Yesterday was a bit of a blur. I stayed at home with allergies, and most of it was spent in bed with a book until the lights went out because of the storm. Then I was in the living room with an enormous dog sitting on my foot (he has a phobia of thunderstorms) shivering. At one point, he actually tried to sit on ME while I was sitting on the couch! Oh goodness..lol. After an hour and a half of being without electricity, the storm subsided and the electricity returned.
Stopped by to visit Mom today but she was sleepy and already in bed at 1:45 so I stayed there for a bit and overheard one of the CNA's saying that this was the SECOND time that Mom had been placed in bed. Another CNA told her that Mom shouldn't be placed in bed until 1 1/2 hours after meals, and the first CNA said Oh well--I made a mistake. Grrrr. I could have gone ballistic but I didn't. I am, however, jotting everything down and keeping names,dates, etc so that I can present this to the director if things don't improve. But I'm praying that things will improve. I'm trying to be oh so positive. You know the saying, "like attracts like". So I'm hoping this will work.
After 20 mins, I went over to do some more grocery shopping.Then I stopped by to visit Mom once again. This time she was awake.So I gave her a snack with a diet soda. Then it was time for me to leave. I had to get back on time to get Leigh some dinner before he heads to church for Summer Bible School. I arrived and unpacked groceries as quickly as possible. Then Leigh arrived. Five mins after that, a Federal Official arrived to ask us a few questions about a neighbor of ours who applied for some sort of job. Once that was done, I finally finished dinner and felt as if I had been caught in a whirlwind of activity in such a short period of time. Leigh left, and Rocco and I were left to our own devices. And I'm sure he enjoys that because he gets stuffed with treats galore when he helps guard me outside as I'm doing yardwork.
So far, so good. I'm keeping a food diary and have been since yesterday. I'm on a diet---wait, no, it's a "healthy lifestyle choice" according to an article I've read. Yesterday went by smoothly. Today, however, I was craving cookies. Call me Cookie Monster...lol!
For the rest of the evening, I had dinner, did some yardwork, and drank loads of water. My willpower grew stronger once my body had been nourished with dinner. But I do feel that drinking lots of water is helping me stop my hunger pangs. Plus, my body is craving water now.
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I visited Mom, and on the way I was slowed down by construction on the road and then work being done along the railroad tracks. I decided to enjoy the wait by snapping a few photos. After about 15 minutes I was back on my route to see Mom. She was with Linda when I arrived and her mood was joyful and giggly. I love seeing her in that mode. Later, Mom and I went to the dining room where we had been invited to attend one of the resident's 101st bday! We ended up crashing another party we didn't know about , so Mom enjoyed two different bday parties..lol. My bad. I rushed home, ate lunch at 4 in the afternoon, showered and got dressed for bellydancing class. I took my brand new tribal pants (even though they're too long!), and my instructor told me that I can tie the sides of these type of pants and voila! Problem solved. Plus, they look pretty awesome tied up at the sides. Also, she liked the pants so much that she's ordering a pair for herself and she is thinking of recommending these pants to the rest of the belly dancing group. Isn't that cool?
In class, we practiced our yoga, which sets my soul in such a relaxed state! Then it was time to dance, and we practiced undulations, infinity loop movements with our hips, chest, and arms and tons of other movements,which I intend to practice on throughout the week so I can ingrain the movements into my brain.
I purchased my first hip scarf today. It looks exactly like this except it's a shade lighter!
I visited Mom, and on the way I was slowed down by construction on the road and then work being done along the railroad tracks. I decided to enjoy the wait by snapping a few photos. After about 15 minutes I was back on my route to see Mom. She was with Linda when I arrived and her mood was joyful and giggly. I love seeing her in that mode. Later, Mom and I went to the dining room where we had been invited to attend one of the resident's 101st bday! We ended up crashing another party we didn't know about , so Mom enjoyed two different bday parties..lol. My bad. I rushed home, ate lunch at 4 in the afternoon, showered and got dressed for bellydancing class. I took my brand new tribal pants (even though they're too long!), and my instructor told me that I can tie the sides of these type of pants and voila! Problem solved. Plus, they look pretty awesome tied up at the sides. Also, she liked the pants so much that she's ordering a pair for herself and she is thinking of recommending these pants to the rest of the belly dancing group. Isn't that cool?
