I wanted a place to post all those little victories and good news. Mini celebrations and such.
I will start. My mother is always fighting UTI's and each one takes a little more out of her, mentally and strength wise. After not speaking to any of us caregivers for days and becoming so weak that moving her is like moving a 170 pound sack of potatoes....
Last night, Mom initiated conversation (it was gibberish but she tried), she used her legs a little when I was lifting her to move her and the best part was when I was moving her to the toilet she misunderstood my instructions about where to put her hands and ended up grabbing me in a big bear hug. I jokingly thank her for the awesome hug (just about the very first hug she has given me in my life) but needed her to grab the grab bar. Well, we both ended up in a huge long belly laugh. Her interaction, good mood and her strength lasted until she went to bed.
Maybe her latest antibiotic had finally worked, maybe it was a fluke but I am celebrating anyway.
Anyway, I celebrate the loss of weight because I think it contributes to my improved management of my diabetes.
She was sitting on the toilet claiming to "not be done yet" so I ran out of the room for a minute to use the facilities in the other part of the house. When I came back, she was standing in front of the toilet. I am not ready for her to stand unsupervised but glad that she found the strength and willingness to do it.
Congrats!!
Arthritis in her neck makes it painful to turn her head, as required for driving. She is a good driver, but somehow I am proud of her example.
Thinking that is the way to age gracefully, with dignity intact.
Today felt better after taking care of the social security appointment.
Taxes are a little further down on the list, then jury duty.
Busy busy springtime.
I was excited recently, because a person my professional circle approached me about collaborating on a major project I mentioned to her. The project is a training course I will be creating and selling, and should be quite lucrative if all works out the way I'm hoping. I'm confident that it will do well. Anyway, this person approached me, and I was excited, because she has a massive network of clients and others in the industry, where we could market this product and do very well with it. Even signing up 100 people would be very good income to start out with. So we started working out the timeline and framework, and I sent her a contract to review. Then she went silent on me for about a week, putting me off whenever I contacted her to see what the status was on things. Then after about 2 weeks, she informs me she has discussed this project with her "peers" and now, instead of being a partnership - a 50/50 split - it's going to be "her" product, with her name on it, and that I will only be one of many "experts" in various fields she is bringing on board, and the split will now be 25/75 - with 75% for her. The reasoning behind it was that she was going to paying out of pocket for an expensive software to run the program (which isn't necessary, I know how these programs work, I've run several for my clients). I let her know I was *not* at all happy with this turn of events, but she wouldn't budge. I told her I was breaking away and doing the project on my own, which was my original intent anyway - I never asked her for help, collaboration or anything at all - *she* approached *me* and asked if we could collaborate, and then took the idea and ran with it, and made it her own. That's fine - there are many courses like this out there, and she can run her own - I don't care - but what I do care about is how she did it. I feel it was underhanded and shady.
So why am I celebrating? Because I don't feel bad about this at all. Yes, I was pretty ticked off at first when she did it, but I feel extremely good about my product and what I can do with it, and I'd much rather have all the profit for myself anyway, rather than splitting it with someone else.
When I think about launching this product, I get excited at the prospect of what it can hold for the future, and I feel very, very confident that it's going to work. I can't remember the last time I felt this good, down deep, about something. It's that gut feeling you get when you know something is going to work out.
Golden, you have gotten a bit of a "break" due to your elderly mother being relatively content and well cared for, no new issues, during this hectic time you've had. I hope everything starts to wrap up and you can see the light at the end of it all.
The life that God gave us, and numbered our days.
Celebrating my family member's life.
He is a good man, still living after all these years.
I'll see her again Friday and Saturday my family and friends will be here for our annual backyard cookout/crawfish boil. So, I am celebrating some relaxation time.
i thought for sure she couldnt any more
Starting to make progress on the MERP mess so I can get this house settled, one way or the other. I feel that they're probably going to go for deferral, which means I can keep the house until I die, or sell it and give the money to the state and have to start over from scratch. Not happy about that, but not much I can do. I just want to get it done and over with so I can move on with my life, whichever direction it takes.
Found out I don't have to pay $400 for an appraisal, which is a huge relief. I can get a CMA done by a real estate agent for free, and the MERP office will accept it. Yay!
Flights loads are ridiculously low so lots of empty seats on the plane there and back for this standby girl.
It is all in place for me to go to EPCOT for the day for the Flower and Garden Festival.
I have already picked my snack choices from the 15 food booths. I am ready!!!
Everything fell into place for me to take a quick trip to the Epcot Flower and Garden Show this past Sat. The flight loads were ridiculously low (I fly stand by so this was crucial) My son (14) needed money and said he would watch Mom for the day. I asked him several times if he was sure he could handle her and he said yes.
I set off to the airport at 5:30 AM (an hour drive), arrived at the park at Noon. Ate my way around World Showcase. Almost decided to leave my family for a Raspberry Macaroon near France. Fell in love with a Lamb Chop. Met my niece and her husband for drinks. Found out she is pregnant - couldn't be more excited for them. Made it home by 1:30AM. I walked 11 miles, according to fitbit.
On the negative, Mom was a hot mess in the morning and Dh had to help DS get her up. He said she was speaking Greek only and was not able to do anything for herself. DS was afraid to take her to the bathroom because he feared that she would fall. Suspecting a UTI flareup, I told them to call 911 and ship her off to the hospital and I would pick her up when I got back. I decided not to cut my one day trip short and have no guilt about it.
They ended up calling one of her daytime caregivers who happened to be close by. She came over and helped and all was well without an ambulance ride.
Mom was much improved yesterday so I am now suspecting low blood sugar rather than UTI.
Anyway, so glad you got to get away for such a fun day! Very nice!
DD got a letter in the mail yesterday from the local housing commission, indicating she was nearing the top of the wait list. Must be the last cull they did of the wait list was larger than normal, with people having already found other housing or just not responding to their letter, so she was bumped up several spots. Last month, she was in the high 30s on the list, so we fully expected it would be several months before she even heard from them. This letter was a welcome surprise. She's let them know she's definitely still looking for housing, so hopefully after the middle of the month, she'll know more about a time frame. Not looking forward to the move, because I know that's going to fall on me, possibly with some help from brother and nephews, but will be so happy to have them in their own place so I can get back to a somewhat normal life.
The "problem child" client I recently eliminated resurfaced in my email inbox today, asking if I would come back to work with her, promising she'd sign my contract and pay in advance every month. I have some thinking to do. I could definitely use the extra income right now, with the house needing a roof and some required travel coming up this summer....but this client used to stress me out *so much*. I'll have to do some deep thinking about this one, but it's a good opportunity. I can do her work with my eyes closed, almost, so there's no learning curve involved. Hmmmm.....