Showing posts with label Grandparents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grandparents. Show all posts

Saturday, February 20, 2010

One more day...

Last night I had a crazy dream
A wish was granted just for me
It could be for anything
I didn't ask for money
Or a mansion in Malibu
I simply wished, for one more day with you
One more day
One more time
One more sunset, maybe I'd be satisfied
But then again
I know what it would do
Leave me wishing still, for one more day with you
 

 
Tomorrow marks 2 yrs since my Grandma passed away.. It's so hard to believe its been 2 yrs since I last told her I loved you, felt her soft skin, kissed her sweet cheek, touched her soft hair..  Its in understatement to say this woman is missed.. Dearly.. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her, and wish I could sit in her living room with her again, watch her hug my kids, or give me a hug. Share another story with her, watch her do a little dance, smile at me.. I try to keep the memory of her alive, share stories about her with my kids, remember things about her.  I remember the night she passed away, and I was sitting on the couch with Jeff, in a complete fog, trying to make sense of everything.. I just kept crying, and rubbing my hands, saying I never wanted to forget her touch.  I always told her I loved her soft hands, we all did.. I miss her dearly... we all do...


This picture brings a smile to my face.  To tell my kids that Grandma had passed, was a really hard thing to do.  Aleena had seen her the night before she passed, and was so upset that things didn't seem to be doing good.  When I told her that Grandma didn't make it through the night, she ran upstairs crying, and came back down with this picture, saying she had drawn it for Grandma, to make her feel better.  I broke down, again. We put this in the casket with my Grandma, and the lady at the funeral home was kind enough to scan it and email it to me. It's now framed, in a collage of pictures in our entry way.
 
What Is a Grandma?



A grandma is warm hugs and sweet memories. She remembers all of your accomplishments and forgets all of your mistakes. She is someone you can tell your secrets and worries to, and she hopes and prays that all your dreams come true. She always loves you, no matter what. She can see past temper tantrums and bad moods, and makes it clear that they don't affect how precious you are to her. She is an encouraging word and a tender touch. She is full of proud smiles. She is the one person in the world who loves you with all her heart, who remembers the child you were and cherishes the person you've become. ~Barbara Cage~


Be sure to check out my Business Blog
http://www.southerngalsboutique.blogspot.com/

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Christmas 2003 photos!!

I, like most of you I'm sure, am WAY behind on ordering copies of my images!!!  Since the day I got my digital camera, I've been in picture heaven.. taking them that is!  Now getting copies, that's another story!! I've made it my goal to order pictures every week, in hopes to get caught up.. so how far back did I have to go to start... Dec 2003!  As I order pictures I'll post a few here to share with you guys.. :-)

My niece Emma.. niece Che and great niece Chelynn








Daddy with his great granddaughter Chelynn!

Mom and Dad








Aleena and Joey making Xmas cookies.. not sure where Peyton was then??



Be sure to check out my Business Blog
www.SouthernGalsBoutique.Blogspot.com

Friday, May 29, 2009

Phew... getting a chance to breathe!!

Hopefully this will be the 1st of several posts over this weekend.. I have a lot to talk about, and a lot of pictures to share. Life has just been crazy around here and I'm not having much time to sit at the PC here lately.
Jeffs dad went back to the hospital last week. His therapist came to visit him and his BP was really low, something like 91/63 or something?? Considering his pressure is usually really high it was quite scary to hear such low numbers. We called 911 for him, and shortly after getting there it came back in normal range. He has been diagnosed with pneumonia again, were assuming from aspirating his liquids again. he was up for 3 days straight this time and talking nonsense again. We had a neurologist come in since this happened the last time he was there as well, he said its really common with people his age (he's 80) to become sleep deprived in the hospital and start hallucinating. so after 3 sleeping pills in one night he finally fell asleep for about 24 hrs and has been fine since. :-) They transferred him to Rehab again the other day, so hopefully he'll be home and doing well again soon.
Tomorrow Aleena and Peyton are playing in a soccer tournament, so I have 6 soccer games to watch! :-) And if they win there division I'll have games on Sunday for them, and Jeff has one Sunday as well. I have a lot to update on all of us, so hopefully I'll be able to dedicate a blog post to each of us and get you up to speed soon. :-)
Until then, here are a few pictures that were taken on Mothers Day.




Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Part 1 of weekend getaway

I know it’s been forever since I’ve done an update. I have a lot of things to talk about; but little time to type it all out! This past weekend Jeff and I took the kids and my mom to San Antonio for a weekend away. We were off to a rocky start on Friday, but things turned around and it turned out to be a decent time. The weather was gorgeous, and the kids were great.

On Friday I picked up our rental van and shortly after getting it loaded up we were on the road. We left around 10:30, loaded up with snacks and drinks. We ran into several traffic jams on our way down there, but managed to check into our hotel around 4. We ATTEMPTED to check into our hotel I should say. Check in was at 3, but they didn’t have a room ready for me yet. This is my 1st of a few complaints on this hotel. Usually we stay somewhere along The River Walk; but our favorite hotel was booked solid and everything else required we either get 2 rooms, or it was just grossly overpriced due to spring break week. So we opted to stay just on the outside of down town.
The kids all comfy in the van; Aleena showing off her cool mask from Quizno's.
After checking in we loaded up and made our way to the River Walk. Because we usually stay on the River Walk we weren’t sure where the best place to park was on the main streets, to get us down in a good spot on the River Walk. We of course picked a bad spot, and it put us on a spot of the River that made us walk over a mile to get to the fun part of the River.
The River Walk when we came down the stairs. And a mama duck and her babies we spotted on the walk
We were hungry and craving Mexican Food. There’s a Restaurant down there that we’ve always gone to, that we love! We never remember the name of it, just know it when we see it. Jeff decided to call ahead and try and find the name (didn’t realize that, just thought he really remembered the name), and was told that it was The Original Mexican Restaurant that we were referring too. So Jeff was on a mission to find it. Let’s just say this is NOT the place we frequent, I realized it as soon as we walked in, but didn’t care at this point, the kids were hungry. $100 later we walked out disappointed. The Salsa looked to be nothing more than tomato paste with some Jalapenos tossed in, the rice was so dry and bland, the iced tea was very sweet but watered down. My enchiladas weren’t bad, mom hated her quesadillas and Joey’s Gringo Burger was raw. That with extremely poor service (waited 15 minutes for a refill etc.. ).. and a hostess with a rotten attitude that wouldn’t even make eye contact with someone. So this place is for sure on my DO NOT GO TO AGAIN list.
All of us before dinner.. We look happy here!! LOL ;-)
After eating there we made our way to an ice cream shop and Aleena and Peyton enjoyed an ice cream cone. I think the rest of us were feeling sick from our “dinner”. LOL.

