I made it just in time for lunch . I was able to help them by feeding Mom . They have several nurse assistants that help with that , but they have to pass out the trays first so I just sailed right in and started serving Mom . Mom smiled when I got there . She was asking for help . The nurse assistant said she really appreciated my coming and helping her . I plan to be there everyday except Friday for lunch , Fridays , I will be there for dinner . This will help them a bit and Mom and I can do some bonding over feeding her . She never was really fed until she went into the hospital . don 't know what I will do when we are here at home . I may continue feeding her or just helping when she needs it . She can feed herself , it has just been a week since she has done it herself . I think she forgot she can do it . They also have her in a wheelchair when she goes into the dining room . She can walk . I know she is weak , but she can walk . I am worried what 2 more weeks of a wheelchair is going to do to her muscles . Did I make the right decision ? I just don 't know now . She could feed herself and walk before I took her to the hospital , does this mean she can 't anymore ? I mean , she could go up and down stairs too . What is going to happen about that ? I am really nervous about her coming home now . I want her walking more in the home , she can walk . I told the physical therapist that too . I don 't need her coming home weaker than she already is , she needs to be strong . That was the only reason I agreed to this . Also , they just left water by her bed . A lot of good that is going to do . She needs to be reminded to take a drink . That is what I do , only now I will do it every hour and I will have her drink with me all the time so even when we are out , I will have a drink for her . Right now , she can barely hold a cup to drink . I had to hold it up to her . What has this past week done to my mom ? I also think I am in more pain than normal because it is more stressing for me to have her away from me than with me . I know it would seem the opposite , but it iPosted by Mom has been discharged and transferred to the nursing center ! ! ! Finally ! ! ! After 3 days she has been moved ! I have started the countdown until she is home . yup , I am counting down the days . She was asleep when I got there but she woke up a bit just when I was about to sit on the chair . Her lunch was delivered and ready for her . She had to go to the bathroom so I help as best as I could after I hit the nurses call button . After that , I fed her lunch and she ate pretty okay . The nursing center knows that she may need help with eating and dressing . I also let them know that she is very frightened over all the changes that have been made for her . She doesn 't really have a clue where she is , all she knows is that when she calls my name , I am not there and that frightens her because we are together all the time . Every day , all day , she is with me . Rarely do I have someone watch her for me because usually I can bring her with me so I do . It has been a strange week without her around . I don 't really like sleeping in the house all by myself but I am getting used to it . It just is strange for the both of us . Mom 's roommate is very nice . She has a broken knee so she will be there a while for physical therapy too . I forgot to pack Mom 's toothbrush and hairbrush . Oops . I will bring them tomorrow . I had so many papers to fill out it was unbelievable , simply unbelievable . I would say there was at least 25 to 30 pieces of paper I had to sign for her . Mom slept through the end of it . When I left she was out like a light so I didn 't wake her . She said her eyes even hurt from being so tired . She is just plain exhausted , completely exhausted . I expect her to sleep a lot this week there . At least she won 't be woken up every 2 hours to be turned . The nurses have cream to put on her bottom . I didn 't sign her up for the phone or the TV because she wouldn 't know how to use either anyways , so why bother pay for something she isn 't going to use ? That would be silly and stupid and a waste of good money when we have bills that need to be paiPosted by Mom is delayed again for her discharge . It is now tomorrow , Sunday . They didn 't give her the medicine she needed last night to clear up her issue , so they gave it to her today . I know , because I was there when she took it . She ate pretty good for lunch , she finished all her beans and her rice . She ate 1 / 2 of the pudding ( it was a boost pudding ) and 1 / 3 of her chicken and gravy . She drank 7 oz of her apple juice , it had some medicine in it too . Overall , I am disappointed they didn 't give it too her yesterday , she usually needs some help with this issue , but hey , it is fixed now . I plan to be there at 11 : 00 tomorrow so maybe I will see the doctor although , I imagine she has to have a day off sometime . I hope Mom goes to the nursing center tomorrow so I can start my countdown until she is home . I am not going to call Richard or Andrew for an update today because I have nothing really to say except it is moved to tomorrow . I will call them as soon as she is placed . She fell asleep after lunch and the medicine and her walk . Physical Therapy came to see her and they took her up and down the hall . She did really well . She cooperated with them and everything . I was pleased . I think she will cooperate with physical therapy at the nursing center . I remembered to bring her undies today . I put them in the suitcase and the blue bag . There is a blue bag missing with Mom 's little red jacket in it . I left the nurses station now because it is a really good little jacket for mom . I don 't want to lose it , although if I have to buy another I will . It 's just this one is lined with sweatshirt material and has a hood on it in case it rains . Mom really likes it . I hope they find it . I am sure they will . I knew I should have brought it home on Thursday when I saw it . Stupid me . Then I would for sure have it . They moved her room again and the jacket didn 't go with her , that is why I am worried about it . I looked in the old room 's cupboard and it wasn 't there so I am not sure where it went . I wish I knew where we got it from . Her blue one Posted by Mom will not be discharged today , but tomorrow . She has a bit of a constipation problem and apparently the nursing home would send her right back into the hospital for that . That would not be good . The doctor ordered some medicine to take care of the issue tonight , so that is good . I am to be at the hospital by noon to sign her papers . I have her suitcase ready except for her undies . Apparently , the disposable undies are causing her a problem and the nurse has asked for regular undies for her . I will wash and bring them to her . I miss her being here . I know we don 't talk all day like we used , she isn 't capable of being that verbal , but I miss her presence . Fortunately , I know she is in good hands and