Nov 09 was the normal month pretty much. Jacob had his few check ups everything was going great with him. Turkey day came and went, we had dinner at my brother's house since everyone burried the hatchet and agreed to get along for the holidays. Melissa and I did the normal after Thanksgiving Day Sales. What a nightmare that was. At least we were able to get inside and out of stores really quick. I am also glad I wasn't pregnant this year.
Dec 09 Ben's 2nd birthday came and he had a lot of fun opening his presents. I should have just bought him a box and he would have been happy with that. It's amazing what a 2 year old will do with presents. He pulled out the items and played with the boxes and the paper more than the present...that is until I took the box and paper away. We celebrated on the 24th because that is when the family got together to celebrate his birthday. That day we also celebrated David & Mary's birthday also. The 24th is Mary's birthday and the 22nd is David's.
Then Christmas came and went. For some reason I can't find any pics for that, but lets just say the tree was crazy. Not as crazy as the year before, because this year we had it more organized. This year we put it in there by kid and adult. So we were able to clear out certain parts of the tree at a time...it made it easier for "santa" (Melissa & Myself) to hand out the gifts and not miss anything. I liked it better this year.
Jan 10- Happy New Year!!! Ok, so it's the new year and not much has changed...yeah right. James mother went into the hospital and came back out the 31st of Dec...She had another Congestive Heart Failure again. This was more serious then the other ones she has had in the past. On the 11th she had another attack and this one landed her in the hospital again, but this one wasn't going to be good. We were notified on the 13th we needed to get there as soon as we could. My mom and I worked like crazy to make arrangements so we could fly to Oregon and also have a rental car. So those arrangements were made and James & I took Ben and Jacob on their first airplane trip to Oregon on the 15th. Oh boy was I not expecting it. We got over the Columbia River about ready to land in Portland and I about had a heartattack. I have never had a more interesting landing. I was so glad when we landed, I was not prepared for the major crosswinds. We get to Portland and we ended up having to change our car arrangements, but I'm glad I like the car we got. It had heated seats and a sun/moon roof. Nice car, I loved it. We got to the place we were staying. A memeber of the church let us stay at their place. It was so nice that we didn't have to pay for a hotel. We got to the hospital and got to see his mom. She was on life support, dialysis and just about anything else you could think of. The hospital staff wasn't going to let us take the boys in there because of the H1N1 but with us from out of state and this would be the last and only chance they let us. The pictures I had from our trip disappeared because the computer got reformated and we forgot to put the pictures in a seperate drive. I am hoping to get the pictures that I printed out from his Aunt and his dad. I went to Wal-Mart and printed out the pictures so his dad and Aunt could have a picture. Oh well, if I get them then I will post. Anyway, on the 15th when we got there we saw her and we had a family council. With their bishop, their home teachers and the family that was there we had a prayer and decided as a family to "pull the plug". It was the hardest decision we ever had to made. It was especially hard for James. The nurse took her off everything and now it was a waiting game. James took me and the boys back to the place we were staying so they could get some sleep...Needless to say I didn't get much sleep. James came back at 4 am saying the nurse told us to get everyone together because it wouldn't be much longer. Her stats were falling more. She decided to fool us though. Another 13 hours later she gets moved into a different room so it could be more private. Now there wasn't any monitors just her on the bed and the family. We had the kids brought in so they could spend the last littl bit of time with her. We think she was waiting for the whole family to get there. Shortly after Ben arrived (I already had Jacob with us) Frieda took her last breath and left this earth. She died on the 16th at 5:10 and we had it confirmed by a nurse. The funeral was on the 20th. I was asked to make the arrangements for Frieda, since my emotions were more in check then anyone elses. I kept everything under control for my emotions until after the funeral. It was a really beautiful funeral, I gave the eulogy, James gave a talk, his aunt also did a talk. James' dad had a good friend that also gave a talk and it was very heartfelt and spoke to his dad a lot. After the funeral we cleaned out the house got things into storage and got Pat into an Adult Foster Care House until we were able to come back in April and move him down to Utah with us. After all that was done and taken care of we flew back to Utah. What a crazy month...but that's not all.
