another horrible florida trip

This time it was a heart attack and stroke, all combined. Thank goodness lasis came with me and mostly did the hospital thing. They are now spending a fortune in 12-hour shift aides with no end in sight.

I did not do any of my holiday baking altho I will probably do some and send them out late (but maybe not!!!) I do have to go to the post office with 2 more gifts this week. I'm hoping to send OH - he is used to going and has all kinds of strategies for when to go!!

I have so many projects around the house started - 2 rooms are all upset with started things and they are not getting finished. And what is up with the 9X12 rug rolled up and on the floor of the front hall???? We do not want it and it is too heavy to move. Our only tribute to Xmas, a little light up tree about 2 feet tall is not lighting on the top half. Plus, the end table i used to put it on is now doing another duty so the tree is on the floor next to a plug but of course is not plugged in since the lights don't work. Must make cookies this morning for a barn lunch thingy. omg, 2 sticks of butter and a package of cream cheese, not to mention the sugar and chocolate chips. The sad part is that they are really good and I will probably eat several of them.

How many times must OH say, "Where's my corgi?" ???? He is in love with kb's puppy!! I will try to put a picture of him up if i ever download them from my camera.

I do not want to go to this lunch today. Plus, I did not do my rda care-taking this weekend due to hanging out with W most of Saturday (much nicer I must say). He showed off his fabulous clicker skills to his pasture mate's owner and her niece. What a cute little girl! She was all giggley because W was nosing her all over looking for treats.

It is getting light out now. Must make SF reservations today!!! I want to see my babies!

i really meant it but

I just can't apply for the library shelving job!!! I went there very determined but just a couple of questions to the circulation guy solicited such a sad stream of complaints from him. The pay, the people, the administration who don't care about the branches, etc. No thanks. Plus, I looked around for about 30 minutes and could not find one book I was interested in. I took out a library card but left without using it. One book about horses (mustangs), no movie I cared about, only a level 3 French language tape, NO free computer to even check the catalog!!!! I could not wait to escape from the building. I forgot how much I can't stand the jr high age crowd. I can't stand the way libraries like that are all geared to kids and people who just want the popular novels. I used to love hanging out in the storage floor at my old library - they had such a fantastic collection of every old book and magazine. Sadly, they had to weed so much of it - I am glad I was not there to see it.

So OH was kind of relieved that I came back disgusted and said, "I'll apply for SS and share the money with you!" That made me laugh since there is really no question of sharing per se. Anyway, I'm still planning to keep my riding since it is the only thing I have ever done for myself and I am definitely going to RI this summer. I don't mind going by myself if I have to. I can rent a car and stay at Bonnet with whoever is at the house. A stack of books, a beach chair and that's all I need. Of course OH will come (not really caring about going to the beach) but maybe I can stay longer on my own and set my own schedule.

I have to do a ton of baking this week to send everything out before Xmas. I am rapidly losing interest in doing it though. Plus, I forgot all about that when I bought my mailing boxes so will have to go and buy some just for that.

Oh why did I get up at 4:15 a.m. this morning????? Anyway, I am making plans to go to SF in January. I tried to figure out a Florida schedule for the 3 of us for 2009 but it seemed to complicated. If lasis goes at least twice that would be great and since risis goes every 6-7 weeks, and I go 4 times, that should cover it. The only problem is that there are some months that no one wants to go or can go, esp towards the end of the year. It is pointless to even try to plan it though since 2 of my one-week visits this year turned into a much longer stay.

Another morning spent on the phone!

How many phone calls does it take to decide if we don't need the aides/therapy anymore??????????? Still waiting for 2 more phone calls back.

Another day spent doing things for parents-

Bought a wheelchair on ebay! I just have my fingers crossed that there is nothing drastically wrong with it. If it was up to the others, it would never have been bought - never mind as cheap as I got it. (lets hope not too cheap!) Then the drama with the amount of money spent on the woman who does their errands, dr appointments, etc. Now I still need to figure out how they can be spending almost $100 a week on dry cleaning! I mean they don't even go anyplace. So between food, dry cleaning and the fees for that and dr appts, it cost between $1-2K per month. Is that possible????