will be moving to good hands so that keeps me going . I am anxious to have her home , but at the same time I want her stronger and if physical therapy for her is better in the home right now , then that is where she will go . I do plan to visit everyday so that she doesn 't get too lonely and feel afraid . After she is discharged from the nursing home I will have a plan in place to make sure I focus on hydrating her so this doesn 't happen again . She ate pretty well at lunch . I fed her some macaroni and cheese and pudding and it looked like she ate some fruit and mashed potatoes before I got there . She has a bottle of water by her bed too . The nurses aid said every time she comes in to turn Mom she gets her to drink a bit of the water , plus she is still hooked up to the IV . Everything is going pretty well for her , despite the little hiccup in the plan . I have tomorrow off now so I can devote the entire afternoon to Mom 's settling in at the home . I did speak to Andrew , he didn 't get any of my messages . I gave him the update and said I would call if there were any changes to the plan . I spoke to Richard too and he said to call as soon as she is placed tomorrow so I will . I am much more confident about Mom 's condition now that she is doing better and almost ready to come home . Once Mom is home I plan to have her eat of drink sPosted by Mom will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow ! Yeah ! She is doing better today ! Yesterday was just a bad day for her . I don 't know why , but today is better . She will be transferring to a nursing home for 2 weeks , then she will come home to me ! I can 't wait for that . I miss her when she isn 't around . I know she misses me . While I was there , Physical Therapy came by to see her and they got her up out of bed and using a walker , out for a walk . She did have to take a detour to the bathroom , but then she went for a walk . How exciting . Yesterday , I thought I was at the end for her , but now it seems she has rallied a bit and is back to doing how she was before she went into the hospital . I do realistically realize that this may happen again since eating and drinking are very hard for her , but I can deal with it as it comes . I feel much stronger today , but I wasn 't yesterday . Today , I can handle anything that is handed to me , yesterday , not so much . I have a good support system so that is good . I do have some laundry to do for her because I don 't have enough clean for her so I can pack a suitcase for her to take to the nursing home for her . I , fortunately , have enough clean tee shirts and sweats for her and socks , however , her pair of jeans are dirty as well as her pajamas . I want her to look cute as she is having her physical therapy for the next 2 weeks . Thank goodness we found her clothes . There are some in the spare room too . I will pack later this afternoon and put the suitcase in the front hall so I don 't forget to bring it to her tomorrow . I have papers to sign for her tomorrow since Mom can 't really sign for herself . I am her patient advocate and her power of attorney person . I will take good care of her . I will be counting down the days until she comes home though , since I miss her so much . I will also enjoy the break from the day to day grind of taking care of her . I plan to put some stargate in this afternoon to watch . I love that show . I am having such a good day , pain is down and Mom is doing well ! What cPosted by Mom isn 't doing as well as she did yesterday . I don 't know if it is because she was all alone all day ( I was in Lansing for the day so I didn 't arrive until 5 : 00 pm ) or just a regular bad day for her . She didn 't eat or drink very much . Thank goodness she has an IV ! That keeps her hydrated . She doesn 't appear to be in pain so I am very happy about that . We didn 't stay long as I have a bad headache tonight . I will be heading to bed early . Two nights without much sleep are creeping up on me . I have to get up early again tomorrow because of my blood test at 11 : 00 am . Yuck ! I wish I could reschedule but it is too late for that . I will go and get it down and then it will be over for 2 weeks or perhaps a month . We shall see . Mom should be going to a rehab hospital for a couple weeks after she leaves the hospital which could be in a couple of days depending on how she is doing . Basically , the bottom line is this is the beginning of her end . I can 't believe it , I am not ready for it , but from what I have read ( and I have read a lot about this disease ) she is nearing the end . The plan is to bring her home , but I don 't know for how long . It is a wait and see . I will be moving a bed into the living room for her because I don 't expect her to be too mobile . I will be getting her a couple of nightgowns to wear because they will be easier for her to wear than pants . I am not happy about this , but I have been expecting it since she first stopped eating properly last February . I guess I can forget about bringing her to Chicago for the competition , we won 't be attending . My goal is to make sure her last few months or weeks or whatever are comfortable and pleasant for her . She won 't really know where she is so I am not worried about her being upset that she isn 't at home . Mom was upset when she didn 't know where I was this afternoon because she is used to me being with her at all times . After a few minutes , she was fine . She did cry tonight when I left so I kissed her , told her I loved her , and left the room . Tillie changed the subjPosted by Mom is in the hospital . I took her to the ER yesterday afternoon . Maia was with me . We were at Tim Horton 's and she kept having a sore throat that would come and go . It happened at home and I tried to give her some pain medicine . I have it in liquid form , but she said it burned going down . I stopped giving her the medicine then because I don 't want her to have a burning throat . It stopped hurting and we left . While we were at Tim Horton 's , she grabbed her throat again because it hurt again . Also , every time she drank something , no matter what it was , she coughed . We took her right from there . We had to wait a bit in the waiting room ( about 2 hours ) because they were so busy and there were so many people waiting for beds upstairs in the hospital . When we got in Maia and I told the doctor everything that was happening , including the headache from Saturday . He looked into her throat and said she was very dehydrated , that was what was causing the pain . He sent for several X - Rays , CT scan , blood tests , and urine test . We left at about 8 : 30 pm to come home because the nurse had no idea when Mom would be sent upstairs to a bed . She was so tired . She was awake the whole time in the ER . We finally we able to get her some pain killers to help with the pain after the last test ( the CT scan ) . She doesn 't seem to be in any pain today . She looks so much better than she did yesterday and she can speak