Still 2014

More information than I originally thought I had so I will continue with 2014.

We went to Oahu as a family in January to celebrate Polina and Michael’s upcoming graduations. It was amazing! We stayed in a condo in a resort called Ko Olina. Our family had never stayed there and they were all thrilled. The condo was very nice, everyone had a bedroom and bathroom to themselves. The kitchen was amazing...kind of spoiled me for future trips.We had a week with them and then they left but Kevin and I went to Molokai for the first time ever.

 Here’s a view from the North shore

 Ko Olina lagoon in front of our condo. Jasper and Polina got up early every morning and either ran or swam in the lagoon. Then they walked over to another hotel to get a Starbucks :)

Another North Shore pic.

Here are a few shots of Molokai...a weird but cool island. Not much going on there. We golfed on this crap golf course and had fun...did some eerie hikes in some forests higher up. Drove this VERY narrow road around the North side of the island. It was more fun than I thought. Kevin fished and loved it! He’s been back almost every year since then. I went back once...

A big thing happened in March that we were all so excited about...Polina became a US citizen! After many years of jumping through all the right hoops, she took the citizenship oath and it became official. So proud of her!!

Keeping these posts a little shorter so they are more manageable on the iPad

Method for catching up...2014

I decided I can’t really recap the last 6 years very well. So I’m going to go year by year and add some photos to try to just get the highlights. Each post will be a year in my life so to speak starting with 2014. There is a lot I won’t get to because I wont have pictures or notes to draw from but I will do the best I can and that’s better than not doing it at all!

2014 started off with a bang. My mom broke her hip Christmas Eve (2013) at Jeri’s house. She was in her room at the time and turned around to get something, fell and couldn’t get up. Jeff called an ambulance. Mom was in surgery that same night. Unfortunately, she woke up confused and never really was the same mentally. But we didn’t know that was going to happen.
She had been declining for years but had always been able to feed herself, walk, get dressed, etc. I flew down to help Jeri with the aftermath and to find her a rehab facility where she would get the help she needed to start walking as soon as possible. She grew stronger in body but not in mind. She couldn’t learn to use the walker. This was a huge shock! I just thought it would take a little time but it never got better. Soon we came to the realization that we would need to find a care center for her.
Jeri and I looked for several days and finally found a place we both felt comfortable with. I went back to Boise and Jeri moved her into the group home. She soon realized that mom wouldn’t stay in her   wheelchair and was falling, It was awful. The care facility very quickly became short with us and was not very kind to mom.
Besides that, mom wasn’t being looked after closely enough. Jeri was looking for a new place for her but got really sick herself and trying to work full time besides. It was a very stressful situation. Jeri would have done anything for mom but couldn’t have her at home.
I decided to try to take care of mom myself  and if I couldn’t end up doing it, I would find a place for her near me. It was a horrible flight and I still can’t really believe I did it. When I got her off the plane, she was limp as a noodle and practically falling out of her wheelchair. The looks I got as I took her through the lobby were the least of my worries.
My intention was to try to straighten out her meds and get her as optimized as I could. I kept her at home and hired home aid to come help me. Mom had periods of cooperation, humor, and even was able to communicate and feed herself at times but I had to return to work (took a month off to do this) and was relying on home helpers to pick up the slack. Eventually I realized I couldn’t do it even with help. Mom wasn’t really improving and I knew it was beyond me. I began the arduous process of trying to find a place that would take a memory care Medicaid patient in a wheelchair...very difficult! Eventually I found a group home that would allow a seat belt on the wheelchair (against the rules). They worked with me on many things that others turned me down on. I will always be grateful to them! They were so accommodating and I never had a concern that they weren’t treating Mom well.

This is mom in her wheelchair in her new room.

She was very upset at first but I went there everyday for a little while gradually decreasing that to once a week. I couldn’t handle anymore than that which I carry a lot of guilt over.
There was a park near the house that I would take her to. Jeri and Annette came to visit often and that helped a lot!
Bob  also drove over from Malad to see Mom and Richard called sometimes to talk to her. Mike called her as well.

