I Have GOOD News!

Hey Everybody!!!

Jerry came over to me as I was finishing the dinner dishes and said, "Honey, would you mind if I go down to the pond to fish for awhile?"

He knows I can't leave Mom and go with him, so it was really sweet of him to ask me if he could go.

So Jerry is fishing, and Mom is in her bedroom brushing her teeth and changing into her pajamas.  She does that every night right after eating her bowl of ice cream.  It takes her a long time to do it, but I let her do it alone because it causes her brain to work.  After while, she will come down the hall with a bag of trash from the several little trash cans in her bed and bath.  She empties them every night!  Again, something to work her brain.

I received a very surprising phone call as I was fixing dinner tonight.  It was from the realtor trying to sell my Mom's double-wide mobile home and the land it is on.

I noticed it was her calling and thought, "Oh, no!  WHAT broke now?"

Actually, something WAS broken.  Water was leaking around the bottom of the toilet in the Master Bathroom.  Fortunately, the realtor knows EVERYBODY in that part of the country, and she called a plumber to come right out to fix it.  Haven't heard yet if he showed up and how much it will cost.  Hope it is minor.

But, that wasn't all.  She told me that a young couple had just made an offer on the place.  It was less than we were asking, but we expected that.  I was THRILLED!  That is a huge headache off my plate, and I am very thankful.

AND, the buyers are paying C A S H !   They have a very nice Grandpa.

My Mother is doing really good.  The Hospice company we are using has a doctor that comes to the house.  We had never seen her until yesterday.  It was quite entertaining.  Mom was in a fun mood.  She asked the doctor if she had gone to school.  The doctor assured her she had.  Jerry walked into the kitchen, and Mom said, "That is my son-in-law.  He deals drugs."  The doctor looked surprised at that bit of news.  Thank God I was right there to explain that Jerry is a Pharmacist!

I asked Mom later if she liked the lady doctor who came.  She said she would PREFER a man!

I sew every chance I get.  I've made six new tops recently.  You have seen the patterns before.  Haven't started a new quilt yet because I need a background fabric.  I love the Edyta Sitar batiks, but they are as RARE as Hen's teeth!

I'm, obviously, not the only one that loves her style.  I was finally able to find a few yards of her winter white on Ebay.

My stomach is starting to look a lot like that chicken's!  I'm headed upstairs to get on the Elliptical and trampoline.

Have a great holiday weekend my friends!

Hugs, Joy

Fun Play Day with Terry but Disappointing Too

We had a lovely day.

Terry and I are just EASY together.

You know what I mean?

I don't have to SORT OUT everything that goes through my mind that I want to say to her and make sure she isn't going to be offended by it.  She feels the same way about me.  THAT is what a true friendship should be like in my book.

AND, if I do get upset with her, or she gets upset with me, we just GET OVER IT!  We don't throw away a beautiful friendship because one of us messed up.  We get mad -- we cry -- but then we run into each others arms and say, "I'm so sorry!"  

Terry and I were talking about all of this today, and we agree.  Some "friends" are just impossible to please, and they seem to be waiting to take offense at something you say or do.  We both decided we don't need complicated friendships that make us uneasy and make us feel bad about ourselves.

My friends must realize that if they are looking for perfection in me, they are looking in the WRONG place!

Only Jesus is perfect!

And you are thinking, "WHAT ON EARTH is she talking about!!!?"

Someone I love very much is furious with me because I said something he/she did was stupid, and I STILL believe that what the person did was stupid.  The definition of "stupid" being:  Insensitive -- Silly -- Foolish.  I will not be changing my mind on that!

Is anybody out there MARRIED?!

Do you and your mate ALWAYS AGREE on every little thing?

I promise you my husband and I sure do not.  He hurts my feelings terribly sometimes.  I hurt his.  I can tell him something he did was stupid, but he doesn't fall apart and act like I'm a horrible person. He tells me all the time that something I did is ridiculous.  I just tell him he is wrong, or crazy, or stupid or whatever.  We argue.  We laugh.  We hug and kiss and forget all about it. We have been married 42 years, and I love him more than ever!

MY POINT IS, marriages and friendships should have firm enough foundations that arguments and disagreements don't dissolve them.  We MUST let off steam, or we will burst!  At least, I will.

