Marcy Place--the place for my mom!

Finally, I was able to arrange to put my mother in an assisted living facility!  It took an act of Congress almost, but it is done!  My sister has power of attorney over my mom's financial issues, so I had to wait for authorization before any of this could take place.  Still, there are some loose ends that keep cropping up but, all in all, I feel much relieved to have gotten this done.  I hope that she will adjust to it; she seemed like she would at first, but then I went on a trip (my first real break in months!).  After I came back, Mom was back to her ol' self--whining ad nauseum!  I guess everyone needs a hobby--my mom's is complaining and belittling me~!!  My sister hasn't been much help with any of this; finally my nephew helped us get her moved into the facility with her furniture.  It was 10 days after we paid the rent; of course, Mom complained about all the days that were wasted as a result.  Now she isn't eating much, although she never did anyway, but they have really good food there.  All home-cooked and very delicious, as far as I know.  Also, she knits and they asked her to teach a class, but that never panned out, apparently.  Oh, well, what can I do?  I am not a miracle worker and I have been handling all this responsibility for over three years now.  I got really sick and tired of being the one that does everything...things I don't want to do, but had to.  However, sister dear does whatever she wants and everything revolves around her.  She has never in her life had to do anything that she didn't want to do; lucky her.  'Nough said!! Right? 

MOM!

My mom has finally hurt my feelings in front of friends!  I wasn't sure about something she said a few days before, because then I wasn't paying that much attention.  However, yesterday proved to be what I had presumed!  My mom truly believes she only has one grandson!  She doesn't acknowledge my son much, if at all, but when she even said that to the neighbors, I quickly interrupted her with a statement about the fact that she had forgotten she had another grandson!  Her reply:  I only saw him once or twice!  That is certainly not true and how embarrassing that is in front of other people.

My son is a very good person and, if my mom didn't get to see him that much, that is my fault!  I take the blame for that, but don't disrespect my son!  He came right out of me and she acts like I just found him on the street or something.  Just because she raised her other grandson for 9-10 years, she has this delusion of some sort.  Well, my parents were raising my daughter for a few years also; I felt that she was safer and better off with them at the time.  They adopted her at a young age so they could register her in school, as I had moved away and was having another baby with my new husband.  That was admirable of them and I have never wanted to bring up any ill will, but sometimes it is there.  While my daughter was in their care, she was in an accident and passed away.  She was unsupervised at the time, as both my parents were working and one of my sisters was going to check on her during that short period of time she was alone.  It doesn't take long for tragedy to strike when it involves children.  It has been a very long time ago since that occurred, but the memory is still very fresh!  My dad has since passed away and so has that sister, however Mom is still here and becoming more of a burden than ever.  The sister with the other grandson is of very little help in the care of an elderly parent.  I rarely have a day off and, when I do, I must work my schedule around someone else.  I cannot go on much longer!  Things must change or something drastic might happen!   

Money Talks & Bullshit Walks!

You know, the Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil!  Well, the Bible does not lie!  People can say that money doesn't matter to them, but their actions speak louder than words!  I have found in all my years of living that money is good for living expenses, 'cause you gotta eat, etc.  However, when people strive to get more and more material gains, they become greedy--one of the seven deadly sins!  Over the years, I have experienced many times when money was scarce; you learn to adapt.  More times than not, I had everything I needed; sometimes were just harder to muddle through than others.  Now I have more than enough to be comfortable, but I am never extravagant.  I buy what I need and want (within reason), and I am truly blessed to have what I do.  I have been more philanthropic now than ever, and you know what--it does come back to you ten-fold!  I give money away without a second thought to family members who need it; years ago that money would have been stolen right out from under me by some stranger or even supposed friend.  So many times I have been duped into giving people money or they just outright stole it from me.  If they had asked for it, I probably would have given it to them without question.  I thank the Lord every day that I have gotten this far in life without being too needy.  My dad was a generous person and somehow always knew when I needed financial help.  The money would be in the mail without any word from me.  He just sensed it.  I have tried so hard to be that way now that I am older.  I hope to continue to be generous in my dad's honor.  Maybe he is smiling down on me right now!  Love you, DAD!!! 

Fall--Beautiful Time of Year!

Fall has been a welcome change, especially since there has been rain lately!  Within a month's time, everything sprang back to life!  The grass greened up and grew a bunch; I may have to mow one more time.  I have more plants to move in before the end of the month, as I want to make sure that none of them freeze.  I also want to finish cleaning the ornamental garden before everything dies back for winter.  It has beautiful rain lilies and many other plants that are healthy.  I do miss that when the cold wind blows and it seems like spring will never get here.  However, spring tends to be a windiest time of year for us, so I would just love to skip over that part!  Then summer comes and it is too hot!  Last summer I didn't mow any from the end of May until the end of September.  Four long months of no rain, just watering whatever is really necessary.  That really was rough!

Mom is more generous now that she has had an epiphany, she claims.  That helps me to tolerate the job I have a little more.  She can be incorrigible at times, and my husband can too, only in a different way.  They are both pieces of work!  I just love them both so!  Sweet Jesus, give me strength! 

BACK TO DRINKING!

Well, my husband fell off the wagon...again!  I guess this is a sign; I am trying to decide what to do!  If he continues drinking heavily, I will be forced to leave.  I don't want to live with my mother but that may be the only way!  I won't be there long, however, as I have a plan to put her in an assisted living facility, if possible.  I want to move out of this God-forsaken place before the oil field sucks all the water out of the earth!  It is happening as we speak!  The oil boom is in full bloom!  I was raised in the oil field; many relatives did oil field-related jobs when I was growing up.  It was different then.  I wish it would bust, as the economy really is effected by all of this.  Our rent continues to go up, but we're on a fixed income and that doesn't increase much.  It isn't enough to cover a rent increase, which is already almost out of our range!  Electricity continues to go up; it is summer and the bill jumps way up!  I am depressed; I will have to make some changes!

The Non-Bathing Husband!

Does anyone out there in blog world have a husband that doesn't bathe anymore?  I have one!  Since he "retired" over 3 years ago, he has not bathed--not to my knowledge!  I am quite sure I would be able to tell if he did!  I have not slept with him in years either; I have my own room!  He really disgusts me and I feel like the only one in the world that has to put up with this behavior.  I wanted to ask his brother about it; I often wonder if he didn't want to bathe when he was a kid.  BUT...he used to bathe when he had to work, so I don't know what happened.  It is very disrespectful to me!  I hate living like this!

BUSY, BUSY!

WOW!  I have been so busy the last couple of weeks; I haven't seen my soap opera in that long either!  I do miss my hour of relaxation time when Y & R is on, but I haven't had the luxury of seeing it lately.  So much stuff has developed and the irony of it is that I was able to finally take a 2-night trip all the way to visit my friend-sister.  I stayed in a motel instead of with her as she has big dogs that like to steal my bed at night.  I was on my way back home when I got the foreboding message that Mom had a gas leak.  I don't know if we would have discovered that on our own, because the gas company insisted on changing out the 50-something year old meter.  My youngest sister actually came for a visit at the time of my trip, but she was not knowledgeable about plumbers to call, etc.  She hasn't lived here in decades, so....needless to say, I had to rush home to the rescue!  Back to reality!