Mom’s 99th birthday went well. Visits from the nurse to look after the last of her skin tears and a workout from the physical therapist. On a more fun note, she also played bingo and handed out cupcakes to all of her friends.

All the tests she had done in the hospital turned out fine, so she has now moved over to a rehab facility to get her strength back. She is having several hours of therapy a day; the goal is to get her back into assisted living.

Thursday, mom had her staples removed with no problems. She was still in a lot of pain and the doctor prescribed some pain pills that she has taken before with no problems. Friday, the med nurse called me to say mom seemed to be extremely disoriented, so they were stopping the pain meds in case that was the cause.

When I went over, she had her shorts on upside down and both legs through one opening. Even more worrisome was that she was extremely weak. I got her into bed and told her to stay there. I was thinking maybe she had another UTI and made arrangements to get a urine sample.

The people at the facility were checking on her regularly, but when they went in around 9:30pm they found her on the floor with two new tears on the back of her leg. Back she went to the ER and this time they kept her. She doesn’t have a UTI or anything else wrong that they have found so far, but she is still very weak.

Sunday, a room finally opened up and she has now been officially admitted to the hospital. Today they are planning on doing an MRI. I’ll be heading over there in a bit to see how things are going.

The bad news is that mom has had two falls in the last week. She is bruised and battered and has 9 staples in a scalp would. The good news is that nothing is broken. Besides the head wound, she mostly has skin tears on her leg. Those things are extremely painful but not life-threatening.

She is supposed to get the staples out tomorrow. Today a home health nurse is coming by to change her dressings. Good thing, as I about fainted when I wrapped them up yesterday. There is a reason I never went into the medical profession! Also, making your mom cry out in pain is not fun, I prefer leaving it to the professionals.

I got tired of dog hairs all over my sheets and bedspread, so I bought a few small blankets for Brindy to use. At night, I spread one out on the sheet and put a second one down as a pillow for her. During the day, I put them both at the end of the bed (this picture was taken just before I painted the wall):

I’ve been very consistent about moving her if she sneaks off from the blanket and she has obviously been getting the idea. The other night she wanted to be at the foot of the bed, so she picked up the blanket being used as a pillow and moved it to the end of the bed. Even more cleverly, this is what I came home to recently:

As you can see, she picked up the blanket and carried it to the middle of the bed, thus allowing herself permission to curl up on the spread. Smart dog!

August’s party where my mom is living had a luau theme. I make her and her tablemates leis to wear.

Here’s mom:

And here are her tablemates:

I have always wanted to have some accent walls in my various houses but haven’t done so since I was a teenager. When I changed rooms around this summer, I took down almost all the pictures in the house. Once the main ones were back up and I had some idea of the color palette in them, I decided it was time to indulge myself once again with something other than neutral walls.

I picked four rooms – the main bedroom, the main bathroom, the den, and the craft room – and painted one wall in each. I was originally thinking of different colors for each, but I found one I liked so much I put it on all four. The effect might look a bit overwhelming in the pictures, but you have to remember that only one of the four walls has the accent; all the others are off-white.

I’m in love with the color!

A neighbor told me that alstroemeria (Peruvian Lilies) were her favorite flower and I thought I would try making some. Rather than following someone else’s pattern and coloring suggestions, I decided to use the techniques I have learned over the past years and make my own.

I looked at picture after picture on the internet and I bought some live flowers and took them apart. I cut all the petals and leaves freehand and experimented a bit with size and shape. I got a bit carried away, perhaps, with coloring: on the last set, the white/yellow ones, I used 3 different colors of Pan Pastel, 2 different watercolor paints, and 1 colored marker.

At any rate, I am pleased with my first truly hand-crafted flowers.

I usually take Brindy over to visit my mom and when I do, the other residents there just love interacting with her. I think almost everyone there knows her name (even if they don’t remember mine) and wants to see her and pet her whenever we appear. She’s very good with everyone; she’s quiet and calm and loves the attention.

The facility’s activities director, Sierra, noticed how everyone was fawning over Brindy and asked me if I could bring her over onto the memory care side of the facility. So last week, Brindy and I visited the other side of the building and mingled with about a dozen people there. They loved her (of course) and Brindy loved them. We are going to try and visit every week or two.