So Many Changes

I haven't written in my blog for so long, I've forgotten how to use blogspot! The past two weeks have been so hard, I decided I need to write a few things down before I forget the timeline. January 16, 2o14, Mom had a serious stroke. She had a 'mini-stroke' on December 3, and it was such a shock when it happened again. I went over about 9:30 Thursday morning, and she was sitting in her recliner, just staring out the window. She had a very 'flat affect', meaning very little expression on her face. I asked her what happened, and it took her several seconds to respond. She said she had fallen and hit her head when she got up to go to the bathroom. As she was leaving the bathroom, she fell against the doorjamb and hit the side of her head, bounced off and hit the other side of the doorjamb, again bumping her head. So there were 3 hits to the head, I thought, which could account for her behavior. I was assessing the situation and continued to talk with her, becoming more worried by the moment. I called her doctor and explained what happened, and they sent us to the emergency room. We found out that Mom had a stroke, but it was quite a shock to me when the doctor was doing a stroke assessment; she had no numbness or paralyzation on any limbs, but she couldn't see his fingers wiggling at her on the left side. He sent for a neurologist, who did a more thorough assessment, and it quickly became clear that the stroke had damaged her brain's ability to interpret the messages the left eye was sending. The doctors and nurses seem to think this damage may be permanent, which means she can no longer drive. Her swallowing was also affected somewhat, but that cleared up pretty quickly. By the next day she was returning to normal thinking and responses, which was a huge relief to me. She was very unsteady on her feet and having difficulty with her new vision problems, so I pushed to have her admitted to a good rehabilitation hospital. The doctor recommended Mountain Valley Rehab in Prescott Valley, and they moved her Friday evening. Allison drove through the night Friday night, spent a few hours sleeping at Megann's before picking me up to drive to P.V. Dear Allie stayed with Mom from Saturday until Tuesday, helping her with everything she needed except walking, the hospital was insistent that one of their employees had to be with her getting in and out of bed, to the bathroom, etc. Allison made it so much easier for Mom and for me by being there. Mountain Valley had her doing some kind of therapy 3 hours a day for 10 days, especially teaching her how to compensate for the vision problems. Tuesday January 28 I drove her from Prescott Valley to St Johns, AZ, to her new home at the Hinkson Assisted Living center. Thank goodness my cousin Marvin Haines came up from Mesa and went with me, he was so much help getting Mom in and out of the car, and even drove quite a bit. Mom decided it was time for her to live somewhere with more care available. It's really hard to see her leave here, but I know my sister Debbie will take good care of her there. Besides, 4 of Debbie's kids, and 20 grandkids live in St Johns, so Mom will have a lot more family there to spend time with her. This has been a huge adjustment for her, but she is determined to make it work out. She is an amazing woman!

Cooking, cleanin' and sewing

Lately I've been sewing, drying foods and clearing out clutter. It's nice to get things out of the house that haven't been used for a long time, and send it on to a new life with someone else. We have some great 2nd hand stores that support organizations such as St Vincent de Paul's and the Old Town Mission, so I try to send most of my things to them. Two big bags of clothing, several flower vases and even some silk flowers are off to the 2nd hand store. Right now I'm making a skylight cover for Heather's house for the front room. It's nice for the winter, but makes it really hot in the summer, so hopefully this will help. The project before that was a button-up shirt for David as a father's day gift, then an apron and pot holders for my niece, Franki's graduation. She loves to cook! I want to make me a nice caftan-style dress for casual wear around the house, but pretty enough to wear out if I want. Since it's a little too hot to do any canning, I've been drying apples, celery and next will be peppers. I want to make 'dinner in a jar' recipes. I found them on Chef Tess' blog, and they are so interesting. Done in bulk, they use freeze-dried meats, dried vegies, etc. Put together in quart canning jars, all you have to do is dump them in a pan to cook. I'll let you know how it works out.

It's been too long!

Man, I haven't written in this blog for months, so sorry! Seems I've lost my attention to Facebook, and it's games. That, holidays, sewing, family- it just distracted me for a while.

