Tuesday, October 28, 2008

All kinds of company



We had a lot of visitors this weekend, which is always great! Mom's sister, Lois, and her husband, Dick, were here from Ft. Worth towards the end of the week. We also visited with another of Mom's sisters, Jody, from Columbia, in at Grandma Lottie's on Saturday. Saturday night Allen, Kausick, Liesel, and Drew drove down from Lincoln and Kansas City.
Watching Mom isn't easy as she needs constant supervision, so I decided we'd take a girl's night out and told Dad to take the evening off. After visiting at Lottie's Mom and I met Christine at MSSU for Devri's District Honor Choir performance. I think Dad enjoyed some time to rest, but he was standing at the gate when we got home that evening, ready for Mom to be back. We returned about 7:00 p.m., dinner was on the table thanks to the Lincoln/KC crew, and Mom turned herself in at about 9:00. She probably was pretty tired after spending the entire evening away.
I didn't get hardly any words from her this weekend until Jody gave her a book. I asked if she could read it aloud and she did! She read about two sentences, which was 10 times the words I had heard from her all day. It was nice to hear her voice. Thanks, everybody, for coming to visit! (Mom, Patrick, Devri, & me at MSSU choir concert.)

Thursday, October 23, 2008

A couple photos from earlier in the year




Here are a couple photos from ealier this year when Devri was doing "My Strongest Suit." I think she's giving Grandpa an "Oklahoma Hello!" Mom enjoys every performance whether Devri is being a pre-princess Cinderella all dressed in rags or....um....whatever she's being here.

The status of the phone

Perhaps you heard that Dad put their phone through the washer? I ordered Mom and Dad a new phone, another Jitterbug, but it had some fault and I had to return it. The company is sending me a new one. I hope to have Mom and Dad re-connected within a week. Dad doesn't like to use the land line---too expensive. And Mom enjoys using the phone. She particularly likes to play "walkie-talkie" with me when I visit. She calls me across the dining room table incessantly repeating my "How are you?" etc. And she laughs. Another joke, I guess. Their number will remain the same, by the way.

Friday, October 17, 2008

recital



Mom and Dad came up to Devri's recital tonight. Mom smiled a lot and clapped after each performer. After Devri sang her number, another girl took the stage and began to sing. Mom leaned over to me and said, "Devri could sing that." Ok, so she's a little biased---she's the grandma! Her statement was so matter of fact and normal that I actually forgot for a moment that she doesn't usually speak sentences. It was great! (and it was funny.) I was glad she remembered to keep her voice down when she said it! I live for all these little high points!!


funeral visitation/mom's birthday


Allen thought maybe a blog would be good for people who wonder how Mom is doing more on a daily basis. So, I'll try to post regularly the good, the bad and the odd. We're doing ok, I think. It is nice to have Mom still here to hug and kiss and just be with. One time I was getting ready to leave and she picked a flower for me from the bouquet on the kitchen table and gave it to me. That was nice.

I have started going to Mom and Dad's every Saturday. I try to be there in the morning when I can and I stay until evening. This gives Christine time to go work for Janice and gives opportunity for Dad to do a few things that are difficult when he has to watch Mom at the same time. I keep Mom busy doing laundry and cooking with me, and vacuuming. Her favorite games is "unplug the vacuum cleaner." I begin to vacuum and she unplugs me, gives me an ornery look, and laughs. I shake my finger at her, plug myself in again, and in just a few seconds she does it again with the same response. It's our little joke.

I saw Mom and Dad last night, actually, at a funeral visitation for a neighbor. Mom smiled and appeared happy to be in a social setting. She looked very nice in black slacks and matching blouse, (10 points for Dad.) I asked her if she knew who I was standing with and she smiled and said, "Lynnette...Stokes" which was pretty impressive to remember my best friend's married name. I asked if she saw anyone else she knew and she said, "No." But she was all smiles and looked very pretty. She did sign her name in the book very clearly as "Cookie Major," for some reason. Dad said it was because she majors in cookies. It didn't really matter. The visitation was for a man who also had Alzheimer's and the family could no doubt relate. Dad marked that out, though, and signed her real name.

Tonight we will all go to see Devri perform in her vocal recital in Joplin. Mom always enjoys that, of course. She heard Devri perform a couple weeks ago when Devri won the "Pittsburg Idol" competition. As soon as Devri got off the stage from picking up her award, Mom grabbed her by the hand and headed towards the car. She was ready to go home and she was taking Devri with her!

Last week, on Mom's birthday, we made a cake and sang and blew out candles. I bought her some new jeans and tops and pajamas. She looked quite nice even without make-up, and seemed pleased with her new jeans. We were trying to get the camera ready and told her to "hang on" before she opened presents. She completely ignored us. She knew the presents were hers and she was going to open them immediately! When I asked her how old she was on her birthday she correctly said "69." I noticed she had received some birthday cards. I held one up and said, "Who sent you this birthday card?" She answered correctly, "Mama." I put her cards in the bay window so she could see them every day.