Let's get back on HAPPY STREET again here!  Did you see my latest VLOG about my Mom and the Beauty Shop and Mother's Day?  If not, here it is:

Now, about our PLAY DAY:

We went to what we THOUGHT was going to be a "Grand Opening" at the new quilt shop in McKinney, TX called "Happiness is Quilting".  We were thinking giveaways, discounts, finger foods, etc. as it just opened for business yesterday.

NONE OF THE ABOVE!

Fabric was $12 to $15 a yard.  Terry and I headed straight for the sale rack way in the back.  She got some nice fabrics for a baby quilt she has been asked to make.  I bought fabrics to make more blouses for my Mom and myself.  I saw a book I wanted, but it was $30.  I can get it from Amazon for $19.

Sure hope that quilt shop doesn't go out of business next.  We decided to go from there to JoAnn's where the prices were much better and we could find pretty knit fabrics.

We went to several other places including Belk's where we both bought several pair of pretty-colored pants.  I think we got the same ones actually.

Gotta go.  TV time, and I need to find something to watch that Jerry can stay awake to.  He is asleep next to me, but if you woke him, he would tell you he is watching TV.  He must have transparent eyelids!

Hugs,
Joy

Flash Cards and Pretty Hair Again

Hello my friends!  I pray you are all well and having a lovely week.  I heard there are terrible floods somewhere, but not sure where.  Please be safe and God bless you who may be enduring them.

This was a good day.  I'm still sad over recent events in my "beyond Mother" life, but I can only thank God every day that Mom is doing so well.  I have to let go what I can let go of -- especially, those things I have no control over.

I am very excited to have found a lady to do Mom's hair here in our tiny town.  It had to be JUST THE RIGHT lady.

My Mom is very demanding and not just anyone can deal with her.  I wanted a small place with one person.  The fewer people, the less confused Mom will get.  The beautician is older -- maybe my age.  I think Mom will be very relaxed with her as she tells her she doesn't know what she is doing, and she is doing it all wrong.

Mom insisted on a manicure and pedicure also, but this lady does not do those.  I may have to do them myself while Mom is getting her perm!



I wanted to tell you about my idea to help Mom remember that is working very well.

As you know, Dementia patients can't remember anything short-term.  Mom is on hospice, so there are several people who come by through the week to visit her.

There are also two ladies who "babysit" her for me so I can go to work.

Every morning and night Mom asks me over and over and over who is coming the next day.  She will walk down the hall to our bedroom late at night and stand in our doorway.  I will ask her what she needs.  She will say, "I HAVE to know something!  WHO is coming tomorrow to see me???"

A few weeks ago, I decided to make some "flash cards" for her.  I think I told you before.  I used 4x6 cards, and wrote with thick sharpies one name to a card.  Then I would hand her the names that would be coming on a certain day.

THEN, Mom started saying, "But I don't know what she looks like."

So I asked each lady if I could take her picture.  I now have new flash cards with names AND pictures so Mom will know who is coming and what they look like.  I put the cards on the kitchen table where she eats breakfast every morning; but yesterday, she decided she has to take the cards WITH HER and have them at all times so she can refer to them.  It is so cute.

A former neighbor and very good friend of hers calls occasionally.  His name is Fred.  He called earlier this evening.  He asked if he could talk to her.  I told him I didn't know if she would remember him.  She was right there near me, so I asked her if she remembered "Fred".  She said, "NO!  I don't KNOW that man!"

I told Fred I would hand her my phone, and maybe his voice would "ring a bell".  They talked for several minutes, and she remembered that he lived next door to her, and she asked him about her house that is now for sale.  Right after he hung up, of course, she wanted to know who he was.

Oh, almost forgot:  Friday is going to be a PLAY DAY for Terry and me.  A new quilt shop is having a Grand Opening in McKinney, TX, and we are going to check it out.  Terry is making a quilt for my Mom because my Mom TOOK the quilt Terry made for me that I keep in Edmond.  I don't need a thing, but I'm sure SOMETHING will jump into my arms while I am there.  I will let you know how it goes.

And THANK YOU to Lorinda who left me the link to the Dementia video and her blog about her Dad.  He saw INVISIBLE horses.  It was a wonderful blogpost.  Here is the link if you would like to see it:
 http://sew-i-do.blogspot.com/search?q=Dementia

TV time.  Jerry was gone all last week, and I am so happy to have him back home.  He helps me a lot with Mom if just to have eyes on the hallway while I take a shower or am upstairs.  He always fixes her TV when she presses all the wrong buttons on the control.

Hugs,
Joy