4 more days

I spent 45 minutes on the phone yesterday just trying to get my mom's landline service transferred to her new address, for Friday. After I got transferred to the 3rd person, when she came on the line and asked how she could help me today, I said well I sure hope you can because you're the 3rd person I've talked to. Finally, it's all set up and supposed to transfer on Friday. Even though I have her on paperless billing, I had them change her mailing address to mine, in case they every mail out anything.

I was about to call the carpet cleaning company for a 3rd time/visit, but then had a thought. I was pretty sure this current place would, no matter what condition, have the carpets professionally cleaned in preparing for a new resident to rent it, so I emailed the apartment manager and asked if they will be doing this, that she has had an accident again, and if they are going to have a carpet cleaner come in anyway, can we just have it all done then, and I'd be happy to have them bill me for it or add it to her final rent billing. The manager emailed back that yes, they will be having it professionally cleaned and not to worry about it. That's nice. One less thing for me to have to take care of. 

I also got a letter in the mail from her current senior living place that her monthly rent would have been going up $327 (like 10%) a month starting in March. That's a pretty significant increase, the most they've had (it's gone up each year).  Last evening it was the younger/new caregiver girl who came to give mom her meds. She doesn't usually end up getting mom into her nightgown, so of course she slept in her clothes. It amazes me how mom's brain knows to go to bed, yet doesn't know to put on her nightgown.  Dd's thought, for when we take her to the new place, is to just see how far along we can get into the new place before we have to start explaining/answering her questions. Like don't offer an explanation until she asks for one. She's kind of wondering if my mom will even realize it's a different place at all. 4 more days.........

Our garbage service seems to be going up in price almost every quarter (they do quarterly billing). When we first started service it was $40/mo, now it's over $60/mo. DH was wondering if they offer residential pick up every other week, but I doubt they do. I'll check though.

DD has a really cute paper towel holder that I like and she couldn't remember where she bought it so we google lensed it and it was from World Market and on sale for $12. It's copper for the part you put the roll on and a live edge wood base. I had just enough left on my visa gift card, so I just ordered that. I have this old wood one that I've literally had since we got married. I even painted it red several years ago, but now the paint is chipping and I hate that I have to unscrew the top every time I replace a roll.  

We pick dd up from the airport Thurs at 6pm. We're going to stop and pick up a grocery order first. After picking her up we think we'll just take her to a nice restaurant for dinner. It's cold enough out, that all the cold food will be fine in our cooler and cooler bags while we have dinner and then drive home. I need groceries! It's been 3 weeks since we last got groceries.

Back home

I'm back home from my trip. It was a good trip, everything went smoothly (well, except for mom). My flight over was uneventful and dd picked me up and we went back to her house. Thursday morning I took her car (she carpools with her dh) to my work meeting/event. Traffic estimated an hour to get there. I needed to be there by 10am so left her house at 8:30 just to have time to find parking and find the venue. If I hadn't been able to use her toll pass it would have taken me more than the hour drive, that's for sure. It was a fun day, but the place was pretty loud and sensory overload. Even our meeting, which was in like a banquet type room was hard to hear, because of the loudness of the arcade area outside the meeting room. Then we switched over to a private room with private bowling lanes and a bar. They also gave everyone a card loaded with $30 to play the arcade games. I bowled a game, visited with people, played a dice game a couple times, ate, visited some more, went out to the arcade area with a few of the other ladies, then came back into the private area when they decided to leave early. I decided to stay until the end at 3pm, since my boss had paid to fly me over, the least I could do is stay until the end. I then had a nice visit with another coworker, who also lives in another state and works remote. The parking was supposed to be validated and free, but when I checked out of the parking garage, it was $14. Either they told my boss wrong when she set up the venue, or they messed up validated our parking. But, work is reimbursing everyone, so I'm glad I kept the receipt.

My boss gave me a birthday card, which I opened when I got back to dd's. It had a nice $100 visa gift card in it. I decided to buy myself a new suitcase, as the old one I have, the wheels weren't turning very well anymore, as I realized trying to roll it through 2 airports on Wednesday. 

The rest of the 3 days at dd's was great and we kept busy during the day, shopping and a look at their property they will be building their house on. I ate lots of good food and dd made me a birthday cake. In the evenings we just visited and watched tv. I did find a nice Samsonite carry on suitcase at Ross, It has the spinning type wheels and I loved that for traveling back home. Much easier to roll around. Saturday we antique shopped and I found several things. A few of which I was able to get into my suitcase, but dd will have to bring the rest when she drives over in May, but she may be able to fit 2 of the items in her suitcase when she comes over this week, on Thursday.

I did get at text from mom's caregiver, K, on Friday evening that she had had yet another bathroom accident all over her carpet again Friday morning. Apparently she keeps taking off the depends at night when she goes to bed. I told her at this point, with a week until moving, I'm just going to wait and have the carpet all cleaned AFTER I move her out on Friday. I've already had them there twice now. I had hoped the Imodium would hold off the accidents until I could get her moved, but apparently not. Friday is going to be one of my hardest days, I think, but this move is so much needed by now. I have no idea how the memory care will get her to keep them on, but since they have staff all night, I'm sure they will figure it out.

The weather here took a turn for the worse over the weekend and the freeway was really icy on the drive for dh to pick me up and back home. Trucks in the ditch, etc. When we got home I texted the guy we are getting the new bonus room carpet from and told him it's super icy for like 30 miles after leaving the city and if his installer wants to schedule us another day (they were supposed to come this morning) we are ok with that. He texted me back, thank you, they will reschedule then. The roads/weather will be back to normal in a couple days and no sense in trying to drive out in that. It's -10 out this morning. 

I need to make a few calls this morning. I forgot to call the phone company last week to set up moving mom's landline phone service, need to call the carpet cleaner again to set up one last time and call our pharmacy in town to make sure dh's doctor office called in his refill we need to get.

I will be so glad to have this week behind me. 

Almost ready to go, with an accessory

I woke up a little early this morning, just travel and whatnot on my mind, I'm sure. I grabbed my cup of coffee and sat down to get payroll done. I had done the prep work on it yesterday, hoping that will make it quick and easy this morning. So far so good. I'm done so early, that I'm waiting to email the report for my boss to review, as she's not even in yet, it's so early, LOL.

I think the cat is ready to go too - 

Payroll is done and processed. For the rest of the morning, until we leave for the airport at noon, I'll monitor my emails for anything that needs to be taken care of and spend the rest of the morning finishing getting ready, get the chickens all watered up and more food. Get the cat litter box cleaned out. It's nice not having to feel rushed to get up early, get ready and out the door. Boss said some employees flying out of their area (our satellite office) flight is delayed this morning and she hopes mine isn't. I said my flight last July was 90 minutes late, so that's why I decided to fly over the afternoon before.

The meeting/party is only from 10am to 3pm tomorrow. I can do 5 hours of being social, LOL. DD was watching some traffic times for me this week and it looks like it should only be about an hours drive each way, so much better than I was anticipating. And it's not supposed to be raining, which will make the driving much easier.

to do's for mom and me

Yesterday I got another one of my "to-do's" done. I called mom's investment assistant lady to let her know I'm moving my mom into memory care. One to let them know this, and two, I'm going to have to increase what she is withdrawing for the year, twice what her RMD amount is, to cover her now $8000/mo costs. She set me up an appointment with the head guy to plan going forward, and she processed her RMD now, rather than waiting until we usually do it in April (why April, no clue, other than I guess that's what my mom had set it up as, years ago when she had to start taking the RMD). The rest of her "available cash" is in one year CD's now, so I told her that the other half of what I will need to cover her expenses can wait until that first CD matures at the end of September. Her dad is also suffering with dementia and her mom is still trying to take care of him, so she understands what I am going through.

My mom also has a 5 year CD in a credit union that matures in April. So, I'll need to get that closed out and transferred in a couple of months. I tried to call the CU to find out what exactly they will need from me, when the time comes, but of course, got a voicemail. 

I still need to get some laundry done before I leave for my trip tomorrow and get packed. I will do that this evening. I still have to work some tomorrow morning before I leave. Payroll's gotta get done. I've done all that I can to be ready for it tomorrow, so I'm hoping it's going to be a quick and easy one. I want to leave for the airport at noon. That should get me there an hour before my flight. The travel time is considered working time, so it'll end up pretty much being an 8 hour work day by the time I get over there. I need to make a list so I don't forget anything. (I usually forget my phone charger). 

