Chris arrives at church

I got up early this morning to have breakfast and take a bath before helping my parents get ready for church. Everything went well and we arrived early for church. She and I sat in a pew while my father went to warm up with the choir. I stepped out to take a pic of the quilt top in the case in hall. When I got back, Faye had arrived from teaching Sunday School. Chris arrived soon after, having spent the night at his parents house. I was happy to see him, having had a dream about him last night. We all sat with my mother during the service. Several of the church members had just returned from Haiti and spoke of their experiences there. After the service, there was a carry-in meal. We brought the pie that Mom and I made. While we were still eating, the pastor started the meeting. Chris and I finished our meal and left to take my quilt out of the frame. Sandy was there to help. It seemed sad to leave the frame empty, but I think my Mom's quilting days are over. We left for home, stopping at Kroger for a few groceries for supper. When we got in the house, we were alone and took advantage of that fact. It was nice not to have to be quiet because of people in an apt above or below. Then we fell asleep. Chris got up later to do laundry. When I got up, I went outside to read until my parents got home. They had gone to the mall to walk after the meeting.I helped Dad make a list of everything he wanted to get done. He collected the garbage and put it outside. Chris made supper for us all. Mom and Dad had their pizza and icecream, and Chris and I ate beef stew and broccoli. I made veggie juice. It was so much easier than at home because Faye's juicer is new. I discovered that the sprouts I bought earlier were rotten, so Chris and I went back to Kroger to return them. We were offered an exchange, so we picked out the one in the back. The ones in front did not look good. After we got back, Chris carried the large bag of leaves out to the curb. Then he read his e-mail, and I helped my mom sort through magazines for recycling. Dad helped me get my battery charger working, and he practiced his choir music for Tuesday. Then I put my mom to bed, and sat to write this post.

Yard sales

Last night I checked the clock before I went to bed: 12:30. I set an intention to wake up in 6 hours. Did not really think it would work, but gave it a shot. When I woke up, the clock read 6:20. I dressed and went to the kitchen to fix breakfast. I was worried that William would show up and I wouldn't be ready. But then I noticed that the clock in the kitchen was an hour behind. So I had plenty of time. I even checked my e-mail. William arrived about 6:30 and we set off for the West End. We yard-saled all morning. I thought I didn't need much but I bought books, a soap dish, swags, pencil sharpener, laptop case, pitcher, and clothes. It wasn't much compared to what I didn't buy. Then William took me to Goodwill. He checked out the bikes while I looked at a sewing machine and books. When he was done, he took me home. Mom and Dad were finishing lunch. So I got out something to eat. Then Dad took Mom to the car and asked me to bring the wheelchair bag and seat. As the front door closed behind me, I did not realize that it was locked. After they drove away, I discovered that I was locked out. I checked under a few rocks for a key. Then I cleaned the front porch, and part of the back yard. The shed was open, so I got a rake and made a pile of leaves in the front yard. The man across the street came over to tell me about someone who will rake the leaves for extra money. As I was stuffing leaves in a bag, my parents came home from the memorial service. When Dad found out I had been locked out, he decided I should have a key. It wouldn't have helped because I did not have my purse with me (or cell phone). So he walked to Home Depot and made a copy of his key. When he got back, we started supper. Dad cooked fish and I made veggie juice. Then I finished the fish while Dad arranged sweet potato slices on the plates. We read the Bible and ate supper. After supper, I made the topping for the pie from yesterday. Mom put on the blueberries. Chris called to say he had arrived at his parent's house. As I checked my e-mail, he Skyped me. Dad went for a walk because Home Depot wasn't far enough away. I did some quilting, read more e-mail, and watched a few sewing videos. Dad came back and started cleaning up. I tried to help him, but he stayed to watch me do it to see if I did it right. Finally he took Mom back for her bath while I washed up the sink area. When I finish this post I am going to bed.

Grocery shopping

Nothing special to report about breakfast. After breakfast, I did some hand-quilting. I thought we were going grocery shopping, but Dad started installing a toilet roll holder in the back bathroom. We had lunch a little late. I did not juice any veggies because we were all out. And it was almost 3 when we got in the car to go shopping. Right then Dad decided he had to check the mail. He took it out of the box, and carried it in the house. And then...nothing. Finally I had to call him with my cell phone to say we were still waiting in the car. When we got to the store, I took Mom in her wheelchair, leaving Dad with the cart and his computer-generated list. She and I picked up veggies for juicing, and found him still picking out apples. We made the rounds picking up a few things here and there. In one aisle, an old woman stopped in the cleaning section and picked up a can of Lysol. She started spraying her cart, and didn't stop. I had to leave when the fumes got too bad. I guess she couldn't smell them. It took us 2.5 hours to shop. I can't explain why it took him so long to get stuff. Anyway, when we got home, I carried the stuff in while he helped Mom. Then he put each thing away in its place, rearranging pre-existing stock. I made fresh veggie juice for all of us. Then he started preparing supper. There was no point in helping him, he had a process and any help I gave him would interrupt it, and he would have to stop and re-think it all. We sat down to eat at 8. After supper I did some more quilting. Dad went for a walk about 9:45. Mom decided she wanted to make a cheesecake. So we got out the recipe. She told me what to do and I did it. I found ants in the sugar. I let her cut up the cream cheese. I put it in the blender with the other ingredients. It was supposed to blend for 2 minutes, but after 1 the mixture started leaking out all over the motor. So it got poured early. I put it in the oven and cleaned up the mess and utensils. Dad came back about 10:30. We stayed up waiting for it to cool, and watching a musical show from the whitehouse. But now it is time for bed because yardsaling starts early in the morning.

