As soon as I picked Mom up on Friday she was a little out of it and started complaining about her head, her stomach, her back and etc. To take her mind off her "ailments", after we picked Amelia up, we took advantage of the weather and spent a good bit of time outside. Her big smile seemed to show how much she enjoyed it and watching Amelia run around. We also attempted to make a "SPOOKY" witches broom as our craft. Below are pictures of both. Manicures were also part of the evenings festivities. We had a good time and she seems to be doing better.

Family night

Mom and I started off the evening with a REAL pedicure instead of our normal at home one. I think we were both in need of a good one and that chair works as a back and neck massager so we knocked we got in some much needed relaxing. :) We did our manicures at home though. Mom and Dad Dooley came into town and so instead of a "girls" night we had a "family" night with her, me, Amelia, Wilma, George and Brent. We painted mason jars into spooky Halloween decorations as our craft and made owl treats out of rice crispies dipped in chocolate. It was a fun evening for sure. :)

Mom is back on a small dose of this certain medication and it sure does seem to help her with having less confusion. Her home health person said she is much more with it and not having hallucinations anymore. She is doing better and certainly had a great time Friday night!

Love you Mom!

Happy Birthday Mimi!

Due to our Amarillo trip we did not do girls night on our normal Friday night. However, we did celebrate Mom's birthday by having girl's night the on Wednesday instead (the day before her actual birthday). Me, Mom, Amelia, Heather, June and Brent all hung out making the traditional holiday Peanut Butter Balls and of course manicures were part of the the evenings festivities as well :). On Thursday, September 29th (her actual birthday) I took her birthday cake that Mia and I made and decorated for her later Wednesday night up to her adult daycare to celebrate up there. Let me tell ya, she was all smiles :). She is doing good and getting better.

Movie Night!

Project pictures

She really is doing better and better just a little confused this week. Her gorgeous personality still shines through just like her gorgeous smile. Check out our finished projects!

Girl's night September 17th

When I picked Mom up on Friday afternoon around 3 I greeted with a big hug and smile which was wonderful but I soon noticed she seemed more confused than normal. Upon asking Amanda, her home health person, she confirmed my fear of her being way more confused lately. It seems the Dr took her off her meds that were making her clearer yet causing her to be more anxious, shaky and feel nauseous and "drugged". They are still tweaking her medicine as it can take a long time so confusion just might be part of the deal for a little while. And, when I say confusion, I mean CONFUSION. Maybe she was just having an off night but it seemed like it was everything she was confused about and a lot of it just didn't make any sense at all. Usually when I repeat some of her "logic" back to her she will recognize how silly it sounds and admit she is just confused but she was standing by her words on Friday. She even told Amelia to hand her Grandma (referring to me) something and when I corrected her in saying I was indeed not Amelia's Grandma she corrected herself and said, "Oh sorry, hand this to Aunt Angie" then insisted that I was never married, Brent was Co's (her sister) boyfriend, I never had a baby and Amelia was HER child. UGH. Even after I showed her pictures of me having Amelia she STILL argued her point. She also kept wanting to walk out to "the front of the store (house) to check on the customers". Other than a few difficult moments, Me her and Amelia still had a good time on our girls night. We made a "sucker cupcake" (will post a few pics of this), gave her a manicure and pedicure(and shaved her legs in the process), made "spooky cookies" as Amelia likes to call them :) here are a few pics of the "sucker cupcake" lol.

Here are some pictures I had forgotten to post of Amelia and Mimi when we all went to the library one day. :)

Girls Night September 10th

This past Friday Girls night consisted of only 2 girls...me and Mom bc because Amelia was out of town in Baton Rouge. Mom's home health person said she was a little more confused this past week and Johnny told her that the Doctor is still tweaking meds. She isn't shaking as much but does seem a little more confused. She and I did some cooking as well as dinner and manicures. She def had a good time but not as good of a time as when Amelia is there lol.