Well, those two items meant tons of phone calls and emails. Including the physical therapist in Fl to make sure the wheelchair was not too small. Then OH would not get off his butt and clean up the mess in the pool after 4 days away so I had to do it plus the laundry (not completely done yet).

Throw in grocery shopping and cooking and I did not get to go ride my horse which I really wanted to do. Tomorrow I will go first thing.

somebody kick me

the next time I say I'm going on "vacation" !!!!!

boring

Nothing much going on. At least I could be doing stuff but I'm not. Taking trip to Maryland to see MIL tomorrow - that will be fairly boring but sort of comfortable. It will be nice for the 4 brothers to get together and the long lost niece will be there and it will be the first time I've met her. MIL is very nice but also super de duper boring. No one else can get a word in. Thank goodness we will be staying at a hotel. I wish I could go away somewhere far far away to a beach preferably.

Brennan born today by C-section - 9 pounds 3 ounces!! Very exciting!!



Had long rambling conversation with aide today and I never actually figured out what in the world she was trying to tell me. I have pushed the whole problem off on risis since I am leaving tomorrow. Never mind that the whole thing has to be done by phone but I just don't feel like doing it.

At least I got to watch Wiz eat grass for an hour or so - very relaxing- it was a stunningly beautiful day.

dreary thoughts

Very very depressed about my parents. I woke up at 4:30 this morning thinking about them. The only time I can stop thinking about them is when I am at the barn messing around with W.

They are in a good place with really fine people caring for them but it is not the same as one of us sisters being near them. They did choose to live there and insisted on it, but what a way to end your life, having total strangers take care of you. Daddy would like to be near lasis and ma would like to be with risis, but I seem to be the one who has the time to go there in a crisis. Hmmm. I just re-read that last sentence. The last word is just too funny. I should go back to bed but I have already had too much coffee.

How is it possible to spend half a day on the phone? Between risis and dealing with parents affairs I can hardly get anything else done. I am still not done. I have to fax my power of attorney to the insurance company and get them to cancel the unsolicited credit card and checks they sent my parents and also increase their car insurance liability to cover the new aide who will be driving them to therapy.

My neighbor brought over her kids' ant farm - cute!! I should have added the ones I found on my kitchen counter this morning.

I liked watching my RI riding a new horse yesterday. His owner has offered to let OH ride him but he is being stubborn. It would be so much fun!

3 weeks??

I ended up spending 3 weeks in Florida. I went a week early because my father had a stroke. Thank God for the aide who called 911 when he got up in the morning and his speach was off by a mile. Sit in the hospital, then sit in the rehab hospital. I went to the rehab twice a day - so 2 hours on the road and many hours of sitting around just to be there since he was fairly disoriented for most of the time. Then lasis came for a week and took over the rehab duty except for one night when I made her stay home and go to bed early. Somehow over the week, she got completely irritated with me and I could not do anything right in her eyes. This made me sad but I could kind of understand it. She thinks that with the right therapy, my mother can be back to normal but you cannot turn back the years and make her the same as she was. More annoying was risis who shouold have come in my place for the last week I was there but had lame lame lame excuses and now is breezing in for 4 1/2 days. And I had to talk to her on the phone the last night I was there for 45 minutes to tell her what to do. Who told me??? And no, she cannot take them out to eat at their favorite restaurant! Daddy is on a strict diet (mostly pureed foods and pudding thick everything and is still not swallowing all that well. (he is coming home today and she got there yesterday afternoon). Her other idea was to wheel ma into the kitchen after dinner and let her dry the pans. What??????? She cannot hold a pan nevermind dry it. omg, what planet is she from.

