is spent taking MIL to the store for her groceries and that takes the whole day (seriously, we were in one grocery store for over two hours - not even a super store, just a regular grocery!!) Then the next day I have to try to get MY errands done, *sigh* Weekends seem to always start out with no plans, but as people get out of bed Saturday morning they start "needing" to go to town for this or that, or "needing" to get this or that done, and my things just get pushed to the side, and again, it's time to make dinner and clean up and the whole day is gone. Don't mean to sound whiny, really, I just am frustrated at all the quilting and house stuff piling up, :0( But hopefully with pretty weather I can throw open some windows, get some fresh air and sunshine in and get motivated!!
She moved to the new place March 7 and we had our first phone call from her in less than 24 hours, LOL. She said they were telling her she had a dr. appointment the next day but she didn't know where it was or how she was to get there. We were able to call the nurses and determine that one of them had mentioned that the Nurse Practitioner would see her for the first time tomorrow - MIL just jumbled it all up. That has been the bad thing with this nursing home stay, all of the medical people working with her have noticed her mental confusion and most of them are using the word Dementia pretty freely. Though it's not been diagnosed, it's pretty obvious that it's beginning. She had a follow-up appt. with the Ortho doctor and discovered that her shoulder has fallen out of socket - basically, she's right back to where she was before the surgery :0( Only 15 degrees of lifting from the shoulder. Of course, if you ask her to lift her arm, she bends it at the elbow and touches her shoulder, and believes that she just did what you asked, Bless Her Heart! Since it was out of socket, there was no need to continue therapy, so nursing home was no longer covered under insurance.
So, she was discharged and went home March 26th. She should have 24/7 supervision, but no one is able to do that, so we are doing the best we can. Tim & I have taken her pills to our house and he brings them to her each morning - so she only has one day's worth of Rx at a time. She is supposed to be taking antibiotic for a UTI diagnosed at her follow-up appt. with family doctor a week after her discharge, but is refusing it (actually, she likely had it at then end of the nursing home stay because she was refusing to take her antibiotic there, so this is just the same one probably that never went away.) So not sure what we will do with that. It will only get worse and not better. Unfortunately for us, this means she will get more and more paranoid and irrational and even argumentative, ugh. She has only taken one pill, 4/2/15 and is convinced that it was "working on her." so hasn't taken another - although she will tell the doctor she has been taking it when he asks!
At the appt. with the ortho doctor last week, she was trying to get him to change the antibiotic and he couldn't get her to understand that it is her family doctor who needs to do that. Of course she doesn't want to talk to HIM because she's mad at him for putting her on it. So she said she would just talk to her heart doctor "He'll take care of me!" As the doctor was leaving the room, he looked at me and said, "You do a good job with her." WOW. That meant a lot, considering that she doesn't see and/or appreciate the sacrifices I'm making and how hard I'm trying to work with her. And Ellen told me that the Deans don't see it either or appreciate it. So it's nice to know that *someone* thinks I'm doing a good job. ;0)
Ellen is just about done with this semester of college. She had some upheaval with the roommate and moved out into a single room about a month ago. The roommate was planning to bring her sister to stay for a week - and never asked Ellen if it was okay. The sister had bullied Ellen some in High School and the sister has anger issues, is moody and really difficult - not the sort of person you want to be trapped in a small dorm room with ;0\ We called to see if this could even be allowed and were told that "no" they are freshman so overnight guests are not allowed during the week. So I finally called and tried to find out what to do. Long and short of it is, the roomie was called into the housing office and questioned, but mom had gotten "Special Permission" so there was nothing we could do. When roomie came back and yelled about it, she told Ellen "it doesn't matter, she's coming, there's nothing you can do about it so just deal with it!" Ellen said that was the last straw and pretty much summed up her whole experience as this girl's roommate: Ellen never got a vote, it was always this girl's way and/or her mom's way or the highway. Heck, even knowing that Ellen was considering moving out and she was unhappy, this girl walked into the living room and turned the TV from what Ellen was watching, in the middle of the show, to "get ready" for a show coming on in a half hour. *sheesh!*
Then the mom and I had a blow out over the phone. In the course of that fight I had told the mom that her daughter was having sex in their home when the boyfriend stayed all night there (her daughter had bragged about it to my daughter.) The mom waited until the daughter came home on Friday for the weekend and asked her about it, and daughter said, "no" of course. So mom branded me a liar and lit up Facebook with nasty posts about Ellen and me, thinly veiled of course, but obvious to everyone, LOL. Calling us liars and saying how horrible we were to make up and spread rumors about them. People were responding with the whole "Keep your head up, you are better than this, Karma will get them, etc." stuff to the mom. (and in a side note, nope -- Karma bit them this last weekend instead, a couple of times actually!! LOL)
We were probably pretty frustrating, because we didn't respond to any of it. As soon as I heard about it, I blocked all four of their family members as did Ellen and we just went on with our lives. Their family LOVES drama, so our not engaging was better than trying to fight with them, it likely drove the mom nuts! Funny twist, Ellen and the daughter had a sit-down and worked out their differences and still go to the dining hall now and then (when Ellen doesn't have anything better to do, LOL.) At lunch a couple days ago the daughter told Ellen that she is in trouble with her mom and mom no longer trusts her because she lied about something (not being where she was supposed to be, I think skipping classes specifically, but she didn't elaborate to Ellen.) I just had to laugh because the mom pretty much tried to destroy me for "lying about her daughter" who always "tells her everything, because we are best friends." When in fact, nope, your daughter lies to you a fair amount, she just hasn't ever gotten tripped up in them because usually she is able to tip toe around and get away with it!!
