She Sits with the Angels

Just a quick note and picture to say that my sweet Momma is sitting with the angels today. Yesterday she took a soft breath and was gone. I was with her and it was the hardest thing I have ever done or been a part of in my entire life. Momma was 70 years old, very young. The only thing I ask is for those who smoke STOP NOW, for those who are thinking about it DON'T DO IT, and for those who have quit KEEP IT UP. Smoking is what took her life from this earth too early. (Stepping down from the soap box.)

A Little Good News A Little Sad News

A little good news today. My dear friend Gail who left this earth too early in March is a grandma. Her daughter had Abigail Sophia via c-section and is doing very well. Gail was so excited to be a grandma and so this birth is bittersweet. Her husband called and you could almost hear him smiling through the phone line. I will gladly fill in a little when and if little Abigail needs a granny or grandma.

Sad news is that I received a phone call that Momma may not make it through the day. My thoughts all day have been that how ironic it would be for little Abigail to make her appearance on this earth and my Momma to leave us. The day is still young though and I wait for the phone to ring again. Tears of joy and sorrow.....

Addendum

This is an addendum to the previous Weight Issue....I went to my doctor this morning and guess what I have lost 14 pounds since December and my blood pressure was absolutely perfect. See, I'm on the right track contrary to the popular male opinion in my life...There take that.....

Sleeping puppy

Now that's relaxed...

The Ups and Downs

SEPTEMBER: Bought new house
DECEMBER: Start packing
Pack #2 kiddo to move to Phoenix
Start remodel of new house
Ready our house to sell
JANUARY: 3 Move #2 to Phoenix
16 Meet with funeral home to pre-plan for Momma
27 Our house for sale (lot of open houses)
23 Our 30th Anniversary
FEBRUARY: 6 Mom bad spell
12 Sold House (2 ½ weeks)
MARCH: 4 - 8 #1 kiddo and I to Phoenix to see #2 kiddo
4 GAIL passed at Barry’s 50th B’day party
8 Gail’s funeral
10 Moving Day
11 Another 50th B’day party to attend
13 Close on house
21 Mom another bad spell
APRIL: Mom- couple of bad spells, called in Hospice
MAY: 6 Momma and Daddy’s 51st Wedding Anniversary
#2 home for a weekend visit
Mom - lots of bad spells, falling down 3 times

JUNE: 1 Moved Mom into nursing home
2 Leave for St. Louis to celebrate my 50th Birthday
Numerous phone calls from nursing home and hospice
10 Someone else’s 50th Birthday Party
11 "2" Someone else’s 50th Birthday parties
12 Momma fell in the nursing home and broke her hip - up all night on phone
14 Mom’s hip replacement surgery
17 Over Beloved puppy dog of 12 years passed away
18 Father’s Day for my sad Daddy
22 Mom moved to LTAC (Long Term Acute Care facility
29 Officially checked Momma out of 1st nursing home ....for now
JULY: 6 Hospital called about putting in a feeding tube
7 Wait for call from Bro that he and Daddy went to hospital and had meeting with Mr. Xing to see why. Tried eating stimulant and she ate just fine Doc was confused by our not wanting to do it but Mom didn’t want it.
11 (Tuesday 4:30 pm) Hospital called me to say they wanted Momma moved to Skilled Care nursing home possibly by Thursday (July 13)?????!!!
12 Started the phone calls to put in motion the move.
WORK - Got call from the State about employee and child support??? EGADS
13 Started doing the paperwork to put in motion the move to Nursing Home and had it ready for the move on Friday...the hospital decided to wait till Monday???
WORK - Insurance auditor "dropped" in unannounced.
15 Would have been Gail’s 50th Birthday - Had her hubby for dinner
17 Moved Momma to Nursing Home - Skilled Care
18 Daddy had a screaming fit at a poor pregnant rehab nurse

Just Lose Some Weight

This has been the worst past two weeks for me as far as my weight is concerned. Last week The Hubby made those crappy remarks about needing a program. THEN, last week while in our attorneys office while The Hubby and The Lawyer were discussing exercise, diet, and blood pressure, well, dummy me piped in to complain of a blood pressure/stress headache. I was referring to the stress I have been under dealing with my mother. The Lawyer turned to me and said, "Just lose some weight." Then he turned back to The Hubby and continued the conversation. WHAT!!!!!!! I was stunned and hurt, very hurt. I came back with that I work out 5 days a week and eat very well.

