Alright, here's what I know, as of yesterday. Grandma is not doing as well as they were led to believe. IN fact, the doctor is keeping her, not because of the whole backlog thing, but because my grandma is actually too weak to leave and go home. There was a rumour that she was going to go home this last tuesday, which turned out to be false. Now the rumour is today.. again, mom thinks this is false because she has not heard the doctor say this. She thinks that grandma has misinterpreted something.
I was also misinformed as to how weak my grandfather really is. Some may remember that about a year and a half ago my grandpa had to have a pacemaker installed. He is ok, but he is 89... and not real well off. His hips are bad again, and he can't get around too well. He can't go to my Aunt's place, I found out (Iv'e never seen their new house), because it's one of those annoying FOUR level houses... with narrow hardwood stairs with no grips on them. No way my grandpa could deal with those. My bachleor Uncle flat out refuses to drive at night, so refuses to take care of Grandpa... altho in my humble opinion he can barely take care of himself, so I'm not horribly surprised.
My Aunt and Uncle are going to try to help out, but, now follow if you can, their eldest son, who is currently living in London Ontario, is getting married in May, and they are getting married back home. Because they don't LIVE there, it's fallen to my Aunt to go church hunting, etc, and sending all the info to them to decide what they want. Plus, their youngest son and his wife (and baby) have moved to northern Quebec, have bought a house, and so have scheduled a moving van to load up all their things in storage and bring it to Quebec. Now, did they think to label and consolidate all their things from two storage units to one before they left? Of course not! So, my Aunt and Uncle are having to do that by the end of the month. PLUS, they FINALLY sold their house back in their old town (it's been on the market since May, and the main reason no one has bought it till now is beacuse they hadn't hardly begun clearing out all their things, in fact, my Uncle's computer was still up there, and so was he!) and they have to have all their things out by the end of the month as well. Soooo.. needless to say, they don't have much time. I may be a procrastinator, but I'm NOTHING like that!
So what does that leave? My mom and dad living with Grandpa because he honestly can't take care of himself. Plus, Grandma has asked mom to stay and help her once she's out of the hospital. So, my folks will not be coming to visit. POSSIBLY they'll be able to come in Feb, March, or April, but that will depend on if one of dad's computer classes gets cancelled. He's booked solid, but you know how it is, they book a class, and sometimes don't get enough people interested, and have to cancel. I'm hoping that this happens, even tho I know they need the money from the classes, because it would mean they could come down and see Kym, and it would be while Roy was at home.
I'm trying not to stress... mom would tell me if Grandma was actually critical... apparently she's not SERIOUS... just really weak. On top of this, I think Kym has started teething and so has been a little crabby. She's not in pain yet... just not as happy as she usually is all the time.. she's sucking on her gums all the time, which sounds really funny! Add to that all the rain we've been getting and so me not wanting to drive much, and you've got a stircrazy stressed out mommy. Thank god for the little red stuffed reindeer Roy's folks sent her for Christmas... she LOVES it and loves chewing on it's antlers. My mom and dad also sent a stuffed ducky rattle, which she also likes cuz she can suck/chew on the fuzzy beak. Thank god stuffed animals are machine washable!
The only thing helping me cope with the stress, and you may find this weird, but it really does help me, is orange juice based fruit smoothies. I actually prefer them over the milk and yogurt ones. Toss some orange juice, some frozen fruit (strawberries are great, altho I tried strawberries and mangos tonight and I have frozen peaches too that I'm going to try), a dash of REAL vanilla, and a splurge or two of honey for fun. Blend it all up, don't need ice cubes cuz the fruit is frozen, and serve. I've been having one every evening for the last few nights. They're good for me, and they relax me... an indulgence that I can actually Do without feeling guilty.
I'm not very good company right now. I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed. Just too much all at once I guess. I'm going to try to get in soon, I want to be there for as much of migration as I can. Maybe I'll eat some chocolate tomorrow after Kym goes to bed and that will lighten my mood enough that I'll be able to come in for awhile without wanting to kill something. *wrygrin* OH wait.. no, not tomorrow.. I'll have to go to bed early tomorrow so I can be alert enough for church on sunday. Ok.. I'll aim for sunday or monday night then! Maybe I'll finish off the pint of Dove Butter Pecan ice cream I started the other night. *chuckles*
Anyway, sorry bout the long post, but now y'all know what's been going on and where I've been hiding. I've been trying to forget my stress by watching college and pro football. *wrygrin* And then watching COld Pizza the next morning so I can listen to Skip rant about the games the night before. I'm hoping that once football season is over, he'll start ranting about hockey. *grin* THAT would be entertaining!
Kiersten aka Kitya aka stressed out mommy!
