Happy New Year!!

Yikes, I always seem to forget to post on here!!!

 

New Years Images @ Bopmyspace.com

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!!:)

From our house to yours....

Merry Christmas! 

Merry Christmas Slide Show:)

Enjoy!

Big news,Busy,busy,busy! and frustration,LOL

Yikes,I never seem to post to this blog as much, sorry!

Of course, it's mainly for 'family and friend' news updates...maybe nothing ever happens in our family here? LOL

My biggest update is that Dustin joined the Army, was sworn in yesterday and leaves in Jan!!

And my second bit of news is that Kyle decided not to wait until Jan or Feb to move to his cousin's apt, and has moved out this week to live with some friends here in town.

I received the things that the man who served with my Grandfather sent, you can read more about that on my other blog here  

Click here: Grandad, A Christmas Hippo :) and Web Surfing Again

 

and you can also read about what I'll be doing this coming Thursday here 

Click here: What are You Doing on Dec.14th ?

 

the behind the scene story that I Didn't post about on the other blog is that I have been heavily involved in making the Patriot Guard Riders portion of this ceremony happen. Originally, one of the state Road Captains tried to make ME the "Ride Captain",lol...but I deferred to a biker. I still attended a meeting with the owner of the area Harley shop and the man who is going to be Ride Captain last Friday though, and I have also spent a lot of time emailing and phoning with the Civil Air Patrol guy who is arranging that end of it.

 

Yesterday, the Civil Air Patrol guy offered me the opportunity to read the speaking portions of the ceremony...I was like Yikes! but said to him that although I appreciated the honor, that the script clearly says that the Civil Air Patrol rep is supposed to do that part.

 

This whole thing is sort of mushrooming,lol...the Harley guy was going to email our state reps from the area, to let them know the ceremony is taking place.  This has been so awesome, to be involved in planning all this! because I really think it is going to be very cool, to attend the ceremony on Thursday (before I go to work! nice that the cemetary is located in the town where I work.)

 

Emma is gone right now getting Aiden's Christmas pics taken,and she and he will leave Friday for Arkansas to visit her mother, and be gone till the 22nd. It will be very weird, to not have Aiden here.

 

This past weekend at work was horrible!! because we have a resident who has gone into a major decline, and yet keeps trying to walk, so is frequently falling down. Essentially, my coworker and I on the unit of 14 spent the weekend taking turns with one of us sitting with the woman to prevent a fall, while the other one tried to do the work we needed to get done for the other residents. But if anyone else needed help while the other worker was giving care? we of course had to go take care of them...and be on pins and needles that the woman we were trying to keep safe would attempt to get up. (and yes...she DID, several times over the weekend, and so had several more falls.)

 

We are an assisted living facility, not a nursing home...so we are not set up at all for this level of care, nor can we on a unit of 14 Alzheimer's residents have one staff member out of the two sit 24/7 with just one resident.It was the most nerve-wracking weekend I have ever had since I started working there last May!! (that resident will be moved elsewhere as soon as the family can find a nursing home placement)

 

In other work-related news,LOL, how many of you can say that a 103 year old put you in a headlock and beat the snot out of you? :) We are getting a 103 year old lady on the empty bed in our unit, essentially because we are a locked unit and she has taken to wandering in her wheelchair.(like last week....out the front door of the facility, with her legs held out in front of her and going 90 miles an hour down the walkway into the parking lot!!)   We had her up on our unit last night,even though she hasn't moved there yet, because she kept trying to exit the building downstairs....so she combined with our other problem resident made for a fun evening.

 

Anyway, she proceeded while we were tied up with our problem resident to put herself to bed in someone else's bed! and we just let her sleep there until her aide from downstairs came to get her...and then I went to assist the aide to get her out of the bed, which is when she started swinging,lol, and then got me in a headlock while punching the aide and myself! This woman is only like 90 pounds, but she packs a mean punch...and I also had a heck of a time extricating myself from the headlock!! Pretty darn strong for 103!! But how can you NOT love someone who can still be that feisty when they are over 100 years old? :)

 

And I guess that''s it for now:)

My life is so interesting,LOL

Hmm...where to start :)  Well, remember that Wreaths Across America thing I  posted about awhile back ?  www.wreathsacrossamerica.com   

The Patriot Guard Riders  www.patriotguard.org  ,which I signed up for in July but have never made it on a mission, have joined in on this to provide an honor guard and participate in the Wreath Laying coming up on Dec. 14th.