 Mom had some good days and some bad. Eventually she was bed bound and really couldn’t move around much. She declined rapidly after that.
 So this whole situation took much of my time in 2014. I basically worked, went to see mom, and fit the other parts of my life around that. We did get to the cabin of course and did some trips. More on 2014 in another post. I never really put all this down before because I thought it was remembering mom in the worst way but it was part of my life and hers. I have been trying to remember her the way she was as a whole person so I didn’t want to dwell on this but everyone will face something similar if they live long enough I guess.

 Mom passed away in September of 2015 and would have lived much longer without the Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia that robbed her of her twilight  years. We had some good moments though while she was declining and even some good laughs while she was in the group home. I don’t have a picture but I remember Annette, Natalie, Britney, and Heather came on her birthday. We all sat around the group home table  and sang to mom. She loved it.

Life is fleeting and one never knows what they will face later on. So I try to remember to cherish my family and friends, be glad for my time and my health. Be glad for the health of my loved ones. Mom would have wanted it that way.

Christmas 2013

Well, it's been almost a year since I updated this blog. I'm surprised that I can still log on! I really am glad I wrote all the past posts because I wasn't on Facebook back then and blogs were a pretty good way to stay in touch. I like looking back to those posts.
I am not super active on Facebook either but it is nice to go to other people's pages and see photos. I have an iPad now...birthday present from the family, so I guess I'm officially part of the tech crowd now.
This past year has been a good one. Major events:
Trip to Oahu with Chelsie, Michael, Teresa, and Lainey...so great! We enjoyed being together, cooking in the condo, going to Hanauma bay and the swap meet, even swam with dolphins!

 
 Mom Martin was with us from May-July. We had a 3-day a week care provider come and help. Mom liked her. She went to Annette's in August and just now is heading down to Jeri's.

The Big event was when Polina's family came from Russia to see her graduate from PA school! They spent time with us at the cabin and I will always cherish that time with them!

 
Polina and Jasper on graduation day!





Polinka and Alexander in Yellowstone.

We went to Yellowstone, wade lake, a little boating on island park reservoir, and to the graduation in Pocatello.
Fall was beautiful this year, very warm, very colorful! We finished our porch over the summer and really enjoyed our evenings out there in the fall.
Winter has descended with a vengeance though! No porch time right now:(
Kathy came to visit us this past week and brought her precious little baby girl Genevieve! We had a wonderful time catching up, shopping, getting pedicures, and playing with the baby. I hated to see her go home but real life must always win.

The ladies brunch was another success this year! We made table center pieces with real greenery and flowers, they all turned out beautifully. This is a picture of the family members we had at the Ladies Brunch.

Christmas was here with our family. So lucky to have each of them in Boise and a huge part of our lives!

What's up with this blog page?

2012 was a challenging year for me and I decided that posting on this blog was something I could give up for a while. Nothing bad happened to me or anything but I have been struggling with my own time management. 

We had mom Martin with us until the end of November and I was trying to manage her medications, doctors visits, home care, my work, trips we took to the cabin, the holidays...before I knew it, it was the end of the year and I am shaking my head as to where all the time went. But it did go. That's the funny thing about time. It doesn't care if you are too busy to notice it.

I took mom to Yellowstone one day in September just to look at the fall colors and have a little picnic. She loved it. This is just before we closed up the cabin for the winter.

I also got to go down to Salt Lake to attend Kathy’s baby shower! She is expecting a little girl in January 2013 and I am so excited for her and Topher! They have been longing for a child for years now.

I guess a Christmas letter would have been good, just to sum up the year. I got a few of those through email this year and I think that's a good idea. This blog is kind of meant to keep track of all my comings and goings, activities, etc. But when you leave off for several months, it's hard to catch it up.

I will figure it out for the next post. But for now, I hope 2013 will be a good year for us as a family. I've kind of given up on it being a good year for the country. All I can do is the best I can for my very small circle of family and friends. Not to be "Debbie Downer" or anything...but it helps to just draw my focus in a little bit and try to concentrate on what I can control. See you in the next post!

July/August

 Well, it's been a while. I will try to recap the following month or so for you. Near the end of July, we headed up to the cabin around Kevin's birthday. We went golfing on his birthday (his only present). But he doesn't mind that. He would rather do something like that than get a present any day.

He also did some pruning of lower branches off the trees near the cabin and we burned them in the fire pit that Michael and his friends made for us. It worked out really well to have that fire pit so close by. The weather was so nice, just right for outdoor working and playing.

