Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy Jig

I left last Thursday to go to Utah to pick up my son from college. My youngest son went with me. I was very nervous about driving that far alone, but the Lord blessed me and it went well. We drove 13 hours to Salt Lake and stayed at a motel there. My son is the one who first picked this motel about a year ago. We were looking for a motel and he said, "Comfort Inn...that sounds comfortable." :) So we stayed there then, and I liked it so much that I passed up the cheaper motels in Wendover to drive all the way to the airport motels in SLC. Plus I wanted to get as far as possible that night.

The next morning we drove the hour to Provo and went to my son's apartment. He was still asleep. His roommates woke him up and he came out of his room looking like death warmed over. I said, "What, did you stay up until 4:00 in the morning or something?" He said, "No, 7:00". :/ He and his roommates had been watching movies. I asked if he was all packed. He said he hadn't even started packing. :/ He also needed to check out, so I put him in charge of packing while I started in on the cleaning he needed to do before checking out. They had very specific and picky instructions on what cleaning I needed to do. I don't remember having this go through this when I moved out of my student apartments.

My daughter got off work at 2:30, so I took them all out to lunch. She picked the place and took us to a place called, "Stumpys". She tried to convince us that they serve raccoon meat there. When you walk in, you see stuffed raccoon toys hanging all over the room. There is also a real raccoon hide hanging on the wall. They have hillbilly music playing. An old man took our order, despite the fact that he could barely hear us, even with his hearing aid. It took awhile for me to notice that he had a raccoon tail pinned to the back of his pants. :)

We left Provo and drove to my parents' house. We stopped at Inkling's house on the way and visited for a little while. When we got to my parents' house, we found that Sticks, and "No blog brother" ;) were both there with their families. Twist came the following day with his family. Even though not every sibling brought all of their kids, we were still wall to wall people. Inklings called and asked if she should come on Sunday or Monday morning. I told her that not only was there no place to sleep, there was no place to sit! She decided to come Monday after one family had left to make more room. I told my mother that I wasn't sure if I was going to the bathroom more often since I got there, or it just felt like it because I was afraid if I got up to go to the bathroom I might lose my chair!

I have to say that I was very encouraged to see my mother. She is still very pale and very weak, but just in the few days I was there I saw an improvement in her. At one point she said, "I just passed a milestone. I was able to take a drink from my cup without my hand shaking.". She also seemed stronger when she walked with her walker. I seriously doubt they will be able to start chemo soon though. She still isn't well enough. I'm so glad that Inklings is going to help take care of them because my Dad requires care too. He and I had a little argument. He was getting up to do something and someone made the comment that he should be using a walker too. I very loudly said, "Yes, he should be using a walker". He said, "Well that's YOUR opinion." I said, "Yes, mine and the opinion of the nurses at the hospital too." He said, "Well, I'm not going to use one, and your saying it won't change my mind." I (somewhat strongly) said, "And how are you going to take care of Mom if you fall and break your hip?" He said, "I will take care of her just fine!" I said, "Not if you have a broken hip!" He said, "Well, I"m not going to do it, and I'm stubborn, so you aren't going to change anything by telling me." I said, "Well guess what. I inherited the same genes as you so I'm just as stubborn, so I'm going to keep nagging you." (now you see the ornery side of me. ;) He went in to the back bedroom. I sat there a minute, then said to my family, "This gives new meaning to the phrase, "pride goeth before the fall"." Out of the back room we could hear my Dad say, "Ha... ha... ha" ;) Seriously, he has fallen so many times with his cane, and had so many near misses, it is only a matter of time before he becomes seriously hurt. But he won't listen to anyone, so what can you do?

We had a nice visit as a family, and I was glad I could help out. We left yesterday morning to come home. It sure was nice to have my son to help drive. It took us 14 hours to get home. But the Lord blessed us and we didn't have any car troubles, and the weather was perfect, and we were able to stay awake. It's sure nice to be able to sleep in my own bed though.

6 comments:

Native Minnow said...

Glad you had a safe trip, and a good visit (even with the orneriness - ha). I wish I could've come up to see everybody. I'm glad to hear that Grandma is improving. I hope she continues to do so.

Nene said...

I'm glad you had that argument with him. Inklings and I had the same argument, basically. I think we need to keep bringing this up and pointing out to him everytime someone else tells us that they also think he needs a walker. The guy who runs Tony's Outpost also commented to me that he needs a walker. Maybe if we keep it up he'll finally give in like he did with the cane.

Becky said...

Long car rides, particularly when I'm the driver, are not on my list of favorites things to do either. Glad you returned home safely!

Anonymous said...

sounds like a white knuckle trip to me, I drive with soda crackers and a coke, this will keep me awake for about 300 miles per bottle...as far as Dot finding her purse, I dont think we wil ever recover it, as it had too much money in it to turn it in, even tho they are supposed to turn everything in when it is found on the airplane...keep in touch ...Lonehawk

Looney said...

Wow, that is a long drive. I keep thinking to take the family to Yellowstone or someplace out that direction, but the drive is too long and the flight tickets always seem too much.

Amber said...

I hate to be a foreteller of doom but Kaleb tells me all the time that when old people fall it can literally kill them because it's so hard on their bodies that they don't recover and eventually die from complications due to it - like getting pneumonia from lying in bed, etc. And this is pretty much how my best friend's grandpa died because he never recovered from his fall. Maybe a few of those stories might get him to change his mind.