Getting Messy

Things are starting to get messy with taking care of Kris's dad. We have had some issues with her brother and after talking it over we decided we don't feel comfortable with him taking care of her dad, so we asked him to leave. We'll end up having to work his care into our schedule as much as we can, stopping in every few hours to check on him. We have some help from Kris's aunt and uncle, but it will still take quite a bit of work to do. But on top of it, I am worried about the reaction from Kris's brother and his girlfriend, and I think it is warranted. I think things are bound to get worse before they get better. It is shaping up to be a long summer.

Cleaning the Basement

After finishing the driveway (and cleaning Alison’s feet) we headed over to Kris’s parent’s house. We were helping to clean out their basement of all the things that had collected there over the years. Lots of stuff got taken to Goodwill, and lots just got tossed. We also tried cleaning all the cobwebs, and spider webs. Since no one goes down there anymore it was just awash in spider webs. YUCK!

Overall it took us a good six or seven hours of cleaning and carting stuff out of the house. We found all sorts of things that hadn’t see the light of day in years. The girls ended up bringing home a kimono that Kris’s dad got in Japan was he was in the service in Korea, and there was a box of old record albums, which included an original Sound of Music soundtrack. Overall we filled their recycling bin with all kinds of empty boxes and had, I think, five or six giant yard bags full of trash. But now you can at least move around down there and find things.

Crisis Mode

We, and when I say we, I mean Kris and I (or is it Kris and me?), had to be in crisis mode last week. On Monday last week, Kris’ mom ended up going to the hospital because of a circulation problem in her toes. Apparently several of her toes were black and she couldn’t walk.

Kris’s brother took her to the hospital, but that meant that someone needed to take care of her dad. Well, that fell on us for a while. Kris’ aunt and uncle went over and spent the night with him, but he was with us for most of the day when Kris got home from work.

Her mom got to come home the next day, but then on Saturday we got a call at 10:30 at night. Kris mom fell and couldn’t get up, she thought she had broken her arm. I got dressed and went over and yep, it was broken, so I had to call 911 and get her to the hospital again. Luckily Kris aunt was able to come over again. I went home and Kris went to the hospital. Her mom’s arm was broken right above where her arm had snapped (2) years prior. What a mess that was.

We learned the next day that she had to spend at least another day in the hospital, so were again were scrambling to find someone to take care of her dad. He stayed with us during the day and Kris’ aunt stayed with him at night. Luckily the doctor let Kris’s mom come home on Thursday, but we still have to be available in the even that they need anything. In fact, Kris was supposed to go camping with the Sarah’s girl scout troop last weekend, but she had to cancel because we were going to have to help out Kris’ mom and dad. Kris was sad too because Alison was going along and it was her first camping trip. Ali had fun, but both Sarah and Alison were looking forward to Kris going along.

So far we haven’t had any further incidents, but it is still early. The doctors are going to try and let the bone heal on its own. If they have to do surgery, it is going to be a mess. With any luck we won't have too much to worry about, but I suspect that won't be the case.