Then we went to do the boat tour. My mom wasn’t sure she wanted to do this at first, she doesn’t know how to swim and doesn’t like being out in the water. After some coaxing from the kids she finally decided to do it. We had to wait in line for about an hour to do the tour! While waiting in line with Jeff and Peyton we witnessed something that just made me sick, and my stomach in knots. A man just across the river in front of us collapsed on the sidewalk. I witnessed him going into convulsions, and within a minute or two everyone was on their knees around him and doing CPR. He was with several people, appeared to be his wife, grand kid and maybe a few of his kids, if I had to guess he was in his early mid 60’s. His wife was hysterical, sobbing while hugging what appeared to be a grandson, who was also crying. He looked to be about 10 or so. After a minute or so they started to get a large crowd around them and hotel staff was outside on the phone etc trying to call for help. About 15 minutes later the Paramedics showed up, all the while the family is taking turns performing CPR, and the paramedics hooked him up to oxygen, and continued CPR. We on the other side of the River were all in shock and felt hopeless, watching what was going on. Peyton just kept saying “That poor kid”.. talking about the grandson. I’m not sure if the man survived or not, but it was a scary 25 minutes or so for us watching it, and seeing what the family was going through. I remembered being there watching them revive my Grandma, it sucks…. No other way to describe it. A few minutes after they left it was time for us to get on the boat. The kids enjoyed the tour, as well as my mom. Jeff and I have done it many times, but we always learn something new about the history of San Antonio or the River Walk every time we go.
Jeff and Peyton cheesing it up for the camera and the view of the river walk across the street, these were before we saw the poor guy across the river. :-(
After this we went into a few shops and browsed around and headed back to our hotel. Exhausted and ready to sit down.. We took showers, got changed and lounged on the beds for awhile before crashing. Unfortunately since our hotel sat right off of the Highway, and our windows faced the Highway, mom and I didn’t get much sleep. Jeff can sleep through anything, just like the kids. But we got to hear semis barreling past, sirens flying by, horn honking etc. Oh, and I guess I should mention that just on the other side of that HWY was a train track!! Guess what went through every 1.5 hrs, blowing it’s horn and chugging on by?... Yeah.. just something else to keep us up. Oh and between that we got the lovely sound of Aleena coughing through the night! LOL..

I told Jeff on Saturday night that we were even.. I picked a bad hotel, and he picked bad dinner..

OK; this turned into a longer post then I thought it would. I’ll post another update tomorrow with more details and pictures..

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Boy oh Boy...

When you send your loved ones to a place to be taken care of, you are entrusting them with everything, and hopeful they will do so to the best of their ability. Yesterday was a very frustrating day for me when visiting Daddy.

After going to Daddy’s room and realizing he wasn’t there, the CNA walking down the hall informed me he was in the ice cream social… I said “What, he’s not supposed to be having ice cream! He’s on a Nectar Thick Diet”.. She looked at me dumbfounded to which I explained to her that ice cream melts, turns to pure liquid when running down his throat… so she led me to him and she took the ice cream away.

Daddy told her he was having some chest pains, she said she’d get the nurse to wait there. After approx. 5 minutes I wheeled him to the nurses’ station where I waited for a few minutes before I believe it was the Liaison standing there that asked me how she could help me. I told her that Daddy was having chest pains and I needed him checked out, she went to his nurse, who was on the phone and said as soon as you get off of the phone and get that fax taken care of, will you check on Mr. Rogers, he’s having chest pains. I waited another 5 minutes, with Daddy doubled over in pain, short of breath, and telling me that it felt like his heart was pumping it’s last amount of blood, I asked the nurse how much longer she’d be, and she said she was checking over his medicine list. I said I didn’t care about a medicine list, he doesn’t have nitro, to come over and check his BP, listen to him something! After another minute of watching him in pain I went to an office just on the other side of the nurses’ station and found the head nurse and the Liaison talking. I said I needed someone to check him out ASAP, at this point it had been almost 15 minutes since our first complaint of chest pains.. finally someone came to check his vitals, they got him a BP med, pain pill for chest pain, and some Mylanta… I went to the Therapy Room and found the Rehab MGR and explained my issues to her, and she walked me back to the nurses’ station and communicated with the head nurse the things that have just taken place.

Which brings me to my next issue. He’s on a Nectar Thick Diet, he aspirates thin liquids, he’s already got pneumonia likely due to aspirating liquids. He was given water thin Mylanta. After he started feeling better, it was dinner time. Upon his arrival to the dining table they brought daddy a bowl of soup, with water then broth in it, and crackers ( he can’t have crunchy items, on a manual soft diet)! I brought it to the soup station and showed him his ticket where there is a big NT, for Nectar Thick.. to show them he was not supposed to have thin liquids. After waiting 10 minutes and still no new soup I approached the same gentlemen and asked him if they had thickener there to thicken the broth, so he could have some soup, and after he discussed it with some other guy they went to the kitchen and returned with a pureed bowl of soup for him to eat. According to Daddy he’s even had Salads with dressings? And according to the list we received from the last location, salads were not allowed? No raw vegetables, dressings (too thin) etc??

