No more sleeping late for us! It's back to school time!
...I promise I'll only go in up to my ankles!
Where have we all heard that before?
It was such a gorgeous day to day, that we took off to the beach for a late lunch and to stroll along the water. Did not anticipate going in, as it was a tad too cold for the natives.
Tourists, though, abounded. It was a picture perfect day. Hardly any waves to speak of, the water was crystal clear, not a cloud in the sky, and there was hardly any sea weed in sight.
T had a ball. 
an exact reinactment of T's school performance.... no need to scroll to the end and pause the music that's been playing for years. I've finally put an end to that. Finally, a blog you can sneak at work without risk!
Once again, it was a very Barbie christmas around here...with a few other fun things thrown in.
A new, hot game is bey blades. Basically, they are glorified spinning tops, a game that's been around for over 200 years. While marketed to the boys, girls would enjoy them too.
"They" claim that adoptive parents, especially older ones, tend to over-indulge their kids (i.e. spoil their kids rotten) by buying too many toys. Hmm, I'm not proof of that phenomenon, am I? Surely not!
The last photo is T in her new nightie, courtesy of great Aunt Connie. Fits perfectly!
Dot, T, and I did meals on wheels again, and delivered xmas dinner to my parents and our Aunt. It was like 3 christmas's in one day! While at my parents house (who have sidewalks), T took off on her bike to ride around the block, with her old mom huffing and puffing after her. Literally, the kid can FLY on that thing.
Of all the presents, T announces that her favorite toy is her Barbie horse and carriage.
We were pretty much dancing on tables, fooling around with hoola hoops, and otherwise spreading christmas cheer.
Not much happening around here. Its just plain quiet. the reason for that is b/c aunt dot took T off to Disney on Sunday. They are there through Wednesday.
The house is quiet.
The house is neat.
I get to watch what I want on TV
I get to blast my music.
I'm not quite sure what to do with myself.
Reports from disney are that they are having a ball.
I've been doing some christmas shopping and wrapping, all without a little curious person sticking her nose in anything.
Taylor's Christmas Show was this morning. Directly after announcements the whole school filed outside to the basketball courts to see the show. The show lasted all of about 10 minutes, and as far as I'm concerned, basically starred Taylor.
I'm not kidding!
This first picture shows the three french hens. only the first and 6th graders participated. The rest of the school and interested parents got to watch.
This second picture shows the 3 french hens, the 2 turtle doves, the partridge and the pear tree. Each time in the song that they said their name, the kids would step forward and do a little dance.
Four boys were the five golden rings. All from the first grade. They were all dressed up in suits and ties. Everytime it was their turn, they would step forward, go down on one knee, and offer up their golden ring. Too cute for words.
The reason I say the show starred Taylor, is that the first thing that happened was she was put on the microphone between the 8 maids a milking and the 7 swans a swimming, and proceeded to read St. Anthony's Charity prayer. Out loud and with lots of feeling.
The show then commenced, and then they had her do the prayer again to close the show. Both times is was so surprised, that I didn't get to film the whole thing. I'll post portions of the show when I can upload them to utube.
At the end of the show, T walked off away from all the kids and her class with the principal, headed toward the main building of the school. T reports she went to the office, so that she could recite the prayer to all the ladies in the office.
That's my girl...first grade and already kissing up to the principal. and with no urging from mom either! Its just innate!
What a fun morning!
Saturday was the annual breakfast with Santa at T's school. It also includes a DJ blasting fun holiday songs, Santa driven in on a Firetruck by hot firemen and paramedics, and the big hit....snow.
This year they got smart, and had two big mounds of snow for the kids to play in. Here's a few pictures of T whooping it up in the snow. Of course, it all degenerated into a big snowball fight that went on for about an hour or two, until finally someone tried to put a stop to it. Unsuccessfully.
If you look closely, you might spot T's love Daniel. Who can guess which one he is?
On the homefront, my mom has bounced back fabulously with my dad home. Its truly a miracle. She is off crisis care and back to her old self. Still a sick lady, but better.
