Saturday, October 1, 2011

Saturday, Oct. 1

Another month gone, and what a month it was...sort of a microcosm of life: sadness at the loss of our beloved dog, joy at the birth a great-granddaughter, and anxiety when a daughter broke her ankle and then had a mild stroke. October promises to be very busy, but we fervently hope it will be less stressful than September.

We were up at 6:30 this morning to get ready to travel a couple of hours south to gather with family to see a new great-grandbaby. We arrived at Son and Daughter-in-Law's house around 11 a.m., and Daughter-in-Law and I immediately set to work preparing lunch. We heated cheese dip and chips, sliced tomatoes and Vidalia onions, put veggies out on platters (cauliflower, broccoli, carrot sticks, celery sticks, and bell pepper strips), and platters of deli turkey, ham, and cheese, along with a variety of breads (rye, wheat, and wheat bread rounds), as well as a chocolate cake and peach cobbler.

Family began arriving as we were preparing lunch, and everybody was gathered and ready to eat by noon. Both before and after lunch, family members passed the new little one around. I eventually got my turn (after I'd taken lots of pictures of her with her great-great-grandmother). She's such a precious tiny bundle of cuteness! None of us could get enough of her...though I think she probably got all she wanted of us passing her around so she couldn't rest.

Before the afternoon was over, Hubbie took multiple five-generation snapshots of Mother, me, my son, my grandson, and the baby.

Around 3:30 p.m., we left Son's house to follow Daughter to her new apartment. She is not fully moved in, but we wanted to see where she lives so we will know how to get there when we visit.

We didn't stay at Daughter's house long, and were on the road by 4:30. We decided to stop at a town about 45 minutes away to have supper at a favorite restaurant. We were back home around 7 p.m.

After I accompanied Mother to her house, I sorted pinto beans to soak overnight. We plan to have beans and ham, new potatoes, and turnips for lunch tomorrow.

While I was sorting the beans, we watched our favorite college football team, as they played to a much needed win. The game actually began at 11 a.m., and it was playing on Son's TV, but I was too busy to pay attention to it, and Hubbie purposefully ignored it, because we both knew we wanted to watch it later on DVR.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Friday, Sept. 30

Up at 6:30 to get ready for water aerobics. The pool was wonderful again. Today, though, there was an enormous spider on the pool wall near the water, and one of the ladies prevailed upon the lifeguard to dispatch it. He wasn't too thrilled about dealing with it, but he did it anyway.

Back home, after I got ready for the day, I did this and that around the house, getting ready for a trip this weekend to see a new great-grandbaby. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house, and she fixed chicken salad for our lunch.

After lunch, Hubbie and I ran errands...to the hydroponic farm for tomatoes, and to an auto repair shop to get our windshield wipers replaced. One of them was so bad, the rubber part had detached.

Then we went to a Mexican restaurant to pick up cheese dip and chips, and to the WDCS for groceries, and to two other grocery stores...one for cobbler mix, and one for on-sale loaves of bread.

Back home, Mother joined me in the kitchen, where she prepared a variety of vegetables to use with the cheese dip, while I baked a chocolate cake and a peach cobbler.

By the time we finished those chores, it was time to fix supper. Tonight, we had biscuits and gravy, and scrambled eggs.

I accompanied Mother to her house afterward, and then Hubbie and I settled in front of the TV. Watched a 2007 movie called, "South of Pico," in which an awful tragedy occurs that is witnessed by four strangers...a waitress, a doctor, a limo driver, and a young teenage boy. Viewers are taken through the twelve hours leading up to the tragedy, in which each of the witnesses experiences extreme frustrations. What they do following the tragedy ends up defining them.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Thursday, Sept. 29

Up at 7:30, but skipped my exercises so I could get ready for a trip two hours east to the town where Hubbie's daughter lives to visit and take soups, sandwich makings, and peach cobbler for lunch.

We arrived around 10:30 a.m. There was no one at Daughter's house, so Hubbie called his other daughter, who was at the hospital. She suggested that we go there to see Daughter, because they didn't know when she'd be discharged from the hospital.

Mother stayed at Daughter's house while we went to the hospital. Following his other daughter's instructions, we searched for a parking space in the parking deck. There was nothing available on the "red level" that his daughter suggested, so we drove round and round and round, and up, up, up to the suggested level, where there were no open spaces. We had to go to the uppermost level, where we finally found one.

From there, we took the elevator down three floors to the red level, then walked, walked, walked to the appropriate elevator that took us up three floors to Daughter's room.

We no sooner sat down than Daughter's doctor arrived to discharge her. So now Daughter suggested we return to her house so that Hubbie's other daughter could return to the hospital with Daughter's car to pick her up. Because of her booted leg that she is to put no weight on, she could not get into our van, because the running board would have been in the way.