So the other day I emailed someone, because the National Cemetary in Staunton was one of the places listed where they were going to lay wreaths, and asked who I would contact about participating in this?  The PGR guy who emails me back decides that the person who is going to be coordinating this is....ME,rofl.

I located the Civil Air Patrol guy who is going to be in charge of the ceremony, and then I have spent the last few days talking to folks like the owner of the Shenandoah Harley Davidson place in Staunton, emailing another PGR member who like myself has never gone on a mission before, emailing and talking with the Civil Air Patrol guy who found out he was in charge of this about 10 minutes before he got my first email,LOL......emailing the first PGR guy I contacted to say "Yikes! You are putting Me in charge of this, and I've never BEEN on a PGR mission before....and I don't even have a bike!!" (I have visions of me ticking off large groups of bikers,lol, by showing up out of the blue and saying a la Casper Weinberger "I'M in charge here!" rofl.)

And I have apparently become the 'go to' gal here :) because in talking with all these various folks, they were all unaware of Each Other....so I was like, hey, y'all all need to know that the Harley Dealership owner is talking to the VFW and some active duty service members, the Civil Air Patrol guy is talking to the American Legion...and that some fellow named 'Dewey' and I, who have never even ridden on a Patriot Guard mission before, are handling That end of it,rofl.

In the middle of all This, April wakes up last night and starts the scene from the Exorcist (think vomiting) at about 2 a.m. So she stays home from school and misses the first practice for the musical.

I missed the phone call from the gentleman who served on the USS Pamanset with Grandad in WW II, but he is calling me back tomorrow(says he has a picture of Grandad,very cool)

And I have been working all week during all of this,lol.

So, that is my life to date...how is Your week going so far?? :)

Way to Go, April Dawn!! :)

CONGRATULATIONS! to April, on getting a part as an 'orphan' in the upcoming production at her high school of  Oliver! 

(the picture is from last month...horrible picture of me,LOL, but good one of April and her favorite nephew:)

Pumpkin Pie

I wanted to share a little about what my work is like, on the Alzheimer's wing.

Lots of families came in to either take their loved one out to dinner on Thanksgiving, or to bring them Thanksgiving goodies.  In the case of one particular lady, they brought her a very large piece of pumpkin pie.

Well...I wish they wouldn't have. This piece of pie worried that patient (and my coworker and I) for the next 3 hours after they brought it! I have no idea WHY it was such a distressing piece of pie for the patient?  But her family carried it to the dining room as they were leaving, and set it on the table with her.

This caused her to be unable to eat any dinner. She attempted over and over to give the pie away to her tablemates, and every time I went by her table, she'd say to me "I wonder where this came from?" and I'd reply "Your son and daughter in law brought it for you." and she'd say "Oh, they were here?"  I often hear from soldiers in Iraq that they feel like they are in the movie 'Groundhog day", as the same thing seems to happen day after day. All during dinner, I could empathize with that feeling,lol, as I believe this woman and I had that same conversation roughly 207 times:) (note...posssible overexaggeration on the author's part here?lol)

The woman ate only two bites of the pie during dinner, and was still attempting to give it to either one of the staff, or her tablemates, as I wheeled her wheelchair out of the dining room.  I took the pie back to her room, thinking that perhaps she might want to eat it once she got back there?

But instead, over the next few hours as I entered and exited her room...we CONTINUED to have the 'wonder where this came from?your son and daughter in law brought it,oh they were here?" conversation....and she CONTINUED to try and give either my coworker or I the pie.

I finally figured that there is NO way this woman is going to eat this piece of pie, I am tired of it disturbing her AND my coworker and I...and I just threw the piece of pie out. I would never have guessed a piece of pie could be so upsetting? and while I remain curious as to why it bothered her so much.....was it too large? (it was a giant piece of pie)did she have a previous unfortunate association with pumpkin pie in the past, and the memory is gone but the anti-pie feeling remains?  I'll never know the answer.

But...I was so upset by the whole thing,lol, that I couldn't bring MYSELFto eat a piece of pumpkin pie later that evening...I ate a piece of chocolate pie instead!!