Shopping with the Kids

Since it was a holiday for us all, I decided to pickup Mom and take all the "kids" shopping. Now shopping for a 91 year old kid is an adventure and is also limited to Shopko. Why Shopko you might ask. Well it is familiar and not so overwhelming for the kids. they can always be assured Mom (me) won't be too far away.

The "kids" (husband, daughter and 91 year old) start the trip off by immediately invading each other's space. I respond with I can't take you anywhere, keep to your own space, no hitting, no arguing or spitting out the tongue. I add a "don't make me come back there" just for effect. Right, like that every really worked.

Lesson number one, don't turn the daughter loose with 91 year old in wheel chair. After wheelies in the parking lot, daughter is corralled, 91 year old is calmed and husband mans the basket. We are off to shop. Keeping them together lasted about as long as it took to get in the door. Daughter and 91 year old headed for the clothing and husband disappeared to who knows where. Husband suddenly appears when I actually start looking at something. The purses got his attention. First he looks at the price tag, not noticing the sale sign of 40% off, and decides immediately it doesn't suite me. Now I accept a lot of fashion advice from many people, but husband who picks one color of shirt and sticks to it no matter what wouldn't be one of them. I advise him it is perfect as I can carry my lap top with me if I wanted. Husband immediately advises me it would never fit, this from a man who can't measure anything correctly the first time. Husband wins for the moment, I will come back without him.

I find daughter and 91 year old in the clothing. Show the 91 year old anything purple and she is instatly in love. It is easy to become fixated on one thing when you are 91,, but what is husbands excuse? Oh I just got it if they are all alike there is no right or wrong. How could I have not figured that on out sooner? Daughter is mortified when I pick out a sparkled animal print blouse and announce I want it to wear to church. I love messing with her mind, it keeps her guessing as to my true mental stability. She already thinks dementia has set in and it gives me the opportunity to toy with her. She didn't think much of the shiny gold blazer with the white pants either. No fashion sense. Sad for her.

I announce to hubby I am going to go shop for sports bras for 91 year old and he instantly disappears. Hmmm, should have used that one back at the purses. I will have to make a mental note to pull that card when needed.

We make the round of the store and the kids are getting restless and whine for lunch so it is time to leave. We arrive at destination and daughter again does wheelies in the parking lot with 91 year old (she actually loves it). We get her inside, parked at a table and reassure her we are coming back. We go to order food. After fifteen minutes of gazing at the menu produces nothing but confusion for hubby we finally order. He insists on changing one of his sides for extra hushpuppies instead of coleslaw which is fine. When he gets his order he then asks, what is a hushpuppy. Now most people would want to know that before ordering extra, but no I guess it sounded better than the alternative so why not go for it. We enjoyed the meal an decided we had worn the 91 year old to a frazzle. As you leave you are suppose to ring the bell if the food was good. 91 year old did not think ringing the bell was a very good idea so daughter rings it and 91 year old nearly has a heart attack. Hubby had to ring the bell just for good measure. I finally got them loaded into the car and off we went.

After getting her home I was ready for home myself. I got back into the car and it was suddenly an issue that hubby's empty cup was taking up space in daughter's domain. Oh my goodness when do they grow up! Settled them down and headed for home. I also made a mental note not to take them all shopping at the same time too often. I think I enjoy them better one or two at a time. Family, you gotta love'em!

Brutal Honesty or Just 91

Because of all our bad weather, we were unable to spend time with my Mom at Christmas. I fretted over that for a day or so and then realized that because of her dementia she wouldn't realize we weren't there anyway. So as soon as the weather cleared some, the sidewalks thawed and the streets were decent for travel, we picked her up to have second Christmas.

After her initial confusion, it was fun watching her open her gifts. She is so child like in her excitement that you can't help but get caught up in the moment. She got something pretty to wear, something that smelled good and best of all my daughter gave her a memory book. She was a little confused even with the names written below each photo, but she thoroughly enjoyed each one. Each time she saw a picture of me, she thought it was herself. She remembers herself differently from what she actually sees and is always a little surprised by the old lady that looks back from the mirror or pictures. I look forward to the day when I am 91 and can forget what I actually see and remember only how I wish I looked.

Her second time through the memory book she came to one particular photo and upon taking a closer look made a comment that she was really heavy in that one. My daughter was very prompt to remind her that it was actually a picture of me. She takes an even closer look and says well "it still stands." She has a tendency to be brutally honest and outspoken no matter who is within hearing. She isn't mean spirited, just 91 one with a few dementia problems so you always expect the unexpected. Sometimes it's quite funny and this time it really was and we laughed heartily. I also know from past experience to sit her facing away from people, give her the great view of the scenery or distract her when someone catches her eye so as not to chance an off handed remark, thus embarrassing her daughter as well as the recipient of the comment.

If the comment had come from anyone else it could have hurt my feelings, but as you already know from previous writings, I have vowed to find the thin woman within this year. This just gives me a little more determination to search a little harder for her. I am working more diligently, however, that not so thin woman within is just vain enough that just in case she is only allowing pictures from the shoulders up this year. The next memory book will have head shots only just in case.

Getting Buff

We have had quite a month! The one good thing to come out of this weather is the fact that all of us couch potatoes are actually becoming quite buff. I never thought I would say that I actually enjoy the shoveling, but I have found that I feel a whole lot better than I did a month ago. Does that mean I am becoming a person who might actually enjoy exercising? Well, I don't know that I would go that far, but I am seeing the benefits of actually doing good ol' hard work.