Thanksgiving and my Birthday party

This morning got off to a slow start. After breakfast, I started reading e-mail, and then my father asked me to reconcile his bank statement with his Giving Statement from the church. They did not match. It was kind of nice to do something mathematical. He was supposed to be compiling a grocery list, but kept trying to help me with the statement. There must have been something else we did, because we ate lunch late. William stopped by to get the TV in the livingroom working. After lunch, Dad had a doctor's appointment. I stayed home with Mom. Mostly I read e-mail. Mom wanted to watch a movie, so I tried a VHS tape in the VCR, but could not get it to play on the screen. I looked in back of the TV and saw it had no wires. But there were wires to a unit above that. I did not realize that that unit was a VCR also. So I tried the tape there. No luck. I traced the wires from the TV to the unit, and they led to something low. My gosh, it was a 3rd VCR. Then I had to figure out how to change the TV input to the VCR. It sounds simple but it wasn't. The remote wouldn't do it and I had to use the buttons on the TV. Anyway, the tape got damaged in one of the VCR's and Mom told me to get one out of the storage section of the TV cabinet. I grabbed the first one: it was labeled "Thanksgiving". The first part of it was recorded by my mother back in the 90's. It was at the Damour house. Mimi, James, Becca, Kelly, Mike, and Mabel were there. In one sequence, Michele dances with her new Samantha doll. I wish I could post it on Youtube, but she would probably never speak to me again. Maybe Facebook? Anyway, here is a pic, but the shadow ruins it. The shadow did not show on the tape, but can only be seen through the camera. Really weird. After Thanksgiving, there was a recording of my birthday party that year. I cannot tell how old I was. I think Kurt recorded it. It was all there, in great detail. It was like having the party all over again. It might be better to relive old birthdays than to celebrate new ones. I re-ran the tape to get a pic of Michele. Dad came home then. A piece of my camera came off and he helped me look for it, but we did not find it. It was time for supper and we never made it to the grocery store. As we ate supper, BBT came on, and I watched it in the living room. Then Dad turned it on in the den so I could sit in there where it is warm. There was nothing good on after that, so we turned it off. I got out the lone star quilt and worked on it as Dad worked on the grocery list. He brought me a container of sour cream for approval. It was dated last year and smelled riper than kimchi. He couldn't tell it was bad? Then he brought out another one dated for March. But it was unopened, and looked and smelled normal. Mom wanted to add to the list ingredients for a cheesecake. So he investigated the age of their cream cheese and Jiffy mix. Finally he finished the list and they went to bed, and soon I will, too.

Reading

After posting last night, I pulled the laundry out of the dryer and folded it. I wanted to listen to my ipod, but it was dead, so I plugged it into my laptop and got out the mp3 player. I listened to that for awhile in bed, but that music is much livelier than what is on the Ipod. Eventually I fell asleep. Mom was just starting breakfast when I got up. Dad was arranging her pills. So we ate together. After breakfast I fixed another pair of Dad's jeans. Mom read me several pages of her book, and then I read her several more. I had to change some of the words and wondered just what kind of book it was. She said she got it from the library, but it was not catalogued in any way. So I got out one of "The Cat Who.." books. I read her a chapter and she said it wasn't interesting. I asked her what kind of book she would like. She wanted a book about Amish life. We did not have any, but I did have a book about Sarai, Abrams' wife. Now that she found interesting. I read as much as I could, and then passed the book to her. Dad drove the Olds to the mechanic and walked back, in the rain. Then he started cutting up apples for lunch, so I got out celery, and lettuce for juicing. It wasn't enough so I went frig-diving and found spinach and peppers. I fed Mom her juice, and drank mine. Then I cleaned the juicer and put away the unused spinach. We ate lunch. After lunch we read a little more. Dad got a call that the Olds was ready, so he took Mom in the K car to drop it off with the mechanic, pick up the Olds and go to the fitness center. I stayed behind to finish my e-mail and sit outside for a bit. The ground was wet, but I was able to sit barefoot listening to an interview on the internet. Soon after I went in, William came by to tell me there were two crockpots at the Goodwill. So I went over there and bought one. Mom and Dad were eating supper when I returned. I ate, too, and then boiled a dozen organic eggs for future meals. Then we prepared to go to choir practice. It was raining hard. We got damp getting there. Dad walked Mom from the car to the church to avoid getting the wheelchair wet. She and I sat in the front row while the choir practiced. We each had something to read. When it was over, several members came over to talk to Mom and me. When I ducked out to go to the restroom, I noticed a familiar-looking quilt top in the display case. I asked Mom about it, but Shirley waved me over. She explained that Mom had brought it in, but I could take it if I wanted. It was the one I put together for Mom last summer. Well, it looked fine there, in fact, I wanted to take a picture but got distracted. Shirley mentioned my purple quilt which is on the frame in the other room. She thought I should take it if my mother won't ever get back to quilting. But she is worried about disappointing my mom. So we decided that the frame needs to go back to the person who lent it to the church. Maybe I can free it on Sunday after church. Mom said she wants to quilt it for me, but I told her to pick something smaller. I am afraid her quilting days are over. Then we left in the rain. It was almost 10 when we arrived. Dad turned on the TV to see the weather and they announced a show on the subject of string theory, so he sat and watched it. It was very interesting. When it was over, we took Mom to the back and prepared her for bed. Then I came out to write this post.