I had ordered them some absentee ballots about a month ago. Then I read in the paper last week that for absentee ballots, the person's signature has to match the one they have on file. Okay, my mother has no signature anymore. So they are mailing a new signature card where the person can put any kind of mark. So risis has to get her to make the new sig, mail it in, and help her and daddy fill out the ballot, make the mark, and mail them in. She had better do it. My mother is writing in Hillary Clinton for president.

Risis had also promised to give the aide the old TV that was hanging around way early in the year for her bedroom. Instead, she gave it to lasis for her RV. Since I had never heard any of this, I was appalled that that had happened and also that I had never even thought of her having one. So we put ma in the car, went to BB and I bought her a 22 inch flat screen tv with a dvd player in it and a cord to attach it to cable and now she is in 7th heaven!! Plus I am going to give it to her whenever she leaves them. Her hubby just lost his job as a valet parker. She is an absolute gem and takes super care of my parents. I would do anything for her. We are paying her extra on the side from the agency and will probably increase that amount soon as the problems get worse. I was all clueless about which tv to buy but made a quick decision when confronted with the choices. Then how to hook it up? Is it as easy as buying a cord and connecting the ends? Everyone in the store insisted I needed an hd box, etc but a quick call to oh nixed that. I mean we don't have one and ours works fine. So we connected the cable cord and the plug and I put the batteries in the remote - and - nothing!! hehe, finally figured out that the batteries were in wrong. Then it was on and we went thru the auto set up and everything was perfect.

I did not hear from risis yesterday thank goodness because I was in no mood for it. My friend came to stay with me last night. We were all tired but I was really glad to see her. I will get to spend this afternoon and tonight with her also which I am looking forward to. Her house in Bolivar is no more. Just the pilings are left. And she is dealing with some relatives-in-law here in Houston who are in the same age-related situation (except worse) as my parents. Too bad the pool water is actually COLD or we could laze around this afternoon and swim. Maybe we will spa instead.

Last week instead of going home from rehab in the afternoon and then coming almost straight back in the pouring rain, I went across the street and had a manicure and pedicure. I normally do my own nails as I feel like a right ass paying someone to cut my nails and I never use polish since I am too lazy to keep it up, but I was exhausted and my nails were long a gross. The lady actually did what I asked her for once and cut them very short and I was happy. I almost gave in to clear toenail polish but nixed it at the last minute, thank goodness.

Must go now and start getting ready for my riding lesson. Going to see my baby and I hope he will be glad to see me. Did oh buy carrots for me?? If not, I have an apple.

early morning

Okay, I am dreading this next trip to Florida. My mother is much worse each time I see her. It is painful to talk on the phone because she can never think of the words she wants to say.

At least lasis will be there with me so there will be someone to take charge and I can just hang out in the background. She will cook up a storm which will be kind of nice. We are going to make osso buco from ma's recipe and who knows what else??

I'm sure I will be sleeping on the couch right outside their bedroom so will be the one to have night time bathroom duty. Thank goodness lasis will be there to deal with daddy. I am always so focused on ma that I totally ignore him.

And that STARE AT YOU thing he does creeps me out. Ask me how I learned to be a complete blank whenever I want and that's why. I also hate the way he makes everyone come to the table to eat when he wants to eat. Bah!!! Whenever I can, I fix his food and give it to him and then fix mine while he is eating. He has, in the past just sat there letting his food get cold and waiting for me. Ha! I mean who can enjoy a meal with someone staring at them?

My Powder Room!!

Here it is before



Inspiration


After


After


Chair rail detail

3.0000000000000000000001 ways

to get something down from the top shelf in a grocery store.

Climb up.
Ask someone for help.
(If it's something light) Jump up, knock it off, catch.

