As most of you already know, my dad had a stroke a couple months ago and had to go into a nursing home. In that time frame, this nursing home has gotten his meds and diet so messed up, that he has become too violent now for them to handle.
They have kept him heavily sedated this weekend and in the morning they are sending him back to the VA hospital with the recommendation that they transfer him onto a St Louis mental VA hospital.
We are hoping that once he is back in the VA hospital, that his doctors that he has had for 30 years now will know what to do and get his meds and diet lined out again.
In the time he has been in the nursing home, there have only been 3 times that his sugar levels ever tested good. He is diabetic and his sugar levels hang around 500 there. That's high enough for a diabetic coma.
My step mother is so worried and its almost more than she can deal with. She works full time, goes straight from work to see dad, and then home to bed. Day in and day out. She is so heart broken, something has to change.
If they end up sending him onto St Louis, its a 2 1/2 hour drive one way for her. Dad would be all alone and would not understand why.
There are so many things that have happened to him in there, its just too scary to even think about. He needs to be out of there for good. I just want him to go to where ever they can help him the best.
She needs the strength to deal with all of this and peace to cope.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Daphne has had a rough day...
it rained and her cushion got wet...she told us all about it...
she has to be soaked...
and then the sun is in her eyes...but she could sleep in spite of all of that...
until confused Georgie started in again...
he is trying to get in the wrong door...
goofy cat...
today's craft time...
my "Surprise!" gift pot...
the "You're Awesome!" gift pot...
both filled with fun and sucker flowers...
then I worked on more Christmas hang tags...
I think I'm done with these for awhile...maybe I should start on Easter...
and then one of the frames had a small scratch on it...so I kept one for myself...
I love butterfly collections...
I found an old one in the attic of the house we lived in when I was a kid...
it was a mess...
so I took the glass off and took out the old bugs...
turned the matting over and grabbed my dad's big fishing net and hit the fields...
it was in my room for years...long gone now...
but I still remember...
my "new" old chair...
we started this area many years ago for our mothers...long gone, now...
and instead of decorating a grave that they would never come back to see...
I wanted to start an area that we will never use, but where they can sit and watch us...
when they come to check on us from time to time...both of them loved flowers and gardening...they both had very green thumbs...
I wonder which one will get the chair first...I wonder if angels wrestle...
if they do...our moms would be wrestling for this chair...
and now this year, Steve's dad will be joining them...
we used to call this the Mothers' Garden...
but now its the Parent's Garden...
and when my dad passes...
we will add another "new" old chair...
In Memory of Catherine, Patty, and Harold...
forever in our hearts...
Sunday, May 30, 2010
A MESSAGE
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward (1844-1911)
Was there ever message sweeter
Than that one from Malvern Hill,
From a grim old fellow,-you remember?
Dying in the dark at Malvern Hill.
With his rough face turned a little,
On, a heap of scarlet sand,
They found him, just within the thicket,
With a picture in his hand,
With a stained and crumpled picture
Of a woman's aged face;
Yet there seemed to leap a wild entreaty,
Young and living-tender-from the face
When they flashed the lantern on it,
Gilding all the purple shade,
And stooped to raise him softly,
That's my mother, sir," he said.
"Tell her"-but he wandered, slipping
Into tangled words and cries,
Something about Mac and Hooker,
Something dropping through the cries
About the kitten by the fire,
And mother's cranberry-pies; and there
The words fell, and an utter
Silence brooded in the air.
just as he was drifting from them,
Out into the dark, alone
(Poor old mother, waiting for your message,
Waiting with the kitten, all alone!),
Through the hush his voice broke, Tell her
Thank you, Doctor-when you can,
Tell her that I kissed her picture,
And wished I'd been a better man."
Ah, I wonder if the red feet
Of departed battle-hours
May not leave for us their searching
Message from those distant hours.
Sisters, daughters, mothers, think you,
Would your heroes now or then,
Dying, kiss your pictured faces,
Wishing they'd been better men?