much clearer than she could yesterday . She also can put into words more of what she wants to say . She did eat a good breakfast of cream of wheat and an omelet . She had a good lunch , we were there for that one . I am hoping she has a good dinner , although I won 't be there for that because I do have a few lessons to teach today . Overall , I am glad we brought her in because I think she could have died from this . Slowly over time , she is starving and dehydrating herself , not on purpose , but because her body is forgetting how to do things . She does tear up every time they move her because she is scared of falling . She is afraid when thePosted by What a wonderful , fun - filled day ! We had a really good time . First up was an earlier than usual morning for the Mom and me . We went to Calli 's baptism and it was a really nice service . I think Mom enjoyed the music a lot . It was a contemporary service with Praise and Worship music . Heather B - T 's mom sat with us . She and Mom are good friends , well as good as a friend as Mom can be at this point , but I know Mom really likes her because she has mentioned it before . Then after the service was a nice little BBQ at the church social hall . Burgers and Hot Dogs . They were very yummy . Calli sat with us to eat and so did Pat ( Heather B - T 's Mom ) . Mom wasn 't walking so good , so the church has a walker with a seat . We put Mom in it and Heather 's brother , James , took her into the social hall . It was very helpful for the little person . She is just having a day with the walking . It is just one of those days . We stayed until the end , Mom even stayed awake during the whole thing , so you can imagine how tired the little one is . She is having trouble with steps today , but I did manage to get her up and down the steps as needed during the day . When we got home we both went into the living room and took a wee nap . I slept for about an hour , and she is still sleeping . She is exhausted from our little excursion today but I think she really enjoyed herself . She smiled a few times too . Calli and her brother , Acer , can really get the smiles out of Mom . Despite the time constraints we had this morning , I was able to get her up and dressed and even a little breakfast down her before we left . She only ate about 1 / 4 of her small bowl of cereal , but it was something . She was scared to go down the stairs this morning , so I pulled one foot down and then she brought the other down , then I did it again , and again , until we were all the way down . I managed to stay calm even though I was running behind time . I shouldn 't have made the phone call I made this morning , I should have waited until the afternoon , but I didn 't . Mom was fine coming out of the Posted by It has been a rather busy day for us in the Paxton household . First , we got up a bit earlier because my cousin , Hayley , was expected . She arrived as expected and we sat down for a little visit when , boom ! Mom started crying . We both were like what 's wrong ? ? ? Mom had an instant headache near her ear . She said it hurt really bad . I gave her some Motrin . She stopped crying for a few minutes and continued on with her breakfast . Then she started again . It started to hurt really bad again , so I gave her a bit more and decided to take her to the ER . By the time I had her ready to go to the ER , it stopped . Hayley had already left because we were leaving too . Mom said it went away . I was in indecision of what to do , so I decided to wait and see . It came back 1 more time about an hour later and that has been it all day . If it happens again I will take her in , but it is gone now . So instead of taking her to the ER , we went to our usual . She ate a donut , but nothing else because she already had a bowl of cereal and a little bit of ensure . I , too , only had 1 bagel because I had a bowl of cereal already too . After that episode , Lily arrived in time for her lesson . Mom 's head hurt her 1 more time and then Lily and I moved her into the living room with us and she fell asleep and then was fine . Lily had a good lesson , we worked on a few things she needs to work on and then it was Aggie 's turn . Aggie started a new song this week and we didn 't get to the Italian song at all . I am sure she was so upset over that . NOT ! She needs to remind me to dig out the CD to one of her songs from school so she can practice it for the benefit concert in August . We are doing one for an orphanage in Mexico . Katie K went there this past winter for a mission and wants to help more . Then it was BOOK CLUB ! I just love book club . We read " the Geography of Bliss " . It was a really good book . It was about a journalist who went to different countries to learn what their idea of happiness was . Just a fascinating book . We have to miss book club in June because oPosted by It is a rather dull day outside , sun in , sun out . Mom is sleeping in the living room . As soon as I am done here I am going to get her to do her hair . I will do mine first , then hers . She had a hard time going down the stairs this morning but I got her down . Then we went to Timmie 's and she couldn 't get in the car to go home . Our friend , Rosemary arrived at that moment so we went back in the restaurant to chat with her . I had some diet coke left , but Mom had nothing left to drink . She wasn 't thirsty though so it didn 't matter . After that , she got in the car fine . It is weird how sometimes that happens . We had to go to Walmart for some stuff . She got in the car to go home just fine there too . Like I said , it is too weird . I didn 't finish Emily 's dress for the pinning yet . I am so tired right now that I am not going to do it now , maybe later , but not right now . We have a busy weekend for a change . I am rather excited about that . Tomorrow is lessons , Hayley , and book club . I mean , how cool is that ? Sunday we have Calli 's baptism and potluck after it . I think I will see what Heather ( my friend and Calli 's mom ! ) needs , then I will know what to bring . I have to make a deposit to the bank tomorrow . The bank has not finished fixing the mistake yet . I hope it is done before Monday when the house insurance goes through , if it doesn 't , then the bank will have to reverse it 's fees because they made the mistake and I am not paying for their mistake . The lady at the bank said that wouldn 't be a problem , so I am holding her to it . Yup , I am . Mom ate a bit better so far today . It is so hard for her because she just doesn 't know when she is hungry anymore . She drank a bit of milk and ate 1 1 / 2 donuts . She wanted 2 of them today . I don 't know why . I don 't ask why either , if she wants it , she gets it because she will eat it . Normally we go out to dinner tonight at the little cafe , but because of the bank error , we can 't because we don 't have enough money for that . At first I was like , grr , but now , I don 't really care because it meansPosted by It has been a so - so day . Not too bad , not too good , just okay , which is just fine by me . If you don 't have the so - so days , how can the good ones stand out ? They couldn 't , could they ? Anyways , we were pretty busy today . We didn 't get up until noon . We did our usual , then we went to Heather B - T 's house for a visit , then dinner at home , and then to the subdivision meeting . It was fun and I volunteered to help with the block party . Our next door neighbor , Kathy , also volunteered . She wanted to speak with me at the end of the meeting , I wasn 't sure why , but hey , she 's a nice neighbor and I used to play with her daughter all the time . She asked me about mom and said to call her if I needed anything , she anything at all . It was very nice because sometimes I need help . It is just that simple , so it is nice to know I can call on a neighbor . She said she would be here all of June and August , July they will be camping so they won 't be home . I hope the family has a good time . She was stunned about Mom , completely stunned . Of course , Mom has gone down since Christmas so she is at her worst right now . I think I need to up her anxiety medicine by 1 / 2 at night because she is getting anxious at night again . Mom did not so good with eating today . She wasn 't very hungry , I even got her ice cream , but she didn 't eat much of it . She had about 1 / 3 of it . She ate most of her donut and a bit of her muffin , but dinner , not much at all . I tried to feed her but she ate as much as she could , and that was it . She is drinking her ensure now , I hope she finishes it . She thinks she does better than she does . I have a hard time saying , no Mom , you didn 't eat well , she cries when I tell her . So I don 't tell her that . I tell her she does good even when she doesn 't . I mean , what else you can tell someone in her position ? You tell them they are doing good and that you love them . That 's what you do . I figure tomorrow she will be hungry since she isn 't tonight . That 's what happened yesterday , she was hungry because she didn 't eat much on Tuesday . She wPosted by This morning I will be heading over to the hospital for the study . I am excited about it . Anything that helps doctors diagnose FMS better is good . It is a 15 minute interview . I wonder if they will be on time , as most doctors are not . I hope so , I hate being late or running over or anything like that . I like to be on time so I am hoping they are too . Otherwise , how will they get all the interviews in today ? Mom is better this morning . She ate a bowl of cereal with no problem . I am going to try an ensure for her while I am gone . Carolyn , from my neighborhood , is coming to watch her . I will be going by myself ( a first in a long time ! ! ! ) to the hospital without her . Yea ! I am excited about that to . I hope she doesn 't give Carolyn a hard time . We shall see . I am back . The study was fun . It involved a few questions and a tender point test . The tender point test hurt , of course , but the rest was a piece of cake . She didn 't press too hard either , so that was nice . We talked for few minutes and then , poof , I was done . Mom did great with Carolyn . She drank the entire ensure while I was gone . I was so pleased . We went to our Tim Horton 's after I got back . She ate 1 / 4 of her soup ( I think from now on when she wants soup there I am going to have them fill it 1 / 2 way only ) and her donut so I was really happy . She also drank 1 / 2 of the half pint of milk . I talked to Kathy briefly today . She said often times her kids don 't always eat a lot one day and then will the next . She said it is normal , so I guess yesterday Mom wasn 't hungry , but today she is back to normal . Kathy and I came to the conclusion that if Mom isn 't hungry for a few days , then be worried , if it is just one , no big deal , she might have ate more the day before than usual . So that 's what I will go by . It is tough sometimes because I am not a Mom and Mom 's body often acts like a child now so I have to check with the Mom 's I know . My friend , Donna , has been very helpful too . Today , Mom is a peach , wouldn 't exchange her for anyone in the world . No one . Not today . YestePosted by Mom hasn 't had anything but a bit of muffin to eat today . She drank 1 ensure . I know she has eaten less than 3 full meals before , but this is the worst . she is almost done with the 2nd of the day . I think that is the most I can get her to eat . I hope tomorrow is a better day . Today hasn 't been good for her as far as eating goes . I am trying to get her to finish this so we can go to bed . I am tired now and we have to get up early tomorrow . I hope she eats tomorrow . I don 't know what to do if I can 't . She has been so out of it all day . I really hope tomorrow is a better day . Today just sucked . I don 't know how to get her to drink or eat anything . I begged and it didn 't matter to her . She just stared out into space . That is how with it her today . She just can 't do anything else I guess . It is a better day now . It didn 't start off very well , but it is fine now . I needed help this morning because I was shouting and getting frustrated and that does not help the situation any . Mom is resting in the living room now . She is very tired and bent over today . She didn 't eat her brunch today so I am going to try again later to see if she will eat it . She is just really out of it . I called my friend , Donna , and she help me calm down and also told me how to help Mom in the morning when she is having difficulty . That helped me a lot ! Now I know what to do when she is having issues first thing in the morning ! That will help in the future a lot because we are going to have days like this . Mom did say she was very tired this morning when I went into her room . She was actually sweating though so I pulled off her little jacket and changed her shirt . I don 't want her to get a cold or the flu from being overheated . I don 't know if you can , but just in case . I need her to be a healthy mom . I am going to let her sleep a little bit longer before I go and check in on her . She was cold again so I put some blankets on her . Poor thing , she hasn 't had an easy day . At least she won 't have a screaming daughter this afternoon and maybe she will be able to eat more or have an ensure . I don 't care if she finished her muffins , that is immaterial to me , it is drinking the ensure she needs today since she can 't really eat . I have several at my fingertips to give her when she can ! She is down to 92 pounds again and her pants are practically falling off her but I did go to get her new jeans and they didn 't have her size . I know somewhere in her bedroom are 2 pairs of size 6 jeans and that is what she needs . The ones she has on now are size 10 , and well , you get the picture . We will be working on her room as soon as the garage is done . That gets done next week , I think that is the plan . I know Tillie and Maia are coming over , so I think it is the garage that is next . Doesn 't really matter to me , as long as by the end of summer the houPosted by Pain is really high right now . My head is bad and so is my back . It is raining outside tonight and supposed to rain all day tomorrow . I think I will just stay in bed as long as possible tomorrow . I have one lesson only at 1 pm . I think we will be skipping our usual , I don 't want to go out in the rain if I don 't have to . We will see , maybe tomorrow will be a better day . I just don 't feel well right now . I haven 't felt this bad in a while . I don 't know what to do about Mom tomorrow . I guess I will have to see how I feel . Maybe Carolyn can come and watch her while I am lying down resting . I don 't think I should have had the ice cream tonight . It is doing a number on my stomach . Hmm , could be why I feel so bad . Let 's hope it goes away soon , like now would be great . I am watching Dancing with the Stars with Mom . Love this show , just love it . After it we are heading for bed because it will be our bed time . I hope tomorrow brings good news about Kathleen and a better day for me . Nighty night everyone ! My friend , Kathleen ( she lives in Florida - I went to school with her ) had a baby girl on Saturday ( I think it was Saturday ) has had 4 surgeries to stop the bleeding and is now on life support . I certainly hope the doctors can save her . She is such a great person and has 4 children and a husband . It reminds me of when Kathy gave birth to Matthew , her oldest , her blood wouldn 't clot and she had several surgeries . She had an unusual illness that either stays with you for the rest of your life or it goes away within a year . It only happens when you give birth . Fortunately , hers went away and she went on to have 3 more kids . They are all adorable . I am really worried about Kathleen , she was so looking forward to life with this new little one . She has 2 older children and 1 two year old plus this new one . Please pray for her and her family . We can 't lose her . Mom is doing alright today , thank goodness . She went down the stairs fine today both the inside and the outside stairs . So I don 't know what last night was all about . I am rather tired today . I didn 't sleep to well last night , I don 't think . I could take a nap right now . My head is rather sore today . Stupid head , that 's all I have to say about it . Not much happening or going on to write about , too worried about Kathleen , I think . I will keep checking on face book to check her status . Her friend , Charrin , is writing statuses to keep up all updated . We were at my Uncle John 's today . He called me up on Friday , asked me if I was busy this Sunday and invited us over . I am so glad we went . We left at 11 : 30 , picked up Tillie along the way and had a great day . Mom did really well most of the day . She has started something new though that is worrisome . When we left Uncle John 's , she become frightened to go down a couple steps . I had my uncle hold on to Mom while she came down the stairs . He then led her into the car . She had a difficult time getting into the car again . I think this is something that will happen a lot from now on . I can get her into the car , it just takes a few minutes and then she is fine . When we dropped Tillie off we went into the house because I had some papers I had to fill out . Mom again became scared to go down a couple of steps . We got her down . Overall , it was a successful day . We are going back in two weeks on the holiday weekend , on the Sunday . I am looking forward to this . Little Jayson was playing with Mom in the living room while we were talking in the dining room . It was fun to listen to . We had an awesome dinner . Michelle ( Uncle John 's wife ) is a wonderful cook . She made a roast beef and a roast pork . Boy , were they good . Mom ate really well , it was impressive how much she ate . I couldn 't believe it , she ate a really good meal ( for her anyways , still small to regular standards ) . It was just a good day . Well , I am off to bed now as it is getting late here . Mom has asked 3 times when am I going to bed . I just have to give her the nighttime medicine and then we are all set . I hope your day was as good as mine . Have a good day tomorrow too ! Ours is nice and busy with 4 lessons ! We have company today ! Well , since last night . My cousin , Tillie , has been visiting with us . She goes home around noon , which works out perfect since I begin teaching at 12 and have another lesson at 1 and then two lovely young girls will be trying on their bridesmaids dresses to be shortened . I am not sure about doing Lily 's as it is still a month away from the wedding . She is 12 and could grow between now and then , and that could be bad . I think I will pin hers but refit her at the beginning of the month , next month . Emily , at 16 almost 17 , is finished growing so I can do hers right away . I just love these two girls . They ( and their older sister ) adopted Mom as their grandmother about 8 years ago . They don 't have one and they like Mom a lot , so they adopted her . Tomorrow is an exciting day too ! We are going to my Uncle John 's house . He is my mom 's youngest brother . He is 14 years younger than her . She helped take care of him when he was a baby and a young boy . According to him , he broke mom in for us . I don 't think he broke her in enough . He says she raised him mostly . I enjoy his company most of the time . We used to see him quite frequently , but then Mom got sick and then I bought the store and life just got busy . I am happy we were invited to see him . He called last night , I was like , who is calling me from Canada , and to my surprise , it was him ! He asked if we were busy Sunday , and I said no because we weren 't . Tillie was sitting her and so he asked if she wanted to come too . So we will pick Tillie up on the way . It will work out perfectly . I do have to remember to bring some stuff for mom in case of an oopsie . I will have extra pants for her , some extra diapers , and some wipes . I probably should put an extra t - shirt in there too , just in case . I will also have to bring a couple of ensures for her to make sure she has enough nutrition . Mom ate great this morning ! ! ! She had a bowl of Cheerios , orange juice , and an ensure ! How cool is that ? I told her I was very pleased with her and she smiled a big smile . ShePosted by We have a busy day ahead of us today . First there was the blood test at our family doctors . Both Mom and I had to have tests . Next up is Mom 's visit with the arthritis doctor . She sees her about once every six months . Not really too much can be done , as hers is mild and over the counter seems to working okay . Then off to knitting with a lesson thrown in ! I can 't wait for that part of the day , it is my favorite as I get to hang out with two awesome kids . Calli missed her lesson on Monday because of camp so we are doing it today . It works out well . Tillie