I'll eat some lunch at home before we leave for the airport and my flight leaves at 1:50pm. Usually I have granola bars in my pantry, but I keep forgetting to buy some so I really don't have anything to throw in my purse to snack on. Maybe I'll put some pistachios (no shells) and a couple of oatmeal cookies we still have left in a little ziploc bag and put in my purse. By the time I land I'll probably be a little hungry. The only thing they give on the plane is a drink and like some small cookie/biscuit snack.

I had opted to pay a little extra when I chose my seat and am in their "premium" class, so it's a little extra seat/leg room and early boarding/getting off the plane. It will be interesting to see if it's much different. It's not a big plane LOL. And just as I'm typing this I get a phone notification that I can check in for my flight, so I did that and now have my boarding pass saved on my phone. I keep hoping I'd get another one of those random TSA precheck marks, to bypass, but I have not. 

Dh will be eating sandwiches, cereal and soup while I'm gone. I'm sure on his way home after dropping me off at the airport he'll stop at McD's and that will end up being his early dinner. Same thing for Sunday, he'll either stop at McD's just before he picks me up (so I'll have dinner) or we'll stop on the way home. That'll cover his dinner for 2 of the nights LOL.

My condolences

What a sad thing to catch up on blog reading this morning and read that SAM's husband has passed away. I'm so very sorry for her loss and will be thinking of her and her family. SAM's is one of my favorite blogs and she comments on mine often. Prayers for her and her family.

Delay and too many rocks

I forgot to mention that late Friday afternoon, I got an email from the carpet guy that the installer he had set up for Monday fell through due to a messy tiling job that took 3 days longer than expected and would it be ok to install our carpet the next Monday, the 30th. I replied, yes, that's no problem. He must have been relieved because he replied back: Thank you soooo much! You are a blessing! Have a great weekend.  I replied back, it's fine, no worries at all!

I saw my mom went to bed around 7:30 last night and then at 8pm she called me, asking if I just called her, as she thought her phone had rang. I said no, but it was probably uncle, as he tends to call at that time of day. She said oh I was probably right and she'll give him a call. She did and he didn't answer and I heard her leaving him a message (she was pretty with it for already being in bed and it being evening). This morning I looked on her call log and it was him who tried to call her. I have told him numerous times that she goes to bed pretty early now, but he doesn't listen. But, at least she went right back to bed after that.

We had a sunny, but cold day yesterday. DH did get some window cleaning done. He was also out in his shop for awhile and when he came in he said he has some more things to throw out. Itty bitty baby steps, LOL. I got two eggs again yesterday.

Since we asked neighbors down the street with the hyper dog to not let their dog run wild, we have not seen the dog at our house, until Friday afternoon and there he was zooming everywhere, then dh saw the guy out in the street calling him, so apparently it wasn't intentional. I'm guessing he was probably walking down the street to meet his kid for the school bus and assumed the dog would stay walking with him, if not on a leash, which of course he would not, LOL. But, at least we have not had to deal with the dog numerous times a day, though I'm sure we're the a-holes for expecting them to monitor their dog's wherabouts.

The last time it snowed, dh did not plow past our driveway entrance. I snapped a picture a day or two later. So, hopefully going forward dh will not plow all the way down to their house anymore, for them. It's fine right now, because dh had kept it plowed and only a little bit snowed, but if we get a good amount at some point (still lots of winter left) they are going to have to plow it themselves. DH and Mr Neighbor keep the street in front our our driveways plowed and then it can melt and dry quickly, so we have bare nice pavement like we do now.

Speaking of roads, Mr has also been pretty disgusted with the excessive use of "sand" and de-icer out on the main road. It's a mess. And it's not sand, it's like pebbles. It's like driving on a gravel road. And the day shift guy kept dumping down the crap and it hadn't snowed since Christmas! The road should be bare and dry by now. Both dh and Mr were like what the heck! Both ended up putting in a call to the local state plow shop. Mr and Mrs are on a retired income and also want their cars to last as long as possible and there is absolutely no need for the amount of sand and de-icer this dayshift guy is applying. According to Mr. what he found out the most probable reason is they have a yearly budget, use it or lose it type of thing, so if they don't use all they were allocated, they don't get that much the next year? How about it's just based on the weather conditions year to year?! The other issue is down the road, near the freeway entrance a brand new gravel pit just started operations. Oh man, the road from there to the freeway entrance/exit is a complete muddy, gravely mess. Mr. commented on it to dh and dh said yes, he's not happy with that either. Dh used to work in road construction and told Mr that where we lived/he worked before that would never ever be tolerated. The construction company/gravel pit operator would be required to have a sweeper truck clean it off regularly and/or also a water truck to spray off the mud. Mr is more involved with local people who are "in charge", so he's going to do some emailing (and he said he went down there and took pictures) about getting this maintained now that there is an operational gravel pit with dump trucks in and out all day long. It will be worse in summer, when they put more trucks on the job. The street going under the freeway overpass to enter/exit should not be a gravel muddy road. Dh also called the main office (in the city) of the gravel pit operating company and asked nicely if they could start keeping this swept up and the guy said he'll pass the request on. Like Mr said, our little county is starting to grow, but there also then needs to be measures in place to control the adverse effects on the community. A business doesn't get to come in and make a profit at the expense of the community/neighbors around it. Hopefully between Mr and dh bringing it to attention, it will start being maintained.

DH was laughing and told me when he picks me up at the airport on Sunday it's going to be zero degrees out. I said last time he picked me up (last July) it was 100 degrees out. I don't get any in between, LOL. And the reason this even makes a difference? well this is such a small airport and a small plane that we have to de-plane on the tarmac and then walk to the main airport building, LOL. I'm either freezing or dying of heat, haha. Then dd will fly in the following Thursday and I'm sure it will be just as cold.

Saturday morning coffee chat

Yesterday morning I messaged the flower lady on Facebook and told her the arrangement was beautiful, as always, and also that her grandson was adorable. She said she figured her grandson and dh would enjoy the chat about the cars. When dh got up, he called the flower shop and talked to her, to tell her what an enjoyment her grandson was. 

We had told him about that "driving experience" we went to in Park City last summer, when you buy a new Explorer ST. He hadn't heard of that, plus his grandma had actually bought hers with 10k miles on it, so she wasn't eligible. One of the dealer employees had bought it, driven it for a few months and then decided to sell it. Grandson said he thinks his grandma wants to order a brand new one and he thought that driving experience we went to sounded so neat. On the phone flower lady told dh she did order a new one (she just hadn't told grandson yet, haha). Dh said did grandson tell you about the driving experience you can go to if you buy a new one? (he had not yet) so dh told her about it and she was like Oh, I should take grandson to that! Dh said yes, he would love that! So, I sent her the link to it. She and her grandson would have so much fun at that. 

Ok, one more week down and less than 2 weeks until moving day. On Wednesday afternoon next week,  I fly out to do the work meeting on Thursday and then stay with dd until Sunday afternoon and fly back home. It will be a nice break to have. I looked at map/driving directions for the time I need to be at the meeting place. It's 47 miles from dd's place but at that time of day says plan for 90 minute drive. Plus I need to give myself time for parking and getting to the place. It's in a mall type place, on the 2nd level and I think all the parking is underground (dd and I went to this mall years ago). I'm going to call the place and ask them where the closest parking is, what street do I access, so I'm not trying to spend time figuring that out when I get there. At least I won't have to leave dd's until around 8:15 or 8:30. Probably 8:30 would be fine. She has the toll lane pass thing on her car, so I'll be able to use the faster lanes to get there. 

I need to get myself some breakfast, it's almost 10am and all's I've had is coffee.

A good anniversary day

DH got the canopy picked up. He said he and the guy easily moved it onto dh's truck in like 5 minutes. Then they spent and half hour chatting, LOL. DH always orders flowers delivered to me on our anniversary. One carnation for each year. The lady who runs the little flower/gift shop in town usually delivers them herself and usually fairly early in the day. Well, it was like 4:40pm and still no flowers. He was about to call and make sure they didn't forget, but then see's her car pull up out at our gate, but it stops. Then his phone rings and it's her grandson delivering, making sure he was pulling into the right place.

Now, part of this story goes back to our last anniversary and flower delivery. DH is out in the shop and sees her pulling in (I'm upstairs oblivious) and texts me "special delivery outside". We had ordered our new Explorer ST and dd/sil had picked it up to store at their house until winter was over. Pulling in my driveway is the exact ST we ordered. I was confused for a few seconds....did he end up having them bring our new car over already? But, out pops the flower lady with my anniversary flowers. She had just days before bought this ST at the dealer in the city! We told her we were getting one, etc. 

