This has been a crazy busy week for all of us. Our town does not have too much in it so to do anything of real importance must be done in Shreveport. So for the second time this week that is where we headed to today. I ended up having to keep Shaina out from school so that she could sit in the waiting room of one place with my Papaw so that he would not wander off anywhere. My help (SIL) crapped out on me after only 4 days. She came Monday so I could go shopping etc and has not shown up since nor will she answer her phone. I called my brother about it and he was no help either, but I am sure the displeasure I voiced got conveyed to the appropriate party. Why is it that folks want to advise and criticize but then never want to lend a hand to make things run smoother? That's a totally rhetorical question..it is the way it is, I suppose.

On a much brighter note it has been a beautiful week weather-wise. I even took the time to wash my car and shine the tires up on it. =) I have even been planning what I want to plant in my flower beds this year. I really wish I had taken the time to plant some bulbs earlier in the fall so that I would have something pretty sprouting up soon, but at the time we were building a fence and I didn't have a good idea of what I could put where.

Let's get on with our P365 photos =)

Day 26 is Shaina being silly while we were watching Biggest Loser. Ironically I was eating a Carmello candy bar and drinking a Dr. Pepper.

Day 27

I needed a way where I could scrap some during the day while I stayed close to my Papaw. I took our table we play games on for game night and set it up behind our sofa. When I am not using it during the day I can fold the table back up and put it away. I can now watch the TV and the Papaw. Gotta love multi-tasking!
Day 28
My very first hybrid project. I never would have created it if I had not been particiapting in the Scrapper's Portfolio over at the Sweet Shoppe Designs forum. I think it turned out quite nicely.

Sunday was a beautiful day. We had a wonderful church service and at 2 pm we had another service to honor our new Deacons. All 3 are very good hearted men who love the church and God and who already do so very much for our congregation. I know that God will continue to lead them in ways that can only benefit all that they do. Afterwards there was a small reception for them with cakes and cookies and good fellowship. We left earlier than I wanted because of my Papaw, but that's ok I suppose.

My photo for Sunday ened up being one of me and my hubby, Ricky as we we lounged just a bit after Sunday lunch and before we went back to the church at 2.

Today has been beyond busy. My day started out before me. The Papaw decided he wanted to be up at 4:30..ughhhh....This is soooo not gonna work at this rate. I spent from 3:3oish this afternoon until almost 7 keeping him from going to bed. Apprently he has his days and nights mixed up with sleeping. So by the time 9 am rolled about I felt like I had done a full days work.

I did have my SIL here with him today while I ran to Shreveport to run some errands and pick up some things at the Walmart up there. I even managed to get by the pet store and find my cats some more of their little crinkle balls they like to bat around all the time. I also picked up a deshedder comb for my longed hair cat, Ghost. He is not liking it very well but he needs it. He all the time is hacking up a hair ball...YUCKO! Out of all the photos I managed to snap today saying to myself ...oh! here's my day 25! I chose this one. Mostly because they were doing what I was dying to do at that particular moment AND IN MY BED to boot...LOL!

I think I might go do that now..it's late and I can hear my pillow demanding my attention.

Tomorrow though....I will be home except for taking my daughter to school so I should be able chill out just a bit and sneak in some scrapping. I am so thanking my lucky stars that I scrap on a laptop so I can drag my habit from room to room.

Thanx for stopping by!

Balinda

I have found blogging to be quite therapuetic these days. I think cuz it gives me a few minutes to just "stop" and reflect on what I feel or to vent a little bit. It has been a terribly busy with with my Papaw moving back in with me. I had forgotton how time consuming an alzheimers patient is. He must be supervised at all times. I had caught myself being resentful of "again putting my life on hold" but then had to give myself a reality check on my attitude. This is life and it may not run smoothly or as planned. God put this situation back in my lap and it's up to me how I face it. I have the choice of treating it like a bitter lemon in my mouth or a gift of time that is as priceless as they come. I choose the second one. I know I will have bad days but that's how life happens, right? you can't recognize the good if you don't have a little bad for comparison.

Here are my P365 moments from this past few days. I really thought I had a boring life but I am finding I am having no trouble finding many moments thru to day to capture.

My Thursday photo features my Mom and my Papaw going to load up and go to the funeral home for a visitation. We had a family member pass and I knew he would not want to miss paying his respects even if he ends up not remembering later.

Friday was an all day adventure at the VA hospitol. I don't know how he got out of the system and quit going but with the uncertainty of health care in our country these days I didn't want to be caught in a bind and not able to get him seen by a physician. Besides that he is a WW2 vet and I want to use all the resources available to him I can get.
My Papaw has become fixated on coffee. He loves coffee but it has now become a fixation and I pretty much have to have coffee in the pot at all times. With it being a dreary day here, I caught my hubby relaxing with his own cup of joe.

