Exciting (?) Events in VC

At Kellie's urging, I have been investigating medical alert systems. Grandma seemed O.K. with the idea and I discussed options with her. My choice was Phillips LifeLine because it is the only one with the super "auto alert" which can sense a fall and will automatically contact the monitoring agency. That means that the person can be knocked unconscious, unable to push a button, and help will still be on its way. The device arrived on Friday, and we got her attached yesterday. BUT.....the reality was not nearly as agreeable for her as idea of it. I got a lot of frowns, sighs, and pursed lips during the process. The smile below is only because I forced her to do it for the camera.Maybe the smile will become less forced after she gets a few encouraging comments from her granddaughters.

And then there is the vacuum deal. When Grandma got a cleaning service, it seemed a good time to retire her 30 year old clunking vacuum. That became the perfect excuse for me to invest in the Dyson that I've been wanting. As luck would have it, I found the top super-sucker model on sale at Best Buy. It's truly wonderful. It will suck the paint right off of the wall. But.........it won't go under my beds, the dressers, or the coffee table. And my cats do. So, that meant that I had to keep my old vacuum for those special places. After a trip to WalMart. Grandma had a brand new vacuum for her house. That left me with my old vacuum, my little quickie vacuum that lives in the coat closet, the super-sucker and a carpet cleaner for upstairs maintenance.
There is another upright vacuum and a hand-vac for the downstairs. That seems to be a grand total of FIVE vacuums and one carpet cleaner. Yes, I DO recognize that this might be indicative of a certain personality "issue"!!!

End of another week ....

It was a relatively calm week, thank goodness. Bud and MaryAnn were here Tuesday night in order to get MaryAnn to the opthalmologist for an early a.m. appointment on Wednesday. She and Toby had a bonding moment while watching me cook. The eye thing is not going well for her, I'm afraid. She's on lots of medications trying to get a big infection conquored.Kyle the Handy-guy was here on Wednesday doing a bunch of kitchen related things. He took off the window frame and insulated the window so that I wouldn't have to put packing tape on it in the winter. He also re-calked around the cabinets, leveled the oven, glued a chair, and is making a divider for the cabinet where I keep my cookie sheets and assorted big stuff. LOVE that guy!A bunch of people from our graduating class got together for breakfast yesterday. I don't know why THEY are all getting so old!I've had some time to spend in Quilt World this week. My small quilt group is making 35 of these funny looking pincushion-scrap bags. Don't they look like something Grandma would have come up with? Not my idea, but I'm doing my best to be a team player. Only five more to make.I got a few more blocks made in my circles project. I'm not sure what the final product will be, but for now it's just circles-in-progress.Grandma has been feeling pretty good this week. We go back for the results of the cardio tests tomorrow. She's been enjoying the attention from her granddaughters. She's got SUCH good granddaughters!

This Week

After a far too eventful week, we finally got to the end of it. Grandma was feeling better than she had earlier, although I'm not sure why. I took her to get a pedicure.It seems that she can't see well enough to cut her toe nails and nipped her toe the last time. Well, you know I just don't do foot things, so a pedicure seemed the best option. She insisted on paying for it herself, and didn't like how much it cost. I may have to do foot things after all.

The week began well with my small quilt group coming for lunch on Tuesday. It was our Holiday Luncheon, but a bit late. I made Swedish Meatballs for the very first time and served them in my new blue casserole dish and we initiated my new tablecloth. They were yummy! (The meatballs) And....very easy.I'm not sure whether I ever told you all that we did finally close on the sale of Grandma's house. The money is in the bank, and I'm so very relieved. We can pay Grandma's rent for a long, long time. I also gave the boys' quilts to Jason and Julie. They loved them.

We go back to the cardiologist tomorrow for a stress test. Neither one of us is looking forward to that. More later..........

