Feel Like Complaining

Have you ever been given or bought something and then to display it, you need to move things to find a place for it? Imagine that times 10, 20, 30 or even 50!! For the past month, we've been bringing Mom's things home. Only a few boxes at a time but for every item, we have to clean a whole area of our house. I hate forced cleaning! Even boxing up things for Faith to move out with (some day), have to be stored. We still have boxes of stuff from her moving home from college. We will get Mom's queen bed and one long dresser. So that means a standard bed and 2 dressers will have to be stored. Tony doesn't want to pay for storage so everything is going into the.......basement.  Ah, but we have two computer desks that have to go. One is huge and I listed it for free just to get rid of it.  I hurt my back while lifting an extra heavy tote and was down and out for almost two weeks. I had pain and cramping in both of my legs and was freaked out enough to make an appointment with...

Moving day for my Mom wasn't particularly hard, just long. The day before however was a bear of a day. It seems like she was mad at everybody. I only worked until 3 and my brother came from then to stay overnight. I told him I could not have stayed; she was being impossible. He found out very soon that I was right. When she gets like that he starts calling her " Your mother".  First she was mad I started the dishwasher the day before and didn't tell her, so when Tony came she had him stop it at the auto dry so it can air dry. Just a weird thing with her. So all these lights start flashing and she thinks he broke it. No, he didn't. Then she was mad at all the leaves being tracked in and said it looks like dog shit all over the floor. Yep, she did. Then I didn't curl her hair right. She waits till the day before moving to want to look nice.  My brother is her Durable POA and she actually told him that he can't be POA until she dies so she 'fired' him...

It's strange sometimes to look back at the progression of things and how you can get from point A to B in a blink of an eye. Once Mom's visiting nurse brought up that it might be time for her to leave her home, things really took off. First a social worker came over and talked to both of us. She gave us a few names of Senior Advisors that she worked with. One name was starred as a favorite so I started there. Her and I talked on the phone and started the process of looking for an Adult Group Home. Within a few days she had arranged a tour of one facility but after finding out they didn't use Long Term Care policies as forms of payment, we had to move on. The next day I got a very excited call from the advisor who said another opening was coming up soon and we should tour it. I met Debbie there and we both pretty much fell in love with it immediately. The owners are wonderful, the house is beautiful and clean, the room opening up is a suite, and they have the cutest little d...

Even though times are tough with my Mom, I still have some very funny moments. My sister-in-law (Deb) and I text often to swap stories. She loves Mom so much but kind of sees her personality the way we all do now. Deb does her best to make things easier for Mom, even though I know she usually won't be receptive of the idea. Mom has a small black purse on her bed for small things such as cough drops, eye drops, melatonin, etc. She also has 2 TV remotes and another remote for a bedside lamp and those usually go under her pillow. Deb thought a nice little box would hold all of it, making it easier.....right??? She gives Mom the box and she said "I don't need a box, I have a purse that holds everything" Well what about the remotes so they won't get lost. Nope, just don't want a box. Deb takes the box back and I started laughing and told her she may as well just put it on her head. She had also brought another one which was bigger and placed that on her head. I sai...

This past Friday, Faith and I had planned to take some of our painted rocks out to hide on some popular trails close by. We just needed some girl time and were really looking forward to it. Even though it started snowing we went anyway.  Faith kept saying "I am so shocked you are out here", which is true because I am not a winter type of person. It was so quiet and peaceful. We only saw one person and she had a dog, so that was a bonus. We just walked and hid rocks in places where the snow wouldn't bury them.  Before we left I asked Faith to take a selfie of us. This is one of 4 attempts. I'm sure she used the one where she looks the best. I still don't know where to look, but I love it anyway because we are together...and smiling.

This has been the year of DIFFERENT ; from mid March on, everything we do has changed. From the way we shop, travel, and interact with people, nothing is the same. Masks are just another form of apparel now and we don't leave the house without them.  We cancelled our trip planned AN ENTIRE YEAR AGO to Cannon Beach from right after Christmas through the New Year. Covid was the main reason due to travel restrictions but I still wouldn't have wanted to go due to Mom's situation. My younger brother was going to come up for a few days but Mom wasn't real comfortable with that due to travel restrictions and him having to fly in a germ box. Then his mother-in-law passed away and his wife's niece had emergency surgery for a brain tumor. We had Thankgiving the weekend before because Faith was cat sitting at our favorite house. I really miss being there but I'm glad she is available and feels comfortable to do it. I've blocked out a month at a time of sitting away fr...

This month we've had two new doggies to smell all the smells around here. Luna is a 4 year old Lab, Pit mix and a mix of who knows. So basically she's a mutt, a very beautiful one at that. My camera does not do her justice on her colors, she almost looked like a deer. She had never stayed with strangers and did some whining but it wasn't as bad as we had expected. She was very affectionate and just wanted to be around people. She was only with us for one night so I didn't get a lot of pictures but I swear every dog loves to kiss Faith. I hope she gets to come back some day because she really was a good girl. Trig came next for a few days to start and then came back just a few days ago too. His family is moving to Indiana and they're in the process looking for a house. He's a 4 year old Lab mix and his eyes are to-die-for!   He has never been away from his family but he did really good. Everyday he got more comfortable and began having fun destroying toys. We pro...