One Liner....

I completely forgot to write down what else happened in church yesterday.
Dad was just getting seated and people were gathering around introducing themselves to us. Dad got seated and he was way too close to me and I had no room between he and Rod so I asked him to move down some more. Dad doesn't get UP and move. He twists around in his seat and gets no where.
So I told him he would have to do better than that and he got up with some straining and effort and then moved down....he turns his head to me and in a voice that anyone nearby could hear he says, "Oh good, you made me pee my pants."
Yeah, Dad....it's all MY fault....LOL

Dad without his teeth.

Dad in his normal state....fork in one hand and food in mouth. LOL
He didn't have his teeth in so I asked him if he wanted to grin with no teeth and he started to laugh, as in the second picture. Nothing kept him from continuing to eat though. He was eating meatloaf and he said it was good and soft, just like he liked it. YEAH, WITH NO TEETH! haha

Always take your night time pills at Night!

Dad started on a new muscle relaxant pill a week ago. We are seeing if it helps with his leg cramping pain at night. If it works for him, then maybe it will help with me....but after this morning I learned a valuable lesson.
Rod helped Dad with his bath last night but I got his bedtime pills ready in a cup and his morning pill ready and put aside in the bathroom. I was rather busy last night cleaning my office. I forgot to take that last look at the container of pills in the bathroom as I walked by to my bedroom.
Dad has not forgotten to take them before but then again I do remind him 80% of the time. I did remind him but before he took his bath.

This morning we got up early to go to church. Dad got ready mostly by himself but for putting his pants on backwards.
He makes the annoucement that he took his 4 pills this morning. I told him that he didn't take his morning pills yet....we would go to breakfast after church and then he could take them. He insisted he took them. He said they were on the bathroom sink. So with a few questions I found that he had NOT taken them last night but took them THIS morning. I didn't think too much of it at the time because we were ready to go out the door. It still didn't hit me just what he had taken until we were in the middle of the sermon. Dad started leaning on me little by little...slipping down in the seat over to his left.
I poked Rod to look at what Dad was doing. His lower lip was prodruding out with his teeth dropping down and I almost bursted out laughing when I got my first look. I had to stifle that urge. Then I nudged Dad in the left arm and he looks at me like, What do you want, I am trying to sleep.....so I thought oh yeah, he took the anti-depresant, which had a side effect of making one sleepy. It didn't hit me until the church had to get me a wheelchair they kept on hand that Dad had taken that MUSCLE RELAXANT and he was totally out of it. I had to laugh then....Dad couldn't walk at all....so he was wheeled out and got in the car and I had to push his butt in even at that. It was pretty funny for sure the more I thought about it.

He went home, no breakfast out.....Dad didn't even go to the bathroom. He went STRAIGHT to bed and didn't wake until 2:30pm. When he did get up he came to my office to announce--------GOOD MORNING!.

So the moral of this story is to always take your night time pills at night...but always check to see if DAD took his nighttime pills at NIGHT!

Dad's New Room and Church Decision.

This project has been given a lot of thought....it's taken a few months to decide exactly what we wanted to do. We thought of moving into a new house with an area just made for Dad with a handicapped bathroom. We thought of moving to find a house with a 3-4 car garage or room to add more garage on to accomodate these cars that Dad and Rod have. Lots of decisions had to be made and quickly.
What we decided to do was to stay where we are and add on a bedroom and accessible bathroom for Dad. We will be selling 2 cars and keeping two.

The room he is in now is okay but he has no room for his stuff. He has a twin bed and that's enough room for him since he practically sleeps on the edge and hangs his legs over the side. He says he will be glad to get the full bed here....so I say, Why? You won't sleep in the middle because you say that it's too hard to move over when you need to get up in the middle of the night. He laughs and says, "That's true." Dad's a riot. We are getting a new mattress too. Not a bargained priced one like he always buys. Then again, it won't make any difference. LOL I told Dad if I got a cloud for a mattress he would find fault with it....then he pipes up with, "Yeah, it would be too soft." LOL

We may just put both of the mattresses at his house together for a bed and switch them all the time when he doesn't like them anymore. Oh it WILL happen. One day it will be wrong and the next day the very same mattress will be perfect. And so it goes with Dad.

He has chosen what he wants in his room because he was always the choser. He wanted non slip tile and hardwood floors. I liked that too. However I did have something to say about the color of the walls. He actually thought the color was okay believe it or not. I am still not sure about the one brick interior wall but Dad likes the idea. That's still up for discussion.

So today they are framing. The roof is being raised as well as the chimney. The bathroom is a little bigger than initially designed. We were going to change the bathroom in the hallway of the house. We were going to widen the doors and put in a double shower and take out the tub. After some discussion we decided for convenience it will be better to just add the double shower to the new bathroom. It takes a little space out of the room but it will work out better in the long run I think. Since they were running pipes to the area anyway it didn't cost much more to add the shower.
In the meantime I am cutting down on stuff in the rest of the house...the old upright piano is going since I will be bringing Mom's piano here. I found a very good home for that old upright. I loved the sound of it but I don't have room for all of the things I want. I have been dissolving the closets contents...just too much stuff. BOOKS!!! Too many books but I love books. I do read them too. I always have a book on my stool in the living room. It will be hard to decide which books have to go. I may have to find room under the beds. lol

In Dad's bathroom will be his oak cabinets he made for his own bathoom. He was going to let them go with the house but oh no, that's not happening. He was worried what the new owners would do for towel space. LOL Like I cared. That's their problem Dad. The stained glass cabinet will be in his bathroom too. I wanted him surrounded by the things he made. The gallery rails that he made for Mom are down and ready to move. The shelves he made are coming too. If I could take the baseboards I would. lol Yes, he made them too. He doesn't seem to be so disappointed about selling the house as much as he is disappointed he is no longer able to live alone and take care of himself. He calls this house home now.

