July 27th - Aug 10 - Catching Up

Whoa… I have been a bit remiss on keeping up the blog. Life just seems to get in the way. We have not posted since before the lake so we better do some catch-up.

Mom is doing well, had a perm this week but is not that happy with it. It doesn’t seem quite as nice as her previous perms at Charbonneau and in Othello. Pat took her to Costco this last weekend and they picked up needed supplies for her room - chocolate clusters and beer. The Cerrillo group came in masse last week and Mom talked about it for days.
We took her to St. Peters for Mass this Sunday and for the first time she said this church seemed like a ‘Catholic’ Church. I don’t know what it is about Barb’s and our churches, but they just don’t seem to be ‘Catholic’ enough for Mom.  After church we had lunch with her and then Bill and Jennie came in to spend the afternoon. I talked with her the next day about how blessed she is with so much family…and she sure knows it.

On Monday Kirsten arranged to show a movie in their ‘theater’ and while I didn’t really plan on staying for it… it was an old John Wayne movie 'North To Alaska,' and I ended up staying for almost the whole thing. They show movies in a smaller room with a huge screen and make homemade popcorn. It was really quite nice!

They have finished adjusting her wheelchair to better fit her and she continues her restorative therapy. Restorative therapy is ongoing and there is no added cost. Its purpose is to increase or at least maintain her quality of life. Mom has voiced her desire to be able to just get into bed to take a nap and get up on her own. We did ask about a pole by her bed – as she had at Charbonneau. Riverview is not able to install those because of structural reasons, but regardless, they said because of safety issues Grandma is not ready to transfer without an assist person at this time. They will continue to do what they can to help her be as mobile as she can… That’s all for now. I will try and go back to entering more frequent shorter entries…

July 26th - Ice Cream at Barbs

Grandma continues to seem to be so calm and so appreciative/happy. The day before yesterday I took her out for a ride and we picked up ice cream cones for Izzie and Claire... we just parked in the driveway and opened up the door...she drank her milkshake down to the very, very last drop and the girls, Barb and I sat on the grass in the shade. Quite simple, but so nice. (When we returned, Greg was lifting her out of the car and she had the longest fluff that was quite odorous... and she said, "Oh, I just can't help that... so sorry, Greg." And then to me: "Well, so much for that new car smell, Lyn.." I think maybe we need to enter her into one of those comedian contests!.