is coming over tomorrow afternoon . She will probably be here before we get back from sewing , but that is okay as she has a key to get in . I have to remember to remove the bad milk from the fridge and clear the table tonight before she arrives . I do like to have things cleared up before guests arrive . Most of the house is still clean from when Maia and Tillie cleaned it . With Mom not being herself , like she used to be , nothing gets pulled out for a new project anymore . That means a cleaner house for us . She used to rip apart one room , get it 3 / 4 of the way finished and then start a new room . Throw a fit the day before a holiday ( because it always took until the holidays ) throw stuff in another so she could pretend we were the perfect little family . Used to drive me crazy . I hated holidays . The boys would be fine , but I would be hollered at the night before and the morning of if one little thing wasn 't where she could find it . Since she never cooked , she never knew where anything was . I would even leave maps for her and she still couldn 't find the stuff she needed . Thank goodness we don 't go through that anymore . For years I hated every holiday , major or minor , because for me , it wasn 't any fun , I was too busy getting screamed at from her ( and she yells rather loudly ) . One time , Andrew woke up and yelled at her to leave me alone for a change . She glared at him and continued to yell at me , because I moved a salt shaker from the counter to a cupboard . Like she couldn ' tPosted by It 's a free day , I mean totally free , with nothing planned to do . Oops , just remembered I got to write mom 's doctor appointment in the planner . Be right back ! Done ! They called while we were at Tim Horton 's . I knew she had an appointment coming up , just didn 't know when . Fortunately , it is the type of office that calls to confirm the appointment . I like that in a doctor 's office . It is just a check up for Mom at the arthritis doctor . She has the same doctor as me . I like her a lot . There isn 't a whole lot she can do for me though , I have tried many different medicines and nothing has worked yet . Darvacet does pretty well though . I have given up on trying new medicines , one I can 't afford them and two , they often don 't work . Mom 's friend , Jose , stopped by for a few minutes . I had called him last Wednesday for help and he wasn 't in town . He told me today he isn 't often available to help me out with Mom . I will mark him off the help list . At least he told me . Of course , I only call when I am desperate , and so far that has been 2 times in 6 months so it isn 't very often . He stayed for about 30 minutes . That is a good amount of time . Mom is in the living room resting . She was falling asleep at the table so I moved her to the living room . She wants to stay there for a while , she says . Hey , no problem , I will be in the dining room working on the blog . Nice apart time for us . Free days are usually the bane of my existence because there is nothing to do . I do have a couple of books to read , I could watch a movie , right now I am watching Oprah ( love Oprah ! ! ! ) , I think I will make Mom some dinner during the news which is on right after Oprah . I am not hungry since I was hungry a few hours ago so I had a sub . I love subs . Oprah is very interesting today . It usually is . They are talking about food and women , and God . I totally understand . The author has a new book out , I think I will get the book , maybe it will help me with my weight loss . I think part of the reason I haven 't lost a lot of weight , it isn 't just about the food , Posted by I have learned something new about Alzheimer 's . My friend , Debbie , told me about movers . I think Mom is a mover which is why she sleeps so much in the afternoon . She often is up way way way before me and I find her at the gate looking out . She no longer tries to go out of the gate , she just looks out . Sometimes she comes in my room , covers me up , and then goes out again . She also sits on her bed in the mornings when I am sleeping too . Thank goodness I have good friends who are knowledgeable about so many things especially this disease ! I am so blessed with friends like that ! Mom took a little ( 3 hour ) nap this afternoon , she slept straight through 2 lessons which is surprising because she usually hears them . She didn 't move during either lesson . They were good lessons , both Zach and Charlie are doing well . Zachary got some new songs this week . One was definitely a challenge for the young man . Charlie has a method book for his saxophone , so he gets new music every week . Zachary takes voice lessons , so it is a bit different that teaching the tenor saxophone . Katie was ill , so she had to cancel her lesson . Poor kid . She has just not been healthy during this spring at all this year . I hope she feels better by the end of the week . I have to mail the W2 's from 2009 this week . I have a couple of other pieces of paperwork to send in too . I can 't believe our payroll service didn 't do it like they did every other year . I was really annoyed when I got the letter . It is a drag to find out that the service you paid for didn 't do their job . Nothing I can do about it right now though . I won 't ever need to use them again . At the time they were a good service , but boy , now I don 't think they were a good service since I have to send in the papers . Thank goodness I do have the papers , they didn 't even tell me I had to send it in , or I would have done it in 2009 right away . Frank is considering going to competition . I have to look up the test list for him tonight so I will have them ready for his lesson next Monday . I hope I don 't havePosted by Mom is sleeping in her chair in the dining room right next to me . She fell asleep in Grace 's lesson too . It was kinda cute . Poor thing is so tired . I don 't know why . She was up before me but that isn 't anything new . She often is up before me as I don 't get up very early . It is almost noon before I roll out of bed . She is the morning person , not me . If I have company or a reason I have to get up , I will , but other than that , I won 't . Not if I don 't have to . I try to get as much sleep as possible . I only woke up a few times last night , so it qualifies as a good night . I have 3 more lessons for the afternoon / evening . Calli is at sports camp so I don 't have her today . I hope she is having a ball . I imagine she is , she is very good at sports . They have this sport just for visually impaired people called goal ball , she especially loves that and gymnastics . She is such a cute young person . She is enthusiastic about so much of what she does , she makes teaching a blast . it is nice to have a student just like her . I need several more just like her and that would make my day , or week so to speak . Mother 's Day went well , Mom liked the roast beef we had for dinner . She ate pretty okay for her . I thoroughly enjoyed it . We