Update During Rough Times

I'm so glad the sun is shining today.  It looks so pretty on the lake.  It really helps.  This has certainly been a very rough few weeks.  I just wanted to give a quick update to stay in touch.  I'll write more later when I feel like it and have more time.
As you know from my last post, we lost My Bob's mother on March 2.  We spent that week in Cincinnati.  When we returned home, my dad said that my Grandma wasn't doing well at all.  She's been bad for quite a while now.  She's been in the assisted living and then nursing home for three years.  Dad explained that she looked worse.  I went to visit her and she didn't even open her eyes and looked even thinner than the 53 pounds I had seen her at previously, if that's even possible.  We contacted relatives to tell of her worsened condition.  My cousin, Brad, got into town from Harrisburg on Friday to visit her, and just as he got into town she passed away, at age 93.  The viewing and funeral is this coming Friday and Saturday. 
Going on at this same time, last Thursday my mother went into the hospital for a scheduled hysterectomy operation.  She was in there until Saturday afternoon.  I've been helping her with a few things such as some laundry and cleaning out Grandma's things from the nursing home yesterday. 
Also during this time we are arguing with, fighting with, and appealing the zoning board's decision to not allow a flower shop to go into the property that my son and his wife own that we are trying to sell.  (See my February 12 post).  We thought this was a done deal, and it should have been.  The female attorney bitch (and I don't say that often) City Solicitor decided she wanted to fight us on this for no good reason.  Why do female attorneys feel they have to be like this in order to feel like they are being an effective attorney?  She loves the thrill of a good fight and good common sense doesn't even enter her mind.  Now Bob and I are going to see an attorney on Thursday to see if we have a case for appeal.  The attorney we have been recommended to is the County Solicitor.  It's become a matter of principle for us now.  My energy is running low, though, so if it's not going to be an easy win for our family I'll have to give up.
Then last Thursday I think it was, our computers quit working.  I guess the timing was as good as it could get because I didn't feel like using it anyway.  Our computer doctor came to the house and it ended up we needed a new router.  He also cleaned up the computers and ordered new memory boards for both.  We're back in business again.
Today I need to do laundry and get sheets, bedrooms and bathrooms cleaned up and ready for family arriving Friday for the funeral. 
After this weekend we'll be looking forward to a nice summer and two new lives that will be coming into our family.  We have lost two wonderful ladies and will be now welcoming two new beautiful grandchildren. 
I must go now and put all I have into the rest of this week.  I'm behind in so many things, but I can only do what I can do.

Goodbye, Mother Millie

This is a hard one to write but I feel I have to.  It's sad and depressing and it was a major event in our lives.  We just have to live through it as best we can and then continue on looking for the good, being positive, and knowing that you have to accept the sad with the joyful. 