Feb 10...Valentines day came and we had a little bit of time together it was really nice to have the whole family home for a special day. It was hard on Pat and James called him to check on him. We would call occassionally to let him know that we were still thinking of him and not just leaving him there. He was having a lot of problems there. Zach also had his birthday. The big 13. I can't believe I have a teenager now. He is doing so well in school, getting A's and B's. I wish I did as well as he did in school. At the end of the month we were told by the owner of the facility that we had to get Pat out of there by the end of the month. I was like that is only 5 days. That is not enough time. They agreed to let him stay there until the 1st week of March. So now we made arrangements again to go back up there. This time we would drive since we had to bring everything back with us. We had to get him out of there because he was being agressive towards the aides there. He was being aggressive as in verbal and I guess he was also tossing things around in his room. I don't know exactly what was going on, but he had to leave there so we went up there. On top of it all everyone got sick. Jacob was the worst the doctor thought he had RSV or Pnemonugh (spelling is wrong I know that)..with xrays it rulled those out. Doctor gave us some meds to use for while we were gone and when we get back he would do another exam.
Mar 10 so now we are on the road...I really wish I had the pictures because I got some great shots. Oh well maybe some other time. I would like to go back up there especially to see the temple. My goal is to see all the temples in the U.S. It took us 13 hours to get to Oregon from Utah. We got to stay with the same person we were able to stay with last time. Kathy is such a great person to allow us to stay with her. We got the Uhaul trailer and loaded all of his stuff into it and drove back to Utah. We stayed there a total of 3 days this time. It took us 16 hours to drive back since we had an extra person and the trailer. So on the 10th Pat officially moved in with us. We were able to get everything started so he would have his health care. At the end of March he got approved for Medicaid- disability. I also had to contact SSI to let them know he moved. I was also chosen to be his Rep Payee. The doctor examined Jacob again and said he was doing better but he had to have breathing treatments once a week. Those treatments helped clear out his lungs. He also lost some weight and the doctor was worried about that also. Luckily the 2nd visit after we came back Jacob had gained some weight, but not enough. Doc had some blood drawn, but everything came back normal. The last visit at the end of March he had gained weight again, but only another 1/2 pound. Doc said at least he is gaining weight, just very slowly. Jacob is really down on the scale. Infact he's not even on the curve he is below it.
April 10...So now Pat has been with us for a month now, and I'm having a hard time with it. He refuses to take a shower or bath since he can't get in it. I went online and bought him a shower chair and that arrived only a week and a half ago. He finally took a shower! Jacob had his 6 month check up and he now weighs 12 pounds. He is just barely on the chart. He is doing well for his height and head circ, he's just going to be a really tiny baby. He is healthy so that is all that matters. Just last friday the 23rd we moved Pat out of our house and put him in a nursing home. He has to stay there 90 days so he can move into an assisted living facility. He doesn't really like it there, but he has to be there and he knows it. So now we have aired out the house and started cleaning up everything after him. In Mary's room where he was staying we had to have the window open for about 2 days. We noticed we will need to get a new box spring for the bed and we also need to clean the floor. Pat had some accidents and we need to finish cleaning up after that. The majority of it was taken care of right away, but the stuff that was necessary we waited on...the bathroom just totally got cleaned today except the bathtub, since he didn't really use that it's been the same since the kids used it. I am hoping to get to Mary's room soon and finish that.
So that brings you up to date on everything that has gone on here. Pat and Friedas anniversary would have been yesterday and he seemed to handle it ok according to James. James has been going over there almost daily with the kids to see him. I think we need to leave him there for a few days so he can get used to the place and the people. Then once he starts adjusting then we can visit and keep up the visits. I will try to keep updating as things go on. Now that I have a laptop I can rely on I will be able to do that more often. Hope this didn't bore you or put you to sleep because it is so long. Thanks for taking the time to read it and I hope you have a great day....Love to you all.
