Back from Illinois

Well, I cut my trip short by a day because of the big storm that was heading toward the midwest. I'm glad I did because most of the flights have been cancelled for today. I was ready to come home. While there I had an infection and had to go to the emergency room for treatment. Not fun, but manageable. When I went to the airline counter to change my ticket the lady told me I looked a little "frazzled and panicky" -- I told her I just needed to get home. I hurried to put stuff in my bag so we could get to the airport and everything was kind of moving a little too fast for me. When I reached Atlanta there were lots of thunderstorms so by the time I drove 1 1/2 hours to the house I was tired. I had a hard time concentrating and I went to take my pills and mistakenly took the morning pills instead of the evening pills. Unfortunately, their is one pill I take in the morning that causes insomnia -- so I was up most of the night.

But, I had a good visit with friends and family. My brother is holding his own. I met with my friends Pody and Rick from Champaign and Joe and Rita who used to live here in Athens.

Pictured above are my friends Pody and Rick, me with my great nephew Oliver (isn't he cute?) and my two brothers.

More soon -- after I have rested!

Illinois

On Saturday I'm off to visit family in Illinois. Haven't been back to see my brother who has been ill for awhile so will visit him and his kids and my other brother and sister-in-law. Always good to see the nieces and nephew. Will write again soon.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We just returned from Washington DC and spending four days with Alan and Jennifer. We had a great time. I didn't have to cook the turkey -- Jen did a great job with that. We got to go ice skating and many of you know how I like to ice skate so that was a lot of fun. In the photos I was trying to teach Alan and Jen how to skate backwards -- Jen did great -- it was a little lost on Alan. But, we didn't manage to mow any little kids over (get that Carol?) and it was a beautiful day that day so I really enjoyed it. Since Ralph broke his elbow the last time we went ice skating he was not allowed to take the ice!

We also went to Annapolis for a day to visit the Naval Academy. The town itself is so pretty and it was really impressive. We also visiting the Air Force memorial, the Marine Corps Memorial and the National Botanic Garden where there were lots of Christmas decorations out. In the top photo you will see one of the miniature landmarks done with all natural materials -- berries, nuts, acorns, twigs, leaves, etc. There were several on display including the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Supreme Court and others. There were also trains running around the buildings and the rest of the decorations.

I did pretty well on this trip -- but there wasn't much expected of me. I just enjoyed myself and thanks to Alan and Jennifer for keeping us out of trouble, going skating with me and cooking all the food!

I'm off to Illinois at the end of the week to visit my family -- more soon.

Good morning to all! I know it has been awhile -- don't have any excuse, just not in the mood to sit down and write. I felt pretty anxious all week and don't really know why. One day I had a hard time leaving the house -- in fact, I'm not sure I did! We are driving to DC this week to visit Alan and Jennifer for Thanksgiving. Although we just saw them at the end of August I'm glad to be seeing them again.

I hope we get to go ice skating -- and no, we are not going to let Ralph put on skates!!!

Our Georgia women's basketball team plays the mighty Rutgers team today. I've always been a fan of their coach C. Vivian Stringer, although I'm a bigger fan of our coach, Andy Landers. It should be a good game. We beat ranked Oklahoma last week so here's hoping for the best. The Georgia football team didn't look so good against Kentucky last night. Not pretty.

The Thousand Mile Stare

is a book that is going to be published in January 2010. It's a true story about a man and his family that have been dealing with Alzheimer's in their family for generations. He has been spared from this disease, but he watches members of his family suffer. I've had the opportunity to review the book and it is one you will want to read.....you can preorder it now at http://www.thethousandmilestare.com/. Gary's cousin Chuck has been active with the Alzheimer's Association as someone who is living with the disease. Chuck's grandmother went to Washington DC years ago to talk with legislatures about Alzheimer's and it has come full circle with Chuck as he has done the same thing -- talked in front of a Senate Subcommittee to increase funding for Alzheimer's research. The story of the family is heartwrenching but beautifully told by Gary Reiswig. Order it now for a holiday gift -- but get out the tissues because it will tug at your heart.

Confusion reigns

My husband likes to "tinker" with things. It drives me crazy because there are certain things he just can't leave alone. When he wants to change things he just does, without consulting me of course. And, since change is a problem for me, this creates problems.

He recently changed our Cable television service. Which means a new remote. Since he is the "king of the remote" (what man isn't though!) this creates a problem for me because "I'm not doing it right" or "you don't know how to use it" is muttered quite frequently in our house. I try -- but when you don't get an opportunity to even touch the remote most of the time, it is hard to learn -- let alone learning something new.

Then, my husband upgraded our computer from Vista to Windows 7. Which I know is an improvement -- but it is something else to learn. Things aren't in the same place I'm used to them being. Then my husband decided to install several new programs that he wanted to use. One of the problems with that was that when he installed this one of these programs, it would not allow me to turn the sound off on the computer. (I can't deal with the sounds coming from the computer -- it sounds silly, but I lose my concentration). After complaining my husband finally took it off the computer until he could talk with it's maker and find out what the problem was. But, many times, when he makes one slight change in something -- it changes other things that affect me -- and because they are "little things" to most people, he doesn't seem to think it is a big deal -- but those little things are big things to me. It is very frustrating.

So, the last few weeks I have been confused. As a result, I get confused about a lot of things and I get anxious about that because things are not "normal" -- they've changed. I say the definition of normal changes all the time for me so I guess writing that last sentence doesn't make much sense -- but it is frustrating. I just feel like I'm a few steps behind everyone else. I need my space, my quiet and all things to stay the same......I know that is too much to ask for.....especially in my household. I've tried to explain that it would be like going into someone's house who was blind and moving all the furniture around without telling them. (or at least that is what I think it would be like) Little things make a difference in the life of someone with Alzheimer's.

Quotes

I found these two quotes or sayings in the last few days and I thought they were cute:

"I love the nights I can't remember with the friends I can't forget"

"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children"

Golf

I went out to play golf today. The only things I can say are:
1. The weather was beautiful
2. It was a nice day for a walk
3. I found three golf balls
4. Golf is a four letter word

The week

I've been in Atlanta for a couple of days so no posting. I was hoping I would have a photo of our MW team from this weekend to post but not yet. Thanks again to my whole team for coming out in the rain and walking. I appreciate it!

Monday night I had the privilege to speak once again to Dr. Glass' gerontology class at UGA. Dr. Glass and I met by chance one day while riding a shuttle to the Atlanta airport. Since then, she has been gracious to allow me to come and speak with her class. I've said it before and I'll say it again, that it is also therapy for me to do that. It is interesting to see who is in her class and their take on Alzheimer's. Thanks for having me!

I've also been reading an advance copy of a book about familial Alzheimer's. A person I know with Younger On Set Alzheimer's has a cousin who is writing this book about the disease and it's affect on their family. Many family members have (or had) the disease and it is gut wrenching to think about. Gary's book is due out in January and I will certainly write more about it as it gets close to its debut. It is certainly worth reading.

Memory Walk

Well, the rain didn't stay away -- we all got drenched but we raised a lot of money and everyone seemed to take the rain in stride. It was ideal by any means but it was very heartwarming to me that people really came out in the rain and supported us. That is something I really can't express in words how meaningful that was to me.

Our Team, Team Athens raised roughly $15,000 and I couldn't be happier. I have a great group of team members and they are near and dear to my heart!