Why all the food issues?!

So Granny is soooooo crazy weird about her food.  She likes to snack ALL day, but won't sit down and eat a meal.  If, by some miracle, we actually get her to eat a meal, she freaks out EVERY TIME because there is too much on her plate and she "can't possibly eat that much."  Yet, after that meal she is snacking again.  I just don't get it.

And she seems to be ashamed when she eats or snacks.  She takes teeny tiny bites during a meal and always hides her snacks in the cup of her hands or under the table.  It's so weird, but I guess she doesn't want us to know she's eating.

Take just now, for example.  We were gone from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm to run errands that included a grocery store trip and we didn't eat or drink a thing.  I told her that we didn't have time to stop at IHOP when she wanted to go there just to get a cup of coffee immediately after we left the house.  (She will also tell you that she drinks several glasses of water everyday in addition to her million cups of coffee, but we all know how untrue that is)  We got home and I heated up 2 regular Sonic burgers that we got last night for the express purpose of having them for lunch.  I heated hers up and she cut it in half.  Then, sat down and ate half and started walking around scrounging!!  I told her that she couldn't have any chocolate or snacks until she had eaten the other half of this hamburger or the other half of her hamburger from last night that was still in the fridge.  

She kinda got mad at me, but looked in the fridge and added pickles to her hamburger and got a large handful of grapes at the same time.  She finished the grapes as she was taking bites of her burger and then opened a brand new box of granola bars we had just bought at the store.  (This is the same box of granola bars that she picked out and then griped about when we got home saying that she didn't like that kind and why didn't anyone ask her what kind she would like to have)  She proceeded to finish her burger and granola bar.  I was satisfied. 

Then, I see her eating ANOTHER granola bar!!!!!!  See why I don't understand it?!?!?!?!

She is always so concerned with food and fixing food, but she usually wants nothing to do with food other than snacking on sweets.  Grrrrrrr....it can be so frustrating.  I don't know if she's getting the vitamins and minerals she needs.  I can guarantee she gets enough chocolate and sugar, though!!

It has been decided

Yep.  Granny hates me.

A Pretty Good Day

Granny slept late this morning.  I know, pick your mouth up off the floor!!  She slept until like 9:30.  I was even up before her!!  If you know me, that's a HUGE accomplishment!!  Haha!!  She immediately got a cup of coffee.  I know, another shocker!  Then we got ready and headed out for me to take her to Bible class.  Yes, the Bible was still in the purse from yesterday!  All the way there we talked about how I was taking her because her friends that can come pick her up were all busy today and that I would be picking her up, also.  I drilled this into her head.

I went to go get her at 11:30.  No Granny.  There wasn't anybody anywhere!!  I knew they wouldn't just leave her, so I wasn't really scared.  I checked in the church office and that unhelpful lady's advice was to contact John Phillips.  Well, I'm standing outside the church building in the cold and I don't have John Phillips' number!!  I have Mom call him and he says that he has Granny and they are almost at the house.  Granny, of course, doesn't have her house key, so he, thankfully, waits with her in the car until I can get back to the house.

We trade the passenger and go our separate ways.  At this point, Granny is trying to be cantankerous, but I just won't let her.  We run by my Dr.'s office so I can grab something while she sits in the car and we head to lunch.  She has suddenly become concerned with how much things cost.  She wanted to go to where ever wast the cheapest and kept asking me how much certain items were at each restaurant.  Remember, that we are in the car.  I just go to Hardee's.  I give her the choice between a ham and cheese, a burger, or a chicken sandwich.  She wants to know which is cheaper.  Geez!  I keep telling her that it doesn't matter and she decides on a hamburger.  We have a great lunch with pretty good conversation and 2 HUGE cups of coffee.  

We leave and go to Hobby Lobby because I'm not ready to deal with her at home, yet.  Here's how it goes when we get there:

E: Okay, we're here.

G: Alright, you go ahead and take your time.  I'll just sit in the car.

E: But I want you to go in with me.

G: But I really want to sit in the car.

E: But I really want you to go with me.

G: Well, I really want to sit in the car.

(I put the car in reverse and start backing up...)

G: Okay, I'll go in with you.

E: Thanks!