Girls Night September 3rd

I went to visit Mom at her adult daycare at lunch last week and she was all smiles and doing pretty darn good. She seemed to light up when I mentioned making goodies for Christmas a little early since we will have a little one in 2 months=no time to make peanut butter balls, cookies, etc lol. She even mentioned making Christmas ornaments and snicker doodles. I picked her up Friday like usual and she was having a pretty good day! Johnny said she had had a rough few days as she was sporting 2 black eyes and 2 bruised knees from running into the door one night and hitting her knees. She, Amelia and I did craft time and made some rings out of the pull tabs from juice cartons and milk cartons as well as had our normal manicures. Here are 2 pictures of them showing off both.

Girls Night August 26th

Girls night Friday night started with a trip to the salon in which we indulged in a much needed eye brow waxing. Although I forgot to take pictures, she looked very beautiful as usual :). Once we got to the house, our evening turned pretty nostalgic bc we went through albums and albums of old pictures. Loved seeing her smile at these. She was not as shaky this time but didn't seem to be doing as well as last visit. She was a little more confused and argumentative but I think her Dr is still tweaking her meds and hopefully get things on track.

On Monday night she was pretty out of it and must have been giving Johnny a hard time because she called me very confused 4 different times asking what time our show (movie) ended, what time we were going to bring Amelia by and what time we are going to bring our other kid by. She was also confused in crying about being worried bc me only being a six year old (with a 3 year old daughter I guess) and on and on. She was crying and crying bc she had worked herself up so much. I tried to assure her over and over that we were at home and not at any show, I was a 35 year old woman and we only have 1 child that she does not babysit and need not worry about, and that we were giving Amelia her bath and winding things down for the night. Apparently she didn't hear any of it bc she continued with her confusion. Johnny never got on the phone so I can only assume it was just one bad night and she was just super tired or her meds are out of whack. Hopefully she got some rest and her new Dr gets her meds back on to track.

On my lunch break today I will go visit her at her adult daycare, hopefully she will be her smiling self.

Girls Night August 19th

When I visited Mom at lunch last week at her adult daycare, she was in great spirits and truly with it. I also picked her up Friday night for girls night to find her pretty with it then too. She complained most of the visit about not feeling well but Amelia and I tried to keep her mind off of that by doing projects and manicures and pedicures. Even though she complained about how she was feeling, she was able to hold pretty good conversations with less confusion. It was fantastic to see this improvement!

Girls Night August 12th

Last Friday was a pretty calm evening and not so much a normal "girls night" but more of a family night. Mom and Dad Dooley came in from Baton Rouge and so we all played some Yahtzee (Mom did really really well with knowing what she needed, where it went and counting up all her points at the end...very impressed). We all chatted for awhile and all headed to dinner. She was a little anxious (esp with her shaking) but did really good other than that. She was certainly all smiles :) She is also doing really really well with not being as confused and when she does being really easily redirected. So proud of my Mamma!

I will be posting some recent pictures soon so check back soon.

Another Fun filled girls night August 5th

This past Friday Mom, Amelia and I started the evenings festivities making a fruit rainbow in which Amelia promptly ate the clouds made out of whip cream lol. We also had "movie night" sitting on a blanket and munching out of our own popcorn boxes. We tried to recreate the movie theater experience as best we could lol. (Pictures of this will be posted at a later time bc they are on a different camera) After dinner we made wind chimes out of the sea shells Amelia collected while in Florida. It was a lot of fun (and more tedious than I expected lol. Mom got a little frustrated with getting the sea shells on the string but with a little help, she did fine). She was in a really good mood and is getting around SO MUCH better these days. If you ask her how she is feeling she will DEF tell you she isn't feeling good lol but she really seems to be other than she is a little more shaky these days...possibly from a medication change? It will be brought to the attention of her new Dr in an upcoming visit. She recently went on a trip to visit family and from what I gather, she did really well and showed improvement to those loved ones. I am really proud of how well she is doing and absolutely love that smile of hers...esp when she is staring at Amelia :).

