Marbles, houses and visitors

I've been thinking a lot about the elderly that I work with and how much it sucks getting old. lol. A lot of them move real well and still have most of their marbles, but then some of them have lost some pretty important ones but can still get by. One resident who has lost his marbles to the looney bin needed help back into bed the other night. I was doing my nightly rounds to make sure all my kiddo's were tucked in and didn't need help and I saw that his light was on and I heard his voice. I walked in and he was out of bed wandering around, getting new socks on and putting his pants on the movie rack he has in his room. I said to him in a rather loud voice "George, go back to bed!" He proceeded to turn around and look at me and say "Well, hello there. have you come to give me the ice cream I asked for?" "No George, I'm here to help you into bed ( as I was redirecting him to his bed). Put your head on the pillow and get into bed George!" Now, looking back, he did just as he was asked to do . . . but I think a person who has most of their important marbles left would have just gotten into bed. Nope, George bent over and put his head on his pillow, then turned it and asked me "Now what?" lol. I laughed pretty hard and he said "ya know, it's not that funny!" I really wanted to say that yes, it really was, but he was right, it wasn't funny. I told him to get up and I finally got him into bed properly, but it's nights like that, that remind me of the lighter side of the job. The hard part is saying good bye to those residents that you get close to, and the easier part of getting to spend the last good days with them as well.
I have another resident, who when her time comes, I am going to be devastated. She has Parkinson's disease. Luckily, she still has pretty good mobility and power over her body but she has her days. She just got a brand new lap top and is learning how to use it! I go into her room nightly around 10 pm(she is a night owl) and I give her a little lesson on her computer. lol. She is 80 and learning how to use her laptop. I just think it's amazing. Using my computer is just second nature to me and to have to explain it to someone makes me stop and think about all of these things I do and how I take them for granted. She is a pretty amazing lady!

Brad and I are in the process of buying a house, or we thought we were till our agent urged us to just walk away from this one. We fell in love with it, had an inspector come out and he said there was lots of structural damage and the roof needed to be replaced. After we heard that, we thought we didn't have it. THEN, the sellers came back and said that they'd get every thing fixed if we still were interested. So we were back on it . . . till yesterday when we got the news. They had a roofer come out and say it didn't need to be replaced, but just patched up in some spots and insurance would only cover 1,500 of it. Okay, do-able. Then, the sellers weren't hiring professionals to replace the concrete on the side of the house and fix the structural damage, nope. They were going to drive over from Missoula, MT and fix it themselves, the husband and his buddy who works in construction. Our agent said that if we still wanted to pursue this house, then more power to us, but then she wouldn't sell it to us. She has a conscious and couldn't do it to us knowing that there would probably be issues 6 months down the line. So the search continues!

In the mean time, my mom made it out to Billings late this afternoon and I got to spend some great time with her. I have the next week and half with her, but it's going to go by in a blink of an eye. Tomorrow we have some errands to run and then she has to make a quilt for her class she is taking on Thursday! Dakota really fell in love with her, which makes me feel good.
Brad had to work over night in Williston, ND and will be back late tomorrow night so he won't get to spend time with my mom till Thursday night when I have to go back to work.

I'm sure I'll have more to post and pictures to go along with it once mom and I have some more time together! :-)
I'm so happy she is here!

Oh the things we do . . .

Brad met his parents in Missoula a few weekends ago to pick up the Jeep that I posted about a little bit ago. Since then, he has been working on it diligently to get it up and running. Long nights and countless trips to the auto shop . . . today is the day he got it up and running!! I was taking a nap in our apartment (I had a dental visit this morning and I was groggy) and I heard the joyful noise of the jeep running. I went outside and saw Brad in the jeep, taking it for a ride around the block! :-) He parked it and came up and told me all about it. I had to go to the store to pick up a few things and Brad offered to drive me . . . in the jeep of course! lol

The things we do to make our men happy! I have a very happy husband!

(This isn't a picture of our jeep, but this is what it looks like!)

Oh how time goes by . . .

It blows my mind how fast time goes by. It feels like just a few days ago we celebrated the 4th of July, but really it was over a month ago. Over the past few weeks I've been thinking about life, and how precious it is. I have a few friends, and family members who are pregnant and it's so wonderful to see new life coming into the world. But on the other hand, in my line of work, I also see the other end it. Lately, I've found my job to be very rewarding, which is a better than feeling unappreciated and dreading work I suppose. ;-) Most of my residents enjoy me, and those who don't probably don't remember who I am. Back in January when I lost my grandmother, Nonnie, my mom, uncle john and aunt Judy never left her side. They were with nonnie through everything.
Anyway, there was a hospice resident who arrived a few days ago at TenderNest with really shallow breathing and he was in a lot of pain. This residents family was AWESOME!!! They understood the reasoning behind keeping him medicated and comfortable rather than conscious and uncomfortable. The reason this family is so near and dear to my heart is because it reminds me of what we went through with Nonnie and her rapid decline in health and quality of life. We were there by her side till she was ready to let go. Early Sunday morning, this resident passed away. I feel kinda lucky that I didn't get to know him well because I can only imagine how hard that would have been. His daughter in law had told me that he was the perfect man. He was traditional in the sense of opening doors, keeping gas tanks full and tending to the garden, but both he and his wife worked. If she got home later, he would be the one to start supper. He cleaned, did dishes and vacuumed. Just the small things I guess that make us appreciate our loved ones. He and his wife were married for 64 years!! How awesome is that! :-)

On a much lighter note, I was leaving another residents room the other night after giving bed time medication and she said to her husband after the door was closed "Isn't she just so sweet to us?!" It lifts me up that the elderly that I'm taking care of really appreciate me.

On a completely different subject, Brad met his parents in Missoula last weekend to pick up Brad's Jeep. Does the jeep run? No. Will it needs lots of TLC? Yes. Did I go into this knowing everything? yes. But I know that if Brad and I decided on not taking it from his dad, that he would be disappointed and I just can't do that to my husband. I would post pictures, but the only pictures I have are on my phone and Brad has it for the day a work. So I'll post some later.

In just two short weeks (I'm sure they'll go by in a blink of an eye) my mom will be out here to spend some time with us! I'm super excited about quality mother daughter time.