Ok, so back to yesterday - OMG - what a total cutie he was! 17 years old and before he even hung up the phone with dh, as he's pulling in the gate he saying "my grandma let me drive her ST I love this ST and she said you have an ST and I want to see your ST". He gets out, hands me my flowers and of course immediately him and dh start talking ST's, so we take him in the garage to see ours. He was adorable. This total mop of curly brown hair and a smile as wide as can be. He takes us back to his grandma's car to show the captains seats she has in back and turns the key on and says "see, of course I have it in sport mode, LOL. I can't believe she lets me drive this. She really shouldn't let me drive this!" 

We did go out to dinner. Quiet night at that restaurant in the middle of January and on a Thursday night. There were a few people in the bar area, but we were the only ones in the dining area. I had the fish and chips with a salad and dh had the prime rib. I guess the sleigh ride isn't happening. He had found out about them the evening we went and watched the tree lighting in town and talked to them then, then he called them about setting it up and they never called back. 

I started watching the new (remake?) That 90's Show on Netflix. It's actually not too bad. I figured it might be a disappointment from the original, but it's having quite a few guest appearances by the originals and of course Red and Kitty are a constant and the same LOL. 

I have the worst time trying to view Petsmart or Petco online to order stuff. The websites freeze up, or I get blank screens. Now I'm just trying to find something to add for a few dollars so I get the free shipping and the descriptions are coming up but no pictures of the items. It's taking me longer to get 3 things ordered than driving 50 miles to the dang store! Well, this is ridiculous. I'm still trying to just order a small cat toy that's cheap. I finally switched over to using a different browser and find this cat toy mouse and of course, it's not available for shipping. And now I'm so confused. It says free shipping over $49 and my order is over $49 but it's charging me $4.95 for shipping. I have WAY too much time into trying to order cat litter and cat food!

To do's and done's

On my to do list is to call mom's investment guy's assistant to let her know I'm moving mom into memory care. Her annual distribution is usually done in April, but with her costs now going to be $8k a month, starting next month, I'm going to have her do it now. I also am going to need it much more than her RMD, now. Last fall he had put quite a bit of her cash balance into a 1 year CD, so it should be ok for me to take her minimum RMD now and once that CD matures, we can then do another withdrawal for what I'll need for her care the remainder of the year. I also want to make sure all her mail from them goes to my address. I have her set up on paperless statements, but still on occasion they mail something out. Before I call her, I'll do out a budget for the next year and make sure we can wait for the remaining distribution until next September.

When I took out the loan for the Mule/plow it was for 60 months term. Well, I paid it off in 6 months, not 60 LOL. We recently decided to purchase a used pickup truck. It's a 2016 with lots of miles on it, but in nice condition and since we don't drive every day, it will last well for the amount of miles we will put on it. DH's 1999 pickup isn't a "driver" anymore. It's basically one of those vehicles you keep in your garage and take it to a car show every now and then. We need something usable to drive in the crappy weather roads and to haul stuff. This will work great for our needs. DH had tried to find one with a canopy on it, but wasn't having any luck, so he decided to get this truck he found and add on a canopy later. He found out new ones are $4000 so that was going to be down the road. Then yesterday morning he looks on Marketplace and a guy has a used one for way cheaper than new, so he is going to pick that up today. The guy just bought basically the same truck we did (it's a 2015) a few days ago and doesn't want the canopy that's on it. The guys truck is sitting at the airport long term lot as he's getting back from a trip this afternoon, so dh is just going to meet him at the airport and they think they can swap the canopy over to dh's truck between the 2 of them.

I finally, just now, caught up with my mom on the phone this week. I check in on the camera often, but she's been spending a lot of time out in the common area, it seems. I will catch her back in her apartment and before I can call her, she's back out her door, LOL. When I get off work at 4:30 she's usually already left her apt to go down to wait for dinner and by the time she gets back, and the caregiver has been there to help, it's after 6:30 when I can try again. Usually by then I'm tired and so not in the mood to talk on the phone (I hate talking on the phone anyway), so I check in on her via camera and end up not calling. The carpet cleaning got taken care of yesterday. I so hoping no more accidents in the 2 weeks she has left there.

Dh and I have been married 38 years today. Eegads! We are old! We may go out to dinner tonight, we'll see how tired he is after going in and getting that canopy picked up. We do have something planned this weekend that dh set up. Or at least I think it's still planned, haha. On our poor little honeymoon 38 years ago we stayed in a mountain town and took a sleigh ride. There is a couple in our area who have horses and just started offering sleigh rides, so it sounds like we are going to do that Saturday. Well see how it is....I'm not into being cold anymore, haha!

Doctor changes

So, I get a letter in the mail from my primary care physicians office saying that in order to be transparent, they want to acknowledge that it's been challenging trying to access care to the provider I have been seeing for the past 5 years. Ya, no kidding. I tried to schedule my annual wellness exam last SEPTEMBER and they told me she didn't have any appointments until MARCH. I then asked to be seen by another of their providers (they have several in the office) and was told they want to keep patients with the same provider, so I reluctantly agreed to wait 6 whole months.

Now this letter. It states she went part time a year ago, after coming back from maternity leave, then she decided to focus that part time on mostly just specializing in seeing eating disorder patients. Well, ya, then there is no way to continue timely care on your regular patients! On the back of the letter they listed several other providers in the area, including one in their office. Now I'm a little miffed that they didn't schedule me with someone else in their office when I asked back in September. It takes 6 months or more to get a wellness visit scheduled and apparently just about impossible to see her, if I had something come up I needed to be seen for right away. Not acceptable.

Back in Sept I thought about switching to a different office/provider (still in their same network, though). It's an office right near where I always am when I go to the city, near mom, near shopping, bank, etc. It's also the office I have to go to for the mammogram and yearly blood draw, so it just makes sense to start using this office and one of their providers, rather than driving all the way to the other end of the city. Plus I will be moving mom from this office, too, to use the geriatric doctor the memory care place is set up with. I should have just switched then, but I didn't.

So, I got online with MyChart and set up an appointment with a provider at this closer place. I actually have enough of my refill meds to get me thru almost mid April. This new providers earliest appointment available is March 16 (about 10 days after the one I scheduled with my old provider) but at least for a new patient this doctor is only 2 months out, not 6. Plus this new provider is an MD, where my old one was an FNP. Once that appointment was set up, I then canceled the appointment with the old provider.  Going to this office, when I need to go to a doctor appointment will save me probably a half hour in driving time, overall, so it will be better anyway.

Eggs!

My little chat with the egg layers must have done some good - I got 2 eggs yesterday! LOL. One of my facebook friends, who lives in another state, said her store had eggs over $7 and it was a limit of 1 18ct carton of eggs. While some stores here have the over $7 a dozen eggs, Walmart has good prices at under $3 and no limit (I bought 3 12 ct cartons). It also could be a factor that more people in this area probably have chickens, so that the demand isn't as high, so the prices are more normal. Hard to say.

I had to call the carpet cleaning place again, maybe my first voicemail last Thursday didn't go through, but she called me back yesterday, a little after I left another message, and I now have them scheduled for tomorrow.

My email that I use most for things has been so annoying lately. If I add attachments, the person doesn't get my email. They have to send me an email, I then have to reply to that email with my attachment(s) and they get it. This has now happened with 2 different people in the last week. Then one person, who I had already established sending emails back and forth with, he sent me something with an attachment that I didn't get...then found it in my Spam folder. It's very annoying. I think I'll have to try a new email.

I have a call in this morning for something I need to take care of. I ended up getting the voicemail of the person I need to talk to, so now am waiting for a return call. I hate waiting like this when you don't know how long it's going to be before the person gets back to you. It's been almost an hour since I left the message.

I'm just pleased about getting 2 eggs yesterday. Funny the little stuff that can make your day :)

Lots of paperwork

One of the attachments the m/c administrator emailed me was a "handbook" which goes over what to expect, how their daily lives are lived type of information. It does seem like they really strive to tailor to the residents personal preferences. Like it says, some residents may prefer to get up in the morning and go have breakfast first, before getting showered/dressed, so they come to the dining area in a robe and slippers. This sounds like something my mom would prefer, since she likes to sleep in somewhat. I know she has a robe, but it's old and wearing out, so we're adding getting a new robe to the Kohl's shopping trip the morning of the move.

Thanks to my handy dandy little "ScanSnap" scanner I have, I was easily able to print out all the docs sent to me as well as scanning things like copy of voided check and insurance card, get it all signed and initialed and rescanned to email back to the administrator. This has saved me another trip in to the city to sign all this. It's always been a super handy little scanner, that's for sure. It was something I had at my desk at the office and when I moved to 100% remote my boss let me take it with me. I've had it for probably 8 years or so now and knock on wood, never an issue with it. 

