Grammie's memory

Grammie is losing her memory fairly quickly. It is quite hard to watch because she honestly is forgetting people that she sees often. She can't recall Dad's name and doesn't know he is her son. Her title for him? He is AJ's neighbor that comes and smells her flowers. (He always smells whatever flowers she has on the table.) She was asking AJ one weekend who I belonged to. AJ told her Scott and there was no recognition. Then she said that I was Maritza's sister. That brought recognition. I belonged to the neighbor who comes and smells her flowers.
Grammie does have a better memory at night which is weird. She'll remember all sorts of things and can even give me answers to the crossword puzzle. I had told Dad this, but he got to see it firsthand. On Saturday, he went down to be with Grammie and Pa. Grammie looked at Dad and said, "Jane thinks she's Blanche, but we both know better." Dad thought it was hysterical. After awhile Grammie looked at him and said, "Are you waiting to talk to Father?" Dad said, "In my mind I thought, Yeah Grammie, I've been waiting in the queue for an hour and 1/2 to talk to Pa."

Grandma Fran

She passed away this morning after a courageous bout of lung cancer. She kept her humor to the very end. I am blessed to have known her for the past 4 years. During the past month, I have spent hours sitting with her and swapping stories. This past Sunday, I had the privilege of going to the Festival of Trees with Grandma, Michelle, and Jack. We had a fantastic time and Grandma loved seeing the trees that were being donated to the different ministries for kids. On Monday night, I stopped by to see her and I was going to leave early. I asked her if she wanted me to go or stay and she said that she always enjoyed my company and I was more than welcome to stay. So, stay I did and I'm so grateful. Tuesday night we were conversing and she said she needed a seamstress. I asked what she needed and she said her pajama pants needed some elastic because she couldn't work the drawstring. I told her I would come with a measuring tape the next day to figure it out. Yesterday, I arrived and she was sitting in her chair and she had fuzzy, white gloves on. When I asked what the gloves were for she said, "To keep my hands warm of course!" I said, "That's a good reason. I thought maybe they were something technical." We laughed over that. I told her of my plans to get a cheesecake from the cheesecake factory for Michelle's birthday. She thought it was a good idea and I told her it could be from her. She said, "That's a lie and I don't tell lies." Her friend Jan was there and said that she would still go to heaven even if we told Michelle that. Then I said we could tell Michelle it was Grandma's idea and she liked that. Right before dinner came, we heard a knock on the door. Michelle told them to come in. A man came in the doorway and kneeled down. Then we heard a loud sound and a rip. Then there was another loud sound and a rip. He had applied 2 pieces of duct tape on the floor in the doorway. I immediately turned to Grandma and Michelle and said that we were going to have a contest. Whoever guessed what the tape was for would win a piece of baklava. Grandma Fran immediately spoke up. "It's to keep the bed bugs out. They've sprayed it with DDT and that will kill them." Michelle suggested a barrier to keep the patients in and I said a barrier to keep the nurses out. Then Grandma said, "Well, it doesn't work to well as a sound barrier." (There was a very noisy patient across the hall.)
I am so blessed to have known Grandma Fran and to have spent so much time with her. She will be greatly missed.

Tears, Jokes, and Laughter

I went down to Grammie and Pa's today after work. I was so tired it's amazing I didn't fall asleep reading Harry Potter. When I finished, I took a nap while AJ got Grammie up. Then, AJ and I went over to the market place to get Greek food for dinner. After Pa, AJ, and I had eaten I went down to say good bye to Grammie.
I said, "Good bye. I'm going home and going to bed."
Grammie said, "Good bye. You need to go home. AJ will take care of you when we're no longer able to." At first I thought she thought I still lived with them, but then she started to get teary eyed and I realized she meant when her and Pa had died.
I said, "You've done a good job taking care of me."
"That's a nice compliment." Then she said, "Where's my little elephant?"
We had forgotten to give her animals back after she got up. I gave them back and was getting a little teary eyed myself. My nose started to run and I told her it was her fault.
Her reply was, "You give me Monk and I make your nose run."
She apologized for getting teary eyed and crying, but I told her not to worry.
To lighten the mood a little I decided to tell her a joke. I knew how much she loved the blonde jokes, so I told her about the blonde getting fired from the M & M factory for throwing out all the "W's." Grammie laughed so hard. Then, I started laughing because she couldn't stop. AJ came into the kitchen and wanted to hear the end, so I retold it. AJ stood there with a look on her face that said she clearly didn't get the joke. Grammie was still laughing as I explained to AJ that an upside down M is a W. She still didn't get it which made Grammie and me laugh even harder. Finally, after lots of explaining to AJ and telling Grammie that AJ was still thinking did she get it. Grammie's reaction? "That's choice!" I told 2 more blonde jokes and then I stopped because I was afraid Grammie would hurt herself from laughing so hard. AJ said that Grammie might be up all night thinking about the jokes. I'm so glad I thought of them.
P.S. Wednesday I read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Pig a Pancake. Grammie loved them both. She looked at each picture for quite awhile before I turned the page. Any suggestions as to what little fun book to read next? I was thinking something of Dr. Seuss.

