Thanksgiving 2011

My favorite day of the year...



 My best helper at Central Market...weighing herbs, I think - she is the master of the scale!

 5:15am - Ready to volunteer at the Turkey Trot...chilly this year, but NOTHING like last year.  Got our Starbucks, said hi to everyone, waiting for instructions from Butler

 Still waiting....folks know they should come early - so they find a place to park, get a shirt in the size they want, get a good place at the start, have a snack, use the portapotty before the line gets insane...but they don't...we stand and wait and then we get our behinds kicked for the last 45 minutes or so...same every year, but it's a tradition!

 5 minutes into the drive home...Murph was the first one out

 9:45am - in the driveway...both of them, out for the count!!!

 2:30pm - the feast is ready...pretty good looking turkey this year...and cooked all the way through at the time it needed to be cooked all the way through!  I watched the Ask Food Network Thanksgiving Live at least 3 times!!!

 Believe it or not - Keaton has become the king of homemade whipped cream!  It's his specialty!

 Checking out the Black Friday ads in the newspaper ... as if I would dream of going out in that mess...although, it appears that Peyton and I may end up in the Lisa, Gigi, Theresa caravan next year... I think she is ready and I can do anything as long as it's a mother-daughter thing!

Peyton's special touch for the holiday - we all had nametags that she made herself... she is good a special touches!

Happy Thanksgiving

More November 2011

My Kids...Random pix from the fall...



Peyton getting out of the car off to school...bright eyed and ready for a good day!

 The first of many fabulous tights, skirts & boots outfits...she's got style!

 My kids...my world

 Nonsense!  as usual!

Breakfast at the Bluebonnet Cafe...in the Coca-Cola room...doesn't Peyton look smashing in

Patrick's sweatjacket?  Just her size!

Dancing with her Daddy in the parking lot!

JCPenney's dressing room posing...went for more tights, ended up buying outfits to go with the tights!

Virtual shopping for brother...do you like this one???

...or this one???

Big moment...first BITE since the accident!  healing right on schedule...

SEE?  an outfit to go with the tights...pretty cute, huh?

A much-needed trip to Fuzzy's ... the cure for a stressful day!

Puffy coat, silly girl

Helping Daddy with the leaves...in his Turkey Trot volunteer shirt!  My boy!

We WON!

Random stop at the pie shop in Roanoke...Murph opted for rock candy sticks instead of pie...me? I went with the coconut cream...and it was a very good choice!

The official sign that it's Thanksgiving at my house...Sarah Molton's iced pumpkin cookies... I adore this time of year! (and these cookies!)

A Really Good and a REALLY BAD weekend...

1st weekend of November 2011...

 Friday, November 4th, 10:45am...after a really disturbing last few hours at Bishop Davies, mom is home...no oxygen needed, no more pneumonia!  Back in her favorite chair at Meadowlakes!

 Same Friday - about 4:30pm...Alexis and Peyton having a tire swing moment.  Peyton met Alexis the first day of 4th grade, but Peyton doesn't love change or brand new things...so the first day of school wasn't the right day to fully understand that Alexis was going to be a great friend.  They are two of a kind and manage to have fun and never fight or bicker or get bored when they are together - instead they find joy and laughter and silly girl times!

and now...one of the worst days of my life....

Sunday, November 6 about 6:00pm...

Keaton and Peyton were out in the street racing on their scooters and Keaton's fusion hit a stick in the road and he went head over heels into the street...face plant, shoulder, hand and leg scrapes and a broken front tooth...so scared, but so brave...

 The next day...worse for the wear...he had to go to the dentist Sunday night where she applied a dental bandaid and gave us the plan to get the tooth fixed in a couple of weeks.  Patrick hit the CVS for all kinds of gauze and bandaids and ibuprophen...he was sore and sad, but still beautiful and sweet.  My heart broke for him, my soul thanked God for protecting him - it could have been so much worst, my head cursed that stupid scooter, my arms held both kids...Peyton was so scared for her brother, Keaton still needs his mommy when he hurts and my teeth clenched because like any good mother - I kept playing it over and over and feeling the pain and the fear he went through...I can feel it now just typing about it...He had an angel that evening right beside him...maybe it was his Grandpa Larry!

Medicine Dog!  She is so smart and stayed right by him all day on Monday and Tuesday to make sure he was okay!  What a good Sophie!

Halloween 2011

Our little Candy Corn Princess...and Sophie!

 Peyton picked this costume out LAST year...I think a neighbor had it on while she was trick-or-treating and knew she had to have it...it took 3 trips to Party City to find a hat that would stay straight...and even this one got all wonky by the end of the night...she has her mother's head...just a tad too big for hats!  It's all those smarts!!!

 You can't see them as well as I would like, but she had the coolest false eyelashes...gold and orange sparkles...and eyeliner and an orange pumpkin on her cheek...so fabulous!  I believe every single 4th grade girl we saw had false eyelashes...and it was their favorite part of the costume!

 Accessories are what separate us from the animals...socks, glove thingies, the candy bucket, attitude...LOVE IT

The Fluffy Fairy...Sophie is such a good sport in her fairy wings

Patriots End of Season Tournament

The first weekend of coldish weather usually means fall baseball is coming to a close...sunscreen and the mister move out of the baseball bag to make room for cozy blankets and gloves.  We still pack a cooler of cold drinks...because I've never been so cold that I didn't want a Coke Zero and Keaton didn't want a Gatorade at the baseball field! 

The end of the season is always a bit weird...I mean, I've just spent the better part of 10 weeks with these families and there is a good chance we may never see them again.  I don't love that.  I like consistency, I like having the same people in my lives, I like not having to learn a whole new set of names (and numbers for the boys) every fall and spring.  Oh well, 10 weeks really isn't time enough to get too close to anyone, so although I will miss the routine of it, I doubt I will lose any sleep over it!