Okay the last way is the "Beam It Down" concept but I am starting to suspect that that is just a phrase made up by Gene Roddenberry for his Star Trek series.

fat

How can a person who was never over 105 pounds til age 40 now weigh 120 pounds?????? A month after both my kids were born, I was right back to 99-100 pounds. I am just lazy and don't exercise enough, besides eating too much. ugh.

where i will not buy meat again

I made bracciolis last night from some meat from wallmrt. Why did it taste like it had been soaked in salt???? Ugh, never again. I have bought this very thinly sliced top round there before and not had a problem.

And why was I crying on my way to the barn yesterday???? All I have to do is feel kind of sick and then start feeling all sorry for myself. I won't even say what I was crying about because it will make me seem like a total wimp. I did snap out of it after riding for a while since that always makes me feel better.

Once when we were at a dude ranch, I decided to play softball with a bunch of the other people. I love baseball. Well, what do you know, they had 2 team leaders who actually took turns choosing their sides. Oh, the misery of being picked last! I mean I am actually good at baseball but even the kids were picked before me. The person who finally had to have me on their team looked like she would rather fold up and die rather than have me. I only had one turn at bat but I whacked the ball really hard and got a good hit. The next morning, I woke up crying about if and cried all morning. omg, how sick. When I was in grade school, and a freaking tiny, skinny midget, either a girl called Sally or me were always picked last for teams. Gym teachers, please have your kids count off into teams and do not make the little tykes feel so bad.

up at 5 a.m.

Stupidly turned over and slept on my stomach at some point during the night and woke up at 5 unable to breathe. After several attempts to go back to sleep I decided to get up.

Last night we went to a big discount store to see if we wanted to join. The major lure is their yummy apple pie which I first tasted when la-sis was here a few years ago. After walking thru all the grocery section (no apple pies left), we decided that if we had about 5 teenage boys in the house, it might be worth it. So then we went to WM and bought a ton of cat fud. They eat those little containers of food - 3 a day (split between them) and they were 48 cents vs 69 cents at the grocery store!!

Ring is still off.

Cleaned my kitchen yesterday (finally!) Everything is clean in there now - even the inside of the toaster!! Floor was not done due to heavy rain and the stuff to wash it with being in the garage -

Did a lot of organizing of papers, magazines and books yesterday. Oops, one of the books I bought last week I already own. Thank goodness I still have the sales slip so I can return it. Finished reading the last book in my current series. I did not like this series as much as some of the others.

I did study French yesterday. I am working with the online site and also 2 books. OH is further along with German because he studies every day and I skip days sometimes. Plus, I know lots of French anyway and he started from scratch with German.

Rain rain rain today. Want to go see horsie even if I don't ride. I want to take his bridle apart and clean it but I'm afraid I will not put it back together the right way! I have never taken one apart and put it back together. So that has been keeping me from doing it even tho I keep meaning to.

Last week I cleaned up the piles of papers that were sitting around the study. They are now in one pile (hehe). Seriously, I plan to do something about it.

Reservations made for trip to Maryland. Two days traveling and two full days there. I will plan what I want to cook while I am there. One irritating thing is that there is no salad spinner. How did I ever make salad without a salad spinner?? I want to get her one for when I'm there but is that a little selfish? Then she will have to store it somewhere the rest of the time since I doubt if she will use it. Which reminds me, I want to steal the rasp grater from my mother! I love it and I have searched for it online diligently and cannot find one exactly like it. This time I am bringing it home with me. La-sis wants the mini cuisinart for her RV so I'm going to make her mail it to herself when we are there. I wish I could send myself the set of china that is there in storage (already given to me by my mother). It was my grandmother's which is why I want it. I don't think that all the pieces are there but it's a pretty delicate pattern with green and blue I think. Maybe I will just take it somewhere and have them pack and send it to me. All right, I would have to find a place to put it in here - I guess I could go in the bottom of the china cabinet which also belonged to my grandmother and I spent a fortune shipping here when the Narragansett house was sold.