I had planned to bring my Papaw home this coming Saturday but instead he came home on Monday due to walking in on another resident fighting with him and trying to take the cap off his head. The proverbial straw was that none of the aides/workers standing in the hall watching it happen lifted a finger nor said a word. I was very unprepared mentally for him quite so quick. With his alzheimers and dementia it really is an adventure. I do have more help this time around than last...thank goodness.

I am working very hard not to get behind on my P365 though.

Here is my daughter Tuesday morning excited that she will get to go on a field trip to the bowling alley for PE.

Papaw has brought new challenges to my carpet =0. The was the ONLY carpet cleaner at our local Walmart. It was not worth the time to drive to Shreveport from Mansfield to get a different one when my carpet was in dire need of cleaning.
My furbaby, Smokey. He likes to snuggle next to me while I surf the web.

Oopsie! I haven't blogged since last Wednesday. It's really a nice habit. A digital record of your days and of ordinary things that might would have been forgotton.

Last Thursday my Papaw had 2 doctor's appt. One for just a check up and the other in the afternoon in Shreveport at the dermatologist to remove some cancer from his right temple area and left ring finger. I let the nursing home drive him up and I followed. It all went pretty good and when it was done, I let him go back and I left to go to WalMart for a few items.

So..this is my Day 14 photo...all the traffic.

and this brings up to Day 15....my Papaw is fascinated with my digital camera so we were playing around with it trying to get some funny photos. It's a bit blurry but he was having the best time.
Saturday was Day 16. My Aunt Ann was cooking dinner at her house. Yummy turkey, hen dressing, duck dressing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoe casserole, au graten potatoes...the food was to die for. I didn't wanna miss all that so I loaded up with my Mama and we went to visit with everyone. This is with my cousin Tina. We had a blast together when we were kids.This brings us to Day 17. My hubby putting together the bed for my Papaw. I am bringing him back home from the nursing home. He was in the room right next to this one before he went to the home. I thought it best this time that he take the room with the door leading into the bathroom. He tends to get lost with his demetia/alzheimers.

Me and the hubby ran around Shreveport this morning trying to tend to some financial issues. Not sure if we got anything accomplished really but we did try to get some things squared away.

My Papaw has surgery tomorrow to remove some cancer from his ring finger and a small spot on his right temple. All should be well but you never know. I do know that if we don't get the cancer cut out of finger especially it will continue to eat away at it. It has taken me 4 months to get a doctor to do anything for it. Can you imagine what will happen if all this health care bill passes..ewwww. I think though I am going to switch him to going back to the VA for all his medical needs. I think he got better care there. I really don't know why he quit going but it doesn't matter now. I just gotta get him back on track with that. The Nursing home is saying we owe them money for his stay. I think they are trying to screw us because he was not supposed to be billed a thing. He has his Medicare and we signed him up for Medicaid. Medicare was supposed to pay for up to 100 days. He has only been there since November 3rd. I don't know how they are counting but that's not 100 days by my book. After the 100 days Medicaid was supposed to pick up the difference. So I am not a happy camper about all that...so it's looking like I might just bring him back home with me. I honestly don't know how I will do it but I will put my faith in God that he will provide me the strength and patience I need to care for him and keep my hubby and daughter's needs from being neglected also. It's a good thing church is tonight because I just feel the need to be in the House of God. I called my pastor earlier today to get some advice and there was not much he could tell me but it was good to vent to a neutral party. And he will pray for us. Prayer is powerful and we need all we can get sometimes.

Well somewhere I lost my point to my posting I think.

Here is my photo for the day. I haven't had a chance to get on it today but remedy that after church.

The "Dreadmill"

Ok...I know everyone has those mornings where something happens to ya right off the bat and it reminds ya of some silly/embarrassing moment in your past. Ah..the sweet memories..hahahaha. So I drag my hiney out of bed this morning, drown myself under the hot shower to wake up and think..ok..I am sorta ready to face the morning. So I go about getting dressed and drag on the granny panties..lol..and omg..there's something in them....I sock got folded in with them..tiny sock..big panites..it can happen. So I have this instant holy crap! what is that moment and then just crack up laughing...it was truley an insane sight. Because it was not really the sock it was the memory that the sock triggered. Totally embarrassing at the time but funny as heck now. Here I am in high school being all cool and everything and this boy walks by me and points to my leg...and the whole hey! what's that hangin of your pants leg thing. I look down and it's a pair of panties. I thought I had died and just went to high school hell. I was MORTIFIED. All in an instant I snatched them up and shoved them in my pocket. I suppose that's just what happens when ya dig your pants out of the dryer still asleep in the mornings. To this day I check pant legs for various items that try to hide in them. Look at me ramble, but it's funny how tiny things trigger such vivid memories and can just put you right back in the moment.