have left overs for tonight . A few potatoes , carrots , and of course , the beef . I will serve that after Debbie 's lesson . I only have her for a few more weeks and then she is moving to Seattle . Where I want to go ( because of the attachments Richard has ) . I wish we lived there with him . That would be great for me because I would get Abigail and William everyday and what could be better than that ? Nothing ! It would be good for Mom too because then she would know her grandchildren better . Right now , since we don 't really hear from them , we only talk to them once or twice a year , it isn 't that good . But to live with them , well , that would be this side of heaven . It 's hard to believe it is May outside because it has been so cold . It is going to be cold and raining tomorrow . Poor Mom , it seems like forever since she hasPosted by Happy Mother 's Day ! ! ! ! I hope it is the best one ever for all the mom 's out there ! ! ! ! You may be under the impression that you have the greatest mom , well , sorry to disappoint you , I have her . Even with her memory going , she is still the greatest mom ever . ( Kristen Chenoweth says the same thing in her autobiography ! I love those lines ! ) Anyways , it is Mother 's Day and she chose to have a roast beef for dinner instead of going out to eat . So I put the roast kit in the crock pot ( you didn 't think I 'd use an oven , did you ? ? ? ) and put it together before we went out . It smells scrumptious . Really really scrumptious . Mom picked a good choice . Since we went out to dinner yesterday to celebrate today , I don 't mind not taking her today . I am sure the restaurants are full of people waiting to celebrate ! I even managed to do her hair this afternoon . Sometimes I do a decent job , sometimes I don 't . We don 't get her shower and hair done in Windsor anymore , we will be getting the services over her soon , until then , it is up to me and I did it without soaking her this time . I was proud of myself . Right now we are both sitting in the dining room with wet hair . I will dry our heads with our new blow dryer shortly . ( after I finish this entry ) It has been a nice day so far . I haven 't really yelled at all and my patience is in place for a change . I am working on being more patient because I lose patience really fast some days . All depends on how much sleep I have . I had a good night . I don 't know how Mom actually slept Friday night because neither one of us had our medicine . That could have been a disaster for both of us . I didn 't sleep much at all , but since we had to get up at 8 am , I was awake in time and not groggy . I did sleep super good last night , only woke 2 times to move around from the pain . I am a happy camper with that today . Mom and I are going to watch It 's Complicated in a few ( after our hair is dried ) I wanted to see it when it came out but we never got around to it so I bought it . From what my friends have said , it is rPosted by Went out to dinner with the Emerton Family , and boy was it fun ! Lily is so cute , she brings a book to read so she can be entertained at the same time as we are . Mom really enjoyed it too . She ate almost all of her soup and ice cream too ! I was very pleased with it . It was so nice to see Julie in a relaxed manner , she has a load on her mind and lots to do with the wedding that is coming up . Next week I will be starting to alter the bridesmaids dresses for Lily and Emily . Should be rather fun and exciting as I love sewing . I almost couldn 't find the book I needed for Lily after I burned the CD . I knew we saw it last week , I just wasn 't too sure where . Just when I was about to give up , I found it . She has 2 new Broadway songs this week : I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady , and The Sound of Music , from , well , the Sound of Music . She catches on really quick too . She have them down in no time . She forgot a disc at home so we plunked out her Panis Angelicus . She does a nice job on that one and it is her first foreign language song . She will start Italian this summer . I suspect she will be very good at it . I will also have her start another classical book as well as keeping up on her Broadway . Got to have a bit of Broadway to offset the classical . Although she seems to enjoy almost all of the songs she has had but 1 . Definitely a record there . Most students don 't like a lot of the classical but like the Broadway , she likes almost anything . Makes her so easy to teach and to enjoy teaching her . We had a bit of a giggle during the lesson , both her dad and my mom fell asleep during the lesson . We thought that was rather funny , each on a different couch , but sleeping . Mom was sleeping for about 2 hours while Ross was a sleep for 15 minutes , big difference there . It was quite funny for the both of us to see them . I finally woke Mom up at 2 because I wanted to go to walmart to pick up a few things . I got another Roast Kit . Next time , I am going to just pick up the roast and make my own kit and see how it turns out . IPosted by Mom 's Doppler test on both legs and feet came out perfect . She doesn 't have a blood clot and her circulation is good . I was thrilled . We went to our usual after that . Mom , as usual , is sleeping in the chair . It 's a good day for it as it is so cold outside . What happened to spring , I want to know ? It is in the 40 's today and looks rainy . ugh . Not to happy about that . Mom is an ice cube . I will put a blanket on her when we go into the family room . I think after lessons I will nap . The new disposable undies worked last night ! No mess to clean ! yeah ! I was rather pleased with that . Now if they only had straps , they would be perfect , but you can 't have everything and I will take what we got . Mom was happy too . I don 't think she was happy about getting up at 8 am though . She has been having a bit of trouble getting out of bed these last few mornings . She is very sore . I don 't really know why except she is in bed longer than she ever has been and that could be it . She can get up when she wants , she just lies there and waits for me . I don 't ask questions , it doesn 't do any good , I just live here . I am supposed to have 2 lovely lessons with 2 lovely young ladies today , Lily and Aggie . I am excited about both . I just love both girls . They are really neat girls . Lily is now 12 , hard to believe as I remember her as a 3 year old . Aggie is almost 20 now . I have to quickly burn a CD for Lily , a Broadway one . I just remembered . More later ! Sewing today ! Yeah ! We were running behind though , we were 1 / 2 hour late . Fortunately , the girls are very forgiving and didn 't mind . Mom just couldn 't get going this morning plus I had an emergency laundry load . I got Mom a different type of disposable underwear , I hope it works , so far , we are 2 types , 0 working . Not a good thing , but we do what we have to do . Ugh , though , on the result . Mom has been alright most of the day . She didn 't eat very well though , I will have to give her another ensure to offset the difference . She hasn 't had much to drink either , both are not good . I wish she eat and drink like she used too , I even miss her millions of trips to the bathroom , at least she always made it in time . Stage 6 is difficult for both of us . New symptoms pop up , go away , then pop up again . I tried not to yell to much this morning , although I did a little bit . I have come to the conclusion that she can only put 1 shoe on , I have to put the other one on . She just doesn 't get it . I also help her get dressed now . She can put 1 leg in her jeans ( or whatever pants she is wearing ) , but not the other leg . I don 't know , it is strange . Just very strange . She also shuffles more on 1 foot than the other , maybe the putting stuff on the 1 leg is related . Who knows ? I certainly don 't . She really liked her new pajamas , she is still wearing the top underneath her hoodie . It is cute , Tinkerbell . We love Tinkerbell . I am almost done doing the laundry from earlier , I washed it this morning and dried some of it when we got home . I just have to put the sheet , undies , and pajama bottoms in the dryer as soon as the mattress pad is dried . Thank God Maia found the mattress pad , it sure came in handy this week ! Well , we are off to Walmarts ! We have to pick up a few items ( thank goodness we got the new bank card in the mail yesterday ! ) I want to beat the rain because it is supposed to downpour again . Ugh , Mom doesn 't do well getting wet , so we are off ! have a great evening . Today has definitely been a better day ! I have not yelled at Mom once , she has been calm and not irritating as she was yesterday . I could have sold her or gave her away yesterday . Not today , I 'll keep her . We got her new walker this evening . It was rather cheap considering Medicare paid for 80 % of it . It is a walker junior ( that is what it is called ) and has 2 wheels in the front for her . She has mini ski 's on the back ends . She has done pretty well with it so far . We need it for when she walks outside , not so much inside , although it is here should she need it ! We went to knitting this afternoon after Tim Horton 's . I also had Calli 's lessons during the visit . She is so cute and gets so excited to start a new piece . She is now playing sur la pont . It is a french folk song and very cute . Heather 's Mom is doing well too , her bruises are all gone and she is feeling much better . Tomorrow Calli has the day off so the two of them will be going to her mom 's house and work on her mother 's room . Mom 's room here is half down . Soon it will be completely done , but I am not necessarily in a hurry to finish it . My room is still a disaster . I am so not ready to fix that one . At Heather 's , we also got a fashion show from Calli to see which one of the new dresses would be good for the baptism on the 23rd of the month . We all agreed on a pretty pink one . It had lace on it and was just really cute on her . It was her favorite too . The other dresses didn 't really fit her too well , so Heather is going to return them . I don 't blame her , if they don 't fit , what good are they ? Mom is eating really well again today . She has 5 pieces of meat left . She will finish all of it again . 3rd day in a row ! I am very excited about this . The new medicine must be working well for her . Dr . G said it may take 1 week to 1 month to kick in . Well , it is starting to kick in . I did forget my blood test yesterday . I have it scheduled for next Thursday . Mom also needs another blood test too , she is scheduled for the same time . Yuck , we both will be losing our bloPosted by I am feeling better now . I am done yelling and crying . Everything has settled down now . Mom is calmer now too now that I am . I hope tomorrow is a better day because this sucked . Well , tomorrow is another day . Mom needs help getting dressed now . I can deal with that . Now I get to chose what she wears and I will pick cute clothes only . Time to go shopping ! ! I did try to find new jeans for her but they only had mid and low rise jeans . Definitely not for Mom . She does have a lot of cute T - shirts and hoodies ( because I bought them and picked them out for her . ) I just need her to have another 2 pairs of jeans . I know somewhere in the room is another pair of jeans in her room , I just don 't know where they are . I will look this weekend . The pain has calmed down too . I am glad about that . Mom seems calmer now too . She is drinking an ensure right now . Her 2nd one of the day . Thank goodness she seems to be eating and drinking better . I ache today bad and my head hurts too . I have 3 wonderful students coming for their makeup lesson this afternoon . I can 't wait . It will get my mind of pain and Mom . My patience is at it 's wit 's end today . Mom fell out of bed this morning ( she fortunately doesn 't have far to go ) and it took 20 minutes to get her up because she thinks I can just lift her up . Yeah , right . I know she doesn 't weigh much , but jeez , I can 't lift her . Finally , I ended up just pushing her from the back up , she kept saying " Ouch " the whole time but it got her up . I put her back to bed after that . I tried to have her move into the center more of her bed instead of the edge but she couldn 't do it . Tonight I am going to pull her into the middle from the other side of the bed . Mom is being very difficult today . She wouldn 't come down the stairs , that took 10 minutes at least . Then she wouldn 't put her shoe on , I finally put it on her , but that was hard . We headed to the car , she wouldn 't get it . Finally , she got one foot in and tried to sit down but decided not to . We went back into the house , by this point I am yelling at her and crying at the same time . I tell her to leave me alone and go and cry in the dining room . She is still standing at the front door . I also threw my purse on the floor and my keys . I took the junk mail from yesterday and threw it on the floor too . I was so upset . I am calmer now , but still having a rough day . I asked her if she was ready to go and get lunch ( we don 't have any lunch food in the house because we go to Tim Horton 's every day ) . She says yes . We go back outside and she gets in the car like it is no big deal . Yup , I was like , oh my , whatever . She is still slightly difficult as she doesn 't answer me when I ask her a question nor did she finish her milk today . Usually she does no problem , not today . She also hasn 't taken her Advil for her foot today either and she chewed one of her medicines that isn 't supposed to be chewed . I was not happy . Now she is sleeping in her chair . She will do this most of the afternooPosted by I teach music and sewing to the most amazing kids in the world . I like to read and do crafts in my spare time . I also love reading blogs about other peoples life . I hope you enjoy reading mine . I also have fibromyalgia and arthritis .