Mending and other chores

When I got up, Mom and Dad had almost finished breakfast. Mom was waiting for a pill to go down. I fixed my breakfast and ate. After breakfast, Dad brought me a pile of mending: jeans and socks. I also checked e-mail and opened a box of supplements that arrived yesterday. It wasn't too long before Dad started making lunch because it takes him so long. While he was doing that, I juiced up a head of broccoli, a bag of carrots and some celery. We each had a small glass of juice. When he had finished cutting up the apples and made Mom and himself sandwiches, we sat down to eat. I added kimchi to our meals. After lunch I took Mom outside to sit in the fresh air. She had a hard time walking there. Dad had to teach me the trick of shifting her weight for her by pushing down on the shoulder opposite the leg she should step with. I remember as a child, having a doll that would walk under the same conditions. As she sat outside, I swept the leaves off the deck. Then, just for something to do, I cleaned out as much rain gutter as I could reach from the picnic table. Dad walked to Fresh Market for a squash. When he got back, he decided to take Mom for a walk. As we left, Kevin arrived. So I stayed behind for a bit to talk to Kevin. But I had no trouble catching up to Mom and Dad. Their pace was quite slow. They walked up and down the street in front of the house. Then we brought her in. I sat and sewed and Kevin cooked and cleaned. When I finished, I went outside to help my Dad rake leaves. We came in when it got dark. Kevin was done cooking enough casseroles to last a week. Then Dad took a walk. When he got back, he started fixing supper. Should have taken 5 minutes, but it was agonizingly slow and he wouldn't let me help because he was so used to doing it himself. I started a load of laundry. My friend Mary called, and we had a nice chat. Finally we sat down to eat. Dad had the news on. Then some documentary came on, and I helped Mom finish her meal as he sat in front of the TV. When 8 pm came, I wanted to watch BBT, but he was still watching the documentary. So I tried the TV in the living room, but it would not pick up any digital channels. No converter box. I sat at the laptop to check e-mail, and it occurred to me that I could watch BBT on the CBS website. Yes! Then I put the laundry in the dryer. After a couple of episodes, I checked on the dryer and gave it more time. Dad got out his Alabama and Tennessee maps, and we discussed routes and elevations. The dryer had finished, but needed more time. So I will check it again when I finish this post. Dad took Mom to bed.
* Sorry, didn't take any pics today and don't have access to my bevy of quilt pics on this laptop. *

Going to Richmond

After I posted last night, I went to the VMIS system to certify volunteer hours. But there were none. Then I realized that it wasn't the 15th yet. So I entered my own hours and logged out. I had a hard time sleeping. The hideabed in the hotel room was not comfortable. But I must have slept some, because I only heard Cecily get up once, and she said she got up three times. And I heard the train go through at 4am. The three of us were ready and in the car by 9. We drove for about 2.5 hours and stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch. Then we got back on the road, stopping at almost every rest area on the way to Chester, Va. At Al and Cecily's house, we unpacked the car, and I called my Dad. He was out taking my mom for a walk. Al, Cecily and I stopped by the convenience store for a jar of kimchi, seen here. Hope it lasts 2 weeks. Al would not let me carry it with me in the Caddy. He put it in the trunk, double-bagged. He said eating kimchi in his Caddillac was out of the question! We took 288 to the Woolridge exit which pretty much goes straight to my parents' neighborhood. They were home. We brought all my stuff in. William stopped by after work to say 'hello'. My dad fixed supper for Mom and himself. I went to the Fresh Market for some organic foods and ended up at Goodwill before being driven home. My parents weren't finished eating, so I ate with them. Dad had the TV on so loud that it gave me a headache. Mom wanted him to get out the watermelon for dessert, but it was out-dated and slimy. I told her about the article in Seoul magazine. She wanted to see it, so I tried to open my blog with my laptop, but could not connect to the internet. I even called Chris and he had nothing to add to what I had already tried. Finally I used the laptop on Dad's desk. But the article was too small to read. Then I remembered that I had downloaded the pic onto my computer, and that I could enlarge it. So Dad was able to read it, but Mom could not. So I read it to her. Then it was time for them to go to bed. As Dad settled Mom in for the night, I took a pic of the kimchi and wrote this post.
I forgot to mention yesterday that I thought of Michele a lot. We ate at the Cracker Barrel built on the old Evans Middle school site where she attended 6th grade, and everyone at church remembered her and asked where she was.