Happy 4th of July and life update

   I have been missing so long, I wanted to check on and let you all know why while I was thinking about it.

The end of January my mom had a left occipital stroke.  I went to see her at her house, and she answered the door like normal, but the more I talked to her, the more confused she seemed.  I figured it was another UTI, so I packed some of her things and we headed to my house.  I took her to the ER, and they said her MRI showed a stroke and she also had a UTI.  She was in the hospital for about a week and then she was sent over to a skilled nursing facility.  Just as a reminder, I am an only child, and she had not had a power of attorney done.  I took off work for about 6 weeks.  She was still at skilled nursing when I went back to work.  I had to make the decision to send her to assisted living.  She has lost her short-term memory and her peripheral vision in her right eye is gone.  She is actually doing pretty good.  She enjoys the activities at the assisted living facility, she doesn't remember them, but I see pictures, and she looks happy.  She is closer to my house, so I visit as often as I can.  It has been hard.

In February, my husband took my car to get looked at and they told us the catalytic converter was likely going out.  This car was my Granie and Papa's car that I got when they passed away.  It is a 2002, but drove like a dream, so I was upset.  We decided to go ahead and get a new car, since I was driving a lot to see my mom.  We decided to keep my old Camry.  In fact, Josh is driving it until it cannot be driven anymore, but since we had it looked at, the maintenance light in the car has gone off.  I got a 2025 Toyota Camry and all of the new things cars have, I had to get used to.  I do love it though.  Here is a picture.  There is a church across the street from our house, so that is what is in the background.  I snapped this picture after we got it in February to show my sister-in-law.  I don't think I have taken any other pictures of it.  It sure is a nice car though.  I am enjoying it.

I finished my school year end of May and had started doing some curriculum work with another teacher and our curriculum director.  We got that done the week after school got out and I got a call from the assisted living place my mom is at and she was sick again.  I met her at the E.R. and she had another UTI.  No new stroke activity, so that was good.  She was in the hospital almost a week when they started the antibiotics, she got C-diff and she also had a little pneumonia and then went back to the skilled nursing facility she was at in the winter and last week she was able to go back to assisted living.

That brings you up to date.  I was able to get my mom to her accountant to get her taxes done the end of March and finally in April got a power of attorney.  We went through an attorney and it did not cost as much as I thought it would.  We have also started cleaning up my mom's house.  We were doing that in the Spring, it is too hot now.  We will work on it some more in the Fall.  She has a lot of stuff just all over the place.  She is messy.  I have stopped working on her house, but I have been working on our bedroom this summer.  It is much cleaner.

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July.  I am going to go visit my mom and then come home and be here with our dog Meisha since she is afraid of fireworks.  My husband's sister and her husband are having a 4th of July picnic, so maybe Karl and Josh can go to that.  I want to be here for Meisha and close just in case something goes sideways with my mom.  I am hoping to start blogging again soon.  I hope you are all doing well.