A full day it was

Yesterday turned out to be full day. I left the house at 9am to go see my mom and pick up a big grocery order at Walmart after. After calling me twice the day before, to ask what time I was coming in the morning, she of course completely forgot I was coming. Which was fine, up until I finally had to go find her, otherwise I was not going to see her! I got there at 10 and signed in and then saw the caretaker was sitting in the office talking to one of the staff and I said hello to both of them, then asked the caretaker how it's all going with mom. She came out into the lobby area and we chatted for a bit. She said she seems to be doing better after getting off that medication, but is still really anxious. I got up to mom's apartment and she wasn't there, she was doing the wii bowling that started at 9:30. I figured she'd be back in 15 or 20 minutes so that gave me some time to do another fill up of my bag I bring, to keep reducing her unneeded stuff. I found her (empty) purse in her nightstand, so I decided to just leave it there. I found her (empty) wallet in one of the dresser drawers. I decided to just take that with me. Then I found this little sort of "coin purse" type thing. Looks like something homemade (mom likely made it years ago when she used to sew some) with a little velcro to close it. Mixed in with socks and whatnot. I picked it up and could feel something in it. It was her cash (like $25) stashed there, but no cards.

But where is that dang little coin purse I saw a couple months ago she had put her little bit of cash and ID card, insurance card, debit card, etc into? I still had not found this after several visits of looking. I decided to look through her purse again (so many pockets and zippers) but it's not there, so I put the purse back in the nightstand. I'm standing there and I have no idea what made me lift up the corner of her mattress but there was the little coin purse between the box spring and the mattress! In it was some loose change and her cards. I decided to just take with me, too. I wasn't sure if I should or not, but I might take it back with like just some "fake" cards in it. She doesn't need her debit card anymore and no sense having that constantly being hidden/lost with this stuff, as well as her ID card. I'll keep her ID card in my purse.

Then I washed up all her silverware (lots) and some dishes that were filled up in her sink and put those away. By then it was almost 10:30 and I'm thinking bowling should be over by now, I'll have to go find her because I needed to leave by 11. I went downstairs and found her in the tv room, she and 3 other ladies were still doing bowling. I was just going to watch and wait, hoping they were almost done, but they were just starting their 3rd last game, which I'm sure could take another half hour, so I managed to get mom out of there, LOL. We got back to her apartment and I showed her where I found her purse and told her we'll just leave it there, ok? At least this way, if she doesn't move it, when she calls to say her purse is missing, I can say look in your nightstand.

Her caretaker had told me she's getting really confused what times the meals are, especially lunch and dinner. Said she comes downstairs off and on all day to see if it's meal time yet. I saw on a couple of small note pads mom has on her desk she was writing down "dinner 5pm" "breakfast 8" on a couple of note pads. I said to mom hey, I'm going to write down the meal times on this big piece of (printer paper) paper and just tape it to your computer screen (that is next to her clock). I wrote out nice and big "Breakfast 8am" "Lunch 12 noon" and "Dinner 5pm" and taped it on her screen. I see on the camera she has already taken it down. So much for that idea. This morning she went downstairs at 7am, LOL.

I get home with the groceries at noon and we quickly get them put away and then hop in the truck, pulling dh's trailer and we head to Idaho! Dh has been wanting a side by side utility vehicle for years now for 2 purposes. The main purpose it to put a plow on the front and have a good snow plow. The other is it can be used to drive on/explore all these oodles of logging roads all around us. When we first moved here we explored them in my car and enjoyed it and the scenery but it was too hard on the car. Then we got busy building the house and have not done anymore of it, and didn't want to use the car anyway.

DH had been calling some dealers Friday and this dealer in Idaho had just gotten this model in dh wanted, plus it was just a "bare" version, not all the add on's that almost double the price. DH had been wanting black, but this one was white. Someone had a black one with all the add on's, actually more add-on then he wanted and super expensive. He finally decided to be smart and go with the white one. He had already figured out he can purchase and install these add on's himself at half what they mark up the things for by adding on. And he can just add the one's he wants, and not pay for one's already on one that he doesn't want.

I put a deposit down over the phone to hold it and then would be putting a 50% downpayment on it. They said since they literally just got it in, they still needed to get it ready to go, so it would be ready mid next week. Then an hour later the guy called back and said they'd have it ready to go the next day (Saturday) so we said we'll come and get it. Good, then I don't have to take time off to do it.

It was only a little over an hour and a half drive over there. We were in and out of there pretty quick. The sales guy helped dh get it loaded on the trailer while I signed the paperwork. Took longer for dh to get it all tied down to the trailer LOL. It seemed like it took us a long time to get home, though. First we stopped off at a little town that a friend of dh's lives in, to see if he might be home, just to say a quick hello, but he wasn't. Then a stop at a rest area. Then it was 4:40 when we were just getting to the exit of a little hole in the wall restaurant we go to sometimes, so we decided to stop and have dinner. (it was delicious) Then we stopped in our town to fill up the truck and new Mule with gas and it was 6pm by the time we got home. 

DH is super happy with it and the good part is we can do the add ons (plow, etc) as we go, with cash, and not very much is financed. Once he does the add on's and I'm done saving for those, then my plan is to just do a few lump sum payments and get it paid off quickly. He will also be selling our old (1995 Honda quad) quad and can use that money for his add on's. We paid $2000 for it a few years ago and I'm sure he can get the same out of it. He just put a new clutch in it, so it's good to go. This new machine will make plowing so much easier and quicker for him and now wear him out. It has power steering and will also have a bigger plow on the front then his qaud is able to have. Plus the plow will be hydraulic and much easier to operate. With the little quad and plow he'd have to get out there as soon as there was a few inches of snow, otherwise if he let it built up too much, the plow just couldn't handle that much snow at once. The plow he plans to add to this new machine will be bigger and lots less plowing time.

Then in the evening my mom called - said she can't find her purse.....I told her to look in her nightstand. She doesn't know what "nightstand" word is anymore. That is like the 2nd or 3rd time I've mentioned "look in your nightstand" recently and she's like "nightstand??". Yes, it's right next to your bed....

I was tired by early evening. Between 100 miles round trip to see mom and get groceries and then 260 mile round trip that afternoon, it was a busy day.

This morning was my first try with my new coffee "method" to have no sugar. It was heavy cream, in place of my regular creamer filled with sugar and sunflower oil (bad) and I used Stevia to sweeten, instead of 2 tsp of sugar. I also had just finished my bottle of gummy vitamins and after realizing taking 2 of those each morning was also adding 2 grams of sugar a day, I didn't buy more. I'll find some that doesn't have sugar added. So, just for my morning I cut out 20 grams of sugar. The recommended daily limit of sugar intake for women is 25 grams - for the whole day. I sill have a long way to go to cut way down on sugar, but this is a good start. The coffee with this stuff in it tasted different, of course, but it wasn't too bad. I liked the flavor of the real cream. The sweetener didn't seem very sweet though, but I will definitely be able to get used to it pretty quickly, I think.