I just looked out my office window and thought boy, those look like snow clouds. Then I looked at my weather app on the phone and snow is predicted later this afternoon.

I've gotten 3 eggs in the last 4 days, so a little better now. I need to head out there and give them some treats and check the nesting box. Maybe I'll get lucky and get another one today.

Mom wears jeans daily and her's are just the elastic waist, pull on kind, so I think that is easy to manage for her. At this point I'd just to keep for her what she is familiar with the most. 

Time for some lunch and maybe one last nap in on my day off.

 

New home supplies

One of the things the memory care place gave me was a little brochure on how to set up their room/decor and also lists of things they will need. It said to bring not more than 2 weeks worth of clothing (and clothing that is machine washable). (I had initially thought it said bring 2 weeks worth), lots of towel and wash cloths and 2 sets of sheets. It also listed things like liquid soap instead of bar soap. I know where she lives now they supply the sheets and towels, but she brought a lot of towels with her. I just can't remember what she has for her own sheets. I'm sure there are probably some there on the shelves in her closet, but not for sure what/how many. I think she has 4 or 5 pairs of jeans we will take, a maybe take 10 of her tops, a heavy jacket, light jacket, and a couple of her cardigan sweaters. Since we'll only have about an hour before the movers arrive, we'll quickly grab the clothes to take and get it all put in that one closet marked for moving.

I decided to just do up a Target order for her online yesterday to have shipped here. Two new sets of twin sheets (because even if she does have some, they have to probably be 20 or 30 years old LOL), body wash, a shampoo/conditioner in one, clippers (I can't find hers), nail files, dental floss, extra toothbrush (I had already just bought her 2 tubes of toothpaste last week), and tweezers. When we have to take her out the morning of the move, the plan is to take her to Kohl's for some new tennis shoes and slippers. I got some pretty floral sheets....that way I can kind of see if her sheets end up staying on her bed, LOL. They will be easy to recognize. It does say to mark all the clothes and linens tags with her initials with a sharpie marker. I keep passing this info on to dd and she is making a list on her phone of what we need to take with us that morning (ie, sharpie marker).

The new caregiver (L) that K hired has taken over K's Sat-Tues shifts it seems. She does seem super friendly, though when I looked on the camera last evening when she came to do mom's meds, for some reason mom already had on her nightgown, but still had her jeans and shoes on. L suggested she take her pants off, but mom didn't want to...........and of course she slept with her pants on last night.

I'm glad I also have tomorrow off work. An extra day to relax and get a nap in will be helpful. Every time I go to give my mom a quick call to see how she's doing, she either is not there, or I see her on the camera taking a nap in her recliner, and I don't want to disturb her. I was going to call her last evening and looked on the camera and right then her phone rang and it was my uncle, so I didn't end up calling her. Figured she got his call, so I'll try again sometime today.

Last night dinner was the yummy herb and butter salmon, garlic texas toast, and applesauce. The salmon is so quick and easy to make. 15 minutes and it's ready. I came across a youtube channel for "dump and go casseroles" and watched a few recipes. They looked really good, so I'm going to watch some and make a list for the ingredients for a few of them to give a try. Easy and they look like dishes dh and I would both like.

Plan changes

I was telling dh about our original plan to have dd fly over here to help with mom's move, but now that the moving company will be taking care of so much of the process, it's probably not really necessary. He said he still thought it was a good idea, if nothing else, just for some moral support for me. And like he brought up, there will probably be things to take care of that day, that come up, that I don't know about yet/realize will need to be done and would be nice for me to have dd here to help. The bummer is there are no morning flights over here so she wouldn't even get here until almost 1:30 on moving day. I asked if she could do the flight the afternoon before, that gets here at 6pm. She would have to take off work a couple hours early, at the most, since she already does a very early 6am start. She is also just going to drive herself to the airport and leave her car in parking there, that way her dh doesn't have to. I just gave her my mom's credit card # and she can pay for it all that way. Part of the "moving expense" in my book. 

I'm so glad I changed my mind/dh changed my mind LOL. The extra support will be really good. She will get here at 6pm the day before, we move the next day/Friday and then she will fly home on Sunday. I spoke with the moving lady yesterday after she visited mom's apartment. It will cost about $800 for it all, but I was expecting that or more. I budgeted $1000. As each day gets closer I am more and more in the thinking of just not telling mom about moving until we actually do it. First, she won't remember me telling her and second, I think if people where she lives start saying "oh you are moving?" type of comments she will get upset and I don't need her upset for days leading up to it.

The moving lady said they will get to mom's apartment around 9 or 9:30 and should have her new room ready just after lunch. They will then go back over to her apartment and then remove everything we didn't move. She just needs me to mark with blue painters tape everything that is moving. She offered to drop some tape off to mom's place but I told her we have lots of it here at home and I'll just bring mine. The plan is to have K get her downstairs to the dining room for breakfast around 7:50, so dd and I can get up to her apartment by 8am and have an hour to get her items marked with the blue tape. There really isn't a lot to be taken. What will take the longest is her clothes. She has 2 closets full of stuff in her apartment. The mover said just put all the clothes that we are taking into one closet and put a blue piece of tape on it. Leave all the clothes going to donation into the other closet, so that's a good plan. All my mom ever wears is her jeans, and I think she has 4 or 5 pair, plus her tops, which the m/c place said bring about 2 weeks worth of clothing. I'll take her heavier jacket, her light jacket, and one or two of her cardigan sweaters, socks, bras, and nightgowns. 

The m/c assessed her at a level 2 for care, which is about what we expected based on her needs. They will re-evaluate after 30 days of actual caring for her to see if that is working. Each level adds about $500 to the monthly cost and they have levels 1-8. Our neighbor said they just had a friend pass away last week who was living there in m/c....maybe that's why they had an opening for mom now.

At least yesterday and so far this morning have been no issues with my mom happening, though now I feel like I'm on pins and needles all the time, just waiting for the next problem. 20 more days......

 I was messaging my boss yesterday about the company meeting/party day. I had no idea what the plan is, just assumed it was something there at the office, as usual. I asked her if there is a spare computer or laptop I could use to work as I'm often there for a couple hours before anything gets started and I need something to do with my time! She said no, it's a meeting and party offsite. Oh! The meeting starts at 10, for about 90 minutes, then lunch and an afternoon at a bowling alley/arcade. That sounds fun. It's also about a half hour closer to where dd lives, so I made a change of plans on that. I was going to get a hotel the night before, then thinking I was going to the office. I asked dd if she could pick me up that afternoon, after she gets off work and I'll go stay with them. Then the next morning I'll use her car to drive down to the meeting event place. It should only be about an hours drive. DD doesn't need her car (plus they have 3) as she carpools with her dh and that way she doesn't have to come get me Thursday afternoon (the orig. plan). This is better. I'd rather stay at her house (but she's almost 90 min from my office/airport) than a hotel and also this way I will not have to deal with any uber/taxi's.

Moving forward

I have mom scheduled to move on Friday Feb 3rd. Might even push it up 2 or 3 days earlier. But mostly a Friday sounds good to me. Then I have the weekend to decompress a bit and also go in and check on her (if they recommend this. I have read some places like the family to wait a bit while they settle in).This moving service sounds awesome. They basically do it ALL. The lady is very familiar with where she lives now and where she's moving. She even assists with "space planning" as she knows what will fit in those memory care rooms. I'm having them do it ALL. She will stop by mom's place in the next couple of days to see what she has, plus I told her what I for sure want to move over (bed, nightstand, recliner, lamps, etc).

She said packing, moving the stuff over (like a block) and setting up her room will take half a day. Then they will come back to her old apartment and totally clean it out for me. Take to donations whatever I do not want to keep/take with me. Basically, the only thing I have to do is just take mom and keep her busy until her new room is ready. Everything else will be taken care of by this mover. This will be so much easier than I was envisioning, especially I was trying to figure out how to get all the remaining stuff out of her apartment (it would take several trips to Goodwill in my car). I am so relieved. I told dd I really don't think she needs to fly over here to help me. This moving lady will by my "dd" for the day, haha. I think I've decided to just let the little antique loveseat go. Neither dd or I want it. The moving lady said they can also take it and try to sell it for me, so I will probably do that.

I explained mom has a big, long dresser that I think might be too big for the new room. She agreed it probably will. There is a built in shelves in her new room, on the wall between her closet and the bathroom door. She said a lot get small baskets (like from Target) and use those for items like socks, underwear, etc. and put the baskets in the built in shelves. I also told her mom has this small 3 bin plastic "cabinet" that would probably work well to put on the floor in her closet and put those things in and she said definitely. 