Why do I have so many rugs? The biggest one is the one that was under the dining room table. It is 9X12 at least and too heavy to move. It is now rolled up at one end of the dining room. I wish I had vacuumed it before I rolled it up because now I have to somehow unroll it and clean it, wrap it in something and find a way to store it!! I could sell it but I'm imagining a different house someday when I would want it back. I bought that rug in Detroit and it was the only thing in our otherwise empty dining room. The other one I want to store is in the upstairs library room. It's smaller and manageable and I had it down here in the living room but now I don't want to put area rugs on top of the new carpeting. Most of my little orientals are rolled up and in a bureau drawer or on top of bureaus, chairs and sofas. I got all the little ones in Venezuela where they were super cheap. The other big ones are littering the family room and study wood floor areas.

I sent an email to the person in charge of the volunteers and the rda place saying I would organize the buddy program and have not heard back from her. I am pretty disgusted with the whole thing because they did not put us on the volunteer list for the summer and did not ask us to help with the new orientation which I had been looking forward to. It's possible that she is on vacation but I am thinking of checking out one of the other locations even tho it is a bit further away. Can they turn down an offer to take charge of the organization???? They did not have time to organize it ALL LAST YEAR!!! I offered twice last year to help the man who takes care of the horses and trains them, etc. and he never took me up on it. I mean those horse could certainly use a little extra grooming at least. But nooooooooo. There is something seriously wrong with that group.

rings

The other day my finger was itchy under my wedding ring and I realized that I could not get it off. So yesterday I went to a jewelry store and bought a new watch strap and actually got the ring off my finger. Now what to do? I was kind of pissed off that the people in the store had no recommendation as to a new size for the ring. Current one is a 5 1/2. So I tried a 6 1/2 and a 7 but could not tell much of a difference. They could make me a 6 3/4 she said. Okay so I can't decide so ring is now off and will stay off. My little diamond ring is a size 5 and needless to say I have not worn it for years. I have a funny idea that I don't want to re-size them. I want them to stay just the way I bought them.

So should I go without? Buy a new and different ring? (seems kind of silly) OH has never worn a ring. First we couldn't afford one and then he was used to not wearing one. For now, I will go without one and then probably never get around to doing anything about it.

Did not do most of the things I was going to do yesterday altho I did study my French and sort of clean up the kitchen. We went to the bookstore the other day and I got the next 2 books in the Immortals series I'm reading. Then got 2 other books, a yoga tape (must try out today) and some birthday cards. My mother will be 89 on September first. How many times have I turned the August calendar page to September and said . . . omg, it's her birthday!!

There is a cat sitting on my mouse pad.

Yesterday I rode W and the stablehands were like, following us around with the weedeater!! No matter where we went. We cantered up and down one of the paths lots of times - fun!! I let him loose after his bath so I could put the tack away and instead of eating grass, he followed me back and forth from the stall to the locker as I put things away. HAHAHAHA what a silly horse!!!

Doesn't it always happen that as soon as you decide to get your hair cut, all of a sudden you like the way it looks?? My hair has been horrible but yesterday I just let it dry curly and it actually came out nice. Too bad there is a decided gray part tho- - -

boring stuff

September Florida trip planned and la-sis is coming with me. So there will be 2 of us there and we are determined to get in some time at the beach. We both like the "I'm reading, leave me alone" approach to the beach so things should work out. Absolutely no "who was treated worse as a child" discussion will be allowed which I dislike being involved in and refuse to ever participate in (except recently in a kind of humorous way for entertainment purposes only to someone who requested said story!!)

November trip to be scheduled.

Oct trip to mil shaping up but not completely finalized. More research into pet-friendly hotels needed for bil.

Dec trip may not happen in December lol.

Otherwise have been wasting way too much time. My needlepoint project that was not finished for last Xmas is not much further along. Cataloged all but 2 shelves of living room books on librarything - project stalled due to them being ohs books. I will probably have to finish them. Recipe organization project from last week still sitting on kitchen table along with the pizza box that kitty has been sleeping on every day for the last month.