 I picked some wild flowers and put them in these little vases that I have at the cabin. Love those little vases!

Here's the cat in a bag...totally random but I thought he looked cute :)

 While I was up at the cabin, I painted a picture of the old Paradise, Utah house that my grandfather grew up in (it was sold after he grew up) and that my grandfather and grandmother purchased back later in their retirement years. They remodeled it and lived there for ten or so years during my teenage years. I had promised my grandmother a painting of it if I could get it right...This is my attempt! My grandmother is pictured at the moment she opened the package containing the painting.

I think it turned out ok:) I'm glad I got it done for her. She's 98 this year and I really didn't want to make her wait too long for it!

August is a working month for me. No real extra time off except for weekends. We've been golfing a few times though and working on the house here. We are going to be building a deck off the back of the house with a covered patio. That way, I can hang mosquito netting all around it and put in some nice patio furniture! I will take pictures of it as it progresses.

We also have a spare bedroom that the cat has taken over. I can't do anything with it until we move some of the furniture out but I want to get a murphy bed in there...the kind that has a table attached underneath so that when you fold it up, the table can then be folded down and you have a work space. The cat won't be able to get up on the bed and we can use the space more efficiently.

Family reunion in Bryce canyon

I've been really bad at this blog but I gotta at least get some pictures in here from our trip to Bryce canyon at the end of June...so beautiful there! We flew in to St George and then rented a car for the drive. It was just four days but really filled with lots of fun and family.

This is Kevin in front of an arch that you can't see because of his arm...


 Ok, here's the arch...

 Kevin and I at another overlook...there were several stops along a tour that we took through the canyon.

 Heather and Annette on our horse ride through Red Rock Canyon...another beautiful spot. Heather was so excited...had been looking forward to the ride for at least a year. She did awesome!

 This is Jeri, Heather, me, and Annette before the ride. We were in a lodge near the mouth of the canyon called Ruby's Inn...a great place to stay.

Summer is going by so fast...already July. We will be heading up to the cabin again soon and I can't wait.

Thoughts on my Mom and my son

Ok, not gonna fulfill my two posts a month rule this time...just too wrung out. I am getting by just fine but anything extra right now is just too much. Mom is here and it's going well. She is comfortable and the girl we hired to spend time with her and help her is a real life saver. But it's a change of pace that I am adjusting to and I think it will take more time before I can really be back to normal. It's been really good having her here though...just a chance to be of service to her and to take care of her. I would not have this opportunity if she wasn't in need of support.

Jasper's 30th birthday is next week....his THIRTIETH!  Wow. I am not that old. Really. 

I'm so proud of him..such a good son and husband. "Proud" really doesn't even describe my feelings. I don't tell him enough how much his calm, reasonable, and reassuring outlook helps me and I am so grateful for him in my life. I can't imagine life without him and his beautiful, caring wife. They are just the world to me.

Well, back to the evening and my getting organized for the day tomorrow. Peace out (as Jasper says).

Last day of April

Well, I posted on the first day of April so I better post on the last to make sure I keep faith with my New Year's Resolution...remember??? Way back in January, we all vowed to do something this year to make our lives "mo' better, lah dat" (Hawaiian pigeon English). So mine was to post twice a month. January (ironically enough) was the only month so far that I haven't done it..(or was it February?) Anyway, this month has gone by way too fast and I am at a loss as to where it all went.

I vaguely remember looking for a cleaning person to come in twice a month to help us with the upkeep of our sprawling mansion (1600 sq ft). Found one on Craig's list. She ripped us off (small theft). Called the police. End of that story line. We now have a new cleaning person, recommended by a co-worker of mine who's house she has cleaned for years...she came and did a fantastic job! I tell you what, I used to clean houses and I appreciate the effort and detail that went into this latest person's work. I came home and just had to text her right then...so nice! What a luxury.

Next thing I know, we were finishing up with the rental...several weekends in a row got the bathroom redone...looks great! The house is ready to go now!!! Yeah! No pics, what a slacker! (me)...Kevin was the hero here...if it wasn't for his persistent effort, we would still be looking at a leaking toilet and sink, a scarred up wood floor, and countless smaller details that went into cleaning up the rental. Way to go Kevin! We just need to find the right renter now.