We had a wonderful visit with Dakota last month, she was here for a week before school started again. Now that Nic and Gina have moved into their own apartment, she won't be staying with us much any more. I hope to have her spend the night at least once when she comes out to visit though. I made her a pair of pajamas with my new Bernina sewing machine. Yes, I'm pretty excited, David gave me a beautiful machine that does embroidery as well as regular sewing. I've been taking the free classes to learn how to use it fully, and can't wait to start some more clothing and home decor stuff.

Whitney Houston died yesterday, it's such a shock. She was only 48, and left an 18 year old daughter behind. I don't know what happened, but it saddens me greatly, she was so talented, and her demons started taking her down a very dark path. This is what I wrote on facebook:

My thoughts on Whitney Houston's life, and death. We all have amazing talents and character flaws. Even the smallest of us has something to offer to others. No-one is perfect- Whitney had a perfect voice, and we were so happy to share her gift, but she also had flaws and challenges few knew about. Do our flaws or sins negate what we offer to the world? No, of course not, thus the joy and pain of life. The best we can do is continue to strengthen our talents and improve our weaknesses. Sometimes our dark sides overcome our strengths, but it still doesn't diminish whatever good we have brought into this world. Luckily, most of us don't have our dirty laundry aired before the whole world, and can have some dignity in our trials. Rest in peace Whitney, and thanks for your beautiful music in my life.

Busy Fall

I helped Mom drive the motor home back from Nevada last month, and we stayed with Allison for several days along the way. Whitney got tickets for Women's Conference, and we met her friend there. There's no fee, but you do have to have a ticket to get in. It was so wonderful to sit in the Conference center and listen to such inspired people speak, and share their testimonies. Thanks Whitney!

On our slow drive home we also stopped at the Barton's, and had a good visit with Sharry and Dave. He is recovering well from his terrible accident. He broke a vertebra in his back, crushed his leg, bruised the brain- when his parachute collapsed in May. It's amazing he survived, and he's already back to work. A little slower than he used to be, his leg is still healing, but an incredible comeback.

While we were traveling, I found peaches! I bought 2 boxes of fresh, yummy Utah peaches, and bottled a case, and made jam with the rest. So tasty! My niece Megan brought some apples by last week; they are from Garland's, in Oak Creek canyon. We made applesauce with them, plus a few were dried with cinnamon-sugar on them.

Happy Canada

We just returned from a trip to Canada, where we visited our friends Marcel and Fran. They live west of Edmonton, in a beautiful forested area. I mean, miles and miles of green, tall trees, deciduous and evergreen. And it rains there, a lot. When I gave blessing on the food, I expressed gratitude for the rain- when their daughter gave the blessing, she expressed gratitude for the sunshine!

We spent a week RVing in Jasper National Park. Right outside of Jasper town limits, I saw a white wolf trotting down the jogging path. During the evenings we heard shotgun blasts, but Fran told me they shoot blanks at bears to keep them out of the camping ares. Surprisingly we didn't see very much wildlife this trip- last time we saw elk, moose, mountain goats and a bear. All of the trash cans are bear-proof, even in the towns. At our campgrounds, it was obvious on several cans that bears had clawed at them, there were big ole scratch marks around the doors.

We took a boat cruise on Maligne Lake, I'll post some pics. The Columbia Ice Fields draped across the tops of the mountains next to the lake, and there were several glaciers dripping off the tops of them, one looks like a big teardrop sliding down the mountain.

Banff is quite a pretty place, but very touristy. Jasper is further north, and while it's very busy, it's less flashy or expensive as Banff. I did find a beautiful jacket there; it's turquoise colored, with an embroidered outline of a wolf on it. The whole thing, including the fabric, is made in Canada. I'm really motivated to buy from this continent as much as I can- preferably American made, but Canada and Mexico are fine too. They are our good neighbors, and I want to support our industry. May I say, it's nearly impossible to find US made fabric???