Busy week ahead!

My brother looks in on Mom several times a day and I do once a day, but tomorrow he leaves for a little much needed R&R. I will be checking on her more frequently although I don't live as close as he does, so it requires more effort for me. We have some local guys on her call list to come pick her up if she falls. Her foot needs attention again, so I will be taking her to Bossier tomorrow morning to let doc look at it. On Tuesday she has another appointment, so I will take her to that as well.

I'm thinking of taking a little R&R trip soon. Not sure where I will go. I have two friends who want me to go to D.C. in AUGUST to Glenn Beck's march on Washington. I am just not up for that. It's too HOT in August and it's too far to walk to the Lincoln Memorial. My back won't hold up long anymore. Even working in my own yard requires me to sit down a few minutes pretty regularly. I love Glenn Beck, but not enough to get in that crowd and sweat and hurt!

FAIL!

Since I have a new computer, I thought  I would test out my skills and try to make a copy  of the DVD of my dad's funeral. It said it burned it, but when I put it in the DVD on my TV, I got an error message. When I play it off my hard drive where I saved it, it has no sound! CRAP! I need some skillz! By the way, I like to have never figured out how to get the dang TV off the DVD mode. I need some skillz! I played the original again on my new computer and sat here and cried like a baby once again! My dad was a wonderful man and now I am second guessing myself wondering if he knew
how wonderful I thought he was! I don't think  he did!

Mission accomplished!

My brother called me last night and told me Mom's foot was hurting her again. She had not told me anything about it. He spoke with our cousin, the urologist who worked on her foot last time, and the doc wants to see her in his office on Monday. My brother will be in Branson, so I will be taking her to see him Monday.

I worked on Dad's berry plants today. He has a whole row of different types of berries and they really needed to be tied up. I did that and mowed all around them. Dad would be proud. He wanted that done before he died, but we just didn't get to it. His little stool that he sat on while working on his berries was still up there because that is where he did his last bit of work in the garden. I tried to move it right after he died, but I couldn't. Today I moved it because I needed to mow there. I know he is smiling down on me right now. He loved his berries.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, we did it! We had Thanksgiving at my home just like we did last year, but without our daddy. We missed him a lot. I talked to Mom last night about missing him and she said she missed him, but she was glad he was not there at home yesterday. Mom had a big water bill and she doesn't use much water, so we knew she had a leak somewhere. Dad was such a worrier that he would have obsessed over the bill and the leak. My brother called someone to come see about it and he found a leak under the house and fixed it for $60. It had gotten so soggy under there that some of the doors in the house were sticking from the house sinking. It's not on a slab and was built when I was 4 years old, so it's old. It will dry out and we will fix the doors for her.

We also talked about what to do with Dad's clothes. I guess that will be our next task, but we must do it. Every little thing will be HARD!

O NO!

I lost my program that held all my addresses that I use to print out labels and my backup program can't seem to find it either. Good thing I printed all my addresses out before switching computers!! I even keep the database for my now defunct high school for our reunions.Crap! That's a lot of data that I have to retype. Fortunately, I was able to re-load the program that I am used to on to my new computer. That's a shocker since I now have Windows 7 and the program was old.

Today was my 67th birthday, my first ever without my daddy. I thought about him all day....well, between all the coughs. All I have done was visit  my mom and lie down all day. There was a lot of stuff that I needed to do because I am hosting my family on Thanksgiving....well, all 4 of us! Tomorrow I am going to lunch with my mom and sister-in-law and some of their church friends, so maybe I can get something done after that. At least, I will be forced to get dressed.

New learning curve!

My new Dell desktop has been all set up and now I have a lot to learn...not the least of which is dealing with a smaller keyboard! WTH! I bought the Cadillac desktop...$1100 worth and it came with a crappy little keyboard. Everything else about it ROCKS though...24 " flat HD monitor and Bose speakers. My computer guru already has me listening to pandora.com, an awesome internet radio sight.

Yet another birthday dinner

My cousin took me to Ernest's Orleans restaurant tonight for my birthday. It was my first time at this restaurant and I must admit it was awesome. Just one complaint....they need parking lot redo!!!

• White zinfandel
• Marinated crab claws
  
• Snapper Ernest ( filet of red snapper, broiled with lump crab meat, lemon butter and white wine)
• Good company
  

Promise kept

When  my 61 year old brother was born, Mom and Dad hired someone to clean house once a week. This same lady did that until about 3 years ago when her health began to fail at age 87. She is now in a nursing home in Shreveport. None of us had seen her since her children moved her to this facility. Her son came to Dad's funeral and we promised him that we were going to see his mother. Today we fulfilled that promise. She was expecting us and was very happy to see us. We were so glad we went. Her mind is still good, but her body has failed her. We took her a box of candy and visited with her a short while. It was a good day!

Also, today I had the duty of picking up the death certificates from the funeral home. Who knew we would need 10 death certificates!!!! Turns out every single account or name change requires a death certificate. I guess we can meet with the lawyer now and get Dad's name off everything and get Mom's name on everything. Her name is already on most everything, but there are still a lot of things that must be done.

My idea of decorating!

 

My house would be the one on the right!