2012 -- Catching Up

I've been a lazy blogger of late. Time gets away from me -- because I am sooo lazy!-- and then catching up seems overwhelming. So, going back in time:

Mom and I went to Linda's for a post-Christmas luncheon.In addition to yummy chicken & noodles with mashed potatoes, Linda also made a very lovely apple pie -- from scratch!! Impressive.And then on January 2, we had visitors from the far north.Joe came with them this time. I was more than trepidatious after hearing Sandy's story of her much-in-love neice and boyfriend at Christmas. But Sam and Joe were a delight. What a nice guy she's got!We had a wonderful afternoon at the Zoo, taking Great Gram along in her wheelchair. The weather was great and we got to watch feeding time with the tigers. Cool!! Sam bought a stuffed otter for Shelby. Now, wasn't that nice? She named it 'Otto' and fell quite in love with it.Stella visited for a few minutes at the beginning and at the end. Next time I will make sure she stays the majority of the time at the local doggie resort. I can't take the guilt of having her in a crate in a dark garage. Clearly, she's much too elegant for that.We had a couple of games of Scrabble, which let Grandma join in on something that she felt good about. A nice multi-generational afternoon.All too soon, it was time for them to leave for a night at Linda's and then on to Chicago. The van was packed with Grandma's dresser in the back, T and Shelby in the front.Stella, Sam and Joe were cozy in the middle.And then to help with that post-visit at-loss feeling, I cleaned house and finished my table cloth.

Christmas Past

Inviting Bud and Mary for Christmas turned out to be a stroke of genius. We had an excellent week-end. We ate to much over and over, went to church a couple of times, watched basketball and some football, opened presents, played dominos and chatted. A great good time.Grandma was very excited about her presents. She had most of them all tidied up before I could get a photo, but I risked irritating her and spread a few of them out. I got lots of wonderful goodies too, including my requested bevy of Toad Houses."And Barbara replaced the casserole from Linda Campbell that I had to throw away because it had a chipped finish. Isn't this a lovely blue item!I did a close-up of the Toad Houses so that you could appreciate the variety. They are cute, pretty, elegant, classy and absolutely outrageous!Toby was a bit nervous about one of the Toad Houses. It seemed like it might just eat him up!But then he decided that if he just ignored it, maybe it would go away.And now on to the New Year!!

Santa & Such....

Santa has come to our house, and we're all very excited. Toby looked and looked to find a present with his name on it.But finally, he grew discouraged.And eventually just gave up in dispair.The little boys' quilts are finished. But certainly with NO thanks to those of you who saw this photo posted and failed to point out the backward 'e' to me.I finally realized the error, took out the block from the middle of the finished quilt top, remade the 'e' and sewed it back in ---- UPSIDE DOWN!!! So, I took it out once again and put it in once more. Here they are.Now, the joke will be when I find out that the baby has been born, and they have spelled the name 'Jaspar.'

She's O.K. Now - Photos & Story

Home from the Emergency Room with a pressure bandage in place:The wound:Shampooing out the blood at the beauty shop:Getting the 'do':After:THE STORY: On Wednesday afternoon, Grandma got into a fight with her car trunk. She still doesn't know what happened, but from the depth of the wound, it would appear that she was coming up out of the trunk with her groceries as the lid was coming down on her. She knew she'd been hit, but didn't know she was bleeding until she saw the big splats of blood on the sidewalk.
She tried to get the bleeding stopped for about an hour before she finally decided to call me. By the time I got there, she had a blood-soaked bath towel around her head, numerous other blood-soaked garments and towels strewn around the bathroom and, in general, blood ALL over the bathroom. It looked like a slasher movie had just wrapped.
I started to take her to the hospital but decided to call the EMT's first. I wasn't sure how much blood she had lost. I didn't want to take a chance on her passing out on the way. So, they came, got the bleeding stopped, for the most part, helped her into the car, and we went to my favorite E.R. Of course, all this time she was saying "I'm all right. No, it doesn't hurt particularly."
At the E.R. they cleaned out a very large and deep - to the bone - wound. They couldn't use staples because the edges were so damaged. So, numerous stitches later, I brought her home with a pressure bandage around her head.
After cleaning the bathroom, I got her some dinner, and left with a large load of laundry. Barb, the hair dresser, agreed to come in early this morning to get her hair washed out, trimmed and 'done.'
I dropped her off at the Senior Center so she wouldn't miss her card playing and lunch. She still says it doesn't really hurt at all.
I, on the other hand, am exhausted and think I may have to take to my bed for a while to recover from HER wound!