So here is me catching up on my P365 moments. I had a panic attack Sunday when I thought I had lost my pen to my wacom tablet. Luckily after hours of searching and poking about my desk I found that it had just fallen off and dropped into one of my photo boxes and was hidden under some pictures.

This is a typical Monday morning. Shaina flings on her hoodie and straps on the backpack ready to go. Ghost is usually not one to miss anything so of course he MUST hold down the breakfast bar for us.
And today's photo is of some strawberries that I thought would be a crime if I didn't put them in my shopping basket. Actually I am quite sure they would have committed strawberry suicide if I did not bring them home to enjoy.

Yesterday I was busy as a bee. I took my Papaw to the bank and paid some bills. Then I just drove him around for a bit before taking him back to the Nursing home so that he did not feel so stir crazy. I had an issue with the Nursing home about washing his clothes. I do them..but for some reason they took them to their laundry. That's not good because the majority of his shirts are 100% cotton and will shrink in their hot water that they use. Well after my small fit..his items were located and I brought them home and got them done up for him. It was also a very hard visit with him yesterday because while we were out he kept asking me to take him to his Daddy's house. You don't want to just say that you can't because he has been dead for years...so I just kept telling him that I did not know how to get there. I was just as a loss at even what to say or even not say. I did end up seeing him twice yesterday because I had to return his clothes. Even yesterday afternoon he was still asking for him and before I left he told me that his Daddy was coming to see him today. I just wanted to cry right then and there. But I just agreed and wished him a good visit.

This morning has been sorta unproductive for me. I got some laundry running but my kitchen is a disaster taunting me. I did get some of it cleaned while yakking on the phone with my friend Monica. I alway talk using my headset when I gab with her. I get to run my mouth and work on chores about the house. The other lucky folks that get me this way are my Mama, my friend Tracy and my son Christopher.

::Balinda::

During the summer I really enjoy the humming birds that come to our feeders. I am always so sad when they depart. My husband has hung a few seed feeders around the yard but he then neglects them. I decided at the end of summer to put one closer to house and placed it where I can view it from my bedroom window. It has taken over 2 months for the little birds to find it. I noticed a pretty cardinal on the fence a few days ago but since then I have seen nothing. So when I peeked out this morning I saw that it was truly found by the little things. I saw the beautiful cardinal and a couple of female ones on my porch post. The little brown birds you can barely see but I don't think it's a shabby pic considering I took it through my window and window screen.

::Balinda::

I finally decided to get serious about scrapping my photos not on any digital devices this week. The ones taken way back when I had a 110 camera and when the photos printed they were only 3x5's. I thought I was a big shot when I upgraded to my Minolta 35mm. The only problem was that we were so poor sometimes that either we took the pictures and couldn't get them developed or we just couldn't afford film to begin with. So I have many time periods where I have no photos to document things in my children's lives. So now it has become of the utmost importance to capture those memories AND to get them in a scrapbook for them.

Tonight I had an uh-oh though with my camera cards. I inserted one and all the photos were GONE! I was devasted. The upside is that I do pull them off reguarly and did not loose a bunch but I did loose our New Years Eve photos and the rest of the Easy Bake Oven photo's taken a couple of nights ago. My friend Monica gave me a link to a program called recuva that did pull some photos off and my FB friends are giving me more suggestions to try to get them off.

So my P365 photo tonight are my camera cards and the memories that they capture for me.

::Balinda::

Here is my Day 4 photo

Here is my very first art journal page. I did not even know what art journaling really was unitl I signed up for the Art Journal Caravan at Scrapbookgraphics with Tangie Baxter. Our first assignment was to journal our word for 2010. My word is Faith. To me Faith is timeless and will carry you along when there seems to be nothing there. I want to grow in my faith with God and lose all my doubts that seem to niggle about in my brain at the oddest times. With that said..this is Page 1.

Credits

Wordart by Manda Bean
Wings from Irene Alexeeva's Cloud 9 kit
Stone walkway from Tangie Baxter's Wonderland kit
Feathers, Clock, Alpha and Butterflies from Lorilei Murphy's Pristine Collection
I forgot who the paper is created by..but when I sort that out I will give proper credit.

::Balinda::

Today kicks off Day one of Project 365 2010. I am excited to give this a go. I think our life is pretty mundane but I would give my eye teeth to know what mundane was for my Grandparents growing up. So mundane or not it will get documented.

So here is my Day 1 Photo that I snapped of my daughter as she was sitting across from me playing her Nintendo DS (that I can almost swear she sleeps with but she denys).

We have all spent a leisurely day watching movies and playing dominos.

Last night we rang in the new year pretty much the same way. We went to our church and had a soup/sandwich supper and played games. The kids were supposed to pop fireworks but that part got rained out. I am glad that my daughter had her BF with her so at least she had another

giggling girl to holler Happy New Year at midnight. =)