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Happy Birthday Jeanette!!!! Hope your day is extra special. This year, mine was actually pretty good too...Mama sang "Happy Birthday" to me and remember all the words and I got that on my cell phone and I will cherish it forever. But I hope you're is extra special sweet lady!! You deserve it!!
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Well, fishing or not, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEANETTE! :-)
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Lot of us in that boat wishing you a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY :)
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happy birthday jeanette . my 56 th is coming up in 8 more days . i always reflect on how fortunate ive been to make it another year . when i visit edna at nh i always think , as a visitor i have to punch the current year into a keypad to leave . when i get too stupid to do that , ive been successfully trapped .
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Happy birthday, Jeanette!
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Lil, so sorry about mom's fall and hospitalization. I always take comfort (weirdly) front a discharge RN who told me that her broke her hip, standing up, in a room with 3 RNS, one of them her daughter.
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LIttledogtoo. I recently discovered that the pharmacies sell a dip stick that alerts you to UTIs. That has been great for those days I wonder whether to call Doc or not. Take advantage of that hosp. stay. Collect the toilet "hat " she will prob have in her room so, you don't have to rely on collecting in the cup anymore. (you do have to disinfect before each use). When I need to collect a sample that clean little "hat" is in a bag nearby. Quiz the hospital staff, esp the nurse assistants on tricks to manage the wetting etc.. Cutting a wet diaper off is so much better then looking for tabs to pull. Hubby also sits on toilet fully clothed, so I help start the "pants down" process by getting him started. This may be a good time to transition her to a tab style diaper. Your life will be easier. Her fall sounds terrible and I'm so sorry. We all hate the falling.
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Happy Birthday Jeanette! You're a Baby at 51 in AC land!

No whine from me tonight. My GRAND CHILDREN will be here in less than 48 hours! We found out the new one in the oven is a boy and they are naming him after my Dad.

I have 5 1/2 days of Dress up, arts and crafts, hugs, kisses, cup cake making, hugs, bed time stories, pajama parties, kisses, tickles, coloring, balloon blowing, hugs..............WOOOO HOOOO!
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man , we are inbetween so many generations that i feel like the pivot man at a circle jerk sometimes .
hope ya have a fun time boni .
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Happy Birthday Jeanette!
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Thank you for the b-day wishes. In all honesty, it wasn't such a bad day. tSate of mind I suppose? Mom was sleepy and well, I just let her sleep most of the afternoon. She needed it apparently and of course, I relished the quiet time so I could putter around and do what I wanted to do. I even took my dogs for a decent walk. Heck, she was snoring so I didn't worry about her waking up scared...the young man that helped me do outside work this summer (my pool boy) surprised me and stopped by with a card and a Mike's Mango Hard Lemonade! LOL!! He's been MIA now for several weeks and I thought it was just so sweet of him. Ha! Who needs siblings when true friends are so much better? :)

Going to treat myself to a FRESH whole dungeness crab... Safeway had them on sale for 5.99 a pound. Win win.

So, all in all, it wasn't so bad being on this boat with a lot of you!

Boni.... now I am jealous! Sounds like SO MUCH FUN!! enjoy enjoy enjoy!

Off to crack some crab now and have the hot melted butter drip down my arms !!
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Jeanette, Here's a virtual drink to you... (after my supper of pizza and beer - glad it's virtual). Birthdays are great. 'Had my 91st 12 days ago (gloomy Nov., as usual). Two lovely Birthday cards came from my two nineties friends - all the way from CA and WA. Nice surprise.. Old friends are the best!

It's hard to be alone on my birthday after 70 years of marriage, but once I get this compression fracture of my back healed, I'll make do. It happened on hubby's last day at home before Hospice.. 'Going visiting for Christmas and then two months with two of my daughters and families...

I'm keeping up with all you folks in your caregiving. I have lots of empathy and admiration for all of you! Keep it up with your heads held high!
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At 8:15 p.m. the phone rang, it was my Mom, Dad had fallen outside, could Tony come over to help. So out rushed Tony. Then I was thinking why in the world was Dad outside in this freezing cold weather [thankfully we have no snow].

