One of many visits to the nursing home

The second day I was there we headed to the nursing home to see our mother.  It was too late the first day once we got back to town from the airport. 

So I wondered if my mother would remember me because much can happen in five years, especially for one who’s losing her mind.  We were lucky enough to persuade my youngest brother to meet us there for a few minutes, so Mama was about to be very surprised with four of her seven kids visiting her.

 Part of the family.  Standing from left: me, my youngest brother, Alden, two of my sisters, Bonni and Tedo.  My mother is seated.

When we arrived she was in therapy.  The nurses helped her with her walker as they saw us all standing there waiting for her.  She had a big smile on her face as she looked at us.  At first she thought that I was Tedo, but then realized with Tedo asking her “who’s your oldest daughter?”  Her smile got bigger and she came over and hugged me tight.  I was as happy as she was.  She remembered me the rest of the time I was there.  We went to see her almost every day and stayed a good part of the day and sometimes into the evening.  We did take her out twice for family gatherings, Mother’s Day and the family barbecue mentioned earlier.  More on that later.

                                                         This is the facility dining room

The nursing home my mother is in is a very small one with lots of help and they’re all so nice.  The kitchen help came out to talk to us, as well as the administrator and the housekeepers and, of course, the nurses in each hall.  There are three wings in the building, but it’s only about fifty eight beds.  The place is very clean.  And Mama has made friends there and seems to like it very much.  There were a few times, of course, that she wanted to go with us as we were getting ready to leave.  That was expected, but she has a very nice room with family photos on the wall.  And she’s by a window where my sisters placed a bird feeder outside, so she can watch the birds if she wants to.

                                                       This is the wing Mama's room is on.

 This is my mother's bedroom

Most of the time is spent in the dining room though where they hold some of the activities and the social time.  A TV is there also for anyone wanting to watch television.  There’s a separate room for activities in the facility as well.  It includes a small library for all the readers and a hair salon.

It seems Mama is a wiz at bingo and has all the stuffed animals; they hand out as gifts to the winners, on a small bookshelf in her room.

 Here are Mama's bingo prizes

The place is very nice and not like any nursing home any of you are thinking of.  I’m grateful for that.

I’m back!

Sorry to have neglected this blog so long.  I was away visiting family out of state and am back home now.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to post before this because I had to recuperate.  (You don’t know my family).  It’s always non-stop action with no schedule, which I love, but such things can wear you out.  I was living out of a suitcase, until my sister suggested I just take things around in a shopping bag when I changed sibling’s houses.  This worked out very well, but she’s a lot smarter about this type of thing, plus she has an endless supply of cute, reusable shopping bags in all sizes.

When I got home I went to bed and slept fifteen hours.  I was exhausted and since then I’m back at work almost every day.

 This is my sweet mother

The object of my visit was to see family and my mother who is now in a nursing home.  She suffers from dementia.  I couldn’t put off my trip any longer.  It had been almost five years and a lot can happen in that span of time.  But I was prepared for the worst of scenarios when my mother saw me.  Of course she didn’t recognize me at first.  I look a lot like one of my sisters who is her caretaker.  But she did remember me after a few minutes.  She had a big smile and gave me a big hug.  Bless her heart.  She didn’t have trouble remembering me the rest of the trip.  It was very hard to kiss her on the cheek and tell her goodbye when I knew I was flying home the next day.

I think I was able to visit almost everyone during that fast two weeks.  I even got to meet my new great niece who was celebrating her first birthday party in style with a good old fashioned Texas barbecue.  No one can make barbecue like Texans.  My brother in law (and the birthday girl’s grandfather) stayed up all night cooking brisket, sausage, pork and chicken on the pit.  Naturally, there were baked beans and country potatoes and lots of other trimmings, not to mention all the homemade desserts.  Somehow I came back from that trip weighing the same amount as when I left, thank goodness.

I’ll write more about some of my visit soon.  I took 455 pictures and we had many adventures.  Of course a lot of talking and laughter happened all the time.  There’s no better medicine than that.

A winter getaway to southern California was perfect

Clip Art - I couldn't resist posting this because palm trees are EVERYWHERE!

Okay, I know there are different places all over this country that some people prefer over other places, for whatever reason.  That’s great because as humans we’re all different and that makes life so much more interesting.

