This year, we had the prettiest Christmas tree we believe we have ever had.  ('Course we think that every year).  But THIS year, really, it was a beautiful tree.  We bought it like one week before Christmas.  When we went out to buy a tree, we stopped first at one of those private "striped tents" that sell trees and scoffed at their prices.  Crazy what they charge for a tree, but we had to check them out anyway.  Then we went to the nearby Home Depot and were SHOCKED to find out that they had sold out of all their trees just the day before.

So, we were getting worried.  We then drove to Lowe's to find they did have trees, but they were smaller than we wanted.  We almost went ahead and bought one of those little trees, but decided to check another nearby Home Depot before actually buying.  At that second Home Depot, they had a little outside uncovered tree lot FULL of trees, but only ONE of the kind of tree we wanted (a Noble Fir).  And that one Noble Fir, although a good size and shape, was already a little brown around the edges.  They suggested that we check inside to ask if yet another Home Depot had more trees for sale.  So we went in and after making the phone call, the lady told us that the Home Depot on DeZavala had just gotten in a new shipment and they had several Noble Firs.  We were so hopeful.  We drove all the way over there and were relieved to see that Home Depot kept their Christmas trees inside a tent.  So we went in the tent, the guy took out one Noble Fir and without further ado, we said we'd take that very tree he was holding.  Soooo different from how we usually buy a Christmas tree.  We usually stand up almost every single tree in the lot, twirl it around, put it back and look at another one, and on and on.  This tree, the minute we saw it, we knew it was a beauty and that we wanted it.  The price was right also so we were so happy to have found such a nice tree at such a late date.

ANYway, this beautiful tree has only been up a little over a week and we are already taking it down.  It's crazy, one of the prettiest trees we have ever had and we are keeping it up the shortest time of any tree we have ever had.  But we need to unpack all the boxes that are sitting around the house and it just seemed like it'd be better to get all the Christmas stuff out of the way before taking out the rest of our stuff.  So, today we took the ornaments off the tree and all that's left on it are the lights.  Tomorrow we will take it outside.

This Christmas was nice because for the first time ever, we had an actual fireplace where we could hang the Christmas stockings like they should be hung.  We loved using that fireplace over Christmas.  Here are two pictures of that fireplace - one with flash and one without.

And a picture of all of us taken shortly after Christmas

Today we are feeling quite the sadness because the last of our holiday guests has just left. We took Rebeca to the airport on Friday evening and we took Fernando and Eva to the airport early this morning. We have got to say that this was a most wonderful Christmas - we enjoyed having everyone together for Fernando and Eva's wedding party and then seeing everyone together with Oma on Christmas Eve and then having everyone over to exchange presents on Christmas Eve evening. Everything was so nice - from the parties to our Christmas tree to our new house - even the weather cooperated some and it was a little cold. The only thing that could have been better is if Mom would have been able to go to the wedding party and to our house on Christmas Eve. But at least Mom is doing better and she looks like she is doing well enough to be able to go home again! Anyway, time to start putting all the Christmas decorations away and take the tree down, which is drying out fast! This is always the sad and lonely part so may as well get it done and over with!

Today is Christmas Eve!

Photos from Christmas Eve!

It seemed easiest to just share the album through Picasa - so here it is!

December 25, 2012

Fernando and Eva's Party

Family coming in

Room Change for Mom yesterday

Thursday night, December 13th, Linda called us at about 1 in the morning to tell us that she just heard from Chandler and they were taking Mom to the emergency room because she was sitting up in bed complaining of chest pains.  She was observed for a while and they returned her to Chandler on Friday morning.  Linda was in Mom's room when I got there that morning.  Mom was a little groggy but other than that, she seemed fine.
Linda and I looked into getting Mom moved into a room on the second floor which is the REAL Rehab floor, which is where Mom should be anyway.  As it turned out, after meeting with the nurse and then with the administrators there, we were able to get Mom moved to a room on the second floor.  We moved all her stuff and then wheeled Mom to her new room, got her situated and comfy in her bed, set up all her belongings in this slightly more spacious room and then we said goodbye to Mom so that she could rest after the night that she had.  She doesn't have a roommate at the present time because that person ALSO went to the hospital with chest pains!  Kathy said that when she visited Mom later that day, that they spent time sitting outside and that was very nice.

