Mom update

Mom got her toes corrected with pins yesterday. We were at the hospital for 8 hours for a 1 1/2 hour surgery. She is home, but cannot put any weight on the foot for 10 days. That, my friends, is an impossibility at home. She slept in a recliner last night with the foot elevated and ice on it as we were instructed. The chair is one of those electric ones that will lift and help the person stand. We have a potty chair, thank goodness. I stayed with her last night and am home to sleep now while my brother is with her. She has pins sticking out of 3 toes. Yikes! It looks so painful, but she is a trooper and never complains. It is going to be a long 10 days!!!!

Spoke too soon!

Unfortunately, the tech yesterday only checked the movie channels and the reception on them was beautiful. I NEVER watch movie channels, so when I tried to watch local channels or Fox, the picture was terrible and dark. I called them back today and they are sending someone next week because I cannot be home to wait for them until Monday. At least, they are willing to try to make it right. I'm not complaining......but, do they not know that TEXAS plays tonight on a local channel??????!!!!! I will watch it in my bedroom on a TV with a good picture!!! It's going to be so cold that I will want to be under the covers anyway.

Revenge!!!

When my TV in the living room stopped working all by itself, I called tech support for the cable company. Basically, he reset the cable box over the phone and told me I had the TV set wrong is why it wouldn't work after that! I even believed him and thought I had just screwed something up pushing every button on the damn TV and remote. Quite possible for me to do that. I told him to send someone to my house and I didn't care if it would cost me. A very nice technician came today and spent an hour here trying to figure out what was wrong. Turned out it was a bad cable box!!! So there, Mr. Over the Phone Technician. I am not as dumb as both you and I thought! Of course, part of that time the tech was here we were just talking. He was a young guy who had just lost his father, so we had something in common....only his father was MY age! AND....he set up my box different and I have a much better picture and there will be NO CHARGE. I won!

TEXAS tomorrow!

Here's the plan!

Ok. It might not happen exactly this way. For one thing, there will not be a cat on the bed because I am highly allergic. If it is going to be 10 degrees outside, I will not be opening the door even to go get the paper. Oh, wait. I have to take my mom to the doctor and the beauty shop on Thursday and she has surgery on her foot on Friday. RATS! There goes my plan!

What!!!!

Where is Al Gore? He must be hiding under his substantial desk somewhere. Our weather guessers right here in North Louisiana have a low of 13 degrees forecast for Friday morning. What! They even say it is going to be colder here than it has been in years. That's OK with me, but where's Al?

Mom's foot surgery is scheduled for Friday, but her foot has been sore the last couple of days. If there is any infection, they cannot push a pin into her bones because it will push the infection right into the bone. We have to get her foot well!!!

Go tigers!

Welcome 2010!

Happy New Year!

I have been missing in action on this blog a few days, but I did get a visit from  these sweet things. We did see Avatar while they were here. They left early this morning and are already back in South Carolina. Today I finally went to see The Blind Side. Two movies in two days just has me wanting more and realizing that I have missed going to the movies and zoning out.

Ray Stevens - We The People - RayStevens.com

A child is born!

The baby that we were hoping would not come while he was at Christmas dinner at my brother's yesterday made his appearance this morning. Thank goodness he waited a few hours!

Today was a most lazy day until about 2 this afternoon when I started playing around with my new computer. Made my first movie with photos and music. It was fun to toy around with.

Tomorrow I plan to put everything Christmas in the attic for another year. I was a Scrooge this year and didn't have much out. It was just too cold in the attic to look for stuff, so I didn't!

Have been invited to a New Year's Day lunch, then the real partying starts with Mardi Gras. I don't expect to do much partying this year. I'll be afraid my daddy is "watching" me!!!:)

I survived!

Although there were a few bumps emotionally, I managed to get through my first Christmas ever without my dad. Today was much better than yesterday. We ate Christmas dinner at my brother's home with our same friends from  last night plus 3 extras.....an airman, his wife and little girl who are stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base with no family around. His wife just lost her mother in November, so it was a nice diversion for them as well. He is from Indiana and she is from Maine, so we were happy to have them. She is a few days from delivery of a boy, so we were glad today wasn't the day!!!

Failed milestone!

I wasn't able to hold it together yesterday. When I went to Mom's to take her to the candlelight service, she sat down and wrote my brother and me each a substantial check. They had already done this in August right after Dad was diagnosed with his brain tumor, so we were not expecting it again. She said Dad's favorite part of Christmas was being able to give us that much money and she wanted to do it just like he would have. Then last night at our friends' house, she gave it to us and told us it was from Dad. Then our friends gave us a picture frame with a picture of Dad in it from a previous Christmas. Well, actually we only got the frames, but they showed us on the computer the picture they had ordered to go in the frame. Instead of printing it themselves or having Wal Mart print it, they were having it printed somewhere else and it wasn't back yet. Hopefully, today won't be as hard.