Tony said Dad was shaking like a leaf, of course he was outside with no coat before Mom noticed he had fallen, my gosh Mom is almost deaf/blind.... he went looking for one of his canes he thought he left on the front porch and Dad lost his balance and fell into the bushes. He knows he shouldn't be outside without his rolling walker. You wouldn't catch Mom outside in the dark doing that.... men [rolling eyes.... no offense to those who have common sense].
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Ohhh Thank you LoisCorrine!! Happy belated birthday to you as well!! 91 - wow lovely lady! You are truly an inspiration and how awesome would it be to all sit down together and chat face to face over pizza and beer!! That is on my bucket list of must have's/do's. Surely will never happen but what a happy thought eh?

I broke down and bought a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio... thought it would go good with my dungeness crab. I was right. So Lois - clink - cheers- here's to a speedy recovery for you and may you have a wonderful Holiday season!
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Yikes ff.... I'd be a bigger basket case than I already am dealing with 2 parent's whom don't seem to feel they are as elderly as they are!

Someone would get a stern chewing out! - which would fall on deaf ears and things would more than likely continue on as they are. ugh.

Glad you father is ok. Maybe this scare will teach an old horse a new lesson?
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Jeanette, I sure hope so.... I am still shaking over this as I wished they didn't live in that big house all by themselves, but it is the culture of their family, their parents and siblings all continued to live in their single family homes alone come h*ll or high water. I have to keep reminding myself *their choice to live there* over and over... [sigh].

I feel I will be moving into assistant living before my parents do, just from all the stress :P
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men have always ran out in the middle of the night to grab / stab / shoot something . somebodys gotta do it .
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Captain, thanks for the laugh.... I really needed that :)
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Geez, FF!! You need to wrap your folks in bubble wrap!
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I don't need to worry about hubby going out in the cold to investigate he'd send me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Whine grump - we're already snowed under with Christmas catalogues, and now I've got Dorothy Parker on a loop in my brain:

"… why is it no one ever sent me
one perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no! - it's always just my luck to get
one perfect rose."
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CM....when Mom and I returned from our 2-week absence from the house (so floors could be refinished), the mailman pulled up in his truck and pulled out one of those huge bins they use to sort mail and asked if I wanted one of those to carry our held mail from the past 2 weeks into the house! I asked did we really have THAT MUCH?!? He showed me a 2' stack of catalogs, magazines and mail.

I receive at least 3 magazines every week that I never ordered and don't subscribe to - things like Glamour, SELF, etc - yeah right! I'd *never* read those. Then we get at least 2-3 copies of every Christmas catalog known to man - none of which we've ever ordered. I fill an entire trash bag every two weeks with the crap mail we get.
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i should be used to these winter blah ' s by now but im not . it has a lot to do with getting older . 10 years ago id have been out in the snow making gravel out of flawed block with a hammer . now id rather eat lumpy cake than to vigorously beat an egg ..
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Thanks goodness for paper recycling, now I don't feel so bad tossing out junk mail and catalogs :)

Yes, my Dad needs to be wrapped in bubble wrap :P I plan to stop at their house today to talk to Dad to ask him what are their plans if either Mom [97] passes on or Dad [93] passes on.... I think Dad would be happy to move to independent living/assistant living as he is too bored at home.... he would love a couple dozens of new ears to hear his stories :)

Mom, now that's another story, she probably thinks I would move in with her.... NOT.... my health won't permit it, so she will need to decide to either hire help or move. I know she will dig in her heels. How I dread it.

I know this sounds really bad, I hope if the time comes that one parent passing first, I hope it will be Mom as Dad will be easier to direct to new housing.
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Good idea to start the conversation, FF - even if you don't get a clear plan out of it at least you'll get a handle on what their respective attitudes are. And you can make your views plain about your spare bedroom definitely NOT being available..!
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CM just be thanful you don't have Thanksgiving and Black Friday to contend with next week.
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Oh my gosh....today has NOT been good. Must be me, because Mom isn't doing anything different than she normally does, but *everything* is getting on my nerves today.