I win!!  We go in and she loves it.  She was even smiling!!  It was fun for a little while, but having to respond to every teeny tiny thing she looks at gets a bit tiring.  It was fun watching her get so excited, though!  She did totally love the Easter stuff.

If you know Granny lately, getting her to smile for a picture is next to impossible.   So when she smiled for this one, I almost freaked out.  She even wanted to take more!!  It was fun being silly with her!

After I finally drug her out of Hobby Lobby we came home and are chilling.  She said she was very tired after walking around that long (that was my plan!!) so she made her more coffee (sigh...) and was in her room, she says, reading (reading receipts).

Actually, I just checked on her because she had quit talking to the dog and I didn't hear her anymore and I found this:

Yup.  She's napping-something she NEVER does.  

Apparently, she doesn't do it very long, either, because she just came into the living room!  Oh, Granny!!

The Usual Bible Hunt

Every week we go on a Bible hunt at least once.  Sometimes it's on Sunday, sometimes it's on Thursday, but, this week, it was on Wednesday.  Bernice Ramsey was sweet enough to pick Granny up and take her to the Pleasant Valley ladies Bible class on Wednesday morning.  Mom and Granny looked and looked for her Bible, but with no luck.  

Mom sent her on without it, but we found it while Granny was gone.  It was here in her room.

Yup.  It's in a bag that she got from the dentist with her new toothbrush and stuff in it.  Then Granny had put pictures on top of it.  No wonder we can't ever find stuff in her room!  She also likes to open a bunch of mail and stuff it all in one envelope.  Yeah...that's fun, too!

Loss of Senses

So, I think Granny is finally starting to lose her hearing.  

We know, from going to the eye doctor earlier, that she has cataracts, but she refuses to have surgery for them.  That may be why we had this conversation earlier today about a stuffed rabbit at Hobby Lobby:

G: Oh, just look at that cute little rabbit with the blue carrot!!

E: Blue carrot? 

G: No, I mean the purple carrot.

E: Um...

G: Oh, it's an orange carrot.  I'll get it right eventually.

But, lately, we have been having to repeat ourselves multiple times for her to hear us.  We also have to slow down and speak very deliberately for Granny to understand us.  This gets to be very frustrating at times.  I wonder if it's just because she's old or if it has something to do with the disease.

Kitchen Things

Tuesday I  came home to find the silverware drawer to look like this:

(I know it may not look that bad, but I didn't get the whole drawer in the picture!)

For those of you who know me, I am an organizational freak.  I immediately had to fix this.  This is what we get for Granny doing the dishes all the time.  She does them because she really does like to do them, but she gripes to no end about it!!  Kind of funny!  Does she EVER use the dishwasher?!  Of course not!!

So, I fixed the silverware drawer to look like this:

Putting the random things that I found in this drawer up in their rightful places led Mom and I to, basically, organizing the whole kitchen AGAIN.  This happens periodically because Granny doesn't remember where things go so she just moves things over or stacks them up and makes room in cabinets for the stuff.  

We now have a happy, organized kitchen for maybe a week!  Yay!!   :)

Drama spills forth

Ummm...I don't have time to really post right now due to the drama that is Granny right now.

Short version:
~Yesterday we moved her to Good Shepherd.
~Today she walked off and they found her like a mile and a half down the busy road.
~We got her settled again. I went to see her after I got off work and Aunt Pat saw her after that.
~Mom got a call at like 6:30ish saying that we needed to come pick her up because she was trying so hard to get out. They had to lock ALL the doors (and the other residents in and visitors out) just to keep Granny there.

See, I told you...DRAMA!!!!!!

Another conversation

Granny: Where did my mama go?  To take a nap?

Erin: Your mom hasn't been here.

Granny: She hasn't been here?

Erin:  No.  

Granny: Oh, okay.

Erin: Where have you been?

Granny: I've been in there at the table reading and looking over my lessons.

Erin: What lessons?

Granny: My math lessons.

Erin: What math lessons?

Granny: It's um, 12th grade math.  It's first grade math science.  First year math science.

Granny: I thought my mom was going to stay over here.  She did for a little while, didn't she?

Erin: No.

Granny: Do you know where she went?

Erin: She hasn't been here.

