Moving Prep

We went to tour a senior living facility for Kris's dad tonight after work.  It is in Germantown, and actually only a few miles from our house.  It's a little farther than the mile it is to the community he is at now, but it wouldn't be like having to drive half an hour just to go and visit, or check up on him, so we would still be able to easily visit.

It really did look pretty wonderful.  I would guess it is a newer building, and only has about 20 residents.  It is open, bright, and airy; much different than the apartment he is in right now.  And the director there that we met seems to be very hands on, helping to care for the residents, and involved in the day to day happenings.  At his current community, things are quite different.  The director of the area/wing that he lives in is much more of an "administrator".  I am sure she is an actual nurse, but I think that the more you get to work in management, the farther away you get from actually inderstanding, or relating to the residents.  

So everything looked really good, and Kris took the paperwork to apply for residency.  We don't know when something might open up there, but at the very least we would like to get the paperwork process started so if we can move him, we would have that choice.  I think he would like it there much more as well, I know we would feel more comfortable having him there.

Godfather 2

Last night Kris's friend from grade school came over with her daughters.  We have known them ever since they were about 3 years old, Kris longer than me obviously.  Well, last fall the oldest daughter had a baby herself, and now she is going to be baptized, and she has asked me to serve as her baby's Godfather.

So now I have a week to prepare (just kidding, there really is nothing to this Godfather thing).  It really is quite an honor, especially since I am older than her mother.  Maybe I should be the God-Grandfather?  But of course I said I would do it.  Then after I agreed, I made everyone bow and kiss my ring. haha (I think I used that joke before).

Church or a Concert

Since I am going to be Lillie's Godfather and it is only a week before the ceremony, I had to rush right out to find a gift for her.  I did a quick search online but the shipping costs were too much to have things shipped right away so it would be here in time.  The result was to go up to the Catholic staple, Holy Hill, and see what they might have in the gift shop.  I checked the hours of the store online and it said they were actually open on Sunday from 9:00-5:00.  I was actually expecting it to be closed, but I guess even Catholics need to make a buck.

It really is the only place I know close by that deals strictly with Catholic things.  There is a Christian bookstore in Milwaukee where Kris and I had gone to get gifts before, but we found out by accident that they didn't sell Catholic items there and they were a Lutheran store when we needed to get a nice, fancy rosary.

I have never been to Holy Hill on a weekend, mainly because of the traffic.  It really gets crazy around there for masses.  When we got there we were directed to a large, gravel parking lot by a couple of guys with walkie talkies and wearing high visibility, yellow traffic vests.  And as we were driving in, we actually passed a family that was grilling out.  The parking lot was really something like a concert at Alpine Valley back in the late 80's.  It was pretty funny actually.
We had to walk up the hill to get to the shop but at least we were able to find something, a cute little rosary bracelet.  I am sure she won't be able to wear it for a while, and probably never will, it's really more of a keepsake.  Hopefully if we ever come back on a weekend, there won't be people smoking weed in the parking lot (just kidding, I don't want God to strike me down!).

Happy Star Wars Day!

It is May the fourth, Happy Star Wars Day!!!!

Crunch Time for Sarah

Sarah is really stressing out right now.  She has her two AP exams coming up in addition to other tests and projects and having to juggle her work schedule as they are getting into their really busy time of year (spring planting you know).  In a way I am glad she is going thru it because unfortunately, it doesn't get easier.  And next year when she is in college she'll likely be facing the same thing, and maybe she'll be prepared for it (or at the very least she will have an idea of what to expect).  It may also help her to learn how to work her schedule and set priorities, and to stop procrastinating so much.  That just won't cut it when she gets to college, I can attest to that first hand.

Time to Move?

No, we are not considering a move, we are thinking about moving Kris' dad.  We have been thinking about it for some time, and that it may be time to move him from his current living situation.  Ever since his second stroke, he has just seemed to need more care and we don't think he is getting it at the facility he is at right now.  It is a nice enough place, but it has seemed that over the past year or so things have slowly been going downhill (even before he had his stroke).  The nursing care/staff has been turning over and the quality of the new people they have been hiring just seems a little less than adequate for my tastes.  And all of the directors have been summarily "escorted out" (or so we have heard) so there is something going on there.  Finally, they have changed some of the policies & guidelines so gthat we feel as if he may be to the point of needing more care than they can provide.  

Kris has been starting to look around at some of the other places in the area to see if there are any that can off the type of care he needs and still fall within his budget.  Hopefully we can find somethingin a timely manner.

Upcoming AP Exams

It is the beginning of May and Sarah's AP course exams are right around the corner.  I don't know why they don't take them all at the end of the semester rather than the first week of May.  Maybe they want to have the kids know what a real college course is like on a real college semester timetable?  At any rate, Sarah has been studying hard for her tests.  She has been whining about how she isn't ready for them, and how she doesn't know why she is even taking the tests because she is going to fail.  

I hope she doesn't fail, and that this will be somewhat of a wake up call for her.  College work is hard, and not passing classes leads to longer time in school, or worse, dropping out.  I hope she realizes that the little bit of money these courses are costing will save a couple thousand over the long haul of her time in college.  Unfortunately we don't expect the scores until the end of June or early July.  So stay tuned for the results.