Knock on wood, buy my dad is basically cooperating at the moment. Taking his meds, and has not tried to go out driving (I have his keys). But he hasn't even tried. So far, so good.
Tomorrow, T has a field trip with her school. They are all going by schoolbus to see the play Annie. She is very excited. While she went on field trips with summer camp, this is her firstschool event.
We then have a girl scout meeting tomorrow evening. I've cleaned out my cabinets of canned food to donate to the poor. We'll get a patch for that!
T has chosen to be one of the three french hens in her school xmas play.
Thank god for amazon, is all I have to say.
It all came tonight, and fits perfectly!
Nothing like having you dad in a nursing home right in the heart of South Beach, literally 1 block from the beach. When we arrived to take him home, they wanted another few hours to get him showered and dressed. So, we walked over to the beach and had a delish lunch at Nikki Beach. Also had a delish Mojito.
T had a fab time at the beach. We walked out to it. It was really a bit too cool for the beach, but some die hard tourists were laying out. The beach itself was quite rough and surfers abounded. T had a blast running along the shoreline, chasing the water as it receded and letting it chase her as it rolled up on the beach. She particularly like the "sudsy" water.
We observed a few jellyfish lingering in the seaweed, and she got to finally see one in real life.
We got my dad home without incident. So far.
We shall see what the future holds.
Meanwhile, my mom is doing OK, and may actually be discharged from the 24 hour crisis care on Monday if she continues to eat and drink as she was doing yesterday and today.
I'm exhausted and off to bed. Night all!
Well, Icolene returned from 2 days off, and demanded we get dad home. She says mom is less responsive every day. I do note that whenever I have been there the past few days, she has been asleep. Might wake up for a bit, then back to sleep.
So, I went over the the nursing home to begin discharge proceedings. I'll pick him up at the end of the day. We shall see how this all goes. I don't have high hopes at all for him to be able to deal with this and the aides in the house. So, we probably won't be able to go to the basket extravaganza at t's school this evening, as we will be dealing with him.
On an upnote, the parent teacher conference we extremely well. I have often thought T is extremely smart. But then, all parents think their kids are brilliant. That's how it should be. But even given that, I've thought she was particularly smart. Well, the teach confirmed it. So nice to get validation from an unbiased 3rd party!
T is excelling in all areas in school. The kids like the valadictorian of her class, if first grade had such a thing. I'm thrilled and thank god that T's studies is one area of my life that I don't have to worry. If I had to do all kinds of reviews with her at night, I think you'd have to put me in a looney bin, too.
So that's it. Plumber coming this morning, so I will be broke by the afternoon.
Yep, its officially started. This friday we have a xmas celebration at Taylor's school. This will be our 3rd year attending. We visit t's classroom, eat dinner under a big party tent on the school grounds, and then bid on gift baskets that parents have donated. Its called the Basket Extravaganza. Let's just say that T enjoys it much more than Dot and I.
I was also informed that T's class is putting on The Twelve Days of Christmas at the school xmas play. The kids in her class will sing the song, and apparently act out the parts. T has chosen to be a French Hen. I have been informed that she must dress as a french hen. Basically a chicken costume wearing a can can dress. Why they couldn't inform us of the need for a costume a month ago when all the halloween costumes were on sale, I'm not quite sure. However, all I have to say is thank god for Amazon.
As I type this, quickly speeding to me courtesy of 3 - 5 day shipping is: a black long sleeved leotard, pink tights, a pink pettiskirt (google it and you'll see one), a headband with feathers that stick straight up, and a feathered mask/beak. Cant wait to see what she will look like in this get up.
My slightly older than one year water heater is not working properly. I think one of the heating elements has blown. We've been taking showers at dot's house, my mom's house, and finally at home here tonight. Plumber comes friday to fix it.
I dropped by 2 mo old iphone in a glass of diet coke, as I was sitting in my car. It was destroyed. Luckily, I had the foresight to buy the insurance on the thing. I only had to pay 50 bucks for a new one, vs. 400 (since I won't be eligible for an upgrade discount for another 22 months).