 It was a weird tournament - lots of teams getting disqualified...the last tournie always means you have to play subs...and that can be tricky depending on the tournament officials, rules, websites, paperwork, etc.  We did get to play Keaton's old team, formerly the Barons, now the Tarrant County Bulldogs.  We beat them - thank goodness!  Keaton got a couple of great hits, which means everything to him.  He loves to play first base, but he walks on air when he's up to bat.  I truly can't remember anything else about the tournament because during the game against the Bulldogs a foul tip came from the opposite field and hit Keaton on the head...dropped him to his knees...scared us to death.  Luckily, one of our moms is a nurse, checked him out, someone got ice, lots of us prayed, I didn't embarrass him or cry or swear (yay!) and he was okay.  Bless his heart...once the dust had settled and it was time for them to go back out on the field, he grabbed his hat and headed for first.  Coach made him sit, but I was so proud of him.  He ended up batting - I think he walked, but who knows - it was all a daze. and then he did go back out and play first.  WOW!  I still think of him as my fragile baby...and when we got home, he was my baby, but at the game - he was rock solid.  I did ask Miranda, one of mom's nurses for advice and she gave me one of the light pointers to check his pupils every two hours...I rarely can sleep, but give me a night when I have to set my alarm for every 2 hours and I'm sleeping like a baby!  Figures!  Long story, but in the end - the Patriots took 2nd place.

Murph and Alex with their trophies

A Pictorial Tour or Meadowlakes...aka...Memory Jolt

We are about 10 days from Mom being released from Bishop Davies...she has completed her OT, but still has some days left (and recommended) for PT and ST and she clearly doesn't remember why she would ever leave this "nice place" or where she used to live before...except Lima...and she does remember that that probably isn't where she is going back to...and she is scared.  I thought it might be a good idea to head over to Meadowlakes to take some pictures and see if that helps her remember and try a bit harder to get well and get home...

The drive up entrance

 Her front door

 Her entryway ... all the way down to her favorite chair!

 Her favorite (and only) chair

 Her pictures (these have one of mom and I's great stories...but she doesn't remember it...we bought these at Woolworth's in Lima probably 35 years ago when mom decided to have friends over for dinner...no big deal until about the night before they came over and suddenly she was convinced that her home was 'dull' and needed some color - so off to the Lima Mall we went...I was ready to spend whatever it took to just be able to go home, but NOOOOOOOOOO...Peg wanted lively color for the walls on a budget...and wanted to look at every picture in the place...OMG...I actually love these little prints now, there are two other ones hanging by her bed that we scored from Elder Beerman on that same trip...I don't even remember what we had for dinner at that party...but I remember the pictures...and mom and I giggling like school girls when our guest remarked on these little ones and mom acted like she'd had them FOREVER!...what a con artist!)

 Slim (the tall one), that Daddy got mom at the Rose Shoppe in Lima and the cowboy that my        Aunt Betty painted for her in ceramics class...doesn't everybody have an Aunt Betty that's taken a ceramics class???

 Bed and Dresser...lamp that she won playing BINGO at the place where she met Bob!

 Tammy

 her elevator

 The dining hall - and most importantly - where she gets her coffee!

 Mom's table

 The piano - mom loves a sing-along

 The Girls

 Cleta

Celeste

I showed these to her the evening after I took them and it was a BAD idea...it got all mixed up in her head...but I saved them on my phone and they actually brought her a lot of comfort the day it was time to move her home.  She was so scared about leaving Bishop Davies, but when I showed these to her and let her flip through them in the car on the way there...she was excited to get back 'home'!

Home Improvement

One of the worst parts of mom being sick isn't actually all the time and energy it's taken to get her well...even though that's what I've been whining about...it's the hit her memory has taken.  I'm pretty worried about her ability to live independently for much longer.  She can't remember the day of the week, how to read her clock, she doesn't remember Meadowlakes (the place she has lived for the past 3 years) or even Bob, her late husband.  She remembers me and the kids and Daddy.  She remembers Patrick, but has trouble placing him with his name and that seems to make her madder than anything else these days.  Sooooo....we've talked about the idea of selling our home and buying a place with a downstairs master suite or guest suite where mom can live.  EEEEK!  Right?  but the other option is a skilled nursing facility - the Medicaid route - and I am not quite ready to give up on her.  Having her at Bishop Davies, in the Medicare section, has been bad enough.  It's almost like a human storage facility if you don't stay on them all the time.  If I'm not there at least once a day...she is not getting the level of care that she needs.  Meadowlakes isn't skilled nursing, but they geniunely seem to care about her, they communicate with me, they watch out for mom and the residents watch out for each other.  The only other alternative is a big lottery win so we could pay for private memory care or moving her in with us....and that means we have quite a bit of work to do.  Patrick and JMC did the tile in the upstairs bathroom, the thresholds downstairs, Patrick is about half way through the baseboards...so now, we need to think a bit about the outside.  Let's face it, our backyard will make our home more attractive than most of the homes in this area...we have about a fifth of an acre, but we don't have sprinklers and this dreadfully hell-hot summer has taken it's toll.  That and my detest of weeding and this wild spreading grass-like weed that has taken over most of the flower beds.  Bring on the Mulch Guys!...

How fabulous is this?  Patrick pulled out the big dying bush and they worked their mulch magic!

Look at my side flower bed!  Beautiful.  I should have taken pictures in back...before and after...it's breathtaking!  I keep catching myself standing outside on the back patio just smiling!!!