Father's Day with Mom and Doctor's Appointment Today with Dinner at Moro's

Father's Day turned out better than I thought with Mom.  She came in our house with a smile, and did not seem as confused as she can be. She mostly followed my brother around the house, and was his shadow for the day. I kept asking her if she wanted to fold the napkins, because Mom loves to fold things especially napkins. She replied that she was busy with Greg. We ate outside and then it seemed it was getting more difficult for her to figure out what any of the conversations were. I kept trying to get her into the conversation, but then it seemed as though she would get crabby with me because she felt I was getting all the attention. Mom loves when all eyes are on her, and everyone is talking only to her. The poor thing does not realize that our family feels she is our number one priority and we do want her to feel important all the time and happy. She ate well, and then we said goodbye and Greg took her back to the BIG HOUSE. She calls American House the  Big House, even though all of us think its funny when she always was a Michigan State Diva.

Mom is smiling because I told her how I liked her blouse and earrings. She loves the special attention.

Mom is trying to understand what our conversations are, yet we are including her in them.

Just finished Father's Day barbecue. Mom smiling into the camera. Loves her photos being taken. She always says after her photos have been taken of her, that she sure is a dolly.




Today, we picked her up to go to the doctor's for her six week check up. Dr. M. wanted to see how she was after moving in to American House, and to see if she was getting adjusted to her new environment. We saw her in the lobby area of the American House where everyone hangs out especially the ones that love to hang out with others. She was laughing and having so much fun with her new friends. We kept hearing her telling everyone over and over again, on how she was a teacher for a hundred years. I feel sorry for those same people who keep hearing her say the same thing over and over again. Two ladies, I call the "Dot Ladies", were sitting together on the couch as they always do. I call them the Dot Ladies because they are both named Dorothy. One is  old and the other one is 95. When one of the Dot's talk she always uses the word hell in her conversation. The Dot Ladies told Mom today that they already knew she was a teacher, and she does not have to tell them every time they see her. Mom replied that was great news and that she felt she did her job as a teacher and now they both know how important she is. Everyone laughed, including me.

The Dot Ladies, always sitting together.

In the photo above, they are playing kind of a game. Mom found this balloon on the floor and she hit it to the Dot Ladies. Everyone thought that was funny, and kept hitting it to each other. A simple balloon but it sure made the Oldies and Goodies all happy.

Jim wanted his photo taken with Mom. He seems to always appear when he sees my camera. 

I took several photos for her to look at while waiting for the Doctor, and told her stories about each photo, hoping that it would relax her. She loves my photos, and loves the stories that I tell for each photo.

When Mom's doctor came in to talk, she was very loud and anxious with him.  I explained to him at American House when she is in a large group she is like this and she is constantly wanting to help others. Several times she would get upset with me or the doctor because she felt we were talking to each other, and not to her.  Dr. M. kept telling her that we were including her in the conversation but she is not getting in the conversation. She then gave each of us a surprised look at that. Dr. M. wants to see her again in six weeks, to make sure her anxiety level goes down. He thinks its due to being in a new environment and she is just is a little nervous being among so many people. Good news was she still weighs 128 but her blood pressure was a little higher.

During dinner at Moro''s, you can see Mom is scratching her head.  She was confused what everyone is talking about. Poor thing.......she wants to feel so important all the time.

Everyone is talking to her, and she is loving it.

Moro's in Allen Park, her old hometown, is Mom's favorite place to eat. My brother, his sweet lady friend, Vinnie, Kristofer, Kathy, her husband, and my Tom and me, all met there for dinner. Kathy is in charge of American House where Mom lives. We thought we would invited her for dinner for all the nice things she has done for Mom. We had a great time, great food, nice people, and the most important part of the evening, Mom was happy, talking up a storm like she loves, and most importantly, she was eating. Boy... did she do a lot of laughing..... yes... all attention was on her.