Friday, the 14th, Guillermo and I spent our first night in our new house.  The house is still a mess - boxes everywhere with absolutely nothing put away, but at the very least our bed is set up and we had a good comfortable night on our new mattress!  Time Warner Cable was supposed to come today to set up our cable and internet but they never showed up, so we had to reschedule.

Today, Saturday the 15th, I stayed with Mom while she had lunch.  Which drove me a little crazy because on the menu was tamales, rice, beans and blueberry pie and it all smelled SO delicious.  It was hard to sit there smelling all that good food!  Mom ate most of her food although she wasn't very hungry but she said the food tasted ok.

Mom has been in a rehabilitation facility since Monday night.  She is doing very well there, although she still says she just does not feel well.  She says she feels lousy, as a matter of fact.

On Monday Mom was moved to Chandler Estate which is a big complex of apartments, assisted living apartments and a nursing home/skilled nursing home section.  John and I talked with the case manager at the hospital for Mom this morning and she let us know that everything is moving along to have Mom moved to a rehab facility.  Well, they finally got all the paperwork in order and taken care of in the early evening and by around 6 or 6:30 pm Mom arrived at Chandler.  She looked fine as they wheeled her to her room although I think all of us were kind of in shock as to how the place looked.  It's a very nice place inside and although it was dark outside, it looked nice out there also.  It's just that there were SO many people in the hallways in wheelchairs and it just seemed a little overwhelming coming from the hospital. So, we stayed with Mom until she was settled in her room and I think we all left there afterwards feeling not so good about the situation.  We just hoped she was going to have a good night and would be ok with her new situation.

On Tuesday, Mom had a good day.  She took part in a "Red Hat Society" meeting which got together (with everyone wearing red hats, of course) to listen to someone play Christmas with a clarinet.  Then later that day Santa paid a visit and Mom got a nice new blanket throw.  John also took her outside to see the herb garden which she apparently really enjoyed.  She and John had a good day together and I think it really boosted Mom's spirits to have John there and to have someone with her on that first day who could also attend with her all these "strange but interesting" new functions of this new place.  It made the transition so much easier for her.  Kathy, Linda, Jacob, John, Guillermo and I had dinner that evening at La Fonda on Main which is right around the corner from Chandler.

Today, Wednesday, Mom got her hair done at Chandler and she also attended a rosary mass there.  Then in the afternoon, she had some physical therapy.  Again, John spent a lot of the day with Mom.

Mom doing better

Mom seems stronger now than she has in quite a while, even though she still says she doesn't feel good at all.  But it was nice to see her filing her nails today while she was in bed, something new.  I spent the night last night, (Kathy spent Friday night and Linda spent Thursday night which had to be rough for her since she was a little sick).  Last night wasn't as easy as some of the other nights since Mom got up a few times to go to the bathroom.

Also, when I spent the day with Mom on Friday, right before I was getting ready to leave at 4, the technician came in to give her her breathing treatment.  So, I waited until the treatment was over to leave, but as I was packing up my stuff, I looked out the window and saw what I thought was walker in the driveway leading to the parking lot of the hospital.  As I looked more at it, I could tell it was a wheelchair and I mentioned to the technician that there's a wheelchair in the driveway of the parking lot!!  He looked out the window and was shocked to see it there and as he headed out the door to his next patient, I heard him calling security about the wheelchair.

So, by the time I got downstairs and was leaving the hospital, I pass the security guard who was walking slowly with the wheelchair by the street.  I drove on out and as I approached the street that leads to Walmart, I saw a lady in a hospital gown walking up the street with another person!!  So, I turned the car around, drove up to the security guard and told him there's a hospital patient walking up the street to Walmart!  He thanked me and as I drove back up the street, I looked in amazement at the lady, in just a hospital gown, walking up the street as if it was nothing.  Who knows whatever became of that!!!!