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward (1844-1911)
Was there ever message sweeter
Than that one from Malvern Hill,
From a grim old fellow,-you remember?
Dying in the dark at Malvern Hill.
With his rough face turned a little,
On, a heap of scarlet sand,
They found him, just within the thicket,
With a picture in his hand,
With a stained and crumpled picture
Of a woman's aged face;
Yet there seemed to leap a wild entreaty,
Young and living-tender-from the face
When they flashed the lantern on it,
Gilding all the purple shade,
And stooped to raise him softly,
That's my mother, sir," he said.
"Tell her"-but he wandered, slipping
Into tangled words and cries,
Something about Mac and Hooker,
Something dropping through the cries
About the kitten by the fire,
And mother's cranberry-pies; and there
The words fell, and an utter
Silence brooded in the air.
just as he was drifting from them,
Out into the dark, alone
(Poor old mother, waiting for your message,
Waiting with the kitten, all alone!),
Through the hush his voice broke, Tell her
Thank you, Doctor-when you can,
Tell her that I kissed her picture,
And wished I'd been a better man."
Ah, I wonder if the red feet
Of departed battle-hours
May not leave for us their searching
Message from those distant hours.
Sisters, daughters, mothers, think you,
Would your heroes now or then,
Dying, kiss your pictured faces,
Wishing they'd been better men?
the indy race is on...work has halted...
so here are a few photos around the yard...
this rose just keeps on blooming...
a corner of the glass house...
more on this later...
the iris were dead headed this morning...
another view of the field...
the very north edge of the yard...
bicycle basket...
the pink tiger lilies are blooming now...
and of course the bean green progress report...not big enough for blooms yet...
A trip to the cemetery...
Steve's grandparents and parents...gone but never forgotten...
his mom and dad...Harold and Catherine...
his grandparents...Bill and Lucile...
they are side by side...
Saturday, May 29, 2010
this afternoon...
I got everything printed off and began...
and I love the colors...
I am not a red person and the typical red and green of Christmas isn't my favorite thing...
I like all colors...and my favorite glass ornaments on our tree are chocolate brown...
I would really like to have a job designing and picking colors for wrapping paper and bows...
but there's a good chance that no one else would see things the way I do...
and I would be out of a job lickety split...
in the meadow we can build a snowman...
what's a girl to do?...
made two to-do lists...
both are done...
so its either make another one...
or play on the computer...
and remember...someone is sick and sleeping...
so can't really vacuum or any gourmet cooking...
nothing that goes vvrroooommmm or bbbuuuzzzzzzz...
even though I think his snoring would drowned out the food processor...
and with the Halloween tags done and all...
its time to start on Christmas...
how do you get in the Christmas spirit on Memorial Day weekend, you ask...
turn up the ac, grab a sweater, and sing walking in a winter wonderland...softly...
over and over...
remember someone is sleeping...
now that that song will be stuck in your head for the whole weekend...
and we have 90 degree temps out there today...
you can thank me later...
hopefully the thought of snow butt deep will keep you cool when the dog takes out the picnic table...
later girls...
the weekend's works in progress...
large veggie cans make great elevated stands for anything...and soon they will begin to rust out...
more bloomers waiting to stretch their roots in the dirt...hopefully, they will find a permanent home...
the north fire pit is cleaned out...
and Craig moved the wood ring behind it from the other side of the yard...
he needs to cut up the rest of the wood for it to fit in here...
last night about 9...Craig and I were sitting in the yard and I had a thought...
moved the wagon in to here...
the tin cans need new strings to hang down from the top...
still thinking on this area...
he switched this chair with the brown one...need something here...still more thinking...there could be something in the shed...
the bird bath needs scrubbed today and filled...
filling all the holes in the blocks with dirt...
and then planting in them...
this area is almost done?...right...I have to tweak...but its good for now...
can't wait till these fill in and bloom again...
whatever kind of weekend you choose to do...
rest or work...
I hope you do it well...