Tuesday, February 24, 2009

for the love of pumpkin butter

Miss Jessie (Mom's niece) came to Lottie's house this weekend on her way to visit her parents, Keith and Donna, (Mom's brother and wife) in Ohio. I'm not sure I'd seen her since her wedding, but she sure doesn't look like an "old married woman!" She looks just great! Janice fixed an awesome shepherd's pie at Lotties, Mom and Dad came to eat, and Chad and I dropped in as well. Mom wasn't speaking, but she was smiling and ate plenty. She took a special liking to the pumpkin butter Janice had laid out, and probably would have eaten it to the bottom of the bowl if she had had another sheet of biscuits!

While there, Lottie gave Mom her large photo collage, that she made for each of her children. Mom carried it carefully and wanted it put up immediately when we got home. She also had one of her wedding photos from Lottie's house that she carried around awhile and then tucked in the edge of the frame. We put it in the living room and Mom seemed content with that. While looking through photos at Lottie's, Chad pointed to a couple people and asked, "Who is this?" Correctly, she answered "Grandpa" to one and "Merl Dean" to the another.

I was kicking myself because I forgot to take a photo for the blog last week when Mary came and this week when Jessie was here. I'll have to keep the blog more in my mind!

Mary visited

Over President's Day Mary Schroer came to visit and stay with Mom and Dad. This gave me Saturday and Sunday off to go clean my own house which had been feeling some neglect. We appreciated all she did while there. She spent some time with Ellie on her new lead and Dad was amazed at how quickly Ellie is catching on. Christine texted me last week to say, "Grandma is playing with the dog...of her own accord...and laughing."

Thursday, February 5, 2009

visit from Allen

Allen and Liesel were down last weekend and got to see the new dog and the new locks for the first time. They only heard Mom say one word from Thursday through Saturday afternoon. When Patrick and Devri came to visit, she repeated his "How are you?" but Allen was in the other room and missed it. Mom likes Patrick and gives him random hugs when it suits her. She walked around and around the circle of the house many times, and patted Patrick on the head each time. She ignored the rest of us. She's bad about playing favorites! Each time she placed her hand on his head, she smiled. Patrick is a good sport. His grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about the same time Mom was, but his disease has progressed much more slowly.

Mom chopped up bananas with a butter knife to put in a fruit salad. We're always looking for things she can do successfully and without injury. All my kids were able to come to dinner with us, and Liesel made an excellent peach/blueberry pie for dessert. It was one of those "freezer's choice" pies---whatever comes out of the freezer is what goes in the pie. Anyway, it's an idea worth patenting! It was a great dinner with 'lots of quick quips and laughter.