Major Curve Ball!

Merry Christmas from Simonne!

Like most of you know, we built a piece onto the house for Dave's dad. He was supposed to move in and we were all going to live happily ever after. NOT!

He did move in September. All was going well. About a month after he moved in he passed out on the floor. He was taken to the hospital by ambulance where he was diagnosed with A Fib (a major heart problem). He also was full of fluid. The doctor on call told us, if he would have been living on his own, he would have been dead within 2 weeks! Thank goodness he was with us. But the doctor also said that these episodes had probably been happening for a while, just he never told us.

So we went home with warfarin and other different meds. Then Halloween we got home from an evening of trick or treating when his dad passed out again. It all went down hill from there. The doctor said he could no longer stay at home alone. He needed 24/7 supervision. If he fell again and hit his head he could bleed to death since he was on warfarin. This is kinda hard since we both work full time.

So with heavy hearts we went ahead with the paperwork to put him in a senior's home. It's not something we wanted to do, but he understood. It's hard, if not impossible for us to supervise him 24/7. This even meant someone had to be with him at night, since he was starting to get up in the middle of the night. Dave would be up several times a night to get him to the bathroom, get him a glass of water or just tending to something he wanted...then get up at 4am to drive an oil truck all day. That was a recipe for disaster. I would get up at 4:30 am to get him dressed and fed, then tend all the animals, get J. ready for school and then get myself ready and to work for 8:30am.

It was just not working. We were going to get a nurse in here for respite, but that costs a bloody fortune. Then a place opened at a seniors home for 3 weeks in the respite bed. What we really wanted was for him to be placed permanently in the facility his wife was in. We prayed and prayed and prayed, then 3 days before he was supposed to be moved to our house again or another respite bed...THEY CALLED!!! They had a permanent bed for him in the same place as his wife! We were all so happy we cried. Now he seems a lot happier, we are under a lot less stress and he's being well taken care of. This facility is one of the best. The workers are really caring and the place is beautiful. I want to move in! Just kidding.

But now we have another problem. What to do with the Dawdi Haus. It's doubled our house insurance and I don't even want to see what it's going to do to our property taxes! We are trying to rent it out, but so far no takers.

So this is our little life at the moment and reason why I haven't been blogging . We are finally starting to relax and find a few minutes to spare, plus Christmas is fast approaching.

Have a Blessed Evening

Lisa

The Dawdi Haus

Dave putting in the last screw in the veranda

You know when you're so tired, you can't think straight, yet you can't stop either? Well that's how I feel right now.

I am this close...(holding my thumb and index finger about half a millimeter apart) to going nuts, crazy, bonkers, loonie bin bound..you get the point.

This is the kitchenette

This weekend the Dawdi Haus was finished (well enough for him to move in). So all last week we have been packing, and packing and packing and then yesterday (Saturday) while I was all day at work, Dave and very nice friends helped us move all the stuff. Then the work really began. I got home from work (and it was a busy day and we were really short staffed) and I had so many boxes to unpack and put away before grandpa could go to bed.

The living room area

He was slightly confused and upset since he didn't really want to move in the first place. But it needed to be done. Dave couldn't keep running two households. He was getting stressed out and burnt out. So the choices were either move in with us or go to an elder's home. So here we are!

The Dawdi Haus, like the Amish call it.

But all that being said, my house, the living room especially, looks like a bomb blew up, or a tornado hit it. I'd say an F4 tornado. It's so bad, I don't even want to take a picture. That bad. I can't stand having my house in such a disarray. I mean, don't get me wrong, my house is not always clean, ok, it's never clean....but it's never this bad. This is the part that is stressing me out the most!

J.'s room needs to be completely emptied, cleaned and painted. The living room needs to have the new mouldings put in, the walls resanded, then washed and then painted. I just painted the entire room a few months ago!! I hate painting. Like I tell people, I'm a paint expert, I'm not a painting expert. When we started the addition I didn't think it would affect the rest of the house.Boy was I wrong.

On top of everything, I'm supposed to be making soap this last week, I need to restock. This coming Thursday I've been invited to speak to a lady's group and bring some soap to sell. I'm hoping I've got enough stock for that night, plus, I need to print more labels and finish my speech. But my problem is that Microsoft Works is holding all my stuff hostage! I can't access it. ACK!!! So tomorrow I have to get on the horn and call my computer dude.

Simone!

But after all this...there is a little ray of sunshine...called Simone. Dave's dad wanted a dog when he moved in. Really he wanted a Beagle puppy. Ahhh...no. So we convinced him to get a retired mini dacshund. She's a retired breeder. We just got her today and she's a sweetie. She cuddles everyone.

Ok, I have more to say, but I'll wait for another post. My thinking capabilities are gone.

Have a Blessed Evening.

Lisa