Sunday Notes and Mom

Matthew Hagee preached this morning, and his message was very much current and accurate.  Christians have to stop being ashamed of the Bible and of being Christians. 

Yes!  People will hate you.  People will ridicule you and make fun of you.  Why is that?  It is because you are holding up a light and they live in darkness!  We must not forget that Jesus himself was hated, and mostly by the religious bunch. 

You have to ask yourself:  If everyone in the world loves me and gets along with me, am I REALLY living according to God's word?  Am I really living a Christian lifestyle?  So, I suppose I should be thankful that so many in my family dislike me.  I have been told to my face, "Don't you EVER mention God to me again!!!"

Matt said this this morning, and I have said it many times to various family members on both sides:

HOW can you live in the world all week -- drugs, pornogrophy, lying, stealing (whatever sin fits) and then go to church on Sunday and be comfortable in the presence of the Holy Spirit?

And I have always thought it just did not make sense that my supposedly all-christian family could not gather together in a room and talk about the Bible or God without getting into a war over it.  And the things that they would watch on the television were from the pit of Hell.  For instance:  vampire movies.  I have gotten up and left the room many times and retreated to my bedroom because I could not stand the filth on the TV.  I left Jerry one time because of the violent movies he watched.  Haunted Houses -- I've never been to one and will never go to one!  They are full of evil.  How on earth can parents TAKE their children to them?  I don't understand how Christians can celebrate Satan's high holiday of Halloween either.   

Now, I have to admit when I get into the subject of violence and whether or not it should be watched on tv, that there is NOTHING more violent than the stories in the Old Testament. 

God did tell us in the New Testamant, however, to abstain from ALL appearance of evil and to dwell on those things that are lovely and pure.  (Not exact quote.)

A very close relative of mine used to steal clothes from Dillard's when she worked there.  I was helping her move one time, and I could not believe the wardrobe she had.  I asked her how she afforded all those expensive clothes.  She said, "How do you THINK I afford them?"  "The way I see it they OWE them to me for the lousy pay I get there."  And this girl has always claimed to be a Christian.

I just don't get it, and I guess I never will.  What does the word "worship" mean to some people?  To me it means TOTAL devotion and adherence to the rules.  You trust and obey, and there is NO other way!

There I go again -- getting all wound up.  I think two sentences up there are actually from Matthew Hagee!  Please listen for yourself at www.jhm.org and then GETV if you would like.

After internet church, Jerry and I headed over to Room #10 at Countrywood Living Center for the very last time.  We waded through the dead bodies of crickets -- YUK! -- to get into the deepest crevices of the bathroom cabinets, the closet and under the sink.  The only thing we left behind was a shower curtain that I'm not sure was Leanida's.  If it was, she doesn't need it anymore.  The crickets are just horrible in Kingfisher right now.  We saw them in every building we went in.

Mom is now in Room #31 in the Memory Unit, and it is working out so well.  I walked in to see her about 11:15 this morning.  I had just passed the kitchen where I noticed the menu for lunch was Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Creamed Corn and Banana Cream Pie.  I knocked on the folding slotted window covers and peaked inside.  I saw the cook who used to own a bakery here in town.  He knows me as do most of the workers there, and he asked if he could help me.  I told him Mom always begs us to eat with her, and before I went back there I wanted to know if he had enough for two more.  He told me that for $5 a plate, he could "make it happen". 

Mom was sitting at a table with one of the ladies that works there putting a puzzle together.  I walked over, pulled out the extra chair and sat down.

I said, "Well, how are you today!?"  

"I had the MOST HORRIBLE NIGHT!  You won't believe what happened to me?"

"Oh, really?"  What happened?"

"Well, I can't see a thing!"  THAT'S what happened!"

"But Mom, you are putting this puzzle together, and you did this word search puzzle this morning too."

"Well, I can't see!"

I changed the subject because it was obvious she could see fine, and I asked her if she remembered all the people that came to visit her yesterday.  She said she did.  Then she started telling me the craziest story:

"I had my car and I was going somewhere -- but where IS my car -- I can't find it.  Anyway, I was going to the black -- their name was "Black" -- but they would NOT let me leave.  I never got home last night because they would NOT let me leave." 

I said, "Mom, you ARE home."

"Well, you should have BEEN HERE and seen those two women.  They would NOT let me leave."

I changed the subject and announced that Jerry and I were joining her for lunch today.  She was happy about that.  The worker (I've got to learn their names) cleared off all the extra puzzle pieces and said we could eat right there, which was very nice as it was out in the main living room area.  In a bit, Jerry walked through the door and joined us at the table.  Mom looked at him and then she looked at me and she said, "Well, where is Jeff?"  "Did he have to stay home?"

I looked at Jerry and cracked up.  I've been calling him "Jeff" ever since!  We don't know anybody named Jeff, and neither does she that we are aware of.