His BP was a little high yesterday during all of this, so I pray that he was just having horrible indigestion and that was causing the discomfort, and pain can make your BP rise. Jeff is going up there soon to visit with him. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.


Friday, February 20, 2009

Missing you dearly...

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of my Grandma's death.. 1 yr ago tonight is the last time I seen her alive. I miss her more then words can express..

Here is a link to my blog I posted the day she passed away..

http://mommyrogers.blogspot.com/2008/02/shes-in-better-place.html
The date posted on here is the 22nd, but I posted it after midnight on the 21st... I still get a knot in my stomach and tear up thinking of it.. so that's all..
Here's my favorite picture of her..





Monday, February 02, 2009

How much more can he handle??

We've always known that my Father In Law AKA Daddy was an insomniac. Daddy will go to bed at 10 and wake up at 1 in the AM. We've tried sleeping pills, but either they only work for a short time or they put him in a dangerous coma like state. Well, Daddy has gone above and beyond that. Daddy has literally been awake since sometime on Saturday. Yeah, today is MONDAY!!! I spent the night with him last night not sure what I was in for. I found out in the middle of the night last night that he was up all night the night before as well!! We weren't aware of that yesterday, we just knew that we were having our hands full with his disorientation. You guys, its not pretty. Its so tough watching this big teddy bear of a man that is so full of jokes and funny, in a different state of mind right now.

They are really certain that it's the medicines that are still in his system making him like this. Like I said, I spent the night with him last night.. And we had a party all night! I got ZERO amount of sleep, this man had me on my feet all night long. He's going through so many hallucinations. Here are some examples of his wild imagination... There was a showroom pig walking on his wall, there were pancakes all over his room and he was mad I wouldn't give them to him, his ceiling is covered in ants, he was in his wheelchair sitting in the bank drive thru line mad that they wouldn't give him $100 calling the teller an idiot, he was asking for cigarettes then had a conversation about how they weren't good for him so never mind he didn't want them.. He even went so far as to try to coerce the newscaster on the early morning show to grab ahold of his hand and help him up out of bed. He said "Young man, please just help me up, they are treating me like a prisoner and you need to help me up so I can go home, Don't worry about her sitting over there she won't hurt you I promise, just help me up..".. Then turned to me and said "There are you happy, you done went and scared him off!!"... *sigh*.. These are just the beginning of what its been like. There are dozens of other stories.

I know that it's harder for older people to come off of anesthesia, and deal with pain meds.. He's 80, I get that.. But really?? Surgery was Thursday, he hasn't had any narcotics since yesterday AM. Can he really continue with no sleep? I ended up having to have the hospital send a "sitter" in with him so I could come home this afternoon and sleep! Bridget is up there right now and he just came out of an angry phase, which I seen several times last night. He was cussing, he doesn't do that!!! He was throwing all of his pillows and blankets on the floor and yelling because no one would help him.. The DR had just walked in the room a few minutes ago when I was talking to mom, so it'll be interesting to see what he has to say...

Thank you for all of your prayers, I really appreciate them. Claudia, thank you for actually picking up the phone and calling me, your voice mail was so very sweet.. I appreciate it.. When you called we were in the middle of a "crisis" so I couldn't answer my phone.. Daddy had just finished going through an episode.. He thought he was eating candy, and after a few minutes of pretending he started to choke, and it was scary. He couldn't get air, and all of the nurses rushed in and we rushed out crying. After contemplating ICU they decided he was likely OK, but is on a liquid diet again. So your sweet voicemail was heard at the right time..



Monday, January 12, 2009

Stressed out Day..

I had to deal with so many phone calls today...

