Mama's Big Day

Time With Grandma Peggy & Papa Millard
Katie and I got to Peggy's house in time for us to eat our Pop Tart for breakfast. I left the girlies around 10:30, in order to get our car tags renewed, visit Mom at the Nursing Home and hit Walmart before going home. I was hoping to accomplish everything before it got dark. lol.

Man, going to the courthouse at around 11:00 this morning was the best time to get your tags renewed. When I drove up, a car was pulling out of a good parking place. Alright! I just knew today was going to be a good day for me. I walked straight into the Tag and Title Division and to my surprise there was just one person in front of me. WOW! I was out and on my way in about 30 minutes. Normally, this isn't my luck.

Peggy said her and Katie had a good time, other than fighting off mosquitoes. Peggy sprayed some bug spray on Katie's legs and arms, but the bugs must of gotten a hold of her before the bug spray. She had a few spots on her, but she'll be fine. I have a feeling this is just going to be a bad year for mosquitoes and other biting insects. I saw on the news today about the big West Nile Virus scare again.

Peggy and Millard both said that Katie did very good saying "please," "thank you," and going to the potty at their house. They said that they had to threaten Katie a couple of times about telling me to take out a rock. Millard said Katie went in the other room to pout about it because she didn't want a rock out of her jar. I've noticed that the "please" and "thank you" is coming a little easier for her because at times, she doesn't know that she said it until someone points it out to her. Manners coming naturally to her, is exactly what I've been hoping would happen. I just hope she keeps it up.

Peggy said that her and Katie went to Henry's house a couple of times to check out the baby kittens. Katie loves those kittens. She says (in her high pitch voice) "their so cute." When Doug and I got to Peggy and Millard's this evening, I wanted to sit outside because it was so nice out there. At the time, Katie didn't want to go that is until I told her that there was a horse in the pasture across from Grandma and Papa's yard. She was up like a shot, ready to see the horse. Unfortunately, she thought it was a carousel horse and not a real one. Katie, Peggy and myself walked over to where the horse was at. Well, it started walking away. Luckily, it heard me calling for it and came back to check us out. Katie was having a fit. She was so excited that she wanted to pet the horse. I was afraid to pick Katie up at the time because it could spook the horse and that's usually the last thing you want to do. I just left Katie where she was and told her to stick her hand out to see if the horse will smell it. Well, she was too short and the horse didn't know she existed. Katie may not have been able to pet the horse, but she sure did enjoy watching it. When the horse had enough, it turned around and went back to his house. As it was walking off, Katie kept waving to it and telling bye. She told me as we were walking back home, how that was a nice horse and she was going to see it again tomorrow.

Visit With Mom
I got to the Nursing Home around 11:20 and couldn't find Mom right off the bat. I wasn't worried. I knew she was around there some where. In fact, I was glad to see her out of her room once again. With it being so close to lunch time, I thought she might have had lunch with Opaline in one of the Dining Halls. This Nursing Home is so big, I only know of three Dining Halls and I couldn't find Mom in any of them. Then, I remembered that she might be going through Physical Therapy. Uh Huh! As I was walking back down the hall to check out the therapy room, here she came wheeling out of the room. I announced, "there she is!" The therapists that were with her began to giggle and cheer with me. All three therapist told me how well she did today in therapy. Christy, head therapist, told me that Mom walked on this platform 22 feet. I asked if she used a walker or some help. I didn't understand it fully, only that she holds on to these handles to help pull her along. Mom told me later that she gave it her all today and that they really worked her hard. She was wiped out by the time she was done for the day. She is making the effort to moving her legs more in her bed; whereas, before she would just lie there and wait for someone to move them for her. I commented that I honestly believe, the weakness is what has held her back for so long. Think about it. When you have the flu or a real bad stomach virus, you're so weak that you don't feel like doing anything but lying on the couch. Right? Now, take that stomach virus or flu and multiple it by 10x. Wow! She's been this weak for months without hardly any break in between.