The doctor appointment was pretty much a waste of time. No answer really. She and I both agreed it's also a bit hard to know 100% since I'm getting it 2nd hand from caregivers that are only with her a very short portion of her days. She said she thinks it's just due to her later stage Alzheimer's now, it's common for them to not know when they need to use the bathroom. I said yes, I realize that, but why the daily diarrhea/loose stools? the alzheimers causes that? Well....yes....no...maybe....we don't know if mom is having normal one to two a day bm's or if she is having this multiple times a day. She's not presenting any other common symptoms like colitis, c-diff. She's having no stomach pain, no fever, no blood in stools. She then said she could have us do stool samples to test, but that would involve K or the other ladies to have to try to get a stool sample and deal with all that. I then, in as few words as possible, so mom didn't really know what I was talking about, told the dr that I am putting her in memory care in 3 weeks. I said let's just wait until then and they are more equipped to deal with getting a stool sample, if it's necessary. I then pressed to ask is there something I can give her now, at least for the time being, to help with the diarrhea and she said like Imodium was ok to try, so we stopped at the drugstore and I picked some up and left up in mom's top kitchen cupboard shelf and let K know to start giving one with her other pills, Hopefully this will at least help lessen the mess she is making, until I can get her moved.

It was a good Amazon delivery day! A bunch of stuff I ordered from my gift cards came all at once. It was nice that they actually put like 5 or 6 things in one box! In it's own box was my new Keurig Supreme coffee maker. Yay! But my current reusable kcups don't work in this model as it's a multi stream, so I just had to order reusable kcups for it and now will wait a week for that, LOL. The only kcup pods I have are for a decaf that I use every so often. I'm waiting to get the new reusable kcups before I get rid of my old keurig.

I received the new kitchen throw rug I ordered. Cat approved. It's really soft. Just needs the folds flattened out of it, hopefully it will flatten after awhile.

And then to add to his stamp of approval he went upstairs and brought his mouse toy down

I also received the cover for my new ipad, which seems really nice. It even came with a cloth to wipe the screen

And last but not least, this cute set of bathroom "holders".

The toothbrush holder will be easy to clean, just put the jar in the dishwasher. One of the little jars with the twine on it I can use for qtips. I think the other is for like cotton balls, but I really don't use those. Trying to think what I could use the other small jar for. Maybe I'll repurpose it for some other area of my house, or the guest bathroom. The whole set was only $18.

Ok, I think mom is ok this morning and is down at breakfast now. Praying for an uneventful day so I can get some work done and not stress (as much ha!). I'm glad my job/boss is so accommodating, one less thing to stress about (though I still do to some extent, just a work ethic thing, I guess)

The tour

It was a very productive day yesterday and I am glad I ended up making the appointment to tour the memory care facility earlier in the day. Dh went in with me, too. The wait is over - what do you know, they have an available room - 2 rooms in fact, or it might have even been 3! (one was being fixed up, not ready yet). The only rooms available are the ones with a shared bathroom in between 2 rooms. He said the private bath rooms (which they don't have as many of) are like a year wait, which of course we cannot wait. Honestly, at this point I don't think it will make a difference to mom. 

It's a very nice place, nicer/newer than where she currently lives and much nicer than the assisted living place I toured last June. And it better be nice for the monthly cost! But, I had already done my research and expected this. He took us back to where the memory care section is. Fully secure and also has it's own entrance around the block for when visiting. It's kind of an open concept space. A big open area with the rooms on each side, no hallways to deal with. The open area is kind of broken up into areas, dining, activities, sitting lounge. Of course the "studios" are not very big at all, about 20x10 (not including the bathroom). He then said maybe he can show us one of the residents rooms all furnished and decorated to give us an idea, it was next to an available room. The lady was the absolute sweetest and was happy to show us her room. So nicely decorated and homey. She held a conversation quite normally and both dh and I were thinking "she needs to be here?" but like dh said later, 15 minutes later we could have probably went back and she wouldn't have remembered talking to us. I decided to take that room, knowing she'd be sharing a bathroom with someone so sweet, like my mom is sweet. I think they will get along great. Plus the room is down at the back end, so kind of a bit quieter area, where her door isn't opening right into the dining area or a busy area. And the bedroom window view is nicer than the first room he showed us, that looked into the little parking lot.

I think he said there are 20 residents capacity in the memory care part. Each residents care is customized to their needs. He said for example, the lady we saw her room, she has never liked breakfast all her life and likes to sleep in, so that's what they do for her. DH was a little worried about sharing a bathroom/privacy. He said they had one family that was insistent their dad needed a private room and was on the waiting list for one, but came to the point they had to take a shared bath room and then planned to move him into a private as soon as one was available. When it became available they changed their mind and said he's doing fine with it, no need to change.

He also gave me the cards of a moving company that specializes in moving seniors. It sounds like they will take care of so much of it, right down to figuring out what of her current furniture will fit in the new space and getting it all set up. They are also set up with a nearby geriatrician MD who comes in to do house calls. I will definitely switch mom to using this doctor. Incontinence supplies can either be supplied by family or I can chose to have them do it. I chose to have them do it.

Knowing we lived out of the city, he then offered that the lady that does the assessment of the resident prior to moving in could do it right then if I wanted. Perfect, let's get that done while I'm in town, rather than having to make another trip in. He and the nurse met me over at mom's place, which was nice and easy. When I got there she had just come out in to the lobby area after having lunch. I was signing in and waved at her and she waved, but she did not realize it was me, until I actually went right over to her. Once the memory care guy and gal got there we were just able to go sit down in a little room nearby with some tables and chairs and the lady started asking her questions. None of which she could answer or if she did her answer was wrong. If the lady had just gone off of mom's answers she wouldn't even need care at all, LOL.

Moving in will be at least a couple of weeks away, and since I'm out of town for 4 1/2 days in 2 weeks, it's going to be at least 3 weeks out. Just depends on when the movers can do it.

AND UGGGHHH! K just texted me and yet again she has had a bathroom accident...it's all just diarrhea and K asked if she's had her colon/bowels checked out before and I said not that I'm aware, not since she moved here almost 3 years ago. She said since she's been caring for her and occasionally sees her have a bm (like shower days) she's now realized her stools have always been very soft or liquid. Something is going on. So, I just called her dr and we have an appt for 3pm. At a minimum get her something to help firm up her stools and also figure out what is causing it.  And schedule a carpet cleaner again.......

Busy day

I decided to email the guy at the memory care place early this morning to see if it would be possible to schedule the tour a little bit earlier today, so instead of 1:45 it's at 11:45. So, I'll do that first, then go see mom, then go pick up groceries at as close to 2pm when they are ready, rather than 3pm and at least get us back home 45min to an hour earlier than planned. Want to get home before it's dark. DH will at least want to spray off the road chemicals from the car and if time, just wash it before he puts it back in the garage.

I missed getting my Walmart order changed to an hour earlier by just a few minutes. I was online first thing this morning and still had the option to change it. By the time I made up my mind what I was doing, it was too late. This is where I like the Albertsons, where it's not a set hour block of time. I called the store directly to see if there was a way to pick it up an hour earlier and I was told no, but that usually the orders are ready about 15 min before the hour time slot, so let's hope that is the case today. 

I really liked T'Pol's suggestion for questions I should ask at the memory care facility tour of what is the residents typical day like. That will give me a good idea what her time there will be like. When I toured that assisted living place last June, next door to where mom is now, it was like the place was empty. I hardly saw anyone there, kind of weird now that I think about it. 

And of course, as we're due to leave in about a half hour, it's started snowing LOL. It wasn't even supposed to snow at all today, one of the reasons I picked today for my appointment and errands.

I'll be back with an update on how the memory care tour went.

Trying Tuesday

oy vey! what a mess work has been the past 2 days. The power was lost at the office yesterday morning. It did not get back on until 1am and then apparently part of our server was fried. Today is payroll processing day, but I'm able to log into our payroll portal from my personal desktop, as well as get my work email via the web, so I am getting it processed. 

On the homefront we got 2-3 inches of snow late yesterday afternoon/early eve. Dh decided to wait until this morning to shovel and plow..I'm taking bets on if he plows down the road to young neighbors.....ok, well it appears he did not! Good for him...though I'm sure it's eating him up inside and he's telling himself what a jerk he is. I asked him after he got back inside and he said no, he didn't plow anything past our driveway. and yes, he feels like a bad neighbor.

We are going into the city tomorrow around lunch time. I have decided to get my grocery order from Walmart. There are a few things they have that Albertson's doesn't carry and I want to get stocked back up on those. Plus I decided to do a complete price comparison for my order. Like for like, as much as possible. If it's Walmart store brand I chose Albertson's store brand. The difference was $48. So, definitely worth going back to Walmart, even if the wait time is sometimes longer. 