My Bob's mother, my mother-in-law, Millie, passed away last Tuesday evening in Cincinnati.  It was 12 days before her 79th birthday.  She had a longer than expected bout with pancreatic cancer.  She was diagnosed last March and already at a stage 4.  At that time they gave her 3 months without chemo and radiation and 8 months if she decided to go that route, which she did.  She did so well and looked so good even up to the 10 month point that I think we all thought she might just beat all odds and go on as if this was just a bad dream and never really happened.  Then at Christmas we went to Cincinnati to visit and she was looking thin and weak.  We knew then that the dream was turning into a nightmare.  Bob decided that he wanted to make a trip to see his mother once a month to spend as much time with her as he could.  So in January we made another trip to visit and we actually thought she was doing pretty well.  She was still thin, but wanted to go grocery shopping, so we did.  Then she wanted to stop by the Eagles Club to sign the book for the weekly lottery, so we did.  Then she wanted to go out to dinner, so we did.  She had as much energy as me if not more.  In looking back, I think she was just excited that we were there and happened to be having a good day.  We promised her we would be back around her birthday, March 14, and we talked with Bob's five sisters and one brother about possibly having a party for her around that time.
Then we started hearing from the sisters around the end of February that we should maybe move the birthday visit up a little as she was getting tired and weak.  We set this past weekend aside for our Cincinnati visit.  We stayed in daily contact with a couple of the sisters and knew that things were going downhill.  Bob talked with his mother daily and could tell a difference in her voice and comprehension.  He would tell her we were coming down on March 5th to try to boost her up a little.  It wasn't working.  Wednesay a week ago we got a call from Debbie, Bob's oldest sister, that she had taken Millie into the hospital because she was filling back up with fluids and thought they would drain the fluid, as they had done once before, and send her back home.  That's not what happened.  They told her there was no use in draining the fluid again as it would cause more pain now and she would fill up again even faster and they admitted her into the Hospice unit. 
Bob and I started making arrangements to leave for Cincinnati.  We both talked to Millie on the phone and she sounded OK.  Bob had to re-arrange his appointments for the following week and I started packing, asked my parents to keep Ellie Mae (my black poodle) and we would take Fergie (my apricot poodle) with us, and talked with my DIL to postpone our grandson's birthday dinner that we were going to have here last weekend.  We left for Cincinnati on Friday not sure of how long we would be gone or what to expect when we got there.  We drove 6-1/2 hours (it should have taken 7 hours) and went directly to the hospital. 
We were not prepared for what we saw.  The difference and drastic decline in Millie in one month was big.  She was extremely thin, lost all her hair, and was obviously in a lot of pain.  I know it took Bob by surprise and I just started to cry. 
Without going into a lot of very sad and painful details, she got continuosly worse every day.  She talked a little bit when we first arrived on Friday, and by Sunday she couldn't talk at all.  The diloted (pain medicine) was steadily increased until it was changed to a morphine drip by Tuesday morning.  Bob stayed by her side from about 6:30 in the mornings until late in the evenings, taking small breaks to eat or go back to his sister Debbie's house close by for a nap.  That Tuesday he had just left her side at 5:00 pm to come back to the house to get something to eat and just as he was leaving to go back up to the hospital at 6:25, his brother called to say she had passed away.  With seven children, there was always at least a son, daughter, daughter in law, son in law, boyfriend of a daughter, granddaughter or grandson by her side.  Millie had eight children but Bob's brother's twin passed away 10 years ago today.  Needless to say, that is also weighing heavy on the familie's minds right now.  Millie also had four brothers and sisters that visited in and out and she had a boyfriend of 38 years, ever since she and Bob's dad divorced.  Larry spent the night with her each night she was in hospice, except for the night he showed up drunk and Bob's sister, Brenda, took him home with her.  Larry is one year older than Bob.
You're probably starting to get the whole background picture now.  There was total chaos and uphevel going on behind the scenes for this whole week.  This is too much to go into right now.  These stories could take at least one other post.
Bob and Debbie made all the funeral arrangements the following morning and they did a beautiful job.  The funeral was Friday from 11:00 to 3:30 and everything went well and it was a well attended (family alone was a large crowd) funeral. 
We headed home directly from the cemetary.  Bob's job was done and done well.  He was there for his mother and it was comforting to stay with Debbie and her husband.  The behind the scenes turmoil was just too much to take.  We couldn't wait to get back home and try to calm back down into our comparatively good life. 
We now smile when we think of good times with Millie, the vacations that we took her on with us, and how she made us laugh.  We are trying to get the images of the last 5 days of her life out of our mind.  We don't want to remember her that way.  We are so glad she is no longer in pain and in a much better place.

My Dad, the White Male Conservative

I just wanted to introduce everyone to one of my favorite bloggers, My Dad.  http://roland-bechtel.blogspot.com/


He's just entering the blogland and he has a lot to say.  And he loves  feedback, positive or negative.  Now I will warn any of you liberals out there that his opinions will probably not agree with yours.  I must say, though, that it is still worth your reading as he is an excellent writer and may have some thoughts and ideas that you maybe haven't considered.  I'm trying to remain un-biased as I say this, but this is a good blog.  My Dad is a very intelligent man with 72 years experience on this earth, with an excellent education, and retired from a very rewarding career.  In other words, he's no dummy. 
 
If his blog is just not up your alley, please share with any bloggers you know that you feel would be interested. 

http://roland-bechtel.blogspot.com/  White Male Conservative.

Grandma's Things in My Cottage

I hope I'm not too late for Showing off My Cottage Monday

hosted by Cielo at House in the Roses. http://houseinroses.blogspot.com/ I just came across her site and it's beautiful and it just so happened I had some things to show in my cottage today. 
I have a small problem getting rid of things that have belonged to my grandmothers or my mother.  One grandmother has passed, my other grandmother is very ill and in the nursing home, and my mother is alive and well and lives three miles away from me.  She also has a darling cottage that she should show off.  Anyway, I inherited (or took because I liked it and they gave it to me) several things from my grandmothers and my mother.  These are items that either have a sentimental meaning to me or I think they are so pretty I can't bear the thought of it going to Goodwill or Salvation Army, or worse yet, the garbage dump. 

This rocking chair may have actually been a great-grandmother's at one time.  It's been refurbished and re-upholstered and I keep making room for it somewhere.  It's been in several different rooms in my house.  It's now in my living room.  Then on the little stand beside the chair is a vase and  covered dish that I always loved in Grandma Lenora's house.  They are in excellent condition.

