One of Mom's CGs had a health crisis and had to leave mid shift last week. We have been scrambling since. No trouble yet, the first week it through the shopping out of whack and I caught up Mon I hope.

I have tried to keep up here but have not done well. Still, to update all about Mom. She asked me to get her out on the porch last wed. and we did that. She enjoyed watching as I prepared all her potted plants to come in for the winter.

I hope that tomorrow I can get her out again and let her watch while I pot up the pansys I have ready for her to see from her window.

Some times the Glitch is a bonus. It really is good to get the pansys planted tomorrow.

Thanks T.O.R.P., All her financial info used to come to her house and I could look over what ever I wanted, but I never needed to, so when we started using an agency for weekends, it seemed reasonable to just have sensitive mail sent to his house. Now a glitch in our system has shown up. It doesn't seem to bother him so I will just keep him informed and not let it bother me.

I am going to suggest bill pay to him. I started it a few months ago and love it, but he has never done any banking on line. It may be a hard sell. It would be great not to deal with the mail or paper checks. If he won't do that, I am going to put as many as I can on automatic withdrawal/budget plan.

I just gotta make life easier. Thanks for the input.

Oh man. It's such a pain having the banking and bill paying split. Is it possible to set her account up for the online bill pay? That way, even though your brother gets the mail and control the account, you can both have the password and check on the account.

We love that online bill pay. Most bills are to the same places every month,so after a payee account is set up all you do every month is plug in the amount and the date you want the check to go out. You don't even have to buy stamps.

I never write checks. My use a credit card for everyday expenses, and my husband pays the balance when the statement comes in.

We have a similar arrangement for my MIL's incidental expenses. I have a credit card in her name and mine jointly, and it is only for her expenses (diapers, dentist, pharmacy, whatever). I keep receipts, match them with the statement, and there's just one check a month to write with a convenient accounting of her expenses all built in.

Things have gone a little more smoothly since the last entry. There are some minor glitches with me writing checks and bro doing all other banking. When we started with agencies we changed all of Mom's business mess to my Bro's house. Other wise, I would have set her up with a PO Box for "sensitive" mail. Any way, now if I find a check was not credited to an account(phone? ie.) I have to involve Bro to find out if the check was cashed and by whom.... Freaks me out, when a check is out there somewhere.

After I posted here, I spoke with the agency woman and had a chance to explain why I was so unhappy with the service they had provided the past weekend. (pretty much the same things I have mentioned) Then she told me that they only found out at 11 PM the night before the scheduled woman couldn't come. Well why didn't they tell me then? "We don't call clients after 9 PM"

Whose rule is that? I could have called a neighbor at 6 AM to feed the goats on his way to work and the cats could have waited until I got home in the evening. I could have saved my wasted road time and gas money and saved Mom 5 hours of paying some one from the agency and gotten a weeks cooking done for Mom.

Well I think we got a new guideline established for Mom's account. Then I request a live in for this weekend (this conversation is taking place on Weds), and suggest T, who has told me she likes working with Mom but prefers to work alternating weekends. AW (agency woman) says, "I am sure we can arrange that, her daughter called this morning and they expect her to be released from the hospital Fri. afternoon".

What am I missing here? A lady is in the hospital for at least 4 days and they expect her to do a 24 hour live in job the day after her release??

So AW called last night at 6 PM to tell me T was doing fine, came in for her check earlier and was glad to work. She had needed her medications adjusted, that was all, no biggy.

What ever meds she is on is her private business, but the health and state of mind of a person alone with my Mom is MY business. The agency's business is to send someone fit for the job, and T has done it before, but...

Dinner is in the crock pot and I will run into town to greet T when she gets there and look her over. I suppose all agencies have the same problems so it won't help to switch now. They send a very nice capable woman for the Fri-Sat, live in. But the whole expensive point is to be able to make plans every now and then.

OK, yes, I am whining and I'm sorry. Mountains out of mole hills. But, I am posting anyway, I need to vent a bit. It helps.

I'll be heading to Mom's for an overnight soon, It was a messed up weekend and a very busy week. I spent Sat night with Mom and the agency was supposed to send some one Sun 9 AM to stay with her until 5 PM, when her regular (non agency) lady was due in. Agency calls on Mom's house phone (always supposed to use my cell# ALWAYS) at 7:30 AM to say the lady due had canceled and she would try to get me some one. At 8 she calls back saying Michelle would be there in 15 minutes. Uh, 45 mins early. Who pays for that? But here's the kicker, she can only stay until 1 PM, and she will try to find some one else from 1-5.

Not once have they sent some one who is familiar with Mom's style of hearing aid. I have never left Mom alone with someone I have not met and introduced her to.

I absolutely have to go home (1/2 hour minimum away, hour round trip, 3 gal of gas) to feed my animals because H is out of state, so I have to take the woman who is now ringing the door bell, but no way can I have her teach someone else how to do something she has never done herself. That means after basic chores I have to return to town anyway, so why not stay, why pay for a 1-5 when I am still going to have to show up to teach them how to handle the aids and make intros, and not get home intime to start this project to finish before dark.. I took the 8-1 and canceled the 1-5. I could have made other plans. So many of you get no days off (and this wasn't really going to be a day off, exactly) so I don't expect sympathy, but I was very unhappy.



So a day that should have been spent fixing up the goat shed for winter got spent running up and down the road burning gas. I have caught up on the shopping and at least cleaned out the hay storage area, but I am fried.

At least last Friday, Mom got her perm. It may be her last one. She will hate a hairstyle that won't require one and I hate for that to happen, but it was hard on her. June (her hair dresser) and I were both concerned by the time it was done. She is OK though. She caught up on her rest since then.

Gotta go. Love you all.

Well, I did succeed in potting up the flowers and I did get her out on the porch to watch. The lady who had to go to the ER was admitted and they kept her for a week, then she took a week off for rest and follow up Dr appts. She came back yesterday and seems to have it under control. I was very glad to see her. She understands care giving in general and Mom in particular and knows where all the supplies are kept.. She also likes a clean house and takes it on herself to see to washing the kitchen floor, disinfecting trash cans, etc.

We kept up pretty well, except for the kitchen floor. Didn't want her to get the idea we don't need her. No, she isn't perfect, she gossips like crazy and pulls out the whole week's newspapers to find all the obituaries and wants me to listen to the life story of anyone listed that she knows or knows about. (and she knows at least 1 everyday.) Part of her interest is to see "who's got the body?" Seems like within her community, there is sometimes spite and scandal involved in choosing one funeral home over another. Wierd, huh? I never thought of that.

farmgirl, thanks for sharing that special moment. What a treat for the both of you!! More proof that Today may just have something special to offer if we don't get to bound up in tomorrow.

Precious moments, farmgirl!

It is indeed that time of year to put the yard and garden to rest until spring. My 88 year old dh got a wonderful treat last Friday. We went to the local golf course with my brother and his family to the restaurant which serves the best prime rib steaks I have ever had. We sat by a window and dh got to watch his beloved Canadian geese winging across, several flocks of them. It is the small things like this that are so precious to our loved ones and such a joy to us when we can provide them. Your mom will enjoy her plants and dh will remember those geese.