The notable differences were sure huge on a few items. Eggs! Holy moly! An 18 pack of Albertson's store brand eggs was $7.49. Walmart 18 pack was $2.74. Pillsbury crescent rolls. Walmart carries the 2 pack for a total of $5.68. Albertson's doesn't have the 2 pack but buying 2 tubes of crescent rolls would cost $9.98, they are $4.99 per tube. A can of spaghettio's is $2.49 at Albertson's and $1.24 at Walmart. A bag of store brand 1b of mixed frozen veggies is $2.49 at Albertsons and .88 at Walmart.

Plus I save an additional 5% charging it to my Walmart credit card. I was getting an equivalent of 4% back at Albertsons, as I was getting 2% back on the credit card I was using and another 2% from Rakuten (I think it was that, something was giving me 2% more). But, on say $500/mo groceries, it's still $5 more savings at 1%. The only thing I really want at Albertsons is this frozen "herb and butter" salmon I had started getting that we both really really like. Of course Walmart doesn't carry it. So, I'll probably have dh pull in Albertsons so I can quickly run in and get like 4 boxes of it. I can't find anything similar at Walmart. 

I see my new Keurig finally shipped yesterday. 

Mom's caregiver K has not been there this week (she's usually Sat-Tues) and the new gal she trained has been coming. From what I can see/hear on the camera when I watch the little clips, she is super nice and friendly. Seems very much like K. And apparently mom had another "bathroom accident" during the day yesterday. I won't go into details no one wants to hear, but at least it was not near as bad as before she was wearing depends....but how her brain does not register what is going on is so hard to fathom. But it's very common. I had checked in on the camera mid afternoon and see she's in a nightgown and was like ? Did she put it on herself? I'm sure the new gal (L) got her dressed in the morning. Well, L got back to the facility around 4:30 to start her evening shift so K had her go check on her then (rather than waiting to go after dinner, when she does for her meds) and discovered the bathroom accident, so mom had just took off her depends and pants and put on her nightgown. I sure hope a room is available at the memory care place soon. I just know when I am gone for my 4 1/2 day trip at the end of the month I'm going to be having to deal with stuff 500 miles away.

Ok, I got payroll done, but there's really not much else I can do, since I can't access my work desktop. I think I'll go back to watching the excel spreadsheet youtube tutorial I've been watching. It's like 5 hours. I've learned a couple of short cut tricks so far. 

I'm trying to put together a list of questions I'll have for the memory care place, but I'm sure there are things I'm not thinking to ask. I'm still trying to decide what to tell mom about the move when it happens. I really think the only hardest part will be what to do with her during the actual time of getting her stuff over to the new place and set up. That could take a few hours, I'm guessing. I will be hiring movers to come and take the stuff I am moving over (which will probably only be half her stuff, really). I'll probably either have dd just be with her somewhere and me in her current place telling the movers what to take. Then meeting them over there to get it put in her room and then try to get her room set up as much as possible before bringing her over. I'm hoping maybe dd can bring her over and the staff will "take her" for a bit, do an activity or something, while dd and I can get her new room set up.  Then after we can leave her, the next day or so dd and I can then get her old apartment cleaned out on our time. We'll just be throwing out stuff or taking stuff to Goodwill. I'll probably be only taking a 1/3rd of all the clothes she has in her closets.

I know it won't really matter what I tell my mom is the reason for the new place, she won't remember and will likely keep asking. But, I'm thinking that I'm just going to tell her that her old place upped the rent a whole bunch so this place is cheaper (HA!, no, it's like more than double) and she will very much agree to that because she has always been about saving money. It will just be easier to keep telling her over and over "this place doesn't cost as much as your old place". My other idea is to just tell her we moved her to this new place so they can help her with her memory. She would also go along with that, too. But, honestly, I'm really only stressing about the actual day of moving, LOL.

Power out Monday

I'm not feeling tackling Monday yet, but here it is. Funny, I had posted about just buying something for my niece's baby gift and Saturday evening dd messaged me with a link to niece's Amazon baby registry she just set up (on her due date! LOL). Yesterday I picked out a couple of things to have sent to her. I told dd life is so much easier now. In the old days I would have had to make time to go to a store and find something to pick out. Then I would have had to make a trip to the post office to mail it. And in the "old days", where we used to live, you had to stand in line at that post office a good half hour because the line was always to the door, every day all day. This way I was done in 5 minutes. I also realized I needed to add another category to my expenses spreadsheet: Gifts. 

I did have a short phone chat with my mom yesterday. She seems good, though of course the chats are just very superficial. Her mind just remembers the way to make small talk. Weather (and even then she has no idea what the weather is doing LOL), general observations, etc. If I ever try to ask her something specific, she can never answer something like that now.

We got a tiny skiff of snow, not enough to make dh plow, haha.  The sky is looking like it could snow more, but the weather report says not until 5pm.

I thought I was going to be able to do another checking account bonus offer for $300 but then it turns out you have to live in one of the 13 states for this bank and they are all back east. It would have been a really easy $300 to earn, too. Oh well.

Dh and I had a good laugh over this youtube funny video. I'm so sick of all politicians, LOL. They all only care about themselves, their power and their money, no matter which side they are on. Even our local small county is ridiculous. DH watches the weekly meetings that are recorded. There has been one or two citizens who literally take over every meeting. It's beyond ridiculous. I have been to large county commissioner meetings where we used to live. They are run professionally and they are in charge. They deal with what's on the agenda and only those on the agenda get to talk and the citizens can talk during the "open comment" and they get 3 minutes to say what they want to say. That's it. No more. And the council can respond or not, their choice. Our county meetings have been a joke for the past couple of months. I will watch bits of it while dh is watching and I'm just like OMG - why don't they take charge of their own meetings?! There are only 3 commissioners for our county. One is new. Finally, at the meeting last week the other 2 commissioners agreed to put the new lady in charge of the meetings as "chair" and they finally told the citizens if they are not on the agenda they don't get to speak and they can speak for 3 minutes at the end during "open comments". It's about time. The one "citizen" threw a fit, LOL.

Laugh

The power went out at my main office, so I can't work. No one can. So far it's been out over an hour. Gave me time to work on side job year end stuff. I'm almost caught up for them. I just need to post their credit card transactions.

I was literally just starting to look up the phone number for the memory care place to call and see if I could schedule a tour this Wed afternoon and the guy called me. Somehow he had me on the schedule for this afternoon later? I never set up an appt back at the end of November when I first talked to him and sent the deposit. I said I just wanted to wait and schedule it after the New Year. Anyway, he said Wed at 1:45 is fine, so that will get done on our trip into the city.

Getting to-do's done

My to do list yesterday ended up with 7 items. 5 actually got done, 1 got "deleted" and one still needs to get done. The 3 main things that did get done were I washed our sheets, cleaned out my fridge and cleaned out the litter box (dumped out all the litter and added fresh). The one I deleted was making banana bread. I looked at the recipe and it called for 2 eggs....well I only have like 3 eggs left and have not gotten any eggs from my chickens in at least 2 days. I probably won't be going to the store for 2-3 more days. The one still to do is find somewhere to put my new king sized Christmas quilt and the huge tree skirt. For now they are sitting on top of a guest bed, LOL.

I also worked some more on cleaning out some old papers and files from my desk drawers and file cabinets. I'm a "piler", so over time I typically end up with little piles of papers on my desk, then I get annoyed and put them into one big pile and then start new piles. Then when I get super annoyed, or usually want my desk cleaned up quickly for some reason, I'll take the piles and just stick them in a drawer or cabinet under my desk. Friday I went thru a cabinet in my desk. It's really to store the computer CPU unit out of sight, I think, so it's deep and tall. I just have papers and folder and misc stuff piled all the way up. I now have it piled less than halfway in there, throwing out a whole kitchen sized garbage sack of unneeded papers/junk. Yesterday, I decided to look in my 2 separate filing cabinets and see what could go. First I was thinking "I need to buy another filing cabinet". Then I said, no, look and see what you can now dump. Well, I was able to empty out most of one drawer and part of another. For some reason I had kept hanging onto the "employee" folders from all the employees dh had over the years when he was self employed. Their application "packet" and misc papers. Literally going back 20+years and the "newest" being back in like mid 2000's. Boy, their ss# were on so many different pages. We all sure used ss#'s for everything back then. Rather than shred it all (I wasn't in the mood to shred the equivalent of a whole drawer of files) I just went thru the pages and blacked out ss# with a sharpie pen. Into another garbage sack they go and now I have filing space! There was also still several old folders of business expenses from dh's last year of his company. It's been plenty long enough to get rid of those now, way past the 7 years you are supposed to keep tax records. I still have more to go through and a big bin in a closet with papers that can most likely go too. My goal is to get rid of a bag per week over the next few weeks.