In class, we practiced our yoga, which sets my soul in such a relaxed state! Then it was time to dance, and we practiced undulations, infinity loop movements with our hips, chest, and arms and tons of other movements,which I intend to practice on throughout the week so I can ingrain the movements into my brain.
I bought my first hip scarf today--It's a tad lighter than this shade.
Leigh and I attended church to find that Jessica was making a presentation of the work she and others accomplished while in Senegal.It was very interesting to hear of how they spread the word of God in another country. In the middle of her presentation, she had servers pass out a sample of Thebouidienne, which is a traditional food that she was taught to make. And,ooh, it was delicious! It's a dish with rice, fried fish, spices,etc. I'd love to get the recipe for this and actually make it one evening for us. Plus, we had a tea that had a punch to it called attaya. Out of the two, I preferred the cheb aka Thebouidienne. Here's a site for the recipe:
http://recipecircus.com/recipes/GeniaMarie/FOREIGNCOUNTRYRECIPES/Senegal_Thebouidienne_Fish_in_the_Mann.html
or
http://sociolingo.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/african-cuisine-senegal-ceebu-jen-rice-and-fish/
or
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1626,158174-248195,00.html
Our church members will be making another trip to Senegal. Maybe we might be able to make the trip as well someday.
Much of the remainder of the day went smoothly. At around 4ish, Leigh went to help out at the church since their Bible Summer School commences this week, and they needed to move some heavy furniture as well as prepare some items for tomorrow's arts and crafts class. While he was out, I remained at home and decided to do some yard work when I got a tad wound up with a conversation in the late evening that left me nettled to the core and I needed an outlet. So I decided to go outdoors and remove weeds from the yard. I was working hard and sweating while all of a sudden I saw a slithery tail under the trees. Then I dashed for the phone and told Leigh to COME HOME NOW THERE'S A SNAKKKEEE !!!! He came and killed the thin,slinky snake which although it was beheaded, continued to bite into the air, which gave me the heebie jeebies. Shudder! So far, we believe that it was a cotton mouth snake, maybe.
This deal of getting to bed past midnight (or later) and not waking up until the late morning (11ish) is just not good. I need to get my body into a routine once again. If not, I'll be so out of sync when school begins next month. We started today on a late note and most of it was spent at home. Then we managed to browse at some phones. I am truly not a cell phone person. If it were up to me I wouldn't own one but they serve a purpose, especially when I'm not at home and an emergency arises. Plus, I like the security of having one when I travel alone on the road. So as I was saying, we were looking at new phones, and the salesman showed us Blackberries, LG Vu,Slvrs,etc...and to me they were foreign territory because I basically use mine for listening to music or actually talking on the phone. Nowadays, phones are capable of doing so much more-Finding the nearest and CLEANEST bathroom in your vicinity (see bathroomdiaries.com), watching a movie or television,etc..... It's pretty cool, but it can be intimidating.
We had dinner after the few hours of viewing phones galore, and then we visited Mom, who was having a very good day. We spent some time with her, and I even took loads of photos of her (and managed to get a couple of Leigh as well).
Leigh went to work and I did some of the usual tasks for the day: a load of laundry and ironing some name labels onto some of Mom's clothing using our Dymo, which is a Godsend! I love the simplicity and efficiency of just typing, printing, and ironing the label on. Plus, it eliminates the confusion of trying to decipher who the clothing belongs to at the home.Before zipping over to see Mom, I stopped by the Post Office. And we had loads of mail!! I received a birthday card/gift from my mother and father-in-law from England. I was sooooooooo thrilled ,so it was the first item of maiI that I opened while I was in the parking lot. And it brightened up my day so much! Thank you Mum and Paul! Then I opened a package, which were the pants I had ordered for bellydance practice. Woohooo...they're sooo cute, but I am going to need Leigh to sew up the hem for me since the pant's length goes past my feet and onto the floor.