More binocular pics

Making Binoculars

Here are some pictures of Mimi, Mia and I painting and making binoculars out of toilet paper rolls

Went to visit Mom on lunch break at her adult day care on Wednesday and picked her up for Girl's night on Friday at 3. She seemed to be in pretty good spirits on both days. Amanda (her home health lady) and the adult daycare staff said she was having a much better week that week than the week before when she was wandering a lot or very sleepy. Me, her and Amelia had a fantastic girls night which included yahtzee playing, play dough fun, making dinner all together and the usual manicure. Here are some pictures taken over the past few months: manicures, mardi gras party we took mom to, a trip to the movie theater, a trip to Minden for dinner at Heather's, and a pic of Mom when she and I went to Nickey's restaurant.

Friday night girls night

Friday night I picked Mom up around 3 and she, Amelia and I went for some much needed and wanted snow cones during 100 degree heats. At Amelia's request we played baby dolls and the board game Candy Land....they both totally whipped me lol. It was a BLAST and Mimi was smiling so much. She was much easier to redirect and did not argue much at all. While waiting on dinner to finish, us 3 colored beautiful pictures to be given to Daddy "as a surprise" lol. It was a great time and you could tell Mimi really enjoyed herself just as much as we did. :)

So I didn't get to have girls night last week because Johnny said Mom wasn't feeling good on the Thursday night I was supposed to get her (because our normal Friday we were going to Baton Rouge to visit Brent's family). So I am looking forward to girl's night tonight! The last few times I have been around Mom she seems so much happier flashing that beautiful smile of hers.

The weekend of June 18th: we had Mom and Johnny over for a grill out to celebrate Father's Day with hamburgers, hotdogs, baked beans, potato salad, regular salad, crab dip, and yummy ole cookies. It was a good time.

The weekend of June 25th: Mom, Amelia and I had girl night in which we all did manicures and pedicures (and leg shaving for Mom). We also all played dolls (Amelia's request lol), played Yahtzee, made dinner and made a cake for Johnny for his birthday party we were throwing for him the following day. You should have seen Amelia's eyes when she got her very own beater dripping with chocolate to lick and Mom was so busy watching and grinning at Amelia that she forgot to start licking hers lol. We did not walk the block this time like we usually do because the temps have been close to 100 or more here lately. Saturday night she was again all smiles from the moment her and Johnny arrived for his birthday party at Posados's restaurant til the moment she finished her piece of cake and was leaving.

She is an amazing woman and I will update soon with tonight's festivities as well as some recent pics.

Father's Day a day early

Father's day weekend was a lot of fun (Saturday was crammed packed
with birthday parties but it was still fun). Saturday night we had
Mom and Johnny over to celebrate Father's day a day early. We grilled
out hamburgers and hotdogs along with had potato salad, crab dip,
salad and I made sure to make the beans that Johnny
loves......welllll, we all do I suppose lol. It was a great time
hanging out talking while Mia swam in her little pool and watching my
Mom smile while watching her. My Mom's smile lights up everything!
Although Mom is doing better, she still has her good days and bad. I
only get her on Friday night for girl night instead of taking her to
and from adult daycare still. We were going to have to figure out
something for when I went on maternity leave anyways and after the
last incident of me having to physically put her in the car 5 times bc
she was adamant she had to help PaPa (who has been deceased for YEARS
now) do some random made up thing instead it was time. Then after
getting her in... her actually trying to get out of my moving car all
in front of Mia it was no longer okay for me, baby or for Mia. And
honestly, since Amanda (her home health person) has been taking her in
the mornings and Johnny has been picking her up when he gets off work,
things have been way less stressful. I no longer (on her bad days)
have to endure her arguing or her making a scene in front on Mia
(sometimes making Mia cry). Not only that, I can be on-time to work
instead of waiting around to drop her off the soonest the adult
daycare would allow which is 8am......1 hour past when I am actually
supposed to be to work causing me to have to make up that time on
Mondays or Fridays (the days she didn't go). Most importantly, I feel
like we have a better stress free relationship with her and I look
forward to spending good quality time with her on our Friday nights.
My Mom is an amazing woman who has been through a lot and does not
realize when she is truly tired/confused and what stress she causes.
The thing is, that little bit of stress I was getting...isn't even a
fraction of what Johnny endures. The man is an a determined machine
with a huge heart who loves my mom so very much. We both love her
very much and both pray and wish desperately for her to come back to
us....as her.