Woke up after having another of those horrible, vivid dreams. This one involved one of my grandkids (who has learning and developmental disabilities) being taken away from his mother and placed in foster care, and I was feeling all the emotions he felt inside, but could not express. Fear, confusion, sadness. It was heartbreaking.

Then I got up, started working, and intentionally waited until Mom laid down for a nap before I hopped in the shower - hoping for a few moments to myself, which are the only times to myself I get - shower and bedtime. Nope. About 2 seconds before I was ready to get out, Mom starts yelling my name from the living room. I'm still all wet, so I yell back to see what she wants - she wants to know where I am. I tell her I'm in the shower. No answer. I wait a couple of minutes, thinking she's going to come in to use the toilet, and I might as well stay in the shower until she's done. Nothing. I have a schedule to keep, so I'm wondering if I'm going to have to stay in here all day, or if she's forgotten she needed to come in to use the bathroom...or what?? I yell back out to tell her she can come in and use the toilet if she needs to. She says no, she just wanted to know where I was! ARGH. First time she's done that one - makes me wonder if she was a little panicked when she didn't see me.

Made breakfast and was rushing, because now I'm running a bit behind schedule, after starting laundry, getting my shower, etc. Bring Mom her breakfast, and *try* to get my own, but she decides she wants something to drink other than what I brought her, and doesn't ask nicely for it, just TELLS me to get it. GRRR.

By this time, my stress level is soaring, and I can't really explain why. Why should this day be any different than any other? I don't know. I just know I'm *really* looking forward to the few days that I will have with my son next month, without having to care for Mom. Unfortunately, I know it may be the last trip I can make to see him until Mom is gone, because I can no longer leave her alone. I've had to patchwork together a network of friends and family in order to make this trip, and there are *going* to be times where Mom is alone, but not for long - a neighbor will check in on her by coming over 3x a day, one sibling is going to come over and spend the afternoon with her mid-week and make sure she gets a shower, laundry is done, house is clean, etc. Another sibling is taking the week off and plans to come over one day that week and do some home maintenance items for me. So why am I so darn stressed??? I think it must be the season. I'm not depressed. I'm not sad. I'm stressed and feel like the top of my head is going to blow off. Can't quite explain it. Kind of hating feeling this way though, because it's not Mom's fault at all. The siblings are stepping up to help me make the trip to see my son, which was unexpected and surprising, so that's not it....ugh. I hate feeling this way. I think part of the problem might be that I've been so busy this week that I haven't been able to get past one load of dishes or laundry, and that makes me irritable. I can't imagine that's the whole reason, though.

I guess I'll throw myself into my work and do some housework and cooking prep for next week today, put the new tv stand/fireplace in the corner and get that all set up...maybe that will help. I think I'm just feeling overwhelmed, for whatever reason.

Oh, and a funny for the day...I have a 90-lb dog - my constant companion. I put the new tv stand/fireplace together the other day, but it's not in the corner yet, just sitting on the other side of the room. I plugged it in so we could see how it works, and Mom was very tickled with it. This morning, the dog and I came out of my room, and he headed for the living room - I headed for the bathroom. Our normal morning routine. Then, I hear "BEEP!" - the sound of the fireplace in the tv stand turning on. I'm thinking Mom must have found the remote and turned it on. Uh..no. THE DOG TURNED ON THE FIREPLACE. He walked up to it and pushed the power button on the front panel with his nose!!!
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Countrymouse, not only with the spare bedrooms not be available [both are home offices]... but the tussle of the thermostat. I know it wouldn't be fair for Mom to live with 68 degree heat in my home, and I know it wouldn't be fair for me to live with 80+ degree heat in my parent's house. One of us would become quite ill :(
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SusanA43, oh my gosh, loved how your dog turned on the fireplace... one smart guy :)

Isn't it amazing what pets can do... it's stuff like that that makes you really smile.
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Susan do you think your dog might be telling you he needs some winter woolies?
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