We visited a new church yesterday....a smaller church like Riverview used to be a long time ago. This church has a lot of older people. A couple people use walkers too. Dad noticed that right away. We were greeted by a lot of people after we sat down and Dad seemed comfortable. They sang a couple old hymns that he likes. He even sang along. He can't read the song book but he knows the words anyway.

He said he would like to go there but I told him we needed to visit a couple more that I had in mind that were about the same size
.
He doesn't like a big church or one that is so far away and one that you have to walk so far to get to the pew. He wanted older people in the church and songs he knew. I did some research online to find 3 that will be possibilites and then let him choose from them. They are less than 2 miles away too. One man came up to us to say hi and he works at the same place Rod does. I figured we would run into people we knew. I have met him before and dinner functions and he ALWAYS comes and greets us. People like that stand out and one always remembers them being friendly.
So we shall see which one Dad chooses and then I will take photos of him in his new church.

I am posting new photos of the construction and they should be approved and up in a few hours.

Dad's Longevity Outlook....

Here's a quickie...
I was in my bedroom taking photos of the workers outside and Dad comes down the hall and tells me he needs help putting on his shirt....and boy did he....so I get the shirt on and he says, "I sure don't know what I am going to do when you are gone." I nearly choked laughing...and then he realized what he had said. He got red in the face and said, well, I mean....LOL
I said, "Too late Dad....it's obvious you think you are going to outlive me and boy that's positive thinking!"

He sure has come a long way from a year ago when he just wanted to die. LOL Leave it to Dad to change his mind.

So how is he doing you ask?

I have to say that Dad is better now than he has been in a very long time. If I can just keep him from landing on his nose again, it will continue to go well. He really has listened better than he did before he fell I must say. I think he learned a lesson that day. ASK FOR HELP! As most of us near him know, he doesn't do that well. He does now. He even comes to me tangled up in his shirt, laughing, with his arms up in the air, calling my name. It is funny. Sometimes I wonder just now he managed to get in that position when he says he can't raise his arms up in the air. UH HUH!
He can do more now for himself than he did a year ago for sure. I do not waite on him unless he asks. I want him to be independent and do it himself. He shaves, toilets and dresses himself. The only time I help is if he asks me or I see he is struggling. He usually goes to the kitchen in the morning by himself and gets his cereal. He likes cold cereal although I do make oatmeal if he asks. I will make it unasked if it is really cold outside before we go to the Senior Center. I lay his morning pills out on the table each day. He can do the rest all by himself. One day last week he even finished the cereal and went to the fridge and got a piece of Carrot cake that I had made. I laughed when I saw that later because he didn't spill a CRUMB. If he wants to do something he will do it. I am not worried about him falling right now. His balance is better in the last 6 months than it has been in 3 years. He does use the walker at the Senior Center only because there are a lot of people there and he could easily fall if they pushed him accidentally. He also walks the halls and it helps to give support to his back.
He does have that back pain and is due for another shot soon. They really help but when they wear off he has pain when he walks very far.
When we go shopping he has no hesitation to use a motor cart. I don't even have to mention it anymore...he just looks for them.

Just a little story from today...we were watching TV this afternoon. Football of course and Dad and I are going to drug Rod so we can run that TV one of these days, LOL However, Dad falls asleep almost as fast as he sits down on the sofa anyway so it's not really a big deal. I asked Dad if he wanted to go anywhere today....like shopping or out to eat or whatever....he thought for a bit and then said he wanted to go to Indiana....hahaha Funny one Dad....I said, "Okay, so let's pretend.....you are in Indiana right now. You are in your house....now what are you going to do?"
Dad says, "Sit in my chair and watch TV." hahahaha I said YOU are doing that NOW, duh! He laughed and said Yeah, I know. I told him I understand....believe me I do....I was terribly homesick the time I spent 4 months there. I was just a mess and wanted to go home so bad. However, I told Dad that when we were there he had visitors daily for a week...then that wore off fast....and the last month we were there no one came over. NO ONE but a couple people. So I told Dad it was almost better to stay here and visit Indiana....it was more fun and exciting....he thought for a second and said, "You know, you ARE right."
So we waited for Amy to come over and then we all went out to Logan's Roadhouse and Dad had his favorite.....Baby back ribs that falls off the bone with a spoon.

A Picture is Really Worth a Thousand Words or Less

Dad is funny, no doubt. He even thinks he is funny....So to entertain Rod and I, he does stuff like this. I asked him what he was doing and he said, I dunno. lol Now that's funny.