Playing Catch Up with Dad

The last week has been a blur.  Must like this photo.  Zoomed in from the upstairs...

The tree is up!  And Leon loves it.  I've hidden two Christmas pickles in it and he's not able to find them. Good.

He insisted on having breakfast with it last week.

A chill morning waiting for the bus.

On Wednesday the house was cold.  The furnace was on, but not heating up the house.  I called a furnace guy and he came right out.  I changed the filter just before he got there and the house started warming up again.  oops!  But he did find a problem with the furnace itself and needed to bring his dad the next day.  They found out what the issue was and that's been taken care of for now.  I rue the day we need to replace the behemoth furnace!  But I got a cost on it and know what it'll take.

When the kids were little, they would tell me at bedtime, the night before, that they were expected to bring 3 dozen cookies the next day...  really????....  Now that they're grown, it doesn't change.  I got a call from Meri that needed a crock pot full of chili taken to her house for a friendsgiving on Friday night.  She didn't have groceries for it and had to work all day on Friday.  So on Friday morning, Robb and I got it together in the crock pot and that afternoon Robb put the crock pot in her car where she works.  He knows the code. :)  So when she got off work, she posted this to our family FB group page.  Maddy told her not to eat it...

My Dad...  My dad had been in the hospital since Monday for pneumonia.  He had gotten home on Thursday afternoon, then went back to the ER with chest problems at 6:30pm.   Not good.  

The Facebook messenger sibling conversation was hopping.

On Friday, I realized that I had a full weekend with nothing scheduled.  I am looking forward to getting some serious sewing time done but as I looked at the two days ahead that had nothing scheduled, I suddenly realized I was being selfish.  Here my sisters had been spending their nights at the hospital with dad and I was planning on being 3 hours away sewing to my hearts content.  

Plus when one of my sisters mentioned that they didn't want Dad alone at night in case something happened, my heart ached.  Yep, I needed to be with my dad.  I spoke with Robb and he made sure that he would be here at the house when Leon got home from school.  I packed up a few things and took off.

I got there late afternoon and one of my sisters was about to leave for home.  Visited with dad for a bit and then my brother arrived.  Dad got his supper and Mark said, Hey - let's you and I go down to the cafeteria for a quick bite.  We were gone about 30 minutes as we didn't want to eat in front of Dad.  He's on a somewhat strict diet.

I stayed the night on the most uncomfortable chair in the world.  It reclined a bit, but made so much noise reclining that I mostly sat up with a pillow.  Not a lot of sleep that night.  

Dad's remote/nurse call button fell to the ground when he rolled over once and I jumped up pick it up.  As I reached down to grab it, his eyes popped open and he asked, "Who is it?! What are you doing?"  dang.  I startled him! 

JUST after that a nurse came in and ran his vitals.  crumb.  His blood pressure was pretty high!  

I think I can explain that...

These vitals were in the morning after he'd gotten over his nighttime scare.

whew!   A little more normal.

His blood sugar was all over the place and way too high.  We think because of some meds he's on.  

So anyway, this was my view for the night.  An icky, rainy night. 

 Dad and I had had a great time talking and reminiscing about old times in the morning.  I'm so glad I came!

I love that man.

Also that morning, the rain turned into snow.  I was planning on leaving around 9 anyway, but promptly at 9, we saw sleet, then big fluffy snowflakes. 

Another sister arrived just as I was ready to go.  And on the walk to the car, I got a call from my brother. He wanted to get breakfast with me.  Yeah... I need to hit the road! Darn.  

The way home was somewhat treacherous so I'm glad I left when I did.  

As we talked, I slid through a yellow/red street light.  whew!  I couldn't go much faster than 42-45 mph most of the way, but finally after two hours, I was up nearer to the speed limit.  I nervous "ate" from a giant bag of popcorn the whole way, not even taking time to stop anywhere.  So by the time I reached home, I really needed something hot and substantial.  

and a nap.

I got some sewing in that night and made the cape and finger-less gloves for my bestie's Christmas present as well as a pair for the church craft sale.  Then went to bed early.

Sunday, after church, the four of us attended a children's theater production of The Velveteen Rabbit.  Meri had been a co-director of it this year.  Cute!  We got to see her for a few minutes afterwards.

Got a good long DUO call with Maddy and Matthew.  It's been a while since we'd talked!

And now we're back into the week.  I hope it's an easy one.  

For Dad mostly.  He gets to go home today!

What a rush.