1st Joey.. On Thursday I got a phone call from the school to come pick him up; that he needed to be seen ASAP due to an asthma attack. Took him in, got put on antiobiotics, steroids etc.. Also found out from the CT Scan that he's only got one sinus passage?? Maybe that explains his chronic sinusitis? He's got to see an ENT in a few weeks to find out what we can do.. he's still not doing great, but has exams this week, so we can't afford for him not to be there.. He's better then last week, just not good... So I had to talk to his nurse a few times...

Then.. we noticed that Peyton's eyes now cross with his glasses on.. He curled up into a ball last night so upset about it... I had to schedule him an appt with his eye DR..

Then daddy.. I had to take him to the DR on Friday, we found out that he's got a hernia in his groin.. Well today, my sister Johann (THANK YOU JOHANN), took him to the general surgeon..WE found out that he not only has ONE hernia.. but 2.. One on each side of his groin.. AND his bowels are going down in his hernia.. He's at risk of having blood flow completely cut off to his bowels, so has to have surgery asap to fix it.. SO Jeff is taking him to his cardiologist Wed afternoon to get clearance from him.. He has to have 2 seperate surgeries due to where they are at. the DR said if they did them both at once, he'd not be able to walk for a few months. So he'll get one repaired now, and the other 4-6 wks out. My concern is that he has a hard time getting out of the chairs now... how is he going to do it after they rebuild his muscle walls in his groin and has stitches?? SO off I am to research some used power chairs.. He doesn't qualify through medicare because they've already gotten him a wheelchair! *sigh*...

My head hurts.. I feel like I'm going to explode.. really...

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Christmas Post.. Better late then never??

We had a busy, but VERY fun and relaxing Xmas weekend! I had to work Xmas eve and as soon as I got off we went over to Jeff's Brother Marks house. Mark had to work Xmas day so it worked out great for us to all get together on Xmas Eve. The weather was great and the boys tossed the football around outside for awhile. We then enjoyed a nice ham dinner, exchanged gifts, had some fun and laughs and came home to get ready for Santa. This post will include lots of pictures over that weekend!


My proof to Daddy on who ate all of the white trash I brought! :-) My niece Cheyenne

My Great Niece Chelynn

Niece Shiloh

My niece Che getting tackled Aleena, her daughter Chelynn and Sister Shiloh

My Nephew Blake taking a nap; guess its hard work getting older? His bday is on Christmas. :-)

Jeff's Brother Mark


Then we came home to get ready for Santa. The kids made up some cookies, we tracked Santa on NORAD, and I got busy wrapping gifts. One thing we forgot to do this year was read "Twas the Night before Christmas". It's something we started doing about 3-4 yrs ago; and we were so rushed when we got home I forgot. :-( I put trace the kids handprints each year so we can see how they grow as well (Thanks Donna for that idea)...

Here are the kids tracking Santa

Then we woke up Xmas Morning and opened our gifts..

Santa's cookies, milk and letter left behind.


Our gifts under the tree

our stockings and Santa Gift











LOL Don't we look so happy so early in the Morning!





After opening our gifts we went to my Sister Melanies house for Breakfast and a gift exchange between my family. I forgot to bring my camera so I'm bumming some pictures from Melanie
:-)
Melanie and my niece Lacie
Niece Lacie and Nephew Austin
Yeah I'm a dork; those are soccer cones on my ears..

My Brother in Law Michael and Jeff Showing there Xmas Spirit for there teams...

After having breakfast at Melanie's we exchanged gifts and hung out for a bit.. She was trying to get lunch ready for Michaels family, my mom, sister and cousin and her family. So we left and came home. We lounged around for hours playing games with the kids, waiting for my mom and sister to come here for dinner. It wasn't quite the same, but it is what it is! I am used to having a big meal on Xmas with lots of family... Anyways.. then we spent the weekend playing games, ALL weekend.. Battleship, Bingo, Xbox, Chinese Checkers etc. I think on Friday I stayed in my PJ's ALL day! That felt great....
More posts to come soon...