Work is fine. Nothing new or exciting. And home is ok. Still not getting much time in to quilt. It just seems like the days are not long enough. By the time I go to work, come home and make dinner then tidy up from that - it's almost bedtime. My days off, one is spent taking MIL to the store for her groceries and that takes the whole day (seriously, we were in one grocery store for over two hours - not even a super store, just a regular grocery!!) Then the next day I have to try to get MY errands done, *sigh* Weekends seem to always start out with no plans, but as people get out of bed Saturday morning they start "needing" to go to town for this or that, or "needing" to get this or that done, and my things just get pushed to the side, and again, it's time to make dinner and clean up and the whole day is gone. Don't mean to sound whiny, really, I just am frustrated at all the quilting and house stuff piling up, :0( But hopefully with pretty weather I can throw open some windows, get some fresh air and sunshine in and get motivated!!
Thursday, February 26, 2015
so much going on . . . .
Work is going along great, and that's good because most else in my life is becoming a twisty, curvy road ;0)
Gr'ma Bobbie's renters will be moving out of her house in the middle of March. She and Aunt Karin have asked Ellen to think about moving in. She will be there as a companion and helper. Do the laundry, housework and maybe some cooking, and make sure gr'ma is taking her meds right. Ellen is pretty excited about it. She wouldn't be able to be there until she leaves school the first week of May, so there will need to be a plan in place for gr'ma until then. The best part is, I had decided that I wasn't going to let Ellen go back to Mother-in-Law's for the summer because of the way MIL treated her when she was there to care for her last year. I hadn't told anyone this yet, just putting of the inevitable fight with Ellen as long as I could -- now I don't have to worry. This new solution takes care of the whole problem. Although, it would be devilishly fun to go ahead an let MIL know that her mean, lying treatment of Ellen made it so that I wasn't going to let her move back in anyway. From what SIL says, MIL already says "When Ellen moves back in after she comes home from college. . . . . " um, no. Just no. Best part, when I asked Aunt Karin if Gr'ma is ok with supervision she said, that yeah, Gr'ma was actually relieved with Karin took over the bills - well that is certainly the opposite of the attitude MIL gives us when we help, so this should be just fine! Ellen won't know what to do with a person who is kind a compliant, LOL.
MIL is in the nursing home to recover after her shoulder surgery. Initially they thought it would be 4 weeks or so. There have been issues. She developed a UTI so there was some paranoia and craziness for several days. She thought that her roommate's oxygen machine was putting out Ether gas into the room. She was making calls to family in the middle of the night to come get her and save her. She also refused to sleep in her room, and was spending the night on the couch for several nights. They did find a room and moved her after the first week. Funny thing is, she thought she was getting a single room and was all "Gee, I don't want to put anyone out, or cause any trouble, blah blah blah." Tim let her know, no one was being put out, she still had a roommate, just a DIFFERENT one. Her face fell at that news. I've been going over there 6 out of 7 days to visit and check on her, also doing her laundry. I went ahead and bought her 4 housedresses because all of hers (even the new one we got her for Christmas) are stained up and pretty icky looking. Also got her some sweat pants (and hemmed them so she won't trip on them, LOL) and then went to San Souci (can't buy everything new, I'm not made of money) and got some button up shirts. The therapists said that button ups would be easier with her arm in a sling. At the first case meeting to review how she is doing, the therapist noted that they had concerns about her cognitive abilities. I tried to say in a nice way that she was never the sharpest knife in the drawer to start with. They are going to start speech therapy. She suggested that we could ask for a full Neuro/Psych evaluation, but it isn't required. That's kind of good, because we don't really want her labeled as incompetent, there's no coming back from that once it's in the file.
On the homefront, I'm stretched thin. With the visits to MIL and church 2 nights a week, the weeknights are pretty busy. Trying to get dinner and laundry done, but not finding the time (or making the time) to get quilting done. I need to get my quilting mojo back and start being more disciplined about it. Marci is working at the nursing home this weekend, so maybe that will be a good chance to get some quilting done!