I asked Mom if she felt like going outside because it was so nice in the shade. We went out on the patio, where they have lots of rockers, and visited for a while. She had to interrupt me talking because she was getting sick. She felt that the therapy got to her more than she first thought. The nurse's assistant got Mom back in bed and turned on the air conditioning because was a little flush. She said she felt dizzy and light headed. After a little while with the air blowing on her, she got to feeling much better. I sat and talked to her while she ate her lunch (cup of vegetable soup, cup of peaches & ice tea). I kept asking her if she needed my help to feed her. She said no and that she didn't feel as weak feeding herself like she did weeks ago. I watched her pretty close, feeding herself. She did great, I thought. She ate all of her soup and peaches. The only thing I helped her with was to cut up her peaches.

Mom got a perm since the last time I saw her, which was Thursday. She looked so pretty. She is still having problems with her eyes. Apparently, her eyes have gotten worse since the surgeries. She can't see out her regular prescription glasses and we had her try Doug's 3+ strength glasses to see if it helped. Well, she told me today that she still can't see with the glasses. I asked her how we were going to get her an eye appointment in order to get a new prescription. Neither one of us had any idea.

I was so thrilled to hear Mom say that she was going to the 7:00 Bible Study group tonight. YES! Thank you God! She still acted like she really didn't want to go, but Opaline kept talking to her about it and insisted on her attending. I told her, I thought it was a great idea and that way Opaline could introduce Mom to other ladies, that didn't seem so crazy.

Gas Prices
My gas gage in the truck was showing slightly under 1/2 a tank. I get nervous if my gas tank gets under a 1/2 tank. I felt like I had to fill up. Like normal, I put the nozzle in the tank and fixed the button on it, in order to keep the gas pumping into the tank. I wasn't really paying close attention. Next thing I know, I've got a little over 14 gallons of gas in my tank and it was showing that I just spent over $55 in gas. Ugh! I was expecting more like $45-50 at the most. The button didn't even pop up, so I know it wasn't completely full. This right here, is the very reason I can't afford to go like I use to. Now, the Disney Store is going out of business in Huntsville because I couldn't afford gas to drive there on a regular basis, like I normally did. High gas prices caused me to neglect Disney, forcing them to loose money and go out of business. Yeah, I know . . . a little too thick? Right? Oh well, it sounded good.

Movies In Review
Have you seen "Over Her Dead Body"? I rented it Saturday night and was finally able to watch it this afternoon. Oh my gosh! I laughed and laughed. I figured it would be funny, but not this funny. It's so funny how Kate (Eva) tries her best to scare off Ashley (Lake) from getting too cozy with her fiance Henry. Kate will do anything and I mean ANYTHING to get rid of Ashley for good, but then later find out how miserable Henry is without Ashley. Kate changes her mind set about Henry's happiness and tries her best to get them back together before it's too late. There are no sex scenes and the language is some what mild. If you need a good laugh, like I did, this is the movie for you. I'm tempted to buy it for our collection.

Another good movie selection is "Fool's Gold". Matthew McConaughey is in this movie - need I say more? Listen, he may stink like BO, but isn't he beautiful? Another great actress that's in this movie is Kate Hudson. I have to say this movie started out a little slow and I couldn't get past the fact that Donald Sutherland was talking in a British ascent, which by the way, DIDN'T WORK. You could tell he was forcing himself to sound British. The overall movie was good.

Last but not least, grab your Kleenex girls. "The Bucket List" is such a tear jerkier that Doug even got a little wet faced. I really liked this story, but it's sad in the end. I can't remember his name, but the sidekick off of "Will and Grace" is on this movie and he is perfect for the part. I think he is so funny. He and Jack Nicholson's sarcasm bounced off of one another causing the laughter part of the movie. It's a must see!

What Are Your Plans for The 4th of July?
At this point, I can't think about the 4th of July right now because we are syked about seeing the Blue Angels this weekend. Katie is going to love it! Whitney asked me if we were going this weekend, but I don't know if they are going yet. June and KimAnn are planning on going Saturday, so I guess we'll see them there.

On the night of 4th of July, I would like to take Katie to Smith Lake to watch the fireworks display. They always have such a great show every year. People set out in their boats on the lake, cars line the sides of the road along the lake and tons of people hang out at the park and make it an all day event for the family. Doug's really not into all of that, but maybe Katie and I can slip away and see if we could get close enough to see them and enjoy the evening.