TONIGHT - Tonight we had an insurance man over to discuss Long Term Care Insurance (EVERYONE NEEDS TO LOOK INTO NOW). It was a very interesting conversation in which we learned a lot, but then we get to the questions that he needed answered, to figure out the right policy and company for us. Ah Ha here it comes, I have to tell him how much I weigh, IN FRONT OF THE HUBBY. I tell The Hubby to turn his head and I write it on a paper. The Insurance Guy sucks air in through his pursed lips as he heads for the chart of acceptable weights. I knew I was doomed to a long conversation with The Hubby later. I was crushed. We will have to look for a company who can accept my weight. I almost forgot this...he suggested I take some water pills. It SUCKS. As if I don't have enough crap to deal with right now it's my weight and the raised eyebrow from The Hubby, "Mr. I'm in Shape why aren't you."

I wanted to cry and I still might. I'm just whipped right now. ARGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Week in My Life

A week in my life.

Monday - What can I say it started pretty quiet. I was up at the butt crack of dawn...Actually before the butt crack, 5 am to go work out with The Hubby. That is something I didn't want to do. Not the work out, but the work out with The Super Critical Hubby. I thought I did pretty good at 8 miles on the stationary bike but of course he had a witty comeback, "It's a shame to waste 30 minutes on one machine." What! I was not happy. He thinks I should work out more even though I do Jazzercise 5 days a week and I'm adding this to my workout. I just said bye and turned and left. I went home and had a nice hot shower and took my time to put my face on and enjoy back to back episodes of Charmed (my luxury in the morning). Then I was off to the office to sit and type a huge stack of invoices. Actually, Monday was a pretty quiet day. I even enjoyed one of my soaps in the back office before jotting off to the house to cook a dinner of roast. Our oldest daughter came for dinner and it was very nice.

Tuesday - Today was the usual Jazzercise day at 5:45 am then the same old routine. I stopped into the office to sit and wait for my Chiropractors visit. My back is crunchy, my foot is killing me, my neck can't turn to the right...I'm falling apart. Probably stress. When I was through with the doc visit I called an old friend and asked if she wanted to do lunch. She was on and we enjoyed a nice meal and caught up on the gossip. I decided that I didn't want to go to the hospital to see Momma (can take just so much) so I asked T if she wanted to go with me to find some Fiesta ware for my new kitchen. We had a great time and I was able to forget about Momma for awhile. I had a manicure/pedicure appointment for 5pm but got a call at 3:30 from my girl to see if I wanted to move it up to 4....Sure...so I was on my way. Tonight was also my book club get together and I so look forward to then. I wish they were closer than 6 weeks sometimes. Oh yeah, I almost forgot...while sitting for the pedicure my cell phone rang. I should have not answered, but it could have been about Momma and you know what, it was. It was the social services worker at the hospital asking if we had another nursing home picked out for her and could we move her by Thursday. ARGHHHHH!!!! Mind you it was Tuesday, 4:30 pm when she called and they were supposed to give us some lead time to find a skilled care nursing home for Momma. I have a headache. Well, the phone calling was on to my bro and sis and dad about what we wanted to do. This was supposed to be a leisurely ped/mani but it wasn't. I knew what my Wednesday was going to be like. When the time in the chair was over I looked forward to Book Club. In fact, I turned my phone off after I called my friend to ride with. I was off for a nice evening and didn't want anything to spoil what was left of a somewhat nice day.

