Grandma Barbara

Ok....I know that she begged me not to put her Nursing Home pictures on my blog, but this picture was too good not to pass on. I am not posting the ones that I know that would upset her.

She does so much better with oxygen. When she is without it too long, she get weak and tired. Mother is finding out, that it takes patience when you live in a Nursing Home. The staff doesn't march quite a quick to every request, like family did. There are a lot of mixed feelings that one deals with, when putting a parent in a Nursing Home.

When it rains it pours

Yesterday we put Wil's mother in the Maples Nursing Home for a temporary stay until we make a more permanent, affordable decision. Wil had to leave for a Conference in California so his sisters and I took Mom out on Saturday. The Nurse on duty must not have been having the best day and her frustration with Mom's medication orders were not hidden. Needless to say, when we left there, we had mixed feelings. That was Mother's 1st choice of a place to go, which is why we put her there.

Poor Sue, who had given 24/7 care for Mom this past week was physically and emotionally drained. This morning we decided that rather than go to church, her and I would go check up on Mom, then her along with her daughters and Mary would come here for lunch. The plan was to go to LaGrange in the afternoon to check out 2 more Nursing Homes.

Before we left, I got a call from my Mother, saying that she thinks my Dad had a mini stroke. Since Carol was gone and they thought Anna was at church, I said that I'd come over. Sue went to the Nursing Home alone. Anna ended up being on a bike ride and arrived home before I got there. They had a guest that was a Parametic and he was there checking Dad. Before I left, Anna discovered I had a tire, that was completly flat! Could just one more thing go wrong while my husband is gone? Once again, this wonderful man came to the rescue, and is out there taking off my tire that wouldn't hold any air. Frank would have helped but was not at home at the time. The spare tire was not about to be removed so Anna took me and the flat tire to Walmart. They removed a 3 inch horse shoe from my tire and said it can't be repaired. We went back to the folks and I took Frank's car. In the morning, I will go to Monteith Tire and get new tires, then to the Dr. with my Father, then to the Nursing Home to my Mother-in-law.

The good news is, that there was great help, when and where I needed it!! We had a good time together for lunch, we felt good about the 2 Nursing Homes that we checked out and my Dad hasn't gotten any worse.

I would post a picture of Mother in the Nursing Home, but she gave me strict orders..not to post the pictures!

Yoder Reunion Highlight pictures

The 1st thing we did when we got to KS was go see Norm and his brother, Ellis harvest the last of his wheat. We got to make a round in the air conditioned Combine. Wil is harvesting some wheat for the boys to eat. They were quite intrigued and Isaiah thought it was a great welcome to Kansas.

Melissa flew from AZ to KS for the reunion and then traveled back to IN with us. This was Melissa and Isaiah after a 4 week separation.

Anna and Sheldon, catching up.

Brennan and Tyler-great buds!

Grandma Polly and Melissa

Melissa and Grandpa Henry

Scary Norm

Cousins Melissa, Trina and Melody

Cousins, Melissa, Melody, Trina and Gina
It has been years since these girls were together

Come on, Isaiah plant a kiss on her cheek! Not for the camera, Grandma!
There was a lot of great food prepared mostly by Delila.

Last day with Isaiah & Melissa

You will notice that there are no pictures of Melissa, because she is the one that took all these pictures. Isaiah had a hard time, when it was time to leave. After they left I looked at these pictures and knew why it was so hard for him. We had such a wonderful last day together.
After Isaiah got done mowing Matt and Monica's yard, he decided Brennan and him should run through the sprinkler and had lots of fun with that.

Sawyer trying on Papaw's sunglasses, while papaw was grilling.


No, don't take my picture! Isaiah, like his father, would rather not pose for a picture.

Brennan on the other hand, will put on a show for you.Sawyer had lots of fun times with Isaiah.

Matt and Jeremiah while we were outside, making smores.

Jeremiah started sitting this week. He is such a sweet, adorable little guy.

Sawyer LOVES picking wild raspberries.

Fun times with the grandchildren.

Our last evening and we finally get a picture of us together with the grandchildren.

After we were done outside, Melissa and Isaiah went over to tell Daudy and Grandma, goodbye. It meant a lot to Grandma. She told Melissa that Isaiah was always pretty special to her.

When it came time for Brennan to go home, Isaiah begged that Brennan would stay up with him and sleep at our place. In spite of getting irritated with each other at times, they are still buds. They spent their last hour together, with Isaiah making sure Brennan knew how to play Paper Mario on the Wii. At one point after Isaiah helped Brennan, Brennan told Isaiah, "Thanks Bud, your the Best!" Within 5 minutes after Brennan was done playing and crawled up on my lap, we were asleep. Isaiah was determined to stay awake until they left at 3:15.