I signed up for free French lessons online here (hehe, just figured out how to do that type of link). Anyway, I get a weekly email from the site showing me the next set of lessons and I got my second one yesterday but have not finished last week's lessons. OH is doing the same think in German. Right now he is studying his lessons and I am doing this blog instead. right.

Plan today is study French, get some FOOD at the grocery store (making list/menu and going thru coupons first), get car inspected and oil changed, empty kitchen countertop and clean it, clean stuff that was on it, and put everything back. Spilled a cup of coffee this morning and it went all under the microwave. WASH KITCHEN FLOOR - must do. Watch equestrian olympics which should be on from 5-7 p.m. Mess around with laundry. It is supposed to rain -

Went riding last night and W was so good. I put up the reins and he put his head down. I lifted up the rest of the bridle and he totally put his head down and turned it towards me and opened his mouth for the bit. !!!!!! I worked on all this last week did not see any improvement on the weekend but last night was a different story. So I will see next time. I did hold the bridle differently last night - with my hand around to the side. But the point is that he opened his mouth for the bit!!! hehehe

So it's 10:30 and I have done nothing but look at the paper, eat yogurt and mess around on the computer since 7 a.m.

What? Five more trips this year?

Keeping to our schedule, I have to go to Florida at least 2 more times this year. September and probably November.

All the brothers are going to visit my MIL in October and I actually want to go on this one. I have not seen her for a year and a half and I like being with them. Plus, I am the only one who can cook, altho I can't really speak to my SIL.

There's 3 trips.

The next two could actually be combined but it sounds like a giant hassle. One to see my soon-to-be nephew in S Ca and the other to see the kids in N CA. I can't go 5 months without seeing them. This one would mean 2 plane tickets to sc, driving to nc, hotels, eating out, driving back, plus the cost of pet care, plus missing so many riding lessons!! Nooooooooooooo!! Am I crazy??? Oh kids, listen up! Why don't you come visit us??? I would not ask it really because I always had to do it when you were little, but . . .

Next year I am going riding in Wyoming for a week, no matter what.

When am I ever going to get myself to go thru all this?? I mean it has mostly been sitting there forever so I must really not need any of it. Buried in one pile is a bunch of Christmas cards bound with a rubber band and meant to be gone thru to update my address book - hahaha


I have still not gone thru my cards from BlogHer - is it the heat here that makes me not want to do anything? I think I am still recovering from all the work I did this spring and all the trips. It's too hot to even go swimming. I walked the neighbor's dogs yesterday morning and then goofed off until it was very hot before I went riding. I had fun tho.

I was only a teeny bit homesick a couple of times on my trip. I guess I was so busy that I didn't have time to be homesick.

Already planning my next trip to Florida - probably over the Labor Day weekend because J is going then for my mother's birthday. If we go together, things will be easier to handle. The other day, I called J there and my mother wanted to get on the phone. So she starts off, "I . . .I . . .I . . . (she usually can't think of what she wanted to say), I . . . I . . . love you."

WHAT?????? Our family NEVER says that to each other!!!!! omg, you will never know how funny and sad that is all together.

J sent me a DVD of a compilation of old home movies my father took. Lots of WWII vids and then the family movies. J and I when we were baptized, first communion, confirmation, beach, snow, Easter egg hunts, etc.

My horsie saw the chiropractor!

After watching Wizz walk, the chiro said that his barrel was not swinging to the left - meaning his sternum is displaced to the right. So she reached under him and pulled it over. An adjustment to his left shoulder left him lowering his head and licking his lips in relief. An adjustment to his left stifle - same thing. Then some lower back work and 2 right ribs pushed into place and various other pokings and proddings that I could not tell you about.

Poor guy, no wonder he kicks out when asked to canter on the right rein! And he was his usual sweet self throughout the session. Love him! No riding for 2 days and then a follow up appt in 2-3 weeks. XOX