Oh good grief - so K has been training this new lady and looks like yesterday we her first day on her own. She was the one who came in again this morning to wake mom up. All's I heard on the short camera clip as she went into mom's bedroom was "oh, maybe we need to just have your breakfast brought up this morning". I'm sure she is fine! 99% of the time, if they wake her up, she will say, as an "excuse" as to why she is still in bed is "oh, I just wasn't feeling that well this morning, so I'm not up yet". It's just something she says, 99% she is not sick. Get her up and dressed and she is fine 5 minutes later. I'm sure being new, this lady doesn't know this, hasn't figured it out yet. So, it's almost 8:30 and I see mom sitting in her chair (she did get her dressed) waiting for them to bring up her breakfast, I guess. If it happens again, I'll have to say something to K, so she can tell this new gal this is just something mom says, out of habit. It's like she doesn't like getting "caught" still in bed, so out of old habit or something just says she isn't feeling well.

And yesterday afternoon I checked in on the camera and was SO confused as to what in the world was going on! Just as I turned the camera on (it also has sound, but not the best if the sound is farther away) mom is walking towards her door. I can hear someone outside her door talking loudly (the elevator is just outside her door). Mom opens up her door and I hear whoever is talking still talking loudly, almost sounding a bit upset, but I can't make anything out. It kind of sounds like mom said something too, then she walked out and the door shut. I could still hear that other woman talking loudly and then a mans voice. Then mom's door opens up (this all happened in like 5 seconds) and she walks in with 2 firemen! Mom is talking, but absolutely nothing she is saying is making any sense so that I can figure out what is going on. Just her incomplete sentences that don't tell me (or them) anything. The two firemen didn't really say anything either except it appeared they may have looked out her living room window. I didn't have that camera view on. Then they left just as quick as they were there. I have zero idea what that was all about. I knew if I called her to ask, it would just be more of the same incomplete sentences telling me nothing. "they were just here....for that..um...you know...I can't remember what it's called....but...".

Dh stayed busy part of the day putting down the transition strip that goes between the laminate hard flooring and the carpet, in the bonus room. They carpet guy told him to put that down before they lay the carpet. It sure seemed to take longer than I thought it would, LOL, but he got it done. Probably harder because it's actually 3 pieces he had to cut angles into. The flooring just doesn't go straight across the room in one straight line. He has it angling around the bar area.

I went out to the coop again this morning when I got up and turned the light on in the outside part of the coop. I'm really hoping these "longer" days with more light will get them back in production mode. I need some eggs! 3 or 4 eggs a week total, out of 3 chickens ain't cuttin' it! When it got light enough I went back out and turned it off and brought them some old bread to snack on.

We haven't had anymore snow in a week or so, so no opportunity to see if dh is going to stick to his guns and not plow the street all the way down to the last lot where the young neighbors live. It really needs to snow so we can get that over with, one way or the other, LOL. It needs to snow, he needs to NOT plow for them and that's that.

UPDATE: ok I think I may have figured out the reason for the firemen yesterday and mom not going down for breakfast. So, I've been watching the camera to see if her breakfast got brought up (breakfast is from 8-9am) and still nothing. Then one of the ladies that works downstairs just stopped in and said "I'm just checking to make sure you got your breakfast?" Mom says "oh....I think so?". The lady is looking around at her table and kitchen counter to see if the breakfast containers are around as evidence and mom says "isn't anyone getting their breakfast?" and the lady says "well, the elevator doesn't work". oh!! that must be why the firemen were there and also why the new caregiver said her breakfast will be brought up! 

Slow and easy Saturday

In trying to incorporate more fish into my diet, on my last shopping trip I bought some frozen/pre-seasoned salmon to try. Each box has 2 fillets and I got 2 boxes. Last weekend I made it for our dinner, along with some rice and it was really good. DH even said he loved it. I'm going to make it again tonight and make sure to buy some more on my next grocery order.

I see on this mornings "mom cam" that the new lady is working this morning. She seems nice and friendly. It's so strange that mom has no memory of these caregivers. One of them can literally walk out the door after giving her meds after dinner and I'll call her and she has no memory they were just there and is always like "who?".

I was so tired all day yesterday. No idea why. I even quit work a whole 15 minutes early, LOL. Plus as the day wore on my right shoulder started aching and it hurt to lift my arm above my shoulder. Again, no idea why. It's a little better this morning. All week my neck has been bothering me. I decided it was time to you my neck adjuster thingy dd got me 2 Christmas's ago. It has really helped before. But I couldn't find it! I thought I remember putting it in my bathroom linen cabinet but didn't see it. Looked around for 2 days. Finally, when I was done working yesterday I decided to look in the linen cabinet better and found it, in the back, under some hand towels. I used it for about 10 min last evening and will do it again today. It already feels better this morning, so that is good.

Being so tired, I just made us some chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. Then I went and took a short nap. I didn't really fall asleep, which I'm surprised, but it felt good to just lay down and close my eyes awhile.

I just made myself a little to do list today. I tend to procrastinate and then forget what I was going to do. They aren't major things but do need to get done. So far in tracking my variable expenses I had only spent $31 this month. This morning my credit card shows an Amazon charge for $5.35. How is that possible? I've been using the gift card $. Finally I found that it was a small part I ordered for dh back in December and it's just now shipping, so my card didn't get charged until now. Speaking of Amazon my coffee maker and ipad case still have not shipped. Annoying.

While making my cup of coffee this morning, I noticed there is 2 over ripe bananas, so I think I'll also get some banana bread made today. We haven't had that in quite awhile.

I'm going to be a great aunt any day. Well "half" great aunt. My half sister's youngest daughter is due to have her baby any day now. She's the same age as my daughter. They do not know if it will be a boy or girl, and I love that. Everyone wants to know these days. We chose not to know for our 2 kids  and I liked being surprised. I thought for sure dd was going to be another boy, LOL. Now I'm so glad she was not, haha. DD had asked her cousin if she was registered for baby gifts and I asked my sis if she was, but apparently not. (they are in Canada). I really wanted to send something. Maybe I'll see if there is something I can order on Amazon and have sent to her directly. 

Ok, well time to go check off one of my to-do's. When I got up this morning at 7am I went out and turned the chicken coop light on, just trying to see if giving them some additional light will get them doing some eggs again. Now it's light out and needs to be turned back off. And dh is now up.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Carpet and bras

The carpet guy came yesterday (right on time, this time, ha!) and got the bonus room measured. He said he'll email me the quote this morning and said it's takes about 2 weeks to get the carpet in, after ordering, and another week or two probably to schedule the installer. This is the carpeting I picked out

So, hopefully in the next month I'll have a carpeted bonus room, finally. 

Linda asked to see a picture of the cute copper pitcher dd picked up for me. It will be cute with neighbors fresh flowers in it, during the summer.

The 3 items I ordered from Amazon last Saturday, still have not shipped. What the heck?! I want my new coffee maker and ipad cover, LOL.

K texted me yesterday that it appears my mom could use a couple more bras as she only has 2. I could have sworn she had at least 3. Every time I have dug around in her dresser looking for keys, wallet, etc, I thought I'd see at least 2 bras (plus she had one on), but I guess not. I asked her if by chance there is a size tag still on either one as I have no clue what size she is anymore. All I remember is from when I was young and she was always a 36B and I know she isn't that anymore! Luckily there was a size still showing and it's 42C, LOL. Now I just have to figure out what bras to get for her. I'm 99% certain hers are not underwire in them. I think K is doing her laundry tomorrow so I will ask if there is also a brand name on them. I think I'll try to order them from Kohl's, that way I can add on getting something for me with my $10 Kohl's cash and the order will be big enough for free shipping. I wish I could just order stuff to be shipped to her apartment, so it gets to her sooner, but I know it would just end up most likely lost. Speaking of bras....and breasts...when I was really little, like 3 yrs old or so, I thought breasts were called "hearts"....because back then there were the commercials on tv for the "cross your heart" bras, LOL.

I'm also trying to figure out when is the next best day to go in to see her. I got an email notification from her online pharmacy that her 90 days meds are being shipped and I'd hoped they'd be here by the end of this week, but it appears they weren't due to ship out until like yesterday and won't be here until later next week. Plus, now I'll have bras arriving next week too. I wanted to go in to see her Sunday or Monday, but maybe I'll try to push it out until later next week. Plus, I still need to get a tour of that memory care place scheduled sometime in the near future. And just got a postcard it's time for the cats annual vet visit.  And mostly I just don't want to go anywhere, LOL.