Gr'ma Bobbie's renters will be moving out of her house in the middle of March. She and Aunt Karin have asked Ellen to think about moving in. She will be there as a companion and helper. Do the laundry, housework and maybe some cooking, and make sure gr'ma is taking her meds right. Ellen is pretty excited about it. She wouldn't be able to be there until she leaves school the first week of May, so there will need to be a plan in place for gr'ma until then. The best part is, I had decided that I wasn't going to let Ellen go back to Mother-in-Law's for the summer because of the way MIL treated her when she was there to care for her last year. I hadn't told anyone this yet, just putting of the inevitable fight with Ellen as long as I could -- now I don't have to worry. This new solution takes care of the whole problem. Although, it would be devilishly fun to go ahead an let MIL know that her mean, lying treatment of Ellen made it so that I wasn't going to let her move back in anyway. From what SIL says, MIL already says "When Ellen moves back in after she comes home from college. . . . . " um, no. Just no. Best part, when I asked Aunt Karin if Gr'ma is ok with supervision she said, that yeah, Gr'ma was actually relieved with Karin took over the bills - well that is certainly the opposite of the attitude MIL gives us when we help, so this should be just fine! Ellen won't know what to do with a person who is kind a compliant, LOL.
MIL is in the nursing home to recover after her shoulder surgery. Initially they thought it would be 4 weeks or so. There have been issues. She developed a UTI so there was some paranoia and craziness for several days. She thought that her roommate's oxygen machine was putting out Ether gas into the room. She was making calls to family in the middle of the night to come get her and save her. She also refused to sleep in her room, and was spending the night on the couch for several nights. They did find a room and moved her after the first week. Funny thing is, she thought she was getting a single room and was all "Gee, I don't want to put anyone out, or cause any trouble, blah blah blah." Tim let her know, no one was being put out, she still had a roommate, just a DIFFERENT one. Her face fell at that news. I've been going over there 6 out of 7 days to visit and check on her, also doing her laundry. I went ahead and bought her 4 housedresses because all of hers (even the new one we got her for Christmas) are stained up and pretty icky looking. Also got her some sweat pants (and hemmed them so she won't trip on them, LOL) and then went to San Souci (can't buy everything new, I'm not made of money) and got some button up shirts. The therapists said that button ups would be easier with her arm in a sling. At the first case meeting to review how she is doing, the therapist noted that they had concerns about her cognitive abilities. I tried to say in a nice way that she was never the sharpest knife in the drawer to start with. They are going to start speech therapy. She suggested that we could ask for a full Neuro/Psych evaluation, but it isn't required. That's kind of good, because we don't really want her labeled as incompetent, there's no coming back from that once it's in the file.
On the homefront, I'm stretched thin. With the visits to MIL and church 2 nights a week, the weeknights are pretty busy. Trying to get dinner and laundry done, but not finding the time (or making the time) to get quilting done. I need to get my quilting mojo back and start being more disciplined about it. Marci is working at the nursing home this weekend, so maybe that will be a good chance to get some quilting done!
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
New Year, fresh start
I like the New Year. It's a great time to look back over the past year and take stock. I had a good year, all things considered. Personally I was able to lose 15 pounds and keep them off. And I kept the house tidied up a lot more. It was hard with all the medical stuff going on -- MIL's stroke, my mom's heart attack, step-dad's hospitalization and even my Gr'ma being in a nursing home for over 3 months after breaking he hip. I didn't realize that all of this was building stress up and so I had some blah of my own, memory issues, feeling overwhelmed, and procrastinating more than usual.
In the looking ahead department, I'm keeping busy. MIL will be having surgery to replace her shoulder in a couple of weeks. I'll be taking her in for the surgery and watching over her the night before to make sure she doesn't eat anything or drink anything until 3pm the day of the surgery. That could get fun when she wants lunch, LOL!
At the house I have 11 quilts lined up for customers and three more coming, so that's great. I took some time over Christmas to clean up the quilting room and rearrange a bit. Over the weekend I was at San Souci looking for a lid to replace my crockpot lid (handle broke off.) and found a fabulous sewing machine in a darling cabinet! So of course, I had to buy it ;0) My birthday is in 10 days, it seems like a great gift. I oiled it up and have already sewed on it. It is in near perfect condition and even had its manual still wrapped in cellophane. All the attachments and feet are there, and they look like new. I can't imagine that this machine was used too much, but I plan to change that! My camera is missing at the moment, but when I find it, I'll post some photos.
Spending time reflecting on what I want for goals for the coming year, more to come on that ;0)
In the looking ahead department, I'm keeping busy. MIL will be having surgery to replace her shoulder in a couple of weeks. I'll be taking her in for the surgery and watching over her the night before to make sure she doesn't eat anything or drink anything until 3pm the day of the surgery. That could get fun when she wants lunch, LOL!
At the house I have 11 quilts lined up for customers and three more coming, so that's great. I took some time over Christmas to clean up the quilting room and rearrange a bit. Over the weekend I was at San Souci looking for a lid to replace my crockpot lid (handle broke off.) and found a fabulous sewing machine in a darling cabinet! So of course, I had to buy it ;0) My birthday is in 10 days, it seems like a great gift. I oiled it up and have already sewed on it. It is in near perfect condition and even had its manual still wrapped in cellophane. All the attachments and feet are there, and they look like new. I can't imagine that this machine was used too much, but I plan to change that! My camera is missing at the moment, but when I find it, I'll post some photos.
Spending time reflecting on what I want for goals for the coming year, more to come on that ;0)
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