Around here...

...we've been having a pretty good week! It's really cold (for us, that is) so we've been inside a lot. The kiddos have been getting along really well (although their room looks like a tornado just went through!) Even the big kiddo has been good! She's been back home since before Christmas. It's nice to have her around again. I even sent her to the grocery store the other day (with only needing a couple items but giving her the permission to get snacks.) She came back with a bunch of bags with nothing to eat, lol! There were definitely a lot of snacks (she and my kindergartener went together.) I pretended I were her and made a few comments as if I couldn't find anything I liked or asked if she got (some item she had no idea I wanted but didn't get.) She got the idea...it's different on the 'other' side!



I also had a birthday dinner with my former coworkers. We go out three times a year around each of our birthdays (and the other two pay for the meal.) It was a really great evening and I loved the conversation and company! It was M's birthday (the one on the right.) Of course, I'm in the middle!


My MIL had an issue (she was nonresponsive) so her ALF sent her to the ER. As it turned out, she wasn't having a stroke as they suspected but was dehydrated. After a few days in the hospital, we signed her up for hospice so that their doctors will decide in the future is she needs to return to the hospital for something like that (or treat her where she lives now.) While the initial fluids made her feel great...
(this is her clapping to my toddler)



...she eventually got disoriented. At one time, she asked if I were a woman or a girl. She normally thinks we are childhood friends (perhaps in grade school.) I told her that I am a woman but feel like a child sometimes and laughed. When she gets a little confused, I answer and then start talking about something else. Or if she is talking and I can't understand her (which is very common), I start talking about something else like what I did that day or had for lunch. She loves hearing me talk regardless of what I talk about.

Yesterday, with an upcoming winter blast and the expectation of some kind of winter slush/ice/snow, my kindergartener's school closed early. After I picked him up, he requested crabs. We went to a seafood restaurant where he proceeded to eat a half dozed bbq crabs! He patiently sat and cracked the legs/shells and pulled the meat out. My toddler and I were done long before he was so we sat and watched him eat the rest.


This was as close to a smile as I could get as he didn't want to slow down and smile long enough for me to get a picture. My toddler and I played "I Spy" while he finished to keep us preoccupied (it seemed more appropriate than what my toddler had been currently doing...crawling under the table.)


As it turned out, we got no snow... :(