It's About Time

Well it's about time I got back to updating my blog. It's only been about three months since I actually took some time to sit down and update things.

So let's see... The cheer season ended recently and we have Sarah's cheer showcase tomorrow night. We had a couple of meetings to get Sarah ready for high school next year,and that includes getting her classes picked and scheduled. Girl scout cookies came in and we got them all sorted and delivered.

And in going back over the few postings I had since November I realized I didn't announce the addition of the newest members of the family, two three year old cats named Phoebe and Samson. Phoebe is an orange tabby and we found out that only 10% of orange tabbies are female, so she is sort of special. Samson if a big ol' moose of a cat, and anyone who has seen him knows what I mean. So far so good with them. It has been about three months so far and I think they are finally getting settled in and comfortable in the house.

So that's about it for now. I will hopefully have something from Sarah's cheer showcase tomorrow, so check back.

Baby

I found out today that my cousin had her baby (I bet you didn't even know she was pregnant). So congratulations to Amy and Steven. And also congratulations to my Aunt Lynda. How does it feel to be a grandma?

Interesting Evening

Well Kris and I had an interesting evening yesterday. I got a call around 2:15 from Kris saying that her dad had fallen at his apartment and was complaining of a headache, and was also shaking. After a short talk, we decided to have him transported to the ER via ambulance and I would finish my work and meet her at the hospital as soon as I was done. We ended up beating the ambulance to the ER.

After running a bunch of tests and taking an x-ray, three and a half hours later the doctor told us that everything was normal and that they couldn't admit him unless we wanted to transfer him to nursing home care. Well, we ended up driving him back to his apartment. While walking him back down his hall he came dangerously close to falling again.

We managed to get him back to his apartment and got him down in his chair. Luckily there was a nurses aide that we came across on the way back who helped us out with getting him in and getting things straightened out in the apartment, including getting his walker out, though the problem is making sure he'd use it. But at least for the time being we have had the crisis averted.

Apartment Hunting

Kris and I spent Thursday and Friday last week to visit a couple of senior living facilities for her Dad. We just can't keep up the pace that we have been with taking care of him. We are lucky that it is summer now and we have been getting help from Bob's brother and sister in law. But once school starts up again and we have cheerleading starting, we are going to be stretched even thinner than we are now.

One place was very nice, but it was more like a nursing home setting. The residents have a one room "apartment" which we thought was very small. But the place likes to promote the fact that the entire building is the residents' home. As such, they encourage the use of the common areas. So if we were to come over and visit Bob we wouldn't go hang out in his room, but we would visit in the large room where the TV and couches etc. are. It was a very big, bright room, which helped give a feeling that wasn't so dreary, but we don't know how Bob would go for that.

The other place we looked at is more like I was expecting. They showed us a small, one bedroom apartment. It had a small kitchen so that he can make himself something to eat, and it is big enough that he can keep a lot of his stuff (bed, dresser, chairs from the family room, etc.). The only drawback is that the facility is pretty big and I would worry that he would get lost. I think that place though would be much better for her dad at this point, so does Kris. And Bob's brother knows people who have moved into this facility, so I think that would be our choice.

The big problem in this however, is how to get Bob to agree to it. He is adamant that he is not going to leave his house. And the problem is that with his memory we cannot reason with him because he will completely forget everything after we convince him. Kris and her uncle spent an hour telling him why he can't really stay in his house and should be in a apartment where he can get the care he needs and we wouldn't have to worry about him. after 45 minutes to an hour they managed to convince him, but an hour later we know that he completely forgot it.

Man it is hard getting old.

Almost Over

Sunday was spent somewhat relaxing from the long week. Kris and I spent half the day going over the funeral things, writing thank you notes, putting money together to donate to the Community Outreach Health Clinic (which is where we requested memorials be donated). Who would have thought that just writing out thank you's would have taken so long? It was a good day to do it though, it was cold and rainy outside so we weren't going to be going anywhere. Now we have to start looking into what we are going to do with Kris's dad. He still isn't doing well with all this. Because of his memory issues he is constantly asking if Carole died and we have to tell him yes, so it is like hearing for the first time several times a day. We have a meeting with the lawyer to go over the will this week so we can find out our duties, and see if there is anything else we need to do before trying to figure out how to go forward with her dad. Stay tuned, I am sure this is just the beginning.

Planning

Today was spent doing lots of planning. First thing we did was clean up the house. As we were cleaning things up from the night before we found a ziploc bag with each girl's name on it (Sarah, Alison, and Keith's daughter) that contained some hand embroidered pillow cases (which was one of Carole's favorite hobbies) and a handwritten note . The handwritten note even choked me up.

Then we had to go meet with the funeral home and go over services etc. One good thing is that we are not having a church service nor a formal burial service. Kris doesn't think (and I agree) that her dad would handle those very well. we went over what kind of display we will have, what we will be doing afterward, what kind of casket she will be buried in... all the fun stuff. Kris was doing pretty good until we got to writing the obituary. When it came time to write proud grandmother of Sarah and Alison... let's just say it took a moment for Kris to compose herself. We finished up with things, but it was very draining for Kris and her aunt (who was along to help).

Here is the obituary from the funeral home website. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel will be running it tomorrow.

Then as soon as we got finished, it was time to go get Ali from school, come home and get her homework done because tonight was the final dance class of this session through the rec. dept. When we got home we were also trying to figure out what to do with Kris's dad for the night. We got Kris's brother to agree to stay with him after a time, so that is one night down, but we can't keep going with this. Tomorrow we are going to see if we can find a solution to sitting with Bob every night.

Kris’s Mom

Kris’s mom is going to the doctor/hospital today. She had a pacemaker put in last month and was going for a follow up on a lot of pain she has been having in her side. It sounds like the doctors don’t know what is happening, but they know there is a problem. I don’t want to disclose too much about her condition, but it sounds like her doctor thinks it is pretty serious. Please keep her in your prayers.

Christmas Eve

This year we went to spend Christmas Eve with Kris's family. It used to be a tradition but we haven't done it in a few years as people are getting older and have their own families. However, this year we went to a nursing home for Christmas Eve. Kris's aunt had a stroke around Halloween and has been in a wheelchair as her right side is still paralyzed. She has also lost her ability to speak. And a week before, Kris's cousin (the son of the aunt who had the stroke) had to have an emergency appendectomy. Boy, talk about some bad luck!

It was really nice, and just about everyone in Kris's family showed up. I think there was only one cousin who didn't make it, but then again they never make it. I am pretty sure Kris and the girls enjoyed themselves, and it was good to see Kris's aunt. It was hard to see her in that condition, but I think at least she knew what was going on and recognize everyone. I hope she recovers at least a little bit, though I am sure it is going to be a long road.