Off we went back through the maze of hallways, to the elevator, down to the parking deck floor, and into an elevator to go up to the deck with our van. Back at Daughter's house, Hubbie's other daughter had put the soups on to heat, so I immediately fixed a sandwich and bowl of soup for Mother, who was pretty hungry by this time.

When the two daugthers arrived, we all sat down to lunch, including the mother of the girls (Hubbie's ex-wife), plus Daughter's son and daughter-in-law. Afterward, we visited until around 4:30, before heading back home.

We left all the food we'd brought so the daughters would not have to think about a supper meal. There was enough for maybe a lunch or two, as well. They were very grateful, since both were exhausted.

Daughter is on the mend. She still has numbness in her right hand and in her face, but she can speak now, though she has to do so slowly and deliberately. She will be unable to put weight on her injured leg for about eight weeks, possibly twelve. And she will need speech therapy (ironic, since she herself is a speech therapist). She will need to undergo a procedure later to determine if her heart will need a patch. This will have to be done at a heart hospital in the capital city.

For now, though, we feel better for having seen her, and knowing she is recuperating. And we hope she has no more setbacks.

Back home, I accompanied Mother to her house, and then put leftover lasagna in the oven for Hubbie's and my supper. Afterward, we watched TV for a while, including a 2003 movie, "A Japanese Story." A woman geologist is assigned the task of escorting a young Japanese businessman around the beautiful Australian outback. They run into a life or death situation, after which they fall into bed with each other. Later, the young woman learns her lover is married. Then an event happens that changes everything.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Wednesday, Sept. 28

Up at 6:30 to get ready to go to water aerobics. The water in the pool was wonderfully warm, again. Hope it stays that way. Only 16 of us showed up. I don't know why, since the pool is so nice.

Back home, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house, where she started pots of 11-bean soup and chicken soup, while Hubbie and I ran errands and shopped for groceries. We plan to take the soups, along with sandwiches materials, to the town where Daughter lives tomorrow.

Following the shopping trip, I made a peach cobbler to take to Daughter's house. And then I added noodles to the chicken soup, and made fruited Jell-o for an evening snack.

Hubbie called to check on Daughter and learned that though she expected to be dismissed from the hospital today, she will actually have to stay overnight again to undergo another test tomorrow to make sure there are no more blood clots in the leg upon which the surgery was performed. She now expects to be dismissed tomorrow afternoon.

So we don't know if we will see Daughter at her home tomorrow, or if we will need to visit her in the hospital. Either way, she will have soup and sandwich makings when she does come home, so she and the family will not have to worry about a meal.

Mother and I decided that since we'd spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen today, we didn't want to prepare a supper meal. So we went to a new steak house in town. Mother and I opted for the Hawaiian chicken, with baked potatoes, and Hubbe ordered chicken fried steak and baked potato. Mother and I brought half our meals home, since it was too much food for one sitting.

At home, I accompanied Mother to her house, then went back to her house later with a couple of helpings of Jell-o.

After that, it was TV time. Tonight, we watched the 1984 movie, "The Bounty," starring Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Liam Neeson. Based on the classic story, "Mutiny on the Bounty," it's the story of Lieutenant Bligh, whose cruelty leads to a mutiny.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Tuesday, Sept. 27

Got up around 7:30, and after breakfast, we rode our bikes. The best thing about riding up the steepest hill is the race back down it. It was a perfect morning for riding, just cool enough. The sloping, still green, lawns of newer homes along the route sparkled with dew. The trees, though, are beginning to show their fall colors.

Back home, Hubbie called Daughter's house to find out if she'd be up to having company Thursday. Her husband answered, and informed him that Daughter was back in the hospital. She woke up this morning having problems with speech, and with numbness in her face.

Needless to say, Hubbie spent quite a bit of time calling family or receiving calls from them. Later, we learned that Daughter (as I suspected) had a stroke caused by a blood clot. At this time, we didn't know how long she would be hospitalized.

Then this evening, he received word that an MRI had revealed a hole in Daughter's heart. Now tests will be conducted to check the back of her heart.

If something like this happened to one of my children, I'd be practically immobilized by fear until I knew my child was out of danger. But when Hubbie is stressed, he needs to be active.

So after I was ready for the day, we ran errands...to the bank and to the pharmacy/grocery store. Since I picked up ice cream, these were the only two errands for the morning.

After lunch, we ran more errands...to the newspaper office to drop off the word search contest puzzle, to the Caring Hands Hospice office to drop off a stack of greeting cards Mother, Sis, and I made last week, and to the WDCS for groceries.

By now, it was 2 p.m., and time to go to the medical clinic to get flu shots. The clinic is struggling with a new computer system, so the receptionist needed to re-enter all our information. Because of the new computers, there was a delay before the nurse called us back. I asked if she likes the new system, and she said she isn't sure she does, yet. She preferred to stick with the familiar old system. A new system just complicates things for a while.