2nd Day of School

School has started. I am at a local junior high. It's different from where I was and not just different in location; but culture, attitude, and acceptance of others. Here is what my day looked like. I truly hope it's not like this all 175 days of school. :-)

5:00 Alarm goes off
5:15 Roll out of bed and get into shower
5:45 Start computer and pull bread for sandwiches out of freezer
6:00 Start studying
6:20 Stop studying and make lunch (remember to make a lot because I will be hungry)
6:45 Eat breakfast
7:00 Mom calls
7:05 Brush teeth and fill water bottle
7:10 Put on jacket and remember it needs to be ironed
7:12 Pull out iron and quickly iron while talking to Mom
7:15 Get ready to leave and remember windows are open- quickly shut them
7:32 Arrive at school to find a schedule for the day of which classes I need to go to
Start coping schedule when Reading teacher comes in and tells us we have a meeting for the first 2 periods of the day
7:50 Go to meeting after collecting paper and pen for note taking
9:30 Leave meeting for break- Eat 3/4 of an apple
9:45 Go to third period and get ready to give a reading test
10:45 Give a second reading test
11:30 Go to fifth period
12:05 Leave fifth period early for lunch
12:07 Find out I have 5 minutes for lunch before I work lunch duty
12:09-12:15 Find sandwich and eat half
12:18 Report for lunch duty
12:54 Leave lunch duty and go to 2 different History classes
2:30 Schools over-Why do I have a headache? Oh Right, I haven't had lunch.
2:50 Leave school and head to church for 3:00 meeting
Eat other half of sandwich in the car
3:10 Get to church hungry, hot, and tired
3:30 Finish lunch
5:30 Leave church and go to Home Depot
5:55 Get home
6:00 Type this post
6:15 Read a book and go to bed

I have a feeling that tomorrow might be a close repeat to today. Hopefully there won't be a surprise meeting in the morning and I'll head to Grammie and Pa's after work, but it will be similar just the same.
P.S. I have homework for Reading class, but I'll wait til the morning.

Honestly! I Know Better

I have just been sewing for 45-60. I have been chain sewing (not cutting each time you finish a piece.) I cut 2 of the chain sewn piece apart to sew them together and discovered that my bobbin tension is off. Not only on those 2 pieces, but EVERYTHING I've sewed in the last hour. I could scream. I really need a new machine. I've priced them out and know exactly what I want. However, I'm not buying it until I have the cash and that will be next Feb or March. In the meantime; I need to do what I've been telling myself and that is checking the pieces as I sew and not assuming everything is working out fine.

Decisions

After emailing my doctor and talking to Mom and Dennis, I've come to some decisions about the food issue. I will be cutting out dairy. The yeast is going to stay because as the doctor said, it would be very difficult to cut that out and there aren't any issues in my body to suggest I need to cut it out. The sugar will also stay. The doctor says to cut dairy for 6 months and see how I'm doing. I have felt a lot better when I'm not consuming dairy, so we'll see. Thanks for all your support.

Food testing

I had a food test done about 2 weeks ago. I went to the lab and had blood drawn, then I sent the blood to Seattle. The results came to me in the mail today.
Corn and wheat didn't show up on the test because it hasn't been in my system. So, they stay out of my diet. I know get to remove all dairy from my diet and I can have yeast and cane sugar every 4th day. I'll keep you updated. Right now I'm too overwhelmed to say much more. I just want to cry a lot. I have found out that Kosher food is OK.