I just told Mom that Jeff couldn't come.

We ate lunch and Mom, as always, tried to give us her dinner.  She has always been that way.  Yesterday, she got a large box of chocolates for her birthday.  She kept getting up out of her chair and passing it between Don and Jerry and me.  We kept telling her we weren't hungry and didn't want any.  She would sit for a second -- then stand up -- grab the box of candy and come pass it to us again.  After about the third time, she said, "Well, I WANT you to just get a piece whenever you want to.  Don't think you have to wait for the lady to offer you a piece!"

Jerry has not really grasped the fact that his Mom isn't "all there" anymore.  He talks to her like she is in her right mind, and he kind of scolds her.

He was scolding her for turning her heat on last night and asking her WHY she did that.  I have to give him the "evil eye" to get him to stop.

He was telling her to sit up and eat over the table because she was getting fried chicken crumbs on her pants.  I gave him "the look" again.







Here are a couple pics from her  birthday party yesterday.  She looked so nice, and she was having such a great time.  She could not follow our conversations with each other, but when she saw that we were laughing, she would crack up laughing herself.

Jerry was telling everyone how many times he used to get robbed by armed men when he owned Pharmacies, and then he was talking about the guns we both recently purchased.

Mom piped up and said that LAST WEEK, somebody got a knife from under her bed and tried to stab her with it.


 




 AARRGGHH!!!

I've been 15 minutes trying to arrange these pic's.  Windows 7 is NOT cooperating at all with Blogger.  It wants to make this typing BLUE and it wants to UNDERLINE all of it.  How BAZAAR!

PLUS, a little BOING chimes every few seconds.  Wonder if the battery is going dead.  It is supposed to last seven hours, and I've only been on for about 30 minutes.

Think I'll plug it in just in case.  Hold on......................

See how Mom has TWO necklaces on in the pic on the left?  I gave her the white "pearls" for her birthday, and she wanted to wear it.  Later, she tried to give it to me and asked me where it came from.

Okay.  Let's see if I can post this picture of Jerry, my husband, and Don, his 10 year younger brother.  He is the one that was on meth and various and sundry other concoctions.  This look is "normal" for him.  He tells us he is in a band, and all the guys are drunks.  Lovely!

He is her baby and the one she thinks lives with her.  He actually is extremely smart and is a Pharmacist like Jerry.  He loves chemicals and math and hard stuff like that.  Guess you would need that to build your own meth lab though.  Not a Pharmacist anymore after all of that, of course.

And if you happen to remember the 3rd brother, Bob, who is NOT in the picture, it is because when Jerry went to pick him up, he was drunk.  THANK GOD, Mom has no idea.  Bob has been sober for several years.  We don't know what happened to set him back.

I must say in Bob's defense, however, that if there ever was a GOOD REASON to become an alcoholic, he has one.  He was a Marine in Vietnam.  He not only was shot there and nearly died, he watched his best friend be blown to bits by a hand grenade and saw parts of his body hanging in trees.  NOT ONLY THAT, when he returned home, his wife left him -- first for another man, and then for a woman!

Mom has always felt responsible for all of that because she signed for him to join the Marines when he was 17 years old.  Of course, none of it is her fault, but you sure can't tell a Mom that.

I have to tell you one more thing, and then I have to go to the grocery store. 

Yesterday, after Mom's party when just Jerry and I and Don were in her room with her, this lady walked into Mom's room and sat down in the chair next to me.  I looked at her and said, "Hello".

She looked at me and said, "That is a nice blouse."

I said, "Thank you!"

Then she looked at me again and said, "That is a nice blouse."

I asked if she came to see Mom.  She said she was looking for a friend.  I told her Mom loved to have friends, and I would introduce her.  About that time, Mom got out of her chair and told me in no uncertain terms that this lady was Ruby and was ALREADY her friend!  Ooooooooooookay.

Ruby proceeded to tell me that she had a car and she was going to go somewhere.  I asked her WHERE she was going.  She said she was going to find her Mother.  Well, her Mother had to be at least 110, I would guess.  I asked where her Mom was.  She said she was way over there and pointed to the wall. 

I don't know why, but it actually took me a minute to figure out that this lady must LIVE there also and have dementia, like Mom. 

She explained to me that she was going to go outside and start walking down the street.  She said that as long as there were people on the side of the street while she was walking, they could tell her where to go. 

At that, she got up and left.  She wandered out into the big area, but we could still see her.  She was just staring off into space.  Mom, who had been sitting in her wheelchair (not because she can't walk, but so we could have the chairs) motioned to me and said, "Look at that strange lady out there."  It was the same lady that just a moment before had been her good friend, Ruby! 

Sad, yes, but funny.  To them, these conversations seem perfectly normal, I suppose.  I just go along with them.  Jerry thinks he has to explain to them that they are wrong.  He will learn.

I'm off to buy some bread.

Hugs, Joy