Read it and weep!

Now it's Mom!

Took Mom back to the doctor at 8:30 this morning because her infected foot was not better and still hurting bad enough for her to take pain meds....that's bad because she does NOT take pain meds ever. He wanted to put her in the hospital for IV meds, but she really didn't want that. She got another shot. As my brother was having lunch with our cousin, a urologist, he was telling our cousin about Mom's foot. Urologist cousin wanted to see her foot, so I went and got her and brought her back to my town to see him. He operated on it and told her it would get well now that he had relieved the pressure by removing a callous. She feels better already, but, of course, her foot is still dead from the surgery. I got her back home and on her bed with her foot elevated. I believe she will get well now!! It's wonderful having doctors in the family...even if he is a urologist. I told him he could add foot surgeon to his resume' now!!

Big reminder today!

I spent a good part of this day mulching the leaves at Mom's. Each year (if it wasn't too cold), Dad would sit outside in a chair and watch me do this. Every once in a while he would get up and go rake a few leaves from a fence line or from under a tree so I could run over them with the mower. Today his chair was there, but he wasn't. I guess some day I will stop blogging about this, but right now I just can't.

Still a wreck!

I couldn't stop crying yesterday. Everything made me think of my dad, especially lunch at my brother's house. It was so sad to have Dad's seat empty and it made me miss him so much. Not a day goes by that I don't shed a few tears. I guess emotions will be on the surface for a while. Today was better. I was at Mom's early and found out that her home health nurse had told her this morning that she needed the doctor to look at her foot. Looks like an infection has set in and she is a diabetic who has lots of trouble with her feet. She will see the doc tomorrow morning. I picked up some more pecans and then took 70 pounds to be cracked. Looks like lots of them were no good inside, but Mom will pick out the good ones.

"nuf said! What a bunch of MORONS!

My diversion!

Today, I went out with friends and it was a wonderfully, delicious diversion. Four of us visited the grand opening of a new apartment and retail center called The Villagio. It's all upscale and very nice. We then went to the Boardwalk in Bossier City and sat on the patio of Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro and drank margaritas and ate 4 different appetizers. It was great relaxation for me and a great way to focus on something new for a change. Didn't even get to Mom's today, but she was glad I was able to focus on something else and be with my friends. She is a saint and I love her so much. She told one of my friends that she had the two best children in the world. AWWWWW!

One hurdle passed!

Last night my family went to Dad's favorite catfish restaurant. That's where "his girlfriend" is a waitress. It was hard! She was happy to see us, but sad that we chose a table for 4. Dad always paid for our meal and was delighted to do so. Last night Mom was going to continue that tradition because she said Dad would want her to. Last night the owners of the restaurant comped our meal in honor of our dad. They miss him, too!

Life goes on....

I commandeered my neighbor's yard crew and got them to do my yard just this once. Being totally committed to my dad for the last month got me way behind on things at my own home. The yard is something I do myself because I am kind of anal about it being perfect, but today I just needed help. My house is almost clean as well.

I got yet another beautiful bromeliad today with two blooms from a friend who just found out about my dad. It is beautiful and means so much to me. My garage is full of flowers that I have to find a place for, but never fear, I will. The debt on the new building at my dad's church is being reduced daily with memorial donations. They built the building for 1 million dollars and had a 300,000 down payment. Their debt is down to $50,000 in about 3 years. AMAZING!

Going, going, gone....

 I was very impressed that every last one of my first cousins from both sides of my family came to my dad's funeral. Even one from Virginia and one from Florida. Also, a dear friend came from South Carolina and another couple of dear friends from my old home town of Orange, Texas. My friends ROCK! They have helped me get through this and that includes my online friends that I haven't even met face to face and my Facebook friends, who have shown me so much affection with their notes of condolence to me. Four of my Thursday lunch friends were there as well and I didn't even know it until they sent me emails after the service. Those who were unable to come have sent flowers and memorials to my dad's church. I am very blessed with awesome friends.

I have already taken my ambien, so it could kick it before I finish this post. At least, I hope it kicks in sometime. Ambien is not as successful at making me sleep as I had hoped. Last night I tried xanax and that didn't work so well either. Tonight I am already stressing because it was last Wednesday night at 11:45 that I got the call that daddy was gone...only 3 hours after I had left him just knowing I had seen him alive for the last time. I miss him so much.

Perfect goodbye to Daddy...

We laid my dad to rest yesterday in a beautiful little cemetery down in the country with my mom's family. Since he helped start the volunteer fire department in his little town and my brother is currently the fire chief, a fire truck led the processional to the cemetery. As we passed the local post office, we saw that the American flag was flying at half mast in honor of my dad. That was a very moving sight. The service was absolutely perfect. I would not have changed one thing or one word that my high school friend and neighbor said about my dad or one thing his minister said. Both of them spoke so eloquently and I had made a CD over a year ago of Larry Gatlin singing,"In the Garden" which was played during the service. That song always makes me think of Dad.Dad had told me a few weeks ago what song he wanted sung at his funeral and who he wanted to sing it. It was exactly as he had requested. I have brought my dad's ambien home with me and tonight I am hoping for some deep sleep.