It has been a long time.......

 I know, I know, it has been a really long time, and everyone is anxious to know how their two favorite Floridians are doing in cold, snowy New England.  Well it isn't wonderful!!  Friends of ours from Orlando, texted 2 days ago saying they had just left the pool.......so what, I just took the dog out for 15 minutes so she could poop in the foot deep snow!!!  AND I could make a snowman if I was dumb enough to spend that much time outside.  Are you getting the picture ???

Actually, we have settled in quite nicely.  I get up 2 or 3 times every night to calm my mom down.  She keeps wanting to go home.  Her "home" is where she grew up, not where she has lived for the last 63 years.  The monitor I installed is great and lets me know when she needs someone to bring her back to reality, but it is very disruptive to sleep.  But that is why we are here!!  Right?!?

I am slowly learning how to start the wood stove in the morning.  I am not terribly good at it, but I try every morning to warm up the downstairs of the house.  I did get my first burn scar today, I am sure it wont be the last.  We got a load of wood and bless their hearts, they stacked the wood on our patio right outside our back door.

Next, we will discuss snow.  It's beautiful, it is quiet, it makes everything look lovely, but it's heavy to shovel, easy to slip on, and damn cold. Chelsea, our dog, is not crazy about snow!!!!

Next, we will discuss Mom.  Some times she's as cold as snow!  Some times as warm as the wood  stove!  But most of the time in a world all her own.  It is hard to watch the pain she goes through every time we tell her, her mother is in heaven.  The worst part of dementia is the fact that every time they are told about the death of a family member, it is the first time they have heard it and deal with the loss.  It is heart breaking on a daily basis.

Cleaning up the house.......we have hired two companies to cart away "stuff".  We have never seen so much "stuff".  I have spent days going through large brown envelopes with receipts for phone, cable,  insurance, etc, etc.  Need to pull out papers with SS numbers and life insurance policy numbers.  It has taken days to trash 15 plus years of saved papers.  BUT I think I am done with that project.  The dining room has been cleaned, painted, with a new rug.  It is so rewarding when we finally accomplish a room.  The kitchen finishing has been held up because an internet order for a new wall paper border has been lost in transit, and they have to start the order all over again.  We can't finish painting until we can coordinate the color of the border with what we want to paint the walls.  It is driving Peter crazy.  But he is learning how to be more mellow as he ages very quickly up here in the "Andover Adventure".

Okay, as I right this, sitting in a cozy room, with Peter and my mother, my mother has become an angry person.  It is so amazing how the brain can cause someone to change personalities in a matter of minutes.  She called him "sweetheart" when he delivered her dinner.  Now 20 minutes later he is a "Son of a bitch".  It is like a bad soap opera!!

We have a physical therapist that comes twice a week.  I don't know how he is able to deal with mom.  She swears she doesn't need exercise because "I sit in my rocking chair all day and rock, so that is all the exercise I need!"  Thank goodness for face masks as it hides our giggles!!

I have become the "Instacart Queen".  I never thought I'd see the day I didn't enjoy grocery shopping, but I have.  I am too old and too cold!!  I let those young people pick out my tomatoes, rutabagas, toilet paper and other essentials, and then drive on sub freezing country back roads.

It's hard to believe we have been here for 5 weeks already.  As the saying goes, "How time flies when you are having fun"  😨😨😨

I'll be back again soon when there is something other than snow, cold, cleaning, middle of the night wake up calls, missing our family, our church family, our Gulfstream neighbors, and our GRANDchildren!!

Love to all.  Keep us in your prayers

Sandy

 

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