I am even planning what I am going to do to replace the shoveling. Oh my, I do believe I am starting to make serious changes in my life style. That is a good thing. Now I just need to keep the momentum in the months to come.

At work we were all bemoaning the fact that our backs hurt and muscles we weren't use to using ached, but we concluded it might actually be beneficial in the long run and how great all of Spokane is going to look this Spring!! I think the rest of America will be jealous. They will be wishing they had some of that snow to shovel. Of course if we were really honest, we really wish they did too.

New Year - Old Resolution

Well here I am again vowing to lose weight in 2009. Let's see, when I was 58 I vowed that if I didn't lose the weight before I was 60, I would never lose the weight. Then again when I was 59. When I turned 60 I thought OK if I don't lose the weight this year, I never will. Well here I am 62 and it is still with me. I have concluded that I can lose the weight, I just need to rethink my program since the one have had for the past five years isn't working. Of course I can't blame the program since I don't really stick to it long enough to reach my goal.

Since I am commitment phobic this is a big step for me. If I make the commitment, that means I have to actually do it and I have not been willing to make that commitment. I am now willing to make the commitment! It is a New Year and I can do this. I actually want to do this.

My reasons for losing have changed. I have a very active husband and realized that when we actually retire, I won't be able to keep up with him. I find that very distressing. We have many plans for travel and doing things. At this point I can travel, but I don't DO very well so it is time to make change.

What brought on this renewed determination was all the snow shoveling and snow blowing I have had to do in the past month. I am a slow learner. Exercise does really make you feel better. I knew this in my heart because up until a few years back I was always very active, but somewhere along the line I just stopped. Sad, but true. I also realized this has been the real problem for the past five years. I can eat right forever, but without the exercise I am just spinning my wheels. So I am going to continue to shovel vigorously and will add in other activities as we go along. The point is I am on the move no matter what! I am committed!

2008 Has Ended

I don't know about you, but I am glad to see it gone. It has been a year that I will talk about for some time to come. We started with record breaking snow and eventually sort of saw spring, at least for a brief moment.

In May we traveled back to South Dakota to lay Albert's Mom to rest. It is never an easy time. We decided since we were having to make the long trip to vacation also. We saw many interesting things in our travel and I posted here the best of the best. We then traveled on to visit my son in Idaho for a few days, but that was interrupted when Albert became very ill. I rushed him home and he was hospitalized for a week. He then had a relapse so it was a month before he was well enough to work.

Things went pretty good for a while until the vacation in September that as you now know was filled with fog, fire and frustration. But, we were healthy.

In November, I found out I was going to be Grandma twice! My son in Texas called just before Thanksgiving and my son in Idaho called just a day after. That was really good news. But, I am sad to say that my son and daughter-in-law in Texas lost their baby just before Christmas. They are doing good and are optimistic that God will bless them again.

But the best was saved for last. We have had 69.7 inches of snow this December. Let me just say that this Texas girl does not appreciate the beauty of the white stuff. Regardless, I have shoveled, slipped and snow blown my way through all 69.7 inches. The first day my daughter and I couldn't keep up with the shoveling, but we won in the end. We were beating ourselves up for not learning how to run the snow blower. You can imagine how we greeted poor Albert at the door! We immediately got lessons and have become very good at it. Well for the most part anyway. I did think at one point I had killed it and managed to flatten the tire. I then had to drag the thing a mile to get it back into the shed. I was very glad when Albert told me I didn't kill it and the tire could be fixed. I also had my car trapped in the garage due to a frozen lock and had to rely on a friend to get to work for two days. Thank you Ron!

Our mail delivery was suspended. What happened to the motto "through sleet, through snow, through dark of night" or however it goes. I guess that doesn't apply to Spokane. So we got three deliveries in 13 days. Now it is better, we get it every other day.

In the meantime, poor Spokane is falling down around us. I think we have 28 buildings that have collapsed roofs as of today. Nobody seems to care. Have you heard one word on National news? NO! There seems to be only one side of Washington and it is over the Cascades to the west. In the mean time we are falling apart and have no place to put anymore snow. OK I have vented.

Needless to say we are all ready for the New Year 2009 and all it has to bring. Less snow, maybe. A new president that I will learn to accept in time (I really will try). Good health for all my family. And best of all Spring!!!!!

Whoops!

Unfortunately our vacation in September did not go as expected. I had problems connecting to the Internet so I could post and finally gave up.

All I can say is that we had fog, fire and long long long days of travel at 25 and 30 mph on very steep roads that mountain goats had built. The Redwoods were impressive and I am sure Crater Lake would have been beautiful if we could have gotten near enough to see it. We did however have a wonderful time at Wallowa Lake.

I rode a Tram up the side of a mountain, which I will not do ever again. Being afraid of heights, I don't know what made me ever think that was a good idea. I have ridden on lifts before, but they were more of a slope going up. This one seemed to be more vertical, very vertical. I was never so glad to reach the top and if I could have walked down, I probably would have done so. But, no I had one more venture to experience. The Tram got stuck so we were hanging over nothing. I realize it was only a few minutes, but it seemed like hours in my mind. I was smart enough to ride with my back to all the beauty that Wallowa had to behold. My husband truly appreciated it since I wasn't constantly yelling for him to be still! I would have kissed the ground when we got down, but I am too cool for that. From that point on the trip was great and we saw all that Oregon's east side has to offer.

I was glad to get home. Let's just say our next travel will be a while.