Granny: She hasn't been here?  Ok.   I saw her over at the stadium then.  Or someplace.  I know I saw her.

The conversation went on when she came back into the room and started talking about how she had to go back to the stadium and find out where she was going to stay tonight.  I finally just had to ask her what on earth she was talking about!!  She went on to talk about her other house and how she needed to go there and get some stuff for the people.  I wonder which fantasy world she's in today.  Maybe she's still in the one with the kids and the band and the parade...

Conversation this afternoon

Granny had been sitting on the couch with the dogs and her coffee while I was putting something away in the kitchen.

Erin:  Why is Titan's face wet?

Granny:  Well, I don't know.

Erin:  Is that coffee?!  Did you feed him coffee?!

Granny:  No, he stuck his nose in my cup!

Erin:  But you can't feed the dogs coffee!!

Granny:  Well, if he can get to it he can have it.

Why?!

I promise I don't understand this stupid disease. 

Granny 

1. took her coffee cup with coffee in it and put it in the microwave and turned it on

2. immediately turned around and turned on the teapot for hot water

3. looked in the cabinet and got a coffee cup out

I asked her if she was getting a cup for coffee and she said yes.  I told her that she had just put her cup of coffee in the microwave.  She went and looked in the fridge, then the freezer, and finally the microwave.

I just don't understand.  How can her mind not work even the tiniest bit?!

Yikes

This was what I found after I went to inspect a suspicious smell this morning:

I'm not entirely sure how this happened, but I have some ideas!!  The paper was totally wet and apparently she decided to try to dry it over the stove.  Eeek!!  The oven was on at one point with papers draped over the open door.  Some papers were laying on top of the burners.  That was the scary part.  I don't know if she just had the burners on and turned them off before laying the papers on top or if she actually tried to roast the papers or lay them on top of the burners when they are on.  Either way, it was not good.  

The papers didn't dry, needless to say, and Granny says she didn't burn them.  Oh my...

Mom called the paper and had them send us out a dry one - which she HAS NOT read!!!!!!

Merry Kissmas and Puppy New Year

Merry Kissmas...

...and Puppy New Year!!

We had a very interesting time in Florida with Tyler for Christmas.  

The ride down was just Mom and Granny and it went perfectly.  Granny had a very good day that day.  Days after that were not as good, unfortunately.  The time Granny had really can't be described in words.  It was different from day to day, hour to hour, and, sometimes, minute to minute.  Very unpredictable.  She definitely kept is on our toes.  She got very angry sometimes and really let us know she was mad.  It wasn't really different than when we were at home, though.  

She did have lots of fun!  She enjoyed looking at all the sights and new things (even though she always thought that the ocean was the river and we were just across the river bridge and headed to White County)!!  

Speaking of White County...Granny thought we we on the wrong road the WHOLE way home!!  She also had NO problem telling is that sooner or later we were going to wake up to the fact that we were on the wrong road.  This got much worse as it got dark outside and was very frustrating, but she chilled out once we got to Memphis.  Still thought we were going to White County (and occasionally Missouri), but we finally got her home.  Then she didn't want to go to bed (at 2:30 am!) until she had done the dishes.  You know, the ones that weren't in the sink?!  She finally quit and went to bed around 3:00 am and slept until noon!!  WOW!!

On the way home Mom, Granny, and I stopped at one of Aunt Pat's famous restaurants: Lambert's.  Above is the coffee up (half a pot!) that Granny was given.  She only had one cup during the hour and a half lunch!!  She changed her answer each time we asked her what she was going to have (because we usually order for her to make it simpler), but the waitress asked what we were having and Granny answered without even looking up - with a different answer again, but she had a great meal anyway.  She ate a lot and even ate things like fried okra (and fish from Captain D's the other day) that she swears she doesn't like.  Mom and I just look at each other and smile often!  We think and hope that Granny's appetite has increased since we ate so many large meals on the trip.  She ate a plate FULL for lunch today and went back for more!!

The day after we got home and I had a chance to put all the pictures on the computer, I set it to do a slideshow of the ones we had taken on the trip.  During the third cycle of the same slideshow she was still commenting on almost every picture saying how cute or pretty it was!  Ah, the joys of no memory!!