But tell me where you can get 78-80 degree temperatures with the doors open in January, unless it’s maybe Hawaii?  I love this place.

I lived in southern California for twenty-five years before moving to the desert nine-and-a-half years ago.  It’s such a nice place that I wonder why I ever moved, even though I know the answer to that.  There’s a lot of traffic there and lots of illegal’s, as well as other facts, things like higher expenses for about everything.  Nevertheless, it will always be one of my favorite places.  I would still be living there now probably if it weren’t for my husband’s pushing to move.

Naturally, this trip came at the perfect time because it’s been so cold here.  We’ve been setting records.  I was more than ready to get away to that California sunshine.  Don’t get me wrong because it is sunny much of the time here, just way too cold.

 The famous Beverly Hills sign.  This has been here forever.

We visited friends in Beverly Hills first.  It was fun to see the old Beverly Hills sign again.  It brought back old memories from my first time there when I was sixteen.  My grandmother lived there at the time.  I swore to myself back then that I was moving to California one day and I eventually did many years later, via a detour of two other states first.

The Hollywood sign was too far away to capture with my camera, but it was there on the hill gleaming white in the sun.

I did capture this Christmas decoration on Wilshire Blvd.

 Mall we visited on Santa Monica Blvd.  They had trees and flowers spread out everywhere.

 

 This is a shot of the mall from the second floor.  They had coffee shops and lots of outdoor seating areas with fire pits.

Our next stop was north San Diego County where we used to live.  We stayed with a friend there and visited other friends the rest of the trip.  Of course, we had to drive by the old neighborhoods and hangouts too.  Some things have changed, but many are the same.

 This is the new hospital from my friend's house.

I was able to get a few pics from the hill our friend lives on.  She has a view of the big new hospital they’ve built and the surrounding hills.  And of course, we loved her adorable animals, a dog and three cats.  We felt right at home and all the cats eventually warmed up to us.  The little one was very friendly and played his heart out until he would collapse on the floor to catch his breath.  He’s only eight-months-old and a male Ragdoll.  We wanted to smuggle him home, ha!

This is Fiero, the Ragdoll kitten

 This is Domani (it means tomorrow in Italian)

 This is Garage Key - a rescued stray

This is Bubba

Naturally, we ate Mexican food and let our hair down drinking wine while watching football playoffs.  But that was a lot better than politics that’s usually always on at my house.  The wine drinking ended up in my friend breaking her toe on a chair leg one night.  It was no big deal to her.  She told us it’s happened before.  Ouch!  I’m not sure how she got up early to attend a seminar the entire next day.  Once home, she went out to water plants on the hill behind her house afterwards, and then we went to eat out.  Her toe was black and blue, but she said she was okay.  I guess she’s stronger than I am.

We had so much fun laughing and talking.  I hated to see the trip end.  I also didn’t get to see all my friends this time, so I phoned them instead.  I promised my husband I wouldn’t write the schedule as tight as I did when we visited there last May.  I wore him out running around.  However, he’s usually ready to quit by nine PM and I’m the night owl.

This is me and my friend, Kara.  We met for breakfast.

This is Scott - my husband's old business partner

 Of course, we looked at property in different places and saw some open houses to get an idea if moving back there is even in our price range anymore.

The worst part of the whole trip was the six-and-a-half hours through miles and miles of desert.  That’s not to say the white-knuckle time driving through LA isn’t nerve racking and a close second.  But it keeps you on your toes.  When the scenery is boring, that’s when I tend to fall asleep.  There’s nothing to see but sand, Joshua trees, and sagebrush.  If we do move that way again, my husband is not crazy about me driving because when we were moving here, I ran over curbs and off the road and didn’t even know it.  I guess we’ll have to stop more often for coffee next time.

This is what much of the six-and-a-half-hour drive looks like.

The next trip will be to Texas to check that out.  It’s not as if I don’t know what that’s like, but he wants to be at least an hour from my family because all of us talk too much.  We’ll need to check prices there on many things and see how affordable that is.  I’m not sure yet when this trip will happen.  Actually the sooner the better because it makes me anxious not knowing where we’re going and what size house we’ll end up in.  That might make getting rid of things easier.

So at the moment that’s our two options, southern California or south Texas.