On a serious note, my friend Sheri from work, became worse with her Leukemia. No more treatments. She was able to visit with friends and put her affairs in order before succumbing to her illness a few days ago. I am glad I went over a few times to bring cheer and food. She was a very social person right up to the last. May she forever rest in Peace. I will miss her greatly. It makes me think about my life, of course, and how relationships are all any of us has that lasts in any one's memories. Your accomplishments may be great but the real thing is how people remember how you made them feel. Jewel had a song a while ago and my favorite line is "In the end, only kindness matters..." That's so true and I try to remember it always. I fall short many times but Sheri was that kind of person. She set a great example for the people who knew her.

We took a quick trip to the cabin with Chelsie and Michael over the weekend and loved every minute of it. The weather was cold but that can have it's charms.  We did some work but not too crazy...mostly relaxed. It was so fun to get away with "the Kids" as we call them even though they are adults. They made it really enjoyable.

That about covers April. May brings my mom to live with us, at least for a little while. We might be taking her to Malad to stay towards the end of the month. I hired a nice college girl who is on summer break. She is going to come over once a day while I'm at work to help mom with things and break up the day for her. I hope it all works out. I guess we will cross various bridges as we get to them.

Post out.

March is coming to a close already...

I just had six days off in a row and boy do I feel relaxed! So nice to just be able to get things done without worrying about getting off work in time to run here or go to that appointment. I got my teeth cleaned (a filling needs to be replaced), got some work done on the rupulsive rental, got my moles checked, met a friend for lunch, met mom-in-law another day for lunch, took Chelsie lunch at work, (lots of lunches)...

I also started trying to find a elder care person to help out when my mom comes to stay with us in May. I put an ad on Craig's List and got a lot of good responses. A couple of these ladies seem particularly good and I will start interviewing shortly. I hope to have it all set before she gets here so that we can get her familiar with the person.

Starting early on the yellowjacket traps to catch the queens this week...priorities you know. Already caught two! I won't put a picture up because it's gross...just take my word for it.

Also, watching the grandkitties for the week since Jasper and Polina are on a cruise! Yeah! They both needed a break. Mafia has totally ignored us since the cats came. He only has eyes for them. Sometimes they play a little rough and end up hissing at each other but for the most part, they are good buddies.

Pretty tame stuff but it's my life!

Whoa March!

Already the 11th and I haven't put any thoughts down here! Wow, time flies.

After our trip to Hawaii, we got back to a routine around here, working, eating, watching  A-MER-ican idol, sleeping, working, eating, watching A-MER-ican idol...well you get the picture. We are all caught up (thank you TIVO) and are going to run into the snag of having to wait a whole week before getting another hit.

Good news is that boring Ben, (the bachelor on this season's The Bachelor) is almost done choosing his pretend fiance' so they can be pretend engaged for three months before breaking up. And the new season of The Bachelorette will start :) The "bachelor blogs" have torn this season up because Ben is SUCH a dweeb...pretty funny stuff to read. That's pretty much the only reason I still watch this mind-numbing dribble. Gotta know what happens on the show in order to get the jokes on the blogs.

I'm also reading a new Anne Rice novel (of Interview With a Vampire fame) about a werewolf...I know...another werewolf story. But this is pretty good. It's called The Wolf Gift. I'm enjoying the unsettled weather because then I don't feel too guilty just hanging out reading and watching tv. I have worked a lot of overtime lately too because it's been busy at work and less staff right now.

Jasper is traveling for work these last two weeks...Japan, Taiwan, and India. He called me this morning from India and it sounded like he was next door...amazing! Polina is in the thick of it at school like usual. We went for a walk yesterday by the river to give her a break from the books.

Chelsie is tearing it up at work, giving presentations, teaching the new software that the whole hospital is switching over to in the next few months, and working tons of overtime. She's loving the new responsibilities but is tired. Michael is also making inroads at his new job. He's had to navigate some pretty tricky politics already in his small office. Why is there ALWAYS politics at work? I guess because we are all just people. Michael has been asked for advice by his boss and others since he's "the only neutral person" in the office! That's a fine line to stay on but so far he's managing it.

Kevin is in the middle of a couple of weeks where visitors from Italy and Singapor will be here. Lots of meetings and showing these people around Boise, eating dinners with them, etc. So busy time for him too.

Well, I''m done for now...got a post in...yes!