Heading out again

We're headed out of town tomorrow for our trek South. We may or may not make it before Dad dies, we'll see.

He's off all meds except morphine, and they took him off his pacemaker today. He has no kidney function, and his breathing is labored and erratic. He is dying. At least we got to speak to him on the phone today, he was still kind of aware.

I will try to post updates here, or maybe Tata will as needed. If you think it's been a while and you need more info, please email my yahoo account.

Wish us well.

Shadow unveiled

Promised dog pics. Sorry about the dog eye glare.






(Posted as I hear the wall-thumping mice on their interior journeys through the attic. .. Crawl. Thump. Shuffle.)

still going

Dad's still on the decline. Hospice nurse recommended he get his last rites if he was Catholic, which he is.

Lola wants to see him again before he dies, and I think we're going to try. But we can't leave before Monday (we have a legal thing going on) and then we can go.

Ugh. Having that $8000 from the IRS sure would help right now.

rivers

After a few days of decline, Dad is still hanging in there but losing a lot of weight. He's not really eating, and can't really walk anymore, and his giant recliner has been replaced with a hospital bed. My brother has to carry him to the bathroom. He is sad, and tired, and sleeps a lot. He misses me, and asked me to pray for him.

I might be traveling south again soon. If so, I will try to post here before I leave.

He's lost 30 pounds in two weeks. I'm not sure what to expect. I just think of rivers - of time, of life, of water as the universal solvent.

He is 80. I wish him nothing but a peaceful end surrounded by family and a lack of misery. We should all be so lucky.

Puppies take lots of energy. And time.

We have a puppy! Her name is Shadow, and we don't have pics yet. She is a black lab/boxer cross, very cuddly, adorable. Great with the kids, with us, with everyone. We love her. And she is every bit of 4 months old - potty trained, too.
Pics another day, I promise.

I also found a black glittery skull candle on clearance today, I feel so post-Halloween.

Came home from errands/shopping to discover that after a week in the hospital and being discharged yesterday, Dad is going into Hospice care again. At least he's at home and not in a nursing home.

And Tata made a bunch of pierogi filling so we would have them for our big cooking day on Thursday. Wish you were here!

Lola's Magical Garden

Lola is so excited about a number of things today, but the latest is her Magical Garden, made entirely out of her imagination with little plastic interlocking pieces.

The flowers are all magical. Two of the flowers are called pinwheel flowers because they spin. The cube greenhouse contains flowers. The flowers in the four colored square tiles are flowers for courage, truth, excitement and something else she can't quite remember. Next to these flowers, there is a purple glittery magical bridge which has a ladder that comes down in case you fall into the blue, kidney-shaped stream.

One flower even erases bad feelings, as it is actually an eraser.

She wants to share her garden with the whole world! OK, world, enjoy it. :)