My mom is back in 24 hour crisis care. She's not eating or drinking as she should. she's been on it for 5 days now. Its the not drinking enough that's the problem, so we're pushing liquids on her. Each day I've been over there this week, she's been asleep, which I don't think can be good. However, her vital signs are stable and there is no fluid in her lungs. We're hoping its just a phase that she will snap out of, like last time.
We're planning on liberating my dad from the nursing home next week. I may have to take off most of the week if that happens. Say a prayer that that will go OK, and once home things don't get worse. While I can't let my mom die with my dad not around, I worry very much how he will deal with the fact that she has decompensated so much lately, and the fact that there are more people in the house taking care of her. Ico and the 24 hour hospice aide all day and all night. Hopefully we can keep him medicated and he won't interfere with her treatment. I've started researching whether he will qualify for some medical equipment when he gets out....like a hospital bed and perhaps even an electric wheel chair as he doesn't have the shoulder strength to wheel himself around in one nor the shoulder strength for a walker. We shall see.
So, that's it for now.
Hi all....hope you all had a great thanksgiving. We did. We were a veritable thanksgiving meals on wheels. Do cooked up a storm, then we delivered to my mom, my aunt connie, and then to marie and john. Poor marie defrosted her turkey, opened it up first thing in the morning on thanksgiving, and discovered the thing was rotten...oy.
She sent her hubby out to buy a new one, and all he could scrounge up on thanksgiving morning was a nice, plump thanksgiving chicken. Luckily, dot had cooked an 18 pound turkey for us, so we had more than enough to bring over there in the evening.
I'd post some cute pics, but I'm having a devil of a time uploading pics to the blog. You may have noticed tha the pics from the last post have inexplicably disappeared.
On Friday, we slept in nice and late, then ventured out to the mall. Yes, we braved the mall. I scored some cute xmas clothes at gymboree. We also picked up the cutest mulan baby doll. I think dot and i were more thrilled with the little baby mulan more than T, as it reminded us both of T when she was a baby. Can't wait for T to open it.
Tomorrow, we have a bowling alley bday party to attend.
Hope you all are enjoying your leftovers!
Well, I've been a bit busy lately. T insisted on putting out xmas tree up last weekend, and pulled the thing out from under the bed and commenced to assembling the thing.
Dot came over on saturday, and we finished decorating it.
My mom continues to do OK. My dad as well in the nursing home. We're thinking we're going to be springing him from the joint in the first weeks in december, when dot is home to help.
First, though, we'll spend a day there during his rehab session, to observe how well he can walk. I've gotten a report that he's fallen there 2 times, with no injuries. Clearly his balance is still off.
Today, Thursday, will be quite the busy day for me. After dropping T off, I have to drive to north broward for a training. Then leave it early after lunch to drive back down and pick up T, to drive north to leave her with friends. I then have to go to a funeral. Mr. Dimler, the dad of friends who lived down the street growing up whom I've known since I was 3, passed away somewhat unexpectedly. He was in the hospital , released to intensive rehab due to issues of mobility and his knees, then was readmitted and died of complications from an infection. He was about 10 years younger than my parents.
Life is funny sometime. My sissy and I have basically been on death watch for the last 2 years, and its poor Mr. Dimler who the grim reaper catches up with. Never saw that one coming. Guess that's life.
Meanwhile, much excitement at T's school. Her carnival starts on Friday. We've got a wad of discount tickets, money in our pockets, and we're ready to go.
I get the joy of manning the turkey booth. That's a kind way of describing the gambling booth. Quarters are placed on numbers, and a bit wheel is spun. If it lands on your number, you win. Not sure what, though, as I don't think they will be giving out a turkey per spin. Now if my aunt connie were there, she'd pick up the rules with just one glance. have the odds all figured. As for me, it will take me a little while to figure it all out.
Hope you all have a great weekend.
