Happy New Year's Eve

The year is coming to a close and it's been a tough one here at Frog East. Dealing with dad's Alzheimer's has been both exhausting and all-consuming. He's at that stage where he's angry all the time and willing to throw a punch or shove someone with no warning. The last couple of days have been especially hard and a family decision was finally made that it was time to look for an Alzheimer's Unit. It was a hard and painful decision, but mom, who is in her 70's herself cannot be expected to try and handle him when us kids are not around. Belive it or not, in just under 60 days I'll be heading back to Frog Central. I have a lot of genealogy research I'd like to do in the meantime, but I'm afraid that little will be done this trip. We'll have to see what transpires over the coming weeks. In the meantime we are hoping to get a few minutes tonight to lift a glass of champagne and toast the coming of a new year. May it be better for all of us.

Christmas

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. We've been enjoying the leftovers of our Smithfield, blue foil wrapped, Paula Deen inspired, spiral cut ham. I got lots of new frogs that I can't wait to share. We're having major computer problems here and maybe after the Geek Squad is here later this week I'll be able to share some of them.

Dad has been a handful, so updates are going to be spotty at best. Anyone taking care of an Alzheimer's patient can understand. Be patient and soon things will be back to normal.

Frog of the Day

Avon Frog Toy Chest
Originally uploaded by KenCalvino

A couple days later... finally, a new Frog of the Day! We've been getting ready for Christmas - and chasing after my dad with Alzheimer's. I drove about 100 miles the other day, but we finally found a Smithfield, blue-foil wrapped, Paula Dean inspired, spiral-cut ham for Christmas.

You too can get this lovely Toy Chest from Avon - but mom says to act quickly! You can click on Mom's Avon in the right hand column. It will take you to her Avon site. Click on the "Shop" and then type "Frog" into the search box. It will take you right there! A canvas frog great for kids in which to store their stuffed frog animals.

The Rush to Christmas

This week will be taken up with buying the last minute gifts. We've decided on ham with all the trimmings - we're looking for a Paula Deen blue wrapped spiral cut ham from Smithfield. There's still no snow on the ground here, thank goodness. I hope it holds off right up till Christmas eve.

Thanks for all the good thoughts that you've sent my way in dealing with my dad and his Alzheimer's. He had a real bad day Saturday - combative and non-stop all day and night. He had started new medication, which has since been stopped. He's much better today. We've all gotten a bit of extra rest yesterday and today, which was really needed.

Hopefully I'll get a bit of time tomorrow to put up the new Avon frogs - there are several of them. You can click on my mom's Avon link in the right hand column. It will take you to her webpage - click on the shop tab and put frog in the search box. You'll be able to see them all.

What a Week!

It's been a rough week here at Frog East. Three adults chasing around one Alzheimer's patient - and losing. It's non-stop from first thing in the morning until last thing in the evening. We try to give each other little breaks, but somehow after dad is finally in bed for the night (you hope - he has a tendency to get up over and over) we all sit exhausted.

I took dad for a drive around town yesterday and to stop at McDonald's and get him a milkshake. A treat he loves. I haven't driven around in quite a while and I was surprised at how much the area has changed. A lot of new stores that I didn't know about. It felt like it wasn't my hometown any more. And in many ways it isn't. I moved from here shortly after graduating from high school and only return for visits. Other than my parents I have no connections to friends, etc.

There have been little spurts of snow here and there. We did not get the feet of snow that dumped all around us, thank goodness. Today the snow started in earnest and there may be 5 or 6 inches by the time it stops tomorrow. Let's hope that's all the snow we get while I'm here....

Weekend Update

Just like Saturday Night Live!

Yesterday was spent removing a very nasty virus from the computer. It was called System Tool 2011. If you get this virus I strongly recommend going to www. helpmyos.com. The self-professed geeks there have step by step instructions on how to remove it. And it isn't easy. Finally, after about 3 hours, I was able to get it off the computer and everything seems to be running great this morning.