Wednesday - Riding the bike again, 8.5 miles and this time "The Hubby" had to holler and point across the room to the head workout person(?) , "she needs to be put on a program." OK, daggers came shooting out of my eyes. What a (**&%()_*&amp;amp;amp;&&!!@@><><+)*&^%). OK, no happy time for "The Hubby" this week.........! I knew my day was going to be full of phone calls and it was. I called a couple of nursing homes and of the two the hospital gave me I found one I thought would work. The other one was too far for my Daddy to drive everyday to see Momma. With more phone time with my Bro and Sis and trying to talk to Daddy on his new cell phone I was about done with the phone game. Daddy was at the hospital trying to find out what I knew and decided he couldn't hear me so he said he would drive to the shop. WHAT! I'm afraid for my Daddy to drive to much in areas he is not familar with anymore but after about 45 minutes here he came. He really looked good. The Hubby and I took him to lunch and he scraped his plate of enchiladas clean. Back at work I made MORE phone calls to the nursing home, the hospital, and to the man who administers my grandmothers trust that takes care of my momma. I took a breather to watch my Soap. It was the last time one of the actors would be on since he commited suicide in real life last week. He had been on the show for 20 years and I wanted to catch it. Of course The Hubby called to tell me he thought he found me a desk/table for my office at an antique store and wanted me to look at it. I went over there and loved it. I told the owners I had to call my husband and have him get it for me and left to go to the bank. Going home my cell phone rang and it was "HIM" and he said if I liked it to go get a check and get it. He said it would fit in my Tahoe probably (that meant shoveling stuff around.) Rushing to the office for a check AGAIN the phone was ringing and I should have left it alone. It was the State of Missouri Social Services office. OH MY GOD! What now. Well, one of our employees I had to force to obtain health insurance on his illigetimate child and I did that. Well, the guy said that we were supposed to also be garnishing for child support. WHAT!!!!!! I told him I would have to call him back because (I had to get to the store before it closed) I had to go to a meeting. OH MY GOD! What did I miss up on. I didn't have time to look at the thing and left. Well, of course my stomach was in knots and I didn't want to tell The Hubby that I might have messed up. We had leftovers for dinner and watched a little TV. I was so tired mentally and physically but when my face hit the pillow my mind was wide awake. I was stressed with more junk. Finally, I dosed off about 1:30 AM. ---Oh, almost forgot. I had this insurance audit lady show up at the door unannounced from OK City to revisit something we were supposed to do. She is extremely creepy and weird and thinks I'm her new best friend. YUCK! Could hardly get rid of her the last time she was in. She'll be back.

Thursday - Didn't make it out of bed to workout and got the evil eye from The Hubby. OH RASPBERRIES! I had to get up and get to Daddy's and get Momma's Medicare card, Health Insurance card and SS card. Then it was off to the nursing to fill out the first set of papers to get her in there, that took 2 hours with the help of my bro on the phone. Then I had to go to the funeral home and give them copies of the deeds of the burial plots so we would be ready when needed (something I've been putting off). A quick run through at Arby's and wolf down a sandwich before we had to meet with our attorney to revisit our trusts, living wills, etc. That took awhile and I realized I couldn't make my late afternoon appointment to the Chiropractor. I also called the nice gentleman back from the St. of MO. and handled that little mess up. IT WASN"T my fault, I never got the paperwork for the child support. It was their fault. Huh, imagine. Yet, I will be receiving court orders soon to begin that little process. Sometimes I hate having employees and all that goes with it. Later that evening we had a nice evening of television and I was ready for bed, sleeping.

Friday - Well, didn't make it out of bed AGAIN. Can't keep doing that. Had to get moving and do a few things before the cleaning lady came. Yeah, no payroll today. Got to the office and did some of the usual things, then lunch at our favorite Friday lunch place...Bangkok! Back at the office and I paid the bills and then ran for a baby gift and groceries and meet the drapery lady to do some more measuring. Oh, and I get a call from The Hubby about a phone call from the bank yadda yadda yadda yadda....MONDAY!

I'm ready for this weekend except it will be sad because my dear friend Gail would have been 50 on Saturday. We are entertaining her husband all day and evening to keep his mind from being too sad. It will be a sad and fun weekend and then I will hit the ground running on Monday as I'm booked solid every night with another insurance man, 2 fun Dinners, and a dreaded regular doctors appointment. I did make a massage and facial appointment for the end of the month, I will need it. Sorry for the rambling away but my head stops hurting and my stomach stops churning when I get the stuff out. Enjoy, I think.......

Reality Show Freak

I know this is weird but I'm a Reality Show Freak. I love all of them. My favorite one is tonight.....BIG BROTHER!!!!!! I love that show. In fact my friend Gail (who is no longer with this world) and I LOVED this show together. So tonight I am missing my friend Gail. She and I would email back and forth and she emailed me several applications to be on the show. I don't think I could be that nasty though as some of them are.

I also love The Amazing Race, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Survivor, Top Chef, The Next Food Network Star, Rock Star, The Apprentice....let's face it, I'm a TV addict.

I not just hooked on reality shows, I love other stuff too. All the Law and Order shows, CSI Miami, CSI, 2 1/2 Men, oh well, the list is endless. I LOVE TELEVISION!

Sometimes I can't get anything done for watching TV. I think it is a harder addiction to break than a drug. I can't go without ......except when I go to the cabin. I can finally do without and sit on my screened porch with a good book or a journal and spend my spare time communing with nature.

Damn Television......Ohhhh I'm sorry I didn't mean it.....