Tonight Brennan overheard me telling Matt that Isaiah was quite sad when he left and that I got a text from him last night, saying, that he missed me. Brennan came walking out to the kitchen all choked up, trying to hold back the tears. Matt picked him up and asked if he was missing Isaiah. He just nodded his head and then buried his face in Matt's shirt.

I'm sure Sawyer misses Isaiah, but he seems to be happy to have his brother Brennan's attention again.

Grandma Barbara's Goodbyes

I am way behind in my blogging, but I want to blog about Mother Barbara, while it's fresh in my mind.

Mother has been needing more help over the last few months, but Dad wasn't ready for outside help. However, everything changed when Mom fell on her back on Sunday, June 30th, dad's birthday. My family reunion was in KS over the 4th and we were struggling to know what to do. We started Home Health Care on the 2nd, the day that we left and by Friday, they needed to bring in a wheelchair for her. Mary ended up needing to stay with them Thursday-Monday early AM. Wil and I took her to the Doctor on Monday and then to the retreat for xrays. They did see a compression fracture at L-1 but couldn't tell if it was old or new.

We spent most of Monday with her and I spent the night. Have you ever slept in a house that has clocks that strike on every hour and half hour??!! Well, I found it very disturbing. I survived. Tuesday the aide came in the morning and Melissa helped out with grandma in the afternoon.

Tuesday night I was on duty again and Grandma was having a rough night. After being up the second time and not comfortable, I brought her out on the recliner. At 4:00 she was not feeling well and thought maybe if she could have a bowel movement. Soon after she sat down, she broke out in a sweat and passed out. I had my cell phone with me, supported her head,called Wil and simply said," get over here." After she rallied back and we got her back in the chair, Wil went home. Before she fell asleep, she said that she really wished she could see the girls again. We talked a bit about her feeling it was close to her end here in life, then we both fell asleep.

I woke to her panickly saying, "goodbye Kathy, goodbye Kathy". She really felt she was dying and then she asked that I please get Dad. I woke up Dad and he came out and I called Wil to let him know what was going on. I wanted to give them privacy, so I stayed out of the room but I did hear part of their conversation and it blessed me to see them hug. No sooner had she said her goodbyes to Dad when she told me that she really wanted to talk to the girls. I didn't really feel like it was an emergency but I knew if she did die, I would never forgive myself for not calling them. I first called Mary. I had to hold the phone for her and so I was blessed with hearing her conversation and I'm sure Mary needed to hear what mother said and then she even asked Mary what she had found out at her Dr. appointment. Next it was Sue and then she asked that Wil come back. She told all of us that she loved us, some she asked for forgiveness and then she also asked Wil to take care of Daudy and to make sure he isn't alone all the time. It was a special time for us.

Wed. morning after Melissa, Isaiah and Brennan went out to breakfast, they stopped by to see Grandma. 1st Melissa hugged grandma and told her she loved her then, Brennan said, "I love you Grandma Barabara, how are you?". She then looked at Isaiah standing at the foot of the bed and said, "and what about you, do you have anything to say?!! Isaiah then gave her a hug and told her that he loved her. Then Brennan, who was standing beside her bed, said, "how many days before Grandma dies?"! Melissa, Isaiah and Brennan had been having a conversation about dying and Heaven before they got there. Later in the day, Matt and Monica were able to have conversation with her as well.

I can't remember at what point she started telling us what to do again and Wil said, "she's back!"

Wed. night Wil and I both slept over there and I slept on the recliner and Wil on the couch, using our baby monitor. Wil never even found out when Mom woke me at 2 to take her to the bathroom. After that I couldn't sleep and so I sent text messages to my email address for something to do.

TickToc...Tick Toc...Tic Toc...Two different clocks ticking, all night long. Oh wait, now it's the refrigerator running....The breathing and snoring sounds coming from the monitor. The snoring coming from WIl lying on the couch, the couch that I wish I'd be on...Wil's phone reminding us every 15 minutes that it has a low battery. Bong, Bong, Bong, at 3:00 both tick toc clocks reminded me at different times that i still had not gone back to sleep after the 2:00 potty. Then came the 1/2 hour reminders, then 4:00 bonging and now the 4:30 reminder. Dang those clocks!!! I give up. I then woke up Wil and went upstairs to bed and slept 45 min. before going to work.

Mary helped out a lot this week and stayed with Mom Friday through Saturday so we could have time with Melissa and Isaiah. This morning, Wil said that Mom was asking for me. He told me last night, that he really feels like she is close to her end. I went over to her bedside and she said, "there you are" and then she just hugged me, and just kept her arms around me until she fell asleep. Sue is on her way here from KS to help out this next week, and we are grateful for that but for a while, we wondered if she would be coming for a funeral instead.