I had planned yesterday to write about my dad and my dog. Dad, who has Alzheimer's, loves dogs, and I thought he would get a kick out of petting Gertie. The problem was he kept trying to pick her up - by the collar or a leg. So really close supervision had to be employed and to tell him no when he wasn't handling her properly. Then dad came up with a new tactic - food. I skinned a banana for dad the other day and went about doing some other things. When I turned around he was feeding the banana to the dog. He's tried to put his dinner plate on the floor for the dog, and Friday we caught him just as he was trying to feed a box of Russell Stover's candy to her. Thankfully, she did not get any. Now all contact between dad and the dog really has to be supervised closely - because dad is quick when he sets his one-track mind to something.

It's been good seeing dad, even if he doesn't know who I am. He's frustrating as hell because he doesn't or won't follow simple instructions. He definitely tests your patience right to the limit and then some. My mom has been the caretaker now for two people with Alzheimer's and she deserves a medal and a spa day!

Brighter Days are ahead

Arent's they? Please.... Unfortunately, in order to keep the peace, yours truly has had to take to keeping Gertie on a leash. She is not pleased about this, and truthfully, neither am I. Why do holidays have to be such a stressful time?

In frog news, I'm going to put up a picture of a frog item that can be purchased through Avon. They have a new frog toy chest item. It looks really cute and I can't wait to see it in person! You can click on my mom's Avon link in the right hand column and check it out - please feel free to order from her too.

Here's to the hope of quieter days ahead.

A bad Monday

It started out ok. But ended up with me all packed up and ready to head back to Frog Central. Gertie and I came under threat of attack from a rage filled brother (oh aren't the holidays fun!). He claimed Gertie nipped him, which I just don't believe, which led to him having a tantrum and running around trying to kick her. She spent the rest of the day in my arms, terrified. I would be too - an 18 pound dog against a 200+ lb. 6'4" man. For the moment, I'm keeping everything packed - which is a real pain in the behind, but if another incident arises, I guess we'll be cutting the trip short and heading back home.

Hope you had a better Monday than I did...

The Post Office

When I decided to come east for three months, I thought how nice it would be to use the premium forwarding service to receive my mail once a week in one package. It is a very expensive service, but I liked the idea of my mail being seperate from everyone else. This was to be the first week of the service. They supposedly mailed my package on Wednesday and I was to receive it yesterday or today. Therein lies the immediate problem. I have not received it at all. Of course the mail did not arrive until after noon, so I can not call until Monday morning to find out where my mail is. I'm not good at sitting and stewing all weekend. I am afraid I will be rather irate by Monday morning and the person who answers the phone is going to get an ear full. In the meantime, I have to pay bills with no bills. That ought to be a lot of fun!

Friday's here!

It's been a long week and today I plan on a long afternoon nap to catch up on some much needed sleep. It takes a little getting used to sleeping in a different bed without your favorite pillow. And no, the car was packed tight as it was, I wasn't packing my pillow too. I'm already a bit worried about how I'm going to get everything home - I might have to rent a little trailer to haul behind the car! LOL

This morning I was able to get a little genealogy work done. It felt good to get back into the routine of working on the book in the morning. Hopefully after the holidays I can get into a routine of spending some time in the libraries. I've got a lot of little holes in information that I'm hoping to plug.

The weather turned bitter cold yesterday - the temps are just making it into the high 20's! This is cold weather and forecasted to get colder over the next week. I'm bucking the trend of heading south for the winter and instead, headed northward. It's time to rethink this whole bucking the trend business!

Snow

The snow showers have finally past and thankfully no accumulation. Gertie had a lot of fun trying to catch the snowflakes before they hit the ground. I imagine she's going to spend a lot of time inside sleeping today, catching up on some much needed rest.

At the moment I'm enjoying the peace of being alone in the house. Something that doesn't happen often in the busy hustle bustle of this place. I find the quiet a bit comforting as I normally live alone. You have to take the moments when you can get them.

Last night we decided to make a Thanksgiving leftover hash - all the stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, meat, and vegetables went into a giant bowl. Stirred it up, heated it up, and ate it up. I think we were all a bit surprised by how good it actually tasted. And finally, the end of the leftovers! I think we were all getting a little sick of them. Except stuffing - who could ever get sick of stuffing!

I guess I should get this day started....