Getting flu shots is Mother's absolutely least favorite thing to do, so as a reward, we stopped by a pumpkin patch sponsored by a nearby church. Mother really enjoyed strolling through the hundreds of various sizes of colorful pumpkins and gourds (one gourd reminded us of the Loch Ness Monster). I've already bought my pumpkins, but I found and bought a really pretty little gourd in the shape of a white swan.

I asked the young woman who was accepting the money for the pumpkins and gourds if they had luck in selling them last year. She said the project (which funds the church's youth group activities) was so successful that they had to order two more semi truck loads of them. I asked where they come from, and she said from New Mexico.

Later, we had a supper of leftover split pea soup, with slices of buttered rye bread. I accompanied Mother to her house afterward, and then Hubbie and I relaxed in front of TV...or tried to, under the circumstances.

We are anxious to hear tomorrow when the best time will be for us to go and see Daughter.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Monday, Sept. 26

Up at 6:30 so I could get ready to go to water aerobics. It was a crisp fall morning for the drive up to the college. The sun is lower on the horizon at the 7:30 hour than it was before the time change, so it blinds me on the hilly street leading to the college. It's kind of scary, because I literally can see neither the street nor the shoulder of the street. Even the sun visor didn't help this morning, because the sun blazed just below it.

Fortunately, there was no traffic on the street at this time, and I made it just fine to the college. I was early enough to find a parking space without trouble. The air was nippy for the walk to the pool, but the pool itself was toasty warm. We eight hearty souls who braved the frigid water for so long were joined by fourteen fair-weather friends today.

Back home after aerobics, once I was ready for the day, I accompanied Mother to our house. We didn't have anything planned for the morning. For lunch, we settled for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Afterward, I reviewed the lesson for this afternoon's tutoring session. My student was dealing with the remainder of a head cold she suffered last week. She said she felt better, but she was still coughing and blowing. Hopefully, she is past the contagious stage. I'm not up for catching a cold.

Today, the lesson involved regular verbs: watch/watched; hurry/hurried; cover/covered, etc., and irregular verbs, see/saw; take/took; teach/taught, tear/tore, etc.

We also looked at infinitives: "I told Ann (to wash) the dishes," I told Bob (to do) his homework," I told John (to listen) to me."

The lesson also included prepositions: "We stopped the curtains (from) burning," Ann helped Mother (by) making sandwiches," Ed thanked Jack (for) helping.

Back home, Mother had heated leftover lasagna from yesterday's lunch, which we had with salad, cottage cheese, and leftover whole kernel corn from another meal.

I accompanied Mother home afterward, and then Hubbie and I spent the evening as usual, watching TV, including an episode of "Dancing with the Stars."

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Sunday, Sept. 25

Slept late this morning, and awoke to thunder around 8 a.m. Skipped my exercises as I often do on Sunday. Because it was raining, Hubbie escorted Mother over to our house around 9 a.m. While I was getting ready for the day, she prepared lasagna to put in the oven later.

It was a usual Sunday morning of doing a few loads of laundry, programming the DVR, reading the newspaper, etc. I also touched base with Daughter-in-Law about scheduling a date to visit our new great-granddaughter. We scheduled a visit for next Saturday. I contacted other family members about the visit, so they can drop by and join us for lunch if they are free.

After that, Mother and I planned the week's menu. By that time, the lasagna was ready, and we enjoyed it with sides of salad and cottage cheese. Then we decided to watch a movie on DVD..."War of the Worlds," starring Tom Cruise. This is one of several movies that we watch on fall days leading up to Halloween.

Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I continued watching TV, including a movie called, "Thirst." Two couples are stuck in the desert, 50 miles from nowhere, when they accidentally roll their truck into a ditch. They begin walking, but are beset by all sorts of problems, not the least of which, of course, is life-threatening thirst.

Hubbie got a phone call during the movie, in which he learned that his daughter broke her ankle while in the yard. She was on a sloping part of the lawn when she heard a pop and went down. She is in surgery tonight for a torn ligament, and one or more breaks to her ankle. This makes four family members who have suffered broken bones over the past few months: a grandson and a great-nephew (broken legs), a daughter-in-law (broken foot), and now Hubbie's daughter (broken ankle).

Later, we watched the 2008 movie, "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond." Written by Tennessee Williams, it stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans, Will Patton, Ann Margret, and others. The story revolves around a young 1920s woman, who is unpopular in her social circle, because she is so flamboyant and daring that she shocks her very proper counterparts. She falls in love with a young man who works in her family's plantation store, passing him off as the grandson of a former governor. The loss of a precious diamond earring sets off accusations that threaten their romance. Good movie.

We followed that with a couple of one-hour shows, before heading for bed.