This Lennox coin crystal set was Grandma Lenora's.  Isn't it beautiful?  She specifically told me months before she went into the nursing home that I was to have this.  I have it in my dining room.  I will never get rid of this.  I use and display every piece.

Not only is this a beautiful painting, it's of Grandma Lenora, my dad on the left, and my deceased uncle on the right.  I always loved this picture, but I just recently learned of the story behind it, which makes it even more special.  When Grandpa was in Japan during WW11, away from his beautiful family, he had this photo in his wallet and asked a Japanese artist to paint this from the photo. 

Now this little couple, Pinky and Blue Boy, Grandma Lenora made in a ceramics class years ago.  I just remember them being in her bedroom forever and I couldn't stand to get rid of them when we were cleaning out her house. 

Their colors match my tea room, so that's where they now stand.

More ceramics I couldn't get rid of.  They stand beside my plants in my dining room.

This was a cross stitch done by my Grandma Peg.  My mother and I had to keep this, so it hangs above this curio cabinet at the bottom of my basement stairs.

The curio and everything in it was Grandma Lenora's. 

My basement is a finished room that I now call my Grandma room.  I think everything in this room came from my grandmother's and my mother. 

This couch and chair must be over 50 or 60 years old.  It's beautiful maple wood that we had refurbished, and just recently my mother had the cushions re-upholstered.  These ugly red plaid ones were not only ugly but in very bad condition.

Isn't that better?  The Tiffany style floor lamp was also grandma's.

There's a lot more, but I think I'll save for another day for another cottage tour. 

Go For the Green

If you ask me my favorite color, I don't think green would be my answer.  But it must be.  I can hardly do any type of re-decorating in my house without using green of any shade.  It just always seems to be what I gravitate toward.  Now My Bob's office is blue, and the guest bathroom/My Bob's office bathroom is blue, but I'm hardly every in those rooms.  I think every other room has green in it.  It may be pink and green, or gold and green, or possibly a teal green, but I can't seem to get away from it.  It feels comfortable and homey to me.

This is when it really became clear.  I've been wanting to take down the off-white scarves that have been at my kitchen windows for over five years.  As long as we've lived here.  I wanted a change.

Click to enlarge.

 I thought I would get some beige or tan valances instead.  That's what I went to Lowe's to buy.  And that's what I looked at.  But then I saw some green plaid.  I tried to ignore them.  I asked Bob's opinion and he didn't have one.  I picked up the tan ones.  I put them back.  I went back to the green ones and tried to walk away again.  I couldn't do it.  So I picked one up.  Then I buckled under.  They would be perfect.  The place mats are green, gold and dark red plaid.  These would match.  The living room curtains, right next to the kitchen, are also green, gold and dark red plaid.  That goes.  The kitchen wallpaper has green leaves in it.  Check.  I couldn't resist.  They were perfect.

So I picked up new rods and couldn't wait to get home as this was going to be a free Friday project.  As in "free" time, not "free" as in cost. Now go back to the 2nd kitchen picture above and notice the time on the clock.  11:45 am.  That's when I started.  Keep in mind, as with everything, I'm slow.  I clean as I go.  Had to take down the old scarves and put them in the wash.  They are now going on the downstairs windows.  Take down the old hardware, dust and clean above all the windows since I'm up on a ladder and can see the dirt, put up five sets of new hardware, iron five new valances (which, by the way, turned out to be very nice fabric and lined), hang the valances, arrange all the pleats and folds until I felt they were perfect.  I was down to the last one and had to take My Bob to pick up his car that was at the garage getting a check up.  Since I had no time to cook dinner we picked up Chinese to bring home.  I hung up the last curtain and then had to move the clock a little higher.

So now what do you think?

Notice the time on the clock.  7:15.  Bob said he would never pay me by the hour.  Yea, but I do a good job.  Do you want quick or do you want good?

I love them.  They fit the feel and theme of my home much better.  They make my kitchen feel so much cozier, without blocking any of the view or light (on rare days that we have sun).

A few days ago I also got my St. Patrick's decorations out.  I don't have many at all, but again, since they are green I like to have them out.

My foyer entrance table.

Dining room with light green tablecloth topped with a shiny shamrock covered cloth and my shamrock doll.

Shamrock stained glass hanging by the front porch.  It was buried in snow, but we're getting a little bit of melt off right now. 

And that's all I have.  Besides exchanging out any pink candles from Valentine's to green candles. 

Oh, I also finished a new Spring/Easter egg cup pincushion.  It's up on my Etsy site.

I love when I have stay at home days all to myself.  Then I have fun doing these things I love to do.