Merry Christmas everyone!

One more party down last night. Tonight is church candlelight service and our usual get together with friends. We have always gone to my brother's lakehouse for our Christmas Eve gift exchange and meal, but tonight we are going to our friends' home so we won't feel the dramatic loss of Dad not being there.

Tomorrow we are switching things up as well. We always have Christmas dinner at Mom's and our friends join us there for Mom's chicken and dressing. This year, we are going to my brother's home and his wife is cooking duck dressing. Again, we hope to diffuse the pain of not having Dad with us. No matter how hard we try not to, we miss him terribly. I have tears just typing that!

Great Day!

When I went to check on Mom today, it was my plan to pick up the rest of the pecans. Stewart had already told her the crows ate them all, but I went to look for myself. Yes, there are hulls everywhere as evidence that the crows had a feast. Merry Christmas, crows!!!!

Then I moved on to another project, which was mulching leaves in the front yard. My brother had already cleaned the back yard before he went on vacation. It took me all morning, but it looked nice when I left. There are very few leaves left to fall, but they were flying when I left.

Home health sent a wheel chair to Mom's today because the wound care specialist told her to stay off her foot and she will need one after she has surgery on her foot. It will give us time to move things that are in the way and her time to get used to using it before her surgery.

I took my brother a box of Kansas City steaks , a honey baked ham from Heavenly Hams, and I made them a box of pralines. They don't need anything, but I wanted to do something for them. They are so good about taking care of Mom and checking on her several times a day. Of course, she is his mom, too, but lots of men wouldn't do as good as he does about looking after his mother.

Full day!

My sister-in-law brought mom to the doctor's office this morning and I met her there. She saw the physician's assistant and we already have surgery scheduled for January 8th. He wanted a wound care specialist to look at it and make sure all the infection was getting gone. He said they could not put pins through any infection because it would just push the infection into the bone. We sure don't want that. It took us ALL day to do those things. I have been home about 20 minutes...made a grilled cheese before I passed out from hunger. I have a lot of things I need to do, but I don't want to do a damn thing!!!

Holy Moly!

Because I am at the computer and too lazy to get up and turn off the TV, I am "listening" to a preacher on TV that sounds like he is dying and gasping for breath! Not sure how much more of it I can take!

It's been a busy weekend with work on the Mardi Gras float and trying to finish making candy and buying Christmas presents. Almost finished......CRAP....That preacher made me get up and turn him off! I would have to leave if I was in that service!

Tomorrow we take Mom to the Physician's Assistant and get an evaluation of her foot. It is still doing pretty well after the foot doctor got all that infection out of it, but she is trying to stay off of it like he told her. He even sent a home health nurse down to change the dressing on Saturday. I don't think she was expecting that.

I tried to take advantage of some warmer weather yesterday and clean up the frozen plants in the yard. Now I have them piled everywhere. I guess I will go get Dad's truck and haul them to a burning pile down at the home place. We need to run his truck, but we haven't been doing it.

100's gather to protest global warming!

Crappy doodle day!

Actually, it's just the weather that is crappy doodle! At 3 P.M. I thought it was 6 because it has been so dark all day. Today our lunch bunch had our last lunch together before Christmas, so everyone came bearing gifts...mostly edibles! Yep, that works for me.

 My brother had dropped Mom off at my house while I was gone to lunch so I could take her to the podiatrist. That man took the callous off and lots of puss drained from her toe. He didn't even deaden it. When my cousin did that a couple of weeks ago, he at least deadened it first. No wonder she doesn't like that foot doctor. I don't like him either and I never even met him. He could have not hurt her so bad.

Tonight we were supposed to go see "The Blind Side", but my friend crapped out on me. I was glad. All I want to do is sit by the fire and drink a warm cozy beverage!

Semi-productive day!

Checked on Mom today and made her an appointment with an orthopedic physician's assistant because we can't get in to the doctor until after the new year. The assistant can evaluate and determine what needs to be done and get the ball rolling. Something has to be done with her foot.Her cousin is an orthopedic surgeon, but he doesn't do feet. He referred her to a surgeon here in Minden. He doesn't want her to let a foot doctor cut on her. He said he would rather read up on what to do and do it himself than let a foot doctor do it. I guess he doesn't trust foot doctors!!

Also, had to call her insurance company because Dad's gap insurance was paid up for a year and she just paid it in April. They owe her a refund. It's kind of ironic that I am having to make all these phone calls since I hate, hate, hate to make phone calls.

Started making my usual pralines and fudge. Thank goodness I had one box already prepared and boxed because my neighbor came over bearing gifts and I was able to hand him one right back. Whew!

Mardi Gras preparations have begun. Worked on the float last night. I will not be riding in the Gemini parade this year. It's just too long and grueling. I was so exhausted last year and when we left the grounds where our cars were parked, we had to pass right by where a fireman had fallen from his truck. That fireman died this weekend. Such a tragedy!