John came in to town this evening to spend a few days here to help out with staying with Mom in the hospital.  Yay!

Disappointment

Last night Mom's doctor came in to visit her at 10:30pm!  That seems so strange.  Anyway, at that time, she told him that she was starting to feel pain on her side again.  He examined her and found her to be quite sore in a certain spot and was wondering if she had fallen or hurt herself there at one time.  The pain seemed to be pretty bad so he made sure that she got some tylenol to be able to sleep that night.  It was very disappointing to hear that she was feeling pain again on her side.

During the night, she got up once and said that she was starting to feel the pain again, so we figured the tylenol was wearing off.  She slept ok the rest of the night though without taking anymore tylenol.  In the morning, she still had the pain and although it didn't seem to be as bad you could tell she had some pain.   But we had a good morning - she ate her breakfast, we opened "window number 6", we looked at Zell and listened to Christmas music.  We were also waiting to find out when she would be moved from the hospital to a skilled nursing facility.  I also asked the CNA if she could help Mom take a shower and she went to get her new gowns and towels in preparation for the shower.  While she was doing that, I went to the nurses station to find out if there were any updates on when she would be moved and was told it'd be at LEAST 2 more hours so I headed back to the room.  At about that time, two of our favorites there - Andy a student nurse and Brian an LVN came into the room to visit Mom.  When they asked her how she was doing, I was shocked to hear her say that she doesn't feel good at all and that her chest hurts - that it feels really tight.  Well, the two guys got concerned and immediately swung into action.  They took her vitals and her heart rate was high.  So, they did various other things and in the meantime I went to get her nurse.  The next thing I know they are calling in a rapid response team and I'm told I should wait outside since there were going to be a lot of people coming into the room.  And there were!  It got quite scary there for a while.  They changed mom's IV site after trying to administer morphine in her old site and it didn't go in.  But eventually things calmed down and Mom was resting comfortably. The rest of the time I was there with her today, she mostly slept, especially while the morphine was fresh.  She did eat her lunch which was good and she was able to get up to go to the bathroom later that afternoon.  But things were definitely not as good as they were yesterday.  It was a tough day.

Mom looks so much better today, better than I've seen her in quite a while.  She doesn't seem to be in the pain she was, but she still feels dizzy when she walks, even when she's just lying in bed.  She seems to be eating with a little more gusto and very gamely takes her walks around her room.  I took her for a wheelchair ride to the lobby and we looked out the window at all the grackles gathering for the evening.  Linda spent the morning with her and I spent the evening and am spending the night tonight.  Here's hoping we both have a fairly decent night.

Today Mom had a second procedure where they pull fluid from around the lungs.  This time the procedure lasted a little longer and they took more fluid - 1800ml.  That is a thousand more than last time!  She was out of it for quite a while afterwards and the nurses kept their eye on her for a while because her blood pressure was so low.  At its lowest it was 72/44.  Pretty low.  But she eventually came around, her blood pressure got better and she seemed to be doing pretty good.  For a while there in the afternoon, she was doing great. She sat in bed and looked at her mail, browsed through some of the catalogs she got, we talked about some Christmas music that was playing and she signed some checks for a few bills that needed to be paid.  Then they brought her a tray of food and she ate almost everything on that tray.  Which may not have been a good idea because she didn't feel as good after she ate.  She started having a lot of pain on her side so they gave her a pain killer.  Linda spent last night, Kathy is spending the night and I do tomorrow night.  Ben was there this morning until I arrived.

Today we moved a few more things from storage into the new house and at around 2 the plumber came to fix the hot water faucet for the washer.  Such a rip off.  The repair was covered under the home warranty that came with the house, but we still had to pay a deductible.  But the faucet is fixed and there's no leak anymore.

Linda spent last night with Mom and Kathy is spending tonight with her.  They say she seems to be doing the same - very tired most of the day.