Let's try yesterday again today

A lady from the carpet place called me around 3:30 yesterday afternoon. She said the guy just realized he got busy and forgot about our appointment at 1 o'clock. She wanted to know if Thurs at 1pm would be ok and I said, yes that's fine. She also said she may be coming with him, as she's learning how to do the measuring, etc. I said no problem! LOL. I'm sure now with 2 of them knowing the appointment they won't forget, haha. So, hoping they make it out today.

I did up a little expense tracking spreadsheet for this year. Let's see if I can make it work and actually get all my expenses recorded. I just want to track all my variable expenses and get a better idea what we are spending a month - especially on misc stuff, that half of it probably isn't even really necessary. I also want a better idea of what we are spending a year on house and yard maintenance. So far, 5 days into the year I have only made 2 purchases. One is for a decor item that dd was out shopping, sent me a picture of, and I told her to get it for me. $16.39 (cuz she has sales tax where she is LOL). It's all her fault. I payal'd her the money. She got home with another picture of the cute little copper pitcher sitting on her kitchen counter and said "oh, that looks cute on my counter" I said, you can't have it, I already paid for it, LOL. The other is $4.39 I spent yesterday. Dh got a gift certificate for $50 to an auto detailing supplies store. He wanted to order another of their nice big drying towels. It was $44 and shipping was like $18. Geez! Plus he couldn't get the certificate number to work. I took it up to my computer to try and no luck. Then I finally realized one of the 1's that there were 3 in a row was actually an I. Plus, my shopping app on my computer did it's magic search and found a discount code for $6.75 and then the shipping was $15, so I ended up $4.39 out of pocket.

I also received a $10 Kohl's Cash this month since it's my birthday month. If I don't see a free shipping code this month I'm just not going to use it, or maybe I'll take it with me when I visit dd at the end of the month and we can go to a Kohl's near here and I can use it.

Usually when I travel over to work, since it's just a few days I pack really light and just take a cute paisley print small duffel bag I have. But, I'll be gone an extra day plus I know I'll also need to bring home whatever dd gets me for my birthday, so I'll have to use my regular carryon suitcase. I thought about using some of my still available Amazon gift card money to buy a new carryon. One that the wheels turn all directions, would be nice. But, I just dug out my suitcase. It fit's the carry on size, has a pull out handle and some wheels, so it will work fine. If I traveled a lot, a new one would be nice, but not for 2-3 times a year. The other thing that has been a pain with my duffel is that it's not super light, once I get it packed, and by the time I've carried it across a huge airport it's starting to hurt my back. Using this rolling suitcase will be much better, I think. I may also switch to my old purse for this trip. My new purse is a little bigger, plus the sides are pretty stiff. My old leather purse, while large sized, is soft and can squish under the airline seat easily. I also upgraded myself to a "premium" seat, so we'll see how that works out. I'll be up front and also get to deplane first, so it will be easier getting my carryon out of the overhead bin, than my usual back in the middle or back of the small plane seating. It will also be nice not to feel rushed, since I'm just heading to a hotel after I get off the plane. I'm hoping the one boss books for me just has a shuttle to take me to the hotel, then I don't have to mess with getting a taxi or uber/lyft. I'm already exhausted just thinking about it all, LOL

Waiting Wednesday

The carpet guy is supposed to be coming at 1pm this afternoon. I haven't heard otherwise, so I am assuming we're still on his schedule for today. It's a nice sunny blue sky day of 30 degrees or so, so he won't have any issues getting here. I hope he brings the sample with him, just so I can see it in the room. If he doesn't, it's no big deal. It's an extremely neutral color, so I know it will go fine, LOL.

Mom had a bad day yesterday. She called me at 4:15pm and said "did I catch you in bed already?" She had no idea what time it was or where she was. Again, just staying at this place for awhile. I got her situated in that it was getting close to dinner time, but she had no recollection that she eats in the dining room 3 times a day. When we hung up I was still watching the camera and she started feeling in her pants pockets an said "Oh dear, I don't have money to pay". So I called her right back and said "I forgot to mention that you don't need money for dinner, it's all covered in your monthly rent". She said oh, good. I was just looking for my purse. Sometimes when K comes in the evening she has her little girl with her. On those evenings she doesn't help mom get into her nightgown she just lays it on her bed. Well, then it's 50/50 whether she actually puts it on to go to bed or not. I figured with her state of mind yesterday she would not, but she did, at least. And she did sleep all night.

I haven't gotten time to finish up this post this morning. It's now 1:35 and the carpet guy still isn't here and I haven't heard from him. Can anyone do what they say they will do anymore? LOL. I saw him put it down on their appointment calendar.

I don't have much else going on today. Hopefully the guy will show up soon.

Vacation time at an end

The vacation time is over and it's back to work today. Still working through my week's worth of emails, but almost through them. Thankfully not too bad, as many people were also off. Though first workday of the New Year and the side job's purchaser is already asking for December reports. Um....sorry! Gosh, I'm still getting info in (bank statements, etc) so I can finish it all up, but typically it takes me until mid month to get the previous month finished. And nothings happening for you today, LOL. I have my regular job to get caught up with first and foremost.

I happened to look at one of the cameras on mom yesterday early afternoon. It's the one on the shelf under her tv, also where her cable tv box is. I see her bent over in front the the tv stand, unplugging everything from behind the cable box. LOL. And she's moved the little camera so now it's just facing her door and I can't see her recliner and the cable box is blocking half of what's left I can see, because she left it out near the edge of the shelf. Then she proceeded to turn on her tv. I'm not sure how her brain can think "oh, hey, let's unplug all this and then turn the tv on and see if it works". So, I texted K and asked her to please move the camera back to where I could see her recliner, when she comes to do her meds in the evening, and also it appeared she had laid her digital clock/calendar down on her filing cabinet again. K said she'd be at the facility at 4:30 to start her rounds, so would stop in and fix and she did. I had told her not to even worry about plugging in the cable box, as she rarely watches it anyway and just keeps unplugging, but looks like she did plug the stuff back in.

I got a couple of books read during my time off and started a 3rd one yesterday. 

Do any of you have any experience using a steam type mop on laminate floors? I keep reading mixed things, yes, no, sorta....LOL. I have always hated how this "Bona" floor mop and solution (recommended by the flooring installer) cleans my floors. It's just a mop with a pad and you pour the (cold) solution into the container that attaches and squirt it out to mop. DD has laminate and uses a Bissell crosswave, but those are really expensive and don't steam the water, but apparently she does put warm/hot water in it, so that's why her floors always look so clean. I've read it's ok to use a steam mop if it's on low heat setting and you quickly mop, don't leave the steamed water on the laminate for very long. I just want cleaner floors! But I don't want to damage the laminate.

Shopping Sunday

Happy New Year! I made it through new year's eve like every other, in bed before 10pm, LOL. I see no reason to stay up, the new day/year will be here anyway. Plus I was tired from spending the day taking down and packing up all the Christmas decor. The house looks so empty for awhile without it and outside at night seems really dark without all the lights. I did manage to go through some Christmas stuff not used/broken, etc and get rid of a bag of stuff to the garbage can. Doing all that, of course, made my back hurt, but resting up will fix that.

I put in an Amazon order yesterday with some of my gift card balance. A new Keurig (yay!), a nice cover for my ipad, some fruit and veggie supplements for me, and some "bloody knuckles" hand cream for dh. SIL had some when they were here and dh used it. His fingers are just almost raw from the weather so hopefully this will help. This morning I ordered a new 3 bag hamper on rollers. The one we have is quite old and the wheels don't work. Dh is the laundry do-er, so he will appreciate a new one. I'm also looking for a new rug for in front of my kitchen sink. Too many choices, so I haven't yet decided what color/pattern yet to get. I'm leaning toward a oriental style design. Also I see some are stain resistant which would probably be best for a kitchen. I'm messy.

Surprisingly, the past 2 days conversations with mom on the phone have been good for 2 days in a row. I called her again yesterday morning and she was good and then she called me at 7pm "Just to say hi" (which she rarely does anymore) and she even said "say hi to dh" by name. The fact that she remembered his name and in the evening, when she's usually so confused, was a surprise. I see K has been training another new lady the past 2 days. She seems friendly on the camera. The other younger gal I've seen her train a couple times recently seems pretty stoic.

I just have a relaxing Sunday planned. I'm reading a book that I'll probably finish up today and have another one to get started on (both are the latest in series type books). 

The little snow we got the other nights wasn't enough that dh had to plow. It warmed up enough during the day to melt most of it off the driveway.